Tuesday, July 12 : Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron

By what tortuous ways we have to go to attain to simplicity ! (…) Only too often, if we don’t practice virtue it’s because of our way of being complicated, which puts simplicity aside. Very often we don’t come to understand the greatness hidden in an act of simplicity. We search for what is great in what is complicated; we search for the grandeur of things in their difficulty. (…) Virtue, O God; the interior life: how difficult it is to live that, it seems to me! Now, it isn’t that I should have virtue or that my understanding of God and the life of the spirit should be completely clear, but I have seen that we come to it precisely through its opposite, through simplicity of heart and purity of spirit. (…) Yes, undoubtedly, but to acquire virtue it isn’t necessary to study for a career, nor to devote oneself to profound studies; the simple act of wishing is enough; sometimes the simple desire suffices. Why then do we sometimes lack virtue? It’s because we aren’t simple, because we complicate our wishes, because all that we want is made difficult by our lack of will which lets itself be governed by what is pleasant and comfortable, or by what is unnecessary, and often by the passions. (…) If we were to wish it we would become saints; it is much more difficult to be an engineer than to be a saint.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team