Elizabeth O'Connor Quotes & Sayings

I am convinced that what has the greatest meaning for us is what we uncover for ourselves. — Elizabeth O'Connor

[on "proportionate giving"]
Proportionate to what? Proportionate to the accumulated wealth of one's family? Proportionate to one's income and the demands upon it, which vary from family to family? Proportionate to one's sense of security and to the degree of anxiety with which one lives? Proportionate to the keenness of our awareness of those who suffer? Proportionate to our sense of justice and of God's ownership for those who follow after us...? The answer, of course, is in proportion to all of these things. — Elizabeth O'Connor

Strangely enough we strengthen love in ourselves when we raise into consciousness the shadow side of our lives. Conversely, when we keep negative feelings out of sight, they smother the love that seems to lie deeper and closer to the real self. This is probably why there is so much pain in not loving. The life that is not able to express the love which is so integral to it grows deformed. — Elizabeth O'Connor

The silence of prayer is the silence of listening. — Elizabeth O'Connor

The spiritual law at the core of our being requires that we reach out. We are fulfilled to the extent that we live in relationships. — Elizabeth O'Connor

One of the reasons we experience so much difficulty with our gifts is that parents have thought their chief function in life is to be feeding, clothing and educating the young. However, their really important ministry is to listen to their children and enable them to uncover the special blueprint that is theirs. — Elizabeth O'Connor

Creativity is not the work of a few. We each carry within us the image of God the Creator; we each have the task of making the earth into a fairer, kinder place. The first step is imagining a better world, and that is most apt to happen when we suffer or look on suffering. — Elizabeth O'Connor

Because our gifts carry us out into the world and make us participants in life, the uncovering of them is one of the most important tasks confronting any one of us. — Elizabeth O'Connor