Favourite quotations from world religious traditions (mystics, saints, thinkers etc.)

[tabycat]

To be deep in the Bible is to cease to be a Roman Catholic-FireSword /QUOTE]

If I am right the correct quote is: To be deep in the Bible is to cease to be a Protestant.

 

[Gara3987]

“What the soul is to man’s body, the Holy Ghost is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church. The Holy Ghost does in the whole Church what the soul does in all members of one body. But see what you must beware of, see what you must take note of, see what you must fear. It happens that in the human body, or rather, off the body, some member, whether hand, finger, or foot, may be cut away. And if a member be cut off, does the soul go with it? When the member was in the body, it lived; and off, its life is lost. So too, a Christian man is Catholic while he lives in the body; cut off, he is made a heretic; the Spirit does not follow an amputated member.”

–**Saint Augustine,. **Sermons, 267, 4, 391-430 A.D.​

 

[Vouthon]

Again this is a little long but I love it from Blessed Pope John Paul II:

"…I have wished to recall the ancient doctrine formulated by the Fathers of the Church, which says that we must recognize “the seeds of the Word” present and active in the various religions (Ad gentes, n. 11; Lumen gentium, n. 17). This doctrine leads us to affirm that, though the routes taken may be different, “there is but a single goal to which is directed the deepest aspiration of the human spirit as expressed in its quest for God and also in its quest, through its tending towards God, for the full dimension of its humanity, or in other words, for the full meaning of human life” (Redemptor hominis, n. 11).

The “seeds of truth” present and active in the various religious traditions are a reflection of the unique Word of God, who “enlightens every man coming into world” (cf. Jn 1:9) and who became flesh in Christ Jesus (cf. Jn 1:14). They are together an “effect of the Spirit of truth operating outside the visible confines of the Mystical Body” and which “blows where it wills” (Jn 3:8; cf. Redemptor hominis, nn. 6, 12).

Every quest of the human spirit for truth and goodness, and in the last analysis for God, is inspired by the Holy Spirit. The various religions arose precisely from this primordial human openness to God. At their origins we often find founders who, with the help of God’s Spirit, achieved a deeper religious experience. Handed on to others, this experience took form in the doctrines, rites and precepts of the various religions.

In every authentic religious experience, the most characteristic expression is prayer. Because of the human spirit’s constitutive openness to God’s action of urging it to self-transcendence, we can hold that “every authentic prayer is called forth by the Holy Spirit, who is mysteriously present in the heart of every person”. We experienced an eloquent manifestation of this truth at the World Day of Prayer for Peace on 27 October 1986 in Assisi, and on other similar occasions of great spiritual intensity.

1. The Holy Spirit is not only present in other religions through authentic expressions of prayer. “The Spirit’s presence and activity”, as I wrote in the Encyclical Letter Redemptoris missio, “affect not only individuals but also society and history, peoples, cultures and religions” (n. 28). Indeed, the Spirit is at the origin of the noble ideals and undertakings which benefit humanity on its journey through history…For the reasons mentioned here, the attitude of the Church and of individual Christians towards other religions is marked by sincere respect, profound sympathy and, when possible and appropriate, cordial collaboration. This does not mean forgetting that Jesus Christ is the one Mediator and Saviour of the human race. Nor does it mean lessening our missionary efforts, to which we are bound in obedience to the risen Lord’s command…The attitude of respect and dialogue is instead the proper recognition of the “seeds of the Word” and the “groanings of the Spirit”…May the Spirit of truth and love, in view of the third millennium now close at hand, guide us on the paths of the proclamation of Jesus Christ and of the dialogue of peace and brotherhood with the followers of all religions!.."

- Blessed Pope John Paul II, General Audience Address, September 16, 1998, Vatican

I consider the above to be the single, greatest ever description of other religions from a Christian perspective.

 

[Gaber]

Again this is a little long but I love it from Blessed Pope John Paul II:
…

I consider the above to be the single, greatest ever description of other religions from a Christian perspective.

Lovely.

I’ve always contended that since we are all made in God’s image and likeness, that the end of all seeking is necessarily the same, regardless of mentality and its structures, which are the actual realm of faith, not Spirit.

 

[Vouthon]

Lovely.

I’ve always contended that since we are all made in God’s image and likeness, that the end of all seeking is necessarily the same, regardless of mentality and its structures, which are the actual realm of faith, not Spirit.

My dear brother Gaber

From that same address the Pope said:

“…it is fitting to pause and consider in what sense and in what ways the Holy Spirit is present in humanity’s religious quest and in the various experiences and traditions that express it…”

I think that I will, over the next few days, quote some more of John Paul’s writings, perhaps trimming them though to make them more easily digestible.

