The Virtues

February 27

Virtues are like someone who has a treasure, which, if it is not hidden from the eyes of the envious, I steal. The devil is always watching, and he, the worst of all the envious looks seize this treasure, which are the virtues, as soon as it finds, and makes assaulting us with that enemy so powerful that it is vainglorious.
Our Lord, always attentive to our good, to preserve us from this great enemy, warns us in various parts of the gospel. Do not tell us that if we want to pray, we retire to our room, shut the door and pray one on one with God, that our prayer is not known by others?, What, when fasting, we wash our face so that we discover our fasting to others in the dirt and the pallor of the face?, what, in giving alms, let not your right hand what the left?
(August 2, 1913, Father Agustin de San Marcos in Lamis - Letters. I, p. 396)