The more deeply we grow into the psalms and the more often we pray them as our own, the more simple and rich will our prayer become.

Faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.

Monastic life thus became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity, against the cheapening of grace.

Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.

We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience.

The Lord confers great honor on his servants when he brings them suffering.

The 'polymath' had already died out by the close of the eighteenth century, and in the following century intensive education replaced extensive, so that by the end of it the specialist had evolved. The consequence is that today everyone is a mere technician, even the artist.