Fr. John Nicholas Grou, S.J. : On Social Relationships

True piety, therefore, will inspire in the true servant of God all that will make him lovable, and its first sign is gentleness. If he is austere, it is only towards himself, and even then only in the measure of a holy discretion. Towards others, he is kind, easy and accommodating, in so far as his conscience permits.

If at times he is obliged to be severe, charity is always the principle of his severity. He is never forbidding or rude, but always approachable and friendly. When we decide to live devoutly in the world, it would be a mistake to break off all social intercourse and lead too secluded a life, in order to give ourselves up wholly to pious exercises.

Because we have given ourselves to God, that does, mean that we are to have no more friends (assuming, of course, that such friendships are not dangerous or will not dissipate us in any way). There is no need to deprive ourselves of the pleasure of their society.

Visits of courtesy--even those which would appear to be purposeless and tiresome--need not be a burden to us. What would the world think of a pious person who shut himself up in his home and refused to see anybody; or, if he must see them, presented a cold and forbidding countenance?

By withdrawing thus from all social intercourse, he would render piety odious, and give the impression that it was most unreasonable. It would also deprive him of many opportunities for practising virtue, and he would contract the very faults and form a habit of mind which true religion condemns.

Link (here) to read the full chapter on Social Relationships in The Spiritual Maxims by Fr. John Nicholas Grou, S.J.

Jean Nicolas Grou, a French Priest, who, driven to England by the first Revolution, found a home with a Roman Catholic family at Lulworth for the ten remaining years of a retired, studious, devout life. The work bears internal evidence of being that of a spirit ivhich had been fed on such works as the ' Spiritual Exercises,' the 'Imitation of Christ,' and the ' Devout Life' of St. Francis of Sales, and-which has here reproduced them, tested by its own life-experience, and cast in the mold of its own individuality. How much the work, in its present form, may awe to the judicious care of the Editor, we are not aware; but as it is presented to us, it is, while deeply spiritual, yet so earnest and sober in its general tone, so free from doctrinal error or unwholesome sentiment, that we confidently recommend it to English Church people as one of the most valuable of this class of books which, we have met-with. '—church Builder.

" The author was one pere Grou, a native of Calais, born in 1731, who in 1792 found an asylum from the troubles of the - French Revolution at Lulworth Castle, known doubtless to many of our readers as the ancestral home of the old Roman Catholic family of Weld, where he died in 1803. There is a wonderful charm about these readings—so calm, so true, so thoroughly Christian. We do not know where they would come amiss. As materials for a consecutive series of meditations for the faithful at a series of early celebrations they would be excellent, or for private reading during Advent or Lent."—Literary ChurchMan.

Link (here).