d us. It is with God that we must
lay our plans of virtue and usefulness; it is He alone that can render
them successful. Without Him, all our designs, however good they may
appear, are only temerity and delusion. Let us then pray that we may
learn what we are and what we ought to be. By this means we shall not
only learn the number and the evil effects of our peculiar faults,
but we shall also learn to what virtues we are called, and the way to
practise them. The rays of that pure and heavenly light that visit
the humble soul will beam on us and we shall feel and understand that
everything is possible to those who put their whole trust in God.
Thus, not only to those who live in retirement, but to those who
are exposed to the agitations of the world and the excitements of
business, it is peculiarly necessary, by contemplation and fervent
prayer, to restore their souls to that serenity which the dissipations
of life and commerce with men have disturbed. To those who are engaged
in business, contemplation and prayer are much more difficult than to
those who live in retirement; but it is far more necessary for them
to have frequent recourse to God in fervent prayer. In the most holy
occupation a certain degree of precaution is necessary.

Do not devote all your time to action, but reserve a certain portion
of it for meditation upon eternity. We see Jesus Christ inviting His
disciples to go apart, in a desert place, and rest awhile, after their
return from the cities, where they had been to announce His religion.
How much more necessary is it for us to approach the source of all
virtue, that we may revive our declining faith and charity, when we
return from the busy scenes of life, where men speak and act as if
they had never known that there is a God! We should look upon prayer
as the remedy for our weakness, the rectifier of our own faults. He
who was without sin prayed constantly; how much more ought we, who are
sinners, to be faithful in prayer!

Even the exercise of charity is often a snare to us. It calls us to
certain occupations that dissipate the mind, and that may degenerate
into mere amusement. It is for this reason that St. Chrysostom says
that nothing is so important as to keep an exact proportion between
the interior source of virtue and the external practise of it; else,
like the foolish virgins, we shall find that the oil in our lamp is
exhausted when the bridegroom comes.

The necessity we feel that God