It is so easy for us to amke out a little programme of the spiritual life for ourselves, quite nicely constructed accordingto our capabilities, our aptitudes, the means we have to hand, etc., and so, pleasantly, happily, we would end up living a nice honest little life. But the Lord passes, and with a single gesture brushes aside this construction, which was hamless, but which would have led us only to mediocrity; and, instead of allowing us to be an expounder of beautiful theories on the spiritual life, detachment, self-denial, he arranges things in such a way as to make us practice them. This is how saints are made. No one ever arrived at sanctity except by that complete and absolute overturning of their projects, their plans, their arrangements. the remarkable thing about the religious life is that, unless we actually break our vows, we become saints either willingly or by force.
~ Abbess Cécile Bruyère, OSB
in Praying with the Benedictines, A Window on the Cloister
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