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The thought that the affairs of the world, like those of the stars, are in God's hands - and therefore in good hands - apart from being actually true, is something that should give great satisfaction to anyone who looks to the future with hope. It should be the source of faith, joyful hope, and, above all, of deep peace. What have I to fear if everything is guided and sustained by God? Why get so worried, as if the world were in the hands of me and my fellow men? And yet it is so difficult to hold onto faith...

He brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light, and he can bring thee summer out of winter, though thou hast no spring. Though in the ways of fortune, understanding, or conscience thou hast been benighted till now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupefied, now God comes to thee, not as the dawning of the day, not as the bud of the spring, but as the sun at noon.

Only the childlike retain the child's gift of wonder. Wondering, we forget ourselves entirely, lost in what has provoked our awe. Wonder is the wellspring of praise. We have reason for our praise: we are God's children, made in his image.

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