"...Catholic teaching may be in disarray from grammar school to university; free-form sloppy, and even impious liturgical practices may be found in many dioceses; barely 40% of American Catholics attend Mass regularly, and many schoolchildren may have trouble reciting the Ten Commandments...seminaries may be empty... but the U.S. Bishop's Committee on Liturgy knows a mortal peril to the Faith when it sees one: It's those disruptive types who insist on kneeling to receive the Eucharist."
Michael M. Uhlmann

The Christmas Rose

The Christmas Rose is from a charming tale of a little shepherd girl who stood weeping outside the stable where Jesus was born because she had no gift for him. A watching Angel caused the snow at the little girl's feet to disappear, revealing the Christmas Rose which was formed by the angels from each tear of the little shepherdess; a lovely gift for the baby Jesus. The Christmas rose should be planted by the door to welcome Christ into the house. The rose is also associated with Saint Agnes, the patroness of purity, whose feast day is Jan. 21. She was only 13 when she suffered martyrdom for the Faith in Rome in 303.

Books | Article in Christianity Today titled Last Catholic Writer in America?

If you are a Catholic writer, you probably know the feeling yourself. It is as though you are the only person left who takes this stuff seriously—the only writer who cares about religion, and the only Catholic who has any literary taste. You are the last Catholic writer in America, and you are afraid the species is dying out. That is one of the reasons you stick around

Is It Arrogant to Say Christ Is the Only Savior? Asks Cardinal Ratzinger
Points to the Missteps of Relativism

MURCIA, Spain, DEC. 2, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Is it pretentious for Christians to proclaim Christ as the only Savior of mankind?

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger posed that question Saturday, and in his response clarified the very meaning of the Christian mission.

The cardinal was addressing the congress on "Christ: Way, Truth and Life," which brought together world-renowned theologians at the Catholic University of St. Anthony.

"Isn't it arrogant to speak of truth in matters of religion to the point of affirming that truth, the only truth, has been found in one's own religion?" the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith added.

Addressing an audience of 3,000, Cardinal Ratzinger said that "today it has become a slogan of enormous repercussion to reject, as simultaneously simplistic and arrogant, all those who can be accused of believing that they 'possess' the truth."

"These people, it seems, are unable to dialogue; therefore, they cannot be taken seriously, because truth is not 'possessed' by anyone," the cardinal added, outlining the thesis of relativism. "We can only be in search of truth. However, against this affirmation one can object: What search is this about, if one can never arrive at the goal?"

"Are these people really searching, or is it that they do not wish to find the truth, because what they will find should not be?" he continued.

"Naturally, truth cannot be a possession; before it, I must always be one of humble acceptance, of being conscious of my own risk and accepting knowledge as a gift, of which I am not worthy, of which I cannot be vainglorious as if it were an achievement of mine," Cardinal Ratzinger clarified.

"If I have been given the truth, I must consider it as a responsibility, which also presupposes service to others," he explained. "Faith also affirms that the unlikeness between what is known by us and reality itself is infinitely greater than the likeness."

In reality, the arrogant one is the relativist, the cardinal said.

"Isn't it arrogant to say that God cannot give us the gift of truth?" he asked. "Is it not contempt for God to say that we have been born blind and that truth is not our concern?"

"Real arrogance" consists in "wanting to take God's place and to determine who we are, what we do, what we want to make of ourselves and of the world," the cardinal continued.

Therefore, "the only thing that we can do is to recognize with humility that we are unworthy messengers who do not proclaim ourselves, but who speak with holy fear of what is not ours, but of what comes from God," he added.

"Only in this way is the missionary task intelligible, which cannot mean spiritual colonialism, the submission of others to my culture and ideas," the cardinal emphasized. "In the first place, the mission calls for preparation for martyrdom, a willingness to lose oneself for the love of truth and of one's neighbor.

"Only in this way is the mission credible. Truth cannot and must not have any other weapon than itself."

ZE02120223 - http://www.zenit.org

quote from ... The Guardian Unlimited special report : Debunking some popular medical myths

Often it is said, for example, that we use just 10% of our brains. Magician Uri Geller readily spreads this myth as an explanation for why he can bend spoons; he claims to use more of his brain than the rest of us. Truth be told, we use 100% of our brains - even while watching a silly Uri Geller magic show. That 10% figure was invented in the 30s by ad men in America selling self-help pamphlets. "Scientists say you only use one-tenth of your brain," the ads said. "Wake up to your true potential."

