Luke Mohan > Recent Status Updates

Of late Ulvhild had wanted all of her [Kristin’s] toys; this had vexed her sometimes. Now she thought, if her sister got well, she would give her all she had. And this thought comforted her a little.

“‘Tis thus that folk deal with their children now. To God they give the daughters who are lane or purblind or ugly, or blemished, or they let Him have back the children when they deem Him to have given them more than they need. And then they wonder that all who dwell in the cloisters are not holy men and maids —“

She sat nestled by her father with one arm on his knee; he gave her all she would have of the best, and bade her drink her fill of the beer and taste well of the mead…
God’s gifts do good, not harm, to you that are yet growing — make sweet, red blood, and give deep sleep, and rouse not madness and folly —“

Art not only presupposes religion, it also bears witness to it, or, rather, it somehow bears witness to the God whom religion worships.

The man who has suffered much is like he who knows many languages, and is able to understand all men.

"For me what is necessary, for my neighbour the rest."

...the Abbé Sennevilliers had thereby effected this strange conversion - an evangelist all the more persuasive for never having intended to evangelize.

And Decraemer, witnessing this battle [between the abbé and his desires], this veritable struggle for sanctity, came to wonder if the celibacy of the priest were not a good thing after all, if it were not precisely this ultimate sacrifice that allowed him to devote an unemployed need for affection to all mankind.

Daniel envied him [the abbé], considered him enormously rich, rich with a religion, a support, a faith, happy because he did not seek happiness for himself but in the happiness of others - the only place one can find it.

Grief, trial, suffering less easily allow for universal indifference. On the contrary, they engender rebellion, assertion and resistance, conflict.

A great idea, whatever it may be - a religion or an art or a grand purified love - elevates the soul. To raise itself up, the spirit will make use of almost anything as a foundation.

For this crushing of spirits, this regime of tyranny stimulated love and longing for France…Patriotism became a mystique. A tricolour ribbon brought tears to the eyes. People calmly performed acts of heroism of which they had would have been incapable before the war.

You were right, before… Morality cannot be built on oneself, on the consciousness of one’s own human dignity, on pride… Pride bends.

One does not live in the midst of ugliness and skepticism, without losing one’s own assurance of an ideal, a noble mission.

For these unfortunates, the church instinctively became a place of refuge. It is above all in times of trial that man is a religious animal.

Without the holy images, we are in danger of forgetting the face and thus flesh of the Son of God. The mysteries of the life of Jesus fade from our minds.

…man does not look deeply at the world. He lives by habit and pleasure and impulse. He does not read the poetry in things.

It is essential to have nothing in order to keep the riches he has been given.

The old man kisses the dust because the earth was made holy and it is the Lord’s. Then he kisses the wounds of Christ, and in this movement he understands at last that he is kissing his own wounds too. He is also kissing this land and all its people, from whom he will never again depart. All crucified churches are resurrected churches, some within the boundaries of time and some only in eternity.

I do not ask why;
I do not seek to be as you,
though I am you.
I seek the ocean that is above me
and within me, for it is one sea;
and I leave behind
the island of the world.

...If we do not run away occasionally, we will never be at home...If we do not waste time properly, nothing will be accomplished.

Her articles examine only to demolish what does not fit into her narrow agenda - which of course she promotes as the broadest possible worldview.

“Culture is the last refuge, the sanctuary, the human place in the midst of the surrounding dehumanization. Through the arts man is able to know himself, even if only on the intuitive level. He senses his own worth, even when he cannot articulate it.”

“I’m saying that through genuine culture man can know himself, even in nations where his identity is denied.”

“what do you do with those powers you’re talking about if you aren’t going to have a wife?”
“It remains within you as a strength. It is always a part of what makes you a man. Yet what truly makes you a man is your moral strength—your decision every day to leave this power unused. Then this power is absorbed into your heart and your heart grows. You give it to God, and he gives back to you many children.

Sister was given one square of chocolate and she saved it for Josip. What generosity! I aspire to it.