The stitch of a book is its words.
When I was a child I remember days that stretched into infinity with the certainty of other infinite days; certain, unhurried and brimmingly full.
The greengages had a pale blue bloom, especially in the shade, but in the sun the flesh showed amber through the clear green skin; if it were cracked the juice was doubly warm and sweet.
And you needn’t worry about being useful,’ said Dame Ursula. ‘When you have become God’s in the measure He wants, He, Himself, will know how to bestow you on others.’ She was quoting St Basil. Then her face grew wistful, ‘“Unless He prefer, for thy greater advantage, to keep thee all to himself.” That does happen to a few people. Yet, paradoxically, they have the greatest influence.
I don’t expect you to understand me any more than I can understand you; but I respect you and that’s the difference between us.
I can’t,’ but it was acceptance now. ‘I can’t,’ whispered Dame Catherine, ’so You must.
I think there are only two ways to live in this place,’ said Sister Philippa, ’you must either live like Mr Dean or like the Sunnyasi; either ignore it completely or give yourself up to it.
None of us should marry, unless we love a man so much we would go through hell for him, which we shall probably have to do.
Not what thou art, nor what thou hast been, beholdeth God with His merciful eyes, but what thou wouldst be.
The motto was ‘Pax’, but the word was set in a circle of thorns. Pax: peace, but what a strange peace, made of unremitting toil and effort, seldom with a seen result; subject to constant interruptions, unexpected demands, short sleep at nights, little comfort, sometimes scant food; beset with disappointments and usually misunderstood, yet peace all the same, undeviating, filled with joy and gratitude and love. “It is My own peace I give unto you.” Not, notice, the world’s peace.
That was true, and dirt, earth, has power, an astonishing power of life, of creating and sweetening; it can take anything, a body, an old tin, decay, rust, corruption, filth, and turn it into itself, and slowly make it life, green blades of grass and weeds.
What happens when a sin is committed? Usually the sinner flourishes.
It would have been far easier to write about an active Order; people can see, understand and admire the good they do. ‘Sister,’ said a young American soldier when, in India, he watched a nun bandaging the rotting and malodorous finger stumps of an old leper, ‘Sister, I wouldn’t do your work for ten thousand dollars a day.’ ‘Neither would I,’ said the nun.
And I still think,” said Olivia, “that it’s better to try and fail, doing what you want to do, than not to try.” She could not explain it more clearly that that but she knew it was the trying that was important; even if it fails, it goes to swell the sum total of trying, as a martyr’s faith, even if he is killed for it, swells the faith of everyone.
And we pray in reparation, to make up for all those who won’t or can’t pray for themselves – especially anyone in grave sin. That’s why communities say the longest and most arduous Office at night – the time when most sin is committed in the world.’ ‘You mean a little Carmelite might sit up and pray for a murderer?’ ‘She has, with results,’ said Philippa.
One of the things that has to be learned is that even sorrow cannot be had in peace, because other people have sorrows too.
It’s queer, she thought, when you’re kind to people you can forget them but when you’re not, you can’t.
When you have become God’s in the measure He wants, He, Himself, will know how to bestow you on others.
If you haven’t the money to buy the quality you want, go without, don’t compromise.
I have come to believe that nothing is ever wasted; out of mistakes or through mistakes, something quite worthwhile can come, in my case the see of another novel.
There are several ways,” he said shyly, “in which I’m trying to improve myself. I have a great many books and records and now I’m learning to play golf. Do you know golf, Sister? The English think it’s a very serious game. I was going to learn a much more serious game called cricket, but you need twenty two people...