Our hearts are divided

Continued from Monday's quote ...

There is no one, Kristin, who does not love and fear God. But it’s because our hearts are divided between love for God and fear of the Devil, and love for this world and this flesh, that we are miserable in life and death. For if a man knew no yearning for God and God’s being, then he would thrive in Hell, and we alone would not understand that he had found his heart’s desire. Then the fire would not burn him if he did not long for coolness, and he would not feel the pain of the serpent’s bite if he did not long for peace.

Kristin looked up into his face; she understood nothing of what he said.

Brother Edvin continued, “It was because of God’s mercy toward us that He saw how our hearts were split, and He came down to live among us, in order to taste, in fleshly form, the temptations of the Devil when he entices us with power and glory, and the menace of the world when it offers us blows and contempt and the wounds of sharp nails in our hands and feet. In this manner He showed us the way and allowed us to see His love.”

Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

Definitely worth our contemplation during Lent

The dragon is awfully small

“It seems to me that the dragon is awfully small,” said Kristin, looking at the image of the saint who was her namesake. “It doesn’t look as if it could swallow up the maiden.”

“And it couldn’t, either,” said Brother Edvin. “It was no bigger than that. Dragons and all other creatures that serve the Devil only seem big as long as we harbor fear within ourselves. But if a person seeks God with such earnestness and desire that he enters into His power, then the power of the Devil at once suffers such a great defeat that his instruments become small and impotent. Dragons and evil spirits shrink until they are no bigger than goblins and cats and crows. As you can see, the whole mountain that Saint Sunniva was trapped inside is so small that it will fit on the skirt of her cloak.”

“But weren’t they inside the caves?” asked Kristin. “Saint Sunniva and the Selje men? Isn’t that true?”

The monk squinted at her and smiled again.

“It’s both true and not true. It seemed to be true for the people who found the holy bodies. And it seemed true to Sunniva and the Selje men, because they were humble and believed that the world is stronger than all sinful people. They did not imagine that they might be stronger than the world because they did not love it. But if they had only known, they could have taken all the mountains and flung them out into the sea like tiny pebbles. No one and nothing can harm us, child, except what we fear and love.”
Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

I'll continue this on Wednesday. You can see why this is perfect Lenten reading. These sorts of conversations are the backdrop for how we see Kristin's life go and the decisions she makes.

Laugh—or else beware the cart

A man is sufficiently condemned if it can only be shown that either in politics or religion he does not belong to some new school established within the last score of years. He may then regard himself as rubbish and expect to be carted away. A man is nothing now unless he has within him a full appreciation of the new era, an era in which it would seem that neither honesty nor truth is very desirable, but in which success is the only touchstone of merit. We must laugh at everything that is established. Let the joke be ever so bad, ever so untrue to the real principles of joking; nevertheless we must laugh—or else beware the cart.

Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers

This shows a little of Trollope's genius and how enjoyable his books are. We're still living in those days — progress forward of be condemned as rubbish.

The Great Flood, Universal Story

The history of the earth (or so geologists tell us) has been punctuated by great castastrophes which apparently wiped out entire life forms. But onlyone echoes down in the words and stories of a dozen different races. ... The historian cannot ignore the Great Flood; it is the closes thing to a universal story that the human race possesses.

Susan Wise Bauer, History of the Ancient World

I love that the geologists are not really scientific enough for the historians. Talk about a high level of proof needed — please write your notes for future generations.

Marriage: building a third personality

He lay and thought of the way in which two people, each with their own definite personality, could build up a third personality, a greater and more exciting one, to shre between them. Without Frances, however definite his own personality might be, he was incomplete.

Helen MacInnes, Above Suspicion

Nothing could be truer than this quote. It's funny that when this was read at a recent book club, someone pointed out that this quote is the perfect summary of JPII's Theology of the Body. I love that!

Embracing Obedience and Finding the Cross

We should not be surprised if, when we embrace obedience, we find the Cross. Obedience demands, for love of God, the renunciation of our self, of ourmost intimate will. However, Jesus helps and makes the way easier if we are humble. St. Teresa tells us: Once the Lord told me that I was not obeying, unless I was determined to suffer. I must fix my eyes on all that he had suffered and I should find everything easy.

Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God, vol. 1

(St. Teresa of Avila, Life)

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I keep having to rediscover this truth, usually when I'm most annoyed by the personal cost of obedience. This is good medicine and helps set me straight.

God's not "all business"

I'm sure God would have created the world very differently if he wanted us to be all business. Instead he generously sprinkles opportunities to laugh and play and adore and savor.

Shemiah Gonzalez's friend Starlene,

Undaunted Joy

We like to be efficient a lot of the time. God's just not that way.

Joy does not nullify suffering.

Joy does not nullify suffering. On the contrary it transforms suffering. Joy shines bright, takes the power away from evil, and laughs in the face of deception and turmoil. "You will not take me!" joy says, shaking its fist. Because joy comes from outside oneself. It does not come from ourselves but from an act of surrender. Joy comes from surrendering oneself to God.

Shemaiah Gonzalez, Undaunted Joy

This was my second favorite book of last year. This quote shows you why. Truth in joyfulness.

Help becomes honorable, because it may become mutual.

