THE LIFE IN NAZARETH
5. Advantages.
Now briefly ponder over the great advantages of order. "Keep order and order will keep thee," St. Augustine says. Your spiritual life will depend on this order and method in your actions. Moreover, in a life of order, the most beautiful virtues are, even unawares, put into practice: obedience, by never doing our own will, restricting ourselves to doing what is prescribed; humility, since self-love is always reluctant to submit to order; submission, since we surrender our will to what is the manifestation of the Will of God; and, finally, mortification and penance and that on no small scale.
Remember the saying of St. John Berchmans: "The common life, namely, a life of order and of rule, is my greatest penance." On the other hand, the reward of this orderly life of perseverance is a life of real love.
Faced with Mary's example see how much you have to do in this matter. Ask Her to let you know its extraordinary importance. Implore the grace of imitating Her orderly exactitude in Nazareth which converted an ordinary simple life into a life of great sanctity.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
5. Advantages.
Now briefly ponder over the great advantages of order. "Keep order and order will keep thee," St. Augustine says. Your spiritual life will depend on this order and method in your actions. Moreover, in a life of order, the most beautiful virtues are, even unawares, put into practice: obedience, by never doing our own will, restricting ourselves to doing what is prescribed; humility, since self-love is always reluctant to submit to order; submission, since we surrender our will to what is the manifestation of the Will of God; and, finally, mortification and penance and that on no small scale.
Remember the saying of St. John Berchmans: "The common life, namely, a life of order and of rule, is my greatest penance." On the other hand, the reward of this orderly life of perseverance is a life of real love.
Faced with Mary's example see how much you have to do in this matter. Ask Her to let you know its extraordinary importance. Implore the grace of imitating Her orderly exactitude in Nazareth which converted an ordinary simple life into a life of great sanctity.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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