Leila Aboulela Quotes

For me, it's about the way I carry myself and the way I treat other people. My relationship and how I feel about God and what He does for me, is something deeply personal. It's where I came from, my family, I was brought up in a religious household and that's very important to me.

I don't normally talk about my religion publicly because I don't want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way.

My family, frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn't raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead.

I do need to explore my faith, because it has got lost over the years and it has been kind of tainted through experience. But I also know it's enriched my life, my dad being a Catholic.

My faith always has been and always will be important to me.

I was introduced to the church through my parents but I had to struggle and find it on my own. In the end I learned much of my faith and found much of my strength through watching my father's and mother's journeys.

Although religion was around me my whole life I never felt it was forced upon me. It is my centring, my grounding, the soul of me. I feel I'm nothing without it.

I always say that people should not rush to change religions. There is real value in finding the spiritual resources you need in your home religion.

I still consider myself a very spiritual person but the structure of the church isn't really for me.

I was brought up in a Christian home in Australia with a father who was very bold about his faith.

My whole family is spiritual. My grandmother, grand aunt, cousins, they're all preachers and pastors. Spirituality is a part of my family, from generations ago.

I have never hid my spiritual roots. They just weren't something that came under the spotlight.

I went to church as a kid, but it was as much a social thing as anything going to the youth group with the other kids and whatnot. It wasn't until I got out of college that I got on my own religious trip and started finding other things out there as well as philosophies. I've kinda been on my own spiritual path since then.

I'm a closet Catholic. I love the iconography of the saints. There was a point in my life when I was going to convert to Catholicism, but I didn't want my grandmother spinning around in her grave like a rotisserie chicken.

Let us not seek to bring religion to others, but let us endeavor to live it ourselves.

Spirituality was the main issue. Connection with God was the main issue.

I'm an actress and mom, and I probably don't have enough of an active spiritual life. And I don't know why people run around calling themselves by the names of religions when they don't actually practise them.

I'm from a family with five kids in it, and my father almost became a Catholic priest. And my mother never went to church, but she's the best Christian I know. My siblings have all chosen different paths to or away from their spirituality.

For me, the other thing is not just a strong sense of spirituality.

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 problem for the churches and synagogues of America is ... the tendency to think of religion itself in terms of "usefulness" and "service" to the community, or the contribution faith can make toward guaranteeing personal "peace of mind." Like almost everything else, religion in America is valued for services rendered.

Religion can thrive only in a personal universe.

Spiritual matters should be private.

We can no more do without spirituality than we can do without food, shelter, or clothing.