fr. “April Sunshine” by Jackie Kay

All sins are attempts to fill voids.

Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace (via philosophybits)

{وَرَأَيْتُ أَنَّ طَلَبَ الْمُحْتَاجِ إلَى الْمُحْتَاجِ سَفَهٌ مِنْ رَأيِهِ وَضَلَّةٌ مِنْ عَقْلِهِ}

How luminous was this line of prayer by Imam Sajjad (a): “Foolish and misguided is the one who is needy and then seeks help from the needy,” How sweet is this prayer, how worthy of being kissed! The One Who gave us everything, Who gives us everything, Who is closer to you than anyone else, Who hears your words better than anyone else, Who has power over everything, how could you speak to other than Him; find comfort from other than Him; expect help and rescue from other than Him? This one line alone from Sahifa Sajjadiyyah is a precious gift, and worthy of our sincere contemplation.

— Ayatollah Jawadi Amoli (r)

Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, trans. Sarah Ruden

In one of his last sermons (17.2), St. Augustine declares to his congregation:

“Sed nolo saluus esse sine uobis.”

“I don't want to be saved without you all.”

To say that the world is not worth anything, that life is of no value, and to give evil as the proof is absurd, for if these things are worthless what does evil take from us?

Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace (via philosophybits)

Do not be afraid to suffer; return that heaviness to the earth's own weight; heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.

Rainer Maria Rilke

We should seek neither to escape suffering nor to suffer less, but to remain untainted by suffering.

Simone Weil

Say frequently, in the midst of your contradictions and sufferings: This is the path to heaven.

St. Francis de Sales

Pray for me not to waste the grace of my suffering.

Bishop Łoziński

“On the Day of Judgement, God will not compare us with each other; He will compare us with who we could have become.”

— Sheikh Mohammad Ali Shomali

Fyodor Dostoevsky ― The Brothers Karamazov

Softest of mornings, hello. And what will you do today, I wonder; to my heart? And how much honey can the heart stand, I wonder, before it must break?

— Mary Oliver, ‘Devotions’

همی گویم و گفته‌ام بارها

 بود کیش من مهر دلدارها

پرستش به مستی‌ست در کیش مهر

برونند زین جرگه هشیارها

Continuously I say, and I have said many times, My path is the path of lovers. Worshiping [God] is intoxication in the path of Love. Excluded from this house are the sober ones.

~ Allameh Tabataba'i ❤️

“and whosoever doeth evil or betrays their own soul, and thereafter sincerely seeks God's healing forgiveness, will find God to be Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” {4:110}