"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few." -- Mt 7:13-14
I love Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" (which is based on a lecture given). It can be found in The Tolkien Reader (I highly recommend the book). It's in here, that one of my favorite quotes intersects with the Gospel:
Children are meant to grow up, and not to become Peter Pans. Not to lose innocence and wonder, but to proceed on the appointed journey: that journey upon which it is certainly not better to travel hopefully than to arrive, though we must travel hopefully if we are to arrive. But it is one of the lessons of fairy-stories (if we can speak of the lessons of things that do not lecture) that on callow, lumpish, and selfish youth peril, sorrow, and the shadow of death can bestow dignity, and even sometimes wisdom.
It is the life of prayer, life lived through prayer, and living life as prayer where the journey becomes a fairy story. If faerie is a supernatural land, then we are well suited as natural and supernatural beings. The travels are full of peril and wonder. And it is sacramental, where the natural points to the supernatural mysteries. Peril and wonder, the wide and narrow road, the choices that we make are all part of growing up, the life lived. We have a journey toward heaven, not an easy road to find or follow, but a road made easier by the Shepherd, a guide in our fairy tale and hoped for happy ending.
Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.