Religions should be understood as only the fingers that point to the moon, not the moon itself. Richard Rohr More Quotes by Richard Rohr More Quotes From Richard Rohr The spiritual world is hidden and perfectly revealed in the physical world. Richard Rohr spiritualworld If you're the head of the organization that has to pay salaries, bills and keep the money coming, you have to be concerned with pleasing the middle. I find it means you have to dumb down your message to something less radical than the gospel. It can't be the real gospel. It has to be "churchiness" that pleases everyone, so they come back next Sunday and keep putting money in the collection plate. I don't mean that in a cynical way. I just think it's what happens. Richard Rohr sundayrealmean Pope Francis insists that mercy is at the very top of the Christian hierarchy of great truths, and everything falls apart whenever mercy is displaced by anything else. Richard Rohr hierarchychristianfall The journey never happens alone. Richard Rohr journeyhappens 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. Richard Rohr world-religionsselfspiritual If I'm going to continue to be any kind of spiritual teacher, I've got to go deeper myself. And so for me, [I am] preserving long periods of solitude, silence, prayer, journaling, study, writing. I don't turn on music or the TV unless I really need to. Richard Rohr prayerspiritualteacher Christianity is seen by more and more people as a negative message: anti gay, anti immigrant, anti abortion (as the only life issue), anti gay marriage, anti the Democratic party. Richard Rohr issuesgayparty The movement toward gratitude, authenticity, and union is the natural and organic inner work of the second half of our lives. Richard Rohr gratitudemovementhalf Without transformation, you can assume you're at a high moral, spiritual level just because you call yourself Lutheran or Methodist or Catholic. I think my great disappointment as a priest Richard Rohr disappointmentspiritualthinking Faith is not a means to something further. It is not something we do in order to get to heaven. Faith is its own end. To have faith is already to have come alive. Richard Rohr heavenordermean 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. Richard Rohr mindenemythinking Modern culture is in so much trouble, where people don't have a deep inner life, or any deep experience of their true self in God, who they were before anyone said anything about them, before they received their first medal or ego identification. That`s why suffering is so important, because suffering is when those little rewards are taken away from you. Richard Rohr takenselfpeople Our job as humans is to make admiration of others and adoration of God fully conscious and deliberate. Richard Rohr admirationconsciousjobs 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. Richard Rohr addictionalternativesopposites Our job as conscious humans is to bring the beauty and goodness of everything to full consciousness, to full delight, to full awareness. Richard Rohr delightconsciousnessjobs People will often, almost always, prefer a male God. A male image of God gives them this sense of security, safety, order, no nonsense. So that's where their psyche is at. Probably it's something that they've got to go through. Not that there isn't a need for order in the world, but the mystical level seems to be the mature level of religion, and there the question is not order but union - divine union. And so, without some integration of the feminine, usually you never get to the mystical level. Richard Rohr safetyorderpeople The same powerful Scripture text that brings a loving person to even greater love will be mangled and misused by a fearful or egocentric person. This is surely what Jesus means when he talks about the one who has being given more and those who have not losing what little they have. Richard Rohr powerfulspiritualjesus God, give me a good humiliation every day. It's good for the soul and it's good for the ego. Richard Rohr egosoulgiving The school of relationships is where you learn self-knowledge. I just don't know how you could learn it sitting alone in the desert on a rock by yourself. You have to see where you fail at it. And that confrontation with your own ability - "I was again not able to love" - those are the teachable moments. Richard Rohr rocksselfschool The ego hates losing – even to God. Richard Rohr egohatelosing
