“Why were you baptized? That you might become a missionary your whole life long. That you specially chosen might become the vehicle by which God would draw more and more people to himself.”

“I offer this prayer: “Lord Jesus, as you marveled at the faith of the Canaanite woman, help us to have eyes to see the faith of so many ordinary people in the daily events of their life!””

“It is uncomfortable to think that the boundary between ‘us’ and ‘them’ might not be as clear as we sometimes make it out to be.”

“I suspect as a brother missioner, I sort of sensed the moment I walked through the gate of the monastery that I was coming home to brotherhood – monks and brothers have more in common than might be imagined, just as do our Buddhist and Christian faiths.”

“This silence is not a rebuff. He is silent because he is listening to her. It is rooted in his silent listening to his Father.”

“There may be any number of other ways we might turn to find healing and fullness of life, but ultimately it is only him who can bring those things for us. And it always starts from attending to him, to entering into relationship, with him.”

“Isn’t this wonderful little story an invitation to reflect on the possibilities of liberation that pagans may hope to find in Christianity, and the necessity, if they are not to be disappointed, that we Christians discover possibilities in ourselves that call us beyond our inherited boundaries?”

“Notice how the Canaanite woman’s cry of faith comes between the two miracles of the feeding of the crowds...reminding us that in God’s kingdom there is more than enough room for all people, even us.”

“Sometimes we complain about what we do not have but in reality we don't use what we do have”

“God's concern is with all of his creation and with all of humanity”

“Are we being tried and tested the same way by the same Christ? Yeah, I think so. What's our response? Discouragment? Walk away? No, no. May our response be that of this woman. Perseverance in prayer, perseverance in faith that we might be ready to receive the gifts that God wants to give us.”

“How come God doesn't give me what I want when I want it? How come he seems silent sometimes? Maybe he's giving my faith something hard to press against, something hard to resist because in that very trial, in that very struggle my faith becomes stronger and stronger and stronger.”

“If we're nothing but humble, we're nothing but deferent to God well then somehow you're just too distant. If we're nothing but intimate, nothing but in-your-face well then we're not acknowledging that God is God. The attitude of prayer is her attitude that combines both these elements.”

“God’s seeking the good of the other by resolving the other’s pain is a chunk of the truth in every faith-filled dialogue”

“Jesus sometimes expects us to juggle his sayings, while letting them keep us on our toes and stop us becoming complacent. More generally, the Scriptures often make us think.”

“Our Church should not claim monopoly of salvation. It is extended to all categories of people: the outsider who is not a member of our Church, the public sinner whom the human society abhors and that criminal that we often think deserves nothing good.”

“we need to understand Jesus’ actions as tailored to the faith of this woman. He sees that she has faith—he puts her faith to the test, to elicit more faith. Untested faith is no faith at all.”

“We not only have a duty not to discriminate others in this world who may be different from ourselves, but we have the responsibility to love them and be respectful and pray for them, even our enemies.”

“We need to remember all these things if we are not to fall into intolerance. God has no favourites.”

“The whole point of receiving the divine light is to give it away in turn. If you cling to it and make it your private prerogative you undermine it and it in fact turns to ashes but when you give it away it is renewed within you.”