Do not tell everyone your story. You will only end up feeling more rejected. People cannot give you what you long for in your heart. The more you expect from people's response to your experience of abandonment, the more you will feel exposed to ridicule.

Christian community is the place where we keep the flame of hope alive among us and take it seriously so that it can grow and become stronger in us.

In 1984, Jean Vanier invited me me to visit L'Arche community in Trosly, France. He didn't say "We need a priest" or "We could use you." He said, "Maybe our community can offer you a home." I visited several times, then resigned from Harvard and went to live with the community for a year. I loved it! I didn't have much to do. I wasn't pastor or anything. I was just a friend of the Community.

We want to prove we are good writers or good business, good parents or good teachers. The world is very competitive and catches us in this frenzy. It wants us to go here, be there, and be part of this or that.

As a general remark, I would say we must move from the moral to the mystical life.

I've had a tremendous problem with depression in my life. I'd rather not talk about it, because it's over. But depression is real.

For many, religion has to do with what we are allowed to do and not allowed to do. In the end, that doesn't bear fruit.