The Fire Within Quotes

“How do you honor and channel blind desire in a child? By accepting that energy for what it is, the deep principle of life made manifest. Accordingly, we should never shame it: “You are a pig!” “You are selfish!” The child should never be made to feel dirty and guilty for having this energy. Instead the child should be initiated into its fuller meaning by connecting this desire to the heart of life itself within the family.”
― Ronald Rolheiser, The Fire Within: Desire, Sexuality, Longing, and God

“The soul is not a something that has a capacity for God. It is a capacity for God.”
― Ronald Rolheiser, The Fire Within: Desire, Sexuality, Longing, and God

“We are not fulfilled persons who occasionally get lonely, restful people who sometimes experience restlessness, or persons who live in habitual intimacy and have episodic battles with alienation and inconsummation. The reverse is truer. We are lonely people who occasionally experience fulfillment, restless souls who sometimes feel restful, and aching hearts that have brief moments of consummation.”
― Ronald Rolheiser, The Fire Within: Desire, Sexuality, Longing, and God