Christian one liners
People are funny; they want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and the back of the church.
The task at hand is never as great as the power behind us.
The best mathematical equation I have ever seen is 1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given.
Some people are kind, polite, and sweet spirited until you try to sit in their pews.
Some minds are like concrete. Thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.
Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.
"Lord, save me from these sullen-faced saints!"
—St. Teresa of Avila
“A sad saint is a sorry saint.”
—St. Francis de Sales
"Happiness is the natural life of man."
—St. Thomas Aquinas
"I want no long-faced saints."
—St. John Bosco
“Always remember: Joy is not merely incidental to your spiritual quest. It is vital.”
“Finding true joy is the hardest of all spiritual tasks.”
—Rebbe Nachman of Breslov
Shinto
by Jorge Luis Borges
When sorrow lays us low
for a second we are saved
by humble windfalls
of the mindfulness or memory:
the taste of a fruit, the taste of water,
that face given back to us by a dream,
the first jasmine of November,
the endless yearning of the compass,
a book we thought was lost,
the throb of a hexameter,
the slight key that opens a house to us,
the smell of a library, or of sandalwood,
the former name of a street,
the colors of a map,
an unforeseen etymology,
the smoothness of a filed fingernail,
the date we were looking for,
the twelve dark bell-strokes, tolling as we count,
a sudden physical pain.
Eight million Shinto deities
travel secretly throughout the earth.
Those modest gods touch us--
touch us and move on.
Ragnarök
by Jorge Luis Borges
In dreams, writes Coleridge, images form the impressions that we believe them to trigger; we are not afraid because we're clutched by a sphinx, but rather a sphinx embodies the fear that we feel. If this is so, can a mere account of one's dream--shapes transmit the stupor, the elation, the false alarms, the menace, and the jubilation that is woven into last night's sleep? I will experiment with this account, without restraint; perhaps the fact that the dream was a single stream of consciousness expunges or mitigates this essential difficulty.
The place was the School of Arts; it was dark. Everything was a little different (as the surface of things is in dreams); a slight magnification altered everything. We were picking the department heads. I was talking with Pedro Henriquez Urena, who by this night has been dead for many years. Suddenly--it comes to mind-we were startled by a massive demonstration or the disharmony of rank amateur street musicians. The shrieks of men and animals rose up from the lower floors. One voice called out: "Here they come!" and then "The Gods! The Gods!" Four or five beings emerged from the mob and took over the platform of the great hall. We all applauded, weeping; it was the Gods finally returning from centuries of exile. The platform exaggerated their prowess, they flung their heads backwards, and shoved their chests forward, arrogantly accepting our humble tribute. One held laurels, made--without a doubt-from the untouchable botany of dreams; another made a wide gesture, extending his hand which was a claw; one of the faces of Janus looked fearfully on the crooked beak of Thoth. Perhaps incited by our applause, one--I don't remember which--burst forth in a victorious, unbelievably disagreeable clucking, with something akin to gurgling and hissing. Things, after that moment, began to change.
Everyone began to suspect (perhaps excessively) that the Gods did not know how to speak. Centuries of life in exile, living like wild animals, had atrophied their once humanoid appearance; the Muslim moon and the Roman cross had been ruthless with these escapees. Low down Cro-Magnon brows, yellow teeth, meager Oriental mustachios, and beast-like lips obviously broadcasted the collapse of the lineage of Olympus. Their clothing didn't allude to decent decorous poverty, but of the garish luxury of gambling dens and brothels. In a buttonhole, a red carnation bled; we detected a dagger's outline beneath a tight-fitting coat. All of a sudden, we sensed that they were bluffing on their last card, that they were underhanded, dangerously ignorant, and cruel as aging predators, and that if we relented in fear or pity, they would destroy us.
We drew our heavy revolvers (the guns appeared immediately in the dream) and we happily slaughtered the Gods.
Proverbs 16:32
"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; he that rules his spirit is better than he that takes a city."
Proverbs 18:2
"The fool has no love for reflection but only for airing his opinion."
Proverbs 24:17
"Should your enemy fall do not rejoice over him, when he stumbles do not let your heart exalt. For the Lord will be displeased and turn his anger from him."
Proverbs 26:17
"Like catching a stray dog by the tail, so is interfering in the quarralls of others"
Proverbs 18:2
"Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."
Proverbs 21:9
"It is better to dwell in a corner of an attic than with a brawling woman in the biggest of mansions."
