A Fool Describes God

I must try to do what seems very foolish – describe God.

God is simple, without body or distinction of parts.

He is simple, because He has nothing borrowed.

He is good without qualities, great without quantity, Creator, yet needing nothing; everywhere, yet without place; eternal, without term, and changing all things, without change Himself.

He is good with an infinite goodness, and good to all, but especially good to men.

He is infinite in the multitude of His perfections, in their intensity, and in their magnificence.

He is present everywhere, in different manners, yet nowhere contracting soil or stain.

He is immutable; His eternity defends Him from time, His immensity from change of place, and His wisdom from change of purpose.

He is eternal without beginning as well as without end, and eternal with a life which exists all at once and altogether, and with a perfect possession of it.

He subsists by the incomparable unity of His blessed nature, and it is the crowning interest of every man in the world that God should be but One.

He is sovereign purity, unspeakable sanctity, and most resplendent beauty.

He is always in adorable tranquility; no trouble can come nigh to His being.

He is known to nature, to faith, to glory, yet He is incomprehensible by all.

His name is the ineffable God.

His science is beyond all thought, and is the source of His ravishing joy.

His being is Truth itself, and His life is the inexhaustible fountain of life.

His will is worshipful, unblamable, supreme, and His liberty is without parallel and beyond words.

His love of His creatures is eternal, constant, gratuitous and singular; and His mercy is an unfathomable abyss of the most beautiful compassions and condescensions, and no less also of the most delicate judgments and the most tender retributions.

His justice is as irreproachable as His sanctity, and as benevolent as His mercy.

His power is illimitable, and full of love; and His blessedness is inaccessible.

Yet all these are not separate perfections; but He is Himself all these excellencies, and He is one: Three co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial Persons, One only God.

Such, in the dry language of the schools, is the description of Him who is our loving and indulgent Father, God over all, blessed forevermore! Amen.

 

- From "All For Jesus or The Easy Ways of Divine Love" by Frederick William Faber

Words from C.S. Lewis

This short essay from C.S. Lewis treated the matter of worry about the atomic bomb, but the lesson applies to any great threat.

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In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb.

“How are we to live in an atomic age?”

I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."

— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

Analog and Digital

A few years ago I had a conversation about the topic of clocks with a colleague from work. He was a computer guy, and he was making unflattering remarks about how old analog clocks were not as accurate as digital clocks.

“It depends on what you’re using it for,” I said. “There’s no question that it’s easier to be more precise about the time using a digital clock. In truth, though, while the technology is a fascinating accomplishment, I don’t usually need nano-second accuracy."

We talked about that for a bit, then I added, "Time is a measure of change and motion. When I look at an analog clock, I see the moment I’m in, and I am also visually reminded of where I came from earlier in the day, as well as where I’m going. Having this context is useful; digital clocks lose that capacity. My own perspective is that when I need pinpoint precision about the time I go with digital, but otherwise for day-in, day-out living, analog is the better tool.”

My colleague, to his credit, agreed with my point.

Eternal, Not Modern

Time is the measure of movement and change. It is partly objective, partly subjective.

* Objectively, time exists whether or not we perceive it.

* Subjectively, we know time only in its relation to movement or activity.

Attributes of Time

(1) Succession: Time’s parts can be realized only one after the other as the past, the present, and the future.

(2) Irreversible: Time’s order of succession cannot be changed. Past time does not come back.

(3) Continuity: Time does not pause and cannot be interrupted.

(4) Divisible, measurable: Time represents to us a reality only the continuous parts of which can be measured.

Created or uncreated?

Is time or movement infinite - without beginning? Philosophically, there is no problem with the possibility of time being infinite - without any contradiction, God could have created time to be infinite. By Revelation we know that God in fact created time with a beginning; by Revelation we also know that one day, time will end in dramatic fashion.

