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REFLECTIONS
Many people seem to think that true religion is defined by 'giving up things'.
In a sense it is far easier to deny one's body than quietly and soberly to surrender your whole self for God's possessing. In Lent, how much easier to give up wine or chocolate than seriously to tackle our impatience. A friend of mine who was prepared to fast most rigorously in Lent was horrified when I suggested daily Mass and half an hour's prayer instead.
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SR WENDY BECKETT
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
JONATHAN SWIFT
I certainly don't want to be one of the boys. I want to offer my peculiar gifts as a black woman ... a sensitivity and an awareness that comes out of more than a passing acquaintance with oppression.
BARBARA HARRIS
FIRST WOMAN ORDAINED BISHOP IN THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION
What matters most is discovering that God loves you, even if you think that you do not love God.
BR ROGER OF TAIZÉ
The great Christian revolutions came not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when someone takes radically something that was always there.
RICHARD NIEBUHR
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
HELEN KELLER
You must know that when you ‘hail’ Mary, she immediately returns your greeting! Don’t think that she is one of those rude women of whom there are so many–on the contrary, she is utterly courteous and pleasant. If you greet her, she will answer you right away and converse with you!
ST BERNARDINE OF SIENA
The Irish do love telling stories and we are suspicious of people who do not have long complicated conversations. There used to be a rule in the etiquette books that you invited four talkers and four listeners to a dinner party. That does not work in Ireland because nobody knows four listeners.
MAEVE BINCHY
Original sin–that is to say, the sin of having been born with human nature that contains within it the temptation to evil–will always make a mockery of attempts at perfection based upon manipulation of the environment.
THEODORE DALRYMPLE
In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
GEORGE ORWELL
None of us feels the true love of God till we realise how wicked we are. But you can't teach people that – they have to learn by experience.
DOROTHY L SAYERS
A friend of mine told me to shoot first and ask questions later. I was going to ask him why, but I had to shoot him.
JOHN WAYNE
A room without books is like a body without a soul.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
MAHATMA GANDHI
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
