Sometimes we feel we’re slogging along in the spiritual life, trying to figure it out as we go along. First steps are important, and, perhaps, each day such first steps should be taken again….

“Our first lesson should be a realization of our incomplete and imperfect condition, and our first step should be toward Jesus, who is our consummation. In this search for Jesus, in this adherence to Jesus, in this continual and profound dependence upon Jesus, lie our life, our rest, our strength, and all our power of action. Never must we act except united with him, directed by him, and drawing life from him….”

Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, founder and first general of the Congregation of the Oratory of Jesus Christ, quoted in The Whole Christ, by Emile Mersche, SJ