Quotes by Richard Rohr

About Richard Rohr:

Richard Rohr, O.F.M. is a Franciscan friar ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church in 1970. He is an internationally known inspirational speaker and has published numerous recorded talks and books, most recently Yes, And...: Daily Meditations, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, and Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Our first experience of life is primarily felt in the *body.* ... We know ourselves in the security of those who hold us and gaze upon us. It's not heard or seen or thought it's felt. That's the original knowing.

Richard Rohr

Much of what is called Christianity has more to do with disguising the ego behind the screen of religion and culture than any real movement toward a God beyond the small self, and a new self in God.

Richard Rohr

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

Richard Rohr

The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to falling, or changing, or dying. The ego is that part of you that loves the status quo – even when it's not working. It attaches to past and present and fears the future.

Richard Rohr

Sin happens whenever we refuse to keep growing.

Richard Rohr

Denial of our pattern of failure seems to be a kind of practical atheism or chosen ignorance among many believers and clergy.

Richard Rohr

Self-help courses will only help you if they teach you to pay attention to life itself.

Richard Rohr

Change is not what we expect from religious people. They tend to love the past more than the present or the future.

Richard Rohr

Church practice has been more influenced by Plato than by Jesus. We invariably prefer the universal synthesis, the answer that settles all the dust and resolves every question even when it is not entirely true over the mercy and grace of God.

Richard Rohr

If this inner and critical voice has kept you safe for many years as your inner voice of authority, you may end up not being able to hear the real voice of God.

Richard Rohr

Whatever good, true, or perfect things we can say about humanity or creation, we can say of God exponentially. God is the beauty of creation and humanity multiplied to the infinite power.

Richard Rohr

People who know how to creatively break the rules also know why the rules were there in the first place.

Richard Rohr

The shape of evil is much more superficiality and blindness than the usual list of hot sins. God hides, and is found, precisely in the depths of everything.

Richard Rohr

God seems to be about turning our loves around and using them toward the great love that is their true object.

Richard Rohr

Once you see that your skin and your gift are two sides of the same coin, you can never forget it. It preserves religion from any arrogance and denial.

Richard Rohr

Those who are not true leaders will just affirm people at their own immature level.

Richard Rohr

If we seek spiritual heroism ourselves, the old ego is just back in control under a new name. There would not really be any change at all, but only disguise, just bogus self-improvement on our own terms.

Richard Rohr

In the second half of life, people have less power to infatuate you. But they also have much less power to control you or hurt you.

Richard Rohr

I would wonder if you could be a hero or heroine if you did not live in deep time, that is, Past, present, and future all at once.

Richard Rohr

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

Richard Rohr

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.

Richard Rohr

Author Bio

  • NameRichard Rohr
  • DescriptionAmerican spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest
  • BornMarch 20, 1943
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPriest; Writer