 

[Gaber]

Vouthon:

I think that I will, over the next few days, quote some more of John Paul’s writings, perhaps trimming them though to make them more easily digestible.

I wonder what he would talk about today, and what he would say?

 

[Vouthon]

“…You should know that the friends of God are never without consolation, for their greatest consolation is what God wills for them, whether it be for their comfort or not…”

***- Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), Catholic mystic and Dominican priest ***

 

[Gaber]

“…You should know that the friends of God are never without consolation, for their greatest consolation is what God wills for them, whether it be for their comfort or not…”

***- Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), Catholic mystic and Dominican priest ***

Consolation is a bugaboo word for me. I think I get what is meant here, but I think that that word might have been better translated. It would have to do, is my guess, with ceasing to argue with Reality. Sorry in this case I don’t know his brand of German.

Are not “The Friends of God” a lay group he was associated with?

He is akin in spirit to Bede and Anselm, as well, I understand.

Thanks for the share.

 

[Vouthon]

Consolation is a bugaboo word for me. I think I get what is meant here, but I think that that word might have been better translated. It would have to do, is my guess, with ceasing to argue with Reality. Sorry in this case I don’t know his brand of German.

Are not “The Friends of God” a lay group he was associated with?

He is akin in spirit to Bede and Anselm, as well, I understand.

Thanks for the share.

My dear brother Gaber

Yes, the quote is about possessing that supreme state of detachment wherein we have died to self and self-will, and are able to perceive God in everything, whether good or bad. In this manner we embrace God in both suffering and joy, in both sweetness and bitterness, in both pleasure and pain. Our will is wholly joined to his and so we accept, equally, whatever God gives us and whatever he takes away from us as both “consolations”. We bless God equally for what we have and for what we don’t have; we thank Him equally for what he chooses to give us, wether joy or suffering, and whatever he chooses to take from us, whether joy or suffering. In this way, we submit our will wholly to his will and grow in oneness with Him.

So you are correct to say that it is about ceasing to argue with the Reality - of anything, of your material circumstances, the way you look, your experiences etc.

The Friends of God was a medeival lay, mystical group led by two of Eckhart’s greatest disciples: Johannes Tauler and Blessed Henry Suso, both of whom like their Master Eckhart were members of the Dominican Order. The name of the group was derived from Eckhart’s use of “friends of God” in his Sermons, as in the above quote. Eckhart in turn, I assume, must have derived the phrase from this passage of the Gospel of John 15:15: *“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” *

 

[Vouthon]

About seeing God equally in everything, Blessed Angela of Foligno - a wonderful early Franciscan mystic - expressed it most beautifully - if starkly:

“…In a vision I beheld the fullness of God in which I beheld and comprehended the whole creation, that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else. And in everything that I saw, I could perceive nothing except the presence of the power of God, and in a manner totally indescribable. And my soul in an excess of wonder cried out: “This world is pregnant with God!” Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation – that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else – but the power of God fills it all to overflowing…God presents himself in the inmost depths of my soul. I understand not only that he is present, but also how he is present in every creature and in everything that has being, in a devil and a good angel, in heaven and hell, in good deeds and in adultery or homicide, in all things, finally, which exist or have some degree of being, whether beautiful or ugly. I also understand that he is no less present in a devil than a good angel. Therefore, while I am in this truth, I take no less delight in seeing or understanding his presence in a devil or in an act of adultery than I do in a good angel or in a good deed. This mode of divine presence in my soul has become almost habitual. Moreover, this mode of God’s presence illuminates my soul with such great truth and bestows on it such divine graces that when my soul is in this mode it cannot commit any offense, and it receives an abundance of divine gifts. Because of this understanding of God’s presence my soul is greatly humiliated and ashamed of its sins. It is also granted deep wisdom, great divine consolation, and joy…”

- Blessed Angela of Foligno (c. 1248 – 1309), Italian (Franciscan) Catholic mystic

 

[Vouthon]

“…The heavens are the heavenly heart, for every good man is a heaven of God, and even those we were speaking of [great sinners] are carrying heaven within them, though they do not enter it. This is the greatest torment of the damned: to know of that heaven within them and yet to be not able to enter in…In heaven, that means in the heaven within our soul, there are three who bear witness: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. They are your witnesses who give the true testimony that you are a child of God…Beloved always listen to this witness within, and you will never regret it…”

** *- Johannes Tauler (c.1300-1361), Catholic mystic ***

 

[LisaA]

I collect quotes as well. Hard to choose but a few of my favorites from a variety of faith traditions:

Christian:
**If we live good lives, the times are also good.
As we are, such are the times.**St. Augustine

Saint Matthew 6:19-23.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

Islam:
O thou soul at peace
Return to thy Lord
Thou were pleased with Him
And He will be pleased with Thee from the Quran do not have the cite

**Passion burns down every branch of exhaustion
Passion is the supreme elixir and renews all things
Let divine passion triumph and rebirth you in your
self." **- Rumi

Judaism
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed; 20to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life Deuteronomy 30:19

Many more of course! It’s so hard to choose.

