| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that
doeth the will of God abideth for ever.'
"These things were well understood by our holy and inspired
fathers; and mindful of the Apostle's word that we must through
much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, they strove,
after holy baptism, to keep their garment of immortality spotless
and undefiled. Whence some of them also thought fit to receive
yet another baptism; I mean that which is by blood and martyrdom.
For this too is called baptism, the most honourable, and reverend
of all, inasmuch as its waters are not polluted by fresh sin;
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: Englishman's mercy, he met those blazing eyes that discharged electric
currents, which pierced through him and transfixed him like darts of
steel.
"What have I done to you?" he said, in his prostrate helplessness, and
he breathed hard like a stag at the water's edge. "What do you want of
me?"
"Look!" cried Melmoth.
Castanier looked at the stage. The scene had been changed. The play
seemed to be over, and Castanier beheld himself stepping from the
carriage with Aquilina; but as he entered the courtyard of the house
on the Rue Richer, the scene again was suddenly changed, and he saw
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: brutes, without discernment and without improvement.
Chapter XVII: That In Times Marked By Equality Of Conditions And
Sceptical Opinions, It Is Important To Remove To A Distance The
Objects Of Human Actions
In the ages of faith the final end of life is placed beyond
life. The men of those ages therefore naturally, and in a manner
involuntarily, accustom themselves to fix their gaze for a long
course of years on some immovable object, towards which they are
constantly tending; and they learn by insensible degrees to
repress a multitude of petty passing desires, in order to be the
better able to content that great and lasting desire which
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