Do not be discouraged at your faults; bear with yourself in correcting them, as you would with your neighbor. Lay aside this ardor of mind, which exhausts your body, and leads you to commit errors. Accustom yourself gradually to carry prayer into all your daily occupations. Speak, move, work, in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be. Do everything without excitement, by the spirit of grace. As soon as you perceive your natural impetuosity gliding in, retire quietly within, where is the kingdom of God. Listen to the leadings of grace, then say and do nothing but what the Holy Spirit shall put in your heart. You will find that you will become more tranquil, that your words will be fewer and more effectual, and that, with less effort, you will accomplish more good.–FRANÇOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON.
If she falls into some error, she does not fret over it, but rising up with a humble spirit, she goes on her way anew rejoicing. Were she to fall a hundred times in the day, she would not despair–she would rather cry out lovingly to God, appealing to His tender pity. The really devout woman has a horror of evil, but she has a still greater love of that which is good; she is more set on doing what is right, than avoiding what is wrong. Generous, large-hearted, she is not afraid of danger in serving God, and would rather run the risk of doing His will imperfectly than not strive to serve Him lest she fail in the attempt. –JEAN NICOLAS GROU (pronouns changed)
God has brought us into this time; He, and not ourselves or some dark demon. If we are not fit to cope with that which He has prepared for us, we should have been utterly unfit for any condition that we imagine for ourselves. In this time we are to live and wrestle, and in no other. Let us humbly, tremblingly, courageously look at it, and we shall not wish that the sun could go back its ten degrees, or that we could go back with it. If easy times are departed, it is that the difficult times may make us more in earnest; that they may teach us not to depend upon ourselves. If easy belief is impossible, it is that we may learn what belief is, and in whom it is to be placed.–F. D. MAURICE.
