The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake.
Basil Hume
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.
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.
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.
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.
Moral choices do not depend on personal preference and private decision but on right reason and, I would add, divine order.
Christ shared our experience; he suffered as we suffer; he died as we shall die, and for forty days in the desert he underwent the struggle between good and evil.
Know how to 'cling' to him in prayer, and then you will see the face of Christ more clearly in those whom you are called to serve.
How wonderful it would be if the love of God was our priority and the love of neighbour flowed from that.
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.
Living and working in the centre of a city, one cannot but be affected by the sight of the homeless on the streets. They are almost an expected feature of life in a big city, and it is tempting to think there is little or nothing that can, or even should, be done about it. This is not so.
The 'Rule of St. Benedict' makes it possible for ordinary folk to live lives of quite extraordinary value. The weak have a place to do their best.
Death remains about the one certain fact in the lives of each one of us, and there will be suffering, sorrow, and sadness next week as there was last week.
The voice that called us years ago still calls us today. Every monastic day is a new monastic beginning.
Let us remind ourselves that if we are to be our Lord's disciples, we must take up his Cross and follow him.
Our response, our attitude, depends on our realisation of God's attitude toward us. If I experience love or have experienced it, this is the means whereby I can explore the mystery of God's love.
It is healthy to say, 'Yes, I am a sinner,' and to recognise that this should lead us to turn to God full of confidence in his love and mercy.
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's one thing to see the suffering and dying on the television screen and quite another to be there and experience it. You cannot look into the eyes of a starving child and yourself remain the same.
Most of the early monks were not ordained. It was the pastoral work they undertook with the faithful that, over the centuries, gradually led to the present situation in which most monks are ordained priests.
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.
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.
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.
On the whole, monks do not become famous - and that is a good thing - but monasteries do - and that is an excellent thing. In other words, it is the community that matters.
What did our Lord do by his Passion, Death, and Resurrection? He bridged that gulf which exists between God and man, a gulf which can only be bridged by him.
Even though you find yourself in an intolerable position, one in which you think you have no right to be, accept it here and now as the Cross; then, later, you can plan how to do better.
