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| Subtitle | Chiefly on Prayer |
| First Written | 1963 |
| Genre | Religion |
| Origin | UK |
| Publisher | Harcourt |
| My Copy | paperback |
| First Read | May 17, 2012 |
Letters to Malcolm
Lewis' exploration of the idea of Purgatory is really interesting. He imagines that when we come face to face with God, we might desire to go away and be cleansed of our sin through a /purging/, even if that purging is long and painful. I can sympathize with the feeling, but it seems to miss a connection with Christ's imputed righteousness.
Noted on May 20, 2012
But aren't there bad, unlawful pleasures? Certainly there are. But in calling them "bad pleasures" I take it we are using a kind of shorthand. We mean "pleasures snatched by unlawful acts." It is the stealing of the apple that is bad, not the sweetness. The sweetness is still a beam from the glory. That does not palliate the stealing. It makes it worse. There is sacrilege in the theft. We have abused a holy thing.
Quoted on May 20, 2012
You and I have both known happy marriage. But how different our wives were from the imaginary mistresses of our adolescent dreams! So much less exquisitely adapted to all our wishes; and for that very reason (among others) so incomparably better.
Quoted on May 20, 2012
I shouldn't at all be disturbed if it could be shown that a diabolical mysticism, or drugs, produced experiences indistinguishable (by introspection) from those of the great Christian mystics. Departures are all alike; it is the landfall that crowns the voyage. The saint, by being a saint, proves that his mysticism (if he was a mystic; not all saints are) led him aright; the fact that he has practised mysticism could never proof his sanctity.
Quoted on May 20, 2012
I'm not asking why our petitions are so often refused. Anyone can see in general that this must be so. In our ignorance we ask what is not good for us or others, or even intrinsically possible. Or again, to grant one man's prayer involves refusing another's. There is much here that is hard for our will to accept but nothing that is hard for our intellect to understand. The real problem is different; not why refusal is so frequent, but why the opposite result is so lavishly promised.
Quoted on May 20, 2012
Children and fools, we are told, should never look at half-done work...
Quoted on May 20, 2012
We must not be too high-minded. I fancy we may sometimes be deterred from small prayers by a sense of our own dignity rather than of God's.
Quoted on May 20, 2012
I think our business as laymen is to take what we are given and make the best of it. And I think we should find this a great deal easier if what we were given was always and everywhere the same.
Quoted on May 20, 2012