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The universe is gratis. It cannot be earned, nor need it be earned.

David Steindl-Rast

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David Steindl-Rast
Age: 98
Born: 1926
Born: July 12
Monk
Non-Fiction Writer
Psychologist
Theologian
Vienna
Austria
Gratis
Earned
Universe
Cannot
Need
Needs

More quotes by David Steindl-Rast

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When you focus so much on the word, you tend to neglect the realm of silence.
David Steindl-Rast
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Home and journey together constitute the creative polarity of the heart, the two dimensions we must cultivate if we want to 'develop the heart.
David Steindl-Rast
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People who have faith in life are like swimmers who entrust themselves to a rushing river. They neither abandon themselves to its current nor try to resist it. Rather, they adjust their every movement to the watercourse, use it with purpose and skill, and enjoy the adventure.
David Steindl-Rast
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If there is anything the artist or a true work of art teaches us, it is that variety and complexity really increase the unity, and that to achieve unity within a great variety of complexity is a greater achievement and more satisfying piece of art than to achieve unity with just a few elements, which is relatively easily achieved.
David Steindl-Rast
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Blessing is the lifeblood throbbing through the universe.
David Steindl-Rast
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Gratefulness is the great task, the how of our spiritual work, because, rightly understood, it re-roots us.
David Steindl-Rast
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As I express my gratitude, I become more deeply aware of it. And the greater my awareness, the greater my need to express it. What happens here is a spiraling ascent, a process of growth in ever expanding circles around a steady center.
David Steindl-Rast
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The greatest gift one can give is thanksgiving. In giving gifts, we give what we can spare, but in giving thanks we give ourselves.
David Steindl-Rast
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In moments of surprise we catch at least a glimpse of the joy to which gratefulness opens the door.
David Steindl-Rast
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Solitude without togetherness deteriorates into loneliness. One needs strong roots in togetherness to be solitary rather than lonely when one is alone.
David Steindl-Rast
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The challenge is to learn to respond immediately to whatever it is time for. Not to wonder whether you have time for it or whether you like it, but simply to respond when it is time.
David Steindl-Rast
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There's opportunity upon opportunity to be grateful that's what life is.
David Steindl-Rast
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We can't really waste our time we have to see that we are all in the same boat and that different religious traditions point in the same direction, and now let's get moving together, doing something for peace.
David Steindl-Rast
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Grateful living makes life meaningful and full of joy.
David Steindl-Rast
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A single crocus blossom ought to be enough to convince our heart that springtime, no matter how predictable, is somehow a gift, gratuitous, gratis, a grace.
David Steindl-Rast
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A lifetime may not be long enough to attune ourselves fully to the harmony of the universe. But just to become aware that we can resonate with it -- that alone can be like waking up from a dream.
David Steindl-Rast
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As we learn to give thanks for all of life and death, for all of this given world of ours, we find a deep joy. It is the joy of trust, the joy of faith in the faithfulness at the heart of all things. It is the joy of gratefulness in touch with the fullness of life.
David Steindl-Rast
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Gratefulness is that fullness of life for which we are all thirsting.
David Steindl-Rast
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Faith is the courageous confidence that trusts in the Source of all gifts.
David Steindl-Rast
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One single gift acknowledged in gratefulness has the power to dissolve the ties of our alienation.
David Steindl-Rast