Quotations Search Results
We found 347 matching quotes
Floss and Pray
Are you like me, eager to grab a toothbrush and tackle 'morning mouth'? A local dentist once spoke at our church about the way God had moved in his life. As he concluded, he said with a smile, "Every day do two important things: floss — and pray." His audience laughed but I never forgot his words. As you floss and brush your teeth, prayerfully ask for the grace to use your mouth in ways that reflect God, by speaking only words of love in the coming day.
A prompt to bring sacredness to a daily activity.
Language at the Speed of Sight
"Speech evolved in the species.
"Reading is a cultural artifact, like money.
"Speech is universal: in the absence of pathology, everyone learns to talk.
"Reading is like Wi-Fi: only some people have it.
"Children learn a spoken language through interactions with other language users.
"Reading is taught, beginning with alphabet songs and bedtime stories and continuing through several years of schooling.
"Speech is fast fading: the signal is gone once it is produced.
"Writing systems were created as a way to transcend the impermanence of speech. This text is not disappearing as you read it.
"Speech is messy. Producing a coherent utterance is a complex action: deciding what to say, picking the words and grammatical structures that express the intended meaning, loading a program to articulate the sequence of words, and then running the program, all done on the fly. The process is so demanding that the end product is littered with dysfluencies and errors.
"Writing is cleaner than speech because it isn't produced under the same time constraints and can be edited. Speech is more like a rough draft, text like the corrected version.
"That one has some obvious exceptions. Some formal modes of speaking are grammatically immaculate, and informal writing can be messy. A television performer such as Stephen Colbert is a professional talker skilled at producing fluent, well-formed utterances most of the time. Conversely, there is Wikipedia, the Great Wall of Words, a system for creating texts that are full of grammatical, spelling, and usage errors.
"Finally, speech and reading are opposites with respect to who controls the rate at which comprehension can occur. Readers decide how rapidly to proceed. Listeners are at the mercy of speakers performing the difficult task of producing coherent, mostly fluent utterances. In exchange for ceding control to the speaker, the listener gains one advantage: speech affords more opportunities for clarification. Circumstances permitting, speakers can be asked about what they have said, whereas readers cannot query authors."
A neuroscientist's analysis of how speech and reading are different.
Repeat a Holy Sentence
The practice of the repetition of a holy sentence, phrase, or name can be used, as said, during work, when walking, even when you are otherwise occupied. It is relatively easy to do, and is therefore of particular value at times when you are somewhat fatigued, or when other, more demanding religious practices are impossible.
When demanding religious practices are impossible.
God on Your Own
"Innocence of attitude is high on my list of qualities that make up a meaningful spiritual life. By this I mean the opposite of sarcasm, mockery, and cynicism. So much of our popular culture is grounded in ostensibly playful but nonetheless hurtful put-downs of other people. We are a culture of stand-up comics, or wannabe comics, often taking aim at the easy target to try to be funny. Surf the TV channels tonight and you will see what I am talking about. Sit-coms, with their biting edge of sarcasm and disrespect, are the worst. But this curious mind-set of contempt shows up in many other places, most blatantly in commercials, where parents are made to look like fools by their more perceptive children and men are reduced to ineffectual dunderheads by women. The romp of ridicule extends out from our entertainment into 'mainstream' (if you will) culture via such vehicles as hate talk radio, vicious political and religious 'debates,' and the shouting headlines of the tabloid press.
"This mean-spirited manner of discourse spills easily into our personal daily lives, becoming the way we relate to each other in our home, our workplace, and our community. I am not suggesting that you need to stop being cheerful in your exchange with others. Far from it, I am pointing to subtle threads of insolence and cruel cleverness that can weave their way in and around how you regard others and yourself and tangle into a knot that impedes your spiritual progress. Innocence is more temperate, but not less joyful. It asks us to be aware of the learned, automatic response that insults and denigrates people and situations in order to build ourselves up. . . .
"The best thought-stopper I have found is using a short, plain phrase I made up. Sometimes we refer to it as an affirmation; the Eastern religions might call it a mantra. 'My life is sacred' or 'All life is beautiful' or some other phrase you create for yourself can be both a thought-stopper and a reminder of, in this case, the sacredness and beauty of all life. If you undertake such a practice, you will find that your mantra comes up automatically when you are about to get aboard that unstoppable train of negative thoughts. When you come back to your true center, you are standing again in innocence.”
Joseph Dispenza on the sacredness and beauty of all life.
No Ordinary Time
How to Be a Mystic
"Wake up every morning with thank you on your lips.
"Brush your teeth with gratitude bubbling up in your mouth.
"Leave the newspaper folded, the answering machine on and the door to your prayer place closed to the world till you have taken the call from the One Who Speaks in Silence.
"Let your mind empty and fill with ten thousand thoughts and remember there is nothing that is not holy.
"Be aware that the words you speak on Monday become the life you live on Thursday.
"Look deeply enough into the eyes of those who speak to you that you see yourself in there.
"Embrace thoughts that are contrary to yours and travel to the place where there is nothing to defend.
"Crawl into bed at the end of the day singing thank you and thank you a hundred times."
If, as the result of some interior revolution, I were to lose in succession my faith in Christ, my faith in a personal God, and my faith in spirit, I feel that I should continue to believe invincibly in the world. The world (its value, its infallibility and its goodness) that, which when all is said and done, is the first, the last, the only thing in which I believe. It is by this faith that I live. And it is to this faith, I feel, that at the moment of death, rising above all doubts, I shall surrender myself.
— Teilhard de Chardin
Jan Phillips on waking up every morning with thank you on your lips.
