We can truly be successful only in the work to which we have been called.The work is not ours.It is God's, and we are privileged to be worked through by God . . .How foolish, then, for anyone to think and proclaim that he has a certain work to do for God.God may have a certain work to do through him, that is if he is sufficiently humble, but that is quite a different thing . . .
What I find distinct about gratitude in the wilderness is its simplicity -- the thankfulness I feel here is for what I usually take for granted: my capacity to breathe, move and see ... For the most part, gratitude here wells up unexpectedly, in the quiet corners of the day, over events small and ordinary. Gratitude is the other side of dependence on God: to take anything for granted in the wilderness seems presumptuous, blasphemous. And so, here in these naves of vaulting stone, prayers of thanksgiving begin to edge out prayers of petition.