Quote

A paradox is a seeming contradiction, always demanding a change on the side of the observer. If we look at almost all things honestly we see everything has a character of paradox to it. Everything, including ourselves.

Richard Rohr

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Richard Rohr
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: March 20
Catholic Priest
Motivational Speaker
Priest
Writer
Topeka
Kansas
Look
Observation
Everything
Honestly
Looks
Including
Observer
Always
Side
Seeming
Things
Sides
Observers
Almost
Demanding
Change
Paradox
Character
Contradiction

More quotes by Richard Rohr

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There has to be a womp on the side of the head that defeats and undercuts this game of performance. It has to fall apart. Now unfortunately, that very often does not happen until what I call the second half of life, when there's been enough death in the family and you start experiencing your own physical deterioration.
Richard Rohr
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When you do the first half of life well, you have a good sense of yourself.
Richard Rohr
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Prayer is looking out from a different set of eyes, which are not comparing, competing, judging, labeling or analyzing, but receiving the moment in its present wholeness and unwholeness. That is what is meant by contemplation.
Richard Rohr
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Once God and grace move us to the second half of life, religion becomes a mystical matter, rather than a moral matter.
Richard Rohr
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Religions should be understood as only the fingers that point to the moon, not the moon itself.
Richard Rohr
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In terms of soul work, we dare not get rid of the pain before we have learned what it has to teach us.
Richard Rohr
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I believe in mystery and multiplicity. To religious believers this may sound almost pagan. But I don't think so.
Richard Rohr
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The Gospel gives human suffering deep, personal, and cosmic meaning, by connecting our pain to the pain of others and, finally, by connecting us to the very pain of God.
Richard Rohr
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Many people who attack me know so little of that larger Tradition, and end up being not very traditional at all. When you invoke the whole and great Tradition, you end up scaring people who call 1950 America traditional Christianity. It is just what they are used to in their one limited lifetime.
Richard Rohr
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Spirituality is about being ready. All the spiritual disciplines of your life - prayer, study, meditation or ritual, religious vows - are there so you can break through to the eternal. Spirituality is about awakening the eyes, the ears, the heart so you can see what's always happening right in front of you.
Richard Rohr
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Much of the work of midlife is to tell the difference between those who are dealing with their issues through you and those who are really dealing with you.
Richard Rohr
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In solitude, at last, we’re able to let God define us the way we are always supposed to be defined—by relationship: the I-thou relationship, in relation to a Presence that demands nothing of us but presence itself. Not performance but presence
Richard Rohr
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Nature is the one song of praise that never stops singing.
Richard Rohr
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The ego hates losing – even to God.
Richard Rohr
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The journey never happens alone.
Richard Rohr
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We do not make or create our souls, we just grow them up.
Richard Rohr
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When you haven't found inner meaning, you will always substitute outer performance. It's the only way to fill that void, that sense of significance - that I am significant. So almost the degree of outer performance can, in many cases, mirror the lack of inner alignment.
Richard Rohr
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Christ is bigger than the Earth planet. If tomorrow we discover life on another planet, the whole Jesus piece would not make sense anymore. If he did everything for just us on this planet he wouldn't be the savior of the world.
Richard Rohr
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One wonders how far spiritual and political leaders can genuinely lead us without some degree of mystical seeing and action.
Richard Rohr
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After 32 years as a priest , I think its fair to say that most institutional churches are very limited in addressing higher levels of spiritual consciousness.
Richard Rohr