In the 19th century, scientists did indeed determine that certain parts of the brain didn't seem to have any obvious function (such as moving a limb) when stimulated by an electrode. They called these regions "the silent cortex" and later learned that these regions were responsible for the very traits that make us human: language and abstract thought.

How can we be sure that Geller is not even 10% right about the brain? For one, commonsense: never has a doctor said, "You'll be fine.The bullet is lodged in the 90% part of the brain you don't use." Biologically, any part of the body will deteriorate without use. Legs shrivel in a cast, and neurons in the brain die as a result of diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia. And if you want proof in pictures, modern scans all show that the entire brain is active.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit."

That time of year thou may'st in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,--
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
Sonnet lxxiii. - Shakespeare

Condom Kingdom Deflated by Failure (Are You Listening, Bill?)

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was welcomed to the Indian city of Hyderabad last week by a giant air-filled condom. The 8-foot monstrosity brought a smile to the face of the world’s richest man, who was there to announce a $100 million AIDS program to be financed by his foundation.(1)

Hyderabad, of course, is the site of Microsoft’s first software development center outside the United States. Gates’s glee may have been prompted by the thought of all the goodwill that his generosity would buy among the Indian people. By blanketing the country with condoms, he would single-handedly stop the spread of HIV.

Perhaps Gates is unaware of what a failure condom-pushing programs have been in the past:

· The Center for Disease Control has reluctantly, but accurately, questioned the effectiveness of condoms in protecting against sexually transmitted diseases, noting that the failure rate for condoms can be as high as 15%.(2)

· The highly-regarded international peer-reviewed medical journal, The Lancet, in 2000 published an article in which the authors argued that the massive distribution of condoms in conjunction with a “safe sex” message may actually help spread the HIV virus.(3)

· The pro-abortion Allan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) notes a condom failure rate as high as 17.6%.(4)

· The condom failure rate in the West is so high that over 65% of approximately 3,000 condom users surveyed discontinued use after 24 months.(5)

· A new UN report suggests that monogamy, not condoms, is the answer to the AIDS epidemic.(6)

· Even Gates’s own foundation has effectively dissed condoms. On the limited utility of AIDS prevention methods among African women, the Gates Foundation states that “if it diminishes sexual pleasure, it is unlikely to be used reliably.”(7)

Condoms have other drawbacks as well. They can lead to increased rates of abortion as a back-up method of so-called family planning. They can cause cervical cancer.(8)

And, as was recently documented in Tanzania,
substandard condoms—which can contribute directly to the spread of disease—are a problem.(9)

Quoted from email from PRI http://www.pop.org

I remember my mother the day that we met
It is a day I shall never entirely forget
And I toy with the fancy that young as I am
I should know her again if we met in a tram

But mother is happy in turning a crank
That increases the balance at somebody's bank
I and feel satisfaction that mother is free
From the sinister task of attending to me

They have brightened our room that is spacious and cool
With diagrams used in the Idiot School
And books for the blind that will teach us to see
But mother is happy for mother is free

For mother is dancing up forty-eight floors
For love of the Leeds International Stores
And the flame of that faith might perhaps have grown cold
With the care of a baby seven weeks old

For mother is happy in greasing a wheel
For somebody else who is cornering steel
And though our one meeting was not very long
She took the occasion to sing me this song :

"Oh hush thee my baby, the time will soon come
When thy sleep will be broken with hooting and hum
There are candles want turning and turning all day
And knobs to be pressed in the usual way

Oh hush thee my baby take rest while I croon
For progress comes early and freedom too soon

By G. K. Chesterton

Prayer of a Soldier in France

My shoulders ache beneath my pack
(Lie easier, Cross, upon His back).

I march with feet that burn and smart
(Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart).

Men shout at me who may not speak
(They scourged Thy back and smote Thy cheek).

I may not lift a hand to clear
My eyes of salty drops that sear.

(Then shall my fickle soul forget
Thy Agony of Bloody Sweat?)

My rifle hand is stiff and numb
(From Thy pierced palm red rivers come).

Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me
Than all the hosts of land and sea.

So let me render back again
This millionth of Thy gift. Amen.

Joyce Kilmer
1918
( lifted from Ad Orientem )

Not exactly the nicest name, but this 100books link will take you to a page that is close to my heart. A group of friends reading the top 100 books and reviewing them.

