“But one thing I do know: life and time are ghosted creatures for us all. They belong to us - and are… — Joan D. Chittister Clock Copy Share Image
To be enlightened is to know that heaven is not "coming." Heaven is here. — Joan D. Chittister Awareness Copy Share Image
The message we have internalized is clear - we are what we do and what we own, not what we are inside… — Joan D. Chittister Clear Copy Share Image
Goodness is a process of becoming, not of being. What we do over and over again is what we become in the… — Joan D. Chittister Becoming Copy Share Image
Too many times we insist on loving people the way we want to love them instead of the way they need to… — Joan D. Chittister Love Copy Share Image
Precisely because of the greatness of God, we don't have to be great at all. Just in awe. — Joan D. Chittister Awe Copy Share Image
Never confuse desire with vision. Desire has to do with what we want. Vision has to do with what we need. — Joan D. Chittister Desire Copy Share Image
A hard heart makes for hard judgments; a compassionate heart understands the humanity of the one we presume to judge. — Joan D. Chittister Compassion Copy Share Image
Two ideas militate against our consciously contributing to a better world. The idea that we can do everything or the conclusion that… — Joan D. Chittister Arrogance Copy Share Image
Solitude is not a way of running away from life ... from our feelings. On the contrary. This is the time we… — Joan D. Chittister Air Copy Share Image
The kind of "blind obedience" once theologized as the ultimate step to holiness, is itself blind. It blinds a person to the… — Joan D. Chittister Authority Copy Share Image
In community we work out our connectedness to God, to one another and to ourselves...In human relationships I learn that theory is… — Joan D. Chittister Community Copy Share Image
Old age tells us that we ourselves have failed often, have never really done anything completely right, have never truly been perfect… — Joan D. Chittister Age Copy Share Image
Memory is not about what went on in the past, it is about what is going on inside us right this moment.… — Joan D. Chittister Becoming Copy Share Image
“Feminists are asking women and men not to buy into patriarchal systems that destroy them both. Feminism comes to bring both men… — Joan D. Chittister Feminism Copy Share Image
Beware of your definition of success: If it has more to do with what other people think of you than it does… — Joan D. Chittister Ability Copy Share Image
Peace comes from living a measured life. Peace comes from attending to every part of my world in a sacramental way. My… — Joan D. Chittister Attending Copy Share Image
Humor and laughter are not necessarily the same thing. Humor permits us to see into life from a fresh and gracious perspective.… — Joan D. Chittister Bears Copy Share Image
“Where will Christian feminists go for spiritual nourishment if the church itself fails to reflect the feminism of Jesus? If tradition becomes… — Joan D. Chittister Feminism Copy Share Image
Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scrapping the sludge off a life turned slipshod. Lent is about taking stock… — Joan D. Chittister Accord Copy Share Image
We may well be the ones Proverbs warns when it reminds us: "Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value the one… — Joan D. Chittister Clear Copy Share Image
“The young hear memory in the voice of their elders and, delighted by these voices from the past or bored by them,… — Joan D. Chittister Aging Copy Share Image
Hospitality means we take people into the space that is our lives and our minds and our hearts and our work and… — Joan D. Chittister Barriers Copy Share Image
For centuries the church has confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them saints when what we really… — Joan D. Chittister Century Copy Share Image
Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be… — Joan D. Chittister Ability Copy Share Image
Learning to celebrate joy is one of the great practices of the spiritual life. — Joan D. Chittister Celebrate Copy Share Image
Work is not slavery, then. Work is creativity. It is the expression of ourselves that no one else can duplicate. — Joan D. Chittister Creativity Copy Share Image
In scripture God brings the animals to the human for naming. In that simple act the human is brought to recognize the… — Joan D. Chittister Animal Copy Share Image
"When we do not know what harbor we are making for," the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, "no wind is the right wind."… — Joan D. Chittister Dream Copy Share Image
Every dimension of life, its gains and its losses, are reason for celebration because each of them brings us closer to wisdom… — Joan D. Chittister Birthday Copy Share Image
Failure is the foundation of truth. It teaches us what isn't true, and that is a great beginning. To fear failure is… — Joan D. Chittister Encouragement Copy Share Image
Persistence may not solve everything - at least in our lifetime - but it is truer to the meaning of life for… — Joan D. Chittister Harvest Copy Share Image
Nothing weighs more heavily on age than time. Nothing has more meaning Â… Now time becomes, with a kind of ruthless honesty,… — Joan D. Chittister Age Copy Share Image
If the people speak and the king doesn't listen, there is something wrong with the king. If the kings acts precipitously and… — Joan D. Chittister Ifs Copy Share Image
Compassion makes no distinction between friends and enemies, neighbors and outsiders, compatriots and foreigners. Compassion is the gate to human community. — Joan D. Chittister Community Copy Share Image
I have to be honest with you, it never occurred to me, as years went by, that my country would look like… — Joan D. Chittister Being honest Copy Share Image
Imagination begins when it' s raining too hard to go out and play and you become really absorbed in something you would… — Joan D. Chittister Art Copy Share Image
We talk religion in a world that worships the bread but does not distribute it, that practices ritual rather than righteousness, that… — Joan D. Chittister Bread Copy Share Image
In Benedictine spirituality, work is what we do to continue what God wanted done…God goes on creating through us. Consequently a life… — Joan D. Chittister Creating Copy Share Image
The vision of a culture lies in what becomes its major institutions, in what it remembers as its most impacting events, in… — Joan D. Chittister Culture Copy Share Image
