20 June 2016
Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
St. Francis DeSales wrote the spiritual classic Introduction to the Devout Life, in which he addresses the “Philothea” or lover of God and teaches instructions and exercises needed to lead the soul from its disordered desires to the fulfilment of the fully devout soul to God. In this book he says that “There is no nature so good that it cannot be perverted to evil by vicious habits; there is none so perverse that it cannot, first by God’s grace and secondly by our own labor and care, be brought under control and overcome.” We all hold our biases of the world we live in and with the relationships that we have. We all make judgements that are not completely and carefully thought out. The logs and splinters in our eyes can seem to overwhelm us and over-power us, leading us along the paths of sin and dissipation. However, the more we become aware of these biases and judgmental mentalities, the more we come to see the true nature of God, those with whom we interact, and those of my own family. Then, through the grace of God we can take action that leads to unification, compassion, and holiness.