We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like.

Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem.

It is an occupational hazard of devout folk to become stuffy bores. This should not be. Of all people, we should be the most free, alive, interesting.

If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this leads us to prayer.

The inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life.

Fasting reminds us that we are sustained by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us.

We must understand the connection between inner solitude and inner silence; they are inseparable. All the masters of the interior life speak of the two in the same breath.