introduction to the devout life by st francis de sales

Beware of letting go, under the idea of making or receiving more-if He forsakes you, you will fall to the ground at the first step. Even so, while you gather and use this world’s goods with one hand, always let the other be fast in your Heavenly Father’s Hand, and look round from time to time to make sure that He is satisfied with what you are doing, at home or abroad. “Imitate a little child, whom one sees holding tight with one hand to its father, while with the other it gathers strawberries or blackberries from the wayside hedge. Introduction to the Devout Life - Enhanced Version All this is a very weighty warning, and teaches us to aim at an abiding and unchangeable evenness of mind amid so great an uncertainty of events and, while all around is changing, we must seek to remain immoveable, ever looking to, reaching after and desiring our God.” And even so precisely is it with man (who, as ancient writers have said, is a miniature of the world), for he is never long in any one condition, and his life on earth flows by like the mighty waters, heaving and tossing with an endless variety of motion one while raising him on high with hope, another plunging him low in fear now turning him to the right with rejoicing, then driving him to the left with sorrows and no single day, no, not even one hour, is entirely the same as any other of his life.

Some are foggy, rainy, some dry or windy and this endless variety greatly enhances the beauty of the universe. “THE order of God’s Providence maintains a perpetual vicissitude in the material being of this world day is continually turning to night, spring to summer, summer to autumn, autumn to winter, winter to spring no two days are ever exactly alike.

Introduction to the devout life by st francis de sales