Evelyn Underhill
Evelyn Underhill
Evelyn Underhillwas an English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth6 December 1875
Evelyn Underhill quotes about
personal-knowledge hands practice
Mysticism, according to its historical and psychological definitions, is the direct intuition or experience of God; and a mystic is a person who has, to a greater or less degree, such a direct experience -- one whose religion and life are centered, not merely on an accepted belief or practice, but on that which the person regards as first hand personal knowledge.
spiritual soul acting
God is acting on your soul all the time, whether you have spiritual sensations or not.
spiritual outlook-on-life everyday
It is far easier, though not very easy, to develop and preserve a spiritual outlook on life than it is to make our everyday actions harmonize with that spiritual outlook. For though we may renounce the world for ourselves, refuse the attempt to get anything out of it, we have to accept it as the sphere in which we are to co-operate with the Spirit, and try to do the Will.
live-life three verbs
We spend most of our lives conjugating three verbs: to want, to have, and to do.
jesus holiday people
Have you ever noticed that Jesus is never recorded as taking a holiday? He retired for the purposes of his mission, not from it. He was never destroyed by his work; he was always on top of it. He moved among people as the master of every situation. He was busier than anyone; the multitudes were always at him, yet he had time, for everything and everyone. He was never hurried, or harassed, or too busy. He had complete supremacy over time; he never let it dictate to him. He talked of my time; my hour. He knew exactly when the moment had come for doing something and when it had not.
spiritual light air
For the most part, of course, the presence of the great spiritual universe surrounding us is no more noticed by us than the pressure of air on our bodies, or the action of light. Our field of attention is not wide enough for that; our spiritual senses are not sufficiently alert. Most people work so hard at developing their correspondence with the visible world, that their power of correspondence with the invisible is left in a rudimentary state.
method mysticism
The business and method of mysticism is love.
kings responsibility clothes
The practical life of a vast number of people is not, as a matter of fact, worth while at all. It is like an impressive fur coat with no one inside it. One sees many of these coats occupying positions of great responsibility. Hans Andersen's story of the king with no clothes told one bitter and common truth about human nature; but the story of the clothes with no king describes a situation just as common and even more pitiable.
spiritual order environmental
The life, beauty and meaning of the whole created order, from the tomtit to the Milky Way, refers back to the Absolute Life and Beauty of its Creator: and so lived, every bit has spiritual significance.
looks impossible
It looks impossible until you do it, and then you find it is possible.
spiritual choices cost
The spiritual life is a stern choice. It is not a consoling retreat from the difficulties of existence; but an invitation to enter fully into that difficult existence, and there apply the Charity of God and bear the cost.
prayer mean soul
In prayer the soul comes nearest the experience of absolute love: in belief it ascends by means of symbols towards absolute truth.
dreamer may want
Your dreamer may do without a creed, but he always wants a ritual ...
spiritual self world
As the social self can only be developed by contact with society, so the spiritual self can only be developed by contact with the spiritual world.