Spiritual Simplicity Quotes

I have the faith of a Breton peasant and by the time I die I hope to have the faith of a Breton peasant's wife.

O God... make me a child again, even before I die; give me back the simple faith, the clear vision of the child that holds its father's hand.

I'm trying to imitate Jesus in the fact that he said to be like children, to love children, to be as pure as children and to make yourself as innocent and to see the world through eyes of wonderment and the whole magical quality of it all.

God always takes the simplest way.

I don't argue when people say that my message is simple, but I believe Jesus' message was simple.

How frugal is the chariot that bears a human soul.

Pure, holy simplicity confounds all the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of the flesh.

I'm nothing special, just an ordinary human being. That's why I always describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk.

(Whispered to a novice while standing in front of the convent library) Oh! I would have been sorry to have read all those books...If I had read them, I would have broken my head, and I would have wasted precious time that I could have employed very simply in loving God.

Our religion is one which challenges the ordinary human standards by holding that the ideal of life is the spirit of a little child. We tend to glorify adulthood and wisdom and worldly prudence, but the Gospel reverses all this. The Gospel says that the inescapable condition of entrance into the divine fellowship is that we turn and become as a little child.

I am learning that a man can live profoundly without masses of things.

I can conceive of no greater, more romantic and interesting adventure than to undertake to live like Jesus in this complicated day.

To be friends with God means to pray with simplicity, like children talking to their parents.

So long as one does not become simple like a child, one does not get divine illumination. Forget all the worldly knowledge that thou hast acquired and become as a child, and then will thou get the divine wisdom.

Like the Bible says. A child should be leader of them all, and to be led by that kind of innocence. Didnt Jesus say bring on the children? Be like the children. Not childish, but child-like. That kind of innocence.

We Christians must simplify our lives or lose untold treasures on earth and in eternity.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

If we would find God amid all the religious externals we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity. Now as always God discovers Himself to "babes" and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.

The gospel is simply glorious and gloriously simple.

One of the purest souls ever to live on this fallen planet was Nicholas Herman, known as Brother Lawrence. He wrote very little, but what he wrote has seemed to several generations of Christians to be so rare and so beautiful as to deserve a place near the top among the world's great books of devotion. The writings of Brother Lawrence are the ultimate in simplicity; ideas woven like costly threads to make a pattern of great beauty.

We must open our eyes to admire God who hides and at the same time reveals himself in things and introduces us into the realms of mystery... we must be pure and simple like children, capable of admiring, being astonished, of marveling, and being enchanted by the divine gestures of love and closeness we witness.

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.

We are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.

I don't let my religious world get too complicated.

We need to return to the simplicity that God is love.