"Nothing else is required than to act toward God, in the midst of your occupations, as you do, even when busy, toward those who love you and whom you love"
About this Quote
A pastoral sleight of hand is happening here: Liguori collapses the distance between the divine and the domestic. He doesn’t ask for more prayers, more rituals, more spiritual heroics. He asks for a transfer of habit. Treat God the way you already treat the people you love, even while you’re distracted, overbooked, and mid-task. The genius is psychological: it reframes holiness as continuity rather than interruption.
The intent is practical and quietly radical for a world where piety could feel like a separate career. Liguori, a leading moral theologian of early modern Catholicism, wrote for anxious consciences and overburdened laypeople as much as for cloisters. In that context, “in the midst of your occupations” is not a throwaway phrase; it’s the battleground. He’s pushing back against a spirituality that only “counts” when it’s formal, pristine, and time-consuming. His message: if love is real, it survives errands and deadlines. You don’t need constant eye contact to remain faithful.
The subtext is also corrective. By comparing God to “those who love you and whom you love,” he smuggles in a relational model of religion: not a performance for a judge, but a living bond. That undercuts scrupulosity (the fear of never doing enough) and redirects attention from self-monitoring to presence. It’s devotional advice calibrated to ordinary life, but it carries an implicit critique: if your spirituality can’t coexist with work, it’s not yet integrated enough to matter.
The intent is practical and quietly radical for a world where piety could feel like a separate career. Liguori, a leading moral theologian of early modern Catholicism, wrote for anxious consciences and overburdened laypeople as much as for cloisters. In that context, “in the midst of your occupations” is not a throwaway phrase; it’s the battleground. He’s pushing back against a spirituality that only “counts” when it’s formal, pristine, and time-consuming. His message: if love is real, it survives errands and deadlines. You don’t need constant eye contact to remain faithful.
The subtext is also corrective. By comparing God to “those who love you and whom you love,” he smuggles in a relational model of religion: not a performance for a judge, but a living bond. That undercuts scrupulosity (the fear of never doing enough) and redirects attention from self-monitoring to presence. It’s devotional advice calibrated to ordinary life, but it carries an implicit critique: if your spirituality can’t coexist with work, it’s not yet integrated enough to matter.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
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