Solitude does not pull us away from our fellow human beings but instead makes real fellowship possible.
It is God’s passionate pursuit of us that calls us to prayer.
Your heart is greater than your wounds.
Too many of us are lonely ministers practicing a lonely ministry.
Our inclination is to show our Lord only what we feel comfortable with. But the more we dare to reveal our whole trembling self to him, the more we will be able to sense that his love, which is perfect love, casts out all our fears.
To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.
When I could no longer cling to my normal supports I discovered that true support and real safety lie far beyond the structures of our world.
You are a Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo, and keep saying that a new world is yet to come.
Discipline in the spiritual life is the concentrated effort to create the space and time where God can become our master and where we can respond freely to God’s guidance.
There are as many ways to pray as there are moments in life.
The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation...
The resistance to praying is like the resistance of tightly clenched fists. This image shows a tension, a desire to cling tightly to yourself, a greediness which betrays fear.
The university has become a place that prepares you for the fights in the world.
Life is not entertainment. Life is not distraction.
The best of community does give one a deep sense of belonging and well-being; and in that sense community takes away loneliness.
Be sure that you make a difference in the world.
In a strange way the spiritual life isn’t “useful” or “successful.” But it is meant to be fruitful. And fruitfulness comes out of brokenness.
That’s the temptation of the devil: “Turn stones into bread! Be relevant!”
If you are not able to be silent, you will not be able to speak well.
Solitude is an essential element for the spiritual health of a child. If we only stimulate our children – keep them busy with endless stories with no space to be alone – that’s not good.