David Steindl-Rast Quotes

The root of joy is gratefulness...It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

Eyes see only light, ears hear only sound, but a listening heart perceives meaning.

A single crocus blossom ought to be enough to convince our heart that springtime, no matter how predictable, is somehow a gift, gratuitous, gratis, a grace.

Everything is a gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is a measure of our gratefullness, and gratefullness is a measure of our aliveness.

We are never more than one grateful thought away from peace of heart.

Gratefulness is the inner gesture of giving meaning to our life by receiving life as gift.

Love wholeheartedly, be surprised, give thanks and praise then you will discover the fullness of your life.

If you learn to respond as if it’s the first day in your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.

Any place is sacred ground, for it can become a place of encounter with the divine Presence.

Gratefulness has the courage to trust and so overcomes fear.

The hope that is left after all your hopes are gone - that is pure hope, rooted in the heart.

Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted.

Solitude without togetherness deteriorates into loneliness. One needs strong roots in togetherness to be solitary rather than lonely when one is alone.

Joy is that kind of happiness that does not depend on what happens.

Impatience makes us get ahead of ourselves, reaching out for something in the future and not really being content with where we are, here and now.

Each string of a wind harp responds with a different note to the same breeze. What activity makes you personally resonate most strongly, most deeply?

What brings fulfillment is gratefulness, the simple response of our heart to this life in all its fullness.

Each one of us is called to become that great song that comes out of the silence, and the more we let ourselves down into that great silence the more we become capable of singing that great song.

Home and journey together constitute the creative polarity of the heart, the two dimensions we must cultivate if we want to 'develop the heart.

Beauty seen makes the one who sees it more beautiful.

The greatest gift one can give is thanksgiving. In giving gifts, we give what we can spare, but in giving thanks we give ourselves.

A lifetime may not be long enough to attune ourselves fully to the harmony of the universe. But just to become aware that we can resonate with it -- that alone can be like waking up from a dream.

From experience we know that whenever we are truly awake and alive, we are also truly grateful.

Gratefulness is the gallantry of a heart ready to rise to the opportunity a given moment offers.

What is necessary when we want to face reality? Stillness.

One single gift acknowledged in gratefulness has the power to dissolve the ties of our alienation.

The challenge is to learn to respond immediately to whatever it is time for. Not to wonder whether you have time for it or whether you like it, but simply to respond when it is time.

Gratefulness is not just saying "thank you." It's acting. It is being yourself. A mother is grateful, shows gratefulness by mothering, a scientist by doing science.

The artist ought to know that a thousand painful deaths always lead into greater life.

Gratefulness is the great task, the how of our spiritual work, because, rightly understood, it re-roots us.

"The root of joy is gratefulness."

Only gratefulness, in the form of limitless openness for surprise, lays hold of the fullness of life in hope.

Wherever we may come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual.

There's opportunity upon opportunity to be grateful; that's what life is.

By looking up, by raising our eyes above our limited horizon, we are more likely to perceive the blessings hidden in affliction.

When you focus so much on the word, you tend to neglect the realm of silence.

The universe is gratis. It cannot be earned, nor need it be earned.

Love is saying yes to belonging.

Any change in attitude changes the way one sees the world, and this in turn changes the way one acts.

Through people that I did know or through things that I did touch, I am connected with everything that ever was and everything that ever will be. Everything hangs together with everything.

The experience of love and the experience of death destroy the illusion of our self-sufficiency. The two are closely connected, and to become fully human we must experience both of them.

If you're really mind-full, and if you underline that aspect of fullness, wholeness, or wholeheartedness, it reveals the gift character of everything.

At any moment the fully present mind can shatter time and burst into Now.

In moments of surprise we catch at least a glimpse of the joy to which gratefulness opens the door.

"The Holy Spirit . . . wants to flow through us and realize all these wonderful possibilities in the world - if we only open ourselves and allow it to happen."

Grateful living makes life meaningful and full of joy.

The goal is partly the enjoyment; it doesn't come later, but within the very process of the struggle.

Faith is the courageous confidence that trusts in the Source of all gifts.

There is no one harder to live with than an artist. Therefore an artist is a real gift because he or she raises the sanctity of everyone else in the community.

Gratefulness is that fullness of life for which we are all thirsting.