Simplicity.
“Be simple as doves.” — St. Matt. 10:16.
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY.
If it happen that you sometimes fall in a point, what you should then do is to acknowledge with sincerity your fault; and if you are asked to do something that you are ignorant of, you must with simplicity say so. Leave deceit to the wise of the world. — St. Vincent de Paul.
This saint practiced what he preached to others. Whenever he forgot to do what he had promised, he acknowledged with frankness that he had forgotten. Whenever he was asked to interest himself for any person, he refused if the affair did not seem just to him, giving the reason for his refusal. Different persons who thought they were indebted to him for certain favors thanked him for the service they thought he had rendered them, but he undeceived them. The enemy of untruth and dissimulation, he was accustomed to say that he always congratulated himself upon telling things as they were.
Prayer.
My God, give me a great horror of lies and dissimulation. Let me die rather than lie.