A Little Checklist For Before and After Work Today

Here's a little list we might check before and after work today. It's from a "venerable."

"Venerables" haven't been officially declared saints yet. But they're pretty much known to be in Heaven now. (You can read more specifics about the frequently long and arduous road to being declared a saint by the Catholic Church HERE.  - https://www.ncregister.com/blog/how-does-a-person-become-a-canonized-saint.

Our dear Father Willie Doyle is currently being put forward to the official church channels to be declared a saint. We've learned so much from him over the years. Perhaps we can all say a prayer that his cause be successfully concluded soon.

But today we look to Louis of Granada. He may not be so well known and referenced these days, but he once was. The Wikipedia entry on him lays out considerable detail. In brief, born in Spain of poor parents, he eventually became a Dominican, living to the age of 84. He wrote 49 works, covering Scripture, dogma, ethics, biography, church history, as well as spiritual works. Many of these were read and loved by such better known Catholic saints Vincent de Paul, Francis de Sales, and Charles Borromeo. Indeed, St. Francis de Sales suggested to his bishop-elect that Louis of Granada's works be published as a kind of second breviary and that they be treasured and read carefully:

"to read him with fruit you must not run through him hastily; he must be pondered, and have his full weight, and chapter after chapter must be mused upon and applied to the soul with much thought and prayer to God. You must read him with reverence and devotion, like a book containing the most useful inspirations man can receive from on high, and thereby reform all the powers of the soul.

Got your attention? 

Today, we'll restrict ourselves to something Louis wrote regarding venial sin.

The Venerable Louis of Granada warns:

"Venial sin, however slight, is always prejudicial to the soul. It weakens our devotion, troubles the peace of our conscience, diminishes the fervour of charity, exhausts the strength of our spiritual life, and obstructs the work of the Holy Ghost in our souls. I pray you then to do all in your power to avoid these sins, for there is no enemy too weak to harm us if we make no resistance. Slight anger, gluttony, vanity, idle words and thoughts, immoderate laughter, loss of time, too much sleeping, trivial lies or flatteries – such are the sins against which I would particularly warn you. Great vigilance is required against offences of this kind, for occasions of venial sin abound."
 

Based up this brief passage, here's a little checklist we can apply to our work today:

Avoid all venial sin!

These include slight anger, gluttony, vanity, idle words and thoughts, immoderate laughter, loss of time, too much sleeping trivial lies, flatteries.

Not all apply to each of us. But surely some do.

So let's all be prepared to:

Guard our temper, eat moderately (no huge lunches!); dress appropriately, but not in a manner that feeds our natural vanity; keep our words and thoughts in check, including what is necessary to do our work, but also our personal manners of speech and any tendency to daydream; be cheerful but not a laughing buffoon (St. Benedict warns against this on more than one occasion in his Rule); don't waste time - use it efficiently (rememberin the 2 Resolutions: I will make use of that time without losing a moment of it beginning with the most important duties); of course, get up on time each morning; vigilantly stick to the truth, especially those "little white lies" we excuse all the time; never use flattery to "butter up" a superior (or the more contemporary "suck up to") to gain some advantage - or even a colleague so that they will become an "ally" in whatever political scheming we might be prone to engage in.

Thank you St. Louis for your wise counsel. We will take your advice seriously and do our best to avoid these and all venial sin today as we go about our business.