“A single work done calmly and conscientiously is more valuable than many works done in haste. God is not pleased with the quantity of our work, but with the love with which we work” (St. Francis de Sales).
Our Father generously gives His wisdom to those who strive to acquire it. It is obvious that St. Francis de Sales was given it in abundance, so that his sayings are wholesome food for our spiritual life.
We are often tempted to measure the value of our work by the quantity of it, and perhaps to use this criterion to determine how useful we are. We can easily take worldly categories and apply them to the spiritual life. But this can lead to depression. If we apply the wrong criteria, we would feel, for example, that if we suffer from an illness that makes us unable to work, we are no longer worth much, and we might even think that we are only a burden to others.
But our Father often has a very different way of looking at things. What gives true value to our work is love. It gives a ‘holy taste’ to everything we do; a taste that lasts in time and in eternity.
“In the evening of life you will be judged by love,” says St John of the Cross.
Internalising this phrase can liberate us profoundly from the often quite mundane pressure to perform to which we are often subjected.
If we do all that is entrusted to us with our eyes fixed on God, moved by love for Him and for others, and with all possible care, it will become precious. We will find that tranquillity does not diminish the fruitfulness of our actions. Then it will no longer be agitation and restlessness that determine the ‘taste’ of our actions, but love and serenity.