Sanctification or personal holiness is not the work of a day; it involves the conflict of the whole life. We have to fight, not as they who beat the air, but as having mighty adversaries within and without, to resist and overcome. There is a danger against which we require to be warned; the regarding, with any approval, the evil we see in others. We must be careful not to thus consent to any who do or say what God has given us the light to understand to be sinful. We need not, at any time, be sourly austere; it may seldom be our duty to reprove, but we must neither by look, word, or act, give cause to suppose that we acquiesce in what offends God. It shows a weak mind to take offence at little things that may not be perfectly correct, and it is a mistake to consider what is not to be approved of, as our own fault, whether we have or not consented. And it shows want of judgment, and wrong zeal, to rebuke everything deserving of rebuke that we hear or see; but it is very needful to keep watch over our own hearts, lest they catch the taint of evil that comes to us through our eyes or ears, and so bring it home to our souls. Be ye holy, God says, for I am holy, and without holiness no man shall see God. There is a restraint of silence and of look, which often rebukes sin as effectually as an outspoken reproof, and commonly with less danger to the rebuked and the rebuker. There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp