Quotes about Vulnerability
The strongest Christian is unsafe among occasions to sin (519).
— Richard Baxter
It is almost impossible to fall in love with majesty, power, or perfection. These make us fearful and codependent, but seldom truly loving. On some level, love can only happen between equals, and vulnerability levels the playing field. What Christians believe is that God somehow became our equal when he became the human Jesus, a name that is, without doubt, the vulnerable name for God.
— Fr. Richard Rohr
Jesus was trying to present value of a life of vulnerability in which one would have practical and needed experience of the same. It would be a life without baggage, so one would learn to accept others and their culture instead of always carrying along our own country's assumptions and calling them the Gospel.
— Fr. Richard Rohr
We do not handle suffering. Suffering handles us.
— Fr. Richard Rohr
The Church, as Jesus seems to be defining it, is the gathering of accepted brokenness. It's not the gathering of the saved.
— Fr. Richard Rohr
you are often most gifted to heal others precisely where you yourself were wounded, or wounded others.
— Fr. Richard Rohr
Contemplation, sadly, helps you see your woundedness! That's why most people do not stay long with contemplative prayer, because it's not very glorious. It's a continual humiliation, realizing, "Oh my God, I did it again. I still don't know how to love!
— Fr. Richard Rohr
What we call Original Sin in Genesis perhaps could, in a sense, be better called Original Shame, because Adam and Eve describe themselves as feeling naked. Some of the first words of God to these newly created people are, "Who told you that you were naked?" (Genesis 3:11). Next, in a lovely maternal image, God as seamstress sews leather garments for them (3:21). The first thing God does after creation itself is cover the shame of these new creatures.
— Fr. Richard Rohr
Allow yourself to be fully known, and you will know what you need to know.
— Fr. Richard Rohr
true biblical faith leaves you very vulnerable to reality, because now there is no place to hide. No wonder we prefer abstractions over the actual! We can hide behind abstractions, but Incarnation leaves you both utterly exposed and constantly invited. incorporation
— Fr. Richard Rohr
You do not climb up to your True Self. You fall into it, so don't avoid all falling
— Fr. Richard Rohr
eventually goes where he or she wants to go. People who have never allowed themselves to fall are actually off balance, while not realizing it at all. That is why they are so hard to live with. Please think about that for a while.
— Fr. Richard Rohr