Gratefulness for Every Moment
"Life is given to us; every moment is given. The only appropriate response therefore is gratefulness. When we wake up to the fact that everything is a gift, it is only natural to be thankful and to look on everything that happens as a chance to respond to the Given Life."
— The Music of Silence
The Inexaustible Mystical Core
"All the different religious traditions can be traced back to an experience of communion with the Ultimate by their founders or reformers. Historic circumstances lead then to the great diversity of religious traditions. Yet all those diversities are only so many expressions of one and the same mystical core — expressions of the sense of ultimate belonging. This mystical core needs to bring forth so many different myths and teachings, needs to be celebrated in so many different rituals, because it is inexhaustible."
— Meister Eckhart: From Whom God Hid Nothingedited by David O'Neal, foreword by Brother David Steindl-Rast
The Heart's Response to Life
"Faith is the heart's response to life as gift. The heart's response to life as surprise is hope."
— Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer
Eyes See, the Heart Looks Through
"Our eyes see, but only our heart looks through things to their meaning. Our nose registers scents, but only our heart will track like a hound its ethereal quarry. Our tongue tastes, but only a heart can feast. Skin touches skin, but being in touch is a matter of heart. Our ears hear, but only a listening heart understands."
— A Listening Heart
