Midnight Mass Best Quotes on Netflix

Ed Flynn: [to Riley] You’re going to sit here at this table, after what you’ve done, and say, “Oh, church isn’t for me?” And make jokes about altar boys, and Monsignor Pruitt? No. Nope. You are going to church tomorrow, Riley. And every other Sunday. I don’t care if your heart’s not in it, or the mood doesn’t strike you. You can consider it a condition of your parole.

Father Paul: Good morning. I know I’m not who you expected to see this morning.

Wade: Welcome to the Pot, what’s left of it anyway.
Father Paul: The Crock Pot!
Wade: Yeah, well, it’s a cute nickname, yeah. But you know, it’s true. We are a melting pot, a grab bag.
Dolly: A piñata, even. A whole variety of different flavors, that just keeps getting pummeled with some huge awful stick.
Wade: We sure are glad to add you to the stew.

Annie Flynn: My son Riley, he’s…
Riley Flynn: Not exactly in a state of grace right now.
Father Paul: Hey, look, I think that’s great. Turns out I’m not much use to people who are in a state of grace. Jesus, he didn’t really have that much interest for those kind of people either. No, he seemed to go straight for those folks who weren’t in a state of grace. They were his favorite people, turns out. They were the ones he called friends.

Erin Greene: It’s the prodigal son.
Riley Flynn: No, I think, you’re the prodigal one. I’m just the black sheep.

Erin Greene: [to Riley] Look at us, back where we started. The one place we swore we’d never end up.

Riley Flynn: It’s funny, most guys find Jesus in prison.
Erin Greene: Well, you always went your own way.
Riley Flynn: Yeah, that wasn’t it though. I threw away the Bible the first night. But it wasn’t instant. And I did go looking. I really did. There’s a lot of time to read in there, and I read it all. Torah, Quran, Talmud, Tao Te Ching. Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Jainism. Figured if I was looking for God, I should look everywhere. Came out of that an atheist.
Erin Greene: What? I’m supposed to be the godless heathen, and you are the altar boy.

Riley Flynn: And you’re pregnant.
Erin Greene: Yeah, I am.
Riley Flynn: I bet that’s a story.
Erin Greene: It is and it isn’t. Littlefoot saved my life.

Erin Greene: How are you?
Riley Flynn: I don’t know. That’s kind of the whole thing. I don’t know. I have no idea. I mean, in prison, it was easy. I had things to do, you know. Count the days. Count down the sentence. Eeat, sleep, read. It’s all pretty carefully spelled out for you. Regimented. But here, here I have nothing. What, am I going to get a job? Go to school? I have no money, no prospects. I just exist now. That’s it. I have absolutely no purpose at all. I’m just sitting in my parents house, breathing, and serving no purpose to anyone whatsoever. I’m just living.

Riley Flynn: And that’s the worst part, because I shouldn’t be alive, Erin. So I don’t know. What I do here. I eat. Sleep. S**t. I don’t know. Walk home now, eat dinner, wait out this f***ing storm.
Erin Greene: There you go. Do that. Ride out the storm tonight. And then tomorrow, you’ll see what tomorrow’s all about. Find another project. I’m sorry. For what you’ve been through. I’m really, really sorry.

Riley Flynn: No, I swear, it’s the hat, the coat. I know the outfit, and it’s him.
Ed Flynn: No, he’s on the mainland.
Riley Flynn: It’s Pruitt!

Father Paul: Rebirth, resurrection, eternal life. Life that rises again. Even out of blackness, love rises again. Even out of sin. And this island, it will rise again. Even out of disaster, rebirth, restoration, eternal life.

Father Paul: Do you know what psalms are? They’re songs. The word psalm from the Greek psalmoi. It means “music”. Songs of prayer. Songs of praise. That’s who we are. That’s who we must be. That’s what it means to have faith, that in the darkness, in the worst of it, in the absence of light, and hope, we sing. “Restore us,” we sing to the sky. And He will, my friends. He will. That same hand that dealt you your hardship, that same hand will make you whole.

Father Paul: Riley, remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Bless you, son.

Attractive Woman: Well, don’t look now, but I think we’re upsetting your clergy.
Dr. Sarah Gunning: Oh. He’s not mine. He’s new. But I guess they all kind of have that same… They have had the same old monsignor here since before I was born. And he would stare at me just like that. All the time. Even back when I was a kid. I remember it freaking me out, thinking…
Attractive Woman: “He knows.”
Dr. Sarah Gunning: Oh, yeah. Exactly, he knew!

Father Paul: I understand why Crockett doesn’t have a chapter already. I can’t imagine that there’s much of a demand. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a need. Plenty of problem drinkers, especially these days. One full-blown alcoholic already, who’s responsible for the drunken hunting accident that paralyzed little Leeza, I’m told.
Riley Flynn: Yeah, I don’t know that I’d call it a hunting accident. There’s not much big game around here. I think Joe was just shooting to shoot.
Father Paul: Yeah, and he still won’t put down the bottle. But someone like you, Riley,
someone who already has, could set quite the example. Can you imagine that? The good you could do? Just by skipping a trip to the mainland?

Erin Greene: [to Riley] I used to think, “One day I’ll be older, and I’ll get drink tickets, and I will exchange them for a glass of wine. And that’s when I’ll feel like an adult.” And now here we are. Two adults, with drink tickets, that neither of us can use.

Erin Greene: She’s just everywhere here. Her memory. I work in the same job. I live in the same house, sleep in the same bed. And I’m alone, just like her. And I keep telling myself it’s only temporary, but…
Riley Flynn: You’re nothing like her. I remember that much. And you’re going to be…
Erin Greene: Fine.
Riley Flynn: Great. As a teacher, as a mother, whatever else you do. There’s a lot I don’t know about you anymore, but I know that. You’re going to be great.

