To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side, I learn who I am and what God's grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, "A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.

First, silence makes us pilgrims. Secondly, silence guards the fire within. Thirdly, silence teaches us to speak.

A spiritual life without prayer is like the gospel without Christ.

We have to keep asking ourselves: 'What does it all mean? What is God trying to tell us? How are we called to live in the midst of all this?' Without such questions our lives become numb and flat.

It is not easy for us, busy people, to truly receive a blessing. Perhaps the fact that few people offer a real blessing is the sad result of the absence of people who are willing and able to receive such a blessing. It has become extremely difficult for us to stop, listen, pay attention, and receive gracefully what is offered to us.

Meditation means to let the word descend from our minds into our hearts and thus to become enfleshed.

Without reading the word, silence becomes stale, and without silence, the word loses its re-creative power. The word leads to silence and silence to the word. The word is born in silence, and silence is the deepest response to the word.

In the depths of his anguish, Henri made a conscious choice to spend a good part of every day in solitude, seeking God.

As I reflect on this reality, it is clear that God is present in the events of my life, yet I act and speak as if I am in control.

There are many times when I cannot pray, when I am too tired to read the gospels, too restless to have spiritual thoughts, too depressed to find words for God, or too exhausted to do anything. But I can still look at these images so intimately connected with the experience of love.

In and through solitude we do not move away from people. On the contrary, we move closer to them through compassionate ministry.

Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say or do.