The beatitudes say, "Blessed are the poor". They don't say, "Blessed are those who care for the poor."

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

Why is it important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It's important because it's the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you 'my beloved daughter,' 'my beloved son,' 'my beloved child.' To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being.

That's the temptation of the devil: "Turn stones into bread! Be relevant!"

If you start with community and want to be faithful to community, you have to realize that what binds you together is not mutual compatibility or common tasks, but God. In order to stay in touch with that call to community, we always have to return to solitude.

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved.

In solitude we realize that nothing human is alien to us.