Quotes about Practice

Learning to preach is difficult because preaching is difficult.

A spiritual life without discipline is impossible. Discipline is the other side of discipleship. The practice of a spiritual discipline makes us more sensitive to the small, gentle voice of God.

Community as discipline is the effort to create a free and empty space among people where together we can practice true obedience.

The goal of spiritual direction is spiritual formation—the ever-increasing capacity to live a spiritual life from the heart. A spiritual life cannot be formed without discipline, practice, and accountability.

This pattern of discerning God's hidden presence involves at least four spiritual practices: 1) interpreting scripture, or theological reflection 2) staying, sometimes called abiding or remaining in prayer 3) breaking bread, or recognizing the presence of Christ in the Eucharist 4) remembering Jesus, or the 'burning heart' experience. These components form a biblically grounded and traditionally understood practice of discerning the divine presence in daily life.

An artist is first an amateur.

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy - which many believe goes hand in hand with it - will be dead as well.

We need to live the life that we say we believe in.

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love Ãƒ¢Ã¢'¬Ã‚¦ by loving. —FRANCIS DE SALES

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act by a habit.

I'd like to learn to meditate with more enthusiasm. I can sit down and get quiet for 20 minutes, but it just has not been a part of my Christianity at all.