SO GOOD QUOTES

  • “Sometimes it takes years to really grasp what has happened to your life.”

    —Wilma Rudolph

  • [Concerning trials] For God is able to free you from all these evils this day. But not until He sees that you are purified; not until He sees that a conversion has taken place, and a repentance firm and unshaken, will He entirely remove the tribulation. The goldsmith, until he perceives the gold well refined, will not draw it out from the furnace; and even so God will not take away this cloud before He hath thoroughly amended us. For He Himself who hath permitted this trial, knows the time for removing it. So it is also with one who plays the harp; he neither overstrains the string, lest he break it, nor relaxes it too much, lest he mar the consonance of its harmony. Thus does God act. He neither places our souls in a state of constant repose, nor of lengthened tribulation; making use of both these at His discretion; for he neither suffers us to enjoy continual repose, lest we should grow listless, nor on the other hand does he permit us to be in constant tribulation, lest we sink under it, and become desperate. Let us then leave to Him the time for the removal of our evils; let us only pray; let us live in piety: for this is our work, to turn to virtue; but to set us free from these evils is God’s work! For indeed He is more desirous to quench this fire than thou who art tried by it: but He is waiting for thy salvation. As tribulation then came of rest, so also after tribulation, rest must be expected. For neither is it always winter, nor always summer; neither are there always waves, nor always a calm; neither always night, nor always day. Thus tribulation is not perpetual, but there will be also repose; only in our tribulation, let us give thanks to God always. 

    —St. John Chrysostom

  • “Loving God does not take away the pain that [trauma] inflicts, but it does transform it.”

    —John Swinton

  • When I joined L’Arche Daybreak, where people with disabilities are at the center of the community, no one cared that I write books or give lectures to university audiences and church groups around the world. My achievements did not impress them. What they cared deeply about was how consistently I showed up for them and showed them how much I loved them.

    —Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

  • “The first step to healing is not a step away from the pain, but a step toward it.”

    —Henri Nouwen

  • I am deeply convinced that each human being suffers in a way no other human being suffers.  No doubt, we can make comparisons; we can talk about more or less suffering, but, in the final analysis, your pain and my pain are so deeply personal that comparing them can bring scarcely any consolation or comfort.  In fact, I am more grateful for a person who can acknowledge that I am very alone in my pain than for someone who tries to tell me there are many others who have a similar or worse pain.

    —Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World

  • “When you think of the mystical experience of many saints, you may ask yourself whether joy and suffering aren’t aspects of the same phenomenon on a very high level. An analogy, crazy for sure, comes to mind: extreme cold burns.  It seems nearly certain, no, it is certain, that we can only go to God through suffering and that this suffering becomes joy because it finally is the same thing.”

    —Jacques Maritain

  • It is surprising that many speak only of pains in sickness: without mentioning the blessings and benefits of sickness! Some could reach a state of grumble and distress, and even they could ask God “Why have you done all this to me?” But you should not be like that. But in your sickness you thank God for the blessings you received because of this sickness: Say to Him, I thank you God for this sickness, which gave me more time for prayer or repentance and granted me humbleness and broken heart and a feeling of my weakness. I thank you God for this sickness which made me feel the love of people. I thank you because this sickness gave me a period of isolation which I spent in bed – which was necessary to me – at least to search out my soul and be with you.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, The Life of Thanksgiving

  • Frankl went on to say it wasn’t pleasure mankind was looking for, that men only sought pleasure when they couldn’t find meaning. If a man has no sense of meaning, Frankl argued, he will numb himself with pleasure.

    —Donald Miller, Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy

  • What if part of God’s message to the world was you? The true and real you?
    …
    The more fully we live into ourselves, the more impact we will have. Acting may get us the applause we want, but taking a risk on being ourselves is the only path toward true intimacy. And true intimacy, the exchange of affection between two people who are not lying, is transforming.

    —Donald Miller, Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy