Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales - January

[Hildegard of Bingen]

      

Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales

Teachings and Examples from the Life of the Saint by Salesiana Publishers

 

January 20th (page 20)

 
     State openly that you desire to be devout. I do not say that you should assert that you are devout but that you desire to be devout.  Do not be ashamed to practice the ordinary, necessary actions that bring us to the love of God.  Acknowledge frankly that you are trying to meditate, that you would rather die than commit a mortal sin, that you are resolved to frequent the sacraments and to follow your director’s advice.  This candid confession of our desire to serve God and to consecrate ourselves entirely to His love is most acceptable to His Divine Majesty.
 

(INT. V., Ch. 18; O. III, p. 365)

 

 
      Francis de Sales had a very special veneration for Saint Sebastien, patron of the chapel of the castle of Sales.  He generally preached there on January 20th. Once, referring to the arrows which are the insignia of Saint Sebastian, he said “The bishop’s cross must be like the insignia of his saint, who is represented with piercing arrows all over his body, to announce to all that he is a servant of Jesus Christ.”  Animated by this sentiment, instead of the cape and scapular, he prescribed for his Daughters of the Visitation that they should bear on their breasts a silver cross on which were the names of Jesus and Mary – “so that,” as he wrote to Mother Chantal, “everybody will know that our daughters belong to Jesus Christ crucified.”
 

(A.S. I, p. 502)

 
 

It is a major element of our perfection to put up with our imperfections.

 

The more real and perfect our trust in God, the more Divine Providence will shine forth on us.