Community is not an ideal; it is people. It is you and I. In community we are called to love people just as they are with their wounds and their gifts, not as we want them to be.

If we are to grow in love, the prisons of our egoism must be unlocked. This implies suffering, constant effort and repeated choices.

A community which refuses to welcome - whether through fear, weariness, insecurity, a desire to cling to comfort, or just because it is fed up with visitors - is dying spiritually.

When we begin to believe that there is greater joy in working with and for others, rather than just for ourselves, then our society will truly become a place of celebration.

Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness

All of us have a secret desire to be seen as saints, heroes, martyrs. We are afraid to be children, to be ourselves.

People may come to our communities because they want to serve the poor; they will only stay once they have discovered that they themselves are poor.