Being Salt: the ministry of small things

You've got to eat five and thirty pounds of salt with a man to learn what he's like.

-- Bernard Guilbert Guerney

Francis de Sales says that the great virtues and the small acts of faithfulness are like sugar and salt.

Sugar may have a more exquisite taste, but its use is less frequent. Salt is found everywhere.

The great virtues are a rare occurrence; the ministry of small things is a daily service. Large tasks require great sacrifice for a moment; small things require constant sacrifice…

Francois Fenelon: “We should a hundred times rather make some great sacrifices to God, however violent and painful, on condition that we then be entirely free to follow our own tastes and habits in every detail.” — Richard J. Foster