Quotes by Prayer Upon the lips of babes asleep I saw light embracing light and so allowed my syllables to rest there as a prayer they might sing in their dreams. Aberjhani light prayer dream The birth of a true poet is neither an insignificant event nor an easy delivery. Complications generally begin long before the fated soul carries its dubious light into whatever womb has been kind enough to volunteer the intricate machinery of its blood and prayers and muscles for a gestation period much longer than nine months or even nine years. Aberjhani gestation-period light prayer Overall, my books represent a kind of shared communion and meditation with my fellow human beings... The books are also a part of what I call the great continuum of spiritual literary dialogue that I feel has been in progress since human beings first gave in to the urge to pray to their sense of something greater than themselves and interpreted certain signs or events or silences as responses to those prayers. Aberjhani prayer spiritual book On faith’s battered back calm eyes etch prayers that cool a nation’s hot rage. Aberjhani eye prayer hot To say this sacred prayer [the Kaddish, prayer for the dead] for a Gentile is a most uncommon proceeding, but so unanimous and ardent is the feeling of the people of the New York ghetto in the present instance that Pres. William McKinley is spoken of in that quarter as "the loving brother of all of us," as one who "died a martyr to the freedom of Jew and Gentile. Abraham Cahan brother new-york prayer For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying. Abraham Joshua Heschel legs prayer song Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods. The liturgical movement must become a revolutionary movement seeking to overthrow the forces that continue to destroy the promise, the hope, the vision. Abraham Joshua Heschel hatred pyramids prayer Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will. Abraham Joshua Heschel bridges prayer heart One of the major symptoms of the general crisis existent in our world today is our lack of sensitivity to words. We use words as tools. We forget that words are a repository of the spirit. The tragedy of our times is that the vessels of the spirit are broken. We cannot approach the spirit unless we repair the vessels. Reverence for words - an awareness of the wonder of words, of the mystery of words - is an essential prerequisite for prayer. By the word of God the world was created. Abraham Joshua Heschel our-world broken prayer There is no specialized art of prayer. All of life must be a training to pray. We pray the way we live. Abraham Joshua Heschel training prayer art When I marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, I felt my legs were praying. Abraham Joshua Heschel legs kings prayer The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song. Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved. Abraham Joshua Heschel prayer song men We do not step out of the world when we pray; we merely see the world in a different setting. The self is not the hub but the spoke of the revolving wheel. It is precisely the function of prayer to shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender. Abraham Joshua Heschel different self prayer Prayer is not a stratagem for occasional use, a refuge to resort to now and then. It is rather like an established residence for the innermost self. All things have a home: the bird has a nest, the fox has a hole, the bee has a hive. A soul without prayer is a soul without a home. Abraham Joshua Heschel self prayer home In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender Abraham Joshua Heschel consciousness self prayer Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness. Abraham Joshua Heschel emptiness mindfulness prayer The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God. Abraham Joshua Heschel issues prayer Prayer begins where our power ends. Abraham Joshua Heschel ends prayer Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. Abraham Joshua Heschel prayer humble answers The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God. One cannot pray unless he has faith in his own ability to accost the infinite, merciful, eternal God. Abraham Joshua Heschel issues have-faith prayer «1234567891011»