Joe Collie: [referring to his dog] He was poisoned! That’s what happened. You don’t like me? That’s fine! S**t I done, I don’t care about me so much either. But what did he ever do? What did he ever do to you?

Bev Keane: [referring to the poison] After those cats, not knowing what on earth could have done it, I put some out, strategically, carefully, around my property. A few others requested I do the same for them. And if that poor dog, if it ingested some, accidentally, well, I’ll just be a wreck. Is that what you’re telling me? Please, if that’s what occurred, if you’re certain, well, I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive myself. So is it? And are you? Certain, I mean.
Sheriff Hassan: I’m not telling you that. Can’t say just about anything for certain.

Joe Collie: [referring to Bowl] Kid’s just helping me out.
Sheriff Hassan: Kid’s a drug dealer.
Joe Collie: Not when he’s here, he’s not. And he’s about the only person on this island treats me like a human being. So if that’s the reason, well, I kind of wish all you a**holes was drug dealers.

Joe Collie: Did you charge her yet?
Sheriff Hassan: Miss Keane insists she has no idea what happened.
Joe Collie: Oh, she insists? Why didn’t you just f***ing say so. That changes everything.

Joe Collie: There weren’t no accident, okay? But you know what, Sheriff? I didn’t expect this would go any different. Not with me, not here, not with her. She killed half the island with that f***ing settlement. What’s one more dog on the pile?

Sheriff Hassan: I know Bev Keane too, alright? Not as well as you, but enough to know you’re not wrong about her. You’re not wrong, Joe.

Riley Flynn: Catholic Church in a nutshell. All over the world, these small, starving villages with big, fancy churches. Getting bigger and fancier, while the towns dry up. Churches just popping up like fat, plump little ticks sucking the town dry.
Father Paul: Okay, so we can safely say you’re not practicing.
Riley Flynn: That’s safe.

Riley Flynn: You ever heard of RR?
Father Paul: RR?
Riley Flynn: AA for pirates?
Father Paul: [smiles] Oh.
Riley Flynn: Rational Recovery. It’s based more on reason and psychology. It’s about empowering people instead of saying they’re powerless.
Father Paul: So you’re the higher power, is that how it works?

Father Paul: Being your own higher power, how is that working out for you?
Riley Flynn: I haven’t had a drop in four years.
Father Paul: Not much of a selection in prison though, is there?

Father Paul: Alcohol isn’t good or bad. Not itself. But it’s people.

Father Paul: Suffering can be a gift. It all just depends on us. What we do with it, how we react to it. So, alcohol, that isn’t good or bad. And the same with guilt, grief, suffering. It just depends on what we do with it. What’s more empowering than that?

Riley Flynn: No. Alcohol isn’t good or bad. But the version of me that would come out when I had enough to drink, he was bad. He was selfish, and careless, and he ruined my life. There is a saboteur inside of me, and I always thought, you know, we’d work it out. We’d learn to live with each other, because he wouldn’t really hurt me. Not me. I fed him, so he wouldn’t hurt me. And then one morning I woke up and found out he killed someone. I had killed someone. So who’s to blame there? I am to blame there. And God? He just kind of let it happen, didn’t he?

Riley Flynn: See, that’s the part I cannot square. Because you’re right, there is so much suffering in the world. So much. And then there’s this higher power. This higher power who could erase all that pain, just wave his hand and make it all go away, but doesn’t? No. No, thank you. The worst part is that it lets all the rest of us off the hook.

Riley Flynn: We can watch so many people just slip into these bottomless pits of awful, and we can stand it. We can tolerate it, because we can say things like, “God works in mysterious ways.” Like there’s a plan? Like something good’s going to come out of it? Nothing good came out of my drinking. Nothing good came out of me killing that poor girl. Nothing good came out of Joe Collie’s drinking. And not a single good thing comes out of Leeza never being able to walk again. Nothing good came out of a metric ton of crude oil filling up the bay. And the only thing, the only f***ing thing that lets people stand by, watching all this suffering, doing nothing, doing f***ing nothing, is the idea that suffering can be a gift from God. What a monstrous idea, Father.

Father Paul: Look, there’s nothing in the scripture, or in the world for that matter, that suggests God negates personal accountability. There’s certainly nothing in the program to suggest that. Not at all, in fact. I believe God can take our work, even our awful works, and turn them into something else. I know He can find the good in them, and find the love in them, whether we see it or not. That I know, Riley Flynn. That I know.

Riley Flynn: I’m asking, how did you know that?
Father Paul: I really don’t have an answer that’s going to satisfy you. Not you. I mean, if I told somebody else that I could just feel it as she wheeled past me on that ramp, that I could almost see it, that I could almost hear her voice inside my head. I felt so connected to her at that moment. That might be good enough for someone, but not for you, is it, Riley Flynn?
Riley Flynn: I suppose I’d want more.
Father Paul: Yeah, and I’ll always wish that I could give you more. But that’s all I got.

Father Paul: For most of us, eternity, it’s an abstract. It’s a metaphor, a colorful exaggeration. When we’re waiting for something we want, it takes forever. We sit in traffic for an eternity. Abstracts, metaphors, colorful exaggerations. To us, maybe, but not to God. Not to Him. And it shouldn’t be for us either.

Father Paul: God’s gifts are as tangible as the ground beneath our feet. And His covenant, it’s not abstract. No. It’s a contract, scrawled in flesh, inked in the blood of the martyrs. And yet, try as we might, we cannot visualize, we cannot mentally picture the rewards promised.

