Practical Devotion of the Day: Take an example from the Saints

How much it can on our heart. We live largely by imitation; in seeing others do good, an irresistible force moves us, and almost drives us to imitate them. Saint Ignatius, Saint Augustine, Saint Teresa and a hundred others recognize a large part of their conversion from the example of the Saints… How many confess to have drawn from there, virtue, ardor, flames of holiness! And we read and meditate so little on the lives and examples of the Saints! ...

Our confusion in comparison with them. Comparing us to sinners, pride blinds us, like the Pharisee close to the tax collector; but in the face of the heroic examples of the Saints, how small we feel! Let's compare our patience, our humility, resignation, fervor in prayers with their virtues, and we will see how miserable are our vaunted virtues, our claimed merits, and how much we have to do!

Let us elect a particular Saint as our model. Experience proves how useful it is to elect a saint every year as protector and teacher of a virtue that we lack. It will be the sweetness in St. Francis de Sales; it will be the fervor in St. Teresa, in St. Philip; it will be the detachment in St. Francis of Assisi, etc. By trying all year to reflect ourselves in its virtues, we will certainly make progress. Why leave out such a good practice?

PRACTICE. - Choose, with the advice of the spiritual director, a saint to your patron, and, from today, follow his examples. - A Pater and Ave to the elected Saint.