Quote of the Day (Vaclav Havel, on ‘The Moment of Most Profound Doubt’)

“Isn’t it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourished human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity.”— Czech President, dramatist and dissident Vaclav Havel (1936-2011), Speech at the Salzburg Festival, July 26, 1990 

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. Augustine of Hippo, on Faith, Hope, and Love)

“When, then, we believe that good is about to come, this is nothing else but to hope for it. Now what shall I say of love? Without it, faith profits nothing; and in its absence, hope cannot exist. The Apostle James says: ‘The devils also believe, and tremble.’ — that is, they, having neither hope nor love, but believing that what we love and hope for is about to come, are in terror. And so the Apostle Paul approves and commends ‘the faith that works by love’; and this certainly cannot exist without hope. Wherefore there is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither love nor hope without faith.”— Roman Catholic memoirist, theologian, and bishop St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), The Enchiridion: Being a Treatise on Faith, Hope and Love, translated by Professor J. F. Shaw (1883)

Quote of the Day (Steven Petrow, on How ‘Joy is Always Present’)

“Joy is always present—in the silver lining, in the resiliency, in our memories, in the connection to those who share your grief when it comes. It’s in the everyday world, on good days as well as bad ones. You only have to look for it, be confident that it’s there, and be open to it when you find it.”— American journalist and author Steven Petrow, The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Linings— Even on Your Darkest Days (2024)

(The image accompanying this post of Steven Petrow was taken Jan. 1, 2002.)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. John Climacus, on Repentance, ‘The Daughter of Hope’)

“Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience.”— Christian monk St. John Climacus (?-649 AD), The Ladder of Divine Ascent (ca. 600 AD), translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (1959)

The image accompanying this post, The Return of the Prodigal Son, was created by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt (1606-1669) from 1661 to 1668. That parable is one of the greatest biblical stories of repentance, and a useful one to keep in mind in this Lenten season.

Rembrandt's painting is one of the finest of his career. Interestingly, we never see the face of the prodigal, but of the forgiving father--and, off to the side, the son who never went away and is glowering now with resentment over his parent's perceived favoritism.

Quote of the Day (Ursula Le Guin, on Writers Who Can ‘Imagine Real Grounds for Hope’)

“Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom — poets, visionaries — realists of a larger reality.”—Sci-fi author Ursula Le Guin (1929-2018), “Speech in Acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters,” Nov. 19, 2014

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. Paul to the Thessalonians, on Hope Despite Grief)

“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

“Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.

“For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

“Thus we shall always be with the Lord.

“Therefore, console one another with these words.”—1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18

The 1612 image accompanying this post, Apostle St. Paul, was painted by the Spanish Renaissance painter, sculptor, and architect El Greco (1541-1614), and hangs in Museo del Greco, Toledo, Spain.

Quote of the Day (Barbara Kingsolver, on Living Inside a Hope)

“The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. What I want is almost so simple I can't say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed.” — American novelist, essayist and poet Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams (1990)

Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on Hope in Memory)

“Is there hope in memory? There must be. Without hope memory would be morbid and sterile. Without memory, hope would be empty of meaning, and above all, empty of gratitude.”— Romanian-born American writer, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), address at “Days of Remembrance” ceremony, U.S. Holocaust Museum, Washington DC, April 2002 

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Yves Congar, on ‘The Patient Sower’ as the Person of Hope)

“I have often thought of the words of Saint Paul: ’Patience breeds hope’ (Romans 5:4). One would have thought that it was just the reverse, that a man could wait patiently because he had hope in his heart. In a certain sense this is true, but the order in which Saint Paul puts it reveals a more profound truth. Those who do not know how to suffer, do not know how to hope either. People who are in too much of a hurry, who wish to grasp the object of their desires immediately, are also incapable of it. The patient sower, who entrusts his seed to the earth and the sun, is also the man of hope.”— French Dominican friar, priest, and theologian Yves Congar (1904-1995), Dialogue Between Christians, translated by Philip Loretz, S.A. (1966)

Quote of the Day (Ted Chiang, on the Double Meaning of ‘Aspiration’)

“It’s no coincidence that ‘aspiration’ means both hope and the act of breathing.

“When we speak, we use the breath in our lungs to give our thoughts a physical form. The sounds we make are simultaneously our intentions and our life force.”— American science-fiction writer Ted Chiang, The Great Silence, originally published in e-flux Journal, May 2015

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Michael Gerson, on ‘The Wild Hope of a Living God’)

“Those who hold to the wild hope of a living God can say certain things:

“In our right minds – as our most sane and solid selves – we know that the appearance of a universe ruled by cruel chaos is a lie and that the cold void is actually a sheltering sky.

“In our right minds, we know that life is not a farce but a pilgrimage – or maybe a farce and a pilgrimage, depending on the day.

“In our right minds, we know that hope can grow within us – like a seed, like a child.

“In our right minds, we know that transcendence sparks and crackles around us – in a blinding light, and a child’s voice, and fire, and tears, and a warmed heart, and a sculpture just down the hill – if we open ourselves to seeing it.

