He whom God anoints to paint His masterpieces
Must first be wounded,
Then driven, limping, into life’s bleak Wilderness.
“Take heart,” he cries through healing touch
Of transparent angel wings,
And sends him forth at last,
With brushes tied by pierced hands,
To spread fresh healing colors on the canvases
Of other men’s desert lives.
—Opa Lucas
Miserable thou art, wheresoever thou be,
or whithersoever thou turnest, unless thou
turn thyself to God.
—Thomas à Kempis
Imitation of Christ