[W]hat one has as a born Catholic is something given....

“ [W]hat one has as a born Catholic is something given and accepted before it is experienced. I am only slowly coming to experience things that I have all along accepted. I suppose the fullest writing comes from what has been accepted and experienced both and that I have just not got that far yet all the time. Conviction without experience makes for harshness. ”

Flannery O'Connor

From : The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor