Quotes about Experience

n the second day, God separated heaven from earth (Genesis 1:6-8). Genesis does not say that the second day was good, because it is not good to separate heaven from earth. A deep religious experience will reveal that there is only one world, one reality, and it is all supernatural.

Of course, clergy cannot talk about a further journey if they have not gone on it themselves.

Falling upward is a "secret" of the soul, known not by thinking about it or proving it but only by risking it—at least once.

Magdalene loved a very concrete Jesus who led her to a ubiquitous and Risen Christ. Paul started with a Universal Christ and grounded it all in a quite homely and lovable Jesus, who was rejected, crucified, and resurrected. Working together, Magdalene and Paul guide and direct the Christian experience in truly helpful ways toward both Jesus and Christ, but from opposite sides.

Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell; spirituality is for those who have been there.

We are not just humans having a God experience. The Eucharist tells us that, in some mysterious way, we are God having a human experience!

The truth is, almost everything we do is done poorly when we first start doing it — that's how we learn.

While it is wise to learn from experience, it is wiser to learn from the experiences of others.

Imagine how much needless frustration could be avoided if we learned from each other's life lessons. Mature people develop the habit of extracting lessons from everyday experiences.

The most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God.

We shortchange ourselves by regarding religious faith as a matter of intellectual assent. This is a modern aberration; the traditional Christian view is far more holistic, regarding faith as a whole-body experience. Sometimes it is, as W.H. Auden described it, 'a matter of choosing what is difficult all one's days as if it were easy.

God's power under us, in us, surging through us, is exactly what turns dependence into unforgettable experiences of completeness.