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Henri J. M. Nouwen, Ministry and Spirituality
Hospitality is the virtue which allows us to break through the narrowness of our own fears and to open our houses to the stranger, with the intuition that salvation comes to us in the form of a tired traveler. Hospitality makes anxious disciples into powerful witnesses, makes suspicious owners into generous givers, and makes close-minded sectarians into interested recipients of new ideas and insights.
Hospitality is the virtue
Hildegard of Bingen , Frederic Brussat's Twitter Collection
God has gifted creation with everything that is necessary . . . Nothing that is necessary for life is lacking.
Nothing is lacking
Diane Berke, The Gentle Smile
We contain both darkness and light, sorrow and joy, the capacity for selfishness as well as for generosity, for cruelty as well as compassion.
We contain both darkness and light
Beatrice Bruteau, The Holy Thursday Revolution
Most of us probably believe that people are naturally and primarily selfish. Generosity, when it occurs, is some kind of fluke. Eknath Easwaran, a spiritual teacher who started the students off with the Prayer of St. Francis, says that the reason that we need this particular prayer is because "most of us suffer from the mistaken belief that it is in grabbing that we receive, it is in venting anger that we improve our relationships, and it is in having our own way that we find fulfillment."
Generosity is some kind of fluke
Margaret Guenther, Just Passing Through: Notes from a Sojourner
I'm still trying to get my mind around the prodigality of God. That might be an impossible task because it is quite beyond my limited left-brain. The God of purple loosestrife and glossy poison ivy is the God who doesn't always play fair, at least by my standards.
The overwhelming excessiveness of Creation pales compared to the prodigality of God's love. This is love lavished with abandon and, by my standards, with poor taste. This is the God who pays the last-minute slackers the same wage as the hard-working folk like me, the ones who show up early and skip their lunch break. This is the God who then has the temerity to ask, "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
This is the God of thistles and purple loosestrife, the God of bats and garden slugs. This is the Prodigal God who overwhelms me with his prodigality.
I am still trying to get my mind around God
Abbe Henri de Tourville , Letters of Direction
Accustom yourself to the wonderful thought that God loves you with a tenderness, a generosity, and an intimacy which surpasses all your dreams. Give yourself up with joy to a loving confidence in God and have courage to believe firmly that God's action towards you is a masterpiece of partiality and love. Rest tranquilly in this abiding conviction.
God loves you with a tenderness
Dean Sluyter, The Zen Commandments
Both the West and the East have big-bellied embodiments of this attitude: Santa Claus and the laughing buddha Hotei. Each is pictured as wandering the land with a sack of goodies for children, signifying that laughter restores both our sense of generosity and our childlike innocence.
Laughter restores our generosity and innocence
Daniel Gottlieb, Learning from the Heart
I'm sure there are as many descriptions of love as there are human beings who have tried to describe it. Dr. Stephen Post, president of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love at Case Western Reserve University, describes altruistic love as a love for all humanity without exception, with abiding kindness and service. This love is a selfless act of generosity of spirit. And sometimes it's really a state of being. There are times when I have experienced love that doesn't feel like action at all. I'm not feeling love for someone — or for something I do. Instead, there are moments when I feel that my being is love.
Of course that feeling of being love doesn't last long for any of us. I don't think it can, without several lifetimes of practice. But if we're lucky, there are times when we do experience that feeling.
There are moments when I feel that my being is love.
Brenda Shoshanna, Jewish Dharma
From the Zen point of view, the deepest kindness and generosity is to welcome others exactly as they are. This deep form of welcoming strangers welcomes them in truth and simplicity; it welcomes the authentic person, not the persona or mask that we wear. In many Zen centers, individuals wear plain robes. The purpose of this is so that no one can feel more important if he has fancy clothes or fine jewelry. With robes on it is more difficult to compare oneself to others, or to focus on external presentation. And one, in turn, cannot rely on costumes or props. Who one truly is, speaks for itself.
Who one truly is, speaks for itself
Donald Altman, Living Kindness
Living kindness . . . is kindness with the power of mindful action behind it. Rather than being reduced to a "random acts of kindness" bumper sticker, this kindness is uniquely boundless, purposeful, and empowering. It is also more open and forgiving than the self-sacrificing kindness that I learned about in Sunday school. Living kindness is a vehicle by which our love, generosity, and other vital values make contact with the real world. This is kindness where it counts.
Kindness with mindful action behind it