Life does not hurt nearly as much if we have learned to listen to ourselves and to recognize how fully and richly we are trying to tell ourselves the truth. Eugene Kennedy More Quotes by Eugene Kennedy More Quotes From Eugene Kennedy Mercy is a source of life because we breathe our own spirits through it into the lives of others. Eugene Kennedy breathe mercy spirit The moment an individual can accept and forgive him or herself, even a little, is the moment in which he or she becomes to some degree lovable. Eugene Kennedy forgiveness degrees forgiving Death is by no means separate from life. . . . We all interact with death every day, tasting it as we might a wine, feeling its keen edge even in trifling losses and disappointments, holding it by the hand, as a dancer might a partner, in every separation. Eugene Kennedy disappointment mean death There is a silence that matches our best possibilities when we have learned to listen to others. We can master the art of being quiet in order to be able to hear clearly what others are saying. . . . We need to cut off the garbled static of our own preoccupations to give to people who want our quiet attention. Eugene Kennedy cutting order art We not only romanticize the future; we have also made it into a growth industry, a parlor game and a disaster movie all at the same time. Eugene Kennedy movie growth games There are times when silence is the most sacred of responses. Eugene Kennedy sacred communication silence The future is religion and commerce, aphrodisiac and Benzedrine, a mother of mysterious comfort and a mistress of familiar ravishments ever on the verge of embracing or destroying us. Eugene Kennedy mistress future mother The real test of friendship is can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple? Eugene Kennedy real simple friendship Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple. Eugene Kennedy real-friends simple friendship Is childhood ever long enough, or a happy time, or even a beautiful summer day? All of these carry the seeds of the same fierce mystery that we call death. Eugene Kennedy summer beautiful death The real test of friendship is Can you literally do nothing with the other person Can you enjoy together those moments of life that are utterly simple They are the moments people look back on at the end of life and number as their most sacred experiences. Eugene Kennedy There would be no need for love if perfection were possible. Love arises from our imperfection, from our being different and always in need of the forgiveness, encouragement and that missing half of ourselves that we are searching for, as the Greek myth tells us, in order to complete ourselves. Eugene Kennedy need being-different forgiveness love The mystery of being human and, certainly, of being a Catholic lies in our embracing together the imperfect state known as the human condition. First and foremost, if we could ever be perfect or do things perfectly, we would eliminate mystery, an essential ingredient in the good life and the spiritual life. Eugene Kennedy good spiritual together life If you ask people what attracted them to the person they love, they never tell you of some perfect feature that focused them on sheer surfaces but rather an imperfection that allowed them to see into their uncharted depths. Eugene Kennedy you imperfection love people We encounter and enter our richest, most humanly defining experiences by way of a tear in the fabric of things, because we are running late, or because we recognize, across a crowded room, a face whose lack of perfection allows a unique light to shine through and to stir us with uncommon wonder. Eugene Kennedy shine face light unique The seminary of the future must relate itself to flesh-and-blood men, or it provides a framework that only talks about the people of God but never really shares life with them. Eugene Kennedy future god men life Bishops may often feel but cannot express the sting and throb of submitting themselves to Roman commands because the latter are always presented as tests of their loyalty to the Pope and of their absolute acceptance of his teaching authority, or Magisterium. Eugene Kennedy feel always loyalty acceptance In April, God speaks to us in the seas whose rhythmic murmuring fills our ears from a long way off. It was in April that the Titanic went down into the deep to lie like a slasher's victim, bleeding the 'debris field' - its passengers' personal possessions, the everyday things of everyman and everywoman - across the ocean's floor. Eugene Kennedy lie ocean god long The perception of the horizon is an earthbound event; all horizons disappear in space, and we are left shorn of the sweet roots that have held us to the earth, challenged to imagine what is truly present just before us, a unified and seemingly limitless universe. Eugene Kennedy universe space roots sweet Human experience resembles the battered moon that tracks us in cycles of light and darkness, of life and death, now seeking out and now stealing away from the sun that gives it light and symbolizes eternity. Eugene Kennedy light darkness life death
