“But it is possible, it is possible: the old grief, by a great mystery of human life, gradually passes into quiet, tender joy; instead of young, ebullient blood comes a mild, serene old age: I bless the sun’s rising each day and my heart sings to it as before, but now I love its setting even more, its long slanting rays, and with them quiet, mild, tender memories, dear images from the whole of a long and blessed life–and over all is God’s truth, moving, reconciling, all-forgiving.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Inspirational thoughts
Forgiveness….
“Let us forgive each other – only then will we live in peace.” Leo Tolstoy
Love consists…
“Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.” St. John of the Cross
Bending to God’s plan
“Once the process [of conversion] is begun and continues…you are continually turning inward toward God and away from your own egocentricity…you have to see this selfish side of yourself in order to turn away from it.” Flannery O’Connor
Courage
“To have courage for whatever comes in life – everything lies in that.” St. Teresa of Avila
Planting seeds
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” –Robert Louis Stevenson
One big family
“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”
David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
More compassion
“In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s, we do not accept them easily enough.” CS Lewis
Truth
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
– Oscar Wilde
Marital intimacy
“There is immeasurably more left inside than what comes out in words.” Fyodor Dostoevsky