I am heartened to see that they have included "The End of the Affair" by Graham Greene on the list. It is in my top 5 books ever.

So this is a record of hate far more than of love, and if I come to say anything in favor of Henry and Sarah, I can be trusted. I am writing against the bias because it is my professional pride to prefer the near-truth even to the expression of my near-hate.

The opening lines of The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

It is of course, not a tale of hate.

I found a review of the movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore that comes close to the way I feel about it. I more readily condemn the movie for it's deviation from the plot just where the plot is perfect. Here's the page - James Bowman

What has this to do with philosophy? A lot really, as both pastimes can really be said to be useless. Which is a very good thing. More on this later.

If trees were tall and grasses short,
As in some crazy tale,
If here and there a sea were blue
Beyond the breaking pale,

If a fixed fire hung in the air
To warm me one day through,
If deep green hair grew on great hills,
I know what I should do.
In dark I lie; dreaming that there
Are great eyes cold or kind,
And twisted streets and silent doors,
And living men behind.

Let storm clouds come: better an hour,
And leave to weep and fight,
Than all the ages I have ruled
The empires of the night.

I think that if they gave me leave
Within the world to stand,
I would be good through all the day
I spent in fairyland.
They should not hear a word from me
Of selfishness or scorn,
If only I could find the door,
If only I were born.

By G.K. Chesterton

The last few decades have been marked by a special cultivation of the romance of the future. We seem to have made up our minds to misunderstand what has happened; and we turn, with a sort of relief, to stating what will happen--which is (apparently) much easier. The modern man no longer presents the memoirs of his great grandfather; but is engaged in writing a detailed and authoritative biography of his great-grandson. Instead of trembling before the specters of the dead, we shudder abjectly under the shadow of the babe unborn. This spirit is apparent everywhere, even to the creation of a form of futurist romance. Sir Walter Scott stands at the dawn of the nineteenth century for the novel of the past; Mr. H. G. Wells stands at the dawn of the twentieth century for the novel of the future. The old story, we know, was supposed to begin: "Late on a winter's evening two horsemen might have been seen--." The new story has to begin: "Late on a winter's evening two aviators will be seen--." The movement is not without its elements of charm; there is something spirited, if eccentric, in the sight of so many people fighting over again the fights that have not yet happened; of people still glowing with the memory of tomorrow morning. A man in advance of the age is a familiar phrase enough. An age in advance of the age is really rather odd. What's Wrong with the World - G. K. Chesterton

No metaphysician ever felt the deficiency of language so much as the grateful. -Charles Caleb Colton, author and clergyman (1780-1832)

I went to see "A man for all seasons" by Robert Bolt as performed by Life/Theatre in Sydney, Aust the other day. The playright has written a text that almost plays itself. We performed it some four years ago - when we started our group and I think that it's the only play that we could have started with to be successful as we have been.

Here is a quote which was ommitted from the pacy version this year:

"It is a long road you have opened. For first men will disclaim their hearts and presently they will have no hearts." - More

Buddhist Encourages Christians to Rediscover Their Heritage

"Master" Sees Ignorance as a Key to Loss of Europeans' Faith

STRASBOURG, France, SEPT. 22, 2002 (Zenit.org).- If Buddhism arouses so much interest among Europeans it is because they are ignorant of their Christian spiritual heritage, says a Buddhist master.

Jérôme Ducor, of the Japanese Shinshu movement, exhorted Christian churches of the Continent "to make Europeans rediscover the spiritual riches of the Christian message."

On Friday, Ducor, a Swiss vice director of the Shingyoji Temple in Geneva, opened the second day of the "Consultation on Buddhism in Europe." The meeting, which ended Saturday, was organized by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Council of European Episcopal Conferences.

The master, associated with Buddhism since his adolescence, began by explaining the alleged figure of 1 million Buddhists in Europe.

"It is more a question of sympathizers than of practicing Buddhists," he said. "To these must be added the declarations of famous actresses, such as Sophie Marceau and Isabelle Adjani, who describe themselves as Buddhists, but they are not militant. In fact, they don't understand much about what it actually means."

"Hence, there is much confusion," Ducor continued. "But one thing is sure: Buddhism is very much liked in Europe because it comes across as a liberating faith, a complete spiritual voice."

So why do people turn to Buddhism and not to Christianity?

