Among the other virtues he found necessary for a fruitful apostolate were humility, modesty, and meekness:
No virtue attracts men so much as meekness. They react just like fish in a pond; if somebody throws bread to the fish, they surge without fear aruond the feet of the thrower; but if a stone is thrown instead of bread, they all veer away and hide. The same happens with human beings. If they are treated with meekness, everyone turns up for the sermons and for confessions. But if they are treated with harshness, they get angry and stay home, murmuring against the minister of God.
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[E]xperience has made known to me that a zeal which is characterized by harshness is a weapon which the devil makes use of; and the priest who works without meekness serves the devil and not Jesus Christ. If such a priest preaches, he drives the people away; if he hears confessions, he terrifies the penitents, and if they do confess, it is without the requisite dispositions, because they are frightened and thus conceal their sins in shame. Very many are the general confessions I have heard of pentients who had formerly concealed their sins just because the confessors had reprimanded them too severely.
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