Father Paul: Well, if you’re here seeking to know answers to the unknowable, it’s incumbent upon me to tell you that I have none. And if you want to know why, or how God’s will shapes the world, brothers and sisters, so do I. I don’t have all the answers. Nobody does. What I do have though, and what God gives us plentifully, are mysteries. God gives us miracles very rarely, here and there, but mysteries?

Father Paul: The more that we know, the less we bend. The more brittle we become, the easier to break. Like some would say this island broke. Was broken. But I am here to tell you, the resurrection, body and soul, the redemption, body and soul, the miracles waiting for us here on Crockett Island. Not metaphors, not abstracts, not colorful exaggerations, no.

Father Paul: [to Sarah] You take care of people. Me and your mother, this whole island. You are a comfort to people. I’m proud of you.

Leeza: I hate you. Honesty is important, so we’ll start there. I hate you, Joe Collie. I’ve hated you for years, and the things I’ve imagined doing to you, I want you to hurt. I want you to suffer. I want you to make those noises my dad made when he put his hand over the bullet hole in my spine. I want you to beg for my forgiveness, so that I can tell you no. I want you to live in complete, absolute misery. So when I say this place is just like I pictured it, what I really mean is it’s just like I hoped it would be.

Leeza: You stole from me. Not just who I was, but who I could’ve been. You stole from me things I didn’t even have yet. You reached through time, Joe Collie! You reached through time, and you stole. All of that is true, and all that is still in here, but that’s not why I came here today. I came here today… I forgive you. I forgive you, Joe Collie. I forgive you, and I see you now. I see you. And I’m still angry with you. But it’s different. Even now just saying it, it’s different. Do you want to know why it’s different? Because the only thing standing between you and a better life, is you. The only thing standing in my way was hate. The only thing standing in your way is you.

Leeza: Do you know what Proverbs means? What the Book of Proverbs is? It means wisdom. Wisdom and knowledge. So, if God can forgive you, and He says He can, all over the place, He says it, then I can forgive you. And if I can forgive you, Joe Collie, then anyone can.

Sheriff Hassan: I am more than comfortable with my son studying a Bible. Thrilled, actually. I’ve done it myself. But where I think there’s an issue is that this is a public school. That’s the thing. And I think what’s concerning some of us is not the Bible itself, but that it was handed out. Distributed to the kids here. I just ask you to consider how you’d feel, if you sent your child to a public school, and they came home with a copy of the Quran, asking about the Prophet Muhammad. You’d feel it was an issue. If I went around handing out copies of the Quran to the children on this island, purely in the interest of the pursuit of knowledge, well, I’d expect you chase me out of town, Miss Keane.

Bev Keane: We are living in a miraculous time. Right here, right now, on Crockett Island. There are actual bona fide miracles happening before our eyes at St. Patrick’s. And this community, Sheriff, you should know this, you are responsible for observing this community. This community is in the midst of a full-blown religious revival at the moment. And if the children of this community cannot discuss that in their local school, well, I just don’t know what that is.

Erin Greene: [referring to Bev] I couldn’t stay in that room listening to her bulls**t one more minute. It’s like this particular brand of self-righteousness, that is exclusive to a certain breed of religious. I’ve never liked that. Never.

Riley Flynn: I did my fearless moral inventory, and I found out that, man, I am a coward.
Erin Greene: Don’t do that. Don’t talk about yourself like that. If anyone else talked about you like that, I’d…
Riley Flynn: You’d what?
Erin Greene: I’d kick their a**.

Mildred Gunning: [to Sarah] Where have I been? Somewhere dark? But just now, it’s like I woke up, and there you are.

Father Paul: So Leeza’s forgiven you. And I heard your confession today, and God forgave you. Who does that leave?
Joe Collie: I guess I’m not as quick to forgive as they are.

Riley Flynn: You showed up, Joe. You’re here, that’s enough. It won’t be forever, but for tonight it is. For tonight, it’s everything.

Joe Collie: Pruitt Recreation Center, what a f***ing legacy. I mean, why not just name it Bev Keane’s Money Laundry? That’s all it really was. Hmm? Bev Keane’s Coin Laundry. Or Bev Keane’s Con Laundry. Or Beverly f***ing Keane’s Queen Evil B**ch Emporium, Embezzlement R Us Incorporated, L-L-f***ing-C.
Riley Flynn: Well, you’d need a bigger sign.

Joe Collie: Well, it just shows to go you, don’t it? Never assume. Words to live by, them. Never assume.

Joe Collie: Does it ever get any different? For people like us?
Riley Flynn: I don’t think so. Nothing around us changes. I mean, maybe if we work really hard, then maybe we become different. Then maybe at least it feels different? I don’t know.
Joe Collie: Here’s to becoming different people.

Sheriff Hassan: [referring to his wife] Do you know what it does? What pancreatic cancer does to someone? Would you like me to tell you? Because I don’t want to. I never, ever want you to know what she went through. I bear that for both of us, and that’s right. She kept her faith. She honored Him to her last moment, and if God really worked that way, if He decided that He was going to heal some people, and not others, if He chose to spare some, and not others, if He handed Leeza Scarborough a miracle, but let a child die of a brain tumor across the way in the mainland… No. No, that’s not how it works, Ali. It’s not. That’s not how God works. No matter how exciting the stories are at St. Patrick’s. Or the Buddhists, or Scientologists. It’s not magic. It’s not.

Father Paul: [recounting how Pruitt was attacked by a vampiric creature] Those eyes. Eyes and skin and hands, but also wings. A sense of great wings enfolding him, and his mind finally found the word. The word was unearthed by his fear like the tomb was unearthed by the storm. And the word was “angel”. Angel.

