FRANÇOIS FÉNELON
(1651 – 1717)
It would be a mistake to suppose that the highest state of inward experience is characterised by great excitement, by raptures and ecstasies, or by any movements of feeling which would be regarded as particularly extraordinary. One of the remarkable effects in persons whose sole governing principle is faith is that they are entirely peaceful. Nothing disturbs them. And being thus peaceful, they reflect distinctly and clearly the image of Christ: like the placid lake, which shows on its clear surface the exact forms of the objects around and above it. Another effect is that having full faith in God and being divested of all selfishness and resistance in themselves, they are perfectly accessible and pliable to all the impressions of grace.
Holy people value and seek wisdom but do not seek it in an unholy and worldly spirit. They do not turn back from the giver to the gift, and rejoice in their wisdom as if it were their own.
The wisdom of the truly holy person is a wisdom that sees things in the present moment…. It is important to add that the present moment necessarily possesses a moral extension; so that, in judging of it, we are to include all those things which have a natural and near relation to the thing actually in hand. It is in this manner that the holy man or woman lives in the present, committing the past to God, and leaving the future with that approaching hour which will change it into the present. Tomorrow… will bring, at its coming, its appropriate grace and light. 