10 quotes
Prayer must lead us beyond mind, words, and ideas to a more spacious place where God has a chance to get in.
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (1999)
God does not love you because you are good, God loves you because God is good.
Power should be entrusted only to those who do not seek it.
Group-think is a substitute for God-think. The belief is that God is found only by our group. The next step is to establish that identification with our group as the only way to serve God.
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (1999)
The world, the system, moves forward out of fear. That’s why they have to threaten us to play the game. We’re threatened with loss of job, money, reputation, or prestige. It’s all based on fear.
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (1999)
So much is happening on earth that cannot be fixed or explained, but it can be felt and suffered. I think a Christian is one who, along with Jesus, agrees to feel, to suffer the pain of the world.
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (1999)
The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to falling, or changing, or dying. The ego is that part of you that loves the status quo—even when it's not working. It attaches to past and present and fears the future.
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 has been to see how little actual spiritual curiosity there is in so many people.
We worshiped Jesus instead of following him on his same path. We made Jesus into a mere religion instead of a journey toward union with God and everything else. This shift made us into a religion of 'belonging and believing' instead of a religion of transformation.
My Name Is Heretic (2015)
Much of my criticism of religion comes about when I see it not only affirming the system of normalcy but teaching folks how to live there comfortably. It just increases our “stuckness” in the old world. As does a lot of poor psychotherapy. Cheap religion teaches us how to live successfully in a sick system.
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (1999)