Father Paul: [after Father Paul is revealed to be young Pruitt] I knew the journey would be long. But I knew where this angel was needed, and so I’d travel and I’d wait, and the angel would catch up. I’d travel and wait in fear. Lord, fear that someone would discover it, or that one night it wouldn’t be there, it wouldn’t fly to me. And when it did, I knew I’d have to hide it. And so I’d hid it in earth, and packed it with antiquities, and I’d leave the rest to God. Leave it to God that I might bring it safely home to the people who needed it most. And by Your grace, I did. And I knew all the while that I’d have to lie. Lie to the very people I’m here to save. To the dear souls of this island, so that we may bring them Your love, and Your mercy, and Your miracles.

Father Paul: Forgive me, Lord, for the small lies I must tell in Your service. Oh, my God. I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell. But most of all because they offend Thee. Oh, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to confess all my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen.

Dr. Sarah Gunning: And who am I?
Mildred Gunning: You are my world. My heart and soul. My daughter, Sarah. The doctor.

Erin Greene: A lot of people cross-stitch Bible verses. But my mom goes with the passage from Lamentations. It’s a special kind of self-pity to identify with the destruction of Jerusalem.

Erin Greene: She said, “Everyone gets their wings clipped at some point.” And I asked the next question. It’s the only question a kid’s going to ask when they hear something like that. I said, “Mom, did you get your wings clipped?” And she said, “Yep. Oh, yes. Day you were born.”

Erin Greene: [referring to her mother] I ruined her life. But Littlefoot? You see, that baby saved mine. Because I did it. I did what I said I was going to do. I ran away at sixteen. I was going to be an actress. I was going to be a star. And I traveled, and I lived. And by the time I woke up, and the drugs had worn off, I looked up and I had married my mother.

Erin Greene: [referring to her baby] She saved me. And now she’s just gone. And how is that possible? How is that possible?

Riley Flynn: I have this dream. This recurring dream, I’ve had it since I was inside. I’m floating out in the middle of the bay. Middle of the water. Just gray water. Morning water. The sky lightening as the sun’s about to rise. And if I could just point the bow, find a wind, or an oar, paddle with my goddamn hands if I had to, to a different shore. Start a new life. That dream always ends with the sunrise. Always. I never get further than that sunrise. That part I can see, clear as day. That part is real. But the rest, whatever life I’m supposed to have after? That I can’t see. And the more I have that dream, the more I just know that it’s not in the cards for me.

Riley Flynn: [to Erin] I’m not getting off this island. I know it. Late at night, no matter what I might let myself hope, or what I might tell my mom, or my dad. I know it. But you, you can do anything. You always could do anything.

Mildred Gunning: How?
Father Paul: “Well, truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, even if you say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be done.” With God, all things are possible.
Father Paul: I thought it was a dream. When I saw you at my bedside. So young.
Maybe it is a dream. But if it is, we’re all having it. All of us.

Erin Greene: You prayed with me all day, and I love you for that. But you don’t believe it. Any of it.
Riley Flynn: I understand it. I do. The appeal of it. The comfort of it. Everything happens for a reason. There’s good in everything. There’s a plan. It’s, I don’t know. I guess I just lived a moment at complete odds with the existence of a loving God.

Riley Flynn: I think we all want so badly for there to be a reason. For everything. And some justice, and some comfort when we die.
Erin Greene: Yeah, that’s where religion comes from. That’s the whole question.
Riley Flynn: It is.
Erin Greene: What happens when we die?

Riley Flynn: [describing his death] And my neurons are firing, and I’m seeing this firework display of memories and imagination. And I am just tripping. I mean, really tripping balls, because my mind’s rifling through the memories. You know, long and short-term, and the dreams mix with the memories. And it’s a curtain call. The dream to end all dreams. One last great dream as my mind empties the f***ing missile silos, and then, I stop.

Riley Flynn: [describing his death] My brain activity ceases, and there is nothing left of me. No pain. No memory. No awareness that I ever was. That I ever hurt someone. That I ever killed someone. Everything is as it was before me.

Riley Flynn: [describing his death] And I’m serving a purpose. I’m feeding life. And I’m broken apart, and all the littlest pieces of me are just recycled, and I’m billions of other places. And my atoms are in plants, and bugs, and animals, and I am like the stars that are in the sky. There one moment, and then just scattered across the goddamn cosmos.

Erin Greene: I’m not the one that died today. She was never awake. When she came down into this little body, this just forming little body, it was asleep. So all she ever knew was dreaming. She only ever dreamed. She didn’t even have a name. And then in her sleep, that perfect little spirit just lifted up. Because God didn’t send her to suffer through life on Earth. No. This one? This special little soul, God just sent her down here to sleep. Just a little nap. A quick dream. And then He called her back. He wanted her back.

Erin Greene: And that’s what we mean when we say Heaven. No mansions, no rivers of diamonds, or fluffy clouds, or angel wings. You are loved. And you aren’t alone. That is God. That is Heaven. And that’s why we endure all that we endure on this big, blue, sad rock. I’ll be there soon enough. And I’ll see my father. And my grandmother. And I’ll see my little girl, and she will be happy and safe. And I will be so glad to meet her.
Riley Flynn: I really hope you’re right.

Joe Collie: Are you okay, Father?
Father Paul: Truth be told, I’m not really feeling myself today, and I am at a bit of a loss.

Joe Collie: [to Father Paul as he sees the photo of young Pruitt] Well, that’s uncanny, ain’t it? You could be his son. You know, that was a rumor when I was a kid, that the old man wasn’t exactly celibate. I mean, who can blame him? I mean, who am I to judge a man for his vices? I mean, me? S**t. None of my business. Really. Kind of my motto my whole life.

