Quotes About Presence

He's never there, and yet he's always there

Indeed, in a strange coincidence, we are living in the only era in the history of the universe when the presence of the dark energy permeating empty space is likely to be detectable. It is true that this era is several hundred billion years long, but in an eternally expanding universe it represents the mere blink of a cosmic eye.

I tried to resist the urge to reach for my camera. I tried to look, really look, as though this took an effort far greater than the movement of my eyes. You are here, I would say to myself, no part of this moment is melting into the future. You are only here and nowhere else. But I could never believe it. So I would take a photo to stop the world. So that I could keep moving

Look, don't see, listen, don't hear. The more you engage, the longer you survive.

The door closed behind her and the room was suddenly quiet. It felt empty, with just a hint of her perfume to remind me she'd been there.

outside the door. He breathed in, and he breathed

If I visit and he doesn't know I've visited, have I really visited at all? It's self-indulgent to come here just to make myself feel like a good wife.

For once I am living my life rather than watching it pass in review.

As we look at human relationships, what we see is that lovers don't want explanations, but presence. And

We live in a broken world; Jesus was honest enough to tell us we'd have trials and tribulations. Sure, I'd like to understand more about why. But Kreeft's conclusion was right--the ultimate answer is Jesus' presence. That sounds sappy, I know. But just wait--when your world is rocked, you don't want philosophy or theology as much as you want the reality of Christ. He was the answer for me. He was the very answer we needed.

She seemed to belong here, though maybe she was the sort to belong wherever she was at the time.

Days later under northern skies he understood that its presence in the pickup only made him heartsick and he unloaded it cheap to the farmer, who, though confused by Spanish, understood burdens and the need to escape them.

Just give 'em great posture, a heads-up look, a confident smile, and a direct gaze.' It's the ideal image for somebody who's a Somebody.

Just give 'em great posture, a heads-up look, a confident smile, and a direct gaze. It's the ideal image for somebody who's a Somebody.

W]ithout the chance presence of the Athenian stranger in Crete there would be no prospect of wise legislation for the new city. This makes us understand the stranger's assertion that not human beings but chance legislates: most laws are as it were dictated by calamities.

I don't remember lighting this cigarette and I don't remember if I'm here alone or waiting for someone.

The devil ought not to be in our line of vision but in our shadow.

We all need the pendulum swing of snatching spaces of solitude and serving tables of sociability. In fact, the more plugged in and connected we are, the more we need to unplug and disconnect. A world of presence needs a time of absence.

Worship is what you do when you've heard Jesus speak. A worship life is what you live when you walk with Jesus.

Christ does not say to me, "Be yourself." He says, "Be with me." BROTHER ROGER OF TAIZÉ

What do you mean?" they asked Jesus. "I mean this," he replied; and he took the bread, gave thanks, broke it into fragments, and shared those broken pieces with his disciples. And that piece, and those broken pieces, have been shared in every conceivable setting and played in every known language ever since. Faith is the gift of reading the signs of the presence of God. The point of reading signs is not the signs themselves, but the Signifier, Jesus the Christ.

The more we are the Presence of Christ for others, the more present we are for Christ to speak to us.

We are what we do with our attention."64

Because the thing is, as Milo and my friends taught me, ghosts do exist. They don't have to be the creepy monsters that cause nightmares or do harm. They can take the form of memories, of feelings, or of a hard-to-define presence. Or of something else that's impossible to explain, but that's totally okay—just because something can't be explained doesn't mean it doesn't exist.