In this second week of Lent, quotes posted to social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) moved from a Laudato Si’ Lent, i.e., contemplation of God the Creator, to a Lent of mortification, i.e., the experience of the Cross.

I am going back again to the water which pours itself out before me. It is also an image of our human nature. This marvellous waterfall is visited by millions on account of its unequalled beauty. As for me, I most dearly love to look at the deeper foundation of this splendid natural phenomenon. Not only my eyes and ears are fascinated but rather my intellect which reflects on what God has laid in the water. I not only see the riches of the nature of nature of the water, its immeasurable potentiality; I see God working in the work of his hands and the manifestation of his love. — Saint Titus Brandsma on seeing Niagara Falls

Always realize that it is more necessary that the house have nice views than that it be in a good place—and an orchard if possible. — Saint Teresa of Avila

We took another long walk yesterday, first by the sea—but how much the coastline is spoiled by shabby and ridiculous constructions that crowd the place!—and then, to escape this work of men, we plunged into the countryside, and into the mountains whose curves, here, are generous and harmonious, and whose slopes are sometimes bare, revealing a gray stone with green tufts, and sometimes covered with varied vegetation among which fir and olive trees predominate. What rest we find in these large, deserted, but not empty, spaces—in this beauty of God’s land. — Raïssa Maritain

I cannot say that I love suffering in itself, but I love suffering because it conforms me to the One who is my Spouse and my Love. — Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Cross and night are the way to heavenly light: that is the joyful message of the cross. — Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)