David Steindl-Rast Quotes
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At any moment the fully present mind can shatter time and burst into Now.
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Each string of a wind harp responds with a different note to the same breeze. What activity makes you personally resonate most strongly, most deeply?
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The goal is partly the enjoyment; it doesn't come later, but within the very process of the struggle.
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In moments of surprise we catch at least a glimpse of the joy to which gratefulness opens the door.
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Any change in attitude changes the way one sees the world, and this in turn changes the way one acts.
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Day and night gifts keep pelting down on us. If we were aware of this, gratefulness would overwhelm us. But we go through life in a daze. A power failure makes us aware of what a gift electricity is; a sprained ankle lets us appreciate walking as a gift, a sleepless night, sleep. How much we are missing in life by noticing gifts only when we are suddenly deprived of them.
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Gratefulness is the gallantry of a heart ready to rise to the opportunity a given moment offers.
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Home and journey together constitute the creative polarity of the heart, the two dimensions we must cultivate if we want to 'develop the heart.
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Order is the disposition of things in which each gives to the other its room, its own proper place. That's the external aspect. The other is that order that springs from love: there's no other way of establishing order except through love.
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"The Holy Spirit . . . wants to flow through us and realize all these wonderful possibilities in the world - if we only open ourselves and allow it to happen."
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The hope that is left after all your hopes are gone - that is pure hope, rooted in the heart.
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What is necessary when we want to face reality? Stillness.
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Try pausing right before and right after undertaking a new action, even something simple like putting a key in a lock to open a door. Such pauses take a brief moment, yet they have the effect of decompressing time and centering you.
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Faith is the courageous confidence that trusts in the Source of all gifts.
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Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.
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The antidote to exhaustion may not be rest. It may be wholeheartedness. You are so exhausted because all of the things you are doing are just busyness. There's a central core of wholeheartedness totally missing from what you're doing.
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People who have faith in life are like swimmers who entrust themselves to a rushing river. They neither abandon themselves to its current nor try to resist it. Rather, they adjust their every movement to the watercourse, use it with purpose and skill, and enjoy the adventure.
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We can't really waste our time; we have to see that we are all in the same boat and that different religious traditions point in the same direction, and now let's get moving together, doing something for peace.
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Eyes see only light, ears hear only sound, but a listening heart perceives meaning.
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Solitude without togetherness deteriorates into loneliness. One needs strong roots in togetherness to be solitary rather than lonely when one is alone.
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What brings fulfillment is gratefulness, the simple response of our heart to this life in all its fullness.
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Everything is a gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is a measure of our gratefullness, and gratefullness is a measure of our aliveness.
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Love is saying yes to belonging.
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Love wholeheartedly, be surprised, give thanks and praise then you will discover the fullness of your life.
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Through people that I did know or through things that I did touch, I am connected with everything that ever was and everything that ever will be. Everything hangs together with everything.
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A single crocus blossom ought to be enough to convince our heart that springtime, no matter how predictable, is somehow a gift, gratuitous, gratis, a grace.
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There is no closer bond than the one that gratefulness celebrates, the bond between giver and thanksgiver. Everything is a gift. Grateful living is a celebration of the universal give-and-take of life, a limitless yes to belonging. Can our world survive without gratefulness? Whatever the answer, one thing is certain: to say an unconditional yes to the mutual belonging of all beings will make this a more joyful world. This is the reason why Yes is my favorite synonym for God.
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Gratefulness is the great task, the how of our spiritual work, because, rightly understood, it re-roots us.
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...our happiness hinges not on good luck; it hinges on peace of heart.
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Joy is that kind of happiness that does not depend on what happens.
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