‘The Ways of Mental Prayer’ RT. Rev Dom Vitalis Lehodey, Abbot of Bricquebec, O.C.R.

A boat amid the ripples, drifting, rocking,
  Two idle people, without pause or aim;
While in the ominous west there gathers darkness
    Flushed with flame.

A haycock in a hayfield backing, lapping,
  Two drowsy people pillowed round about;
While in the ominous west across the darkness
    Flame leaps out.

Better a wrecked life than a life so aimless,
  Better a wrecked life than a life so soft;
The ominous west glooms thundering, with its fire
    Lit aloft.

Christina Rossetti

It would be well to keep this in mind, because, quite often in the daily unfolding of our Christian life it happens that we fight the wrong battle, if one may put it that way, because we orient our efforts in the wrong direction. We fight on a terrain where the devil subtly drags us and can vanquish us, instead of fighting on the real battlefield, where, on the contrary, by the grace of God, we are always certain of victory. And this is one of the great secrets of spiritual combat to avoid fighting the wrong battle, to know how to discern, despite the ruses of our adversary, which is the real battlefield, what we truly have to struggle against and where we must place our efforts.

Father Jacques Philippe ‘Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise Peace of Heart’

A return trip to Cleveland, spending the day at a Greek Festival, enjoying a Greek Orthodox Church. A nice discussion with a parishoner discussing St Mary of Egypt.