There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve -- even in pain -- the authentic relationship.

Just as our love for God begins with listening to God's Word, the beginning of love for other Christians is learning to listen to them.

Only the believer obeys — obedience follows faith, the way good fruit comes from a good tree. Only the obedient believe.

One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.

A day without morning and evening prayers and personal intercessions is actually a day without meaning or importance.

The time is short. Eternity is long. It is the time of decision.