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Great works do not lie always in our way, but every moment we may do little ones with excellence, that is, with a great love. Behold that saint, I beg you, who bestows a cup of cold water on the thirsty traveller. Such a one does what seems to be such a small thing when seen from the outside, but the intention, the sweet- ness, the love, with which he animates his work is so excellent, that it turns this simple water into water of life, and of eternal life
The bees gather honey from the lily, the flag, the rose; yet they get as ample a booty from the little tiny rosemary flowers and thyme. Indeed, they draw not only more honey, but even better honey from these smaller flowers, for in these little vessels the honey, being more closely locked up, is kept better. Truly, in the low and little works of devotion, charity is not only practiced more frequently, but ordinarily more humbly too, and consequently more usefully and more holily.
That patience with the idiosyncrasies of another, that bearing with the clownish and troublesome actions and ways of our neighbour, those victories over our own moods and passions, those mortifications of our lesser inclinations, that effort against our aversions and repugnances, that heartfelt and sweet acknowledgment of our own imperfections, the continual pains we take to keep our souls in equanimity, that love of our littleness, that gentle and gracious welcome we give to the contempt and censure of our condition, of our life, of our conversation, of our actions ... Theotimus, all these things are more profitable to our souls than we can conceive, if heavenly love has the management of them.
- Excerpt from Treatise on the Love of God, Book 12: Chapter 6 |
