“The church is not an institution forcing us to follow rules but a community inviting us to still our hunger and thirst at its table.”

For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women and men to be loved.

If you feel loved, you can do a thousand things. If you feel rejected, everything becomes a problem.

Dear God, I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands and to discover that I am not what I own, but what you want to give me.

The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.

Those who keep speaking about the sun while walking under a cloudy sky are messengers of hope, the true saints of our day.

Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.

Be surprised by joy, be surprised by the little flower that shows its beauty in the midst of a barren desert, and be surprised by the immense healing power that keeps bursting forth like springs of fresh water from the depth of our pain.

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved.

We need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing that is a friend who cares.

Those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain. LOVE is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking.

Our humanity comes to its fullest bloom in giving. We become beautiful people when we give whatever we can give: a smile, a handshake, a kiss, an embrace, a word of love, a present, a part of our life…all of our life.

We are all healers who can reach out and offer health, and we are all patients in constant need of help.

Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness.

The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.

If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice.

I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.

Communism is like prohibition, it is a good idea, but it won’t work.

I have taken an oath in my heart to oppose communism until the day I die.

I think in black communities today we need to encourage a lot more cross racial organizing.

I would say to a young person: continue to study. Study what is taking place in your community, in your neighborhood, maybe at your school.

Pig power in America was infuriating, but pig power in the communist framework was awesome and unaccountable.

It’s good to put money back into communities.