It is solved by walking. ~Saint Augustine

No one grows simply by doing what someone else forces us to do. We begin to grow when we finally want to grow. ~Sr. Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict

There is a grief that is useful and a grief that is destructive. ~Syncletica

Preside in order to promote the good of those whom you govern...Provide rather than dominate. ~Bernard of Clairvaux, In Consideration

Pray and work. ~Saint Benedict

God himself gloried in becoming a member of the human race. ~Thomas Merton

Loneliness and isolation hurt whole communities. ~Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General

In particular this vice is to be rooted out of the monastery: that anyone... have anything at all as his own. ~Rule of Benedict

And you shall so announce and preach His praise to all peoples that at every hour and when the bells are rung praise and thanks shall always be given to the Almighty God by all the people through the whole earth. ~Saint Francis, A Letter to All the Custodes

Let the brothers, in whatever places they may be among others, serve or work. ~Saint Francis

We are placed in this world, and it is in and through this world, not by the denial of it, that we shall come to know God. ~Esther De Waal, A Life~Giving Way

When God created human beings, he enjoined them to work on created things. ~Hildegard of Bingen, Book of Life’s Merits

Offer advice with the deference of humility, and do not presume to defend your point of view obstinately. ~Rule of Benedict

Complaining is the acid that shrivels our own souls and the soul of the community around us as well. ~Sr. Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict

It feels good to rest after working. ~Peter of Celle, On Affliction and Reading

Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate in Christian community; obey the laws; trust in Providence. ~Saint Augustine

For what is greater than such a vision, to see the invisible God in a visible human being, his temple? ~Life of Pachomius

One cannot simply open his eyes and see. The work of understanding involves not only dialectic, but a long labor of acceptance, obedience, liberty and love. ~Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Whoever can weep over himself for one hour is greater than the one who is able to teach the whole world; whoever recognizes the death of his own frailty is greater than the one who sees visions of angels. ~Isaac of Nineveh

And let the brothers who know how to work, labor and exercise themselves in that art they may understand, if it be not contrary to the salvation of their soul, and they can exercise it becomingly. ~Saint Francis

Wherever you go, you will find that what you are running from is there ahead of you. ~Anonymous