I feel, so often, that I have lost too many years by not having come out as transgender earlier in my life, yet the past also feels brief and momentary, the present ever-present. Everything becomes a moment.

The world feels like it has gotten at once bigger and smaller, with all these transitions.

Previously.

76. We say, on the contrary, that the papal pardons are not able to remove the very least of venial sins, so far as its guilt is concerned.

no sin so wee and eensy it won’t droogle you down into hell, chums

77. It is said that even St. Peter, if he were now Pope, could not bestow greater graces; this is blasphemy against St. Peter and against the pope.

POPE vs. POPE

…

hello, "god" 
the contents of this prayer I hold in my hand here just might interest you
the real question is
what's in it for me

Hi, Mallory! I'm a longtime reader, and have greatly enjoyed the Convert Series as I've been navigating my own relationship with faith over the past year. I just became a Bahá'í tonight, and I don't think you've talked to anyone making that particular journey. If you're interested, I'd enjoy taking about my experience.

Previously. 

46. Christians are to be taught that unless they have more than they need, they are bound to keep back what is necessary for their own families, and by no means to squander it on pardons.

DON'T BUY HEAVEN JEWELS IF YOU CAN'T FEED YOUR FAMILY

WHY I WILL FIGHT GOD: OKAY

THEOLOGY: I AM GOD'S WORST DAUGHTER AND I WILL FIGHT HIM UNTIL HE LOVES ME
IF THERE ISN'T A GOD I WILL FIGHT ISN'T-GOD UNTIL IT BECOMES GOD AND LOVES ME TOO

POLICE CAPTAIN: Monseigneur Bishop
we have apprehended this man – a known criminal – outside your gates with a set of silver candlesticks he claims you gave him
what say you?

BISHOP MYRIEL: Yes, he stole them. [to Jean Valjean] You wretched leech, if you wanted silver candlesticks, you should have created them.

Hi, Emily! Can you tell me a little bit about yourself before we get started?

I grew up Catholic in the Philippines. Loved reading the Bible (mostly for the Old Testament stories though. My favorite book was probably Tobias, but I couldn't tell you why) and I really wanted to be an altar girl until I got in trouble and my mom told me I couldn't do it anymore, which made me sad.

I grew up in Utah County, Utah, where the population is 75% Mormon. My family was staunchly LDS and I was a good, card-carrying LDS girl until I was 22, and then I formally left the church (submitted a letter in writing to have my name removed from the records, although I am certain they just moved my name to a black folder in a filing cabinet that's on fire).

Growing up is just a cumulative series of realizations that don’t stop until your brain does. I realized I was an atheist when I was fourteen. I realized I was asexual when I was nineteen. And I only started to realize the connections between the two when I was 28.

Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

"Well, never mind! Your Auntie Mame will open doors for you. Doors you never even dreamed existed. What times we'll have!"

The most anachronistic thing about Downton Abbey may be the near-total absence of religion from its characters’ lives.

I asked my mother how she put those ignorant bigots in their place. Did she educate them about what Islam really teaches?

In bookselling, and in no other sphere of my life, I do believe in divine Providence. Bookselling is a petty god, but I am its favorite.

Neither of my parents spoke much about their faith. My father, who grew up in Paris, was raised Catholic and had been an altar boy. He occasionally spoke to my brother and me about his belief in God but he was profoundly anti-clerical and did not want us to go to church or to receive a religious education.