“She should have died a child; she knows that but has never said it to the nuns, has never included it in the story of herself the days that felt like years when she lay among the fallen stones. It would have lowered their spirits, although it lifts her own because instead of nothing there is what there is.” William Trevor The Story of Lucy Galt “This is a call to the living, To those who refuse to make peace with evil, With the suffering and the waste of the world. This is a call to the human, not the perfect, To those who know their own prejudices, Who have no intention of becoming prisoners of their own limitations. This is a call to those who remember the dreams of their youth, Who know what it means to share food and shelter, The care of children and those who are troubled, To reach beyond barriers of the past Bringing people to communion. This is a call to the never ending spirit Of the common man, his essential decency and integrity, His unending capacity to suffer and endure, To face death and destruction and to rise again And build from the ruins of life. This is the greatest call of all The call to a faith in people.” Algernon Black, former senior leader, New York Society for Ethical Culture