One of the blunders religious people are particularly fond of making is the attempt to be more spiritual than God

When a child is born, a father is born. A mother is born, too of course, but at least for her it's a gradual process. Body and soul, she has nine months to get used to what's happening. She becomes what's happening. But for even the best-prepared father, it happens all at once. On the other side of a plate-glass window, a nurse is holding up something roughly the size of a loaf of bread for him to see for the first time.

We find by losing. We hold fast by letting go. We become something new by ceasing to be something old. This seems to be close to the heart of that mystery. I know no more now than I ever did about the far side of death as the last letting-go of all, but now I know that I do not need to know, and that I do not need to be afraid of not knowing. God knows. That is all that matters.

One of the blunders religious people are particularly fond of making is the attempt to be more spiritual than God

At the evening of our day, we shall be judged by our loving.

People will buy snake oil from anybody who seems to be selling it in a persuasive way.

I'm a hopeless prayer. I think somewhere in there I spend a great deal of time at it.