Moderns

We moderns are avaricious about time. The notion of time passing without any private advantage is terrible to us; thus, time-misers that we are, we hoard our hours for mercenary activity and fill our days with even frenetic, mindless activity. Before we’ll do nothing, we’ll do anything; pushing irrelevant buttons is preferable to considering the lilies of the field.

Eternal, not Modern

Give time away generously. Bestow it without counting the cost or tabulating the seconds and minutes. Blessed are the poor in time, for theirs is the kingdom of the eternally debonair.

Good and Evil

Good

The good is the harmony of conduct with right reason and desire that results in happiness. By right reason humans are possessed of the power to give intelligibility to the intelligible - and this not as a matter of self-interest, but because of the intrinsic worth of truth and beauty.

Evil

Evil is a negation of the good, whether as a deficiency or by destroying the good. It is not being, but the privation of being; thus, there is no supreme, independent principle of evil. Ignorance - a deficiency of knowledge - is an evil. Murder - unjustly depriving another of life - is another evil.

Checking In

In its conception this blog was begun to capture the author’s ruminations on how sense-perception penetrated by reflection can lead to intellectual insight; it was to be various essays that describe movement from the mutable to the immutable. The medium is germane to the age in which it is written; the mode of expression not infrequently reflected the idiom of the day in the service of truth.

Other pursuits and interests have cropped up over the years to occupy this writer’s attention and account for his time, but the original objective remains his north star.

Mu canit, Ar numerat, Geo ponderat, Ast colit astra.
Celebrate life, Consider the stars, Ponder the earth, but Cherish the heavens.

The Last Word is Joy

Death is not annihilation. Cremation gets it wrong.

"Our mortal nature must be swallowed up in life..." - II Corinthians 5:4

Ut absorbeatur quod mortale est, a vita.

Solomon's Judgment

See I Kings 3:16-28

 

Two women were in the court of King Solomon, disputing over who was the mother of the baby they'd brought with them. After listening to the women speak, Solomon declared that the baby should be split in two, each woman getting half. The dishonest woman said that was fine by her; the true mother of the baby, meanwhile, said no: she would rather see the baby in the arms of the false woman than for the child to die.

 

As a metaphor, the child is like the truth: it's all or nothing, and you don't get to split the difference without savaging what matters. There is no compromise; being open-minded (in the modernist sense) is fatal. Not everything is relative.

Rocky Heart

Today a friend wrote, "In an attempt to be PC, my kid's math book calls a snowman a snow statue."

My reply: That inanimate snow can imaginatively become an animate man is what gives snowmen their charm. Now it seems an inanimate object it to be simply another inanimate object; how pointless. After all, there is a personality behind the universe – Three Persons in fact; someone with a statue's rocky heart and head is attempting to obscure that point.

Modernism Defined

Modernism: the critique of our supernatural knowledge according to the false postulates of contemporary philosophy.

I am not a modernist.

Te Deum Laudamus

Te Deum Laudamus
Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur.
Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur.
Tibi omnes Angeli, tibi Caeli et universae Potestates:
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant:
Sanctus: Sanctus: Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae.
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus:
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus:
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia:
Patrem immensae maiestatis:
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium:
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem,
non horruisti Virginis uterum.
Tu devicto mortis aculeo,
aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum.
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.
Iudex crederis esse venturus. (Kneel)
Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni,
quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
Aeterna fac cum Sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.
Salvum fac populum tuum Domine,
et benedic haereditati tuae.
Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.
Per singulos dies, benedicamus te.
Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum,
et in saeculum saeculi.
Dignare Domine die isto,
sine peccato nos custodire.
Miserere nostri Domine, miserere nostri.
Fiat misericordia tua Domine super nos,
quemadmodum speravimus in te.
In te Domine speravi:
non confundar in aeternum.

