Favorite Quotes, Quips & Poems
A sampling
November 15, 2024
Redemption (a reflection) 2023
"From whence we came, a Creator's genius,
His Image molded into the very fiber of our being, our soul,
we've been here since the dawn was soft.
A piece of fruit made history and mankind fell, a woman deceived,
a serpent smirking in shadow,
knowing naught but evil thought.
Cast out of a garden, an Eden of beauty, color, and Light,
shame riding on hunched shoulders,
eyes downcast as a corrupted world loomed.
A thick sadness envelopes everything,
children cry and tears fall in barely warm lava,
early humans walk through wet volcanic ash,
leaving footprints stained with the darkness of sin.
The waters of compassion, coming from the dark night of a storm,
await the glimmer of dawn.
What once descended as a dove, gathers golden, shimmering, rises above.
Suffering finds radiance in Love.
A Father's plan unfolds as a warm summer solstice washes over His children,
unbound and free to choose a Love of unimaginable depth,
so real; never forced, offered with no expectation of reciprocity.
Agape love, the Father's essence, selfless, unconditional, sacrificial,
a love so intense He sent His only Son to die for the sins of His children.
And Christ did just that, surrendering Himself on a tree, unreservedly,
for creatures who are undeserving and inferior to Himself.
The creature, loved by the Creator and
snatched from the edge of the abyss by the silent whispers of the Spirit,
feels Love's caress in his soul and grows in wisdom.
Finding his purpose, he reaches for Redemption.
We are loved so deeply, beyond all comprehension.
We are saved, we are redeemed
by Jesus Christ, our Lord, our God, our Savior, and our King.
He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
No one comes to the Father except through Him.
Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen."
~Mark S. (the italicized portion in the middle of the reflection was written in 2008)
(the italicized portion at the end is taken from Holy Scripture)
"There's a choir in Heaven composed of the angelic voices of the unborn and exclusive membership in this choir is a gift from God Himself.
These innocent souls are in Heaven because they've forgiven those who murdered them.
All of Heaven marvels when these untold billions raise their voices
to sing praise and glory to our heavenly Father!
Imagine, if you can, the sheer beauty of this sound!"
~Mark S.
"When peaceful silence lay over all,
and night had run half of her swift course,
Your all powerful Word, O'Lord,
leaped down from heaven,
from the Royal Throne."
~Wisdom 18:14-15
"To reflect the image, Whose image we bear."
~Fr. Ranjan D'sa
"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."
~C. S. Lewis
"Lord, give me the strength to take the next step,
to follow the way that leads to You in my daily circumstances.
Even when things don't go the way I want,
even when I don't know how to talk to You,
even when I don't feel You,
even when I am convinced You are not there,
and especially when I am about to give up.
With Your strength, I know I can find my way to You.
And loving You, I can hope and trust
that You will always heal what is so broken in me.
Amen."
~Fr. Goyo Hidalgo (Prayer of a Prodigal)
"Ironically, killing her offspring destroys the greatest power a woman has.
The power to shape generations to come."
~Neil M. (Twitter)
"The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effective means of limiting Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools."
~Dr. Benjamin Rush (signatory of the U.S. Declaration of Independence) 07.13.1789
"Conferring exclusive privileges upon bodies of physicians,
and forbidding men of equal talents and knowledge,
under severe penalties from practicing medicine
within certain districts of cities and countries.
Such institutions, however sanctioned by ancient charters and names,
are the bastilles of our science."¹
~Dr. Benjamin Rush (introductory remarks to a course lecture at the University of Pennsylvania) 11.3.1801
"My eyes do see, my ears do hear,
I am still me, so let's be clear,
my memory may fade, my walk may slow,
I am me inside, don't let me go."
~Alzheimer's victim
"Listen and Silent are spelled with the same letters.
Think about it."
~Unknown
"We haven't arrested anyone yet,
and we don't have any suspects in custody."
~Police spokesperson on the 5 o'clock news in 2021 (what the heck?)
"Grief never ends, but it changes.
It's a passage, not a place to stay.
Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith.
It's the price of love."
~unknown
Postscript
"Mourn not for me when earthy clods
have blot me from thy sight ~
When from this earthen urn my soul,
has winged its heavenward flight.
Miss me, yes, for a little while ~
T'would irk me, hurt my pride,
To think I'd quick forgotten be,
and lost to memory ere I'd died.
But, give not way to anguished grief
and shed no blinding tears,
I've just moved on a bit ahead ~
a few short, measured years.
Somewhere beyond this realm of ours
to a land no mortals trod,
my soul in humble worship bows
before the throne of God."
~Howard A. Page (1954)
"Love is by its very nature focused on the other. It isn't self-seeking.
To love is to desire what is good for the other person...
Love is therefore a choice, an act of the will, not a feeling and not fate."
~Matthew Kelly
"God gives each and every one of us 100% of His attention
100% of the time." "How can that be?" you ask.
"Because He's God."
~Fr. Bob Bedard (Companions of the Cross)
"It’s amazing what we choose to focus on in our lives.
It’s astounding what we choose to care about.
Try looking at whatever you are worried about right now through a lens that includes the big picture of God, your entire life, the history of the world, and eternity,
and then let God rearrange your priorities."
~unknown
"The words that I remember,
From my childhood still are true,
That there's none so blind,
As those who will not see.
