Compassion doesn't, of course, mean feeling sorry for people, or pity, which is how the word has become emasculated in a way.

Compassion is a practically acquired knowledge, like dancing. You must do it and practice diligently day by day.

There is nothing in Islam that is more violent than Christianity.

A theology should be like poetry, which takes us to the end of what words and thoughts can do.

Let's use our stories to encourage listening to one another and to hear not just the good news, but also the pain that lies at the back of a lot of people's stories and histories.

Compassion is not a popular virtue. Very often when I talk to religious people, and mention how important it is that compassion is the key, that it's the sine-qua-non of religion, people look kind of balked, and stubborn sometimes, as much to say, what's the point of having religion if you can't disapprove of other people?

I left the convent and that was because I wasn't a very good nun. I could see that I wasn't going to make it. It's very difficult to be a nun, or to live a religious life. It's very difficult to live a life of total celibacy or a life without any possessions or material responsibilities at all, or in total obedience to somebody else, and remain a mature whole human being, and I knew that I wasn't going to be one of those.