=======

We praise Thee, O God
We praise Thee, O God: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship Thee and the Father everlasting.
To Thee all Angels:
To Thee the heavens and all the Powers therein.
To Thee the Cherubim and Seraphim cry with unceasing voice:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Hosts.
The heavens and the earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory.
Thee the glorious choir of the Apostles.
Thee the admirable company of the Prophets.
Thee the white-robed army of Martyrs praise.
Thee the Holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge.
The Father of infinite Majesty.
Thine adorable, true and only Son
Also the Holy Ghost the Paraclete.
Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
Thou having taken upon Thee to deliver man
didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
Thou having overcome the sting of death
didst open to believers the kingdom of heaven.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God
in the glory of the Father.
We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge.
We beseech Thee, therefore, help Thy servants:
whom Thou has redeemed with Thy precious Blood.
Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in glory everlasting.
Lord, save Thy people:
and bless Thine inheritance.
Govern them and lift them up forever.
Day by day we bless Thee.
And we praise Thy name forever:
and world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, this day to keep us without sin.
Have mercy on us, O Lord: have mercy on us.
Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us:
as we have hoped in Thee.
O Lord, in Thee have I hoped:
let me never be confounded.

Eternity Described

I believe in life everlasting.

This sentence is from the last article in the Apostle's Creed. The statement references eternity, which is not an unending succession of time (that would be boring), but like a point, a lasting moment. It is a continual "now."

The past, you see, is dead. The future, meanwhile, doesn't exist. As far as time is concerned, the only thing that is real is the present instant.

I'm not paving the way for modernist claptrap about needing to escape that past like it is something that infringes on modern personalities. I'm reminded of Gabe, who was pontificating over dinner one night -- he literally had one finger in the air as he lectured us -- that the world is divided between those who are stuck in the past and those who look to the future, "No," I interrupted him mid-diatribe, "the world is divided between those who look for the truth and those who don't care." But Gabe was a materialist and an atheist, and the counter-point was just brushed it off without comment.

Such is the dilemma for the materialist: he is trapped inside of time, which is an illusion, or even a mystery if you will. Unable or unwilling to consider spiritual causes, the materialist has rendered himself incapable of factoring eternity into his ruminations. He says the religious man is fooled by false notions of the hereafter, when in fact it is the person who places his hopes in a future that never arrives that operates by wishful thinking.

The happiness of eternal life, meanwhile, is an exemption from all evil, an enjoyment of all good. In our own limited way we will know God -- who infinite Truth, Beauty, and Goodness -- as He actually is.

My Second Ignatian Retreat

I was poking around some old computer files and discovered the old note below. It was a brief reverie after my second Ignatian retreat, which Helmut and I made in 2001.

For the record, I'm making my next retreat in October.

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Today was my second day back to work after my retreat last week in Connecticut. Within 15 minutes of turning on my computer on Monday, three people (including my boss) had pulled me aside to have a word about "what happened" in my absence.

It’s not uncommon in the frantic life of start-up Internet companies for business decisions to be made in light of...shall we say aggressive?...project time-lines that no sane business person would ever contemplate, to say nothing of implement. An example of such is running a million dollar project whose most up-to-date documentation is an email trail.

So it came to pass that while I was serenely enjoying the New England Autumn change of colors, the folks back in my office were trying to find out who did and said what when, knowing that something important had been written down by yours truly somewhere at some time but not knowing where to find it.

Such is life in an Internet shop: it is a tale, told by a digitized idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing so much as the struggle toward the next paycheck.

The retreat was a welcome respite.

Fifteen fellows gathered at the retreat house in Ridgefield, CT for five days of quiet contemplation. The days were structured: we rose early, went to Mass, attended conferences throughout the mornings and afternoons that were punctuated by meals and free periods during which we read, prayed, napped, and wandered the 14 acres of turning hardwoods before retiring by 10:00 p.m.

