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Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder the source of which is beyond all reason.

Commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637 There is a pride of faith, more unforgiveable and dangerous than the pride of the intellect. It reveals a split personality in which faith is "observed" and appraised, thus negating that unity born of a dying-unto-self, which is the definition of faith. To "value" faith is to turn it into a metaphysical magic, the advantages of which ought to be reserved for a spiritual elite.

The "great commitment" is so much easier than the ordinary, everyday one--and can all too easily shut our hearts to the latter. A willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice can be associated with, and even produce, a great hardness of heart.

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.

Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624 Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you -- out of love -- takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.

Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841 We can reach the point where it becomes possible for us to recognize and understand Original Sin, that dark counter-centre of evil in our nature -- that is to say, though it is not our nature, it is of it -- that something within us which rejoices when disaster befalls the very cause we are trying to serve, or misfortune overtakes even those we love. Life in God is not an escape from this, but a way to gain full insight concerning it. It is not our depravity which forces a fictitious religious explanation upon us, but the experience of religious reality which forces the "Night Side" out into the light. It is when we stand in the righteous all-seeing light of love that we can dare to look at, admit, and consciously suffer under this something in us which wills disaster, misfortune, defeat to everything outside the sphere of our narrowest self interest.

He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross -- even when it is leading him through the jubilation of Gennesaret or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.

Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.

Friendship needs no words—it is a loneliness relieved of the anguish of loneliness.

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road.

What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.

Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.

Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.

Life demands from you only the strength you posses. One feat is possible -- not to have run away.

Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy.