Text of the meditation
This alone is true service: to forget oneself in love toward all. Whoever fights ceaselessly against their own selfishness, and strives to supplant it with all-embracing love, is a saint, whether they live in a cottage or in the midst of riches and influence, and whether they preach or remain obscure.
To the worldling who is beginning to aspire toward higher things, the saint, such as a sweet St. Francis of Assisi or a conquering St. Anthony, is a glorious and inspiring spectacle; to the saint, an equally enrapturing sight is that of the sage, sitting serene and holy, the conqueror of sin and sorrow, no longer tormented by regret and remorse, and whom even temptation can never reach; and yet even the sage is drawn on by a still more glorious vision, that of the Saviour actively manifesting His knowledge in selfless works, and rendering His divinity more potent for good by sinking Himself in the throbbing, sorrowing heart of humankind.
Only the work that is impersonal can live.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
