Quotes

2/21/05

     Death is an essential element in the progress of science, since it takes care of conservative scientists of a previous generation reluctant to let go of an old, fallacious theory and embrace a new and accurate one.

-Simon Singh, Big Bang: The Origin Of The Universe

1/30/05

     How can we forgive those who do not want to be forgiven? Our deepest desire is that the forgivenes we offer will be received. This mutuality between giving and receiving is what creates peace and harmony. but if our condition for giving forgiveness is that it will be received, we seldom will forgive! Forgiving the other is first and foremost an inner movement. It is an act that removes anger, bitterness, and the desire for revenge from our herats and helps us to reclaim our human dignity. We cannot force those we want to forgive into accepting our forgivesness. They might not be able or willing to do so. They may not even know or feel that they have wounded us.
     The only people we can really change are ourselves. Forgiving others is first and foremost healing our own hearts.

-Henri Nouwen, January 27th entry to Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith

1/21/05

     He said, "We all want, desire, and need satisfaction, but in a context like this (monastic life) the traditional ways to get satisfaction - talking, attention, distractions, etc. - are not available. So you start responding more primatively; you start thinking about food and sex. You become much more aware of very basic cravings. In a sense, you fall apart, you regress, but it is also there that you become available for spiritual direction and can find a place for prayer and ascetical life. It is all a very sensitive thing. It can also lead to an egocentric preoccupation. You need guidance to prevent that."
     It made much sense to me. It made me particularly aware of how much I was in need of guidance but also how grateful I should be to have a guide such as John Eudes at this point in my life.

-Henri Nouwen, The Genesee Diary p. 60

1/13/05

Because his meditations so obviously arise out of contemplation, John Eudes seems able to reach beyond the point where conservatives and progressives go different ways. He reaches a point so deep in the center of the spiritual life that he puts my suspicious spirit at ease and leads me away from the level where my mind tends to argue, agree, or disagree.

-Henri Nouwen, The Genesee Diary

More later from The Way of the Pilgrim. Drool. These books are SOOOO yummy!!!

11/1/04

     Ian was one of those blessed few who doubt many things by virtue of a larger faith - causing consternation among those of smaller faith who wrongly see such doubts as signs of unbelief. But while his roots were seeking a deeper soil, his faith could not show so fast a growth above ground. He doubted most about the things he loved best, while he devoted the energies of a mind whose keenness almost masked its power, to discover possible ways of believing them. To the wise his doubts would have been his best credentials; they were worth ten times the faith of most. It was truth, and higher truth, he was always seeking. The sadness which colored his deepest individuality could be removed only by the conscious presence of the Eternal.

-George MacDonald, The Highlander's Last Song, edited by Michael R. Phillips, originally What's Mine's Mine

9/23/04

      Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand.

-C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed, written while mourning for his wife

9/18/04

      "[The beating] damaged something," I said. "I couldn't speak at all." I remember how terrifying it had been to have thoughts that wouldn't turn into words.
     "You weren't just frightened?" asked Oreg.
     Looking at him, I could see he knew what it was to be so frightened he couldn't speak.

-Ward of Hurog, Patricia Briggs, Dragon Bones

9/12/04

      When Jean Vanier speaks about that intimate place, he often stretches out his arm and cups his hand as if it holds a small wounded bird. He asks: "What will happen if I open my hand fully?" We say: "The bird will try to flutter its wings, and it will fall and die." Then he asks again: "But what will happen if I close my hand?" We say: "The bird will be crushed and die." Then he smiles and says: "An intimate place is like my cupped hand, neither totally open nor totally closed. It is the place where growth can take place."
      It is difficult to offer such a place, precisely because we are fearful and find it hard to let the stranger enter our place and reveal to us our own fears. But when we are willing to confess both to ourselves and the other that we too are broken, that we too have a handicap, and that we too need a place to grow, we can build a home together and offer each other an intimate place.

-Henri Nouwen, Lifesigns

8/29/04

      After that, the Head's friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn't much good even at that, they got her into Parliament, where she lived happily ever after.

-C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

8/27/04

      ...one of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself.

-C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy

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