The Choice of Virtues

Some men have, through simple but perfect activity and some particular virtue, attained the height of all virtue. This requires that such a virtue is practiced with great fervor and charity. As St. Augustine keenly observes, young beginners in the practice of devotion commit certain faults which are blameworthy. The base in servile fear begets so many excessive scruples in the souls of new converts who have only recently turned from sin. However, the same fear would be blameworthy in those who have advanced far on the path of devotion. Those hearts should be wholly animated by love, which gradually drives out this kind of servile fear.