The Pure in Heart

“Blessed Are The Pure In Heart, for they shall see God.” - Matt. 5:8

“To the pure in heart, all things are pure.” - old common saying

“Honi soit qui mal y pense.” - motto of the Order of the Garter

“Blessed is the man... in whose heart there is no guile.” - Psalm 32

"Create in me, oh God, a pure heart." - Psalm 51

“Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the fruit of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” - Genesis 3:11

You see it in children and old people more easily than in people in the middle, who are participating in the 'survival of the fittest' game. It's way beyond any comment I could make because, after all, it's God we are talking about here when we are talking about the pure in heart. It just stuns me when I see it, leaving me way beyond words, and makes me feel that, yes, I am ready to die now.

There is a Wikipedia entry on “Honi soit qui mal y pense” that enabled me to understand this morning why I saw the phrase so often in the UK and to understand the idea of the Order of the Garter a bit better:

This statement supposedly originated when King Edward III was dancing with his first cousin and daughter-in-law, Joan of Kent. Her garter slipped down to her ankle, causing those around her to snigger at her humiliation. In an act of chivalry Edward placed the garter around his own leg, saying "Honi soit qui mal y pense", and the phrase later became the motto of the Order.

The way I see it is that one's whole life is a struggle to recover what it was at the very beginning, only this time with an appreciation of its worth.