The Wisdom Pattern Quotes

“Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), the great American essayist, said “nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm.” What a deconstructed culture lacks, because of its deep cynicism and pessimism about reality, is a basic confidence and enthusiasm that is necessary to start almost anything.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“Without some deconstruction, everything becomes idolatrous. The prophets were religious deconstructionists.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“Hate can be helpful to certain causes. It unites a group quickly, it gives a person identity—even if it is a negative one—and, most of all, it takes away doubt and all free-floating anxiety. It gives us a place to stand that feels superior and in control. Hate settles the dust and ambiguity that none of us like. Hate is much more common, and more immediately effective, than love. Hate, as we will sadly see below, makes the world go ’round.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“Each generation has to appropriate its deepest beliefs for itself. We used to say it this way: “God has no grandchildren.” Each generation must itself be realigned with God and discover the mystery for itself.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“In moments of insecurity and crisis, shoulds and oughts don’t really help; they just increase the shame, guilt, pressure, and likelihood of backsliding. It’s the deep yeses that carry us through. It’s that deeper something we are strongly for that allows us to wait it out. It’s someone in whom we absolutely believe and to whom we commit. In plain language, love wins out over guilt any day. It is sad that we settle for the short-run effectiveness of shaming people instead of the long-term life benefits of true transformation.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“What we call Original Sin in Genesis perhaps could, in a sense, be better called Original Shame, because Adam and Eve describe themselves as feeling naked. Some of the first words of God to these newly created people are, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). Next, in a lovely maternal image, God as seamstress sews leather garments for them (3:21). The first thing God does after creation itself is cover the shame of these new creatures.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“The spiritual life is always about letting go of unnecessary baggage so that we’re prepared for death’s final letting go.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“The God-image, the self-image, and the world-image are deeply connected. Normally, when one of them changes, the other two have to readjust. So, when our God-image changes, then we have to change. When our world-image is adjusted, we are confused or even depressed for a while.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“It really works very well, but the trouble is that it feels so godly that much, if not most, religion is a belonging system more than a search for intimacy with God. Jesus was not into tribal religion, groupthink, and loyalty tests. Much of the institutional church is into them, however, and always has been. It works too well to call it into question. It holds us together and that feels like salvation, even if it is a very deteriorated form.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“Remember, anthropologically, religion begins with the making of a distinction between the pure and the impure. Jesus consistently ignores such a distinction. In fact, it is at the heart of almost half of his gospel actions!”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“Christianity, for some, is neither faith nor reason—just reactive tribalism hiding behind the skirts of Mother Church.”
― Richard Rohr OFM, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“We’re living in a time when the far right and the far left in almost every institution are using the eccentricities and evils of the other end to justify their own extremes.”
― Richard Rohr OFM, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“Private feelings are our form of truth today, a kind of ultimate self-absorption—understandable because there are no universal patterns. Yet, in expressing private feelings, people really think they’ve done something great. We see this on the talk shows. We realize those people have never read, studied, prayed, or listened to anybody except their own tyrannical feelings.”
― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“Healthy religion gives us a foundational sense of awe. It re-enchants an otherwise empty universe. It gives people a universal reverence toward all things. Only with such reverence do we find confidence and coherence. Only then does the world become a safe home. Then we can see the reflection of the divine image in the human, in the animal, in the entire natural world—which has now become inherently “supernatural.” That is the paradox, and all dualistic language will henceforth fail us.”
― Richard Rohr OFM, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“One of the few generalizations we can make in the field of universal spirituality is this: No one else is your problem.”
― Richard Rohr OFM, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“one consistent and clear revelation in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, it is that the God of Israel is the one who turns death into life (see Deuteronomy 32:39, Romans 4:17, 2 Corinthians 1:9). When we can trust the transformative pattern, when we can trust that God is in the suffering, our wounds become sacred wounds and the actual and ordinary life journey becomes itself the godly journey, trusting God to be in all things, especially”
― Richard Rohr OFM, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder