GOD'S GRACE, HUMAN WEAKNESS

'There is a story frequently told in monastic circles that is attributed in a generic way to "the Fathers". I have not been able to trace it back to an original source. No matter. The story expresses something so universal that it is everyone's. Every one of us can rightly claim to be its author while equally claiming to have it on ancient authority. The story goes like this, with minor variations. 'A pilgrim asked an old monk: "Father, what do you do all day in the monastery?" The old monk replied: "I fall, and I am raised up again. I fall, and I am raised up again."'

Erik Varden, Alight with Hidden Glory, p.51.

PASTORAL CARE

'The soul needs to hear that it has been heard, that its signal has been picked up and understood.'

Erik Varden, Alight with Hidden Glory, p.26.

OUR TOTAL DEPENDENCE

'God's help is an attribute of his Being that keeps us in being.'

Erik Varden, Alight with Hidden Glory, p.22.

SINGLE HYPOCRISY

'I nursed my resentment at having "no one" for whom I considered it to be their official role to support me, at the same time positioning myself as someone who would always consider it my role to help a friend and likely force them to accept it. I realised I was indulging a sense of my own exceptionalism, creating a sharp boundary around what I would allow others to do for me, even as I told myself I could and should cross that boundary in the other direction when needed.'

Amy Key, Arrangements in Blue, p.108.

IS INTIMACY POSSIBLE ALONE?

'A fear I often return to is whether intimacy of the self counts. Does self-knowledge have to rebound from another, be in collaboration with someone, to give you the best look at yourself? Otherwise, might I only be hearing myself as echoes? I'm afraid that if I am not seen, heard and observed in the smallest, pettiest, most inconsequential moments of my life, my most basic nature might always be slightly concealed from me. As though my one true self is being witheld by the lack of romantic love.'

Amy Key, Arrangements in Blue, p.104.

SEA SWIMMING

'Even now, to be by the sea is to be in my senses in a way that doesn't seem possible elsewhere. When you're in your senses, you clear a space for truth. The wily part of you is no match for the sea; the sea cannot be deceived, and in the water, I cannot deceive myself either. I am vulnerable and in a state of receiving, ready to listen and ready to speak. It is a kind of intimacy.'

Amy Key, Arrangements in Blue, p.96.

THE DOMINANCE OF ROMANTIC LOVE

'I wonder if we all lose by centring romantic love in our lives. And it does still feel like romantic love is centred. Even as the internet has helped us find our own warm pocket of community within the endless variations of romantic and sexual idenitity; even though state and church control of who cannot be romantcially and sexually involved, and who can have their relationships recognised, has loosened. Nothing has displaced romantic love from its holy status. If we were to pay attention, what do we fail to notice, share and celebrate because of this? Is it possible that life without romantic love isn't that bad? Is it possible we can take as much pleasure in other loves, find new ways of incorporating romantic feeling into our lives, assign importance to crossing over thresholds that romantic love has abandoned?'

Amy Key, Arrangements in Blue: Notes on Love and Making a Life, p.10.

THE PRICE OF DOING GOOD

'Anyone setting out to do good will face temptation's wiles. We can count on it. There is no need to get too upset.'

Erik Varden, Alight with Hidden Glory: The 2026 Papal Retreat, p.8.

THE INCARNATION

'God coded himself into humanity.'

John C Lennox, Seven Daus that Divide the World: The beginning according to Genesis and science, p.104.

THE EXHAUSTION OF ANGER

'I had always thought that sorrow was the most exhausting of the emotions. Now I knew that it was anger.'
Helen Garner, The Spare Room, p.135.