To learn patience is not to rebel against every hardship.

There is a Wonderful story in the Gospel of Luke (6:12-26). Jesus went up to the mountain to pray at night; in the morning he came down from the mountain and called his twelve apostles around him. In the afternoon he went out on the plain with them to preach the Good News and heal the sick. He had communion with God first, then he had community, and then he went out to do the work of God. That's the order of things.

In God's eyes the most significant is often the most hidden.

The crisis of our prayer life is that our minds may be filled with ideas of God while our hearts remain far from him.

Joy and laughter are the gifts of living in the presence of God and trusting that tomorrow is not worth worrying about.

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.

Once you are in communion with God, you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear other people in whom God has also found a dwelling place.