Quote of the Day (St. Anthony of Padua, on the ‘Twin Sprouts of Grace’)

“The world is like a field, and to bear fruit there is as difficult as it is praiseworthy. The hermits bloom in solitary places and shun the company of men. The monks blossom in a garden enclosed and hide themselves from the eyes of men. How much more glorious is it if a Christian brings forth fruit in an open field, the world, for all too easily the twin sprouts of grace, the spirit of a life of virtue and the fragrance of a good name, wither there and die. Therefore did Christ glory in being a flower of the field, since he said of himself: ‘I am the flower of the field.’” —Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231), quoted in Fr. Ambrose Ryan, The Life of Saint Anthony

(The image accompanying this past is Gerard David’s Saint Anthony of Padua (detail of the Saint Michael Altarpiece), c. 1510, oil on panel Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.)