River of Fire Quotes

“...there's no such thing as being apolitical. If we sit back and do nothing, leaving all the policy making to others, that is, in fact, a position of support for the status quo, which is a very political stance to take.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“I'm taking a fresh look at the American Dream and who gets to live it and who doesn't.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“I guess when you're not awake, you're not awake. Waking up to the suffering of people who are different from us is a long process, and has a whole lot to do with what community we belong to and whose consciousness and life experiences impact our own on a daily basis. I have a hunch I'm going to be waking up until the moment I die.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“Maybe that’s another way to talk about “doing God’s will,” a phrase we have always bandied about, sometimes to refer to something we feel we have to do, not necessarily what we would have chosen. But now I’m wondering if it isn’t a matter of becoming more authentic, more attuned to the clear-sighted, natural goodness in every heart that learns to shed the delusions of arrogance and pride. Maybe at the center of it all is the surge of grace that breaks us free of our tight, narcissistic egos. Maybe. Human dynamics are exceedingly complex.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“Waking up to the suffering of people who are different from us is a long process, and has a whole lot to do with what community we belong to and whose consciousness and life experiences impact our own on a daily basis. I have a hunch I’m going to be waking up till the moment I die.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“St. John of the Cross gives the coda on this one: “In the evening of life we will be judged by love.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men that want crops without plowing up the ground….Power concedes nothing without a demand.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“Thoreau: “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“What’s good about belonging to a religious tradition is that it embeds us in a community, which sustains us in spiritual practice.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“Sister Jane Louise introduced me to the spirituality of the “little way” of St. Thérèse. No big heroics. What makes the “little way” little is that you do very, very ordinary things, such as washing dishes or weeding the garden or doing the laundry—with love for God. The “Little Flower,” as Thérèse is affectionately known, taught that these insignificant acts, if done with great love, are as pleasing to God as history-changing, heroic deeds. Thus”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“wrote no letters to the editor. Cool admiration, but no fire.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey