There is the faith that we profess, and then there is the experience of faith by which we believe. One is a list of notions. The other is an encounter with a person.

Democratic compromise is not a moral evil. And democratic leaders, charged to seek it, are not public sinners. Neither should be combatted with excommunication.

If we are not children of God, those who come from a loving Father—if we are only forms of evolved life—why does evolution create desires within us it cannot satisfy?

How we picture our souls matters. Uncolored cartoons and geometrical points do not change or weather. They do not grow in response to what happens in the world around them. But we do.

If we ourselves cannot hear or see what truly matters, are we the walking dead?

The Trinity is not something that we perceive. It is the place where we dwell.

We are what emerges from the action of the Spirit.

When we say farewell to those who have meant so much to us, we close up a world like a book.

We can talk about motherhood. We can talk about the Gospel. But both stand beyond talking, beyond words. They’re a dying in living, a dying to live.

Our task is not to judge the branches of the vine.