Gently Brought Back

(St. Francis de Sales)

“Within the kingdom of grace gentleness alone is in place. Our Lord’s anger is like the summer rains that only touch the earth. The Son of God is the stuff of mercy, and He purposely became Man to exercise a merciful temperament. His divine soul is united with His humanity in order to bear with patience, and it is attached to His body in order to sympathise gently with His creatures and to become like unto His brethren. I do not understand sympathy which provides a pillow for vice and a cushion to ease sin; no, but I do understand that we must accommodate ourselves to the reach of each person, yielding something, not to the malice, but to the weakness. Souls do not wish to be bullied, but gently brought back: such is the nature of man.”
~St. Francis de Sales