It is we ourselves that we have to think about, no one else. That is the way the saints worked. They paid attention to what they were doing, and if others were attracted to them by their enterprise, why, well and good. But they looked to themselves first of all.

We are all called to be saints, St. Paul says, and we might as well get over our bourgeois fear of the name. We might also get used to recognizing the fact that there is some of the saint in all of us.

We're under obligation to love - that's the commandment.

Some can go further than others.

An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all.

Where were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves, but to do away with slavery?

As a child, I came across the Bible, but nobody in my family had anything to do with religion. I just felt a profound truth there that appealed to me.