Longing is a compass that guides us through life. We may never get what we really want, that's true, but every step along the way will be determined by it.
Joan D. ChittisterRead
We talk religion in a world that worships the bread but does not distribute it, that practices ritual rather than righteousness, that confesses but does not repent.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the disparity between religious practices and true moral actions.
Joan D. Chittister's quote highlights the hypocrisy in societies that engage in religious discourse while failing to address fundamental human needs, such as sharing resources and acting with genuine compassion. It emphasizes that significant religious practices should lead to ethical behavior and social justice rather than mere ritualistic observance or superficial confessions without sincere change.
Themes
ReligionHypocrisyCompassionJusticeRighteousness
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on social responsibility at a community center.
More from Joan D. Chittister
All quotes →Feminism without spirituality runs the risk of becoming what it rejects: an elitist ideology, arrogant, superficial and separatist, closed to everything but itself. Without a spiritual base that obligates it beyond itself, calls it out of itself for the sake of others, a pedagogical feminism turned in on itself can become just one more intellectual ghetto that the world doesn’t notice and doesn’t need.
Joan D. ChittisterRead
Hospitality means we take people into the space that is our lives and our minds and our hearts and our work and our efforts. Hospitality is the way we come out of ourselves. It is the first step towards dismantling the barriers of the world. Hospitality is the way we turn a prejudiced world around, one heart at a time.
Joan D. ChittisterRead
The question is not, do we go to church; the question is, have we been converted. The crux of Christianity is not whether or not we give donations to popular charities but whether or not we are really committed to the poor.
Joan D. ChittisterRead
It is a pathetic moment in the history of the human condition when the outside world tells us who and what we are - and we start to believe it ourselves. Then, bent over from the weight of the negativity, we start to wither on the outside.
Joan D. ChittisterRead
To be contemplative we must remove the clutter from our lives, surround ourselves with beauty, and consciously, relentlessly, persistently, give clutter away until the tiny world for which we ourselves are responsible begins to reflect the raw beauty that is God.
Joan D. ChittisterRead
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