“Silence frees us from the need to control others. One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. A frantic stream of words flows from us in an attempt to straighten others out. We want so desperately for them to agree with us, to see things our way. We evaluate people, judge people, condemn people. We devour people with our words. Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on that. When we become quiet enough to let go of people, we learn compassion for them.”
“Silence frees us from the need to control others. One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. A frantic stream of words flows from us in an attempt to straighten others out. We want so desperately for them to agree with us, to see things our way. We evaluate people, judge people, condemn people. We devour people with our words. Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on that. When we become quiet enough to let go of people, we learn compassion for them.”
Richard J. Foster
“Discipline is to present us before grace, it does not produce grace to make sense.”
Richard J. Foster“Freedom from anxiety is characterized by three inner attitudes. If what we have we received as a gift, and if what we have is to be cared for by God, and if what we have is available to others, then we will possess freedom from anxiety.”
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline“Worship may produce an outward change, but our inner condition will eventually be revealed”
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline“Spiritual disciplines answer the shallow world.”
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline“Restriction often enhances clarity.”
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline“Confession is a difficult discipline for us, because we all too often view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin.”
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline“True service is a lifestyle. It acts from the ingrained patterns of living. It springs spontaneously to meet human need.”
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline“Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service, we must experience the many little death of going beyond ourselves. Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial”
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline“Meditation sends us into our ordinary world with greater perspective and balance.”
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline“Thomas Merton writes that if we have meditated on the events of the Passion but have not meditated on Dachau and Auschwitz, our perception of God at work in present times is incomplete.”
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of DisciplineAll in One Creative & Marketing Platform to tell stories at scale
