Virtue of Meekness – Seventh Day of May

Meekness

Learn of Me that I am meek and humble of heart. St. Matt. 11:29.

SEVENTH DAY.

There are some who appear sweet while everything prospers and goes according to their wishes, but at the least adversity, the least contradiction, their sweetness disappears, they are on fire. They may be compared to a coal hidden under ashes. Their meekness is not of the kind Our Saviour asks when He tells us to be like unto Him. — St. Bernard.

While St. Francis of Sales was one day preaching at Annecy, a letter was handed to him containing many insults. Thinking it might be of importance to the people whom he was addressing, he interrupted his instruction to read it. Heaving read it in silence, he continued his discourse without apparent emotion. When he descended from the pulpit, he inquired and discovered from whom the letter had come. Hastening to the persons who had sent it, he begged of them to tell him in what manner he had offended them. When they had told him, the saint assured them that nothing could be farther from his intention than to injure them, and throwing himself on his knees, begged their pardon. The gentlemen were so confused to see the saint upon his knees to them that in their turn they begged his pardon, and enjoyed his friendship ever after, never ceasing to admire a virtue so heroic and Christian.

St. Jane Frances having been grossly insulted by a young gentleman, who was inconsolable because she had received into her community a young lady whom he wished to marry, this worthy daughter of St. Francis of Sales said to companions: “I never heard a panegyric which pleased me more.”

Prayer.

My God, give me meekness which will make me like Thee, a meekness which will show itself in adversity, and by means of which I will never lose my peace of soul when I am contradicted and calumniated.

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