Morning Briefings

Our dragons are our fears: our daily stalkers, our night sweats. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failing. Fear of starting something new and not finishing. Again. Or the real fear, the one that send shivers up our spines: the fear of succeeding and facing the changes that will bring. We may not be happy with the way we are living now, but at least it’s safely familiar.

– Sarah Ban Breathnach
Simple Abundance

He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he who loses courage loses all.

– As attributed to Miguel de Cervantes in
Matthew Kelly’s Rediscovering Catholicism

While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

– Luke 2: 6-7

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid.’

– Matthew 1:20

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

– Marianne Williamson
A Return to Love

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

– John 14:27

We’re afraid of failure and we’re afraid of success. We’re afraid of dying young and we’re afraid of growing old. We’re more afraid of life than we are of death.

– Marianne Williamson
A Return to Love

Every cancer is a journey. You never know where the journey will take you, where you’ll go. You’ll have moments of fear, hope, pain, and if you’re lucky, joy. What’s important is to go with it–wherever it goes. A great many things will be outside your control. You have to accept that you’re not entirely the driver.

– Joe Eszterhas
Crossbearer

Advising panicky white-collar criminals on what life is like behind bars is a bull-market business, what with all the arrests on Wall Street for insider trading. As America’s lockups have become more crowded, so has the prison-prep industry.

– Michael Rothfeld, The Wall Street Journal
School for Scoundrels: Doing Time in Prison Prep School

The virtue of fortitude does not necessarily imply that we do not feel fear or anxiety. It does imply that we do not succumb to that fear. It means believing that we are never alone, that there is always Someone with us who loves us and upon whom everything is dependent.

– Father Tadeusz Dajczer
The Gift of Faith