An unknown Italian

“ These are the most frequent, and therefore upon these, more than upon others, we ought to fix our eyes and to employ our attention and diligence. The measure of their perfection will be the measure of our own. If we do them perfectly, we shall be perfect; if imperfectly, imperfect. Here, precisely, is the difference between the perfect and the imperfect Religious. It is not that one does different things from the other; but one does ordinary things with perfection, and the other with imperfection and tepidity. ”

“ Do not fear that the occupations imposed by obedience will draw you away from union with God; for when they are performed for His glory, they have, instead, great power to unite us closely to Him. For how can those things separate us from God, which unite our will to His? The whole mistake arises from the failure to distinguish between being drawn away from God, and being drawn away from the sweetness found in the interior perception of God. It is true that in occupation this sweetness is not always enjoyed (though it is sometimes in the highest degree) ”

“ One of the arts which the devil employs to ruin souls and to retard many in the service of God is to represent to them that it is a very difficult and insupportable thing to live for many years with so much exactness, circumspection and regularity. Now, to consider today only closes the path to this temptation, and at the same time lends much support to human weakness. For who is there that cannot for one day make a strong effort to do all he can, that his actions may be well performed? Let one say to himself in the morning, "This day I mean to perform my ordinary actions well." ”

“ Doing our work well consists in a very pure intention and strong purpose of pleasing God alone. This may be called the principle or the soul of our actions, and it gives them all their value and renders them easy and pleasing to us----St. Francis de Sales
St. Thomas Aquinas appeared with a most beautiful star upon his breast, after death, to one who had much devotion to him and said that it was given him as a reward for the perfectly pure intention with which he had performed all his actions. ”

“ These things appear great to them, and they desire sympathy as much as if the case were really so. God knows well that I desire no greater employment, and that every occupation is indifferent to me, if only it regards His service. While I am engaged in this work, small as it is, I am not obliged to do any other. And is it not a sufficiently important employment to do the will of God?" To encourage one of his penitents to this practice, he wrote to her thus: "Whoever can preserve interior sweetness in a multiplicity of business, may be called perfect. ”

“ Here is the point: we must be careful to keep the compass of our will in order, that it may never turn elsewhere than to the pole of the Divine pleasure. This is the third means of performing our actions well.----St. Francis de Sales
St. Vincent de Paul excelled in this. He was never perturbed by the multiplicity of business, nor by the difficulties he encountered, but he undertook everything with inexhaustable spiritual strength and applied himself with method, patience and tranquillity, making the will of God his constant aim. ”

“ At a time when God was shedding His heavenly graces in abundance upon the venerable Sister Maria Crucifixa, and calling her to enjoy the contemplation of Himself in solitude, her Superioress heaped upon her the offices of sacristan, cook, refectorian, and in certain novenas of great devotion, she had charge also of the door and of the medicine room. She did everything with exactness and to the satisfaction of all, and yet found time for her contemplation. ”

“ Francis de Sales
A devout young nun recited every day the complete Rosary of fifteen decades, but with little devotion, on account of its length. One day the Blessed Virgin appeared to her and told her to recite only the third part of it. "For," said she, "a few prayers said fervently are more acceptable to my Son and to me, than many said negligently and without devotion."
7. The Lord measures our perfection not by the number and greatness of the works we do for Him, but by our manner of doing them. And this manner is only the love of God with which, and for which, we do them. ”

“ This was intended to show that when we are occupied in any spiritual exercise, we ought not be diverted to other things, even under pretext of civility.
11. The Mass is certainly a function the most excellent, the most holy, the most acceptable to God and useful to us, that can be imagined. And so, while it is going on, the Angels assist in crowds, with bare feet, with earnest eyes, with downcast brows, with great silence, with incredible amazement and veneration. With what purity, attention, devotion, and reverence, then, ought the priest to celebrate it? ”

“ And so, on the instant after finishing any of them, she would retire to prayer and be wholly separated from all earthly things and completely wrapt in God. Even in the midst of manual labor and employment she often fell into ecstasies, so that she once said: "It is the same to me whether I am told to go to prayer in the choir, or to any manual work, for I make no difference between them. Nay, were I to say that sometimes I find God more in such work than in prayer, I think I should tell the truth." ”

“ What is more wonderful, this continual presence of God occupied her interior powers with much sweetness, without interfering at all with the exercise of her senses, so that while she was interiorly conversing with God, she was exteriorly conversing with men, answering connectedly, giving advice or orders, planning and executing whatever was necessary, with as much ease and readiness as if she had no other thought in mind. ”

