More Sunday Reading

More from Talking With God by Francois Fenelon:

We must bear with ourselves patiently, without flattering ourselves, and we must continually subject ourselves to all that can overcome our natural inclinations and our inner dislikes....

This work, however, must be peaceful and untroubled. It must even be moderate, and we must not attempt to do all the work in a single day. We must try to reason little and to do much. If we do not take care, our whole life may be passed in reason, and we shall require a second life to practice! We run the risk of believing we have advanced in proportion to our understanding of perfection. All these fine ideas, far from advancing us in dying to ourselves, may only serve to secretly nourish the life of the old Adam within us by giving us confidence in our own opinions. Be extremely distrustful of your intellect and your own ideas of perfection. That will be a great step in becoming perfect. [italics original]


("Perfection" here refers to spiritual completeness derived from your relation to God, rather than conformation to an impersonal standard.)