A Cry of Stone Quotes

“To love”, Rose interjected, “is to desire with your whole heart to give everything. To carry others on your back and in your heart. To exchange your strength for another’s weakness, and this becomes the offering-way.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Men scattered before it or fought it or picked up the tools of malice as if to convince themselves that wielding death gave them power over it.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Here was one before her who had been deprived of all choice. He simply existed. From the beginning, he had been reduced to absolute being in a way that she never had. Yet he slept in peace, and dreamed.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“As she pondered, she realized that each person was unique, unrepeatable. How did God know which ones to bring together? By what unthinkable wisdom did he know that this life would inform that life with a word.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Everything, simply everything, was above him in the hierarchy of power.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“They had all the time in the world, and knew the names of hundreds of people. From what wells of grace did they draw their love, Rose wondered. They did not appear to be people of religious faith, and thus she learned that love itself was a power of the soul, replenished from hidden springs even as it was poured out.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“They were heart people, that was clear enough. Ideas did not interest them. People did. And flowers, and the intricate personalities of small animals. And dolls.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“For it seemed they instinctively knew that names had power to bind and loose, to tame and soothe, that a name went straight to the heart. They were heart people, that was clear enough.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Perhaps you are right. Maybe it is supposed to be this way, this inexplicable fragility of being, the not-knowingness of life, the beauty that can break your heart. Without it we would soon enough make ourselves into gods.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Hugo, I think you will be a very different kind of man than me.” I remember how I flinched, expecting a rebuke. But he went on: “The world needs many kinds of men. Else it’s all coal and no sailing ships.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Rose looked him in the eye. “You would have made me wait and suffer, merely to show that you are superior and powerful”, she said without anger. “That is dangerous for your soul. You must examine your conscience, or else you may find yourself in a place of torment.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“I will give you what is in my heart, Rose of the Ojibwe. This poor heart, this poor, poor heart that has loved so little. I am drowning in his ocean. I am dying, and as I die I know less and less. Yet I believe I am drowning in the mystery of his love. This is my faith. On this my whole life is based.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Remember only this—remember that when everything is taken from you, then shall everything be given to you.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“When I was a child, I longed for a mother, and in time God gave me many mothers. I asked for a brother, and he gave me Tchibi. I asked for a father, and he gave me Hugo.” “You see how generous is the Lord, my Rose?”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“When I was a child, I longed for a mother, and in time God gave me many mothers. I asked for a brother, and he gave me Tchibi. I asked for a father, and he gave me Hugo.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Yes, trusting that your abundant tears make the wilderness bloom, and your love makes your labors fruitful a hundredfold.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“You must not doubt it. You may never see it; you may never know for certain; it may occur far from where you live or long after your death. But, because you existed, it will occur. You came into being, and you stood firm in the cold dark places of the world, you continued to walk through the forest in winter even when all bearings seemed lost.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“The strength he asks of us is the decision to trust him in all things, especially in the moments of greatest abandonment.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Tears filled the old woman’s eyes. “You call me holy because I am a nun? Ah, Rose. Little by little sanctity declines. Many are the voices that whisper in the ears of my sisters. Learned teachers come to us claiming superior knowledge. Yet they do not love the truth, for they do not love the Father. Pride. Subtle pride, the subtlest and most dangerous of all, for it is done in the name of God.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“As much as I was able, ma Mère. I have understood little of it. I am often perplexed. I am not intelligent.” Mère Jean smiled. “The world has more than enough intelligence.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“O my Lord,” her heart said at last, “you know how small my love is! Io, how quickly I would abandon you, how easily I am confused and afraid. Ay, ay, my love is a tiny thing. How can I give you the love that your great heart deserves when I am so poor! Even so, this I give, this little scrap which is all of me.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“The wind sang too, the holy and familiar wind, the wind that connected all places on earth, that flowed unceasingly throughout time, bearing the sounds of human song, and cries of agony and loss and longing, words of despair and words of hope.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Aye, Rip, not fair, not fair!” shouted the boy, his laughter pealing upward in the cold air, his breath turning to white puffs, the sheep and the birds all laughing with the great sport that does erupt, from time to time, in creation.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Oh, it is good of you to close on the Lord’s Day. He who sees all things will not forget your sacrifice, nor fail to reward you for your obedience.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“We all are infected with the desire to see only what we want to see.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Your sister awaits you, across the river.” “My sister?” Rose asked. “She who is the firstborn of the Lord among our peoples. She the lily, and you a rose. In our time there are many roses blooming in the garden of the Lord. They are hidden among the peoples. Some will do a greater work than yours, some a lesser. Some will be known and others unknown, yet all give fragrance. He has given the lily to you and you to the lily. Pray to her.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Finished, the old woman nodded abruptly and stood back. “You call yourself Bineshi. The Spirit says otherwise, though it is true you are a small one. You are the flower of his Heart, though you are hidden. He says that you must not cease to trust him in all that is about to happen. Do not be afraid.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“There were among the guests a small number of diffident and homely people. One, an old man in an ill-fitting suit, timidly approached Rose. His hands were large, dirt was under his fingernails. He addressed her in French. “You are the artist?” “Yes.” “You love the mountain of Saint Joseph.” “Yes, I do, for it is the place where God touched the earth in this land.” “I think so too”, he said. Taking her right hand in both of his, he kissed it, and with head bowed, he turned swiftly away and shuffled out the front door.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Io, Beating Heart, I thank you that you have blessed me to follow you and to be held within your hands suspended over the abyss. You did not let me fall in the falling that is without end, and the little fallings you permitted were only to teach me to fly. Yes, I am a bineshi, and you have not let me drop into the jaws of your enemy. In the open air between your hands at last I am learning to fly.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel

“Now I speak, for I am certain that your heart hears me. If your thoughts are confused, it does not matter, for the heart of the soul hears. My Tchibi, you will live, for I will ask it of the One who made you, for nothing will he deny me. Little have I asked of him in my life, but I ask him now. This I ask of him, that he bring you back to life.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, A Cry of Stone: A Novel