Practical Devotion of the Day: How to Use Your Eyes Well

They are the windows to the soul. Think of the goodness of God in giving you the sight with which you can escape from a hundred dangers, and with which it is given to you to contemplate the beauties of nature. Without eyes you would be almost useless person to you, and a burden to others. And what would become of you if, like Tobias, you suddenly lose your sight? Thank the Lord for so much benefit; but for the eyes how much evil has already come to your soul! What ingratitude!

Abuse of the eyes. Eve's first sin was to look at the forbidden apple. David and Solomon fell into impurity, because they stared into the eyes illicitly, Lot's wife, out of her curiosity, was turned into a pillar of salt. A look only at one person, at a book, at other people's stuff, became for us an occasion for innumerable faults. Behind the eye runs the thought, and then ... How much mortification is necessary in order not to fall! Reflect on how you behave in this.

Good use of sight. More than for the benefit of the body or society, more than just looking, the eyes were given to us for the benefit of the soul. For them, contemplating nature, you can read the proofs of the power, wisdom, goodness of God; for them, gazing at the Crucifix, you read in a flash the history and maxims of the Gospel; for them, with daily spiritual reading you can easily set out to virtue. Looking at Heaven, does not the hope of reaching it light up in you?

PRACTICE. - Paradise, paradise, exclaimed S. Filippo Neri. Always be modest in the eyes.