The Individual in the World

A sentiment of compassion must always animate the hearts of those who gather under the Lord’s sight to implore the assistance of good spirits. Therefore, purify your heart; do not let any mundane or futile thought linger in it. Lift up your spirit to those you are calling, so that, finding in you the proper dispositions, they may profusely sow the seed that should germinate in your soul and produce within it the fruit of charity and justice.

Therefore, do not think that in incessantly exhorting you to prayer and mental evocation we wish to advise you to live a mystic life that keeps you outside the laws of the society in which you have been condemned to live. No. Live with the men and women of your time in the way that men and women should live. Observe the social necessities – even the frivolities – of the day, but do it with a sentiment of purity, which may sanctify them.

You have been called to enter into contact with spirits of different natures and opposite characters; do not clash with any of those with whom you might find yourself. Be cheerful and happy, but of the cheerfulness provided by a clear conscience, and the happiness of the heirs of heaven counting the days that will draw them nearer to their inheritance.

Virtue does not consist in assuming a stern and gloomy face, or in rejecting the pleasures that your human conditions allow. It is sufficient to report all the actions of your life to the Creator who has given such life. It is sufficient when one begins or finishes a deed to lift one’s thought to that Creator and to ask him, in an impulse of the soul, to grant his watch-care for carrying it out, and to grant his blessing for finishing it. In all that you do, look to the Source of all things; do not do anything without the thought of God purifying and sanctifying your acts.

As Christ said, perfection is found entirely in the practice of absolute charity, but the duties of charity extend to all social positions from the lowest to the highest. Those who live in isolation would have no charity to practice. It is only through contact with their fellow beings in the most arduous struggles that they find an opportunity to practice it. Thus, those who isolate themselves intentionally deprive themselves of the most powerful means of perfection; since they have only themselves to think of, their lives are those of a selfish person.

Do not imagine, therefore, that in order to live in constant communication with us, to live in the Lord’s sight, that you must put on the cilice35 and cover yourselves with ashes. No, no, and once more no! Be happy in accordance with the needs of humankind, but may your happiness never hold a thought or commit an action that might offend God, or anything that might cloud the face of those who love and guide you. God is love, and he blesses all those who love virtuously.

A Protector Spirit (Bordeaux, 1863)