Quotes About Presence

It struck me that what I'd heard about certain celebrities was true: they had It, whatever the hell It was. Star power isn't a myth; it is tangible and forceful.

A criminal court is a very curious place. The seat of a ritual quite as elaborate as any religious one, it lacks in itself any impressiveness or symbolism of architecture. A robed judge in court looks like a catholic bishop would if he were to celebrate mass in some municipal bath-house. There is nothing to make one aware that here the Real Presence is: the presence of death.

but there is in me something that feeds on the now of things.

In order for the psychic capacity to work, you must be able to still the interfering thoughts of your conscious mind and turn inwardly. It is very important for you to be able to let go of your restless thoughts, your hopes, dreams, desires, and frustrations. Ideally, when the mind is completely stilled, you should be in such an objective, passive state of mind that you are no longer even conscious that you have a body - almost a prayerful attitude.

Settle yourself in solitude and you will come upon Him in yourself. —TERESA OF ÁVILA

Your prayer must be turned inwards, not towards a God of Heaven nor towards a God far off, but towards God who is closer to you than you are aware.

In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in "muchness" and "manyness," he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked, "Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil."1

It is important to recognize this fact and be easy with yourself. This time will pass—sooner than you think. Rather than trying to pray in some fanciful isolation that you will never find, discover God in your times with your baby. God will become real to you through your baby.

The humble man feels no jealousy or envy. He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others praised and himself forgotten, because in God's presence he has learned to say with Paul, "I be nothing" (2 Cor. 12:11). He has received the spirit of Jesus, who did not please Himself and did not seek His own honor, as the spirit of his life." —Andrew Murray, Humility 6

Solitude The creation of an open, empty space in our lives by purposefully abstaining from interaction with other human beings, so that, freed from competing loyalties, we can be found by God The

Shekinah" means the glory or the radiance of God dwelling in the midst of his people. It denotes the immediate Presence of God as opposed to a God who is abstract or aloof.

God wants us to be present where we are. He invites us to see and to hear what is around us and, through it all, to discern the footprints of the Holy. Actually

God wants us to be present where we are. He invites us to see and to hear what is around us and, through it all, to discern the footprints of the Holy.

As Richard Foster explains, "Though silence sometimes involves the absence of speech, it always involves the act of listening. Simply to refrain from talking, without a heart listening to God, is not silence."1

O how abundant is your goodness that you have laid up for those who fear you, and accomplished for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of everyone! In the shelter of your presence you hide them from human plots; you hold them safe under your shelter from contentious tongues.

The Covenant of Place gives us the gift of focus.

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. —From the breastplate of St. Patrick

There is one major difference that has occurred in the past forty years that does indeed impinge upon the spiritual life. I can state it in one word: distraction. Distraction is the primary spiritual problem in contemporary culture.

Distraction is the primary spiritual problem in our day.

God-with-us" is the essence of deliverance regardless of the specific circumstance. As

There is no place where God is not, wherever I go, there God is. Now and always he upholds me with his power and keeps me safe in his love. —Anonymous

remember these practices earn us nothing in the economy of God. Nothing. Their only purpose is to place us before God. That is all.

True godliness does not turn us away from hurting, bleeding humanity. Rather it enables us to live fully alive in the midst of human need and enlivens our abilities to bring a healing presence to the bruised and broken around us.

When I live with God in my heart, my future is to live in the Heart of God.