Living Deeply

A Spirituality of Imperfection (Ernest Kurtz & Katherine Ketcham)

A spirituality of imperfection suggests that spirituality’s first step involves facing self squarely, seeing one’s self as one is: mixed-up, paradoxical, incomplete, and imperfect. Flawedness is the first fact about human beings. And paradoxically, in that imperfect foundation we find no despair but joy. For it is only within the reality of our imperfection that we can find the peace and serenity we crave.

Simple Power, Simple Truth (Peter Gomes)

I met Mother Teresa some years ago when she came to Harvard to speak at Class Day, that great gathering of seniors on the day before Commencement, and then on the next day to receive an honorary degree. I was asked if Mother Teresa and her entourage, which consisted of one nun, could use my office as a place to rest for a few minutes before her speech. I was delighted to offer her my room, and she was duly brought in and I was presented to her. I tried to make small talk, but saints, I discovered, are not very good at small talk. I told her that I and millions of others thought that she was doing a great work in Calcutta. She fiddled with her beads and said, "It is Jesus." I made several other feints at chatter, but she was obviously on a different plane, and so I chose the wisest course of all, that of silence.