The story goes that a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God. 'They won't let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner.' 'What are you complaining about?' said God. 'They won't let Me in either.

We even refuse to be our true self with God- and then wonder why we lack intimacy with him.

Quia amasti me, fecisti me amabilem. (In loving me, you made me lovable.)

Prayer is first and foremost an act of love

For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.

We are made for Christ, and nothing less will ever satisfy us.

The anything-goes passiveness of the religious and political Left is matched by the preachy moralism of the religious and political Right. The person who uncritically embraces any party line is guilty of an idolatrous surrender of her core identity as Abba's Child. Neither liberal fairy dust nor conservative hardball addresses our ragged human dignity.