A Beautiful Year Quotes

“Lent is the season of death. There’s no way to avoid it. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and stretches for forty days until Easter. Other than Easter and Christmas—which are primarily remembered as days, not seasons—it may be the most recognized part of the Christian year. Lent has long been a time of resisting temptation, fasting, prayer, and repentance. But an awareness of mortality brings with it more than self-denial. Indeed, an awareness of death may plunge us in exactly the opposite direction in an affirmation of life and the fragility of our existence. For death reminds us that we are vulnerable, thus calling us to discover the beauty of humility. Death insists that human power and greed are folly, and so directs our efforts toward compassion and generosity. Death separates and breaks our relations, even as it directs us back to the necessity of community and mutuality. Ultimately, death can reunite us with our truest selves. But that does not come easily or without cost. Death is traumatic, a wrenching intrusion upon self-delusions. During Lent, we walk with death for a time—learning of the other side, embracing its lessons. We cannot know entirely what awaits us. If we accept its wisdom now, however, it may be easier to cross the bridge that every living thing eventually must cross. Lent is for realists.”
― Diana Butler Bass, A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance

“it would be a mistake to believe that we are only passive recipients of epiphanies. We need to be alert for their arrival…. Revelations can be missed if one isn’t attentive or attuned to the possibilities of sacred surprise”
― Diana Butler Bass, A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance