Lilies have no season, but flower sooner or later, as they are deeper or less deep set in the ground: for if they be thrust three fingers only into the earth they will presently bloom, but if they be put six or nine, they come up proportionately later. If the heart that aims after Divine love be deeply engaged in terrene and temporal affairs, it will bud late and with difficulty; but if it have only so much to do with the world as its condition requires, you shall see it bloom timely in love, and send out a delicious odour.
Saint Francis de Sales