Quotes about Contemplation

Action without prayer thins out into something very exterior. A prayerless life can result in effective action and accomplish magnificent things, but if there is no developed interiority, the action never enters into the depth and intimacy of relationships.

Holy ground is dangerous ground.

All serious and good writing anticipates precisely this kind of reading-ruminative and leisurely, a dalliance with words in contrast to wolfing down information.

There is a large, leisurely center to existence where God must be deeply pondered, lovingly believed.

I do not have more information after reading a poem; I have more experience.

The fusion is accomplished by reading these Scriptures slowly, imaginatively, prayerfully and obediently. This is the way the Bible has been read by most Christians for most of the Christian centuries, but it is not commonly read that way today. The reading style employed more often than not.

Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

In order to pray I have to be paying more attention to God than to what people are saying to me; to God than to my clamoring ego. Usually, for that to happen there must be a deliberate withdrawal from the noise of the day, a disciplined detachment from the insatiable self.

I wish he'd show you how wisdom looks from the inside, for true wisdom is mostly 'inside.

Silence is true wisdom's best reply.

In this world second thoughts, it seems, are best.

I find the whole idea of religion overwhelming and frightening and not for me.