Devotion

Devotion is the real spiritual sweetness which takes 
away all bitterness from mortifications, and prevents 
consolations from disagreeing with the soul; it cures 
the poor of sadness, and the rich of presumption; it
 keeps the oppressed from feeling desolate, and the 
prosperous from insolence; it averts sadness from
the lonely, and dissipation from social life; it is as warmth 
in winter and refreshing dew in summer; it knows how
 to abound and how to suffer want, how to profit alike 
by honour and by contempt; it accepts gladness and 
sadness with an even mind, and fills men's hearts 
with a wondrous sweetness.

- Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life [1609]