Every choice is a thousand renunciations. To choose one thing is to turn one's back on many others.

Sanctity has to do with gratitude. To be a saint is to be fueled by gratitude, nothing more and nothing less.

We get ready for death by beginning to live life as we should have been living it all along.

Becoming like Jesus is as much as about having a relaxed and joyful heart as it is about believing and doing the right thing, as much about proper energy as about proper truth.

We prepare to die by pushing ourselves to love less narrowly. In that sense, readying ourselves for death is really an ever-widening entry into life.

Grace, not willpower, is what ultimately empowers us to live loving lives. Creativity, both in what spawns within the artist and the artifact, can be a vital source of that grace.

Resiliency is the key to love.

The God of the incarnation is more domestic than monastic.

Without making any moral judgements whatsoever, one can say that self-indulgence and excessive self-preoccupation are the antithesis of genuine awareness.

Spirituality is about what we do about the fire inside of us, about how we channel our eros.

Desire is the straw that stirs the drink.

Always remember: No matter how carefully you choose your words, they'll always end up being twisted by others.

I can't go on like this

I found I could only glance at him for tiny moments and then I had to look away. He was perfect enough to hurt my feelings for a long time, and I wanted to let him.

Love's greatest gift is its ability to make everything it touches sacred.

Sound opinions are valueless. What matters is who holds them.

Every rumor is believed against the unfortunate.

I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make.

I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ - therefore I obey

Even as a little seed, I could see his plan for me. Stranded on welfare, another broken family.

When I sit down to write a book, I do not know where the energy and the words come from. I just sit down, and soon it is flowing through my hand and onto the paper.