Richard Rohr
American Franciscan priest, ecumenical contemplative teacher, and founder (1987) of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque — one of the most widely-read contemplative Christian voices of the twenty-first century, with daily meditations reaching more than half a million readers. Born 1943 in Topeka, Kansas, Rohr was ordained Franciscan in 1970 and has become a bridge figure for readers across Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and secular contemplative streams: drawing on the Desert Mothers and Fathers, Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and the perennial tradition. His best-known books — Falling Upward, The Universal Christ, Immortal Diamond, Everything Belongs, Breathing Under Water — reframe Christian doctrine through the lens of contemplative experience and the second half of life.
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Quotes by Richard Rohr
113 quotes“It is not what you do that makes you good, but what you don't do.”
“What you don't do, what you let go of, what you don't pretend to do.”
“What we don't transform, we transmit.”
“In each moment, when we look squarely at the present, we are present.”
“Just this. Just this is enough. Just this is everything.”
“All spiritual language is by necessity metaphor and symbol.”
“You see, the darkness does not need to understand the Light — only to receive it.”
“What you seek is what you are.”
“You cannot really see something until you see what is unique about it.”
“That is contemplation: looking at things until you see them.”
“Faith demands that we hold on — not to a belief system, but to a relationship.”
“God is closer to you than you are to yourself.”
“As Augustine said, 'God is the inner cause of all things.'”
“You can't earn divine love. You can only receive it.”
“It's already a gift, freely given.”
“All you can do is empty yourself, surrender, and receive.”
“Hope is a Christian virtue — not a feeling, not optimism.”
“Hope is the hard path of trust in the goodness of God in spite of the evidence to the contrary.”
“All great spirituality teaches about letting go of what you don't need and who you are not.”
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