“All that we can do with any spiritual discipline is produce within ourselves something of the silence, the humility, the detachment, the purity of heart and the indifference which are required if the inner self is to make some shy,… — James Finley Copy Share Image
“We give God a name. We then equate God with the name we have given him, and in doing so we make ourselves, in… — James Finley Copy Share Image
“It is little wonder then that the term "religious" is often a pejorative one indicating an escapist, self-righteous, other-worldly or perhaps superstitious stance toward life. Nor should this come as any surprise, in light of all we have been saying of the pervasiveness of the false self. Since religion deals with the ultimate realities of life, it is understandable that… — James Finley Copy Share
“How strange God's ways are! He calls us to a union we do not understand. He calls us to a place of encounter which we cannot find. We search and search. Our silence reveals to us not a garden of delights but an awful nothingness. God leaves us in an awful emptiness. All our initial enthusiastic notions of prayer deteriorate… — James Finley Copy Share
“Compassion forms the essential bond between seeking God in meditation and all forms of social justice. For the more we are transformed in compassion,… — James Finley Copy Share Image
“Compassion is the love that recognizes and goes forth to identify with the preciousness of all that is lost and broken within ourselves and… — James Finley Copy Share Image
“We can say that, for Merton, religion refers to our deepest reality which lies hidden in our innate propensity for union with God. Our… — James Finley Copy Share Image
As you expand your meditation practice, in concert with your faith, you will find that these divine moments come more often, until you are… — James Finley Copy Share Image
“All that we can do with any spiritual discipline is produce within ourselves something of the silence, the humility, the detachment, the purity of… — James Finley Copy Share Image
If we are absolutely grounded in the absolute love of God that protects us from nothing even as it sustains us in all things,… — James Finley Copy Share Image
“Spiritual reading, discursive meditation, and prayer prepare our hearts for contemplation. Contemplation is a state of realized oneness with God. When engaged in contemplation,… — James Finley Copy Share Image
“This disappearance, this annihilation is all a matter of appearances as seen through the eyes of the false self. The annihilation is only apparent,… — James Finley Copy Share Image
