Compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.

While optimism makes us live as if someday soon things will soon go better for us, hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present, with the deep trust that God will never leave us alone but will fulfill the deepest desires of our heart... Joy in this perspective is the fruit of hope.

In community, where you have all the affection you could ever dream of, you feel that there is a place where even community cannot reach. That's a very important experience. In that loneliness, which is like a dark night of the soul, you learn that God is greater than community.

In 1970 I felt so lonely that I could not give; now I feel so joyful that giving seems easy. I hope that the day will come when the memory of my present joy will give me the strength to keep giving even when loneliness gnaws at my heart.

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.

I have always felt that if I am very personal and connected with what I myself am living, my writing will transcend ecclesial boundaries.

Active waiting means present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it.