True religion is, at a point,
about the size and quality of our hearts,
about how wide or narrow they are,
about how mellow or bitter they are,
about how forgiving or angry they are,
and about how much they can imitate God’s love
which goes out warmly and equally to all,
to the bad as well as the good.
about the size and quality of our hearts,
about how wide or narrow they are,
about how mellow or bitter they are,
about how forgiving or angry they are,
and about how much they can imitate God’s love
which goes out warmly and equally to all,
to the bad as well as the good.
--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Lay up a store of meekness and kindliness, speaking and acting in things great and small as gently as possible. Remember that the Bride of the Canticles is described as not merely dropping honey, and milk also, from her lips, but as having it “under her tongue,” that is to say, in her heart.
So we must not only speak gently to our neighbor, but we must be filled, heart and soul, with gentleness; and we must not merely seek the sweetness of aromatic honey in courtesy and suavity with strangers, but also the sweetness of milk among those of our own household and our neighbors; a sweetness terribly lacking to some who are as angels abroad and devils at home!
--St. Francis de Sales,
Introduction to the Devout Life
Introduction to the Devout Life
Note: In Salesian spirituality, the word "meek" is most often translated as "gentle."

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