The Rose-Bush of a Thousand Years by Mabel Wagnalls

(New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1918), 77

This is a beautiful novel of repentance, conversion, and hard work!

  • "Dear old St. Joseph. Do you know, he's always been my ideal of a perfect gentleman." (19)
  • "The peace and the stillness were so profound that Joline felt she must breathe very softly." (26)
  • "I must consider this in solitude and prayer. Stay here. I will return in half an hour." (39)
  • "There was a power in his serenity that must make even the most jocose fille de joie give pause and wonder if there might not indeed come divine response to the prayer of such a man." (39-40)
  • "I truly believe there are chosen times when the spirit of the Holy Mother herself looks forth through the eyes of some good woman." (41)
  • "As for your sins, my child, I have learned from our Redeemer Himself the message to be given you. His words are, 'Go, and sin no more.'" (44-45, cf. Jn-08)
  • "The Cathedral-Platz looked different to Joline; she had seen it nearly every day for three months, but now it seemed like the open page of a great book. She read enthralling meanings in every corner of its medieval architecture." (45)
  • "I have sinned, but God knows and the Holy Virgin knows I have repented. That's why I am walking now to Alsace." (61)
  • "She had a purpose in life now; someone to work for and to love." (64)
  • "Dreams long dwelt on amount to prayers, and prayers wrought in faith come true." (65)
  • "It is high time she was painted as she appeared in her mature years, crowned with sorrow. You notice here that she is not looking at the roses, but at the thorns. I believe the mother of Christ, after the Crucifixion, saw nothing else when she looked at a rose-tree—saw and felt only the pain of the thorns on His brow." (68)
  • "I am poor in one way, but very rich in another. I have that which money can not buy...A good conscience." (73)
  • "Hands worn and torn by labor are hallowed by their resemblance to the wounded hands of the Crucified One. To me they are beautiful." (76)

Topic: Novel, Conversion Story

Source

Created: 2023-07-06-Thu
Updated: 2023-07-08-Sat