Richard Rohr Pain Quotations

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain. If we do not transform our pain, we will transmit it to those around us.

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.

Pain that is not transformed is transmitted.

Most of us live in the past, carrying our hurts, guilts and fears. We have to face the pain we carry, lest we spend the rest of our lives running away from it or letting it run us. But the only place you'll ever meet the real is now-here.

If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.

In terms of soul work, we dare not get rid of the pain before we have learned what it has to teach us.

Notice that whenever we suffer pain, the mind is always quick to identify with the negative aspects of things and replay them over and over again, wounding us deeply. Almost all humans have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) of the mind, which is why so many people become fearful, hate-filled, and wrapped around their negative commentaries. This pattern must be recognized early and definitively. Peace of mind is actually an oxymoron. When you're in your mind, you're hardly ever at peace, and when you're at peace, you're never only in your mind.

Pain and suffering that are not transformed are usually projected onto others.

The Gospel gives our suffering personal and cosmic meaning, by connecting our pain to the pain of others, and finally, by connecting us to the very pain of God.

If you do not transform your pain, you will always transmit it.