We are silent at the beginning of the day because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep because the last word also belongs to God.

The right way to pray is to stretch out our hands and ask of One who we know has the heart of a Father.

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.

Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.

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.

We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.

No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus. Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at his behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? ... How can you hope to enter into communion with him when at some point in your life you are running away from him?