I Have Known Him Nearly

To Be Sorry And Glad Together Is To Be Perceptive To The Richness Of Life.

The Whole Universe Was Stilled As If Listening For A Voice. For The Space Of One Heartbeat There Was Peace On Earth. For One Fraction Of A Moment There Was No Deed Of Violence Wrought On Earth, No Hatred, No Fire, No Whirlwind, No Pain, No Fear. Existence Rested Against The Heart Of God, Then Sighed And Journeyed Again.

I Doubt If We Nuns Are Really As Self-sacrificing As We Must Seem To Be To You Who Live In The World. We Don't Give Everything For Nothing, You Know. The Mystery Plays Fair.

The Dawn Came - Not The Flaming Sky That Promises Storm, But A Golden Dawn Of Infinite Promise. The Birds Came Flying Up Out Of The East In Wedge-shaped Formation, And The Mist Lifted In Soft Wreaths Of Sun-shot Silver. Colour Came Back To The World. The Grass Glowed With A Green So Vivid That It Seemed Pulsing, Like Flame, From Some Hidden Fire In The Earth, The Distant Woods Took On All The Amazing Deep Crimsons And Purples Of Their Winter Colouring, The Banks Were Studded With Their Jewels Of Lichens And Bright Moss, And Above The Wet Hedges Shone With Sun-shot Orbs Of Light.

If One's Intellectual Equipment Was Not Great, One's Spiritual Experience Not Deep, The Result Of Doing One's Very Best Could Only Seem Very Lightweight In Comparison With The Effort Involved. But Perhaps That Was Not Important. The Mysterious Power That Commanded Men Appeared To Him To Ask Of Them Only Obedience And The Maximum Of Effort And To Remain Curiously Indifferent As To The Results.