Brendan: A Novel (1988)

Save for pawns, Mahon said, the king was weakest of all. He could move anyway he wished but only a step at a time. Yet he was the dearest piece even so, Mahon said, for the whole game hung on keeping him safe. Brendan told him Christ too is just such a king in his weakness, meek and lowly of heart and like a sheep dumb before its shearers. It’s ourselves above all we must keep him safe from, Brendan said, for with our dark ways we’re ever bringing woe upon him.

“May the shadow of Christ fall on thee. May the garment of Christ cover thee. May the breath of Christ breathe in thee.”

True faith. A simple life. A helping hand. She said those was the three things prized most in Heaven.

The one thing he knew he ought to want was what he didn’t want at all. It was the quenching of the fires of sin inside him. Only he didn’t want them quenched. Instead he hungered for them all the more.

“Lofty and fair beyond telling was the angels’ music,” he said. “They heard me cry and they answered me. They weren’t singing to me of the mercy of God, Finn. Their singing was itself the mercy of God."