The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.

You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.

It is this spiritual freedom - which cannot be taken away - that makes life meaningful and purposeful.

In my deepest wound I saw your glory, and it dazzled me.

We are unceasing spiritual beings with an eternal destiny in God's great universe.

After winter comes the summer. After night comes the dawn. And after every storm, there comes clear, open skies.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

I'm more of a realist when it comes to life, and I'd much rather my mother be in a spiritual place in Heaven than in a bed, sick, fighting for her life.

There are times when one feels liberated from one's limits and human imperfections. At such moments, we see ourselves there, in a little corner of our little planet, our eyes fixed in wonder on the cold and yet deep beauty of that which is eternal, that which is elusive. Life and death are fused together and there is no evolution, nor destination, there is only BEING.

Still there are moments when one feels free from one's own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments, one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable: life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only being.

What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when anthrax bombs are popping all around you?

Such is life, such the mysterious dispensations of providence. All of us have our little crosses, and every man, as the apostle so justly remarked, shall bear his own burden.