How to Attend Church

"Be very careful," he continued, "when you are in church. Do not talk and when you chant, do not try to make your voice nice through vainglory, so that you will be pleasing to people."

"Is all this a big sin?"

"You must know, my child, that there are countless angels above the people in church and invisibly sing along with them. But when one of the faithful begins to joke, to talk about worldly things, or to comment about others, the angels who see him, drop the hymn and weep bitterly for his plight saying: 'Oh! into what deep imprisonment this man's soul has fallen! How impiously, shamelessly and without the fear of God he stands in church! God bent His ear for him to fill it with humble and devout prayer and he fills it with laughter and criticisms.'"

These words shook me and from then on I stood in church with more piety. I would remember what the saint said to me and, if sometime I would forget myself and say a word, I would be afraid and ashamed before the angels of God.