Don’t be fooled, praying and meditating for a whole day is hard work: imagine trying to stay focused on a meditation for even a quarter of an hour without letting your mind wander. How long can most of us spend working out the details of the Nativity without an intruding thought nosing its way into our contemplation? And what a contemplation: Was the temperature cold enough for breath to turn frosty? Was the donkey in the stable on the left, or was the ox? How long before the shepherds arrived? What did the choir of singing angels sound like? With all the amazing things happening, did anyone even notice the prickly straw in the manger or the smell of the stable? What joy is this being born into my life? Such thoughts are not the normal stuff of the computerized office: pulling your mind out of that routine to think for a spell on something holy and quiet and wonderful takes real effort. After a day of that, I slept well at night; a sleeping peace for men of goodwill indeed. And after a week, not even the airport security guards armed with M-16s alarmed me. And tackling a first-thing-Monday-morning workplace surprises was a walk in the park.

Children as Accessories

Source

A proposed bill in Congress exposes a fatal flaw in the notion of allowing for considerations of conscience in the public forum only on subjective or personal grounds.

How so? The bill would effectively ban Catholic adoption agencies by terminating considerations of religious conscience. And -- given the operating principles -- it would arguably be consistent for this to happen.

Of course it would be a chilling irony that the most effective child placement agencies would be driven out of business for the sake of conformity to a liberal ideology. And there's the fact that children are being used as pawns by self-styled social progressives to prove that they are just as good as non-progressives in caring for children.

But when selected matters of individual conscience are not afforded public recognition, and when the people whose conscience is in question accept that formulation, then they build on sand when they try to effect public policy.

As a matter of necessity, private considerations can hold sway over others only by consent. The corollary is that the considerations cease to have any import when the consent is withdrawn.

So long as everyone adheres to the same belief system, individuals can get away with playing around with profound realities of human nature and the meaning of human existence by trying to get by on shared opinion and mutual good will. The moment a serious alternative is put forth, however, all private considerations are shown the back door -- on the brutal but logically consistent grounds that one party simply does not share the opinion of the other.

The proper activities of legislatures must proceed from the establishment of proper principles grounded in the recognition of objective reality and a correct understanding of human nature. Absent these, and you have little but current mood or fancy to drive decision-making. Even precedent becomes only another convention that nobody is obliged to recognize; as one uber-liberal I used to debate put it, "I don't care what the Founding Fathers intended."

Universals exist; thus, not everything is relative. Ideas correspond to reality -- i.e. they are not all just artificial constructs of the intellect -- and a thing exists in the mind as a universal. Natures exist, and while they are encountered only in concrete individuals, the mind can learn to recognize the universals that form them -- that is why we can recognize the color yellow every place it appears, whether it is as a yellow article of clothing or a yellow street sign. Human nature is a reality, which is encountered in individual human beings, and we can learn to recognize the characteristics of this nature: e.g. among other qualities, it possess a vegetative aspect of growth, an animal aspect of movement, and a spiritual aspect of a rational intellect that is nurtured by truth, beauty, and goodness.

To bring matters back to my original point: humans are adaptable, but if you treat a human as something inhuman you destroy the person. Similarly, you do violence against a person's human nature when you try to do things like raise him in a home with poor substitutes like same-sex care-givers instead of mother and a father. Children need a mother and father who show both the maternal and paternal aspects of the Divine Love; in this way a child is naturally fitted to grow in knowledge and love of his Creator. This is not a matter of private opinion; rather, this is a matter of considering the objective spiritual aspect of human nature. Further, individuals who oppose or refuse this are at war with reality itself; no right-thinking person should sit by silently when this unreality is forced on them. Or on innocent children.

Why the Church?

"Some things have been revealed by God...the only-begotten Son of God was made flesh, to bear witness to the truth...a perfect society was founded by Him—the Church, namely, of which He is the Head, and with which He has promised to abide till the end of the world. To this society He entrusted all the truths which He had taught, in order that it might keep and guard them and with lawful authority explain them; and at the same time He commanded all nations to hear the voice of the Church, as if it were His own, threatening those who would not hear it with everlasting perdition..."
- Pope Leo XIII, Libertas Præstantissimum ("On Human Liberty"), 20 June 1888

Only Saints Go to Heaven

From St. Lous de Montfort's True Devotion: Consecration to Mary:

There are those who think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical to that of sanctity. There will be only saints in heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in purgatory. No one enters heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and would cast itself into purgatory to be purified.

