MIRACLES

'In the light of the New Creation all miracles are like snowdrops - anticipations of the full spring and high summer wh. is slowly coming over the whole wintry field of space and time.'

CS Lewis in Walter Hooper (Ed.), The Collected Letters of CS Lewis Vol II, p.649.

CHANGE

' ...if a desired human quality does not seem to be coming naturally then the answer may be to stop fretting about how we might get it and instead ask what things we would do if we already had it; and then do them.'

Matthew Parris, Chance Witness, p.50.

CHILDHOOD

'We cannot be known in isolation from our youth. It is then we felt most keenly, hoped most fervently, feared most anxiously, learned most quickly, absorbed most deeply, and took it all to heart. Prejudices and convictions, ambitions and tastes were rooted then. This is when our blind-spots were formed and also our sensitivities; our determination to see the world in certain ways.'

Matthew Parris, Chance Witness, p.xviii.

JESUS

'"But who is Aslan? Do you know him?"
"Well - he knows me," said Edmund.'
CS Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, p.327 (in The Complete Chronicles of Narnia)

HUMANKIND

'"You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve," said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth."'

CS Lewis, Prince Caspian, p.284 (in The Complete Chronicles of Narnia)

PRIDE

'Boasting is the response of pride to success. Self-pity is the response of pride to suffering. Boasting says, "I deserve admiration because I have achieved so much." Self-pity says, "I deserve admiration because I have sacrificed so much." Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong. Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak. Boasting sounds self-sufficient. Self-pity sounds self-sacrificing. The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be needy. But the need arises from a wounded ego, and the desire is not really for others to see them as helpless but heroes. The need that self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness. It is the response of unapplauded pride.'

John Piper, What Jesus Demands from the World, p.126.

SEXUALITY

'It is part of the nature of a strong erotic passion - as distinct from a transient fit of appetite - that it makes more towering promises than any other emotion. No doubt all our desires make promises, but not so impressively. To be in love involves the almost irresistable conviction that one will go on being in love until one dies, and that possession of the beloved will confer, not merely frequent ecstacies, but settled, fruitful, deep-rooted, life-long happiness. Hence all seems to be at stake. If we miss this chance we shall have lived in vain. At the very thought of such doom we sink into fathomless depths of self-pity.'

CS Lewis, "We have no 'right to happiness'" in God in the Dock, p.106.

SEX

'When I was a youngster, all the progressive people were saying, "Why all this prudery? Let us treat sex just as we treat all our impulses." I was simple-minded enough to believe that they meant what they said. I have since discovered that they meant exactly the oposite. They meant that sex was to be treated as no other impulse has been treated by civilised people. All the others, we admit, have to be bridled. Absolute obedience to your instinct for self-preservation is what we call cowardice; to your acquisitive impulse, avarice. Even sleep must be resisted if you're a sentry. But every unkindness and breach of faith seems to be condoned provided that the object aimed at is "four bare legs in a bed"'

CS Lewis, "We have no 'right to happiness'" in God in the Dock, p.105.

MEN

'"Well, Miss Matty! Men will be men. Every mother's son of them wishes to be considered Samson and Solomon rolled into one - too strong ever to be beaten or discomforted - too wise ever to be outwitted. If you will notice, they have always forseen events, though they never tell one for one's warning before the events happen; my father was a man, and I know the sex pretty well."'

Miss Pole in Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford and other stories, p.117.

THEOLOGY

'Theology makes a difference. It is the infrastructure of our lives. Build it poorly and the building will eventually collapse in ruins. Build it well and you will be prepared for anything.'

Edward T. Welch, Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave, p.xvi.