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Our Saviour, as the ancients report, was wont to say
to his disciples: Be good exchangers. If the crown be
not good gold, if it want weight, if it be not struck
with the lawful stamp, it is rejected as not current:
if a work be not of a good species, if it be not
adorned with charity, if the intention be not pious,
it will not be admitted amongst the good works.
If I fast, but out of sparingness, my fast is not
of a good metal; if it be out of temperance, but I
have some mortal sin in my soul, the work wants
weight, for it is charity that gives weight to all
that we do; if it be only through complaisance, and
to accommodate myself to my company, the work is not
marked with the stamp of a right intention: but if I
fast out of temperance, and be in the grace of God,
and have an intention to please his Divine majesty by
this temperance, the work shall be current money, fit
to augment in me the treasure of charity.
To do little actions with a great purity of
intention and with a strong will to please God; is to
do them excellently, and then they greatly sanctify
us.
Some eat much, and yet are ever lean, attenuated
and languid, because their digestive power is not
good; there are others who eat little, and yet are
always in good plight, and vigorous, because their
stomach is good.
Even so there are some souls that do many good
works, and yet increase but little in charity,
because they do them either coldly and negligently,
or by natural instinct and inclination rather than by
Divine inspiration or heavenly fervour; and, on the
contrary, others there are who get through little
work, but do it with so holy a will and inclination,
that they make a wonderful advancement in charity;
they have little talent, but they husband it so
faithfully that the Lord largely rewards them for it.
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