Mary Rose O'Reilley Quotes

#1. I would not say I am looking for God. Or, I am not looking for God precisely. I am not seeking the God I learned about as a Catholic child, as an 18-year-old novice in a religious community, as an agnostic graduate student, as - but who cares about my disguises? Or God's.

Mary Rose O'Reilley

#2. There must be a mirror to show the soul to itself before the soul can begin to gather its courage.

Mary Rose O'Reilley

#3. The economy of gift, of art, is fundamentally opposed to the economy of war.

Mary Rose O'Reilley

#4. Finding voice is a socially responsible political act. We don't just do it for ourselves. And helping someone to find voice demands a spiritual partnership with that seeker. It's an exercise of compassion.

Mary Rose O'Reilley

#5. What do you do for ecstasy?

Mary Rose O'Reilley

#6. If we remember that the German word for holy (selig) is the root of our word silly, we may be forced to make some pertinent connections.

Mary Rose O'Reilley

#7. What if we were to take seriously the possibility that our students have a rich and authoritative inner life and tried to nourish it rather than negate it?

Mary Rose O'Reilley

#8. If you have a big splash of ecstasy in your life every day you are going to teach students something finer than "buy low/sell high". Maybe you'll teach them, not by what you say but by who you are, to live their lives as a standing affront to the ravaging mercantile mentality.

Mary Rose O'Reilley

#9. Teaching English is an intrinsically radical act. Is it possible to teach English so that people stop killing each other?

Mary Rose O'Reilley

#10. Whatever you eye falls on - for it will fall on what you love - will lead you to the questions of your life, the questions that are incumbent upon you to answer, because that is how the mind works in concert with the eye. The things of this world draw us where we need to go.

Mary Rose O'Reilley