If we are to love sincerely, and with simplicity, we must first of all overcome the fear of not being loved.

It is true that we are called to create a better world. But we are first of all called to a more immediate and exalted task: that of creating our own lives.

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 spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.