World Wars

"Isn't it good that there have only been two world wars?" --Anthony, while flitting around the house looking for a jawbone of an ass.

G.K. Chesterton

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."

Successful Prayer

"Prayer cannot be measured on a scale of success and failure because it is God's work--and God always succeeds. When we believe we have failed at prayer, it is because we decided what shape our prayer should have, and are now frustrated that there is nothing we can do to implement our ambition" (Michael Casey, Towards God).

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Oh my God, fill my soul with holy joy, courage and strength to serve You. Enkindle Your love in me and then walk with me along the next stretch of road before me. I do not see very far ahead, but when I have arrived where the horizon now closes down... A new prospect will open before me, and I shall meet it with peace.

Montjoy!

"Lords, Barons, charge on the foe! Spur hard!

See that ye hold unflinching the gates ye were bidden to guard!

In the name of God I beseech you, resolve you to deal with the sword

Great blows, and receive them! Forget not the banner of Charles your lord!"

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