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(Désolé, c'est tout en English).

Obamaspeech (seen here):

"Someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside of your body all the time, walking around. With their very first cry, this most precious, vital part of ourselves – our child – is suddenly exposed to the world, to possible mishap or malice. And every parent knows there is nothing we will not do to shield our children from harm. And yet, we also know that with that child’s very first step, and each step after that, they are separating from us; that we won’t – that we can’t always be there for them. They’ll suffer sickness and setbacks and broken hearts and disappointments. And we learn that our most important job is to give them what they need to become self-reliant and capable and resilient, ready to face the world without fear.

And we know we can’t do this by ourselves. It comes as a shock at a certain point where you realize, no matter how much you love these kids, you can’t do it by yourself. That this job of keeping our children safe, and teaching them well, is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, the help of a community, and the help of a nation. And in that way, we come to realize that we bear a responsibility for every child because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours; that we’re all parents; that they’re all our children.

This is our first task – caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.".

This reminds me of a quote that I read somewhere, but can't remember where any more: "A man should love his children because they are children, not because they are his."

An Advent Sermon:

"We live in a culture of excess and live lives of culturally and religiously justified excess. Christians are deeply idolatrous of the success worship that runs our culture. We bizarrely believe that God guarantees and justifies our devotion to have the “best” of everything, American style. Do such deeply idolatrous values give evidence that the light has shone in our hearts to reveal the glory of God in the face of Jesus?".

Richard Rohr:

I have never been busier in my life than I have been recently. What right do I have to talk about contemplation when I have been living on overdrive? It seems that we tend to think that more is better. I am told that busyness is actually a status symbol for us! It is strange that when people have so much, they are so anxious about not having enough -- to do, to see, to own, to fix, to control, to change.

Several years ago when I was in Nicaragua, I asked a man if he had time, and he said, "I have the rest of my life," and smiled. Who of us would possibly say that? What we don't have is the rest of our lives because we do not have the now of our lives.