page 188, "What's so Amazing about Grace"

one by one the passions awake, prowl around

and sniff at the object of their covetousness;



they are attacking the poor undecided soul from the back

and he is done for.



How often has he got to be hurled into the ditch,

to be stifled by the mud,

to grasp at the edges and arise to the light again,

to feel his hands give way

and return again to the darkness,

before he finally submits to the spiritual life -

the least understood law in the world and the one

that repels him most though without it he

cannot attain the grace of perserverance.



What is required,

is the renunciation of the ego.



People may laugh and scoff at you for being

unworthy of the title of free man

and for having to submit yourself to

a master...



but this enslavement,

is really a MIRACULOUS LIBERATION,

for even when you were free

you spent the whole time

forging chains for yourself,

putting them on,

riveting them tighter and tighter

each moment.



You have become imprisoned

more and more each day.

The man you submit to (self and society)

does not want you to be free.

He wants you to be a slave.



Francois Mauriac

Entire and Sweet renunciation. Absolute submission to Jesus Christ... [Blaise Pascal]