Pastoral Resources

But in Japan, there's nothing like that, since the temple is made of wood. The divine spirit inside the building is eternal, so the enclosure doesn't have to be.

In order to experience everyday spirituality, we need to remember that we are spiritual beings spending some time in a human body.

We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful.

Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.

All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.

Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things - with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.

With reference to other religions, the Church sees a great difference between them and herself. The other religions are expressions of the human soul seeking God, with some beautiful spiritual insights, but also not without errors. Christianity is rather God seeking humanity.

The spirit of Ubuntu, that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent black nation in 1804, helped Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador attain liberty, and inspired our forefathers to shed their blood for the United States' independence, cannot die. Today, this spirit of solidarity must and will empower all of us to rebuild Haiti.

This truth is a remedy against spiritual pride, namely, that none should account himself better before God than others, though perhaps adorned with greater gifts, and endowments.

Greatness is a spiritual condition.

The lash may force men to physical labor, it cannot force them to spiritual creativity.

The sword conquered for a while, but the spirit conquers for ever!

I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.

O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.

The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.

The soul, which is spirit, can not dwell in dust; it is carried along to dwell in the blood.

The Gita is the greatest gospel of spiritual works ever yet given to the race.

Spirituality is indeed the master key of the Indian mind; the sense of the infinitive is native to it.

India is the meeting place of the religions and among these Hinduism alone is by itself a vast and complex thing, not so much a religion as a great diversified and yet subtly unified mass of spiritual thought, realization and aspiration.