"In all honesty, I must say that the greater part of these people do not know the Christian heritage," said the Buddhist master, whose statements were published by the Italian episcopal conference's press service. "And it is surprising to see this not only among young people, but also among adults."

He added: "The celebrations are known -- there is attendance at marriages -- but Christian spirituality is not known in depth. If the cultural foundation is missing in the Christian message, then, of course, people begin to search."

"I think that people are searching profoundly," the Buddhist said. "The largest question facing us today is the one related to death. For me, death was the big question. I did not need theoretical answers but practical ways."

Ducor suggests two avenues to Christian churches: to restore a "cultural foundation" to the Christian message, and to make the "spiritual treasure of Christianity" known "so that it is this message that reaches people."

"People need a spiritual life or, even better, they need a lived spirituality," he said. "In this, Christianity has a great treasure. I am thinking of the Church Fathers and their wonderful texts, of prayer and the monastic legacy."
ZE02092222

http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=25416

A cheerful heart is good medicine... (Prov 17:22a)

From the Washington Post Style Invitation, in which it was postulated that English should have male and female nouns and readers were asked to assign a gender to a noun of their choice and explain their reason.

The best submissions:

ZIPLOC BAGS - male, because they hold everything in, but you can always see right through them.

SWISS ARMY KNIFE - male, because even though it appears useful for a wide variety of work, it spends most of its time just opening bottles.

KIDNEYS - female, because they always go to the bathroom in pairs.

SHOE - male, because it is usually unpolished, with its tongue hanging out.

COPIER - female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm up. Because it is an effective reproductive device when the right buttons are pushed. Because it can wreak havoc when the wrong buttons are pushed.

TIRE - male, because it goes bald and often is over inflated.

HOT AIR BALLOON - male, because to get it to go anywhere you have to light a fire under it... and, of course, there's the hot air part.

SPONGES - female, because they are soft and squeezable and retain water.

WEB PAGE - female, because it is always getting hit on.

SUBWAY - male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.

HOURGLASS - female, because over time the weight shifts to the bottom.

HAMMER - male, because it hasn't evolved much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.

REMOTE CONTROL - female... Ha! You thought I'd say male. But consider, it gives man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying.

Received from John B Sidebotham. (GCFL member)

-=+=-

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FOR F R E E! ... AND NO ADS IN THE MAILINGS!

A cheerful heart is good medicine... (Prov 17:22a)

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"The first thing that must strike a non-Christian about a Christian's faith is that it is all too daring. It is too beautiful to be true: The mystery of being, unveiled as absolute love, coming down to wash the feet and the souls of its creatures; a love that assumes the whole burden of our guilt and hate, that accepts the accusations that shower down.. all the scorn and contempt that nails down his incomprehensible movement of self-abasement -- all this absolute love accepts in order to excuse his creature before himself......"

(Hans Urs von Balthasar)

"We must learn to love goodness until we can drink death like water."

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Ursuline Nun Jailed in India, Accused of Converting 94 Hindus
"...Her treatment should serve as a lesson to anyone who equates democracy with liberalism." Source:The Widening Gyre

Do not be proud of the fact that your grandmother was shocked at something which you are accustomed to seeing or hearing without being shocked. It may be that your grandmother was an extremely lively and vital animal, and that you are a paralytic. G. K. Chesterton, As I Was Saying

'I AM staring,' said MacIan at last, 'at that which shall judge us both.'


'Oh yes,' said Turnbull in a tired way; 'I suppose you mean God.'


'No, I don't,' said MacIan, shaking his head, 'I mean him.' And he pointed to the half-tipsy yokel who was ploughing, down the road. 'I mean him. He goes out in the early dawn; he digs or he ploughs a field. Then he comes back and drinks ale, and then he sings a song. All your philosophies and political systems are young compared to him. All your hoary cathedrals -- yes, even the Eternal Church on earth is new compared to him. The most mouldering gods in the British Museum are new facts beside him. It is he who in the end shall judge us all. I am going to ask him which of us is right.'


'Ask that intoxicated turnip-eater?'


'Yes -- which of us is right. Oh, you have long words and I have long words; and I talk of every man being the image of God; and you talk of every man being a citizen and enlightened enough to govern. But, if every man typifies God, there is God. If every man is an enlightened citizen, there is your enlightened citizen. The first man one meets is always man. Let us catch him up.'


G. K. Chesterton, The Ball and the Cross

I am currently reading about Church architecture, online here Ad Orientem. I am looking for a fictional book about the subject also. Any suggestions?

