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Beauty and Goodness

“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. ” - Leo Tolstoy

Desires

"If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are halfhearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mudpies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

-C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory

Shudder and Kindle

What is that which shines though me, and strikes upon my heart without hurting it? And I shudder and kindle: shudder, in as much I am unlike it; kindle, in as much as I am like it. It is Wisdom, Wisdom's self which thus shines into me; even breaking through my cloudiness: which yet again overshadows me fainting from it, under the fog and heavy load of mine own punishment.

-St.Augustine: Confessions.

He's Always Been Faithful

Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

Morning by morning I wake up to find
The power and comfort of God’s hand in mine
Season by season I watch Him, amazed
In awe of the mystery of His perfect ways
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He’s always been faithful to me.

I can’t remember a trial or a pain
He did not recycle to bring me gain
I can’t remember one single regret
In serving God only, and trusting His hand
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He’s always been faithful to me.

This is my anthem, this is my song
The theme of the stories I’ve heard for so long
God has been faithful, He will be again
His loving compassion, it knows no end
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He’s always been faithful, He’s always been faithful
He’s always been faithful to me.

Keep us

Keep us, Lord, so awake in the duties of our callings that we may sleep in thy peace and wake in thy glory.
-John Donne: Sermons.

Isaiah 30:18

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

- Isaiah 30:18

Seeking

"The seeking is common—that every soul may have with his grace—and ought to have that discretion and teaching of the Holy Church. It is God's will that we have three things in our seeking:—The first is that we seek willfully and busily, without sloth, as it may be through his grace, gladly and merrily without unskilful heaviness and vain sorrow. The seconds is, that we abide him steadfastly for his love, without grudging and striving against him, to our life's end: for it shall last but a while. The third is that we trust in him mightily of full sure faith, for it is his will. We know he shall appear suddenly and blissfully to all that be his lovers."

-Juliana of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love

Facts

“If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence.”
— Bertrand Russell, Roads to Freedom