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
It is precisely women’s experience of God that this world lacks. A world that does not nurture its weakest, does not know God the birthing mother. A world that does not preserve the planet, does not know God the creator. A world that does not honor the spirit of compassion, does not know God the spirit. God the lawgiver, God the judge, God the omnipotent being have consumed Western spirituality and, in the end, shriveled its heart.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of women's spiritual experiences and compassion in understanding the divine and nurturing the world.
Joan D. Chittister's quote highlights a profound observation about spirituality and the divine, suggesting that a lack of female experience and perspective diminishes humanity's understanding of God. It argues that acknowledging the nurturing and compassionate qualities traditionally associated with femininity can lead to a more holistic and compassionate understanding of divinity, urging society to embrace these values for the betterment of the world.
Themes
WomenGodCompassionSpiritualityNurtureCreatorPlanet
In practice
Example use cases
During a women's retreat, this quote can inspire discussions on spirituality and the role of women in nurturing the environment.
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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