Faith is not a refuge from reality. It is a demand that we face reality ... The true subject matter of religion is not our own little souls, but the Eternal God and His whole mysterious purpose, and our solemn responsibility to Him.
Interpretation
Faith encourages us to confront reality rather than escape from it, emphasizing our responsibility towards a greater purpose.
Evelyn Underhill's quote highlights that faith should not be seen as a means of avoiding the challenges of reality; instead, it calls for a courageous engagement with those challenges. She emphasizes that the core of religious belief is not merely individual spirituality, but an overarching connection to the divine and the responsibilities that come with it, urging us to think beyond ourselves and consider the larger, mysterious purpose of existence.
In practice
In a discussion about confronting challenges in life, this quote can serve as a reminder to not shy away from reality.
Nothing in all nature is so lovely and so vigorous, so perfectly at home in its environment, as a fish in the sea. Its surroundings give to it a beauty, quality, and power which are not its own. We take it out, and at once a poor, limp dull thing, fit for nothing, is gasping away its life. So the soul, sunk in God, living the life of prayer, is supported, filled, transformed in beauty, by a vitality and a power which are not its own.
As the beautiful does not exist for the artist and poet alone—though these can find in it more poignant depths of meaning than other men—so the world of Reality exists for all; and all may participate in it, unite with it, according to their measure and to the strength and purity of their desire.
God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament.
Spiritual reading is a regular, essential part of the life of prayer, and particularly is it the support of adoring prayer.
As the genuine religious impulse becomes dominant, adoration more and more takes charge. 'I come to seek God because I need Him', may be an adequate formula for prayer. 'I come to adore His splendour, and fling myself and all that I have at His feet', is the only possible formula for worship.
I have an idea heaven will be both absolutely happy and absolutely dark, to protect us from the blaze of God.
Uncontradicting solitude Supports me on its giant palm; And like a sea-anemone Or simple snail, there cautiously Unfolds, emerges, what I am.
For optimists, human life never needs justification, no matter how much hurt piles up, because they can always tell themselves that things will get better. For pessimists, there is no amount of happiness—should such a thing as happiness even obtain for human beings except as a misconception—that can compensate us for life’s hurt.
Once you open up the Pandora's box of race and gender... you're never done.
We are reading the story of our lives As though we were in it As though we had written it.
God has put within our lives meanings and possibilities that quite outrun the limits of mortality.
We do ourselves the most good doing something for others.
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