It was not that the Saints made a hobby of holiness, for that would imply an inward-looking preoccupation with self which can issue only in self-righteousness.  On the contrary, what inspired them was an outward-looking desire to love and to please God.  Thus the Saints, whatever were the circumstances and fortunes of their life here, in the end loved God above all things.  And the same must be true of us before we can share their life with God.

There is no quick or easy way to Heaven, for perfection is the result of a gradual growth, not of a sudden transformation.  The more deeply and resolutely we love God here, the sooner we shall be granted the vision of him hereafter.  The more feeble and cold our love, so much the longer we shall have to wait.