To pray is to listen, to move through my own chattering to God, to that place where I can be silent and listen to what God may have to say. Madeleine L'Engle More Quotes by Madeleine L'Engle More Quotes From Madeleine L'Engle God promised to make you free. He never promised to make you independent. Madeleine L'Engle independent I like to take the time out to listen to the trees, much in the same way that I listen to a sea shell, holding my ear against the rough bark of the trunk, hearing the inner singing of the sap. It's a lovely sound, the beating of the heart of the tree. Madeleine L'Engle sea heart tree Because you're not what I would have you be, I blind myself to who, in truth, you are. Madeleine L'Engle blind Qui plussait, plus se tait. French, you know. The more a man knows, the less he talks. Madeleine L'Engle plus knows men I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, "This is what I believe. Finished." What I believe is alive ... and open to growth Madeleine L'Engle motivational believe thinking Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light. Madeleine L'Engle light uplifting depression There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation. Madeleine L'Engle secular sacred messages When I look at the galaxies on a clear night - when I look at the incredible brilliance of creation, and think that this is what God is like, then instead of feeling intimidated and diminished by it, I am enlarged . . . I rejoice that I am a part of it. Madeleine L'Engle faith night thinking All will be redeemed in God's fullness of time, all, not just the small portion of the population who have been given the grace to know and accept Christ . All the strayed and stolen sheep. All the little lost ones. Madeleine L'Engle lost-ones grace sheep The growth of love is not a straight line, but a series of hills and valleys. Madeleine L'Engle valleys growth love-is I share Einstein's affirmation that anyone who is not lost in rapturous awe at the power and glory of the mind behind the universe "is as good as a burnt out candle." Madeleine L'Engle affirmation glory mind what I must learn is to love with all of me, giving all of me, and yet remain whole in myself. Any other kind of love is too demanding of the other; it takes, rather than gives. To love so completely that you lose yourself in another person is not good. You are giving a weight, not the sense of lightness and light that loving someone should give. Madeleine L'Engle light love-is giving Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind. Madeleine L'Engle stars listening wind To create a work of art, great or small, is work, hard work, and work requires discipline and order. Madeleine L'Engle hard-work order art I hope that I will never forget the salvific power of joyful laughter. Madeleine L'Engle never-forget laughter forget Remember the root word of humble and human is the same: humus: earth. We are dust. We are created; it is God who made us and not we ourselves. But we were made to be co-creators with our maker. Madeleine L'Engle dust humble roots I think that all artists, regardless of degree of talent, are a painful, paradoxical combination of certainty and uncertainty, of arrogance and humility, constantly in need of reassurance, and yet with a stubborn streak of faith in their own validity no matter what. Madeleine L'Engle artist humility writing I think your mythology would call them fallen angels. War and hate are their business, and one of their chief weapons is un-Naming - making people not know who they are. If someone knows who he is, really knows, then he doesn't need to hate. That's why we still need Namers, because there are places throughout the universe like your planet Earth. When everyone is really and truly Named, then the Echthroi will be vanquished. Madeleine L'Engle hate angel war As I listen to the silence, I learn that my feelings about art and my feelings about the Creator of the Universe are inseparable. To try to talk about art and about Christianity is for me one and the same thing, and it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory. Madeleine L'Engle giving mean art How do we teach a child our own, or those in a classroom to have compassion: to allow people to be different; to understand that like is not equal; to experiment; to laugh; to love; to accept the fact that the most important questions a human being can ask do not have or need answers. Madeleine L'Engle compassion children people
