Compassion makes no distinction between friends and enemies, neighbors and outsiders, compatriots and foreigners. Compassion is the gate to human community. Joan D. Chittister More Quotes by Joan D. Chittister More Quotes From Joan D. Chittister I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is. Joan D. Chittister believe children thinking The spiritual task of life is to feed hope. Hope is not something to be found outside of us. It lies in the spiritual life we cultivate within. The whole purpose of wrestling with life is to be transformed into the self we are meant to become, to step out of the confines of our false securities and allow our creating God to go on creating. In us. Joan D. Chittister spiritual wrestling lying There is no amount of darkness that can extinguish the inner light. The important thing is not to spend our lives trying to control the environment around us. The task is to control the environment within us. Joan D. Chittister important light darkness The moment a woman comes home to herself, the moment she knows that she has become a person of influence, an artist of her life, a sculptor of her universe, a person with rights and responsibilities who is respected and recognized, the resurrection of the world begins. Joan D. Chittister women responsibility home Contemplation is a very dangerous activity. It not only brings us face to face with God. It brings us, as well, face to face with the world, face to face with the self. And then, of course, something must be done. Nothing stays the same once we have found the God within…. We carry the world in our hearts: the oppression of all peoples, the suffering of our friends, the burdens of our enemies, the raping of the Earth, the hunger of the starving, the joy of every laughing child. Joan D. Chittister self heart children The secret of life is to let every segment of it produce its own yield at its own pace. Every period has something new to teach us. The harvest of youth is achievement; the harvest of middle-age is perspective; the harvest of age is wisdom; the harvest of life is serenity. Joan D. Chittister serenity yield perspective Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight. Joan D. Chittister gratitude inspirational life Beware the religion that turns you against another one. It's unlikely that it's really religion at all. Joan D. Chittister unlikely turns Oppressors do not get to be oppressors in a single sweep. They manage it because little by little, we make them that. We overlook too much in the beginning and wonder why we lost control in the end. Joan D. Chittister too-much wonder littles It is precisely women’s experience of God that this world lacks. A world that does not nurture its weakest, does not know God the birthing mother. A world that does not preserve the planet, does not know God the creator. A world that does not honor the spirit of compassion, does not know God the spirit. God the lawgiver, God the judge, God the omnipotent being have consumed Western spirituality and, in the end, shriveled its heart. Joan D. Chittister compassion mother heart Hospitality means we take people into the space that is our lives and our minds and our hearts and our work and our efforts. Hospitality is the way we come out of ourselves. It is the first step towards dismantling the barriers of the world. Hospitality is the way we turn a prejudiced world around, one heart at a time. Joan D. Chittister space heart mean Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside of us to get better. It is about getting better inside about what is going on outside. Joan D. Chittister hopeful get-better waiting Compassion is not sympathy. Compassion is mercy. It is a commitment to take responsibility for the suffering of others. Joan D. Chittister compassion responsibility commitment When I get on the internet and hide behind a false identity, and then allow that hiding to free me from the standards of decency, to begin to use language I would never use in front of my mother, all of a sudden, there's nothing between me and you, but worse than that, there's nothing between me and my worst self. Joan D. Chittister language identity mother We talk religion in a world that worships the bread but does not distribute it, that practices ritual rather than righteousness, that confesses but does not repent. Joan D. Chittister practice doe religion Grief is a sign that we loved something more than ourselves. . . . Grief makes us worthy to suffer with the rest of the world. Joan D. Chittister grief suffering world I begin to understand as never before that holiness is made of dailiness, of living life as it comes to me, not as I insist it be. Joan D. Chittister holiness live-life made Just when summer gets perfect-fresh nights, soft sun, casual breezes, crushingly full and quietly cooling trees, empty beaches, and free weekends- it ends. Life is like that too. Just when we get it right, it starts to change. The job gets easy and we know just how to do it, and they tell us we're retired. The children grow up and get reasonable and they leave home, just when it's nice to have them around. . . . That's life on the edge of autumn. And that's beautiful-if we have the humility for it. Joan D. Chittister summer beautiful life The human race sees with one eye, the male eye; hears with one ear, the male ear; and thinks with one half the human mind, the male mind. And the decisions we are making show we are not bringing to the agendas, and the questions and the problems of the world, all the resources of the world to solve them. Joan D. Chittister eye decision thinking When souls really touch, it is forever. Then space and time disappear, and all that remains is the consciousness that we are not alone in life. Joan D. Chittister space soul forever
