Blessed Francis advised his penitents to avoid above all things, excessive
eagerness, which, in his view, is the mortal foe of true devotion. He says:
"It is far better to do a few things well than to undertake many good works
and leave them half done."
This was the mistake of the man in the Gospel who began to build and was
not able to finish because he had not counted the cost beforehand. There
are some who think they are never doing well unless they are doing much.
They are like the Pharisees who considered the perfection of prayer to
consist in its length. Our Lord reproves them for this and much more for
devouring widows' houses with their long prayers. In one of his Conferences
the Saint speaks thus: "It is not by the multiplicity of things we do that
we acquire perfection, but by the perfection and purity of intention with
which we do them."
And this is what he says on the subject in his Theotimus: "To do few
actions but with great purity of intention and with a firm will to please
God, is to do excellently. Such greatly sanctify us. Some men eat much, and
yet are ever lean, thin, and delicate, because their digestive power is
not good; there are others who eat little, and yet are always in excellent
health and vigorous, because their stomach is good. Even so, there are
some souls that do many good works and yet increase but little in charity,
because they do those good works either coldly and negligently, or have
undertaken them rather from natural instinct and inclination than because
God so willed and with heaven-given fervour. On the contrary, others
there are who get through little work, but do it with so holy a will; and
inclination, that they make a wonderful advancement in charity; they have
little talent, but they husband it so faithfully that the Lord largely;
rewards them for it."[1]
[Footnote 1: _Love of God_. B. xii., c. 7.]