Reassuring wisdom from a medieval saint:
We have learned that every soul—
even though sin-burdened, vice-entangled, pleasure-enticed;
even though in exile, a prisoner-of-war, incarcerated in body,
mud-stuck and mire deep, limb-fastened and care-fixated;
even though strung-out over business wrangling,
fear-knotted and sadness-crushed;
even though errant in wrong-headed wanderings,
in anxious uneasiness,
in restless suspicions,
even though a foreigner in a foreign land, among enemies,
and—as the Prophet says—one polluted by death with the dead
and numbered among those going down to hell—
even so, we have learned, I believe, that every soul
(however condemned, however hopeless)
can turn around, can turn back, and breathe once more
not only the hope of mercy, the hope of pardon,
but can even dare breathe the aspirations of wedding-nights
with the Word.
Bernard, SCC83.1
William Harmless, translation, in Mystics, 56