Richard Rohr Quotes - Page 5

The great and merciful surprise is that we come to God, not by doing it right, but by doing it wrong.

When we fail we are merely joining the great parade of humanity that has walked ahead of us and will follow after us.

Every time you choose to love, you have also just chosen to die.

The true mystic is always both humble and compassionate, for she knows that she does not know.

When you don't need to play the victim or create victims you are FREE

Because I am a part of the Big Picture, I do matter and substantially so. Because I am only a part, however, I am rightly situated off to stage right—and happily so. What freedom there is in such truth! We are inherently important and included, yet not burdened with manufacturing or sustaining that private importance. Our dignity is given by God, and we are freed from ourselves!

There are not sacred and profane things, places, and moments. There are only sacred and desecrated things, places, and moments-and it is we alone who desecrate them by our blindness and lack of reverence. It is one sacred universe, and we are all a part of it.

If you do not transform your pain, you will always transmit it.

There is Someone dancing with you, and you are not afraid of making mistakes.

We are just a little tiny flicker of a much larger flame that is Life itself, Consciousness itself, Being itself, Love itself, God’s very self.

Transformed people transform people.

Contemplation is an alternative consciousness that refuses to identify with or feed what are only passing shows. It is the absolute opposite of addiction, consumerism or any egoic consciousness.

The greatest enemy of ordinary daily goodness and joy is not imperfection, but the demand for some supposed perfection or order.

The theological virtue of hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy because our Satisfaction is now at another level, and our Source is beyond ourselves.

Much of the work of midlife is to tell the difference between those who are dealing with their issues through you and those who are really dealing with you.

The phrase, 'You must die before you die,' is found in most of the world religions. If you don't learn how to die early, you spend the rest of your life avoiding failure. When you can free your True Self, the whole spiritual life opens up.

There has to be a womp on the side of the head that defeats and undercuts this game of performance. It has to fall apart. Now unfortunately, that very often does not happen until what I call the second half of life, when there's been enough death in the family and you start experiencing your own physical deterioration.

The spiritual world is hidden and perfectly revealed in the physical world.

A person who can laugh and go with life does not demand to be in control, which is why the most controlling people may be sarcastic but lack an authentic sense of humor.

Religion has in fact outdone culture in dualistic thinking - we've become as violent, as hateful toward our enemies, damning them to hell and whatever else, that the world doesn't look to us for wisdom, because we're trapped in the dualistic mind, instead of the mind of Christ that we were supposed to have.

Our culture is almost entirely prepared to not just help you create your false self, but to get very identified with it and attached to it. So, without some form of God experience, which teaches you who you are apart from that - we would say in the religious world, who you are "in" God, in the mind and heart of God - there's almost no way to get out of it.

Pain and suffering that are not transformed are usually projected onto others.

God, give me a good humiliation every day. It's good for the soul and it's good for the ego.

It seems we are suffering from a very narrow and self serving reading of the Gospel right now.

Mature prayer always breaks into gratitude.