Friday, June 27, 2008

Some advice

Do not be discouraged at your faults; bear with yourself in
correcting them, as you would with your neighbor. Lay aside this
ardor of mind, which exhausts your body, and leads you to commit
errors. Accustom yourself gradually to carry prayer into all
your daily occupations. Speak, move, work, in peace, as if you
were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be.

-- François Fénelon

(Wikipedia says Fran was a French guy and part of the Quietist movement. I had never heard of Quietists but they were frowned on by the Catholic church. I'm probably not going to become a Fran follower or Quietist. I already think too much.)

From Wiki:
Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. The mystics known as Quietists insist with more or less emphasis on intellectual stillness and interior passivity as essential conditions of perfection; all have been officially proscribed as heresy in very explicit terms by the Roman Catholic Church.