Avoiding mediocrity

"We must know where mediocrity of spirit comes from.

"The first is the worst: it’s a scattered mind, a life which is too active. Nothing can cling to it. It’s like the seed of the Gospel falling on the open road.

"The remedy is to bring the mind back to natural reflection by some reading or serious meditations which strike it and help it to be focused.

"In general, it’s better to choose a great truth than a pious feeling. The work of truth is to refocus our attention, reflection, and finally, devotion.


"The second source of mediocrity of spirit is mental boredom toward what is serious and positive.

"This illness can only be healed by openness to divine love, since it is based on discouragement.

"The third source is laziness of the mind which fears to consider the truth.

"The fourth source is when we counteract the grace, the attraction of the moment. The mind becomes closed and foolish....

"What can we do? Follow grace. Let the mind become accustomed to the truth which God’s grace is offering.
"It takes a week or two for a truth to become natural and habitual, but we must make it the center of our piety and let everything converge toward it.

"Be serious about the presence of God, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, a definite thought of some virtue, and you will have a center of strength and consolation."


(From a letter written in 1868 to Mme. Mathilde Giraud-Jordan by St. Peter Julian Eymard)