Source
Subjects
From Alexis de Tocqueville:
I think I see the whole destiny of America embodied in the first Puritan who landed on these shores.”
From Alexis de Tocqueville:
I think I see the whole destiny of America embodied in the first Puritan who landed on these shores.”
From David Steindl-Rast quoted in Words of Gratitude, by Robert A. Emmons and Joanna Hll;
Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.”
From Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness at pages 70-75:
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have been studying the relationship between gratitude and happiness in lived lives. They have found that the critical ingredient for nurturing gratitude is just paying attention to our blessings.
2003
From Harold Masback, The Not so Secret Gift" (December 21, 2003) at page 5:
Cicero called it the “greatest of the virtues” and “the parent of all the others.” Seneca wrote that lack of gratitude is an “abomination.”
From Karl Barth:
Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.”
1955
From Paul Tillich, The New Being, (1955) at page18:
Christians proclaim, We only want to show you something we have seen and tell you something we have heard…that here and there in the world, and now and then in ourselves is a New Creation.”
From M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace:
There is an old, story called “The Rabbi’s Gift,” told most recently by Scott Peck:
A monastic order had fallen on hard times until only one monastery and five old monks remained. In the woods near the monastery was a little hut that a rabbi from the nearby town used from time to time for meditation. As the demise of their order drew near, the Abbot decided to pay a call on the Rabbi. The Abbot explained his problem and the Rabbi commiserated with him. Attendance was failing at the synagogue as well. And so the two read the Torah and wept together. As the Abbot rose to leave, they embraced and the Abbot said, “It has been a wonderful thing that we should meet after all these years, but I have still failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me that would help me save my dying order? “No, I am sorry,” the rabbi responded, “I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you.” When the Abbot returned to the monastery, his fellow monks gathered around him to hear the Rabbi’s advice. “He couldn’t help,” the Abbot answered. “We just wept and read the Torah together. The only thing he did say, just as I was leaving, was that the Messiah is one of us. I have no idea what he meant.” In the days and weeks and months that followed, the old monks pondered the old Rabbi’s words. The Messiah is one us? Could he possibly have meant one of us monks here at the monastery? Which one? Do you suppose he meant the Abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant the Abbot. He has been our leader for more than a generation. On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas. Certainly not Brother Elred! Elred gets so crotchety at times. But come to think of it, Elred is virtually always right. Often very right. Maybe the Rabbi did mean Brother Elred. But surely not Brother Phillip. Phillip is such a nobody. But then, he has a gift for somehow always being there when you need him. He just mysteriously appears by your side. Maybe Phillip is the Messiah. Of course the Rabbi didn’t mean me. He couldn’t possibly have meant me. Yet supposing he did? Suppose I am the Messiah? As they contemplated in this manner, the old monks began to see each other differently and to treat each other with great love on the off chance that one of them just might be the Messiah. The occasional visitor couldn’t help but notice an aura of love that now surrounded the five old monks and permeated their monastery. The visitors began to return and to bring their friends to show them this special place. And their friends brought their friends. Some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them. Then another. And another. So within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order, all thanks to the Rabbi’s gift.
From Saint Augustine of Hippo, Homily VII on the First Epistle of John":
Love is God.
From Martin Luther, Lectures on the First Epistle of St. John", Luther's Works, at pages 218-221:
Martin Luther would emphasize John’s verse, saying “God is nothing but love.”