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In the valleys after the sun rolls behind the hills, and just before the sky turns gray and the little brown birds seek their bushes, there is a period of violet light eerie in its effects. The jonquil's yellow and the dogwood's whiteness become almost vocal in the intensities of their colors and the sides of hills and buildings lose definition of surface and become softer in aspect.

In the valleys after the sun rolls behind the hills, and just before the sky turns gray and the little brown birds seek their bushes, there is a period of violet light eerie in its effects. The jonquil's yellow and the dogwood's whiteness become almost vocal in the intensities of their colors and the sides of hills and buildings lose definition of surface and become softer in aspect.

Book 1 Chapter 10

On Avoiding Superfluous Words

Flee as much as possible the company of worldly people. For discussing worldly matters, no matter how good the intention, is a great obstacle to the spiritual life. If we are not careful, we can be easily deceived and attracted by the vanity of the world. Often I regret the things I have said and wished that I had not spent so much time in worldly company.

That was a great distinction between them. My grandmother had not the slightest fear of death and would speak of it with warm familiarity. But my mother couldn't abide the thought. Whenever a hint of death brushed her attention, she frowned and made an annoyed gesture with her left hand, as if someone in her presence had made a joke of dubious taste.

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we're asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good

Book 1 Chapter 7

On False Confidence and Arrogance

It is foolish to put your trust in humans or in any creature for that matter. Why should you mind serving others or being poor in the eyes of the world, as long as you do it for the love of Jesus Christ? Put all your confidence in God, but do not trust yourself. Do what you can to please Him and He will reward you well for your good will.

"Now it's a truth," my grandmother told me, "that life is difficult and man is condemned to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow and we had all better take heed and store up for the hard times a-coming. I've never been one to say a body should spend the livelong day in frolic and foolish merriment. But there's a cast of mind that makes things cheerfuler.

Reflect then how great an evil it is for us, who ought to live so purely as not even to need written words, but to yield up our hearts, as books, to the Spirit; now that we have lost that honor, and have come to have need of these, to fail again in duly employing even this second remedy.

"It were indeed proper for us not at all to require the aid of the written Word, but to exhibit a life so pure, that the grace of the Spirit should be instead of books to our souls, and that as these are inscribed with ink, even so should our hearts be with the Spirit. But, since we have utterly put away from us this grace, come, let us at any rate embrace the second best course."

- Homily 1 on Matthew