Community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another.

The joy that compassion brings is one of the best-kept secrets of humanity. It is a secret known only to a very few people, a secret that has to be rediscovered over and over again.

Although I am a committed Catholic priest, and nowhere hide that fact, my focus is very much a spiritual journey.

A few years ago I met an old professor at the University of Notre Dame. Looking back on his long life of teaching, he said with a funny wrinkle in his eyes: I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I slowly discovered that my interruptions were my work.

It is precisely in times of spiritual dryness that we must hold on to our spiritual discipline so that we can grow into new intimacy with God.

The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord

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