Help is humiliating when it appeals to men from below, taking heed only of their material wants. It humiliates when there is no reciprocity. When you give the poor man nothing but bread or clothes, there is no likelihood of his ever giving you in return.

But help honors when it appeals to him from above. It respects him when it deals with his soul, with his religious, moral and political education, and with all that emancipates him from his passions. Help honors when, to the bread that nourishes, it adds the visit that consoles, advice that enlightens, the friendly handshake that lifts up flagging courage. It esteems the poor man when it treats him with respect, not only as an equal but a superior, since he is capable of suffering what we perhaps are incapable of suffering. After all, he is the messenger of God to us, sent to prove our justice and our charity and to save us by our works.

Help then becomes honorable, because it may become mutual. Every man who gives a kind word, good advice, a consolation today, may tomorrow need a kind word, advice or consolation The hand that you clasp, clasps yours in return That indigent family whom you love, loves you in return and will have largely acquitted them­selves toward you when they shall have prayed for you.

Frederic Ozanam, 1848, "De l'Aumône" (On Almsgiving)

published in the newspaper L’Ère Nouvelle.

Quoted in Voices of the Saints by Bert Ghezzi

This is the heart of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. It can't be better expressed how we are benefitted by our neighbors while they are being helped by us. Truly, this is something of the Lord. It is also the heart of our founder, Frederic Ozanam. The more I read about him, the more I admire him.

Why was John the Baptist killed?

I need add no commentary to this.

Why was John the Baptist eventually killed?

It wasn't because he preached about God.

It wasn't because he said a Messiah was coming.

It was because he told people to reform their lives.

It was because he told Herod he shouldn't have married his half-brother's wife.

John was preaching a touch message of personal and moral reform.

No one will kill me or get angry with me because I say, "I believe in God." But if I start talking about how the teachings of Jesus should change the world, or how the teachings of Jesus should change the way we live—for this people could get mad at me.

Little Blue Book, Advent 2025

Why let worry spoil right now?

If you know that whatever you're worried about would be resolved tomorrow, would you still let it spoil today? If not, then why let it spoil right now?

Father Mike Schmitz

This is the thought that makes it possible for me to go back to sleep in the middle of the night when I wake up with something on my mind. I'll let Jesus handle it. And face it tomorrow morning. (To be fair, it calms me in the middle of the day also.)

Bitterness, worry, and God

Bitterness is believing that God got it wrong. Worry is believing that God got it right.

Timothy Keller

I don't struggle with bitterness but I am a bit of a worrier. This is solid gold for helping me relax and trust.

Readers and Writers and Literature. Oh my!

It takes readers as well as writers to make literature.

Flannery O'Connor, Catholic Novelists and Their Readers

Simple but profound.

Woah. No musles in our fingers?

In order to allow dexterity and slimness for actions such as piano playng, the finger contains no muscles; tendons transfer force from muscles in the forearm and palm. In all, seventy separate muscles contribute to hand movements.

Dr. Paul Brand, Fearfully and Wonderfully ...

This blew my mind. Which is pretty much what the whole book did anyway.

Being what you created us to be

You first loved us so that we might love you — not because youneeded our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you.

William of Saint-Thiery, On the Contemplation of God

I've seen this expressed before but never so well.

Mary, most of these wonders depended on you

Mary, you are the vessel and tabernacle containing all Mysteries.
You know what the Patriarchs did not know;
you experienced what was not revealed to the Angels;
you heard what the Prophets did not hear.
In short, everything that was hidden from preceding generations was made known to you;
even more,
most of these wonders depended on you.

St. Gregory the Great, Marian prayer

This is simply a lovely reflection and also something that hadn't occurred to me before.

Sin is always an offense that touches others

It must once again be stressed that no human being is closed in upon himself or herself and that no one can live of or for himself or herself alone. ... Human beings are relational and they possess their lives — themselves — only by way of relationship. ... Sin is loss of relationship, disturbance of relationship, and therefore it is not restricted to the individual. When I destroy a relationship, then this event — sin — touches the other person involved in the relationship. Consequently sin is always an offense that touches others, that alters the world and damages it.

Cardinal Ratzinger, In the Beginning ...

That point about us possing our lives only by way of relationship is revelatory. How do we see ourselves in relation to others? How do they touch our lives and what does that mean to our journey through the day, the month, the year, to the end of our days?

Sin has become a suppressed subject but everywhere ...it has nonetheless remained real.

People today know of no standard; to be sure, they do not want to know of any because they see standards as a threat to their freedom. ...

Thus sin has become a suppressed subejct, but everywhere we can see that although it is suppressed, it has nonetheless remained real. What is remarkable to me is the aggressiveness, always on the verge of pouncing, which we experience openly in our society — the lurking readiness to demean the other person, th hold others guilty whenever misfortune occurs to them, to accuse society, and to want to change the world by violence.

Cardinal Ratzinger, In the Beginning ...

This was a superb, thought provoking book and it should have been on my Best of 2025 list. However, you can enjoy this bit in the fullness of the times in which we live. It was written in 1995 and, sadly, seems even more applicable now than then.

Christmas - finishing the season

Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for -- I don't know what exactly, but it's something that you don't mind so much not having at other times.

Kate L. Bosher

Christmas with Charles Dickens - again!

What better way to wind down our Christmas season than with a quote from Dickens?

I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.

Charles Dickens