To be alive is to be addicted, and to be alive and addicted is to stand in need of grace.

Addiction is not something we can simply take care of by applying the proper remedy. For it is in the very nature of addiction to feed on our attempts to master it.

I would prefer a thousand mistakes in extravagance of love to any paralysis in wariness of fear.

But love's true nature remains forever beyond the grasp of all our faculties. It is far greater than any feeling or emotion and completely surpasses any act of human kindness. It is the one sheer gift of contemplation, completely unattainable by autonomous human effort. The realization of this love always remains mysterious.

To be alive is to be addicted, and to be alive and addicted is to stand in need of grace.

Grief is neither a disorder nor a healing process; it is a sign of health itself, a whole and natural gesture of love. Nor must we see grief as a step toward something better. No matter how much it hurts-and it may be the greatest pain in life-grief can be an end in itself, a pure expression of love.

To experience a little hunger now and then can be a beautiful reminder of the deeper hunger of our souls.