Patrick's Personal Home Page

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.

— Henry van Dyke in 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts (2014) by R.J. Palacio

"Ah, if one only knew what one gains in renouncing all things!", Saint Therese of the Child Jesus tells us. This is the way to happiness, because if we leave God free to act in His way, He is infinitely more capable of rendering us happy than we ourselves are, because He knows us and loves us more than we can ever know or love ourselves. Saint John of the Cross expresses this same truth in other terms: "All things were given to me from the moment when I no longer sought them."

— Father Jacques Philippe
Searching for and Maintaining Peace / Recherche la paix et poursuis-la (1998)