The Monastic Heart Quotes

“Statio—stopping to collect our hearts and minds before we begin something new—is the sign that we know we are about to do the will of God for the world. We know that we must not go at it when we are scattered of heart.”
― Joan D. Chittister, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life

“It’s when freedom isn’t freedom at all that the confusion of time soon becomes a confusion of soul. It doesn’t take long to figure out that to have no fixed time for the major parts of life is to have bartered our freedom away.”
― Joan D. Chittister, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life

“People whose lives are not lived on the mountain peaks of the world commonly forget that the shallows have a beauty of their own.”
― Joan Chittister, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life

“Simply being active is not life.”
― Joan Chittister, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life

“We must take our whole selves there—mind and heart—as well as our bodies. And we must be there five minutes before prayer starts.”
― Joan D. Chittister, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life