There is a part that Charity plays in the intellectual order and its practice is even very difficult (and by extension all the more beautiful): in order to win back a listener who is rebellious against God, you have to charm them with the Truth, which means that you first have to be charmed by it and be a sort of reflection of it. This is accomplished either by the way the Truth will take hold of a man and shine through him, or by its flame inside him whose intensity will eventually consume him. Doctors, contemplatives, and martyrs all bear witness to this fact. More often than not, what happens is a little of both.

Fr. Jean de Menasce (1902-1973)
Dominican

“Think for a moment about the spring of living water that is in us by way of grace. And pray that this source springs forth a bit for yourself, and a great deal for others. You have to give, even when you have nothing to give. Our Lord cursed the sterile fig tree, though it wasn’t the season to give fruit. And yet, despite that fact, the fig tree was supposed to give something. Giving what we haven’t is being an instrument. The only thing needed for a pipe is that it be clean and watertight – water has to be able to pass through it, and stay clean in the process. We have to be so careful not to get worn out; we have to accept being a simple pipeline, while waiting to become the river of peace of which Isaias speaks.”

Fr. Jean de Menasce (1902-1973)
Dominican