Silence is a very concrete, practical, and useful discipline in all our ministerial tasks. It can be seen as a portable cell taken with us from the solitary place into the midst of our ministry. Silence is solitude practiced in action.

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.

My writing has developed drastically . The Return of the Prodigal Son is the most important thing I've done, and my most mature book.

Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the Beloved.

The world is evil only when you become its slave.

The Church will always be renewed when our attention shifts from ourselves to those who need our care. The blessing of Jesus always comes to us through the poor. The most remarkable experience of those who work with the poor is that, in the end, the poor give more than they receive. They give food to us.

The church is not an institution forcing us to follow rules but a community inviting us to still our hunger and thirst at its table.