"Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have a wicked and unfaithful heart, and abandon the living God. Encourage each other daily while it is still
today, so that none of you may grow hardened by the deception of sin. We have become friends of Christ, if only we hold from the beginning of our fellowship, firmly until the end. For it is said: 'Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts in rebellion.’”
Hebrews 3:12-15
"Satan’s monomaniac concern with himself and his supposed rights and wrongs is a necessity of the Satanic predicament. He has wished to ‘be himself,’ and to be in himself and for himself, and his wish has been granted. To admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking, of incessant autobiography."
C. S. Lewis
"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating. Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty.
Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself, without grace."
Simone Weil
"Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be. Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them. Without love deeds, even the greatest, count as nothing. Our Lord's love shines forth as much in the simplest of souls as it does in the most highly gifted, as long as there is no refusal of His grace. To live in love is to banish all fears."
Marie-Françoise Thérèse Martin de Lisieux
There are several ways to banish our fears. One productive and creative way, according to the saints, is to live in and with love, and walk in the light.
Another way is to deaden our senses, with drugs, and alcohol, or as Maximilian Kolbe said, the whiskey of passion and hate.
They seem to be passing the jug of prideful and passionate judgement and hatred a lot these days.
The VIX took a sunning plunge today, as the markets chose an optimistic and dovish interpretation of the CPI data this morning. Or perhaps there was some technical reason for this, but it did seem to be hopped up on something.
Stocks initially fell, but rallied back ionto the green at the end.
Gold and silver rallied, as the Dollar fell fairly hard.
We are heading into a three day holiday weekend for the markets in the States, as Monday is Martin Luther King day. We may murder our prophets, but we'll take a day off for them.
Let's see how things go. It is starting to feel a little 'rinsey' out there.
Have a pleasant evening.
