FOLLOW ONE MASTER

It is a very sad life he leads who wants both to please the world and to serve God. It is a great mistake to do so. Apart from the fact that you are going to be unhappy all the time, you can never attain the stage at which you will be able to please the world and please God.

Heed this advice that you may be less unhappy:  give yourself wholly to God. Either that or give yourself entirely to the world; but don't try to do both.

You cannot serve the world and the pleasure of the world and Christ with His cross. They are contradictory. most Catholics serve God only as far as the world allows them. They hear mass in the morning, they don't commit murder, but dance the whole night. They talk to God in prayer at one moment and, the next, tell obscene stories, lies, and utter calumnies. They do a good act on one occasion and, on some other, practice avarice. Or they do good when in good company and do bad when in bad company.

St. John Vianney

(11-09-02)