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Lady in the library (Woman reading, title unknown), 1889 work by the Norwegian artist

Asta Nørregaard (1853-1933).

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"Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This is truly what I strive for more than anything

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The Girl With a Cat - Robert Julius Beyschlag ( German, 1838-1903)

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A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach (1885), by Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857–1947)

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"If I don't pray in the morning before I go out into the world, I'm no good to anyone I meet."

- E--, Secular Ursuline

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"The Heart of Compassion"

Compassionate God,

Your generous presence

is always attuned to hurting ones.

Your listening ear is bent

toward the cries of the wounded.

Your heart of love

fills with tears for the suffering.

-- Joyce Rupp

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Look at this creature. Behold this small man. In the face of it all* he does what he can. And every night, in spite of his scars, with all of his might he sings to the stars.

*Anodonthyla theoi is Critically Endangered due to habitat loss

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God loves you.

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Do you ever go for a walk and everywhere you look you see God? In the leaves, the gravel, the clouds, the grass. In the people walking by, and in their dogs who strain their lead trying to greet you. In the puddles left by rain, in the lingering petrichor, in the cool air flowing into and out of your lungs. Everywhere, everything- all Him.

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God in a Box

God in a cloud In a womb In a box

God walked in a garden With his son of the dust

God in a garden In the cool In the dark

God spoke from a fire With his shepherd in the night

God in a fire In the heat In the light

God born from a woman Under the house of bread

God in a womb In a cave In the dirt

God perished on a tree With a crown of sharp thorn

God on a tree In a shroud In a tomb

God rose from beaten death With the light of the dawn

God king forever Of the heavens Of the earth

God with us in a box Of wheat and of wine

God in a box In the mouth In the heart

-Ivor Jerome, 2024

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José y Maria, by Everett Patterson.

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“My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me, I cannot choose the colors He worketh steadily. Oft times He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride forget He sees the upper but I the under side. Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly, shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why. The dark threads are as needed in the Weaver’s skillful hand, as threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.”

— Benjamin Malachi Franklin (1882-1965)

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“Fold away all your bright-tinted dresses, 

Turn the key on your jewels today,

And the wealth of your tendril-like tresses

Braid back in a serious way;

No more delicate gloves, no more laces,

No more trifling in boudoir or bower,

But come with your souls in your faces

To meet the stern wants of the hour.”

– Anonymous, from Hospital Duties