Yea, even if I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid of evils: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, these have comforted me.

If you are in tribulation, brother, then remember Jonah's whale and you will be reassured. You will know that the Lord is the one who has prepared this whale for you to grant you a particular virtue or a special grace.

Be careful not to complain whenever you are swallowed by a whale, for the whales of the sea of this world are many. Do not say: "Why do You treat me like this, O Lord? Why did You prepare this whale to swallow me? Where were You, O Lord, when it was swallowing me? And why did You not rescue me?"

Know that God's answer is one: "Do not be afraid. It is enough for you that you are with Me. Even if you are in the belly of the whale, I am with you. I will not disregard you nor abandon you." - Pope Shenouda III

My forefathers are dead and rest, no one knows where. But our Mother the Church, who has embraced generation after generation of my people, still stands as a bride in white, eternally young, with the same open gates. —Rt. Rev. Bo Giertz

He stayed in the upper room as a kneading-bowl,
that he might leaven the dough of our body.
He kneaded our body with his leaven that it might not taste of death,
and he seasoned it with the salt of his divinity that the serpent might be blinded.- Cyrilona

The foxes rooted among the vinestems,
but one alone withered;
the porcupine,
whose raiment is spines,
assaulted that vine;
it took possession of one wild grape,
but the (good) grapes it did not harm.
Zion, the evil porcupine, prevailed over Iscariot;
for thirty pieces of silver it seized the sweetness that had been promised to it - Cyrilona