Spirituality quotes:

Quotes:
1. Spirituality is the diverse ways we answer the heart’s longing to be connected with the largeness
of life.
– Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach, 5.
(San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 1998).

2. Spirituality is a universal of the human heart, far broader than any particular religious affiliation or
confession of faith.
– Thomas Groome, What Makes Us Catholic, 270.
(New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002).

3. Spirituality involves consciously living in right and loving relationship with God.
– Thomas Groome, What Makes Us Catholic, 275.
(New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002).

4. It is no easy task to walk this earth and find peace. Inside of us, it would seem, something is at
odds with the very rhythm of things and we are forever restless, dissatisfied, frustrated and
aching. ... Desire is always stronger than satisfaction. ... Spirituality is, ultimately, about what we do
with that desire. What we do with our longings, both in terms of handling the pain and the hope
they bring us, is our spirituality. ... Spirituality is about what we do with the fire inside of us.
– Ronald Rolheiser, Seeking Spirituality, 3-5, 10-11.
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1998).

5. Spirituality is more about whether or not we can sleep at night than about whether or not we go
to church. It is about being integrated or falling apart, about being within community or being lonely,
about being in harmony with mother earth or being alienated from her. Irrespective of whether or
not we let ourselves be consciously shaped by any explicit religious idea, we act in ways that leave us
either healthy or unhealthy, loving or bitter, in community or alienated from it. What shapes our
actions is our spirituality.
– Ronald Rolheiser, Seeking Spirituality, 6-7.
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1998).

6. Spirituality is no longer a matter of private taste or personal concern. Many of my students talk to
me about spirituality in worldly and public terms — as the basis for a new sense of human
community, as a cure for racism, as an essential ingredient of the new ecological awareness, as an
antidote to domestic violence and civil unrest. ... Spirituality is still a deeply internal experience, but
it is an internal experience that profoundly affects how we view nature and the world, how we see
ourselves and each other.
– David Tacey, Re-Enchantment, 187-188.
(Sydney: HarperCollins, 2000).

7. In a nutshell, spirituality relates to your own personal experience and relationship with the
divine. ... Self-knowledge is one of the main keys to spirituality. First you explore who you think you
are, and from there, you can move into a deeper spiritual view of who you really are. When you
have a strong foundation of spiritual self-respect, you aren’t as easily Module 1 – Spirituality Today 23
30771QLD Certificate III in Christian Ministry and Theology Student Guide © Faith & Life Brisbane
brought down by the judgments and errors of yourself and others. With spiritual self-respect, you
become your own best friend. ... Self knowledge also helps you to ask big-picture questions, such as:
“Why am I here on this earth and in my body?” and “What am I supposed to do while I’m here?”
– Sharon Janis, Spirituality for Dummies, 12.
(Indianapolis: Wiley publishing, 2008).

8. As it is used in Australia today, the ‘spiritual’ refers to an experiential journey of encounter and
relationship with otherness, with powers, forces and beings beyond the scope of everyday life. To be
spiritual is to be open to this ‘more than’ in life, to expect to encounter it and to expect to relate to
it. ... Being spiritual can be done alone and often is.
– Gary Bouma, Australian Soul, 12.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

9. Drawing on ancient metaphors for “breath” in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, spirit itself refers to the
essential human capacity to receive and transmit the life of God, our unlimited openness to being,
life, and conscious relationship.
– Richard Woods, Christian Spirituality, rev. ed., xix.
(Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2006).

10. From the beginning, Christian spirituality ... always focused on awareness of and faith in the
abiding presence of God, the Spirit of being, life, and relationship that grounds and supports all
human experience. In fact, Christian spirituality originated and developed as a growing
consciousness of the special reality of God’s presence as companion and friend in Jesus and his first
disciples. ... More often patiently, but at times abruptly, the Divine Spirit is ... transforming persons
and human society itself, together with the natural world, into a new creation.
– Richard Woods, Christian Spirituality, rev. ed., xix.
(Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2006).

11. The word “spirituality” in our own time has come to mean something quite vaguely attached to
feelings – thus one commonly hears the phrase “I am spiritual but not religious.” Historically,
however, the term “spiritual” meant one who lived under the impulse of the Holy Spirit as a follower
of Jesus Christ.
– Lawrence Cunningham, An Introduction to Catholicism, 147.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

12. The rich life of the spirit that spirituality encompasses is fundamentally about becoming a person
in the fullest sense. It means developing one’s capacity for going out and beyond oneself, the
capacity for transcending oneself. This ability makes possible all our understanding, pursuit of
knowledge, experience of beauty, quest of the good, and the outreach of love toward the other,
leading to responsibility and the creation of community.
– Ursula King, The Search for Spirituality, 13-14.
(New York: BlueBridge, 2008). 24 Module 1 – Spirituality Today
30771QLD Certificate III in Christian Ministry and Theology Student Guide © Faith & Life Brisbane
13. Over the margins of life comes a whisper, a faint call, a premonition of richer living which we
know we are passing by. Strained by the very mad pace of our daily outer burden, we are further
strained by an inward uneasiness, because we have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and
deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power.
– Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion, 115.
(New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1941).

14. Spirituality without deep roots in a religious tradition may not weather the storms of life. Trying
to go it alone spiritually, without a faith community, seems foolhardy, even a bit of a contradiction.
Life-giving spirituality is surely relational – remember, we are “made for each other”. On the other
hand, religion that does not nurture people’s spirituality is as dead as a doornail.
– Thomas Groome, What Makes Us Catholic, 273.
(New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002).

15. Spirituality defines one’s whole way of life. As such, spirituality can be defined as a way of being,
seeing and acting. What is distinctive about Christian spirituality is that it is a way of being, seeing
and acting that has its source in, and takes its inspiration from, the person and vision of Jesus Christ.
It is therefore a spirituality that has its source in our communion with God, and is forged in
communion with others and with all of creation. It is a spirituality of relationships.
– Let Your Light Shine, 4.
(Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, 2004).