Roger Schutz

Never a pause, O Christ, in your persistent questioning, "Who do you say that I am?"

You are the one who loves me into endless life.

You Open up the way of risk. You go ahead of me along the way of holiness, where happy are they who die of love, where the ultimate response is martyrdom.

Day by day you transfigure the "No" in me into "Yes". You ask me, not for a few scraps, but for the whole of my existence. You are the one who prays in me by day and night. My stammerings are prayer: simply calling you by your name, Jesus, fills our communion to the full.

You are the one who, every morning, slips on my finger the ring of the prodigal son, the ring of festival.

So why have I wavered so long? You have been seeking me unwearyingly. Why did I hesitate once again, asking for time to deal with my own affairs? Once I had set my hand to the plough, why did I look back? Without realizing it, I was making myself unfit to follow you.

Yet, though I had never seen you, I loved you.

You kept on saying: Live the little bit of the gospel you have grasped. Proclaim my life. Light fire on the earth . . . You, follow me....

Until one day I understood: you were asking me to commit myself to the point of no return.

-----------Roger Schutz, founder and Prior of Taize, in Parable of Community

Anonymous

The die has been cast. The decision has been made. I have stepped over the line. I won't look back, let up, slow down, or back away. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future secure. I'm done with low living, sight walking, small planning, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk with patience, live by prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and spoken up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

-----------Written in Africa by a man imprisoned for his faith who was later martyred

Christ the King

While we deliberate, he reigns; when we decide wisely, he reigns; when we decide foolishly, he reigns; when we serve him in humble loyalty, he reigns; when we rebel and seek to withhold our service, he reigns; the Alpha and Omega, which was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty.

----------------William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1942-1944

Fra Giovanni

I salute you! There is nothing I can give you which you have not; but there is much that, while I cannot give, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take Heaven.

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take peace.

The gloom of this world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take joy.

And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you, with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all thngs right
if I surender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.

Amen.

Charles Gordon Rex

The Last Man

Restrained no more, the last rebelling man,
Alone as he had always wished to be,
Sole monarch of himself, with not a clan,
Nor tribe, nor state, nor nation left that he,
Protesting, must obey, has sat him down
Upon the last green acreage of sod
And woven of the pliant grass a crown
To show the rotted dead that he is God.

To show the dead his is the only face;
His thought the only consciousness; his eye
The only judge of substance or of space;
His skull the only congruence with sky.
And singing loud his praise he spends his breath.
Extinguishing the universe in death.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Give me, O Lord God, a watchful heart which no vain thoughts can distract from you.
Give me a generous heart which no unworthy affection can draw downward.
Give me an upright heart which no dishonourable intention can lead away from you.
Give Give me a firm heart which no hardship can crush.
Give me a free heart which no unruly emotion can claim for its own;
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Anonymous

Why were the saints saints? Because they were cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful, patient when it was difficult to be patient; and because they pushed on when they wanted to stand still, and kept silent when they wanted to talk, and were agreeable when they wanted to be disagreeable. That was all.

It was quite simple and always will be.

Pere de Caussade

We must save ourselves together. We must arrive all together in the heaven of our God. We must present ourselves together. We must not come to look for our God without each other. We must return all together to the house of our Father. We must also think a little about each other and work for each other. What might he say, if we arrived without each other?

---------Abandonment to Divine Providence

What this is, and what this isn't

This blog is a place for me to store my quote journal--things that I have clipped out of magazines, underlined in books, written in margins--all in one place. I wanted someplace to do this that could be typewritten, rather than handwritten, just because it's faster.

This blog won't contain my comments on any of this. That would probably take place over at the Summa Mamas blog.

This is simply a repository.