“Stick- to- it-tiveness” or perseverence is a characteristic much needed in many walks of life, but especially in the challenges of living a spiritual, prayerful and devout life.
St. Francis de Sales made these comments about perseverence and a devout life in his “Introduction to a Devout Life”
“DIRECTLY that your worldly friends perceive that you aim at leading a devout life, they will let loose endless shafts of mockery. They will tell you that you are growing morbid; that you will lose your worldly credit, and will make yourself unacceptable to the world; they will prognosticate your premature old age, the ruin of your material prosperity; they will tell you that in the world you must live as the world does; that you can be saved without all this fuss; and much more of the like nature.
Let us leave the blind world to make as much noise as it may,—like a bat molesting the songbirds of day; let us be firm in our ways, unchangeable in our resolutions, and perseverance will be the test of our self-surrender to God, and our deliberate choice of the devout life.”
He promises,
“Believe me, if you will but persevere you will not fail to enjoy a sweetness so real and satisfying, that you will be constrained to confess that the world has only gall to give as compared with this honey, and that one single day of devotion is worth more than a thousand years of worldly life.”
What are YOUR difficulties in persevering in your choices, spiritual or otherwise?
Come chat about them on Sunday August 31 at 730PM est at the Living Jesus chat room.