Jesus is never upset at sinners; he is only upset with people who do not think they are sinners.
God created us for love, for union, for forgiveness and compassion and, yet, that has not been our storyline. That has not been our history.
Religious belief has made me comfortable with ambiguity.
Moralism is always the cheap substitute for mysticism.
To believe in Jesus, is to believe that the historic person who lived on this earth more than 2000 years ago was the image of the invisible God. That’s a huge leap of faith, but it is my leap of faith, it’s the act of faith of the Christian community.
It is only through the holes in our soul that we break out and God breaks through.
Men and women are most alike at their most mature and soulful levels. Men and women are most different only at their most immature and merely physical levels.
You do need some successes as a young person. They don’t inflate the ego necessarily, they just give you identity and ego structure. But, don’t construct your life around creating those. Or you will become narcissistic and ego-centric. That won’t get you anywhere.
Our job as humans is to make admiration of others and adoration of God fully conscious and deliberate.
Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, and praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise.
People who know how to creatively break the rules also know why the rules were there in the first place.
God is always drawing us closer, blow by blow and bit by bit. And most of the time we do not even know it is happening.
Those who are not true leaders will just affirm people at their own immature level.
The Gospel is not a fire insurance policy for the next world, but a life assurance policy for this world.
There are not sacred and profane things, places, and moments. There are only sacred and desecrated things, places, and moments-and it is we alone who desecrate them by our blindness and lack of reverence. It is one sacred universe, and we are all a part of it.
I decided years ago that if I’m going to keep teaching contemplation, then the last years of my life should be contemplative.
Your heart has to be prepared ahead of time through faith and prayer and grace and mercy and love and forgiveness so you can keep your heart open in hell, when hell happens.
It’s the freedom of the children of God. Such people can connect with everybody. They don’t feel the need to eliminate anybody.
The gift of darkness draws you to know God’s presence beyond what thought, imagination, or sensory feeling can comprehend.
People who’ve had any genuine spiritual experience always know that they don’t know. They are utterly humbled before mystery. They are in awe before the abyss of it all, in wonder at eternity and depth, and a Love, which is incomprehensible to the mind.