The Wife

Many a man is given what is intended for another, but no man is given another's fate.

Her heart felt as if it were breaking in her breast, bleeding and bleeding, young and fierce. From grief over the warm and ardent love which she had lost and still secretly mourned; from anguished joy over the pale, luminous love which drew her to the farthest boundaries of life on this earth. Through the great darkness that would come, she saw the gleam of another, gentler sun, and she sensed the fragrance of the herbs in the garden at world's end.

You tug and strain like a young horse when it's first tied up at the stake, whenever you are tied by your heartstrings.

Human beings could not have done this work on their own. God’s spirit had been at work in holy Øistein and the men who built the church after him. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Now she understood those words. A reflection of the splendor of God’s kingdom bore witness through the stones that His will was all that was beautiful. Kristin trembled. Yes, God must surely turn away with scorn from all that was vile—from sin and shame and impurity.

He had been so married to her that he had grown pius himself, because he had believed in her piety.

It’s a sin to brood over and dwell on the sins we have confessed to the priest and repented before God, reviving his forgiveness through the hand and the words of the priest.

No, God had not forsaken her. In His mercy, He had heard her cries for help when she called on him as she sank more and more into her misery. - even when she called without believing she could be heard It felt as if the black sea were rushing over her; now the waves lifted her toward a bliss so strange and so sweet that she knew it would carry her out of life.

There is no worthier work for the man person who has been graced with the ability to see even a small part of God’s Mercy than to serve him and to keep vigil for the people whose sight is still clouded by the shadow of worldly matters.

It would be unmanly to complain against the faith I had chosen.

In her soul, sin continued to exist, like roots of a weed intertwined in the soil. It no longer blossomed or flared up or smelled fragrant, but it was still there in the soil.

But never had she felt so clearly as in this hour that it was on her father and mother all the life of this home had rested. What ever hidden troubles they might have had to struggle with, warmth and help, peace and safety had flowed out from them to all that lived about them.