Quotes on Spirit, Prayer, Joy and Light

Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.—Thomas Merton

Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, praising God until we ourselves are a constant act of praise. —Fr. Richard Rohr

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. —Mark Twain

The difference between you and God is that God doesn’t think He’s you. —Anne Lamott

Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.—Sarah Ban Breathnach

It is unanimous where I come from.
Everyone agrees on one thing:
It’s no fun when God is not near.—Hafiz

Find the sweetness in your own heart that you may find the sweetness in every heart.—Jelaluddin Rumi

The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it. —Sri Nisargadatta

If outer events bring you to a position where you can bear them no longer and force you to cry out to the higher power in helplessness for relief, or if inner feelings bring humiliation and recognition of your dependence on that power, this crushing of the ego may open the door to grace.–Paul Brunton

“Help” is a prayer that is always answered. —Anne Lamott

Refuse to fall down.
If you cannot refuse to fall down, refuse to stay down.
If you cannot refuse to stay down, lift your heart toward heaven,
and like a hungry beggar, ask that it be filled, and it will be filled.
You may be pushed down. You may be kept from rising.
But no one can keep you from lifting your heart toward heaven.
–Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Desperation is the first and primary condition for true prayer…. It is pray or go under, pray or despair, pray or die.–Jerry Sittser

We wake, if ever at all, to mystery. —Annie Dillard

As a reflex, prayer seems to run deep in human nature, as if we have no choice in the matter. Facing danger or difficulty, opportunity or challenge, we feel compelled to pray, even if we are not sure there is a God out there to whom we are praying.–Jerry Sittser



If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.—C.S. Lewis

Facing loneliness teaches us what it means to pray.To pray means entering into the sphere of Love. —Stephen R. Schwartz

We pray because what we really want in the deepest places in ourselves is to know God. That is or heart’s desire whether we know it consciously or feel it deeply.–Jerry Sittser

The main thing in one’s own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.
—Maya Angelou

If we turn to the heart each day, if we turn to the breath, if we turn to the feelings without names, we are turning to love. —Stephen Robbins Schwartz

When the soul betrays itself and loses the blessed and longed-for fervor, let it carefully investigate the reason for losing it.  And let it arm itself with all its longing and zeal against whatever caused this. For the former fervor can return only through the same door through which it was lost.—St. John ClimacusThe Ladder of Divine Ascent
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Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.—Joseph Campbell

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence? —Gabrielle Roth

In my deepest wound I saw your glory, and it dazzled me.—St. Augustine

There is a crack in everything,that is how the light gets in.—Leonard Cohen

When the waves close over me, I dive down to fish for pearls.—Masha Kaleko