1. Be on your guard lest your zeal degenerate into anxiety and eagerness.
Saint Francis de Sales was a most pronounced enemy of these two defects.
They cause us to lose sight of God in our actions and make us very prone
to impatience if the slightest obstacle should interfere with our
designs. It is only by acting peacefully that we can serve the God of
peace in an acceptable manner.
*"Do not let us suffer our peace to be disturbed by precipitation in our
exterior actions. When our bodies or minds are engaged in any work, we
should perform it peacefully and with composure, not prescribing for
ourselves a definite time to finish it, nor being too anxious to see it
completed."--Scupoli.*
2. Martha was engaged in a good work when she prepared a repast for our
divine Lord, nevertheless He reproved her because she performed it with
anxiety and agitation. This goes to show, says Saint Francis de Sales,
that it is not enough to do good, the good must moreover be done well,
that is to say, with love and tranquillity. If one turn the
spinning-wheel too rapidly it falls and the thread breaks.
3. Whenever we are doing well we are always doing enough and doing it
sufficiently fast. Those persons who are restless and impetuous do not
accomplish any more and what they do is done badly.
4. Saint Francis de Sales was never seen in a hurry no matter how varied
or numerous might be the demands made upon his time. When on a certain
occasion some surprise was expressed at this he said: "You ask me how it
is that although others are agitated and flurried I am not likewise
uneasy and in haste. What would you? I was not put in this world to cause
fresh disturbance: is there not enough of it already without my adding to
it by my excitability?"
5. However, do not on the other hand succumb to sloth and indifference.
All extremes are to be avoided. Cultivate a tranquil activity and an
active tranquillity.
6. In order to acquire tranquillity in action it is necessary to consider
carefully what we are capable of accomplishing and never to undertake
more than that. It is self-love, ever more anxious to do much than to do
well, which urges us on to burden ourselves with great undertakings and
to impose upon ourselves numerous obligations. It maintains and nourishes
itself on this tension of mind, this restless anxiety which it takes for
infallible signs of a superior capacity. Thus Saint Francis de Sales was
wont to say: "Our self-love is a great braggart, that wishes to undertake
everything and accomplishes nothing."
*"It appears to me that you are over eager and anxious in the pursuit of
perfection.... Now I tell you truthfully, as it is said in the Book of
Kings,[14] that God is not in the great and strong wind, nor in the
earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the gentle movement of an almost
imperceptible breeze.... Anxiety and agitation contribute nothing towards
success. The desire of success is good, but only if it be not accompanied
by solicitude. I expressly forbid you to give way to inquietude, for it
is the mother of all imperfections.... Peace is necessary in all things
and everywhere. If any trouble come to us, either of an interior or
exterior nature, we should receive it peacefully: if joy be ours, it
should be received peacefully: have we to flee from evil, we should do it
peacefully, otherwise we may fall in our flight and thus give our enemy a
chance to kill us. Is there a good work to be done? we must do it
peacefully, or else we shall commit many faults by our hastiness: and
even as regards penance,--that too must be done peacefully: _Behold_,
said the prophet, _in peace is my bitterness most bitter_."[15]*
XV.
SADNESS.
I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the
house of the Lord.... Sing joyfully to God, all the earth: serve ye the
Lord with gladness.... Why art thou sad, O my soul, and why dost thou
trouble me? (Psalms CXXI., XCIX., XLII.)
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. (Apoc. C. XXI., v.
4.)
1. Sadness, says Saint Francis de Sales, is the worst thing in the World,
sin alone excepted.
2. It is a dangerous error to seek recollection in sadness: it is the
spirit of God that produces recollection; sadness is the work of the
spirit of darkness.
3. Do not forget the rule given by Saint Francis de Sales for the
discernment of spirits: any thought that troubles and disquiets us cannot
come from the God of peace, who makes his dwelling-place only in peaceful
souls.
*"Yes, my daughter, I now tell you in writing what I before said to you
in person, always be as happy as you can in well-doing, for it gives a
double value to good works to be well done and to be done cheerfully. And
when I say, rejoice in well-doing, I do not mean that if you happen to
commit some fault you should on that account abandon yourself to sadness.
For God's sake, no; for that would be to add defect to defect. But I mean
that you should persevere in the wish to do well, that you return to it
the moment you realize you have deviated from it, and that by means of
this fidelity you live happily in the Lord.... May God be ever in our
heart, my daughter.... Live joyfully and be generous, for this is the
will of God, whom we love and to whose service we are
consecrated."--Saint Francis de Sales.* (_Imitation_, B. III., Chap.
XLVII.)
4. It is wrong to deny one's self all diversion. The mind becomes
fatigued and depressed by remaining always concentrated in itself and
thus more easily falls a prey to sadness. Saint Thomas says explicitly
that one may incur sin by refusing all innocent amusement. Every excess,
no matter what its nature, is contrary to order and consequently to
virtue.
5. Recreations and amusements are to the life of the soul what seasoning
is to our corporal food. Food that is too highly seasoned quickly becomes
injurious and sometimes fatal in its effects; that which is not seasoned
at all soon becomes unendurable because of its insipidity and
unpalatableness.
6. As to the amount of diversion it is right to take, no absolute measure
can be given: the rule is that each person should have as much as is
necessary for him. This quantity varies according to the bent of the
mind, the nature of the habitual occupations, and the greater or less
predisposition to sadness one observes in his disposition.
7. When you find your heart growing sad, divert yourself without a
moment's delay; make a visit, enter into conversation with those around
you, read some amusing book, take a walk, sing, do something, it matters
not what, provided you close the door of your heart against this terrible
enemy. As the sound of a trumpet gives the signal for a combat, so sad
thoughts apprise the devil that a favorable moment has come for him to
attack us.
XVI.
LIBERTY OF SPIRIT.
Now the Lord is a spirit: and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty. (St. Paul, II. Cor., c. III., v. 17.)
For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but ye
have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba,
Father. (St. Paul, Romans, c. VIII., v. 15.)