I was revising a book review this evening and came back across this great quote. I thought I would pass it along. "What wisdom and what virtue there is in judging oneself truly and in remaining oneself! You have a part that only you can play; and your business is to play it to perfection, instead of trying to force fortune. Our lives are not interchangeable. Equally by aiming too high and by falling too low, one misses the path to the goal. Go straight ahead, in your own way, with God for guide" (Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life, 28). Yet, playing your part can be difficult in the face of a myriad of oppositions that seek to stifle you. The easy way out is to quit and chose a lower path than the one God has given us. Sertillanges offers encouragement in the face of such opposition: “When you feel defenseless, overcome; when the road stretches out before you interminably, or when, having no doubt mistaken your direction, you have the impression of being lost, completely astray, wrapped in a thick fog, then is the time to draw on stores of energy held in reserve. Persist, stand up to the difficulty, be patient in the great sense of the word, which calls up the Passion of the Master. Ardor is easier than patience but both are necessary and success is the reward of their combination” (223). |
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