Riley Flynn: [to Erin, referring to his recurring dream] I’m on the water, just like always. Waiting on the sun. But this time, you’re there too. What do you think that means?

Sheriff Hassan: I understand you’re curious. I will not tell my son not to look for God. But, son. Ali. We already have Him.

Wade: [to Father Paul, referring to Joe’s dead body] What the hell did you do?!
Bev Keane: [slaps Wade] “The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the Priest who stands to minister there before the Lord, your God, that man shall die.” Deuteronomy.

Bev Keane: [referring to killing Joe] Father. Monsignor. Tell them. Tell them why you did what you did.
Father Paul: I don’t know. Something came over me, and really, I don’t even…
Bev Keane: Because something moved through you!

Bev Keane: Is your conscience heavy? Do you have guilt in your heart for doing what you had to?
Father Paul: No. Not at all.
Bev Keane: Then ask yourself why God let that cup pass you by. And carry on.

Father Paul: That’s the thing, isn’t it? What do you say? You say, “I’m so sorry for your loss.” Or, “God works in mysterious ways. If there’s anything that I can do.” It’s so hollow, isn’t it? We can never understand the will of God, and I wouldn’t presume to know what to say to Erin Greene, other than that. We must trust in the Lord with our whole heart. And not rely on our own insights.
Riley Flynn: Give yourself over, whether you understand it or not.

Father Paul: Sometimes it’s okay to just look at the world, and say, “Why? Why? Why? I don’t understand. And I will not.” Yeah, sometimes that’s okay.
Riley Flynn: Yeah, I actually agree with that.
Father Paul: Well, it’s hard not to, isn’t it?

Annie Flynn: I know you never really felt like this was home. Like Crockett wasn’t so much a place we lived as a place we lived through, waiting for help to come. And, well, help is here.
Riley Flynn: Is it?
Annie Flynn: I don’t need my glasses anymore. And your father’s better than he’s been in years. Something’s happening here. And I can’t pretend it isn’t.

Annie Flynn: But God isn’t asking you to have faith in something that you can’t see. Not here. Not now. He’s only asking that you look. Isn’t that amazing?
Riley Flynn: He’s a liar, mom. Father Paul. Maybe you’re right. Maybe there is hope. And maybe there is something for me, and maybe there is God and miracles. I don’t know. But I know one thing. Just one thing for a fact. Father Paul lied to me tonight. So believe and pray for me. But just please be careful. That’s all I ask.

Father Paul: Conscience. In the army of God, conscience is standard issue. There are many like it, but this one is mine. You may think that that’s a line from a war movie, but it isn’t. That’s actually the Rifleman’s Creed. And a creed is, by definition, not just a belief, but it is a religious one. So, it is a war, and there will be casualties. And we must be soldiers. That is what Good Friday is about.

Father Paul: The Gospel of the Lord, so full of horror, is only good, because of where it is headed. The Resurrection.

Mildred Gunning: [referring to mass] I don’t want you going back there ever again.
Dr. Sarah Gunning: What?
Mildred Gunning: That is not my church. That is not the man I knew.

Riley Flynn: It’s where it all came from in the first place. Stars.

Riley Flynn: All of it. Every god. Every goddess. Every religion. Every holy war. All of it. Started right up there. Just wondering who the hell could’ve lit those campfires in the sky.

Riley Flynn: I’m going to tell you a story, but you’re not going to believe it. I just need you to listen. Can you promise me that?
Erin Greene: Yeah. I can.

Father Paul: [after Riley has been attacked by the vampire] You’re okay. See, God still has a plan, and death isn’t part of it anymore. Not for all of us. And we don’t have to be afraid ever again.

Riley Flynn: We’re having a meeting?
Father Paul: We’re having the meeting.

Father Paul: [to Riley] Today you get complete and total honesty from me. And this prayer, today, it applies to me and you, profoundly. Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.

Riley Flynn: Who are you?
Father Paul: You know who I am. Come on. Really look. Listen to yourself, you know who I am.

Father Paul: [to Riley] You’ve been taken back as well, taken back to your best self. Your peak self, your perfect self, as God wanted you. I just had a lot further to go than you did. It was a lot further to go.

Riley Flynn: [referring to Joe] You killed him.
Father Paul: It’s not as simple as that.
Riley Flynn: No. No. You f***ing killed him. You, and that thing!
Father Paul: It cannot be changed! It’s done and cannot be undone! Just like what’s happened to you cannot be undone! These are two things that cannot be changed, and we must accept them with serenity together right now.

Riley Flynn: What the f*** was that thing?!
Father Paul: An angel.

Father Paul: [referring to their hunger for blood] It’s as if your body were acting under some other will. It was. It will again, and this is the thing. This is where we need to listen. Listen to the Holy Spirit, listen to our conscience. Because, you see, I was there too. Well, I had been restored. I had been made young again. I had been made pure again. And then, like Jesus before me, I died. I died on the floor, just across the way there. And then I was resurrected, but I was scared, and confused, and this drive inside, this powerful will, and I felt the same way you did. My will became His will, and He moved through me, and Joe was taken, and I was sustained. I was nourished.

Riley Flynn: Murderer.
Father Paul: Well, I suppose so, but here’s the thing. I had no guilt. None. And knowing that I should feel guilt, but accepting that I did not, finding grace where the guilt should be, I wrestled with that. I prayed on it.

