Caryll Houselander

There are heroes of the last two wars who are crawling on all fours, playing with toys, learning to eat with a spoon, trying, less successfuly than real babies, to learn to talk.

. . . remorse — which, by the by, is always selfish.

We read a lot of stuff about the saints “rejoicing in suffering,” and stupidly (though naturally) imagine from this that they actually enjoyed suffering! There are, of course, people who in a queer perverted way do enjoy suffering, but they are not saints!

I think it is very helpful to reflect that God loves those whom we love, far more than we do — infinitely more.

Ignore your own soul: keep your mind on God, on His love. . . . Do not wait until you feel not uneasy; do not wait to be doing a more prayerful act; do not wait to feel more unity and completeness: offer yourself, your will to do right, your anxiety about not doing it, your being interrupted just now, the act of taking So-and-so's temperature — all, just as it is, to God. Leave it to God to transform all this into Himself. It’s all you've got, and He gave it to you. . . . Don't trust your thoughts of Him: trust Him. . . .

Remember . . . that it is at the sore place, and only there, that our healing begins. . . .

. . . contemplatives of Christ in ourselves and in one another. . . .

There are only two weapons against the worldly spirit which has possessed many Catholics for so long, a worldly spirit that is not only unrecognized, but in some families regarded as a fine tradition! These two weapons are Contemplation and visible, voluntary Poverty. . . .