A Code of Jewish Ethics, Volume 2
"The Hebrew term lashon hara refers to negative, critical speech about others. Maimonides proposes, in effect, the precise opposite, lashon hatov, good speech, in which we praise others and relate anecdotes that show them in a good light. A friend relates that when 'I meet someone I know with their offspring, I compliment the parent to their child. I try to relate something specific that the parent once did, rather than a generic compliment.' We often think in terms of complimenting children to their parents, but it is equally important for parents that their children realize that others hold them in high regard.
"The Jerusalem writer Sara Rigler offers additional practical suggestions on how to make lashon hatova part of daily behavior: 'Every night at dinnertime or bedtime, tell your spouse one positive thing about each of your children: 'When Rachel spoke on the phone with her grandmother today, she showed her a lot of love and respect.' We should also note our spouse's good points to our children [unfortunately, some couples do the opposite and complain about their mate to their children]: 'Daddy was very tired tonight, but even so, he helped you with your homework.' Similarly, we should mention our friends' good traits to one another: 'Debbie is reliable. She promised to do something for me, and even though it was inconvenient, she followed through.' We should speak lashon hatov about those who work for us as well (many people harp on the flaws of their employees): 'My secretary is sick, but she came in today because she knew it was important and I really needed her.'
"Concludes Rigler: 'With each if these simple statements, you fulfill the most glorious of all mitzvot: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Joseph Telushkin and Sara Rigler on praising others and trying to always show them in a good light
Like a Yeti Catching Marmots
Pema Tsewang, Shastri, a former Fulbright scholar at Harvard University, has served as the chairman of the board of directors for the Tibetan Association of Boston. He currently works at Wisdom Publications. This collection of Tibetan proverbs with annotations by the author conveys both the folk wisdom of this very special country and the spirituality which has animated its monastic culture for centuries. He opens the book with the following:
"Honey is sweet to the mouth;
proverb is music to the ear."
Proverbs are both interesting and gratifying with their sagacious mix of brevity and commentary on the human condition. Oftentimes, these Tibetan observations on the way things are come across as witty and clever. Cycled around and down through time, they deliver truth and meaning for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Here are a few of our favorites:
• On Happiness
"You can't get from the meadow of happiness
without climbing the cliff of hardship."
• For Couples
"Ride the horse of happiness together;
bear the load of suffering together."
• On Speech and Amends
"One cannot withdraw what is spoken from one's mouth,
but one can always return back from a mistaken path."
• On Diversity
"One mouth, different thoughts;
one pillow, different dreams."
• On Dedication
"One becomes skilled in what one likes."
• On Poison
"Even poison can be turned into medicine
if one knows how to use it."
Tibetan proverbs reflecting the folk wisdom of the people and the spirituality that has played such an important role in this culture.
The Ten Commandments
"The Ten Commandments are an adventure in human growth. We are not so much convicted by them as we are to be transformed by them," writes Joan Chittister, a prolific author and worldwide speaker who has been a leading voice in contemporary spirituality for more than 25 years. She sees them as "laws of the heart" and finds an appropriate practice for each of the ten: reflection, respect, remembrance, caring, life, commitment, sharing, speech, self-control, and assurance.
Chittister's treatment of each commandment is in three parts: a look at the historical understanding of it; situations to which the commandment applies today; and reflection statements for personal consideration as we try to live moral lives. As is usual in a book by this author, there are plenty of rousing stories from all spiritual traditions, lots of memorable quotations, and important statistics about many of the egregious injustices of our time.
Chittister considers that she has spent far too little time on the first commandment which challenges us to surrender our lives to the Source of all our days and doings. In her comments on not taking the name of God in vain, she writes:
"When we use the name of God to demean or diminish any other human being, it is not they whose merits we measure. It is ourselves. And in public. How embarrassing."
We also miss the meaning of the second commandment when we call upon God to baptize crusades that lead to the death of others. Chittister doesn't get too upset about swearing but she does worry about the toxic energy that lies behind it.
The author does a superb job with her treatment of the fourth commandment, covering the law of caring, which means that we owe future generations a fair shake and cannot pass on to them a world of misery. She hits high stride in her multidimensional treatment of the seventh commandment, noting the many ways we steal from others:
"Stealing, in the biblical sense, then, is not so much a private or personal sin as it is a social sin. To take what we do not need, to destroy what is useful to another, to deprive those in the community of their basic needs is stealing."
This paperback concludes with Chittister's assessment of the Two Great Commandments of Love. She makes a good case for measuring our spiritual development in terms of these laws of the heart.
A good case for measuring our spiritual development in terms of the Ten Commandments as laws of the heart.
Inscribing the Text
Walter Brueggemann is Professor of Old Testament in the William Marcellus McPheeters Chair at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. His classic text Theology of the Old Testament is widely seen as a foundational work in the field. This volume contains 24 sermons and prayers.
This collection has been gathered and edited by one of Brueggemann's colleagues, Anna Carter Florence, who is Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Columbia Theological Seminary. She is quite taken by a sermon adapted from a lecture at the Festival of Preaching in 2002 where he compares the art of homiletics to the diligent and creative work of scribes. The one that most impressed us is "On Signal: Breaking the Vicious Cycles" where he explains the celebration of Jubilee as an act of justice that breaks the spiral of accumulation, acquisition, greed, and monopoly. It is an inspiring sermon for anyone looking for a vision of the peaceable kingdom of God.
Brueggeman is especially good in his sermons on Old Testament texts which are in abudance here. Other topics covered include mercy, abundance, Pentecost, and bragging about the right stuff. The prayers here, like the ones in Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth, are stirring and creative.
24 homilies that are both inspiring and creative.