Quotes about Contemplation
I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place, since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape.
— Barbara Brown Taylor
Or I can set a little altar, in the world or in my heart. I can stop what I am doing long enough to see where I am, who I am there with, and how awesome the place is.
— Barbara Brown Taylor
Reverence requires a certain pace. It requires a willingness to take detours, even side trips, which are not part of the original plan.
— Barbara Brown Taylor
On day three, I decided that a power outage would make a great spiritual practice.
— Barbara Brown Taylor
No one had to tell me why Martha stayed in the kitchen while her sister Mary sat at Jesus's feet. Martha was an introvert. She found chopping potatoes far less exhausting than talking to people, and besides, she could hear everything they were saying right where she was without having to come up with something to say herself.
— Barbara Brown Taylor
The soul does not grow by addition but by subtraction," wrote the fourteenth-century mystic Meister Eckhart.
— Barbara Brown Taylor
And I always do this aloud, or at least at a mumble level, making sure I am doing more than just glancing at the psalms or prayers. Glancing at prayers is the fastest path toward vain repetitions I know of. For that reason, the church has always advocated reading our prayers aloud so we will go more slowly and concentrate more on what we are saying. Prayer books are designed to be read aloud.
— Scot McKnight
Prayer was and is both a spontaneous act and a recitative
— Scot McKnight
I would say to today's young minister, 'Be not afraid to give much time to solitary walks and meditation'.
— Vance Havner
The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
— Marcus Aurelius
Our religious activities should be ordered in such a way as to have plenty of time for the cultivation of the fruits of solitude and silence.
— AW Tozer
I don't have time for a job that doesn't leave me time to be quiet or still or to pray.
— Barbara Brown Taylor