God says to each of us: "Give me your heart, that is, your will." We, in turn, cannot offer anything more precious than to say: "Lord, take possession of us; we give our whole will to you; make us understand what it is that you desire of us, and we will perform it."
If we would give full satisfaction to the heart of God, we must bring our own will in everything into conformity with his; and not only into conformity, but into uniformity also, as regards all that God ordains. Conformity signifies the joining of our own will to the will of God; but uniformity signifies, further, our mkaing of the divine and our own will one will only, so that we desire nothing but what God desires, and his will becomes ours. This is the sum and substance of that perfection to which we ought to be ever aspiring; this is what must be the aim of all we do, and of all our desires, meditations and prayers. For this we must invoke the assistance of all our patron saints and our guardian angels, and, above all, of our divine mother Mary, who was the most perfect saint, because she embraced most perfectly the divine will.
~Saint Alphonsus Liguori, from The Redeeming Love of Christ
[copied from Patron Saints Index: Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori]
-----
Among the virtues we should prefer that which is most conformable to our duty, and not that which is most conformable to our inclination. St Paula was inclined to practice severe bodily mortifications in order the more readily to enjoy spiritual sweetness, but her duty lay rather in obedience to her superiors; and therefore St Jerome avows that she was to be blamed for practicing immoderate austerities against the counsel of her bishop. The Apostles, on the other hand, who had been commissioned to preach the Gospel and distribute the bread of heaven to souls, judged extremely well that it was wrong for them to be hindered in this holy charge by practicing the virtue of care for the poor, although this is a very excellent virtue. Every vocation must needs practice some special virtue; distinct in practice are the virtues of a prelate, as are likewise those of a prince, those of a soldier, those of a married woman, and those of a widow; and although all ought to have all the virtues, yet all are not bound to practice them alike, but each one ought to practice in a particular manner those which are requisite to the kind of life to which he is called.
Among the virtues which do not concern our particular duty, we should prefer the most excellent and not the most showy. Comets ordinarily seem to be greater than the stars, and to our eyes take up much more space; but they are not to be compared with the stars either in greatness or in quality, and they only seem great because they are nearer to us, and of a coarser substance in comparison with the stars. So also there are certain virtues, which, because they are nearer to us, more perceptible, and, if one may say so, more material, are highly esteemed and always preferred by the common run of people: so they commonly prefer temporal almsgiving to spiritual, the hair-shirt, fasting, nakedness, the discipline, and bodily mortifications to gentleness, mildness, modesty, and other mortifications of the heart, which nevertheless are much more excellent. Choose, then, Philothea, the best virtues and not the most esteemed, the most excellent and not the most specious, the best and not the most showy.
~Saint Francis de Sales, from Introduction to the Devout Life
[copied from CIN - St. Francis de Sales]
----------------------------------
