..It is the one time Dante calls such explicit attention to the idea of contrapasso-a word for which we have no exact translation, no precise definition in English, because the word in itself is its definition.. Well, my dear Longfellow, I would say countersuffering .. the notion that each sinner must be punished by continuing the damage of his own sin against him.. just as these Schismatics are cut apart.. . Matthew Pearl
The reality of loving God is loving him like he's a Superhero who actually saved you from stuff rather than a Santa Claus who merely gave you some stuff.
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Criss Jami
When it was over, she gathered him in her arms. And told him the terrible irony of her life. That she had wanted to be dead all those years while her brother had been alive. That had been her sin. And this was her penance....
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Melina Marchetta
When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The word ‘sin’ is derived from the Indo-European root ‘es-, ’ meaning ‘to be.’ When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a [person] trapped in patriarchy, which is the religion of the entire planet, ‘to be’ in the fullest sense is ‘to...
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Mary Daly
More Quotes By Matthew Pearl
Books do pretend. ..but squeezed in between is even more that is true–without what you may call the lies, the pages would be too light for the truth, you see?
'Pity without rigor would be cowardly egotism, mere sentimentality.'
Longfellow smiled. "A great part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, my dear Lowell, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
Believe that when I am at once a man's friend I am always so-nor is it so very hard to bring me to it. And though a man may enjoy himself in being my enemy, he cannot make me HIS for longer than I wish....
It is not when a man is at the end of his life, but when a man is at the end of his profession, that his soul shows itself.