Father Paul: [to Riley] He had taken that guilt. He cleansed my conscience, for I had simply done His will. Been His vessel. A murderer, maybe. So is Moses. Joseph. Paul, my namesake. I’m hardly unique as a soldier of the Lord. I’m hardly unique in this room either. Am I? I mean, you’ve killed someone.

Father Paul: Well, there is meaning here. There is purpose here that you are willfully ignoring.
Riley Flynn: It was f***ing ordinary what happened. There weren’t even skid marks on my side of the road. I never hit the brakes. I didn’t even tap the brakes. I was literally asleep at the wheel. That is what happened. So, don’t talk to me about God moving through you, or doing His will. You don’t know a f***ing thing about me. And our stories are not the same.

Father Paul: [after expressing no remorse for killing Joe] I promised you complete honesty, and I’m giving that to you, and I’m tired of you lying to me, Riley Flynn! I’ve forgiven it time and again, but today is critical for us, and I am finished! Complete honesty! How does it make you feel?!
Riley Flynn: Jealous.

Father Paul: Courage, Riley Flynn. Courage. Let’s find that now. The courage. To change that, which we can. God brought you back. Okay? For a reason. Your accident, that moment of hell on Earth, you say it didn’t do anyone any good. But it did, didn’t it? Because it put you here on this island right now, at one of the most crucial moments in the history of our world. Have some courage. God chose you. And that guilt that you’re clinging to, you can let it go. God’s changed you already. Now it’s just on you to have courage.

Riley Flynn: Did you feed? When that angel was ripping into my neck, and my blood was pouring out onto the floor. Did you join in? Complete and total honesty, I thought you said.
Father Paul: Yes.

Bev Keane: [to Riley] You sit there, blessed among men, smirking when I say, “God’s will.” I’m frustrated.
Father Paul: I know.
Bev Keane: He doesn’t even recognize what he is being given, and I find it offensive.
Father Paul: It’s immaterial, Bev.

Father Paul: [referring to the cup of blood] It’s okay, Riley. It’s going to happen. This is one of those things that cannot be changed. Accept it, with serenity and grace.

Father Paul: Wisdom. The wisdom to know the difference between the things we can change, the things we can’t, and the things we shouldn’t.

Father Paul: It is good, what we’re doing. What we have to do. It’s good. Even the things we may not think we want to do. The hunger, that thirst is good. And that’s why we don’t feel guilt when we surrender to it. That’s why we feel better after. And that’s why we share this gift.

Father Paul: Think on that warm feeling you have here right now. Think on that, and just answer me this. Do you feel at peace? Your stomach full? Your purpose clear? Your will given over to a higher power? Do you feel at peace?
[Riley reluctantly nods]

Riley Flynn: What happens now?
Father Paul: Now you can go.
Riley Flynn: Just like that?
Father Paul: Just like that. The wonders that you will experience out there, you’ll see things you never saw before. Colors, lights. You’ll hear things, smell things. The world, it burns brighter. It hums, Riley, with His glory. You’ll see.

Father Paul: [to Riley] I have faith in you. In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

Father Paul: [to Riley] I hear him more clearly every day. The more I give myself over to God, the more I hear the voice of His angel, and you will too. That’s okay, that’s good. Know you will be moved to act, and there will be things you cannot change. But whoever you choose to enter communion with, whoever serves God’s purpose for you, as you give of yourself for them to drink, as they eat of your body, and drink of your blood, and you of theirs, and you are in the communion of saints, remember, that it’s a gift. And God will tell you who to share it with.

Father Paul: The doors stay open as the gates are always open. How else does gospel spread?

Father Paul: What is otherwise horrible is good because of where it’s headed. Welcome to God’s army. Yeah, we’re going to do great things.

Erin Greene: [to Riley] I’ve been scared much worse by much worse, and I don’t let that happen anymore. I’m not scared. Not of you. My dear, dear you. If you are sick, or if you need help, I’m not scared of that. I’d get you the help you need. I’d do that with you, without judgment, and without fear. Just tell me what you need. Tell me why we’re out here. Tell me what you want.

Riley Flynn: I didn’t bring you out here to scare you, or to isolate you. I brought you out here so I’d have nowhere to go. I’m not as strong as you. I never was. What do I want? I want you to take this boat, and row to the mainland, and leave this place, and never look back. But I knew you wouldn’t do that. I knew you wouldn’t believe any of this unless you saw. I want you to run. But I believe you’re going to row back there and do everything you can to try and save them. I’m just so sorry you have to see this.

Riley Flynn: I love you, Erin Greene. I’ve loved you my whole life. One way or another.
Erin Greene: I love you too.
Riley Flynn: I did my best. I did my best.
[as the sun rises Riley combusts and burns to ashes]

Bev Keane: There will be others like Riley. There always are. Who try to poison the ears of the faithful against their God. But tonight, let’s have faith in our church. Let’s share everything that we have.

Erin Greene: Riley. I’m trying to remember exactly what he said at the end. But I can’t remember it all, not perfectly. But I do remember one thing pretty well. He said to run.

Father Paul: [to Ed, referring to Riley] He’s just in a bad place. Don’t assume the worst. In fact, hey, assume the best. That’s what God teaches us about being parents. Do as he does. You love your son as God loves us. Assume the best.

Sheriff Hassan: You’re telling me there’s a contagion being spread intentionally at St. Patrick’s?
Dr. Sarah Gunning: I’m telling you that is what I suspect, even if it sounds…
Sheriff Hassan: What exactly are you asking of me?
Dr. Sarah Gunning: Well, I suppose I’m asking you to look into it.
Sheriff Hassan: Look into what, exactly? Look into St. Patrick’s? On, and just to be clear, on the basis that some of your mother’s blood tests got damaged?
Dr. Sarah Gunning: It’s a lot to ask, I know.
Sheriff Hassan: Do you? Do you?

