In This World, There is a World

      'In the world there is an inner world, a second world which every Christian must 

      avoid, for it knows not God, and the devil is its ruler. 

      It was of this world that Jesus Christ said; 'I pray not for the world' (John 17:9). 

      In this world are found those who live solely for vanity and pleasure; 

      It is where the one aim is to please and flatter, 

      Where there is hardly anything that is innocent and good, 

      And where people glory in what ought to make us ashamed.'

St. Claude de la Colombiere

Painting: José García Ramos, Leaving a Masqued Ball