a virtuous winter

“In heaven it shall be all a springtime of beauty, all an autumn of enjoyment, all a summer of love.  Winter there shall be none; but here winter is necessary for the exercise of abnegation and of the thousand beautiful little virtues which are practiced in the time of barrenness.  Let us keep on always at a quiet little pace...”  (St. Francis de Sales, letter to St. Jane de Chantal)

(photo NS)