Thomas Merton, from "Seasons of Celebration"

“…The year is not just another year: it is the year of the Lord—a year in which the passage of time itself brings us not only the natural renewal of spring and the fruitfulness of an earthly summer, but also the spiritual and interior fruitfulness of grace.”

Proust on Charity, from the "Combray" Section of "Swann's Way"

“…When, later, I had occasion to meet, in the course of my life, in convents for instance, truly saintly embodiments of practical charity, they generally had the cheerful, positive, indifferent, and brusque air of a busy surgeon, the sort of face in which one can read no commiseration, no pity in the face of human suffering, no fear of offending it, the sort which is the ungentle face, the antipathetic and sublime face of true goodness.”

- Marcel Proust,

Marie Howe - "Easter"

Two of the fingers on his right hand
had been broken

so when he poured back into that hand it surprised
him—it hurt him at first.

And the whole body was too small. Imagine
the sky trying to fit into a tunnel carved into a hill.

He came into it two ways:
From the outside, as we step into a pair of pants.

And from the center—suddenly all at once.
Then he felt himself awake in the dark alone.

- Marie Howe