Quotes About Presence

De weduwe kuste haar vingers en legde ze daarna tegen mijn voorhoofd. 'Zet Sasja uit je hoofd,' zei ze. 'Leef je leven op de plek waar je bent.

Where to begin? Do we measure the relaxing of the feet? The moment when the eye glimpses the hawk, when instinct functions? For in this pure action, this pure moving of the bird, there is no time, no space, but only the free doing-being of this very moment - now!

You will know your state of mind when you wash the dishes. Your care or your impatience; your attention or your distraction. You will see yourself, at that moment, clearly.

Your visibility is more important than your ability.

There are some people who walk into a room and they oxygenate it, by their very being there's fresh air. Then there are those who come in with the smell of death and they suck the life out.

I've never looked for women. When I was a teenager, perhaps. But they are looking for us, and we [men] must learn that very quickly. They decide. We just turn up. Never mind the superficialities – tall and handsome and all that. Just turn up

We discover that the richness of life isn't all created by people, events, and acquisitions, but by our ability to open up and fully be with whatever is occurring—present in heart, body, mind, and connecting fully with others and with life.

The incoming of God as expressed in the incarnation represents a beautiful expression of this simultaneous revealing and withdrawal, for in the Incarnation the mystery of God is not dissipated but rather deepened. The mystery is not unmasked, but rather dwells with us, in our midst. The mystery is thus not overcome in the Incarnation but rather encountered there.

The teacher here is the one who says, "You will do greater things than I." This teacher stays only for a season so that the words, which act as bridge to truth, do not become a blockage to it, and so that their iconic presence does not morph into an idolatrous one. Thus, we can say that a total and complete fidelity to our teacher, an unthinking devotion to her words, will always end up being nothing but a betrayal.

In the same way that the sun blinds the one who looks directly at its light, so God's incoming blinds our intellect. In this way the God who is testified to in the Judeo-Christian tradition saturates our understanding with a blinding presence.

This story thus explores the controversial possibility that Christians are not called to believe in the Resurrection but rather are called to be the site where Resurrection takes place—the site where Christ's presence is testified to in action.

No: what I have tried to remember, and occasionally achieved, is that sense of handing myself over to the moment I was in, trusting that what had brought me there would carry me through, allowing things to transpire not with effort, but with something like ease, even grace.

When genuine love is released in a relationship, God's presence is manifest.

Solitude is the practice of being absent from people and things to attend to God.

I have a need of such clearance as the Savior effected in the temple of Jerusalem a riddance of clutter of what is secondary that blocks the way to the all-important central emptiness which is filled with the presence of God alone. 4 —Jean Danielou

In what ways does my current pace of life and leadership enhance or diminish my ability to allow God's will and presence full scope in my life?

Get in a comfortable position and still yourself. Recall you are in the presence of God, inviting the Holy Spirit to guide you as you review the events of your day. Walk through the events in your day (or yesterday's events if it is morning). Imagine yourself watching your day on a fast-forwarded DVD with Jesus. Let Jesus stop the DVD at any part of the day so you might reflect on it.

On Sabbaths God also invites us to slow down to pay attention and delight in people.

genuine love is released in a relationship, God's presence is manifest. The separate space between us becomes sacred space.

In a culture as frenetic and inattentive as ours, a "slowed down" Christian who is a contemplative presence to God and others is an extraordinary gift.

most of our human problems come because we don't know how to sit still in our room for an hour. — Leighton Ford

be still, and know that [he is] God" (Psalm 46:10)

Your being with God (or lack of being with God) will trump, eventually, your doing for God every time. We cannot give what we do not possess. We cannot help but give what we do possess.

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.