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When God created the world He commanded each tree to bear fruit
after its kind; (1) and even so He bids Christians,--the living
trees of His Church,--to bring forth fruits of devotion, each one
according to his kind and vocation. A different exercise of
devotion is required of each--the noble, the artisan, the servant,
the prince, the maiden and the wife; and furthermore such practice
must be modified according to the strength, the calling, and the
duties of each individual.
I ask you, my child, would it be fitting that a Bishop should
seek to lead the solitary life of a Carthusian? And if the father
of a family were as regardless in making provision for the future
as a Capucin, if the artisan spent the day in church like a
Religious, if the Religious involved himself in all manner of
business on his neighbour's behalf as a Bishop is called upon to
do, would not such a devotion be ridiculous, ill-regulated, and
intolerable?
Nevertheless such a mistake is often made, and the world, which
cannot or will not discriminate between real devotion and the
indiscretion of those who fancy themselves devout, grumbles and
finds fault with devotion, which is really nowise concerned in
these errors. No indeed, my child, the devotion which is true
hinders nothing, but on the contrary it perfects everything; and
that which runs counter to the rightful vocation of any one is,
you may be sure, a spurious devotion. Aristotle says that the bee
sucks honey from flowers without damaging them, leaving them as
whole and fresh as it found them;--but true devotion does better
still, for it not only hinders no manner of vocation or duty, but,
contrariwise, it adorns and beautifies all.
Throw precious stones into honey, and each will grow more
brilliant according to its several colour:--and in like manner
everybody fulfils his special calling better when subject to the
influence of devotion:--family duties are lighter, married love
truer, service to our King more faithful, every kind of occupation
more acceptable and better performed where that is the guide.
It is an error, nay more, a very heresy, to seek to banish the
devout life from the soldier's guardroom, the mechanic's workshop,
the prince's court, or the domestic hearth. Of course a purely
contemplative devotion, such as is specially proper to the
religious and monastic life, cannot be practised in these outer
vocations, but there are various other kinds of devotion
well-suited to lead those whose calling is secular, along the
paths of perfection.
The Old Testament furnishes us examples in Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, David, Job, Tobias, Sarah, Rebecca and Judith; and in the
New Testament we read of St. Joseph, Lydia and Crispus, who led a
perfectly devout life in their trades:--we have S. Anne, Martha,
S. Monica, Aquila and Priscilla, as examples of household
devotion, Cornelius, S. Sebastian, and S. Maurice among
soldiers;--Constantine, S. Helena, S. Louis, the Blessed Amadaeus,
(2) and S. Edward on the throne. And we even find instances of
some who fell away in solitude,-- usually so helpful to
perfection,--some who had led a higher life in the world, which
seems so antagonistic to it. S. Gregory dwells on how Lot, who had
kept himself pure in the city, fell in his mountain solitude.
Be sure that wheresoever our lot is cast we may and must aim at
the perfect life.
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