Richard Rohr Quotes

The morning glories and the sunflowers turn naturally toward the light, but we have to be taught, it seems.

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain. If we do not transform our pain, we will transmit it to those around us.

We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.

The journey to happiness involves finding the courage to go down into ourselves and take responsibility for what's there: all of it.

Religion is one of the safest places to hide from God.

The path of descent is the path of transformation. Darkness, failure, relapse, death, and woundedness are our primary teachers, rather than ideas or doctrines.

God is always bigger than the boxes we build for God, so we should not waste too much time protecting the boxes.

Maturity is the ability to joyfully live in an imperfect world.

There is nothing to prove and nothing to protect. I am who I am and it's enough.

You come to God not by being strong, but by being weak; not by being right, but through your mistakes.

It is at the bottom where we find grace; for like water, grace seeks the lowest place and there it pools up.

Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity; Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God

Life is not a matter of creating a special name for ourselves, but of uncovering the name we have always had.

God comes to us disguised as our life.

The people who know God well—mystics, hermits, prayerful people, those who risk everything to find God—always meet a lover, not a dictator.

The cross is the standing statement of what we do to one another and to ourselves. The resurrection is the standing statement of what God does to us in return.

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.

every time God forgives us, God is saying that God's own rules do not matter as much as the relationship that God wants to create with us.

The cross solved our problem by first revealing our real problem, our universal pattern of scapegoating and sacrificing others. The cross exposes forever the scene of our crime.

A good teacher teaches people how to see, not what to see.

Much of the Christian religion has largely become “holding on” instead of letting go. But God, it seems to me, does the holding on (to us!), and we must learn the letting go (of everything else).

Nature is the one song of praise that never stops singing.

When you get your,'Who am I?', question right, all of your,'What should I do?' questions tend to take care of themselves

Pain that is not transformed is transmitted.

To give, and not demand that others receive . . . that is the crossover point to maturity. . .

The two Virtues of Equanimity and Compassion become more available to the person whose ego-shell has been smashed-either by great suffering or by great love-or by both.

As you look back on a year almost ended, recall the ways in which God has been inviting you to return, again and again, to Love which is the same as returning to God

Worship of Jesus is rather harmless and risk-free; actually following Jesus changes everything.

Prayer is not about changing God, but being willing to let God change us.

Faith is not for overcoming obstacles; it is for experiencing them—all the way through!

Creation is a process that is still happening and we’re in on it! We are a part of this endless creativity of God.

When we can see the image of God where we don't want to see the image of God, then we see with eyes not our own.

If God is Trinity and Jesus is the face of God, then it is a benevolent universe. God is not someone to be afraid of, but is the Ground of Being and on our side.

Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, and praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise.

The true mystic is always both humble and compassionate, for she knows that she does not know.

The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.

Would you respect a God you could comprehend? And yet very often that’s what we want - a God who reflects our culture, our biases, our economic, political, and military systems.

I am who I am in the eyes of God- nothing more and nothing less.

The important thing is the willingness to give back the gift that is you, not the perfection of the gift itself. Can you feel the difference?

The most common one-liner in the Bible is, "Do not be afraid." Someone counted, and it occurs 365 times.

If our love of God does not directly influence, and even change, how we engage in the issues of our time on this earth, I wonder what good religion is.

Men must learn how to grieve, or they are inevitably angry or controlling, and they don't even know why.

A skilled listener can help people tap into their own wisdom.

God comes to you disguised as your life.

The great and merciful surprise is that we come to God, not by doing it right, but by doing it wrong.

Religions should be understood as only the fingers that point to the moon, not the moon itself.

The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly the mystery of our own reality.

When we fail we are merely joining the great parade of humanity that has walked ahead of us and will follow after us.

Every time you choose to love, you have also just chosen to die.

It is in falling down that we learn almost everything that matters spiritually.