Helen LaKelly Hunt Quotes & Sayings

A version of the golden rule to do unto others as you would have them do unto you is present in every major religion for a reason. Relationships are the place where the mystical experience can become alive. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Authentic religious expression for them was an experience of the soul and made no distinctions of gender. As Lucretia Mott said, "In Christ, there is neither male nor female." Gradually, I have realized the core of what set them apart for me. It is that they lived, more than most of us, from a place of wholeness. They were authentically themselves without amputations or edits. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Her vision was one of sacramental living, in which the giving of ourselves to others does not diminish, but enlarges and fulfills.

To experience this enlarged reality is to awaken to Life. If we are of God, then everything we do matters. We have a responsibility to manifest the divine -- in matters great and small, when people are watching and when they're not. To wash the dishes can be a sacrament if we do it in the spirit of attention and love. Any of the tasks of our everyday lives can be done with thanksgiving and praise. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Her way of being religious was as nonconformist as her nonreligious life had been. She was skeptical about many of the practices of the institutional church. She preferred to trust in the personal relationship she had grown to experience with God. This relationship transformed her ability to be in community and enabled her to see the essence of those around her: "The longer I live, the more I see God at work in people who don't have the slightest interest in religion and never read the Bible and wouldn't know what to do if they were persuaded to go inside a church."

For Dorothy [Day], the bread broken at Mass wasn't any more holy than the bread broken at shelters and soup kitchens. Church didn't happen in a building. It happened in the way people related to each other. Christ wasn't any more present in the liturgy than he was when on person listened with compassion to the pain of another. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Like oceans, we ebb and flow and are in constant motion. We have a deep desire to keep things as they are, and a contradictory desire to expand beyond our current limits. Times of relative equilibrium allow us to build the strength we need for times of movement. It can be difficult for us to know which stage we are in and whether we are moving forward at all. But underneath our seemingly individual current, we are ultimately being pulled forward toward a connection with the greater whole. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

These two revolutions of faith and feminism, though very different, were built upon the same fundamental assumption: every person is intrinsically as valuable and worthy of love as any other. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

The point of telling our stories, even if only to ourselves, is to help us resurrect the parts we have buried. When we unearth them, even if it's difficult, we can integrate them into our sense of who we are. Often in our buried self our true power lies. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

I feel that faith and feminism have a deep relationship to each other and that both are responses to the deep human yearning for connection and for peace on earth, and that they both have a vision of universal human equity. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

My deepest wounds and greatest strengths lie in my ability to see the potential for relationship in my life. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

By seeing ourselves honestly, we have the capacity to understand others more deeply. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

In the journey to become whole, a woman will be confronted with various forms of these stages [of personal evolution]. In doing the hard work that is required, she learns important lessons about herself and increases her capacity to see the meaning of her actions. She is then able to bring more experience, wisdom, and skill to the next challenge she must face. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

They could not make a deep and powerful connection to the larger world until they were able to connect to themselves. And, in an example of the kind of feedback loops that characterize all living systems, they were not able to connect to themselves until they were in authentic relationship with others. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Sojourner [Truth]'s life exemplifies the process that occurs within ourselves as we grow to understand that we hold the authority to shape our own lives. This inner authority came when she embraced all of herself, which enabled her to speak from an authentic voice. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

There is a growing interest in examining the point at which the political and the spiritual intersect. Service to others is a spiritual value, and the overt recognition of this can be part of the development of our wholeness. My hope is to add my voice to the chorus of other women who are calling for a bridge between the secular and the spiritual. Our effectiveness in building this bridge will depend on how well we connect to each other in every interaction. That means taking the time to listen to those who come from points of view that are different from our own. If we listen well, learn from one another, and find the ability to empathize with one another's experiences, I believe the split will have served us well. When a broken bone mends, it becomes stronger along the break. When we strengthen our connections to one another, we become whole. And when we are whole, we are empowered an can empower others. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

She traversed the spectrum of human emotion, and found herself to be flawed, but trusted God to accept all of her. Her vulnerability and openness led to her empowerment. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

The movement has kept itself from full development by denying, ignoring, and rejecting parts of itself, including its spiritual legacy. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

The women's movement has not found a way to reconnect comfortably with the religious impulse that was central to its origin. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Like Teresa [of Avila], each of us is a mix of unseen strengths and conflicting desires. While it is easy to understand our suffering in terms of external difficulties, most of us aren't aware of the significant role we play in our own difficult dramas. Like Job, we rail against the heavens for sending us trials at times, while in actuality, our own [inner] shadow is our most formidable opponent. One of the keys to living deeply is to learn how to befriend our shadows instead of demonizing them. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

When we fracture our potential for united action and divide ourselves along social, political, economic, or religious lines, we diminish our power. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Teresa [of Avila]'s story dismantles the common belief that all those chosen for sainthood are flawless in personality and character. Indeed, she would want us to consider her contradictions and struggles as integral to her sainthood. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Self-love is born out of love of another. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Think of the hero's journey as perceived by Joseph Campbell. The mythical hero, usually an unlikely male, undertakes a physical journey to an unknown land. One the way, he is faced with a series of challenges that he can meet only through his superior physical strength and cunning. If he succeeds in getting through all the barriers, he wins the prize, which he can then take home for the benefit of his people.

Although this model has some application to the experience of women, it is not adequate to describe what a woman must do in order to live beyond the stultifying expectations of the culture in which she's raised. If she has small children, she can't take a trip or move to a new place, and very rarely is she called upon to beat down her opponent with force. Instead, her journey is an inner one where the demons are her demons of the self. Her task as the heroine is to return from her inner journey and share her knowledge, wisdom, and energy with the people around her. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Conflict is growth trying to happen. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

To me, relationship is sacred because the spirit of God is manifest in empathic connection. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Claiming our voice, and our selfhood, is a sacred act. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

The Sister Fund supports spiritual women and their organizations, both grassroots activists for justice, and national and international social change agents. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

Each holy woman in this book made specific decisions based on her individual feelings, but her decisions represent universal impulses. In this sense, her private life translated into political and cultural statements. Whatever form it took, her mission was to end separation and restore connection. She opened her arms and brought others into the experience of love and belonging. Her actions sent the message that no person is excluded from the human family and the love of God. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

In sixteenth-century Spain, women had little opportunity for meaningful lives outside marriage, except as members of religious orders. While convents were often filled with dissatisfied young women, it must also be said that convent life empowered women in many ways. A convent was an acceptable place for women to be free of many of the social constraints of the time. — Helen LaKelly Hunt

As a political movement, feminism seeks to transform society by challenging and changing social institutions. Religion, on the other hand, seeks first to transform individuals through a personal relationship with God, which then results in a desire to work for the transformation of society. — Helen LaKelly Hunt