“Fate may do what it wants. But this much is settled. In our right minds, we know that love is at the heart of all things.

“Many, understandably, pray for a strength they do not possess. But God’s promise is somewhat different: That even when strength fails, there is perseverance. And even when perseverance fails, there is hope. And even when hope fails, there is love. And love never fails.”— Washington Post columnist, PBS NewsHour political analyst, and former White House speechwriter Michael Gerson (1964-2022), Guest Sermon at Washington’s National Cathedral, February 19, 2019

The image accompanying this post was taken of Michael Gerson between 2001 and 2005, when he was director of speechwriting at the White House.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Dorothy Day, on ‘The Sense of Our Small Effort’)

“People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”—American political and social activist—and Roman Catholic convert—Dorothy Day (1897-1980), The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day (1952)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Anne Lamott, on How ‘Hope Begins in the Dark’)

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.” —Novelist-essayist Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1995)

Quote of the Day (Norman Cousins, on ‘The Case for Hope’)

“The case for hope has never rested on provable facts or rational assessment. Hope by its very nature is independent of the apparatus of logic." —Editor-essayist Norman Cousins (1915-1990), “Hope and Practical Realities,” Saturday Review World, Dec. 14, 1974

Quote of the Day (Thomas Wolfe, on Americans’ ‘Almost Quenchless Hope,’ Even Amid the Great Depression)

“It is also true—and this is a curious paradox about America—that these same men who stand upon the corner and wait around on Sunday afternoons for nothing are filled at the same time with an almost quenchless hope, an almost boundless optimism, an almost indestructible belief that something is bound to turn up, something is sure to happen. This is a peculiar quality of the American soul, and it contributes largely to the strange enigma of our life, which is so incredibly mixed of harshness and of tenderness, of innocence and of crime, of loneliness and of good fellowship, of desolation and of exultant hope, of terror and of courage, of nameless fear and of soaring conviction, of brutal, empty, naked, bleak, corrosive ugliness, and of beauty so lovely and so overwhelming that the tongue is stopped by it, and the language for it has not yet been uttered.”—American novelist Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938), You Can’t Go Home Again (1940)

Quote of the Day (Margaret Atwood, on Hope as ‘Part of the Human Tool Kit’)

“Hope is part of the human tool kit. We need it to go on in the face of negative odds. I’m probably an inherently hopeful person. If I weren't, why would I write? Think how much hope is involved! You hope your book will be good. You hope you will finish it. You hope it will be published. You hope the perfect reader will come across it, and find all the breadcrumbs you've dropped in the forest, and also find some meaning or delight in them. That's a lot of hope.” —Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, “Margaret Atwood on the Wages of Whining” (part of the “Sane Advice for Crazy Times” article cluster), Esquire, October 2018

Photo of the Day: The Three Hopes of Spring

I took this photo a couple of days ago, when—much to my surprise—this group of flowers appeared in my backyard.

I do not possess my late father’s green thumb, so these shot up from the earth with no tending by me. I think of these as an example of stubborn hope—the instinct in nature and people for rebirth, even without our best efforts—even when so much conspires against it.

There is a second kind of hope, false hope—the illusory belief that matters will advance far beyond the need for us to supervise or take precautions. In other words, it’s the difference between pleasant surprise that a few flowers will spring up after abundant rainfall and an expectation that an entire garden can grow without the need to plant seeds or to ward off creatures that will nibble at or rampage through the resulting product.

This past weekend, I saw more people than I’ve glimpsed in more than a year in restaurants. These throngs, of course, are the result partly of climbing temperatures, partly of pent-up demand after a year of isolation, and partly of relaxed rules for gathering together.

In the coming months, we’re going to see if these crowds and others sure to follow have come out due to stubborn hope or false hope. I’d feel much better if our lives take a turn for the better through a third type of hope, realistic hope: that matters can and will improve as long as we remember that a good outcome is a product of human care rather than human wishfulness.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Poet Christina Rossetti, on Finding ‘Hope in Grief’)

“Say not, vain this world's turmoil,
Vain its trouble and its toil,
All its hopes and fears are vain,
Long, unmitigated pain.
What though we should be deceived
By the friend that we love best?
All in this world have been grieved,
Yet many have found rest.
Our present life is as the night,
Our future as the morning light:
Surely the night will pass away,
And surely will uprise the day.”—English poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), “Hope in Grief,” in The Complete Poems, edited by R. W. Crump and Betty S. Flowers (2001)

This is for all those who lost friends and relatives to COVID-19 this past year—or who could not, because of the disease, be there at the moment of passing for their loved ones.

(The image accompanying this post of Christina Rossetti was painted by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in 1877.)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Jeremiah, on God’s ‘Plans to Give You Hope and a Future’)

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”— Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version) 

The image accompanying this post is of the prophet Jeremiah as a portion of the Sistine Chapel, painted 1508-1512 by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo (1475-1564).

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Reinhold Niebuhr, on How We Are Saved by Faith, Hope and Love)

“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own; therefore, we are saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.” — American Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), The Irony of American History (1952)