Devotion should be practiced differently in each vocation

September 17, 2021 • 1 min

From Introduction to the Devout Life, page 6
By St. Francis de Sales

CHAPTER III.

Devotion is suitable to all sorts of vocations and professions.

In the creation God commanded the plants to bring forth their fruits, each one according to its kind; even so He commands all Christians, who are living plants of the Church, to bring forth their fruits of devotion, each one according to his quality and vocation.

Devotion ought to be differently exercised by the prince, by the gentleman, by the tradesman, by the servant, by the widow, by the maid, and by the married person: and not only so, but the practice also of devotion must be accommodated to the health, the capacity, the employment, and the obligations of each one in particular.

For, I pray thee, would it be fit for a bishop to be as retired as a Carthusian; and if the married people should store up no more than Capuchins, if the tradesman should be all day in the church like a monk, and the religious continually exposed to all exterior exercises of charity for the service of his neighbour as the bishop, would not this devotion be ridiculous, preposterous, and insupportable?

This fault, nevertheless, happens very often, and the world, which does not, or will not discern any difference between real devotion and the indiscretion of those who pretend to be devout, blames and murmurs at it, which cannot remedy such disorders.