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
hands firsts looks
The mystic lives and looks; and speaks the disconcerting language of first-hand experience.
soul grace church
Grace is God himself, his loving energy at work within his church and within our souls.
art reality unions
Mysticism is the art of union with Reality.
live-life three verbs
We spend most of our lives conjugating three verbs: to want, to have, and to do.
prayer effort done
On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur.
happiness real personality
After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life.
beauty elude-us attention
For lack of attention a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day.
years sin hours
It seems so much easier in these days to live morally than to live beautifully. Lots of us manage to exist for years without ever sinning against society, but we sin against loveliness every hour of the day.
christian prayer responsibility
Faith is not a refuge from reality. It is a demand that we face reality ... The true subject matter of religion is not our own little souls, but the Eternal God and His whole mysterious purpose, and our solemn responsibility to Him.
verbs fundamentals want
We mostly spend [our] lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do... forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in , the fundamental verb, to Be.
spiritual prayer real
Do not entertain the notion that you ought to advance in your prayer. If you do, you will only find you have put on the brake instead of the acceleration. All real progress in spiritual things comes gently, imperceptibly, and is the work of God. Our crude efforts spoil it. Know yourself for the childish, limited and dependent soul you are. Remember that the only growth which matters happens without our knowledge and that trying to stretch ourselves is both dangerous and silly. Think of the Infinite Goodness, never of your own state.
religion enough bigs
If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshipped.