Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness.

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

This brief lifetime is my opportunity to receive love, deepen love, grow in love, and give love.

When you have loved deeply, that love can grow even stronger after the death of the person you love. That is the core message of Jesus.

For as long as you can remember, you have been a pleaser, depending on others to give you an identity. You need not look at that only in a negative way. You wanted to give your heart to others, and you did so quickly and easily. But now you are being asked to let go of all these self-made props and trust that God is enough for you. You must stop being a pleaser and reclaim your identity as a free self.

One way to express the spiritual crisis of our time is to say that most of us have an address but cannot be found there.

Learning to weep, learning to keep vigil, learning to wait for the dawn. Perhaps this is what it means to be human.