Chapter LI: Advantages of Diligence

DON’T be afraid of labor or trouble. The industrious girl will not have near as much work to do as the lazy and shiftless one. Why? Because she manages so that her work is done with much less trouble. She goes right at it without allowing it ever to get the upper hand of her.

If a good deal is to be done in the morning, she gets things ready over-night. A great many things can be done better then than in the morning. One girl will get up in the morning: there is the fire all out; no kindling-wood ready; the sticks all wet; the kettle to be filled with water; the coffee to be ground; the meat to be chopped; everything to be done. She says, “Dear me! there is no living in such a place as this. I don’t know where my head is, I’ve so much to do.”

Another girl, of more orderly habits, has had plenty of time over-night to make all these preparations. She has only to light a match, and in a minute has a good blazing fire; her breakfast is all ready to put on to cook; and without a bit of fuss or disturbance of mind it is ready at the moment. So, from one year’s end to another, where such a girl is, there is peace and satisfaction all around, while with the other there is nothing but trouble and sorrow.

This girl has never too much to do, and does all well. The other is half the time overloaded with work, and does it half, while the rest of her time she is lazy and idle, and committing sin right and left; for the old saying is true: “The devil finds work enough for idle hands to do.” A person who performs her task, whatever it may be, with diligence and intelligence grows more and more perfect in it all the time. Look into the stores and factories and dress-making establishments, and these are the girls who are promoted in time to be the heads of departments, with others under their charge. Who ever heard of an idler gaining promotion in the honest ranks of labor?

Where is your true perfection and goodness? It is in your work. You may think it is in your prayers, or in your hearing Mass, or in Confession, or in Communion. All these things are good, all these things are necessary, but your perfection is in your work.

Do your work well, and do it with the right intention, because it is your duty, and because it is God’s will you should do it, and you will be on the shortest road to perfection. All your prayers, all your confessions, all your communions, will avail little, if your conscience is not in your work.

In a nice little story I have read lately there is a character called Fanny. Now, Fanny was very pious, a monthly communicant. She said her Rosary every day, and must always be at church, particularly when anything extraordinary was going on. One evening a celebrated man was to preach, and Fanny had set her heart on going. But, as it happened, at that very time company came in, and Fanny’s services were necessary; she could not go. Now there was a time of it. All her mildness, all her piety was gone. “She wouldn’t stand it, it was too bad!” and so on.

The fact is, Fanny’s piety was not very deep. She was, after all, more bent on pleasing herself than on pleasing God. She had an opportunity, by putting up with her disappointment and doing her work cheerfully, to gain more than by hearing a dozen sermons.

St. Zita, in her old age, used frequently to say that “no servant is truly devout who is not laborious; and that a lazy piety, in persons of their condition, is a false piety.” She practised it herself up to the letter. Not a single moment of her time was unoccupied. She was always ready, when her own work was done, to help others; and as long as she saw anything left undone about the house, she never considered her task over.

That was the way. Every bit of her work was a prayer to God. It gave her no uneasiness that she could not retire to pray on her knees, or in the church, as long as work was to be done; her readiness, her cheerfulness, her fidelity in work, were all so many sacrifices of sweet odor to God, so many prayers proceeding from such an humble, child-like faith. It was in this way that she brought down on herself those streams of grace that made her finally a saint, to be held in love and veneration throughout the church for all ages.

We have another beautiful example of diligence and attention in service in the life of a noble lady, Anne of Montmorency, written by Lady Georgiana Fullerton. The family of this lady were making preparations for her marriage, but she felt called by God to a different state of life — a state in which she could imitate the example of the Lord Jesus Christ more perfectly.

When she found all her entreaties of no avail, she left her father’s house at the tender age of fifteen. No one knew what had become of her. She took the name of Jane Margaret, and hired herself out to a lady in a country village.

The lady was so difficult in her temper that no other girl could remain with her. All the work fell on Anne to do; she was chambermaid, cook, and portress at the same time.

Just think of that. A delicate young lady, always waited upon, never obliged to do anything in the way of hard work, of a high education and immense wealth, doing all this work!

And she did it well, too. For ten years she served in the utmost patience and fidelity. She overcame evil with good, so that when her mistress was dying, she called her to her bedside and begged her pardon for all she had made her suffer, and insisted on leaving her the sum of four thousand francs, in addition to her wages. Anne accepted it after some hesitation, and gave it all to the poor.

Think over this example, and get from it all the good it teaches so eloquently. If you, born of poor parents and used to hard work, complain and neglect your duties, and pass your time in idleness, let the thought of this delicate and refined lady, working so patiently in the kitchen so many years, shame you into better sentiments. Let it encourage you to overcome your natural weakness and the snares of the devil, until you acquire habits of industry and of faithful attention to your duties. Make this attempt in order to please God, and ask His help. He will not fail to give you abundant grace to accomplish it.