Top 35 James Martin Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “It is impossible to experience a person’s life, or to be compassionate, if you do not listen to the person or if you do not ask questions.”

— James Martin

2. “So be joyful. Use your sense of humor. And laugh with the God who smiles when seeing you, rejoices over your very existence, and takes delight in you, all the days of your life.”

— James Martin

3. “Great works are often quiet works.”

— James Martin

4. “When John O’Malley was a Jesuit novice, an older priest told him three things to remember when living in community: First, you’re not God. Second, this isn’t heaven. Third, don’t be an ass.”

— James Martin

5. “The gatekeeper at the first door asks, “Is it true?” The second gatekeeper asks, “Is it helpful?” The third gatekeeper asks, “Is it kind?”

— James Martin

6. “Paradoxically, admitting your own powerlessness can free you from the need to fix everything and allow us to be truly present to the other person, and to listen. A cartoon in The New Yorker had one woman saying testily to her friend, ‘There’s no point in our being friends if you won’t let me fix you.”

— James Martin

7. “This is the greatest challenge of faith, says Polish, “to live with a God we cannot fully understand, whose actions we explain at our own peril.”

— James Martin

8. “First, you’re not God. Second, this isn’t heaven. Third, don’t be an ass.”

— James Martin

9. “To some of us the humiliation of failure seems to open a wide gulf between God and us. We imagine that God turns away from us in disgust. What I discovered was that failure could be a bridge across the chasm that pride had created.”

— James Martin

10. “All work has dignity. No job, when done freely, is ignoble.”

— James Martin

11. “Overall, being spiritual and being religious are both part of being in relationship with God. Neither can be fully realized without the other. Religion without spirituality can become a dry list of dogmatic statements divorced from the life of the spirit. This is what Jesus warned against. Spirituality without religion can become a self-centered complacency divorced from the wisdom of a community. That’s what I’m warning against. For St. Ignatius.”

— James Martin

12. “God desires for us to be the persons we were created to be: to be simply and purely ourselves, and in this state to love God and to let ourselves be loved by God. It is a double journey, really: finding God means allowing ourselves to be found by God. And finding our true selves means allowing God to find and reveal our true selves to us.”

— James Martin

13. “Noticing helps you realize that your life is already suffused with the presence of God. Once you begin to look around and allow yourself to take a chance to believe in God, you will easily see God at work in your life.”

— James Martin

14. “Often we are tempted to think that loving someone – a spouse, a boyfriend or girlfriend, or even just a friend – means clinging to them, which is a subtle form of ownership. But love means embracing the poverty of not owning the other. So chastity might be able to teach the world about a free way to love and a loving way to be free.”

— James Martin

15. “Every state of life, every decision, includes some pain that must be accepted if you are to enter fully into those decisions, and into new life. “All symphonies remain unfinished,” said Karl Rahner. There is no perfect decision, perfect outcome, or perfect life. Embracing imperfection helps us relax into reality. When we accept that all choices are conditional, limited, and imperfect, our lives become, paradoxically, more satisfying, joyful, and peaceful.”

— James Martin

16. “Finding God often happens in the midst of a community – with a “we” as often as an “I.”

— James Martin

17. “Everyone’s true self is a unique creation of God’s, and the way to sanctity is to become the unique self that God wishes us to be.”

— James Martin

18. “Jesus is the most famous victim of capital punishment.”

— James Martin

19. “The beginning of sanctity is loving yourself as a creation of God. And that means all of yourself, even the parts that you wish weren’t there, the parts that you wish God hadn’t made, the parts that you lament. God loves us like a parent loves a child – often more for the parts of the child that are weaker or where the child struggles or falters. More often than not, those very weaknesses are the most important paths to holiness, because they remind you of your reliance on God.”

— James Martin

20. “Those who attack the rationale of the game, and not the players, are its most formidable adversaries.”

— James Martin

21. “Merton wrote, “Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: the false self.” With his typical insight, Merton identifies the false self as the person that we wish to present to the world, and the person we want the whole world to revolve around: Thus.”

— James Martin

22. “Gratitude, peace, and joy are ways that God communicates with us. During these times, we are feeling a real connection with God, though we might not initially identify it as such. The key insight is accepting that these are ways that God is communicating with us. That is, the first step involves a bit of trust.”

— James Martin

23. “Religion can provide a check to my tendency to think that I am the center of the universe, that I know better than anyone about God, and that God speaks most clearly through me.”

— James Martin

24. “One joke has a Franciscan, a Dominican, and a Jesuit celebrating Mass together when the lights suddenly go out in the church. The Franciscan praises the chance to live more simply. The Dominican gives a learned homily on how God brings light to the world. The Jesuit goes to the basement to fix the fuses.”

— James Martin

25. “Why had I not understood that this was not simply the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the church of his tomb? It was also the Church of the Resurrection.”

— James Martin

26. “He questioned his monastic vocation as much as he embraced it. He desired solitude as much as he craved attention and affection from his brothers. He sought intimacy with others as much as he treasured his chastity. He battled with his religious superiors as much as he hoped to follow his vow of obedience. Most of all, he wished for fame and influence as much as he saw that humility was the foundation for a healthy monastic life.”

— James Martin

27. “Gehenna is lovely these days.”

— James Martin

28. “But Jesus accepts what we give, blesses it, breaks it open, and magnifies it. Often in ways that we don’t see or cannot see. Or will not be able to see in this lifetime. Who knows what a kind word does? Who knows what a single act of charity will do? Sometimes the smallest word or gesture can change a life.”

— James Martin

29. “The problem was that whenever I considered “earning a living,” I thought mostly about the “earning” and nothing about the “living.”

— James Martin

30. “Without the Jesuits you wouldn’t be enjoying your gin and tonic.”

— James Martin

31. “The multiplicity of desires leads to a multiplicity of paths to God.”

— James Martin

32. “In my years of counseling and speaking with LGBT men and women, I have heard countless stories of cruel and heartless comments made by priests in homilies or in private conversations that betray the most hateful attitudes toward LGBT people. Over and over, I would hear the same question: “How can I stay in a church that treats me like this?”

— James Martin

33. “Fully human and fully divine” is, to use a loaded word, a mystery. Something not to be solved, but to be pondered.”

— James Martin

34. “Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self. – Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation.”

— James Martin

35. “What kind of relationship do you have if you never carve out time for the other person? One that is superficial and unsatisfying for both parties. That’s why prayer, or intentional time with God, is important if you want a relationship, a friendship, with God.”

— James Martin