Quotes from Jan Karon

Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else. Ogden Nash

When we receive the bread and blood, we, also, are touching God...I know you recognize that wonderous fact, dear brother, but sometimes it's good to be reminded.

In the end, would he be able to say with Paul, I have fought a good fight! I have finished the course! I have kept the faith! Time, which tells everything, would tell that, also.

cats." "A fellow named Robert Heinlein said, 'Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.

If you yield it up, God will make it enough

We look for visions of heaven," Oswald Chambers had written, "and we never dream that all the time God is in the commonplace things and people around us.

Keep a clear eye toward life's end. Do not forget your purpose and testing as God's creature. What you are in His sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received... but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage. -Francis of Assisi

Charles Spurgeon had said, "Christianity rests upon the fact that Christ is risen from the dead, His sovereignty depends upon His resurrection.

How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it's irresistible. - C. S. Lewis

Ancora imparo (I am still learning). —Michelangelo, at age 87

What is your hope,' said Paul, 'for any ministry you may undertake?' 'To help people love God so they can learn to love themselves and each other.

All people are children when they sleep. There's no war in them then . . . They . . . open their hands halfway, soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters. . . . If only we could speak to one another then when our hearts are half-open flowers Words like golden bees would drift in.

The right seminary gives you tools. The Holy Spirit gives you the user's manual. How the tools are used is different with everybody. A thousand priests, a thousand ministries. All glorifying one God.

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at. Goethe

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

Give us grace when we hurt each other . . . to recognize and acknowledge our fault, and to seek each other's forgiveness and yours.

A loved one from us has gone, A voice we love is stilled. A place is vacant in our home, Which never will be filled. Estelle Woodhouse, 1898-1987

thus far, and grace will lead me home . . . .

Soon, he wanted to preach on personal, as compared to institutional, salvation. Confessing Christ before others was an act of institutional salvation that most churchgoers had done long ago. He wanted to get at something more compelling, more life-changing-the process of personal confession, of personal relationship with Christ. He also wanted to point out that being a priest no more assured him of heaven than being a chipmunk would assure him of nuts for winter.

people who keep dogs . . . are cowards who haven't got the guts to bite people themselves. August Strindberg

For all things work together for good . . ." he murmured, quoting from the book of Romans. "Use this for good," he prayed.

He believed in Father Brad, who conceded with Goethe that 'correction is good, but encouragement is better.

How wonderful that it's possible to ensure our own happiness of another. Is it our job to make a beloved happy? It is not. The other person always has a choice. It is our job to generously outdo, no matter what, and discover that the prize in this contest of generosity is more love.

There's no other way I can think of to put it—but when you let him move into your life, the garbage moves out. The anger starts to go, and the resentment, and the fear.