Thought for the Day – 14 August – Little Things

Thought for the Day – 14 August – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Little Things

“Very few people are destined to great things by Almighty God.
More of us must offer ourselves in the relatively unimportant walks of life in which we have been placed by Providence.
Only some of the Saints were endowed with exceptional virtues and miraculous powers which attracted the attention and the admiration of the world.
In the normal course of events, Christian perfection must be acquired little by little, through the practice of ordinary virtues and unspectacular good actions.
There is always scope for these.
An upsurge of anger can be suppressed from the motive of the love of God and of our neighbour.
We can behave courteously towards people who are unsympathetic towards us or who offend us by their unmannerly conduct.
We can combat pride by acts of humility and egoism by acts of charity.
We can mortify ourselves in speech, in behaviour and at table and, we can give alms to the poor, good advice to the ignorant and comfort to the afflicted.

All these virtuous actions are insignificant in the eyes of men but, they are great in the sight of God.
The blades of grass and the flowers in the meadow are tiny things but, joined together, they constitute the pasture which provides nourishment for the herds and the flocks.
Let us perform these small actions everyday and so cultivate the ordinary virtues.
We shall attract the attention and favour of God, Who, will help us to advance, step-by-step, towards the peak of Christian perfection.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci