Meditations, Vol. 1, Father Lorgan
[This record, penned by Rector Yannis, consolidates various sermons of Father Lorgan, High Priest of the Open Hand Temple.] Do not, breathen, mistake the wonders of gathered society for the decrees of those atop it. It is the duty of a faithful tormented, it is your duty, to know when these decrees beget unjust suffering. It is not an easy duty, it is a duty that will scar your hands from carrying it - as it well should. [...] We must at all times recall a central fact - to suffer is not holy. To suffer is a consequence of holy duty made practice. Ilmater does not enjoy his pain, my friends, he endures it because it is just. Our own pain is an acceptable price to pay - but it is not a good in itself. Some may ask of you - if you are loved by your god, why does he allow you to suffer? Why does he allow anyone to suffer? The question is strong rhetoric, but it has an answer. One cannot be healed without first being hurt. One cannot truly know joy without knowing its absence. But to live a life full of absence, full of suffering - would be to know only one thing. We enact balance in the name of the Lord on the Rack, for it is right and it is just.