Part I, Chapter III
Devotion Is Compatible with Every Station of Life
As in the creation, God commanded the plants to bring forth their fruits, each one according to its kind, so he commands all Christians, who are the living plants of his Church, to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each according to his quality and vocation. Devotion ought, then, to be not only differently exercised by the gentleman, the tradesman, the servant, the prince, the widow, the maid, and the married woman, but its practice should be also adapted to the strength, the employments, and obligations of each one in particular. For I ask thee, Philothea, is it fit that a bishop should lead the solitary life of a Carthusian? or that married people should lay up no greater store than the Capuchin? If a tradesman were to remain the whole day in the church, like the religious, or were the religious man continually exposed to encounter difficulties in the service of his neighbor, as the bishop is, would not such devotion be ridiculous, preposterous, and insupportable? This fault is, nevertheless, very common, and hence the world, which distinguishes not between real devotion and the indiscretion of those who imagine themselves to be devout, murmurs at the devotion which cannot prevent these disorders.
No, Philothea, true devotion does no harm whatever, but rather gives perfection to all things; but when it is not compatible with our lawful vocation, then, without doubt, it is false. “The bee,” says Aristotle, “extracts honey from flowers without injuring them, and leaves them as entire and fresh as she found them.” True devotion goes still further, for it not only does no injury to any vocation or employment, but, on the contrary, adorns and beautifies it. As all sorts of precious stones, when cast into honey, receive a greater lustre, each according to its color, so every one’s vocation becomes more agreeable when united with devotion. By devotion, the care of the family is rendered more peaceable, the love of the husband and wife more sincere; the service of the prince more faithful; and every employment more pleasant and agreeable.
It is an error, or rather a heresy, to say that devotion is incompatible with the life of a soldier, a tradesman, a prince, or a married woman. It is true, Philothea, that a devotion purely contemplative, monastical, and religious, cannot be exercised in those vocations; but, besides these three kinds of devotion, there are several others proper to conduct to perfection those who live in the secular state. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David, Job, Tobias, Sarah, Rebecca, and Judith, bear witness of this in the Old Testament; and in the New, St. Joseph, Lydia, and St. Crispin, practised perfect devotion in their shops; St. Ann, St. Martha, St. Monica, Aquila, Priscilla, in their families; Cornelius, St. Sebastian, St. Maurice, in the army; Constantine, Helena, St. Lewis, blessed Amedaeus, and St. Edward, on the throne. Nay, it has happened that many have lost perfection in the desert who had preserved it in the world, which seems so little favorable to perfection. “Lot,” says St. Gregory, “who was so chaste in the city, defiled himself in the wilderness.” Wheresoever, then, we are, we may, and should, aspire to a perfect life.
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