LIsa

 

[Vouthon]

Thank you so much for those wonderful quotes Lisa sister Please give us more when you have the chance!

“…There is a point of rapture where the human spirit forgets itself . . . and passes wholly into God…To lose yourself, as if you no longer existed, to cease completely to experience yourself, to reduce yourself to nothing is not a human sentiment but a divine experience….It is deifying to go through such an experience. As a drop of water seems to disappear completely in a big quantity of wine, even assuming the wine’s taste and color, just as red, molten iron becomes so much like fire it seems to lose its primary state; just as the air on a sunny day seems transformed into a sunshine instead of being lit up; so it is necessary for the saints that all human feelings melt in a mysterious way and flow into the will of God. Otherwise, how will God be all in all if something human survives in man?..To experience this state is to be deified…”

***- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), Catholic mystic and Doctor of the Church ***

 

[Gaber]

Thank you so much for those wonderful quotes Lisa sister Please give us more when you have the chance!

“…There is a point of rapture where the human spirit forgets itself . . . and passes wholly into God…To lose yourself, as if you no longer existed, to cease completely to experience yourself, to reduce yourself to nothing is not a human sentiment but a divine experience….It is deifying to go through such an experience. As a drop of water seems to disappear completely in a big quantity of wine, even assuming the wine’s taste and color, just as red, molten iron becomes so much like fire it seems to lose its primary state; just as the air on a sunny day seems transformed into a sunshine instead of being lit up; so it is necessary for the saints that all human feelings melt in a mysterious way and flow into the will of God. Otherwise, how will God be all in all if something human survives in man?..To experience this state is to be deified…”

***- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), Catholic mystic and Doctor of the Church ***

How wndrful and accurate!! Thanks again!

 

[Vouthon]

“…The surest and quickest way is to renounce oneself, forget oneself, abandon oneself, and to take no further thought of oneself except when this is required out of fidelity to God. The whole of religion consists simply in leabing oneself and one’s self-love in order to tend to God…The more enlarged our minds are when we contemplate nature, the more we discover of that inexhaustible wisdom which is the soul of the universe. Then do we see the Infinite Creator represented in all his works, as in a mirror, to the contemplation of his intelligent offspring…Oh my God! while so many of thy children are unconcious of thy presence in this glorious scene of nature that you present to them, still you are not far from any one of them…You discover yourself everywhere but men do not see you. All nature speaks of you and resounds with your most holy name; but its voice is uttered to defeaned ears - they will not hear. You are near them and within them but they fly from themselves and from you. They would find you, oh thou eternal and holy light, fountain of all pure and unfailing felicity, life of all true existence, if they would see thee within their souls…What do I see in all nature? God! God in everything, and God alone! Who does not see thee, has seen nothing. He is as if he were not, and his whole life is as a dream. Sorrow to the soul, that has not seen thee, that is far from God…”

- Archbishop Francois Fenelon (1651 – 1715), Catholic mystic

 

[Vouthon]

“…God is a being who is unvarying, divine and simple, and yet He is the cause of all multiplicity. He is everything in everything, one in everything and everything in one…”

- Saint Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430), Doctor of the Church

 

[Rabbity]

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” - Carl Sagan, astronomer

~

“We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: starstuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.” - Carl Sagan, *Cosmos *

 

[Gaber]

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” - Carl Sagan, astronomer

~

“We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: starstuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.” - Carl Sagan, *Cosmos *

That second quote can almost bring tears to my eyes. “We are a local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness!” How profound! How provocatve! How humbling!

Thanks for sharing that!

 

[Vouthon]

That second quote can almost bring tears to my eyes. “We are a local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness!” How profound! How provocatve! How humbling!

Thanks for sharing that!

I second this, it was beautiful Rabbity thank you ever so much

 

[Rabbity]

Gaber and Vouthon,

You’re welcome!

Sagan had a profound impact on me when growing up (my grandfather, who was catholic btw, and I would watch Cosmos together) and is probably the most important person who wasn’t family or a friend who shaped my personal philosophy and worldview. I find his writings breathtaking.

Here is one more:

“We succeeded in taking that picture, and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.” - Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, remarking on a photo taken by Voyager 1 about six billion kilometers from Earth.