I've learned, over many years, that church isn't about order or quiet or even ritual so much as it is about showing up. For yourself, for God, and for the people around you who need to feel--just as you do--that the blessings and burdens of being a human are not...
"The Bible is VERY clear!" What's meant by this phrase: I have reduced the Word of God exclusively to my own particular interpretation of an English translation of the Bible and I'm so certain that I have nothing more to learn about it that I can now use it as a...
Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate.----------------------------------------Gender-inclusive paraphrase: Blessed are those who have learned to admire but not envy,...
One of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is to mind your own business. Nothing is more suspicious, in a man who seems holy, than an impatient desire to reform other men.----------------------------------------------Gender-inclusive version:...
The way kids learn to make good decisions is by making decisions, not by following directions.
We particularly need to listen to older people and children. They all have stories to tell that enrich the mind and the heart. Children simplify things, often with brutal honesty. Older people bring the perspective of their long years on issues. Suffering people also...
Educating yourself does not mean that you were stupid in the first place; it means that you are intelligent enough to know that there is plenty left to learn.
I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child, I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be... This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed...
Fragile leaders silence those who criticize them. Strong leaders learn from them.
We don't walk away to teach people a lesson. We walk away because we finally learned ours.