In the second half of life, people have less power to infatuate you. But they also have much less power to control you or hurt you.

Silence is the necessary space around things that allows them to develop and flourish without my pushing.

To the degree you have experienced intimacy with God, you won’t be afraid of death because you’re experiencing the first tastes and promises of heaven in this world.

We don't have much wisdom about the second half when things really open up and end up looking a lot more progressive. In my own Catholic church, for example, we're sort of circling the wagons today by thinking that more moral strictures, more exclusionary rules on this or that, that that's going to do for the first half of life. I don't think it really does.

Faith is so rare-and religion so common-because no one wants to live between first base and second base. Faith is the in-between space where you're not sure you'll make it to second base. You've let go of one thing and haven't yet latched into another. Most of us choose the security of first base.

Being informed is different from being formed, and the first is a common substitute for the second.

Religious belief has made me comfortable with ambiguity.