Dignity

Feast of Christ the King

The foundation of liberty is truth (i.e. what is in accord with objective reality), not dignity. Because whoever clings to error loses his dignity.

But what of intrinsic human dignity?

There is no such thing. Man's dignity is always contingent -- it depends on the extent of his adherence to what is true. To the degree that a man is ignorant or wrong, his dignity suffers.

To put it in a positive manner, man derives his dignity from perfection -- i.e. from his knowledge of the truth and acquisition of the good.

Seen in this light, the notion that "everyone has his own truth" is nonsensical -- it is a concept that sacrifices truth for the sake of some short-term goal.

Error brings bondage and misery. The truth sets you free.

- Excerpted from Religious Liberty in Open Letter to Confused Catholics by Abp. Marcel Lefebvre

Anachronistic, Did You Say?

In a recent editorial, the French daily Le Monde opined that clerical celibacy was an “anachronism,” adding that if the Church wished to “embrace the humanity of its time,” it would be “well inspired to bring it to an end.”

Rather than opening the pages of that newspaper, it is better to follow the example of Leon Bloy, who said: “When I want to know the latest news, I read Saint Paul.” It is in the Apostle’s writings that one finds: “Nolite conformari huic saeculo–be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2). The dread of anachronism is the big fear of all right-thinkers, and it opens the door to every kind of conformism: political correctness, economic correctness, sociological correctness...It is no longer a question of embracing the age; one must be glued to the news and, so as not to seem anachronistic, resign oneself to being chronically out-of-date, old-fashioned, and always worried about expiries.

A contrario, the quest for eternity is the greatest form of dissent today, and that which procures the highest freedom.
- Fr. Alain Lorans

From http://www.dici.org/en/

O Salutaris Hostia!

Source

H.E. Archbishop Terrence Prendergast has directed the faithful of Ottawa to kneel throughout the canon at Mass -- not just at the Consecration, mind you, but for the entire five minutes.

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast

The protest of the modernist little lambs in the pews has been standard fare.

"Is that all they have to think about?" asked Toddy Kehoe, a parishioner of St. Joseph's.

One woman said her husband will stop coming to Mass as a result.

Abp. Prendergast said he was doing this for harmony. It's a sign of reverence. We have to kneel for God. It's only a small thing.

So, opponents ask, if it's only a small thing, why are you asking us to do it?

Indeed. Back when kneeling through the Canon was universal and the reformers abused the faithful into standing, a different line was taken. Friends of mine say they were simply passed over for Communion when they knelt at the altar rail. One kneeling woman was yelled at by her priest right in the middle of Mass. Why is such a small thing such a big deal?

Because the size of a gesture is not a reliable indication of its significance. What matters more is the love and faith -- or lack thereof -- that animates it.

"Well done, good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place you over many things."
- Matthew 25:21

People recognize that kneeling is a sign of submission -- it is a deed that requires humility. When that virtue is in short supply, Bishops get screeched at and defied for asking for simple acts that manifest a unified sense of loving piety.

There's also simply the matter of the True Presence: under the appearance of bread and wine, Christ is really and truly present in body, blood, soul, and divinity. If you believe this article of faith, you will find kneeling and other acts of reverence to be no hardship at all; if you don't believe, being directed to kneel is an outrage. Archbishop Prendergast clearly believes; draw your own conclusions about the people standing in the pews.

Once upon a time Christ was a baby in a manger; at that moment what was inside the stable was greater than the entire world beyond the stable. The Host at Communion is a visible sign that in the Divine economy, what is inside is bigger than what is outside. And when we perform some small act in recognition of this truth, the Almighty takes a very personal interest.