“ Give life to these characters, O Life of all created things!" If at times he felt pleased with his reasoning or his expressions, he held the paper near the lamp and said: "My God, is it Thy will that I should burn it? Nothing here is mine. Let every work and every feeling of my own be consumed!" But then he received interior light, which showed him that it would not be well to do so, and he refrained.
21. Among the hindrances which prevent us from performing our actions well, the foremost is that while we are doing one thing, we are thinking of another which we have to do or which we have done ”

“ The very things that she did at the same time with the others, she did with greater perfection than they.
It is said of St. Stanislaus Kostka that though he did only the same things that others did, yet the excellence with which he did them made it seem that he did more.
10. Among our daily works, those which we ought to have most at heart are the spiritual. We should make every effort to perform them well, and let everything else yield to them, when necessity or obedience does not forbid; for they regard God most directly, and do the most to advance us in perfection. ”

“ Francis de Sales that he was the most exact of men----not only at the altar and in choir, where he observed even the smallest ceremonies punctually and faithfully, but also in private, in reciting the Office and in all his duties.
6. Be not of those who think perfection consists in undertaking many things, but of those who place it in doing well what little they do, for it is much better to do little and do it well, than to undertake much and do it ill. ”

“ Ignatius said of a lay-brother who was a mason that he wrought for himself in Heaven as many crowns as he laid bricks or gave strokes of the hammer, on account of the pure and upright intention with which he animated these works.
It is told of St. Francis Xavier that he was very careful to do little things well, and that he used to say: "We must not deceive ourselves, for he who does not take pains to excel in little things, will never do so in great." ”

“ A servant of God, after her death, appeared to another and told her that the felicity and glory to which God had brought her in Heaven for her good works was so great that if she could possess in addition only as much as is given for an Ave Maria well said, she would be contented to return to earth and suffer all sorts of trials to the day of judgment. ”

“ This is done by leading, in all respects, the common life, doing all things that are enjoined, but with exactness in the time, place, and manner prescribed. We must do common things not in a common matter, but in a manner more sublime and perfect than that in which they are commonly done. ”

“ Do not worry in attending to them, for worry disturbs the reason, and hinders us from doing well even what does not trouble us. But great affairs do not disturb us so much as a great number of little ones; therefore, receive these also with calmness, and try to attend to them in order, one after another, without perturbation. Thus, you will gain great merit by them, for the time spent peacefully is doubtless most usefully employed. ----St. Francis de Sales
This Saint passed many hours with poor people who occupied him about things of little account. ”

“ Whoever has not experienced it will not be able to believe how much we gain by being careful not to fail in little things; for the devil, by means of these, makes gaps and breaches through which great things can enter.----St. Teresa
When St. Louis Bertrand was Superior he used to reprove and punish very severely, at the Friday Chapter, the very smallest faults, such as failing in silence, oversleeping a little, or making a mistake in choir----only because he judged that advancement and religious discipline depended on these little things. ”

“ Bonaventure used to excite himself and others to constant occupation in good works by often repeating this beautiful sentiment: Every hour that we waste in sloth, we lose a glory equal to the good works we might have performed in it.
2. It is not enough to do good things, but we must do them well, in imitation of Christ our Lord, of whom it was written: Bene omnia fecit----He did all things well. We ought, then, to strive to do all things in the spirit of Christ; that is, with the perfection, with the circumstances, and for the ends for which He performed His actions. ”

“ To enjoy more of these, he asked and obtained from his Superior permission to give up his distracting occupation; then giving himself entirely to prayer, he found in it nothing but aridity and distractions. Seeing his mistake, he returned to his former work, when the lost consolations immediately came back.
17. Even little actions are great when they are done well; so that a little action done with desire to please God is more acceptable to Him, and gives Him more glory, than a great work done with less fervor. ”

“ The Divine Office is one of the most excellent works in which we can be engaged, as the Divine Praises are celebrated in it. It is an employment fit for Angels, and therefore it ought to be recited not by constraint or custom, but by choice, and with the application of our whole soul.----St. ”

“ We ought not to expect to do everything at once and in a hurry, nor imagine that all is lost, if success does not come in an instant, but we must advance quietly, pray much to God, and make use of the means suggested by His spirit, and never of the false maxims of the world.----St. ”

“ He should approach the sacred altar as Jesus Christ, assist there as an Angel, minister there as a Saint, offer there the prayers of the people as a high-priest, interpose there for reconciliation between God and men as a mediator, and pray for himself as a simple human being.----St. ”