{"id":292,"date":"2016-01-01T15:30:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T20:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/?p=292"},"modified":"2015-12-21T12:16:07","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T17:16:07","slug":"lacordaire-against-falling-off-in-the-accomplishment-of-christian-duties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/lacordaire-against-falling-off-in-the-accomplishment-of-christian-duties\/","title":{"rendered":"Lacordaire, Against falling off in the Accomplishment of Christian Duties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continuing my posting of letters from Fr. Lacordaire, OP in his book Letters to Young Men\u00a0<\/em>comes this post on persistence in the devotional life.<\/p>\n

XLI.\u00a0Against falling off in the Accomplishment of\u00a0Christian Duties<\/p>\n

Flavigny, June 21, 1852.<\/p>\n

My dear Friend,
\nYOU have written me a good letter, for which I thank you. You must not be surprised at your\u00a0liability to fall off: in this we are all alike. Stability\u00a0here below is a chimera. We push forward, we fall\u00a0back, we sail with the current, we row against it;\u00a0such is the summary of our life. Besides, your health\u00a0is a natural cause of weakness and remissness, which\u00a0I thoroughly understand. The most painful mortifications are those which we do not ourselves will,\u00a0which neither begin nor end where we want them.\u00a0A man may have made interior and exterior acts of humility for weeks : an occasion presents itself, and\u00a0a simple want of regard in another puts him out.<\/p>\n

As for work, it seems to me there is one description\u00a0very easy, and not fatiguing ; it is reading : not random reading, but serious and persistent reading. “We\u00a0thus acquire, especially at your age, when the memory\u00a0is still young and vigorous, a vast amount of knowledge, almost as a pastime. The Imitation tells us\u00a0that we ought always to be either reading, writing,\u00a0meditating, or praying : “aut legendo, scribendo, meditando, vel orando.” The alternate use of these kinds\u00a0of work, fills up and gives a charm to life. Reading\u00a0suffices to occupy the mind, to nourish it, to elevate\u00a0and purify it: and I have never been able to understand how wealthy men, with a library at hand, could\u00a0feel time on their hands, or even become corrupt.\u00a0Idleness is the fruitful mother of corruption, and\u00a0reading, although not hard work, suffices to put\u00a0idleness to flight.<\/p>\n

You must pay no attention to the trouble and\u00a0darkness which comes over your mind at times. We\u00a0must betimes feel our own emptiness, and see the\u00a0astounding misery of our nature, as well as its frightful corruption. There is not a single one of us in\u00a0whom there are not the makings of a saint as well as\u00a0of a ruffian. This is what explains those monsters\u00a0of debauchery and cruelty. At bottom they were not\u00a0perhaps naturally more wicked than others, but\u00a0imagination and power put an end to all restraint.\u00a0The devil is as bad as he is, simply because he is\u00a0highly endowed and knows no\u00a0moral restraint.<\/p>\n

I recommend you to be always regular in your\u00a0confessions and communions, and generally in all the\u00a0exercises prescribed you. This subjection is very\u00a0useful, although we frequently imagine it would be\u00a0better to follow the irregular impulse of sentiment.<\/p>\n

Adieu, my dear child, do not be down-hearted,\u00a0take every day as it comes, and serve God. Don’t\u00a0make plans. God will call you at His own and your own time. This is the most simple, the safest, and\u00a0the gentlest course.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continuing my posting of letters from Fr. Lacordaire, OP in his book Letters to Young Men\u00a0comes this post on persistence in the devotional life. XLI.\u00a0Against falling off in the Accomplishment of\u00a0Christian Duties Flavigny, June 21, 1852. My dear Friend, YOU have written me a good letter, for which I thank you. You must not be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[32,11,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","category-dominican","category-lacordaire"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6hA2G-4I","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions\/295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewklusman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}