Category Archives: Quotes

Chittister on Religion

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One of the books with me on my trip is Joan Chittister’s “Called to Question”.  In this spiritual memoir, she wrestles with many aspects of her life, one of them being the relationship between religion and spirituality.  Here a couple quotes of how she perceives the differences:

1) “Religion gives us the structures that weld the habits and disciplines of the soul into one integrated whole.  Those same structures can also, however, smother the very spirit they intend to shape.”

2) “We can make the mistake of thinking that God and religion are synonyms and make religion God.  We can, as general semanticists teach us, mistake the way for the thing and the thing for the way.”

3) “Spirituality is about the hunger in the human heart.  When we develop a spiritual life that is beyond some kind of simple, unthinking attachment to an inherited canon of behaviours, the soul goes beyond adherence to a system to the growth of the soul.”

4) “Spirituality is not what we do to satisfy the requirements of a religion; it is the way we come into contact with the Holy.  However we do it, whatever form or shape it takes… spirituality makes real what religion talks about.”

Finally, in looking back on her own Catholic heritage, she muses about how any of us become who we are:

5) “What forms us lives in us forever.  The important thing is that it not be allowed to stunt our growth.”

Any of those resonate with you and your journey?

How has religion contributed to your journey toward God?

How has it smothered life when it should have been giving it?  W

hat do you do with it now?

Real Leaders Don’t Do Powerpoint

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That’s the title of a book I grabbed at the library several weeks back.  It was basically about communication and leadership.  It was interesting enough to start, but not enough to finish.

But there were some beauties for quotes within it.  Here are some that resonated with me:

  • Doc Pomus–the legendary songwriter who created ‘A Teenager in Love,’ ‘Suspicion,’ and ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’–was once asked how to write a hit song.  He answered, ‘Find the shortest distance between your insides and a pencil.’
  • Antoine de Saint-Exupery, aviator and author, said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather the wood, divide the work, and give orders.  Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
  • “When a brave person takes a stand,” the Reverend Billy Graham said, “the spines of others are also stiffened.
  • “‘Safety first’ has been the motto of the human race for half a million years,” wrote turn-of-the-century journalist Herbert N. Casson, “but it has never been the motto of leaders.  Leaders must face danger.  They must take the risk and blame, and the brunt of the storm.”
  • Bill Gates’ commencement speech at Harvard: “Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries–but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce iniquity.”
  • Randy Pausch, professor of computer science, giving the professor’s last lecture: “Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.”
  • Winston Churchill put it this way: “When you an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever.  Use a pile driver.  Hit the point once.  Then come back and hit it again.  Then hit it a third time–a tremendous whack.”
  • Mark Twain, much admired in his day for his speaking as well as for his writing, observed that “it takes three weeks to prepare a good ad-lib speech.”

Hospitality

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Benedict on hospitality…

Hospitality is the way we come out of ourselves.  It is the first step toward dismantling the barriers of the world.  Hospitality is the way we turn a prejudiced world around, one heart at a time.

Preach on, brother Benedict!

A New Heart

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Richard Wurmbrand wrote a book called, “With God in Solitary Confinement,” which describes how Christ ministered to him while he endured three years of solitary confinement in a prison cell.

I haven’t read the book, but I came across this staggering quote from it today…

And what if I am tortured? Christ saved a robber while He was on the cross. My brethren to my right and left have sometimes brought their torturers to Christ. A Communist officer, beating a Christian prisoner with a rubber truncheon, put his stick aside and asked, ‘What is it about you? How is it that your face is shining? You have something like a halo around your head. How can you look at me so lovingly? I would never love a man who jailed and beat me. How is that you can obey the foolish commandment of your Christ to love your enemy?’

The Christian answered, ‘I am not obeying a commandment. It is not hat I love you only because Jesus orders me to. Jesus has given me a new heart and a new character. If I wanted to hate you, I would no longer be able to do so. A nightingale cannot sound like a crow, because it is a nightingale and not a crow. So a Christian can only love.’

That rubber truncheon has remained put aside forever.

A new heart… that’s no fluffy thought.  It’s a world-shaking type of force, and it appears to be available to us all, if we are open to the Heart Re-Maker.

A Good Quote Badly Quoted

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I read a great quote last week.  It was by legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi, and it spoke of determination and grit.  When you read it, you’ll probably think, “I’ve heard a hundred like that one,” and you likely have.  It’s still a great thought to absorb.

However, somewhere between reading it and remembering it and reciting it, one word got added in my head.  When I spoke it out loud to myself, all I could do was roll my eyes and smile.  And desperate as I was for a new blog post, well, here I am.

Here’s the quote, plus one word that doesn’t belong…

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get knocked up.”

I’m not convinced that THIS version is going to catch on… and that’s likely a good thing!