Only Christ could have brought us all together, in this place, doing such absurd but necessary things.

But in order to have an adult faith, most of us have to outgrow and unlearn much of what we were taught about religion.

Peace - that was the other name for home.

For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn't know we needed and take us places where we didn't know we didn't want to go. As we stumble through the crazily altered landscape of our lives, we find that God is enjoying our attention as never before.

To be an American is to move on, as if we could outrun change. To attach oneself to place is to surrender to it, and suffer with it.

The demon of acedia -- also called the noonday demon -- is the one that causes the most serious trouble of all. . . . He makes it seem that the sun barely moves, if at all, and . . . he instills in the heart of the monk a hatred for the place, a hatred for his very life itself.

Pay close attention to objects, events and natural phenomenon that would otherwise get chewed up in the daily grind.