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
All of us wrestle with the angels of our inabilities all the time. We live in fear that our incapacities will be exposed. We posture and evaluate and assess and criticize mercilessly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the struggle with self-doubt and the fear of vulnerability in facing our limitations.
Joan D. Chittister's quote highlights the internal battle many individuals face regarding their perceived shortcomings and fears of inadequacy. It speaks to the universal anxiety of being judged based on our limitations, which often leads us to adopt defensive postures, engage in self-criticism, or overly judge others as a way to shield ourselves from exposure. This struggle suggests a deeper understanding of courage, as facing our 'angels of inabilities' requires bravery and honesty with ourselves.
Themes
InabilitiesFearSelf-DoubtVulnerabilityGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech to encourage vulnerability, this quote could illustrate the fear of inadequacy.
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
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.
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
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