~ Is your life harried and hassled?
~ Is it difficult to find time to pray and reflect on your calling as a Christian?
~ These portions of a letter or sermon by St. Francis de Sales, reflect on how he lived what he taught in the concrete circumstances of his own life.
~ St. Francis de Sales lived some 400 years ago, and yet his message is still relevant for our world today. His gentle manner toward everyone he met and his generous service of od and the Church can be an inspiration and example for 20th century Christians of every walk of life.
On December 9, while Francis de Sales was preaching the Advent sermons at Grenoble, he got word of the marvelous cure of Mother Chantal, who was very sick at the time. He rejoiced about this in the Lord, and having finished his sermon he went on foot to the Reformed Franciscans to celebrate Holy Mass. He did this with such sentiments of piety that these good religious believed that he was in ecstasy. The same day, he wrote as follows to the holy convalescent: "I have thought, my dear daughter, that I could not find a better way of thanking the heavenly Physician than through the hands of our most holy mother, Mary conceived without sin, our sovereign and patroness . . . So, after my poor sermon, I came to hide myself in the church of the Franciscans to celebrate Holy Mass, during which our heavenly queen deigned to look upon me with such kindness that I hope to come back to her on other occasions to beg her, as the sovereign medicine, to preserve for a long time our dearest mother, for whom she has without doubt obtained the recovery."
(A. S. XII, p. 171)
"It can be said that religious perfection is the real pearl of the Gospel; to acquire it one must be prepared to abandon everything in a vastly different manner from that which is required for common Christian perfection. While this latter can be attained simply by observing the commandments of God, for religious perfection it is necessary to keep not only the precepts but also the evangelical counsels, by following secret inspirations and interior promptings. This is done by entering the religious state and renouncing all the vanities of the world and one's own possessions. Everything must be left, without exception, no matter how small that may be."
(Sermons 44; O.X, p. 23)
