We may enjoy an experience of God that is so delightful that we may think all our troubles are over and we have at last completed the journey. Then after a few hours or a few days we find ourselves on the spiral staircase again and cannot even remember the pleasures of that transient experience of divine union. The whole purpose of this alternation is to bring the soul to the total transformation of love.
~ from FRUITS AND GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT by Thomas Keating
A work of beauty requires the diverse and contrary qualities of discipline, hard work, gentleness and love. To create a work of beauty, a human being needs a spiritual life and a rhythm, and those two things need to work well together. By "rhythm" I mean a slower, more thoughtful pace than that which is generally lived in this society.
