‘Inspirational card index’
Good afternoon,
Today I thought we might benefit from the wisdom of others. When I was studying Divinity, a visiting lecturer suggested to us aspiring ministers that we’d run out of interesting things to say from our own minds very soon, so it was worth while noting down interesting quotes from our reading. These could be used to pepper sermons and articles. And so, from my distinctly analogue card index file kept since 1996, a few quotes that may seem apposite today.
I love Sophie more because she is ill. Illness, helplessness, is in itself a claim on love. We could not feel love for God Himself if he did not need our help. – But those who are well, and have to stand by and do nothing, also need help, perhaps even more than the sick. (Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower)
The patients seeing so much of the nurses and so little of the doctor, it was natural that they should regard the former as their persecutors and the latter as their saviour. (Samuel Beckett, Murphy) (I think this is a compliment to nurses – albeit backhanded.)
For those having to work from home, this may be good advice…
The management of an office is not so difficult… It is largely a matter of knowing firstly, what is coming in, secondly, what is not yet attended to, thirdly, what has been dealt with and is ready to go out, and fourthly, what has in fact gone out. (Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower)
Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to let you in. (Robert Frost, ‘Death of a Hired Man’)
Dom Hubert van Zeller of Downside Abbey tells the delightful story of a North Welsh convent where the garden gate had at some point in a chequered career been reversed – so that the side facing inwards now read ‘Private’ in large letters. The cloister was being warned to keep its distance from the privacy of the world. (Rowan Williams, The Truce of God)
The cure for loneliness is solitude. (Marianne Moore, ‘If I were Sixteen Today’)
The secret of a good old age is simply an honourable pact with solitude. (Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude)
We all appear to ourselves frustrated in our old age, Alec, because we cling to everything so much. But in reality we are still fulfilling our lives. (Muriel Spark, Memento Mori)
God never shewed Himself more a God than when He appeared man; never gained more glory that when He lost all glory: was never more sensible of our sad estate, than when He was bereaved of all sense. (Thomas Traherne, Centuries)
‘I am talking about mercy,’ Woland explained, without taking his fiery eye off Margarita. ‘Every now and then it manages to unexpectedly and treacherously sneak in through the smallest cracks. (Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master & Margarita)
During one of those long afternoons I lay, pain twisting and turning in my gut. I said nothing and hoped John [McCarthy] would continue reading his book. I lay trying to sleep, to relieve this pain, but still it twisted and knotted. Through the mangle I went, and was stretched and pulled. I believed John thought I was sleeping, then I felt his hand lie gently on my stomach, and it remained there. He was praying. I was overcome. I was lost for words again. I wanted to join him in prayer. I wanted to thank him for this huge and tender gesture. It revealed more courage than my battling with the guards. (Brian Keenan, An Evil Cradling)
And now a notice for tomorrow.
Emily Finer, Senior Lecturer in Russian, has written:
Should anyone be in need of entertainment tomorrow (Saturday) night, can I recommend this, live from Crail?
Virtual “Heymisher Kontsert” with Michael Alpert, Craig Judelman and Sasha Lurje
Saturday 21 March at 8 pm (UK time) “Waiting for the Nightingale” a Klezmer and Yiddish Song Concert, brought to your living room from ours in the East Neuk of Fife via:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpfuutqTwshvDE0n46fez4w8RcWMNejw
Take care,
Yours,
Donald.