Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self.

Solitude, community, and ministry are certainly not just for celibates! Celibates also have a hard time keeping up.

We enter into solitude first of all to meet our Lord and to be with him and him alone. Only in the context of grace can we face our sin; only in the place of healing do we dare to show our wounds; only with a singleminded attention to Christ can we give up our clinging fears and face our own true nature.

The spiritual life is a reaching out to our innermost self, to our fellow human and to our God.

People have filled an enormously important role in my life - more than books! For me, it's not the formal advising or the therapy that meant so much. It was more the fact that someone committed himself or herself to me. They were really interested in my life; they wanted to know what I was doing; they followed me; they dared to confront and challenge me.

One of the tragedies of our life is that we keep forgetting who we are

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.