As part of my exploration of workplace spirituality I ran across this long (~26 page)article on THE SPIRITUALITY OF SAINT FRANCIS OF SALES by Mgr Francis Vincent. Here is an extract:
"We ought not to try to increase the number of our desires, or our exercises but the perfection with which we perform these exercises, seeking thus to win more by a single act (as we undoubtedly will) than by a hundred acts performed under our own initiative and affection."[22]
…
If perfection consists in doing what God wants us to do, wherever we may be, then no change of life is needed and holiness no longer is the exclusive privilege of cloister or desert. When Saint Francis first appeared, it was generally held that devotion, in the strict meaning of the work, belonged to specialists and that it was to be sought only in the cloister because communal life in the desert is no longer possible.
…
"It is an error, therefore a heresy, to want to banish a life of holiness from the company of military men, from the workman's shop... from the home of married people."[23]
…
.. What does this mean, if not that each of us must excel in his profession: the worker must be a good worker, the soldier must be a good soldier, the professor a good professor. In the eyes of our saint no one can be a good Christian if he "does not work hard at the duty of his charge."[25] So much a part must one be of one's profession that, when needful, one sacrifices for it spiritual exercises which are of themselves higher and holier. Not only must "the lawyer know how to pass from prayer to pleading, the merchant to bargain, the married woman to the duties of her marriage and the duties of her home";[26] but they must, when necessary, subordinate pious practices to the obligations of their state; without, however, allowing themselves to be deceived.
…
22. "Entretiens," VII.
23. "Introduction," part 1, chapter 3.
24. "Introduction," part 3, chapter 1.
25. Letter of April 20, 1610.
26. "Introduction," part 2, chapter 8.
Comments