Seven Quick Takes-Favorite Quotes

This past week I spent some time looking through all of my prayer journals and found lots of quotes that I had jotted down from books, homilies and websites that had touched my heart in a deep and meaningful way, so I decided to share them on the quick takes. I so enjoyed looking through my journals of favorite quotes to choose these seven, that I just might make this my weekly quick takes theme. I hope you are as inspired by these words as I am, and that they help to draw you close to the heart of God.


1. Dive deeply into the miracle of life and let the tips of your wings be burnt by the flame, let your feet be lacerated by the thorns, let your heart be stirred by human emotion, and let your soul be lifted beyond the earth. ~Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Call of the Dervish

2. How did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all of its beauty? It felt the encouragement of Light against its being; otherwise we all remain too frightened. ~Hafiz, Love Poems from God (translated by Daniel Ladinsky)

3. For that contrariness is cause of our tribulations and all our woe, and our Lord Jesus taketh them and sendeth them up to Heaven, and there they are made more sweet and delectable than heart may think or tongue may tell. ~Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

4. When perplexed, always decide I will combat it by humble love. You can conquer the whole world. Loving humbly is a terrible force-it is the strongest of all things and there is nothing else like it. ~Kenneth Leech, Soul Friend

5. When we break open the alabaster jars of our lives, the world is filled with the fragrance of Christ. ~Fr. Don Hying, Rector, St. Francis de Sales Seminary, Milwaukee

6. God asked me to show Him where it hurt, and every cell in my body burst into tears before His tender eyes. ~Rabia, Love Poems from God (translated by Daniel Ladinsky)

7. And when the turmoil becomes too great and I am completely at my wits end, then I still have my folded hands and my bended knee...it is my most precious inheritance...the girl who learned to pray. That is my most intimate gesture, more intimate than being with a man. After all, one can't pour the whole of one's love out over a single man, can one? ~Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life

Thanks to Jennifer at Conversion Diary for this MEME