Spiritual Sugar

Today's entry comes from Francis De Sales. Francis lived back in the late 1500s and early 1600s and was the bishop of Geneva. Because of his position and views and extensive writings, he became known as one of the "doctors of the Western Church". Let his words wash over you. Relax and enjoy. (Repeat reading if necessary and as needed.)

Sugar sweetens green fruit and in ripe fruit corrects whatever is crude and unwholesome. Now devotion is true spiritual sugar for it removes bitterness from discipline and anything harmful from our consolations. From the poor it takes away discontent, care from the rich, grief from the oppressed, pride from the exalted, melancholy from the solitary, and facturedness from those who live in society.

It serves with equal benefit as fire in winter and dew in summer. It knows how to use prosperity and how to endure want. It makes both honor and contempt useful to us. It accepts pleasure and pain with a heart that is nearly always the same, and it fills us with a marvelous sweetness.