"The fewer the words, the better the prayer."

“The fewer the words, the better the prayer.”

~ Martin Luther 

Reflections: Winter Quotations on winter to stir h…

Reflections: Winter
Quotations on winter to stir heart and mind.
Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman | posted 1/29/2007 08:32AM

AS LONG as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22 (NRSV)

[GOD] gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down hail like crumbs— who can stand before his cold?
Psalm 147:16-17 (NRSV)

IT IS a pleasure to the real lover of nature to give winter all the glory he can, for summer will make its own way and speak its own praises.
Dorothy Wordsworth, Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth

LET US LEARN our obligation to thankfulness—for warm houses, clothes, and beds; for comfortable food and fuel to relieve us against the rigor of the cold!
William Cooper, Concio Hyemalis: A Winter Sermon

THE COLD autumn rains, the gray austerity of winter woodscape, the pearl purity of December snowfall—all awaken a desire inside of me that, I know, God will not disappoint.
Vigen Guroian, The Fragrance of God

I LIKE these cold, gray, winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.
Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

HAVE YOU entered the storehouses
of the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses
of the hail?
Job 38:22 (NRSV)

IN SEEDTIME, learn; in harvest, teach; in winter, enjoy.
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

COLD AND CHILL, bless the Lord.
Dew and rain, bless the Lord.
Frost and chill, bless the Lord.
Ice and snow, bless the Lord.
Nights and days, bless the Lord.
Light and darkness, bless the Lord.
Canticle of the Three Youths

I AM weary of
The winter way of loving
things for reasons.
Richard Wilbur, “Winter Spring”

SPRING, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition.
Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook

IS IT too much to say, in winter, that I die? Something of me dies at least.
Frederick Buechner, Godric

AND WHAT else was there to do in the winter? Stay inside and read. Or write. Stay inside and dream. Stay inside and look, safely, outside. The Muse might as well be invited—who else would venture out?
Patricia Hampl, A Romantic Education

IF WINTER COMES, can spring be far behind?
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind”

THERE ARE only two seasons—winter and baseball.
Bill Veeck, “Seasons”

"I believe in the culture war. And you know what? …

“I believe in the culture war. And you know what? If I have to take a side in the culture war I’ll take [the conservative Christian] side. Because if you give me the choice of Paris Hilton or Jesus, I’ll take Jesus.”

—Alexandra Pelosi, creator of the new HBO documentary “Friends of God” and daughter of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. She was quoted by The New York Times.

– Yes, if only the culture war was that simple.

"A Christian is someone who shares the sufferings …

“A Christian is someone who shares the sufferings of God in the world.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Be patient with everyone, but above all with your…

“Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself.”
– Francis de Sales

"In Augustine's view, the incentive for so much le…

“In Augustine’s view, the incentive for so much learning is not then by any means mere mastery of knowledge for its own sake; such ambition “puffs up” the mind and makes it an object of idolatrous worship. What prompts earnest and excellent scholarship in the Christian is “fear of the Lord”. – from James Sire’s Habits of the Mind which quoted David Lyle Jeffrey’s The People of the Book

I came across this line and for whatever reason, I…

I came across this line and for whatever reason, I am bothered by it.

“And I will say further, that if there exists in a man faith in God joined to a life of purity and moral elevation, it is not so much the believing in God that makes him good, as the being good, thanks to God, that makes him believe in Him. Goodness is the best source of spiritual clear-sightedness.” – Miguel De Unamun in The Tragic Sense of Life

Of course, there is a lot to say about goodness. To me the problem is that the pre-determination (“that makes him believe in Him”) and the subject of goodness implies some kind of free will. Normally, I’d read it, agree, disagree, appreciate it or forget about it, but this one has made itself one of those “splinters”. So, I find myself picking at it and frustrated.

"Having reconsidered your kind offer of several th…

“Having reconsidered your kind offer of several thousand dolls last week, the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation would like to receive them. We believe that with some effort we will be able to find homes for them all.”

—Retired Maj. Bill Grein, vice president of the Toys for Tots Foundation, in a letter to David Sosha, president of Beverly Hills Teddy Bear, rescinding an earlier decision not to accept a donation of 4,000 talking dolls of Jesus, Mary, David, Moses, and Esther.

No commentary, just found it interesting.

"What I'd have settled for/ You've blown so far aw…

“What I’d have settled for/ You’ve blown so far away/ What You brought me to/ I thought I could not reach.”

Rich Mullins

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“If I didn’t believe in God I wouldn’t be here, I’d be in a mental home someplace.”
IRENE SMITH, of Brooklyn, whose firefighter son, Leon, died in the Sept. 11 attacks.