The advantage of living under the influence of Christian piety is above estimation. It enlarges the heart, according to Holy David's words: I have run the way of thy Commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart; and taking hold of the mind, and of all the faculties of a man, it causes him to reach out to God, and all holy things, without any feeling of confinement or restraint. The nearer any one comes in love and faith to God, who is infinite fullness, the more he finds the truth of the Apostle's word, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty; while men without religion and destitute of true godliness, are like shell fish which move up and down imprisoned within what they carry about them. Sin is the sinking of the soul from God, who is desirous to draw it up to Himself, into the slough of sensual selfishness; while Christian piety elevates the soul to God, and causes it to exercise and delight itself in His infinite perfection, as its proper rest and home. A Christian is really most free when under the most powerful and effectual restraint of the fear of God. If the Son (Christ said of himself) shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Be sure of this, that if God had not been our supreme and most perfect good, then to have loved Him with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength, would not have been given us, as the first and greatest commandment. How grievously then do they err, who, regarding religion as a needful but painful duty, fit their observance of it within as short and scanty measures as they think will satisfy God, and bring them peace at the last. Avoid their error.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp