| Take Care to Preserve Sweetness |
,For Sunday’s Living Jesus chat we will read again an article from a book by St. Francis de Sales called Of Devotion, and of the Principal Exercises of Piety. It explores the importance of tempering our zeal with sweetness.___________________________________________To prepare for our chat, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  Image by Sr. Maria-Magdalena R. SMCB from PixabayRemain firm; endeavor to be, as perfectly as you can, the servant of God. Take care to preserve sweetness. I do not tell you to love what you ought to love, for I know that you do so; but I tell you to be even-tempered, patient, and sweet. Repress the sallies of your somewhat too lively and ardent disposition.I do not know what uneasiness you can have about your confessions, for you make very good ones. Abide, therefore, in peace before our Lord, who hath loved you this long time, giving you His most holy fear, and the desire of His love. But if you have not corresponded to it well up to this time, the remedy is easy; you must correspond to it well for the future. Your miseries and infirmities ought not to astonish you. God has seen many more of them; and His compassion does not reject the miserable, but He exercises Himself in doing them good, placing the seat of His glory in their abjection. I wish I had a good hammer to blunt the edge of your spirit, which is too subtle in thinking about your advancement. I have often said to you, that one should go on with devotion in good faith, and, as it were, in a simple open-handed manner. If you do well, praise God for it; if you do ill, humiliate yourself. I am sure that you would never do ill of deliberate purpose; other evils only serve for humiliation. Do not, therefore, be afraid, and do not be so ready to argue with your conscience; for you know too well that after all your pains there remains nothing more for you in the sight of our Lord except to entreat His love, which desires nothing of you but yours.Do so, and diligently cultivate sweetness and interior humility. I incessantly wish a thousand benedictions for you; and above all, that you may be humble, sweet, and patient, and that you may turn your sorrows to profit by accepting them lovingly for the love of Him who suffered so much for the love of you. Reflections: What is so important about being even-tempered? What’s the point of zeal if it is tempered?How can we abide in peace before the Lord? Is this just poetic pietism?What does it mean that the “seat of His glory” is found in one one’s abjection?What does it mean to “entreat” the love of God?What value does sweetness and humility give us? Reflect on this in light of what Jesus said in Matthew 10:16: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”St. Francis directs his letter to a person who has a “somewhat too lively and ardent disposition.” This shortcoming would tend to disrupt our relations with those around us. Can we think of times when too much zeal expressed about topics we hold dear upsets others? How can we temper our disposition toward others concerning differences of opinion? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time U.S. |