From My Reading – September

“When we view the everyday as an opportunity rather than a drudgery to make it through, we have already succeeded our everydays, and when such a practice becomes habituated, more extraordinary moments are savored each and every day” (Shannon Ables).

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“Wholeness does not mean perfection. It means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life” (Parker Palmer).

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For Richard Rohr, the “bias from the bottom” is a way of following God and living life from the side of suffering: 

Instead of legitimating what we are already doing, liberation theology simply tries to read the text from the side of the pain. That’s all. For me, that is the icon of Jesus—to read not from the side of power, but from the side of pain. Who has the pain? Where is the pain? As many have said, Jesus is on both sides of every war. The Germans in the First World War had their “Gott mit uns” [God with us] on their belt buckles, but God is in the foxholes of both sides. God is with all people crying out in their pain. Doesn’t that leave us feeling helpless? It’s not an exclusive god of our group anymore; it’s the universal God of all the earth, of all peoples. But it’s only possible to think this way when we move to the level of wisdom, which is the level of liberation. We don’t have time for group-centric religion anymore. There is too much suffering.

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“May I be loving, open, and aware in this moment; If I cannot be loving, open and aware in this moment, may I be kind; If I cannot be kind, may I be non Judgmental, may I not cause harm; If I cannot not cause harm, may I cause the least harm” (Larry Yang).

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“What will matter is the good we did, not the good we expected to do” (Elizabeth Lesser)

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“The words flee, be silent, and pray always summarize the spirituality of the desert.  They indicate the three ways of preventing the world from shaping us in its image and are thus the three ways to life in the Spirit”(Henri Nouwen).

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“It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up” (Eckhart Tolle).”

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1 Response to From My Reading – September

  1. covenyk's avatar covenyk says:

    Hi Karen, Each of these quotes has a message for me. Thank you! Kathleen

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