David Steindl-Rast OSB (born July 12, 1926) is a Catholic Benedictine monk, notable for his active participation in interfaith dialogue and his work on the interaction between spirituality and science.
From experience we know that whenever we are truly awake and alive, we are also truly grateful.
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.
What is necessary when we want to face reality? Stillness.
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.
People who have faith in life are like swimmers who entrust themselves to a rushing river. They neither abandon themselves to its current nor try to resist it. Rather, they adjust their every movement to the watercourse, use it with purpose and skill, and enjoy the adventure.
There is no closer bond than the one that gratefulness celebrates, the bond between giver and thanksgiver. Everything is a gift. Grateful living is a celebration of the universal give-and-take of life, a limitless yes to belonging. Can our world survive without gratefulness? Whatever the answer, one thing is certain: to say an unconditional yes to the mutual belonging of all beings will make this a more joyful world. This is the reason why Yes is my favorite synonym for God.
". . . Grateful living makes life meaningful and full of joy. "
Order is the disposition of things in which each gives to the other its room, its own proper place. That's the external aspect. The other is that order that springs from love: there's no other way of establishing order except through love.
Only gratefulness, in the form of limitless openness for surprise, lays hold of the fullness of life in hope.
Gratitude is here presented as more than a feeling, a virtue, or an experience; gratitude emerges as an attitude we can freely choose in order to create a better life for ourselves and for others. The Nigerian Hausa put it this way: Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.
Joy is that kind of happiness that does not depend on what happens.
Gratefulness is the great task, the how of our spiritual work, because, rightly understood, it re-roots us.
Gratefulness is that fullness of life for which we are all thirsting.
"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. "
Any change in attitude changes the way one sees the world, and this in turn changes the way one acts.
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.
Beauty seen makes the one who sees it more beautiful.
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.
Love is saying yes to belonging.
The greatest gift one can give is thanksgiving. In giving gifts, we give what we can spare, but in giving thanks we give ourselves.