Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The sleep of sickness

The sleep of sickness is different
from the sleep of health.
It does not refresh
nor restore, but helps us
to endure the weighty pain
which illness brings.
And all that we would do,
were we not ill, is forgotten
in the drowsy spell
of deep and dream-tossed sleep.
How gladly we'd awake
to take our places in the world!
How long must we be patient?
No one can tell. Yet,
such slumber serves to show
what a gift it is to be well.
--Kindred Spirit


(My apologies for my absence, dear readers, but I have been under the influence of a particularly virulent form of influenza. Thanks be to God, it appears that I am on the mend. I send my best wishes to you all, and ask you to pray for my speedy recovery. May Almighty God bless you and Our Lady protect you.) 

Sunday, December 19, 2010

God is awake

 
Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.
--Victor Hugo

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Days

"What very mysterious things days are. Sometimes they fly by, and other times they seem to last forever, yet they are all exactly twenty-four hours. There's quite a lot we don't know about them."

--Melanie Benjamin

Friday, December 17, 2010

Disappointment

"Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it." 
--Eliza Tabor

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Words

Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.
--Mother Teresa

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Best gifts

“To be rich in admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others, to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence or unkindness - these are the gifts which money cannot buy.”

--Robert Louis Stevenson

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Transformation

"In the transformation of the soul in God, it is God who communicates Himself with admirable glory. In this transformation, the two become one, as we would say of the window united with the ray of sunlight, or of the coal with the fire, or of the starlight with the light of the Sun."
--Saint John of the Cross