Grace has come to us in unexpected ways in the midst of life. We have known healing, courage, restored love — salvation. From these blessings of grace we see how to live in resistance to violence; we see how to live in love and in truth without denying bitter realities. We have felt a fire in the heart of things, intimated in moments of surprise, a power which guards, judges, and continually recreates life. We have sensed what Wordsworth called "a presence that disturbs me with joy ... something far more deeply interfused." This presence, felt as mystery and offered as faithfulness to one another, sustains and heals life. It calls for justice.
Beauty bears within itself every element of happiness, whence its character of peace, plenitude, satisfaction; now beauty is in our very being, we live by its substance. It is the calm, simple and generous stillness of the pool which mirrors the depth of the sky with all its serenity; it is the beauty of the water-lily, of the lotus opening to the light of the sun. It is repose in the center, resignation to Providence, quietude in God.