Ways to God

I just started reading Cardinal Ratzinger's Salt of the Earth and it is terrific - and very readable (just the thing I needed for the post-holiday and bad-weather blues). The book is the text of an interview he did with Peter Seewald in 1996. Here's a very short excerpt for now...

At one point I asked him how many ways to God there were. I really didn't know what he would answer. He could have said, "only one" or "several". The Cardinal didn't take long to answer: As many, he said, as there are people.

By the way, the above quote was a short paraphrasing in the introduction. I just came across the full answer later in the book:

Q. How many ways are there to God?

A. As many as there are people. For even within the same faith each man's way is an entirely personal one. We have Christ's word: I am the way. In that respect, there is ultimately one way, and everyone who is on the way to God is therefore in some sense also on the way of Jesus Christ. But this does not mean that all ways are identical in terms of consciousness and will, but, on the contrary, the one way is so big that it becomes a personal way for each man.