Conversion does not make us perfect, but it does catapult us into a total experience of discipleship that affects – and infects – every sphere of our living.
We do not have to have the correct answers to listen well. In fact, often the correct answers are a hindrance to listening well, for we become more anxious to give the correct answer than to hear.
The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.
The great writings interact with one another. They cannot be read in isolation..
We are not trying to manipulate God and tell Him what to do. Rather, we are asking Him to tell us what to do.
Meditation sends us into our ordinary world with greater perspective and balance.
The truly Christian imagination never lets Jesus Christ out of her sight.
Thomas Merton writes that if we have meditated on the events of the Passion but have not meditated on Dachau and Auschwitz, our perception of God at work in present times is incomplete.
To listen to others quiets and disciplines the mind to listen to God.
Of all spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.
The mind will always take on an order conforming to that upon which it concentrates.
In a world of limited resources, our wealth is at the expense of the poor. To put it simply, if we have it, others cannot.
Cause every task of your day to be a sacred ministry to the Lord. however mundane your duties, for you they are a sacrament.
Celebration comes when the common features of life are redeemed.
Simplicity enables us to live lives of integrity in the face of the terrible realities of our global village.
Discipline is to present us before grace, it does not produce grace to make sense.
Study cannot happen until we are subject to the subject.
True service is a lifestyle. It acts from the ingrained patterns of living. It springs spontaneously to meet human need.
Freedom in the Gospel does not mean license. It means opportunity.
Worship may produce an outward change, but our inner condition will eventually be revealed
Freedom from anxiety is characterized by three inner attitudes. If what we have we received as a gift, and if what we have is to be cared for by God, and if what we have is available to others, then we will possess freedom from anxiety.
If we watch the interactions between human beings, we will receive a graduate-level education.
Important insights ought never to be limited to the group from which may arise.
To use good things to our own ends is always a false religion
Law will take over because law always carries with it a sense of security and manipulative power.