Home > Author > Angela Doll Carlson
1 " But no matter what my eyes report, there is beauty that lives under the skin, under the surface, under the standards set up for me by outside arbiters of what is good and true. Those arbiters are not always so reliable. They can be bought and sold. They can be marketed and manufactured. The real standards, the ones set forth by the One who made me, are solid, knitted into me at my beginning. This beauty is true and real, and it lives within the heart. It is my heart that must be trained to recognize this beauty. "
― Angela Doll Carlson , Garden in the East: The Spiritual Life of the Body
2 " Sometimes, late at night, the words are only whispers– Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. The quiet is kindness and gratitude and calm–Have mercy on me, a sinner. And I fall asleep like that, the words of the Jesus Prayer melting from English to Greek– Kyrie Iesou Christe. Floating around me– Yie tou Theou. Swimming apart from me– Eleison me. "
― Angela Doll Carlson , Nearly Orthodox: On being a modern woman in an ancient tradition
3 " The move away from writing poetry was gradual. It was a gentle slope into a muddy pond; it was a collection of choices. There was no one thing that took the pen from my hand. Life got in the way. Poetry was an elective. I elected to let it slip into the water. I elected to let my inner poet slide into that deep water and float there a long time, until at last I could no longer see her there drowning."-Nearly Orthodox "
― Angela Doll Carlson
4 " When I am away from Liturgy for too long, I find I burn for it now, for the steadiness of the calendar, the words" that ring out in repetition, the heavy scented air. When I return each week, I am coming home again. Liturgy is written into my flesh, sinking into my skin and my spirit. "
5 " The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. —Thomas Merton "
6 " We are all seeking the steady beauty of the One who made us, we are all desperate for His breath on our skin, His lips on ours to ease the crushing weight of the world we feel pressing in on that deep, empty place in our hearts. Where matters of faith are concerned, everything is remedial.Carlson, Angela Doll (2014-09-09). Nearly Orthodox: On being a modern woman in an ancient tradition (Kindle Locations 119-121). Ancient Faith Publishing. Kindle Edition. "
7 " It was the unchanging nature of Orthodoxy that drew me in from the start, the structure being solid, built on something deeper than the layer of sand and dirt, build to weather the shifting of cultural things. I wanted that solidity, that history. It was exotic as it stood apart from the churches trying too hard to be coffee shops in the never-ending pursuit of being relevant to someone, to everyone. The foundation of this tradition was thick concrete, a protection from the driving rain and rising waters. "
