Jay Parini Quotes

I'm interested in spirituality and in religion and our relationship to the divine.

In all God's plans for human redemption, He proposes that men pray. The men are to pray in every place, in the church, in the closet, in the home, on sacred days and on secular days.

It's not enough to attend church and pray every Sunday; you have to act.

Much of my experience with language was formed in the church, which has an oral tradition. There are lots of repetitions in prayers and song refrains. There's a sense of incantation, that if you call not once and not twice but for a third time, the spirit appears.

I'm a big believer in the way ritual can put us in connection with our spirituality.

The first thing I do when I start my day is, I get down on my hands and knees and give thanks to God. Whenever I go outside of my house, the first thing I do is stop at the church.

Leaders in the realm of religious activity are to be judged by their praying habits and not by their money or social position. Those who must be placed in the forefront of the Church's business must be, first of all, men who know how to pray.

You can have religion with spirituality. You can also have religion without spirituality.

I'm not a religious person. I'm Catholic, so I consider myself more of a spiritual person. I believe in God.

Judaism is my life. Everything I do is through the lens of Torah.

Religion's in the heart, not in the knees.

To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship.

Spend more time in study and prayer. That's the secret of successful evangelism.

Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere.

I wish I was a more religious person. I really admire Martin Sheen for his Catholicism. It's such a bedrock. I wish I had that in my life.

Beyond being Jewish, I've always found myself to be very much in tune with spirituality.

So often, religion is identified in terms coined by Christianity as sets of belief. But I had the sense that it not only involves practice, but also emotion and levels of our experience that are almost precognitive.

I don't think I ever once heard Mum utter a religious or spiritual sentiment, a considerable feat considering that she was married for 57 years to one of the most prominent Catholics in the country.

Religion is a very personal thing for me. Religion has its good moments and its poor moments.

I have a strong belief in God... I find religion to be a very personal thing... I am also very spiritual.

The Church must introduce the individual Christian into an encounter with Jesus Christ and bring Christians into His presence in the sacrament.

I strongly believe in God. I go to church every Sunday, and if I happen to miss it, then I make up for the loss by going for it during the week. Whenever I spend time in the church, my mind is at peace.

I always pray. I'm quite religious. I've had the beads since I can remember.

... it was religion that saved me. Our ugly church and parochial school provided me with my only aesthetic outlet, in the words ofthe Mass and the litanies and the old Latin hymns, in the Easter lilies around the altar, rosaries, ornamented prayer books, votive lamps, holy cards stamped in gold and decorated with flower wreaths and a saint's picture.

The disciplines of prayer, silence, and contemplation as practiced by the monastics and mystics are precisely that - stopping the noise, slowing down, and becoming still so that God can break through all our activity and noise to speak to us. Prayer serves to put all parts of our lives in God's presence, reminding us how holy our humanity really is.