"For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see you hungry and fed you: thirsty and gave you drink? Or when did we see you a stranger and took you in? Or naked and covered you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and came to you? And the king answering shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me."
- Matthew 25:31-40

2010 and Beyond

Feast of the Circumcision

For 2010, my general resolution is to sincerely sacrifice myself to God and dedicate myself to a devout life. Specifically, it is to faithfully maintain the Rule of the Third Order of the Society of St. Pius X, including making a retreat.

To get it going right, here's something on the subject from a Doctor of the Church, the Genevan Bishop St. Francis de Sales.

St. Francis de Sales

As soon as worldly people see that you wish to follow a devout life they aim a thousand darts of mockery and even detraction at you. The most malicious of them will slander your conversion as hypocrisy, bigotry, and trickery...

All this is mere foolish, empty babbling. These people aren't interested in your health or welfare. "If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you," says the Savior. We have seen gentlemen and ladies spend the whole night, even many nights one after another, playing chess or cards. Is there any concentration more absurd, gloomy, or depressing than this last? Yet worldly people don't say a word and the players' friends don't bother their heads about it.

If we spend an hour in meditation or get up a little earlier than usual in the morning to prepare for Holy Communion, everyone runs for a doctor to cure us of hypochondria and jaundice. People can pass thirty nights in dancing and no one complains about it, but if they watch through a single Christmas night they cough and claim their stomach is upset the next morning. Does anyone fail to see that the world is an unjust judge, gracious and well disposed to its own children but harsh and rigorous towards the children of God?

We can never please the world unless we lose ourselves together with it. It is so demanding that it can't be satisfied. "John came neither eating nor drinking," says the Savior, and you say, "He has a devil....The Son of man came eating and drinking and you say that he is a Samaritan."

It is true that if we are ready to laugh, play cards, or dance with the world in order to please it, it will be scandalized at us, and if we don't, it will accuse us of hypocrisy or melancholy. If we dress well, it will attribute it to some plan we have, and if we neglect our dress, it will accuse of us of being cheap and stingy. Good humor will be called frivolity and mortification sullenness. Thus the world looks at us with an evil eye and we can never please it. It exaggerates our imperfections and claims they are sins, turns our venial sins into mortal sins and changes our sins of weakness into sins of malice.

"Charity is kind," says Saint Paul, but the world on the contrary is evil. "Charity thinks no evil," but the world always thinks evil and when it can't condemn our acts it will condemn our intentions. Whether the sheep have horns or not and whether they are white or black, the wolf doesn't hesitate to eat them if he can.

Whatever we do, the world will wage war on us. If we stay a long time in the confessional, it will wonder how we can have so much to say; if we stay only a short time, it will say we haven't told everything. It will watch all our actions and at a single little angry word it will protest that we can't get along with anyone. To take care of our own interests will look like avarice, while meekness will look like folly. As for the children of the world, their anger is called being blunt, their avarice economy, their intimate conversations lawful discussions. Spiders always spoil the good work of the bees.

Let us give up this blind world. Let it cry out at us as long as it pleases, like a cat that cries out to frighten birds in the daytime. Let us be firm in our purposes and unswerving in our resolutions. Perseverance will prove whether we have sincerely sacrificed ourselves to God and dedicated ourselves to a devout life. Comets and planets seem to have just about the same light, but comets are merely fiery masses that pass by and after a while disappear, while planets remain perpetually bright. So also hypocrisy and true virtue have a close resemblance in outward appearance but they can be easily distinguished from one another.

Hypocrisy cannot last long but is quickly dissipated like rising smoke, whereas true virtue is always firm and constant. It is no little assistance for a sure start in devotion if we first suffer criticism and calumny because of it. In this way we escape the danger of pride and vanity, which are comparable to the Egyptian midwives whom a cruel Pharaoh had ordered to kill the Israelites' male children on the very day of their birth. We are crucified to the world and the world must be crucified to us. The world holds us to be fools; let us hold it to be mad.

- St. Francis de Sales, excerpted from Introduction to the Devout Life