It is said of our Lord by the prophet Malachias: He is like a refiner's fire, and like the fuller's herb, and he shall sit refining and cleansing the silver. Nothing more purifies and exalts the soul than religion, when we suffer God to sit within it, and our members to be the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in us. The Apostle adds, glorify, and bear God in your body. Who can tell the inward life and spiritual vigour that the soul of fallen and sinful man may be filled with, when in conjunction with an Almighty Being? Who can limit that power in the soul which shall discover itself, when the Holy Spirit spreads forth his influences upon it, and its faculties. The more spiritual anything is,, the higher, nobler, and more active it is. While all willful sin wastes and eats out the vigour of the soul, and commences its eternal death, religion awakens and enlivens it, and commences eternal life. Therefore he saith, Rise thou that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enliven thee. Uniting the soul to God, the centre and source of life and strength, religion produces in a Christian holy courage, calm fortitude, and perseverance unto victory. They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; thy shall take wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint; God (says Saint Paul) hath not given us the spirit of fear (sin is this), but of power. This is the Christian religion; for does not the same great Apostle say: I can do all things in Him who strengthened me? Endeavour then to get more and more acquainted with the power of the Gospel salvation, and to rise more under its true influence. While so many around are slaves and captives to one vanity or another, do you seek to prove and give proof to the Church and the world, that you mind the things above, not the things on the earth; for your life is hid with Christ in God, and when He shall appear you shall appear with him. in glory. Strive thus for the crown that is to be won.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp