| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: mire? Is this child more or less crazed than I am? Has he taken a
bolder step in the way of faith? He believes, and his belief no doubt
will lead him into some path of light like that in which I walk. But
though he is as beautiful as an angel, is he not too feeble to stand
fast in such a struggle?"
Abashed by the presence of his companion, whose voice of thunder
expressed to him his own thoughts, as lightning expresses the will of
Heaven, the boy was satisfied to gaze at the stars with a lover's
eyes. Overwhelmed by a luxury of sentiment, which weighed on his
heart, he stood there timid and weak--a midge in the sunbeams.
Sigier's discourse had proved to them the mysteries of the spiritual
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be
repentance.
2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance,
i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by
the priests.
3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no
inward repentance which does not outwardly work divers
mortifications of the flesh.
4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as
hatred of self continues; for this is the true inward
repentance, and continues until our entrance into the kingdom
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: forth all their strength to draw some beam or great piece of
ship's timber down a rough mountain-track, and they pant and
sweat as they, go even so did Menelaus and pant and sweat as they
bore the body of Patroclus. Behind them the two Ajaxes held
stoutly out. As some wooded mountain-spur that stretches across a
plain will turn water and check the flow even of a great river,
nor is there any stream strong enough to break through it--even
so did the two Ajaxes face the Trojans and stem the tide of their
fighting though they kept pouring on towards them and foremost
among them all was Aeneas son of Anchises with valiant Hector. As
a flock of daws or starlings fall to screaming and chattering
The Iliad |
