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

Countless people pray far more than they know. Often they have such a "stained-glass" image of prayer that they fail to recognize what they are experiencing as prayer and so condemn themselves for not praying.

Four times a year withdraw for three to four hours for the purpose of reorienting your life goals

reject anything that is producing an addiction in you.

The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do. We must never lose sight of this fact. It is one thing to talk piously about 'the solitude of the heart,' but if that does not somehow work its way into our experience, then we have missed the point of the Disciplines. We are dealing with actions, not merely states of mind.

Owning things is an obsession in our culture. If we own it, we feel we can control it; and if we control it, we feel it will give us more pleasure. The idea is an illusion.

Prayer is the human response to the perpetual outpouring of love by which God lays siege to every soul.