More on dying. I want to tell them I won’t be able to die for the Faith because I’m already booked to die for Ireland. p. 187 Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, Faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine master, grant that I may not so

much seek to be consoled , as to console.

To be understood , as to understand;

To be loved, as to love;

For it is in the giving that we receive, it is

in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is

in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Saint Francis of Assisi

I am convinced that although honesty may not be the front doorway to the kingdom of God, It is the latchstring to every doorway in his House. And yet, I have found honesty in one’s self to be the most elusive state in my own Christian life. Thinking Christians have always been baffled by their own deceitful behavior. In the seventh chapter of Romans, Paul gives us this classic statement of this experience: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate.” (Romans 7:15 RSV)

Keith Miller, The Taste of New Wine

She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth Her. KJV emphasis mine jmwp.

Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord all the earth.
Sing to the Lord praise his name;
proclaims his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all of the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him all the earth.
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
“The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound and all that is in it;
let the fields be jubilant and everything in them.
Then all the trees in the forest will sing for joy;
they will sing before the Lord for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.

It is best to listen much, speak little.

… those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travelers. C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, chpt. 4.

Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. …Paul is telling folks at the Corinthian church not to place too much faith in their own abilities or too little in God’s. Some were praising Paul’s seed planting ministry, and others favored the seed-watering ministry of Apollo’s. Here Paul is reminding them that it’s God who brings the seeds to fruition.  … Paul is not saying the efforts to plant and water were wasted. They’re part of God’s plan, too.  … You can have faith and you can pray … but God won’t do your work for you. You’ve got to plant and water and weed and mind the insects. Then trust Our Heavenly Father for the crop. Pp. 183-184, Julie Cannon, Those Pearly Gates.

God’s will is God’s will. It sits there like Stone Mountain. You can’t move it, you can’t change it, and you can’t even question it. P109, Ferrell Sams, when all the world was young