Sheriff Hassan: [referring to his previous police colleagues] And more and more, I realize I’ve lost their trust. I roll with it. I keep my head high. Dignity. Dignity is a word my wife uses. “Show them dignity.” And then she’s diagnosed. And she’s robbed of her dignity so fast. And then she’s gone. And I couldn’t. Ali and I get as far away as we can. And I find this gig. This little island. So sleepy, it could be dead. No elections, no staff. Just a tiny room at the back of a grocery store, and a bunch of fishermen without a notable incident of intentional violence in almost a century, and I beg for the post. Dignity.

Sheriff Hassan: So I don’t intimidate. I don’t overshare, or overstep, or intrude in any way. I don’t even carry a gun. And still. Still, Beverly Keane, and a few others too, look at me like I’m Osama bin-F***ing-Laden. And you’d like me to investigate St. Patrick’s?
Dr. Sarah Gunning: For what it’s worth, I want very much, very much to be wrong.

Dr. Sarah Gunning: You don’t carry a gun?
Sheriff Hassan: No need.

Erin Greene: [referring to going to mass] Because I don’t know anything. I don’t know what’s going to happen, if anything will. What I know is that Riley sacrificed everything. Everything. Because he thought I could help. And now the ferries are gone, and the power’s out, and there are going to be people there tonight that I love. That Riley loved. So, yeah, I’m going to be there. I’m going to be there.

Father Paul: Tonight is the beginning of a new era. And we are meant to celebrate the Resurrection tonight, and we will more than anyone ever has.

Father Paul: I’ve lied to you all. I didn’t come here to replace Monsignor Pruitt. He isn’t recovering in a hospital in the mainland. He’s perfectly healthy. He has been blessed. As you have all been blessed, he has been made well, made whole, made young, the same as you. He was healed long before you ever saw this face. He was the first, in fact, and he stands before you right now, asking for your forgiveness.

Father Paul: I was lost and confused, tired and old, on the road to Damascus, when lo and behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto me and bestowed upon me the healing graces of God. And I was restored, as you have all been restored. I returned to you all, and I brought with me that angel of the Lord so that he might bless us all. And we have, we’ve seen the miracles. Our new bodies. The resurrection of the body, new and everlasting life.

Father Paul: I followed him into the valley of darkness, and like our Lord, I endured death. Mercifully short. A leap of faith, a step out onto the water, was all he asked of me. And, like Jesus, you will doubt, you will feel fear. But believe me, I promise you, brothers and sisters, if you follow me, if you follow us, if you follow Him, He will raise you again in His glory to eternal life.

Father Paul: There is a price to be paid for everlasting life, as there was for our Savior. And each one of us will have the opportunity tonight to pay that price.

Father Paul: [as the vampire arrives] Have faith, brothers and sisters. I would not make you see what you have seen, I would not ask you to choose what you may choose, without first showing you God’s messenger. And remember, brothers and sisters, have faith that in the Bible, every time they mention an angel, when an angel appears to we humans, we are afraid.

Father Paul: Brothers and sisters, you are so close to salvation. The miracle is already in you. The blood of the angel is already in your veins. But it is incomplete. The final transformation will not be yours unless you let your earthly body die, so that your divine body can awaken. One moment of faith. That’s the price God asks of us. Just one moment of courage. A small step out of the boat. Just onto the water itself. A small moment of discomfort. A small passion of our own. A gift offered up, and then we are reborn.

Bev Keane: What are you going to do, Erin Greene? Guns? Those things don’t matter anymore. Not in the new world. The world without death. I mean, you could shoot me right now, it’d just mean I’m five minutes behind…
Erin Greene: [shoots Bev] We have five minutes.

Sturge: [referring to the resurrected churchgoers] Monsignor said we should close the doors before they wake up. So we can guide them, orient them, so that this wouldn’t happen.
Bev Keane: I love him. I truly do. But look, it happened nonetheless, as it was meant to. You know what they say. “Man plans, God laughs.” Those who have been coming to church and taking Communion, they have nothing to fear tonight. As for the rest of them, let God sort them out.

Bev Keane: Faith, Monsignor. Faith and courage. Like you said. Open the doors. The doors stay open, just as the gates are always open. How else does the gospel spread?

Annie Flynn: God doesn’t love you more than anyone else. You aren’t a hero. And you certainly, certainly aren’t a victim.
Bev Keane: I wouldn’t lecture, Annie Flynn. Not until you pull the plank from your own eye, as it were. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but if Riley Flynn, a drunk, and a murderer, was evidence of the quality of his parenting…
Annie Flynn: He was. Every part of him. And God loves him. Just as much as he loves you, Bev. Why does that upset you so much? Just the idea that God loves everyone just as much as you.

Father Paul: [to Mildred] When I saw what I’d been given, I thought, “Oh. Well, this is the end of that. It’s the end of the roar.” No more death. But if I’m honest, and there’s no point in being anything else anymore, it was you. It was you. And Sarah. That’s why I did it. That’s why I put that thing in that trunk. That’s why I bribed, and lied, and smuggled it back here. That was the reason. I didn’t want you to die.

Father Paul: [to Mildred] I mean, our whole lives have been wasted. You know, just staring across the church. Too scared to come down and be with you. I mean, too scared to tell our own daughter the truth. And it never felt like a sin, that was the thing. You never felt like a sin. And our daughter, no, she was never a sin. She was never a mistake. Never.

