"In the same manner, many persons clothe themselves with certain outward actions connected with holy devotion, and the world believes that they are truly devout and spiritual whereas they are in fact nothing but copies and phantoms of devotion."  -Francis de Sales

I see it as no coincidence that I have been reading the story "Tartuffe" by Moliere for my World Literature course when I happened upon Francis de Sales' "One True Devotion."  While I am very slow to see happenstance as divine intervention, I truly do believe in a God that is active in the lives and hearts of people.  Those people that are closest to me know my heart, and they can sense my sincerity, yet I have been very convicted lately of acts of false piety.  

The Scriptures encourage a life of communal solitude.  Somehow there is a way that a person can be in a crowded room and maintain profound personal solitude.  We see this in Christ's exhortation to not let our hands know what the other is doing, or to "put oil on our foreheads" while fasting, and to lock ourselves away in prayer.  These thread together in the idea that if we receive affirmation in our earthly lives "we have received our reward in full."  The true depth of spirituality is met in the tension of reckless praise of the God of the Universe, and sober humility in acts of piety.  A Christian must strive to never be guilty of the nomer Pharisee.  I must labor to be in no way similar to Tartuffe.

O Lord, may I never be guilty of being a copy or phantom of devotion!