Tranquility, Gentleness and Strength

St. John of the Cross says that every quality or virtue which God’s Spirit really produces in a person’s soul has three distinguishing characters, which are tranquility, gentleness, and strength. Fuss, feverishness, anxiety, intensity, intolerance, instability, pessimism … every kind of hurry and worry are not evidence of tranquility, gentleness, and/or strength. If we desire a simple test of the quality of our spiritual life, a consideration of the tranquility, gentleness, and strength with which we deal with the circumstances of our outward life will serve us as evidence of our spiritual maturity. No cheapening sense of hurry, or nervous anxiety about success. The actions of those whose lives are given to the Spirit has in it something of the leisure of Eternity. In the spiritual life it is important to get our timing right. Otherwise, we tend to forget that God, who is greater than our heart, is greater than our job too. (Thanks for this insight to Emilie Griffin. Evelyn Underhill, Essential Writings. [Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. 2003]).