tremble if God forgets you tremble if God remembers you

Gol-Ghaltan: the Iranian Baptism of Flowers

“A man commiting numerous sins does not please the devil. Even a man committing great sins, and turning others against the Lord, doesn’t truly satisfy the devil, because he knows that God is a God of endless love and mercy. But when a man despairs and thinks God will not forgive him, when man chooses to hide his face from God, finally the devil rejoices.

“We cannot pray to You, O God, to banish war, for You have filled the world with paths to peace, if only we would take them. We cannot pray to You to end starvation, for there is food enough for all, if only we would share it. We cannot merely pray for prejudice to cease, for we might see the good in all that lies before our eyes, if only we would use them. We cannot merely pray “Root out despair,” for the spark of hope already waits within the human heart, for us to fan it into flame. We must not ask of You, O God, to take the task that You have given us. We cannot shirk, we cannot flee away, Avoiding obligation for ever. Therefore we pray, O God, for wisdom and will, for courage to do and to become, not only to look on with helpless yearning as though we had no strength. For Your sake and ours speedily and soon, let it be: that our land may be safe, that our lives may be blessed”

Shi'i Muslim women visiting the Shrine of Our Lady in Lebanon

“The saints are what they are, not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else. It gives them a clarity of compassion that can find good in the most terrible criminals. It delivers them from the burden of judging others, condemning other men. It teaches them to bring the good out of others by compassion, mercy and pardon. A man becomes a saint not by conviction that he is better than sinners, but by the realization that he is one of them, and that all together need the mercy of God!”

Eventually, we know that we are all saved by mercy in spite of ourselves. That must be the final humiliation to the ego.

وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجعَل لَهُ مَخرَجًا وَيَرزُقهُ مِن حَيثُ لا يَحتَسِبُ ۚ وَمَن يَتَوَكَّل عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسبُهُ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بالِغُ أَمرِهِ