“Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.”
~John Donne

40 Inspirational Classics for Lent

I’ve written several times here at Semicolon about the seventeenth century poet and Anglican priest, John Donne:

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne, 1611
Holy Sonnet X (Death Be Not Proud) by John Donne
The Sunne Rising by John Donne
Song (Go and Catch a Falling Star) by John Donne
Hymn to God, My God, in my Sickness by John Donne
The End of the Alphabet, Wit and John Donne

I strongly suggest both the poetry and the sermons of Mr. Donne for your Lenten edification.

From A Lent Sermon preached at White-hall, February 20, 1629 on Matthew 6:21, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also:

The words admit well that inversion, “Where your Treasure is, there will your heart be also,” implies this; Where your Heart is, That is your Treasure.

Do all in the Fear of God: In all warlike preparations, remember the Lord of Hosts, and fear Him; In all treaties of peace, remember the Prince of Peace, and fear Him; In all Consultations, remember the Angle of the Great Council, and fear Him: fear God as much at Noon, as at Midnight; as much in the Glory and Splendor of his Sun-shine, as in his darkest Eclipses,: fear God as much in thy Prosperity, as in thine Adversity; as much in thy Preferment, as in thy Disgrace.

(Heaven) Where all tears shall be wiped from mine eyes; not onely tears of Compunction for my self, and tears of Compassion for others; but even tears of Joy, too: for there shall be no sudden Joy, no Joy unexperienced there. There I shall have all joys, altogether, always. There Abraham shall not be gladder of his own salvation, then of mine; nor I surer of the Everlastingness of my God, then of my Everlastingness in Him. This is that Treasure.