Benedict sets up a community, a family. And families, the honest among us will admit, are risky places to be if perfection is what y ou are expecting in life.

Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.

Beware the religion that turns you against another one. It's unlikely that it's really religion at all.

Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside of us to get better. It is about getting better inside about what is going on outside.

We talk religion in a world that worships the bread but does not distribute it, that practices ritual rather than righteousness, that confesses but does not repent.

Grief is a sign that we loved something more than ourselves. . . . Grief makes us worthy to suffer with the rest of the world.

Compassion makes no distinction between friends and enemies, neighbors and outsiders, compatriots and foreigners. Compassion is the gate to human community.

When souls really touch, it is forever. Then space and time disappear, and all that remains is the consciousness that we are not alone in life.

Compassion is not sympathy. Compassion is mercy. It is a commitment to take responsibility for the suffering of others.

Oppressors do not get to be oppressors in a single sweep. They manage it because little by little, we make them that. We overlook too much in the beginning and wonder why we lost control in the end.

Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times.

No one thanks you for showing them the light.

I worry that when educational counselors and teachers call in families with concerns about a child having a learning disability, we aren't always looking at the complete picture.

The complexities of life situations are really not as complicated as we tend to experience them.

Art is love and it covers. It sheilds.

Raising children is like making biscuits: it is as easy to raise a big batch as one, while you have your hands in the dough.

If something comes from your heart, it will reach the heart of your audience.

Politics matters. Ideas matter. Democracy matters, because all of us need to be able to make a difference.

Combine practice with belief.

Happy are they who freely mingle prayer and toil till God responds to the one and rewards the other.

Any successful long-term strategy will require that the green wave fully and passionately embrace the principles of eco-equity.