Roses of the Second Love

God's forgiveness mends the unrepairable. Not by making what was destroyed not destroyed. But by allowing dark roses to bloom in hearts where sin has damaged the roses of first love, their purity and freshness – often just as beautiful, sometimes even more beautiful – roses of second love with its remorse, its tears, its fervor.

(Cardinal Charles Journet /1891–1975/, The Seven Words of Christ on the Cross)