Guidance & Wisdom
Do you then, my daughter, choose the best virtues, not those which are most highly esteemed; the most excellent, not the most visible; the truest, not the most conspicuous.
An active effort to acquire virtue is the first step towards goodness; but an active effort to acquire honour is the first step towards contempt and shame.
In practising any virtue, it is well to choose that which is most according to our duty, rather than most according to our taste.
How can such friendships be other than shortlived, melting away like snow wreaths in the sun!
Humility makes our lives acceptable to God, meekness makes us acceptable to men.
Be just and fair in all you do. Always put yourself in your neighbour’s place, and put him into yours, and then you will judge fairly. Sell as you would buy, and buy as you would sell, and your buying and selling will alike be honest.
Deal with him in all sincerity and faithfulness, and with open heart; manifesting alike your good and your evil, without pretence or dissimulation. Thus your good will be examined and confirmed, and your evil corrected and remedied;—you will be soothed and strengthened in trouble, moderated and regulated in prosperity.
A different exercise of devotion is required of each—the noble, the artisan, the servant, the prince, the maiden and the wife; and furthermore such practice must be modified according to the strength, the calling, and the duties of each individual.
But the world sees nothing of that inward, heartfelt devotion which makes all these actions pleasant and easy.
Read the Lives of the Saints too, which are as a mirror to you of Christian life, and try to imitate their actions according to your circumstances.
Slander is a kind of murder; for we all have three lives—a spiritual life, which depends upon the Grace of God; a bodily life, depending on the soul; and a civil life, consisting in a good reputation. Sin deprives us of the first, death of the second, and slander of the third.
There is no disposition so good but it may be made bad by dint of vicious habits.
Many people fall into the error of being angry because they have been angry, vexed because they have given way to vexation, thus keeping up a chronic state of irritation, which adds to the evil of what is past.
The whole world is not worth one soul, and the soul is worth but little without its good resolutions.
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