“One of the strangest faculties of the Christian religion, and one of the hardest to understand, is the power of giving direction and consolation to everyone who has recourse to her, in no matter what circumstances, at no matter what time. If there is a remedy for what is past, she prescribes it, and gives us the vision and strength to carry it out. If there is no remedy, she shows us how to make a literal reality of the proverbial expression ‘to make a virtue of necessity’. She teaches us to continue wisely in the course we entered upon out of frivolity. She chastens our heart to accept gladly that which is imposed on us by tyranny, she gives a reckless but irrevocable choice all the sanctity, all the wisdom, all the – let us say it – all the joyful happiness of a true vocation. She is a great road, which a man may find after wandering in the most tangled labyrinth, amid the most dangerous precipices, and once he has taken one stride along it, he can walk on safely and gladly, and be sure of a happy end to his journey.”
Alessandro Manzoni
The Betrothed
1830