Quotes About Reflection

Looking to the past illumines the present. But make no mistake about it; it is painful. Because so few people do the hard work of going back in order to go forward, the symptoms of a disconnected spirituality are everywhere. The compartmentalization of our spirituality from the rest of our lives becomes necessary because there is so little integration.

El sufrimiento tiene la asombrosa capacidad de abrirnos a nuevas verdades y de ponernos en movimiento.

It is always true to some extent that we make our images of God. It is even truer that our image of God makes us. Eventually we become like the God we image. One of the most beautiful fruits of knowing the God of Jesus is a compassionate attitude towards ourselves. . . . This is why Scripture attaches such importance to knowing God. Healing our image of God heals our image of ourselves.12

Lord, you know my world can be nonstop and complex. Help me to balance the demands coming at me today, remembering you while I work, and keeping you at the center of all I do. In Jesus' name, amen.

We don't become mature human beings by getting lucky or cleverly circumventing loss, and certainly not by avoidance and distraction. Learn to lament. Learn this lamentation. We're mortals, after all. We and everyone around are scheduled for death (mortis). Get used to it. Take up your cross. It prepares us and those around us for resurrection. — Eugene Peterson

Healing our image of God heals our image of ourselves.

It has been said that the real measure of our sense of self is when we are with our parents for more than three days. At that point we need to ask ourselves how old we feel. Have we gone back to our patterns of behaving more in line with our childhood, or have we broken free from our past to live in what God has for us now?

Martha's problems, however, go beyond her busyness. I suspect that if Martha were to sit at the feet of Jesus, she would still be distracted by everything on her mind.

The late Dag Hammarskjöld, once the secretary general of the United Nations, suggested that we have become adept at exploring outer space, but we have not developed similar skills in exploring our own personal inner spaces. He wrote, "The longest journey of any person is the journey inward."4 Most of us feel much more equipped to manipulate objects, control situations, and "do" things than to take that very long journey inward. Painful Honesty

In retrospect, I can see in my own life what I could not see at the time — how the job I lost helped me find work I needed to do, how the "road closed" sign turned me toward terrain I needed to travel, how losses that felt irredeemable forced me to discern meanings I needed to know. On the surface it seemed that life was lessening, but silently and lavishly the seeds of new life were always being sown. — Parker Palmer50

Lord, forgive me for the arrogance that sees interruptions to my plans as alien invasions. Forgive me for constantly trying to do more than you intend with my life. Help me to be like John the Baptist, embracing my losses and respecting my limits. In Jesus' name, amen.

Aun en la soledad, debemos estar juntos, como una «comunidad de soledades».

be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him" (Psalm 37:7).

As the wise, old Abbot Moses said when a brother came to him for a good word, "Go, sit in your cell [a monk's room], and your cell will teach you everything.

Jeg erkender hos den anden altså netop det som fascinerende, som i mig selv lige nu er modent for udvikling. Forbilledspejlingen med det elskede menneske vækker altså i rette øjeblik mit eget livspotentiel.

And there is, of course, a filter within yourself. When a book, or magazine article, or idea makes you uncomfortable, notice your exact reaction. If you're bored, move on. If you feel threatened, stay with it and see what troubles you.

Sources of Surprise: Make the time to read outside your immediate specialty—if necessary, taking time from more "active" tasks. Stick bookmarks in promising places, then graze the marked passages later. Allow yourself to become enthralled once in a while.

It is always worth asking yourself: "how could I be wrong?

Finally, in conclusion, let me say just this.

There used to be a real me, but I had it surgically removed.

If you ask me to play myself, I will not know what to do. I do not know who or what I am.

What shall I say to you who will one day hear this last act for yourselves? You will—because whatever else shall pass away, this must remain.

Tell me, before you call us servants, who served whom? And who, I wonder, in your generations, will immortalize you?

That's what his stare has been saying to me all this time: 'At least I galloped - when did you?