If I had only One Sermon to Preach

Human beings are happy so long as they retain the receptive power and the power of reaction in surprise and gratitude to something outside. So long as they have this they have as the greatest minds have always declared, a something that is present in childhood and which can still preserve and invigorate manhood. The moment the self within is consciously felt as something superior to any of the gifts that can be brought to it, or any of the adventures that it may enjoy, there has appeared a sort of self-devouring fastidiousness and a disenchantment in advance, which fulfils all the Tartarean emblems of thirst and of despair.

-- G. K. Chesterton, in The Common Man, pp. 252-3

Pouring out a thousand graces,
he passed these groves in haste;
and having looked at them,
with his image alone,
clothed them in beauty.

Ah, who has the power to heal me?
Now wholly surrender yourself!
Do not send me
any more messengers,
they cannot tell me what I must hear.

St. John of the Cross - The Spiritual Canticle, Stanzas 5 and 6

But our homeland is in heaven and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transfigure the wretched body of ours into the mould of his glorious body, through the working of the power which he has, even to bring all things under his mastery.

Phillipians 3:20-21

St. Edith Stein

"When night comes, and retrospect shows that everything was patchwork and much that one had planned left undone, when so many things rouse shame and regret, then take all as is, lay it in God's hands, and offer it up to Him. In this way we will be able to rest in Him, actually to rest and to begin the new day like a new life."

Und wenn die Nacht kommt
und der Rückblick zeigt,
dass alles Stückwerk war
und vieles ungetan geblieben ist,
wenn so manches
tiefe Beschämung und Reue weckt:
dann alles nehmen, wie es ist,
in Gottes Hände legen
und Ihm überlassen.
So wird man in Ihm ruhen können,
wirklich ruhen
und den neuen Tag
wie ein neues Leben beginnen.

Dickens

"Dickens sure knows how to pull the heartstrings. Its like he's milking a cow or something....I was thinking of the Three Stooges." --anonymous family member.

"But if he wishes to prevent this fire of divine love from growing cold because of injuries received, let him keep the eyes of his soul always fixed on the serene patience of his beloved Lord and Savior." -- St. Aelred.

Be at peace. Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life; rather look to them with full hope as they arise. God, whose very own you are, will deliver you from out of them. He has kept you hitherto, and He will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand it, God will bury you in his arms.

-- St. Francis de Sales (via Mary Kate Thielman)