Darin Lovelace

“He was empty, and he was full. He was alone. Yes, he was alone among men. He was an alien, a stranger and sojourner like all his fathers before him. He knew now the anguish of exiles, the depth of their loneliness. And he saw that this was a gift, for it was the state of pilgrims journeying toward their own true home.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, Strangers and Sojourners

“You mean, how have we kept together all these years? With so much to separate us?” “Yes. How did you?” “Well, it wasn’t always serene. But many questions do resolve themselves without words. You stand side by side for so long and have other things to fight than each other.” Yes, she loved the man, her husband. But still did not know him. At least not with the knowledge of the laboratory. It was an inner kind of knowing maybe, an underdeveloped sense.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, Strangers and Sojourners

“As John Henry Cardinal Newman says: “Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk; then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and pride of man.”10 The idea of giving God everything sounded good in principle; living it was another matter. I did not know if I could give him that. But I sensed that if I didn’t, if I did not say Yes, step by step, I would follow the path of the fallen angels who said, “I will not serve.”
― Tyler Blanski, An Immovable Feast: How I Gave Up Spirituality for a Life of Religious Abundance

“Men don’t cover their heads during Mass, because they are a liturgical reminder of the One to whom all of us—men and women together—are united by Baptism: Christ the Bridegroom. Women cover their heads as a liturgical reminder of who all of us—men and women together—are by Baptism: Mother Church, the Bride of the Lamb. Together in the Mass, we tell the story of the wedding of heaven and earth, Christ and his Bride, the first thing.”
― Tyler Blanski, An Immovable Feast: How I Gave Up Spirituality for a Life of Religious Abundance