a derisive shake of the head

“Be sure that you first preach by the way you live.
If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing,
but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical
laughter and a derisive shake of the head.”
St. Charles Borromeo

(jack-o-lanterns mushrooms (poisonous) Julie Cook / 2021)

“The will of God gives to all things a supernatural and divine value
for the soul submitting to it. The duties it imposes,
and those it contains, with all the matters over which it is diffused,
become holy and perfect, because, being unlimited in power,
everything it touches shares its divine character…
The entire virtue of all that is called holy is in its approximation
to this order established by God; therefore nothing should
be rejected, nothing sought after,
but everything accepted that is ordained and nothing
attempted contrary to the will of God…
When God requires action, sanctity is to be found in activity.”
Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, p. 15
An Excerpt From
Abandonment to Divine Providence