When I am liberated by silence, when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life, but in the living of it, I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively no distraction. My whole life becomes a prayer. My whole silence is full of prayer. The world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer.

Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism.

We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and God is shining through it all the time. God manifests Himself everywhere, in everything - in people and in things and in nature and in events ... The only thing is we don't see it ... I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.

The center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth.

Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation, and the superficial, external self which we commonly identify with the first person singular.

The real hope is not in something we think we can do, but in God, who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see.

‎"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.