Compassion is not sympathy. Compassion is mercy. It is a commitment to take responsibility for the suffering of others.
Imagine how happy, how holy, life would be if we ever really learn to see beauty.
Two ideas militate against our consciously contributing to a better world. The idea that we can do everything or the conclusion that we can do nothing to make this globe a better place to live are both temptations of the most insidious form. One leads to arrogance; the other to despair.
All of us wrestle with the angels of our inabilities all the time. We live in fear that our incapacities will be exposed. We posture and evaluate and assess and criticize mercilessly.
We are each called to go through life reclaiming the planet an inch at a time until the Garden of Eden grows green again.
Assuming that tomorrow will be the same as today is poor preparation for living. It equips us only for disappointment or, more likely, for shock. To live well, to be mentally healthy, we must learn to realize that life is a work in process.
Precisely because of the greatness of God, we don’t have to be great at all. Just in awe.
A hard heart makes for hard judgments; a compassionate heart understands the humanity of the one we presume to judge.
June is the time for being in the world in new ways, for throwing off the cold and dark spots of life.
It is not our job to work miracles, but it is our task to try.
In our dreams lies our unfinished work for the world.
There is always new life trying to emerge in each of us. Too often we ignore the signs of resurrection and cling to part of life that have died for us.
Prophets are so dangerous because they cry in season and out of season, politely and impolitely, loud and long.
Failure is the foundation of truth. It teaches us what isn’t true, and that is a great beginning. To fear failure is to fear the possibility of truth.
We are living in a period of commerical globalization. What we really need is spiritual globalization.
Everything we do seeds the future. No action is an empty one.
The spiritual response is too often a simplistic one: we abandon God or we blame God for abandoning us.
Life is a series of lessons, some of them obvious, some of them not. We learn as we go that dreams end, that plans get changed, that promises get broken, that our idols disappoint us.
Hope grows in us, despite our moments of darkness, regardless of our regular bouts of depression.
Goodness is a process of becoming, not of being. What we do over and over again is what we become in the end.
The kind of “blind obedience” once theologized as the ultimate step to holiness, is itself blind. It blinds a person to the insights and foresight and moral perspective of anyone other than an authority figure.