Faith Fictions

Faith Fictions

“Be turned to me with all your heart and do not cast me aside because I am black and swarthy, because the sun hath changed my colour and the waters have covered my face and the earth hath been polluted and defiled in my works, for there was darkness over it because I stick fast in the mire of the deep and my substance is not disclosed. Wherefore out of the depths have I cried and from the abyss of the earth with my voice to all you that pass by the way. Attend and see me, if any shall find one like unto me, I will give into his hand the morning star.”
Saint Thomas Aquinas (attributed), from Aurora Consurgens

A man said to the universe:
‘Sir, I exist!’
‘However,’ replied the universe,
‘The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.’”
Stephen Crane, “A man said to the universe”

“A rat is not a rat unless a rat climbs out of itself and sees a rat. And even then a rat might say: I’m a Maryanne, the daughter of man.

A rat has no chance of being a rat, until the great God says, arise rat, thou art a rat; thou art come to be that which thou namest thyself after the name I give thee . . .”
Russell Edson, “Rat”

“But it seems there will be no journey since we have gotten the captain used to a good thing. And so we must spend the rest of our days throwing the captain overboard.”
Russell Edson, “Paying the Captain”

“The man said, I will write God bless everyone on God”
Russell Edson, “A Man Who Writes”

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