"Conscience has rights because it has duties"-
Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, C.O.

The Friday Five:

When was the last time you...

1. ...sent a handwritten letter? Must be about two years ago now. I really enjoy sending letters and I try to make them worth it by writing out a draft and making the whole thing long enough to read.
2. ...baked something from scratch or made something by hand? From scratch? Pretty much rules me out completely. I did mend my trousers the other day by sewing the pockets back together as I don't have enough money for a new pair yet.
3. ...camped in a tent? I went up the coast to a lovely warm beach community with my sister and a friend of hers. Must be nigh on five years now.
4. ...volunteered your time to church, school, or community? I used to be part of the Young Legion of Marg group in my local parish and we would go and visit hospitals and half way houses. I always dreaded going, even though I knew that I was doing a good thing. Strange heh?
5. ...helped a stranger? I carried an elderly looking woman's suitcase down the stairs when I was overseas last month. Does that count?

Quote from my desk diary
Once a woman married for security and worked for a hobby; now she works for security and marries for a hobby. P.K. Shaw

And why should the good of anyone depend on the prayer of another? I can only answer with the return question, "Why should my love be powerless to help another?" George McDonald

Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows.

Charles Reade

Land of Hope and Glory

Dear Land of Hope, thy hope is crowned.
God make thee mightier yet!
On Sov'ran brows, beloved, renowned,
Once more thy crown is set.
Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained,
Have ruled thee well and long;
By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained,
Thine Empire shall be strong.


Land of Hope and Glory,
Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee,
Who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider
Shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty,
Make thee mightier yet.


Thy fame is ancient as the days,
As Ocean large and wide:
A pride that dares, and heeds not praise,
A stern and silent pride:
Not that false joy that dreams content
With what our sires have won;
The blood a hero sire hath spent
Still nerves a hero son.

In Explanation

HER lips were so near
That--what else could I do?
You'll be angry, I fear,
But her lips were so near--
Well, I can't make it clear,
Or explain it to you,
But--her lips were so near
That--what else could I do?

Walter Learned

"If the man is the head of the family, the woman is the heart, and as he occupies the chief place in ruling, so she may and ought to claim for herself the chief place in love."
Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii

Principles and Habits of a Loving Marriage

by Bud Macfarlane Jr

Pray together every day, out loud, as a couple.
Rely completely on God's Divine Providence.
Tithe 10%.
Don't try to force your will on your spouse.
Offer each other constant and copious affection.
Listen carefully and watch closely.
Show love by small acts of charity.
Ask your guardian angel for help.
Spend long periods of time together--"Couch Time."
Take the long view.
Encourage generously and encourage often.
Don't interrupt rudely or use uncivil tones of voice.
Change quickly and change easily for the better.
Ask Our Lady for all things, great and small.

You may vist the webpage of Catholicity

Quotes about character

Here are some sample quotes from "Warrior Culture of the US Marines" :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0965081451/thejollyroger

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
--Edmund Burke

In matters of principle, stand like a rock! --Thomas Jefferson

Who here is so vile that he will not love his country? --William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar

You will never know how much it cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you use it wisely. --John Adams

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. --Benjamin Franklin

America is great because she is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. --Alexis de Tocqueville

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! --Patrick Henry

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it. --Thucydides


Great deeds are usually wrought at great risk. --Herodotus

One man with courage is a majority. --Thomas Jefferson

Stand firm, for well you know that hardship and danger are the price of glory.
--Alexander the Great

Our business in the field of fight
Is not to question, but to fight. --Homer

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
--William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar

The pen is mightier than the sword. --Edward G.E. Bulwer-Lytton

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. --Mark Twain

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. --George Orwell

War hath no fury like a noncombatant. --Charles E. Montague

Semper Fi brothers! God Bless the United States and the Corps! --2ndLt. John E. Fales USMC

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.
--John Stuart Mill

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." --Thomas Jefferson

Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake aganst the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, (1) where late the sweet birds sang
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Shakespeare

Ulysses
by Alfred Tennyson

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

"There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes."
--The Last Battle

"Joy is the serious business of Heaven."
--Letters to Malcolm

"'You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you,'" said the Lion."
--The Silver Chair

"'Yes,' said Queen Lucy. 'In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.'"
--The Last Battle

"'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver...'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. but he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'"
--The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe