Other voices

Ruins

Nathan Hobby — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:45:59 +0000

Ruins in an advanced state of ruination represent, or better they literally embody, the dissolution of meaning into matter. By revealing what human building ultimately is up against – natural or geological time – ruins have a way of recalling us to the very ground of our human worlds, namely the earth, whose foundations are so solid and reliable that they presumably will outlast any edifices that we build on them.

- Robert Pogue Harrison, The dominion of the dead, p. 3

Obscure and forgotten books

Nathan Hobby — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:02:26 +0000

We shared the same passion for obscure and forgotten books, but whereas I tended to be crazily enthusiastic and scattered about these works, Zimmer was thorough and systematic, penetrating to a degree that often astonished me.

- Paul Auster, Moon Palace, 88

Divorce

Nathan Hobby — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:56:12 +0000

A divorce is like an amputation; you survive, but there’s less of you.

- Margaret Atwood, Time Magazine; quoted in Oxford Dictionary of quotations p. 280

The years were a stunned blur

Nathan Hobby — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:27:42 +0000

Seasons ran together, the years were a stunned blur. Like time in books. Time passes in books in the span of a sentence, many months and years. Write a word, leap a decade.

- Don DeLillo, Undeworld : 236.

Blithe arrivals of life’s late people

Nathan Hobby — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:57:37 +0000

Bronzini envied the blithe arrivals of life’s late people. How do they manage the courage to be late, enact the rude dare repeatedly in our waiting faces?

- Don DeLillo, Underworld: 667.

The slightest abridgement of the truth

Nathan Hobby — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:04:49 +0000

Irina chided herself. She had not forgotten, and it was foolish to pretend that she had. The slightest abridgements of truth with Lawrence made her feel isolated and mournful, far away and even afraid. She would rather be caught out lying than to get away with it, and thus live with the horror that it was possible.

- Lionel Shriver, The Post Birthday World : 9.

A clock winding down

Nathan Hobby — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:43:12 +0000

A woollen dress, coarse and individually designed, you knew that coarseness becasue it didn’t come from economy but from the rustic penchant of its wearer. I am like Lucy Snow, constantly measuring what things cost and where their owner is placed. And Lucy accused Madame of the very same sin without seeing it in herself. Lucy-light. Lucifer. Lucy-Lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. My old Greek teacher Dr Moore, trying to explain that phrase from the New Testament, he said we are like a clock winding down and our pride is that we think we run all by ourselves.

- Tracy Ryan, Jazz Tango : p. 68

Reinstating the communal meal

Nathan Hobby — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:08:38 +0000

Can we, should we, reinstate the communal meal in at least some of our table rituals? If so, do small group settings become necessasry, even in larger congregations? And what kind of liturgical spaces will then be needed? Can we, should we, allow for the wide variety of activities that characterized first century worship? In particular, can we open ourselves to the Spirit’s guidance so that a rich array of charismata can come into play? Is it possible for us to conduct some of what we call church business within periods of eucharistic worship? Can we allow prayerful discernment to shape our decision making on these matters? Can we begin to see our eucharistic services, from start to finish, as missionary events during which visitors are brought closer to the Body of Christ and the Kingdom, whatever the level of their participation, and we so-called insiders are built up for our vocation as witnesses of the gospel?

- John Koenig, Feast of the World’s Redemption : p. 237.

Praying incessantly

Nathan Hobby — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:35:47 +0000

To turn within and pray incessantly by living in an awareness given us by the Holy Spirit of God’s immense love for us guiding us in all things is possible for all of us. It requires, however, a constant living out of our Baptism, a crossing over from our own self-containment and a putting on of Jesus Christ’s mind of seeking always to please the Heavenly Father. Praying always is a state of not saying prayers but a state of standing before God in the depths of our being and being constantly in tune with His operations. We find ourselves less distracted by the fears of what others would say, of norms and fashions set by a worldly society or persons close to us. We even can rise from the haunting memories of our sinful past and our crippling “mind-set” patterns of thoughts and images to a freedom and clarity of inner vision that Jesus Christ had promised would be the possession of His disciples who heard his word.

- George Maloney, Inward Stillness : p. 101.

He does not know what he wants exactly

Nathan Hobby — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:28:42 +0000

Man’s instinct does not tell him, as animal’s instinct does, what he must do. Because he has to cut himself off from the roots of his past by throwing away traditions, he is at a loss as to what he ought to do. Usually he finds himself in the position that he does not know what he wants exactly.

- George Maloney, Inward Stillness : p. 131