September 15, 2026

Where Spirituality Begins And Ends

Grace, and gratitude for grace, are the beginning and the end of a truly spiritual vision of reality.

Richard Rohr is a Franciscan friar who founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, and he wrote Falling Upward in his seventies, looking back on a life spent teaching about the two halves of life. By that point he had watched countless people, including himself, spend decades chasing achievement, only to discover that the deepest peace came from something they never earned. This line closes his reflection on what actually sustains a mature faith once the ego's striving quiets down. It names gratitude not as a virtue we manufacture but as the natural response to noticing grace already given.