Joan Chittister

Whatever deters us from being true to our deepest truths must one day be disavowed. So what must be disavowed to save the character of the nation in a time when it needs character more than ever? 

From Where I Stand: There's not much to be learned from those who agree with us. We just go on our merry way, trashing people at large, attacking both friends and competitors, berating our own best thinkers.

From Where I Stand: All candidates need to do, it seems, is to feed our wildest dreams. But without skepticism, democracy is dead. Then there's nothing but monarchy, tyranny and autocracy left.

From Where I Stand: It's time for a new set of virtues, starting with anger. To resolve a conversation, we need to advance it. Anger can do that; anger is energy. Anger is a connector. Most of all, anger is a signal from me to the world about the importance of what I'm concerned about. 

From Where I Stand: By this time, we are meant to be able to blend into the world around us -- serene, contented, open -- too grounded interiorly to crave public approval.

From Where I Stand: Once, I thought that this step of humility was so obvious it was embarrassing. Then I listened to modern political speech, and realized that this step may well be the most fundamental spiritual lesson of them all.

From Where I Stand: Benedict does not forbid humor; he forbids the bawdry and the brutal. He makes the quality of our laughter a measure of our spiritual adulthood.

From Where I Stand: The ninth step of humility has no caveats as in "keep silent unless you're angry at someone" or "unless you can get the microphone and keep it from everyone else."

From Where I Stand: The tradition moves on from generation to generation, flowing here, being pruned there, always adapting to the soil in which it's planted. And so do we as people.

From Where I Stand: No doubt about it: The seventh degree of humility in the Rule of Benedict was meant for us. It's impossible, of course, to lead the world in everything. But tell any lie long enough and people are prone to believe it. And claim it. And assume it. And we do.

From Where I Stand: St. Benedict of Nursia's sixth degree of humility is an antidote to the crush of pressure, to the seedbed of envy, to continuing and underlying dissatisfaction with the self. 

From Where I Stand: With all the lying going on in public and political life, I can't think of any better time to talk about the fifth degree of humility, which shows us that lives forged in secret too often die in the glare of hot lights.

From Where I Stand: There are some things that simply must be borne. There are some mountains in life that must be climbed but can only be climbed one boulder, one level at a time. 

From Where I Stand: Learning to consider the insights and understanding of others is not the end of autonomy. It is the beginning of humility. St. Benedict's third step, obedience, is for human unity and the common good

From Where I Stand: Differences are a big thing. They are the resources that nourish a new future for us all. Which is exactly where Benedict's second principle of life comes in.

From Where I Stand:  By making consciousness of the will of God his first principle of humility, Benedict makes it clear that we don't have to earn God because we already have God.

From Where I Stand: Governments go down. Churches, too, sinning as much as they save, lose their bearings. So how is it that we stand by while our institutions shrivel and our courage shrinks?

From Where I Stand: Every day, we find ourselves in a new political quandary that threatens us, unsettles us, divides us rather than unifies us. And worse, the split emanates from the top down.

From Where I Stand: To address climate change, nothing much can happen to the world around us until something happens within us that is beyond money and power, that seeks global harmony.

From Where I Stand: Amid sex abuse revelations, the cry for reform gets louder by the day. And while some reform of structures is imperative, it's the theology that counts.