That interior life to which God calls you is very different from the life of the world. Men under the influence of worldly principles seek notoriety, even in their Christian profession. They love to be called Rabbi. Even in their religious duties they desire to be seen in the market place, and at the corners of the streets. But where the soul is really occupied with a divine companionship, there will be no desire to see, or to be seen openly, except when and where duty calls. There will be willingness to be little, unhonoured, and even cast out from among men. There will be no eye for worldly pomp, nor ready ear for popular applause. The Divine Saviour, the highest personage the world ever saw, or will see in it, when He came into it, on the highest errand, was so humble in origin, so simple in appearance, so gentle in heart and manner, that the world could not comprehend Him: He was as a sealed book, but all who are under the influence of the interior and truly spiritual life have the key to open it with. Therefore, Saint Paul writes, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. Many care not for anything in religion but its externals, but there ever have been, and still are, sons and daughters of the Most High on whose regenerated hearts Christ writes His name, and from whose inmost souls the Holy Spirit raises up an incense of loving service, which goes up silently to Heaven, but of which Saint Paul's words are true: We are the good odour of Christ unto God. Cultivate this, for it is the true Christian life. It is the real fragrance of the profession of religion.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp