Many believe that they can do no true penance for their sins except by giving themselves up to corporal austerities. But we know that he does a very good penance for his sins, who takes pains to perform all his actions well, to please the Lord, which is a matter of great perfection and great merit.

~ St. Francis de Sales 

St. John Berchmans did no severe penances, but he placed his whole perfection in performing his ordinary actions well and with great exactness. To this effect he wrote upon a slip of paper the maxim, “Poenitentia mea maxima vita communis—-My greatest penance is the common life.” And with this alone, how perfect and dear to God he rendered himself! The same thing is told of St. Stanislaus Kostka, St. Francis de Sales, and many others.