Flannery O'Connor Quotes

In order to see Jesus, we first need to let him look at us!

An humble knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God than a deep search after learning.

To me, growing into spiritual maturity is becoming less self-conscious and more God-conscious.

'Faith and Will' is aimed at the same readership as 'The Artist's Way.' The book is for spiritual seekers in all walks of life.

Purity is not imposed upon us as though it were a kind of punishment, it is one of those mysterious but obvious conditions of that supernatural knowledge of ourselves in the Divine, which we speak of as faith. Impurity does not destroy this knowledge, it slays our need for it.

I can't really connect with things unless they are spiritual in nature, so I have to make acting spiritual for myself, and each role a spiritual journey for me.

When we cultivate mystical awareness or transcendent identity - which is a natural outgrowth of meditation and other practices - what happens is that we begin to take a witness position on our own lives, and that includes our minds.

One of the values of centering prayer is that you are not thinking about God during the time of centering prayer so you are giving God a chance to manifest. In centering prayer there are moments of peace that give the psyche a chance to realize that God may not be so bad after all. God has a chance to be himself for a change.

When it comes to spiritual truth, how can we know that we are on the right path? One way is by asking the right questions - the kind that help us ponder our progress and evaluate how things are working for us.

Cure yourself of the affliction of caring how you appear to others. Concern yourself only with how you appear before God, concern yourself only with the idea that God may have of you.

I have gone through a period of seeking to understand what or how strong or what are the connections I have to God.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Worship means reverence and humility it means revering your real self and humbling delusions.

Your soul is between you and God.

Spirituality is not about looking up or down - it's about looking inward.

O God and Father, I repent of my sinful preoccupation with visible things. The world has been too much with me. Thou hast been here and I knew it not. I have been blind to Thy Presence. Open my eyes that I may behold Thee in and around me. For Christ's sake, Amen.

To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.

When someone becomes transparent, then something shines through that person that has nothing to do with the person or any of his or her personal history. What is required is becoming so transparent that the self or ego dissolves.

The law is about you looking at yourself. The new covenant is all about you seeing Jesus.

It's only by forgetting yourself that you draw near to God.

A "godly" person is one who ceases to be self-centered in order to become God-centered.

It is only by frequent deaths of ourselves and our self-centered desires that we can come to live more fully.

Once you conquer your selfish self, all your darkness will change to light.

The more grace we have, the less we shall think of ourselves, for grace, like light, reveals our impurity.

The spiritual journey does not consist of arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one's own ignorance concerning oneself and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one?s self.