And to those who lack the courage,
And say it's dangerous to try,
Well they just don't know,
That love eternal, will not be denied."
~Justin Hayward (Moody Blues)
from the song 'I Know You're Out There Somewhere' (1988)
“If a little bird were to take a single grain of sand from the seashore and somehow manage to fly it to the furthest quasar in the universe, and if it returned and repeated the process until all the sand of the oceans, both from the beaches and the bottoms were gone,
eternity would still be just beginning.”
~Anonymous
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time --
when the United States is a service and information economy;
when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries;
when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few,
and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues;
when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas
or knowledgeably question those in authority;
when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes,
our critical faculties in decline,
unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true,
we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay
of substantive content in the enormously influential media,
the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less),
lowest common denominator programming,
credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition,
but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
~Carl Sagan (astronomer) 1995
"Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall?"
~songwriter Bart Millard (MercyMe)
from the song 'I Can Only Imagine' (1999)
Desiderata²
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story.
♦
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
♦
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
♦
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
♦
Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
♦
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
♦
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
♦
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
~Max Ehrmann (lawyer and poet) c. 1920
"In my thirty-six years of pediatric surgery I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life. If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that threaten the mother’s health, [her obstetrician] will either induce labor or perform a Caesarian section. His intention is to save the life of both the mother and the baby. The baby’s life is never (emphasis mine) willfully destroyed because the mother’s life is in danger."
~Former U.S. surgeon general C. Everett Koop (1980)
"All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man."
~St. John Vianney, Cure d'Ars
"Christianity, if false, is of no importance and, if true, is of infinite importance.
The one thing it cannot be is moderately important."
"It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool,
than to talk and remove all doubt of it.”
~Maurice Switzer (b. 1870, d. 1929)
"We pray that God will guide us on our journey from human being to being human.”
~Fr. Thomas Chinnappa, Catholic priest
"We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.
Each of us is the result of a thought of God.”
"Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right."
~Bishop Fulton J. Sheen (1953)
"Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again."
~Ronald Reagan (Inaugural Address as Governor of California) 01.05.1967
“If you knew how quickly people would forget you after your death, you would not seek in your life to please anyone but God.”
~St. John Chrysostom (circa 387)
“The church is composed of a human element yes, but a Divine element as well. The Divine element is impervious to the human element so no matter how corrupt the human element gets, it never touches the Divine foundation of the church.”
~George Neumayr (2020)
"River-born fugitives, red muscled under sheathing silver, alive with lights of ocean's changing colours, the range of deeps and distances through wild salt years
has gathered the sea's plenty into your perfection.
Fullness is the long return from dark depths rendering toll of itself to the searching nets, surging on to strife on brilliant gravel shallows that opened long ago behind the failing ice.
In violence over gravel, under the burn of fall, fullness spends itself,
thrusting forth new life to nurse in the stream's flow.
The old life, used utterly, yields itself among the river rocks of home."
~Roderick Haig-Brown - Conservationist, Author, Magistrate (1908-1976) poem on the Pacific salmon
"I deduct twenty points of an estimated IQ for the use of an obscenity in public conversation. It's a low-class and craven form of trying to throw some weight around,
a substitute for thought, meant to shut down an argument with a bit of shock.
Doesn't work; makes you look dumb instead."
“The man who combines both ferocity and meekness—the knight—is a work not of nature but of art; of that art which has human beings, instead of canvas or marble, for its medium.”
~C. S. Lewis
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.”
~C.S. Lewis
¹This prophetic quote was taken from Dr. Rush's introductory remarks to a course lecture at the University of Pennsylvania on November 3, 1801. He was describing “24 causes which have retarded the progress of our science” and this was one of the causes that he listed (22d). You’ll note that the opening line is not a complete sentence, because it was given as part of a list.
²A common myth is that the Desiderata poem was found in a Baltimore, Maryland church in 1692 and is centuries old, of unknown origin. Desiderata was in fact written around 1920 (although some say as early as 1906), and was copyrighted in 1927, by lawyer Max Ehrmann (1872-1945) based in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Desiderata myth began after Reverend Frederick Kates reproduced the Desiderata poem in a collection of inspirational works for his congregation in 1959 on church notepaper, headed: 'The Old St Paul's Church, Baltimore, AD 1692' (the year the church was founded). Copies of the Desiderata page were circulated among friends, and the myth grew, accelerated particularly when a copy of the erroneously attributed Desiderata text was found at the bedside of deceased Democratic politician Adlai Stevenson in 1965. Lots of people debate the meaning and analysis of Desiderata, but whatever the history and meaning of it, Ehrmann's prose is inspirational and offers a simple, positive credo for life. Max married Bertha Scott King three months before his death in 1945. Bertha was from New York where she graduated from Smith College, wrote, taught, and published a book called The Worth of a Girl. Three months after Ehrmann's death, Bertha published four of his books. She also published the Desiderata poem with some of his other work in 1948, in a collection titled The Poems Of Max Ehrmann. She re-renewed the Desiderata copyright in 1948 and 1954. Bertha Ehrmann died in 1962, upon which the copyright ownership passed to her nephew Richmond Wight. Wight later sold the copyright for an undisclosed amount to Crescendo Publishing Company in 1975.
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