Father Paul: I used to tell myself, I’d tell myself, on those hard nights when you were so close, sleeping beside the man you were supposed to be with, that you, if you would just show up and ask me, I would have taken this collar off, and I would have gone with you. I would go with you anywhere in the world.
Mildred Gunning: I was never going to do that, John. Not to you. Or to her. And not to him. Not after the war. I wasn’t going to ruin four lives. But that’s over now, John. We made our choices. We lived our lives. She grew up, and we faded away, and that’s how it’s supposed to work. It’s supposed to be over.

Father Paul: But another chance? Now that we can be a family this time. Can you think of a miracle more amazing than that? I mean, cure blindness, sure. Or part the seas, alright. But a second chance? That’s a real miracle.

Bev Keane: Let all of it burn. A new flood. A flood of fire, and St. Patrick’s will be the ark. The citizens of Crockett, the good citizens, they know where to go in a storm.

Leeza: We’re going to be okay.
Warren Flynn: You think we’re going to make it?
Leeza: That’s not what I said. I’m saying, either way, we’re going to be okay.

Annie Flynn: [after being resurrected] Is that what I’ll become, just an animal, who can’t resist?
Ed Flynn: When I saw them at the church, I thought it was something they really couldn’t help. Like something impossible not to do. But it isn’t, Annie. I feel it too. I’m starving too, but I didn’t. I didn’t. Whatever this is, it don’t change who you are.

Dr. Sarah Gunning: [referring to Warren and Leeza] I hope the kids made it to the boat.
Erin Greene: I hope so too.
Dr. Sarah Gunning: We’re never going to know, are we?
Erin Greene: Probably not.
Dr. Sarah Gunning: They did. I’m deciding they did.

Bev Keane: St. Patrick’s isn’t just a church, Monsignor. It’s an ark. I set up cots in the rec center for those who were chosen. We will take to our ships, to our vessels, and then, like sheep among wolves, like you said, we will spread the good word.
Father Paul: And who will decide who is chosen?
Bev Keane: We will. You and me.
Father Paul: And what happens to the rest?
Bev Keane: Well, I don’t much know. That isn’t up to me. It’s between them and God, isn’t it?

Father Paul: No, we got this wrong.
Bev Keane: Well, don’t be ridiculous.
Father Paul: No, Beverly. Please look at them. We are the wolves.
Bev Keane: No. No, please. Please. Not you too. Not you, Monsignor.
Father Paul: I was wrong. We were wrong. We are wrong. And this needs to stop.

Bev Keane: They’re lost without a leader, without a shepherd. That must be you, Monsignor. It has to be you. It has always been you.
Father Paul: No! It was never me. That’s the thing about priesthood. It’s never supposed to be about me. It’s supposed to be about God!
Bev Keane: Well, I suppose it isn’t you anymore. Of course, he told us that, didn’t he? Jesus himself. He warned us against the scribes, against the priests.

Bev Keane: [to Father Paul] I suppose virtue isn’t a virtue if it doesn’t cost you anything. And it was always going this way. You were always going to be the last, the hardest, test of my faith. You.

Warren Flynn: My mom. And my dad. And my brother. They’re all gone, aren’t they?
Leeza: Yeah.
Warren Flynn: I would have, if I’d known at that dinner, the last dinner, I would have been different.
Leeza: They know. They know.

Father Paul: God, am I proud of you. I’m sorry that we never told you, your mother and I, but I love you so much. And I’ve been so proud of you, and I just wish that we had gotten to know each other.
Dr. Sarah Gunning: Me too.

Sheriff Hassan: There’s this verse in the Bible, just kind of stuck with me. “He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good.”

Bev Keane: [as they watch the rec center burn] There’s got to be somewhere. There’s got to be somewhere else.
Wade: No, Bev. No. There’s nowhere else. You burned it. You burned it all.

Riley Flynn: [as Erin is being killed by the vampire] So what do you think happens when we die, Erin?
Erin Greene: Speaking for myself?
Riley Flynn: Speaking for yourself.
Erin Greene: Myself. My self. That’s the problem. That’s the whole problem with the whole thing. That word, “self”. That’s not the word. That’s not right. That isn’t. How did I forget that? When did I forget that?

Erin Greene: [as she’s dying] The body stops a cell at a time, but the brain keeps firing those neurons. Little lightning bolts, like fireworks inside, and I thought I’d despair, or feel afraid, but I don’t feel any of that. None of it. Because I’m too busy. I’m too busy in this moment. Remembering. Of course. I remember that every atom in my body was forged in a star. This matter, this body is mostly just empty space after all, and solid matter? It’s just energy vibrating very slowly, and there is no me. There never was.

Erin Greene: The electrons of my body mingle and dance with the electrons of the ground below me and the air. I’m no longer breathing. And I remember there is no point where any of that ends and I begin. I remember I am energy. Not memory. Not self. My name, my personality, my choices, all came after me. I was before them, and I will be after, and everything else is pictures, picked up along the way. Fleeting little dreamlets printed on the tissue of my dying brain.And I am the lightning that jumps between. I am the energy firing the neurons, and I’m returning. Just by remembering, I’m returning home.

Erin Greene: More galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on the beach. And that’s what we’re talking about when we say God. The one. The cosmos, and its infinite dreams. We are the cosmos dreaming of itself. It’s simply a dream that I think is my life, every time. But I’ll forget this. I always do. I always forget my dreams. But now, in this split-second, in the moment I remember, the instant I remember, I comprehend everything at once.

Erin Greene: There is no time. There is no death. Life is a dream. It’s a wish. Made again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and on into eternity. And I am all of it. I am everything. I am all. I am that I am.

Leeza: [after the sunrises as they watch the island burn with everyone on it] I can’t feel my legs.