The Soul's Uprooting

'Our soul is like a garden in which the weeds are ever ready to choke the good plants and flowers that have been sown in it.

'If the gardener who has charge of this garden neglects it, if he is not continually using the spade and the hoe, the flowers and plants will soon disappear. Thus, my children, do the virtues with which God has been pleased to adorn our soul disappear under our vices if we neglect to cultivate them.

'A vigilant gardener labors from morning till night to destroy the weeds in his garden, and to ornament it with flowers, so let us labor every day to uproot the vices of our soul and to adorn it with virtues.

'See, my children, a gardener never lets the weeds take root, because he knows that then he would never be able to destroy them. Neither let us allow our vices to take root, or we shall not be able to conquer them.'

St. Jean Vianney

Top Painting: Anders Zorn, Dandelions 

Bottom painting: Sir Hubert von Herkomer, The Old Gardener