Spiritual Depth
“The moral/spiritual life, when treated as one more progressive project, is largely marked by constant failure or worse. We cannot teach a corpse to behave like a living human being. Until the inner-man is healed, all outward efforts will end in frustration or a false existence. What is required in our life is not new behavior but a new creation. That new creation begins in the very depth of the soul. The journey to that depth is marked by weakness, shame, loneliness and what might even feel like failure. It is the difficult work of bringing into the light what we would often prefer to remain hidden. Christ has not come to improve us, but to remake us from the inside out.” (Father Stephen Freeeman)
“God's word is not something outside of us and unaffecting us. It is not intellectual knowledge, but God Himself working in us to lead and convict and encourage us to the very depths of our souls” (Fr. Joseph Irvin)
“We live in an either/or mentality and suffer from an ingrained dualism. We are missing out on the poetic depth of our nature. Traditional Christianity teaches that the whole world is a sacrament.” (Jonathan Jackson)
“We dare not reduce all people to mere fleshly machines and the world to mere utilitarian usefulness or, worse yet, personal desires and claimed rights. The clinical mentality of a society that no longer plumbs the depths of story and mystery forsakes communion with God. He transcends our rational abilities and always dwells in mystery.” (Father Barnabas Powell)
“If we can ever cut through the fog of projections in which we live so much of our life, and look truly at another person, we can perceive an ordinary creature as magnificent. The trouble is that we are blinded by our own projections; we rarely see another clearly in all of his or her depth and nobility.” (Robert A. Johnson)
“This is how many Christians are—they don’t know enough about the faith in order to be “convicted” about it. When it’s popular to be Christian, they line up to be counted, but when it is not popular, they don’t stick around, because they lack depth of faith.” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis)
“Religious ecstasy or enthusiasm is no proof of spirituality…Emotional intensity is in itself no proof of spiritual depth.” (Orthodox Study Bible, 1 Corinthians 12:2, C. S. Lewis)
“...when media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously.” (Pope Francis)
“Distraction, dispersion, and chaos, whether from outside or from deep within our own psyche, exercise their demonic influence in every phase of our daily life, while we are at work, with our friends or family, or in a liturgical service. And so we live our lives on the surface, feeling little and caring little for what is in fact the one thing in this world that really matters, the one thing that is truly needful.” (Father John Breck)
“It is possible to live the Christian life just on the surface, knowing only enough to carry on an intelligent conversation in the church foyer with another equally uninformed believer. But when that happens you are vulnerable to the attack of the deceiver.” (David Jeremiah)
“We were made for deep communion with God. The closer and deeper our communion is with God, the more our unique personhood is actualized, our true-self emerges." (Father David L. Fontes, PsyD)
“Let us attend from the heart to what the Lord is saying and open our inner eye to the deeper spiritual levels of existence…If we become deadened by routine and by the constant enjoyment of life’s good things, we may find that we lack all interior blessing.” (OCPM 8/25/2016)
“To the degree you can shed the “unreality” of self-sufficiency, to that degree your prayer life will become richer and deeper.” (Pastor Timothy Keller)
“Christ is concerned with more than what we do. He is initially concerned about why we do what we do. Christ wants our external activities to be produced out of a personal relationship with Him. He demands something deeper than habit, more significant than ritual, more delightful than duty for duty’s sake." (Joseph Stowell)
“Acknowledgment (Gr. epignosis) is deeper than mental knowledge; it is experiential, not theoretical. Knowledge (the truth) and action (godliness) are a unity; knowledge that does not change one's life does not save.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Titus 1:1)
“...understanding the depths of God is beyond man. But the fact that we cannot know everything about God does not mean that we cannot know anything about Him, nor that it is wrong to try to know and understand Him better.” (Foundation Study Bible, Job 11:7)
“Many yearn for an elusive silence and spiritual depth, and they think it impossible for the ordinary layperson to cultivate regular times of deep, undistracted prayer...But a car, train, bus, or bike used to commute can actually serve as a monastic cell, a place cut off from the demands and noise of the world. Turn your commute into your sacred space and your car or train into a monastery.” (Abbot Tryphon)
“We were created for communion with God. And though many “facts” about God, and the depths of theological reasoning, are beyond the grasp of many, actually knowing God is possible to all…Knowing God involves doing something. Keeping the commandments of Christ is paramount. But so is prayer and fasting, generosity to the poor, and learning how to repent.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Most of us live outside our heart, and our mind is in a constant state of confusion. Some good thoughts may surface from time to time, but the majority will be harmful, and this destructive condition will prevail for as long as we continue to ignore our heart...The prayers of a fragmented mind have neither clarity nor depth, but a mind that is reunited with the heart overflows with humble prayer and has such strength that it reaches the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” (Archimandrite Zacharias of Essex)
“Those of us who firmly hold to Christ in the depth of our being will share in His magnificence when He is manifested in glory.” (OCPM 12/13/2015)