As Baudelaire said, of an earlier iteration of this modern world: “Everyone believes in God, but nobody loves Him. No one believes in the Devil, and yet his smell is everywhere.”
*Charles Baudelaire – Poet
Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe
“There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (Man’s search for God!) suddenly draw back. Suppose we really found Him! We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?”
(C.S. Lewis’s Miracles)
After reading the morning news and thinking back on debates, candidates, and other creatures of the media attention, for some reason, these quotes from Proverbs seemed to ring a bell . . . and not a gentle chime of a bell, either!
“The slothful hand hath wrought poverty; but the hand of the industrious getteth richer.”
PROVERBS 10:4
“The mouth of the just is a vein of life; and the mouth of the wicked coverth iniquity.”
PROVERBS 10:11
“As a tempest that passeth, so the wicked shall be no more: but the just is as an everlasting foundation.”
PROVERBS 10:25
“The strength of the just is joy; but the hope of the wicked shall perish.”
PROVERBS 10:28
“The lips of the just consider what is acceptable: and the mouth of the wicked uttereth perverse things.”
PROVERBS 10:32
“Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.”
-Teresa of Ávila
“Sweet, blessed beads! I would not part
With one of you for richest gem
That gleams in kingly diadem;
Ye know the history of my heart.”
Abram Ryan – My Beads, 19th century
“Some people do not like to take the medicine that would heal them, and call it nonsense. The rosary is exactly that medicine which cures an amazing deal of nonsense. Call it spiritual homeopathy if you like. Many a proud spirit has been brought down by it—many a faddy spirit has been made patient by it. Many a queasy spirit has been made strong by it. Many a distracted spirit has become recollected by it. The weak things of htis world hath God chosen to confound the strong.”
Archbishop Ullathorne: Letters in the Oscation. 19th century
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