It is never too late to start the spiritual journey, or to start over, and it is worth starting over any number of times... What God is after are our good intentions and our efforts. The contemplative journey, because it involves the purification of the unconscious, is not a magic carpet to bliss. It is an exercise of letting go of the false self, a humbling process, because it is the only self we know.
Thomas Keating, The Human Condition

Through the Gospel of John, I have come to see that to pray is above all to dwell in Jesus and to let Jesus dwell in me.
It is not first and foremost to say prayers,
but to live in the now of the present moment, in communion with Jesus.
Prayer is a place of rest and quiet.
When we love someone, don't we delight in being with each other,
being present to one another?
Now and again we may say a word of affection,
we will be attentive to each other and listen to each other,
but it is essentially a place of silence.
The great Spanish mystic John of the Cross once said,
"Silence is the way God speaks to us."
Jean Vanier, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John

People reach greater maturity as they find
the freedom to be themselves
and to claim, accept and love their own personal story,
with all its brokenness and its beauty.
So, too, Christians reach greater maturity in Jesus
and advance into the new
as they claim, accept, love, honour and forgive
all that is beautiful and all that is broken in their heritage.
Their heritage is their Jewish origins.
It is also the evolving history of Christianity and of the Church,
with all that was and is broken and beautiful in it.
Jean Vanier, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John

"Even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith - being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter: 6-8

Let us always seek ways that lead to peace, and ways in which we strengthen one another. Those of us who are strong in faith should bear as our own burden the tender scruples of the weak. We should not try to please ourselves, but rather please our brothers and sisters, doing whatever will suit them, and in this way building up our common life. May God, the source of patience and encouragement, give you all the same purpose, which is to follow the example of Christ Jesus. Then with one mind and voice you will praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another for the glory of God, as Christ has accepted you.
Romans: 14:19; 15:1-2, 5-7

The soul is immediately at one with God, when it is truly at peace in itself. God is our sure rock, and he shall be our whole joy and make us as changeless as he is, when we reach the heavens. When we come to receive the reward that grace has won for us, then we shall thank and bless our Lord, for ever rejoicing that we were called upon to suffer. I saw full surely that wherever our Lord appears, peace reigns, and anger has no place. For I saw no whit of anger in God - in short or in long term. It is god's will that we should serve him steadfastly for love, without grumbling or striving against him, until our life's end.
Julian of Norwich, The Revelations of Divine Love

Lord God, how can you be both compassionate and above passion? If you are above passion, you cannot share people's suffering; but if you cannot share suffering, you cannot be compassionate - since compassion consists in feeling miserable at the misery of others. The answer must be that you are compassionate in terms of our experience, and not compassionate in terms of your own being. When you look upon us in our misery, we experience the effect of compassion, but you do not experience the feeling. You demonstrate compassion when you heal the sick and pardon the sinner; but you do not feel their suffering within yourself.
St. Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion: 8

Lord, you add understanding to faith. Therefore, as far as it is profitable for me, let me understand that you exist, in the way I believe you exist; and that your nature is what I believe it to be. I believe you to be that above which nothing greater can be conceived. But something above which nothing greater can be conceived, cannot exist only in the mind. If it exists in the mind, it is possible for it to exist in reality; and if it exists in reality, it would be greater than merely existing in the mind.
St. Anselm of Canterbury: Proslogion 2

Let it be my lot to see your light - even if I see it from a distance, and from far below. Teach me the way to you; and, when I have followed that way, welcome me into your presence. I can never find you, unless you guide me; I can never see you, unless you reveal yourself to me. I seek you Lord, because I yearn for you; and I yearn for you, because my nature is to seek you.
St. Anselm of Canterbury: Prologion 1