33 Quotes by Basil Hume

The experience of prayer when there is no awareness of God and no apparent response from ourselves should not lead us to escape from prayer or give it up.

It is not because we are drawn to prayer that we first begin to pray; more often, we have to begin prayer, and then the taste and the desire for it come.

When we are truly praying, then we can begin to see Christ in our neighbour; when we are really praying, we can begin to live for the Father.

In my opinion, it is a mistake to expect in prayer a response from God. Often, God's response is outside prayer. And often, we do not link up an outside response with the effort we put into prayer.

We are blind: we cannot see God with our senses, and our deductions from what we know or are thinking about the word of God itself - how little power they have to bring us to God! We are blind, and our eyes need the touch of our Lord's hand to enable us at times to even see dimly.

It is axiomatic that the Cross we get is the one we most dislike: we would choose any other. But it is equally true that the Cross which is ours is the one Christ wants us to bear.

Behind every crucifix stands our risen Lord. Hidden in every suffering and pain is the joy of closer union with him. His is the victory. He invites us to share it.

The devil took advantage of Christ's hunger to tempt him to limit his concern to the relief of human need. These are vital concerns, but they cannot be the sole concern of the Church. We need daily bread; we need, too, a reason for living, a sense of purpose, a vision.

I believe that we have a duty to look frankly at the social conditions around us and to work to do what we can to address the specific needs which we find.