It never will be far

"Stars over snow,
And in the west a planet
Swinging below a star---
Look for a lovely thing and
you will find it,
It is not far---
It never will be far."

----Sara Teasdale

From Vespers for the Feast of the Holy Family

Qua vestra sedes floruit
Virtutis omnis gratia,
Hanc detur in domesticis
Referre posse moribus.

Your home it was a garden,
made glad with fairest flowers;
may life thus blossom sweetly'
in every home of ours.

But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.

Seven swords

"Over the iron forest
He saw Our Lady stand;
Her eyes were sad withouten art,
And seven swords were in her heart--
But one was in her hand."

--from G. K. Chesterton's "Ballad of the White Horse"

To feed thy soul

"If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,
And of thy meager store
Two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."

--Sheikh Muslih-uddin Saadi Shirazi

The bluebell

"I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it."

--Gerald Manley Hopkins