"I want to know how God created this world.
I am not interested in this or that phenomenon,
in the spectrum of this or that element.
I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details."
"All of the members of this cell shared the same religious convictions,
an Islamic lifestyle, a feeling of being out of place in unfamiliar cultural
surroundings that they were not used to."
Some people think that prayer just means asking for things, and
if they fail to receive exactly what they asked for,
they think the whole thing is a fraud.
"God has editing rights over our prayers. He will...
edit them, correct them, bring them in line with
His will and then hand them back to us to be resubmitted."
The fact that astronomies change while the stars
abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought,
religion not least of all.
No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth.
God is a child who amuses himself,
going from laughing to crying for no reason,
each day reinventing the world to the chagrin
if hair-splitters, pedants, and preachers,
who try to teach God his job as Creator.
To St. Paul, stripes, stones, shipwrecks, and
thorns in the flesh were religious experiences; to Judas Iscariot,
the daily companionship of Jesus of Nazareth was not.
There come times when I have nothing more to tell God.
If I were to continue to pray in words,
I would have to repeat what I have already said.
At such times it is wonderful to say to God,
May I be in Thy presence, Lord?
I have nothing more to say to Thee, but
do love to be in Thy presence."