Darin Lovelace

“Why is there so much evil in the world?” She sighed. It had been easier when he was younger and was asking where thunder comes from and how do chicks know when to hatch themselves. “Evil?” she said now, doubting his understanding of the word. “What kind of evil do you mean?” “Like the war, those terrible things Jan went through, the Jews and all that.” “Oh.” She was silent for such a long breath that he wondered if she intended to answer. It was the duty of grandparents to inform the generations of the conditions into which they had been born. Though silence itself might speak most eloquently.”
― Michael D. O'Brien, Strangers and Sojourners

“Everyone is molded”, said his mother. “We choose what to mold our children with. Nothing grows in a vacuum. If you think you’re making a free human being just by letting him grow spontaneously, you won’t end up with a free human being. You’ll have a patchwork boy composed of whatever is prowling about in his culture. He’ll be about as far from freedom as you can get.”
― 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

“Is it safe?” someone said. “Safe?” I said. “Of course it isn’t safe. But it’s good.”
― Tyler Blanski, An Immovable Feast: How I Gave Up Spirituality for a Life of Religious Abundance