Thoughts from St. Francis de Sales

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

St. Francis de Sales, whose feast day was commemorated on January 29, was a Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church. In the seventeenth century, St. Francis de Sales, by his preaching, brought sixty thousand back to the Faith. He was zealous, but gentle in his holiness. He was Bishop of Geneva and founded the religious order of the Visitation. A quote from him: "If we must fall into some excess, let it be on the side of gentleness."

Our pastor dedicated the last page of our weekly bulletin on February 2, to quotes from this good and holy man. I thought them worth repeating here.

Even when I feel that I am miserable, I don't worry about it one bit, and sometimes I'm even joyful about it, thinking that I'm quite a good job for the mercy of God.
                                                                                ________________
With the single exception of sin, anxiety is the greatest evil that can happen to a soul. (Introduction to the Devout Life IV, 10).
                                                                                ________________

It is very good to mistrust ourselves, but what good will that do unless we place all our confidence in God and await His mercy? And even if we do not feel such confidence, we must not cease to make acts of confidence and say, "Even though I have no feeling of confidence in You, I know that You are my God, that I am totally Yours and have no hope except in Your goodness: therefore I abandon myself entirely into Your hands."

It is always in your power to make these acts, and even if we have difficulty in doing so, still, it is not an impossibility, and it is on these occasions and in these very difficulties that we give witness of our fidelity to God.

A thousand times a day cast your whole heart, your soul, your anxiety on God with great confidence, and say with the psalmist: "I am Yours, Lord, save me."

Do not fear future evil in this world, for perhaps it will never come. But in any event, if evil should come, God will strengthen you. if God commands you to walk upon the waves of adversity, do not doubt: do not be afraid. God is with you; have courage and you will be delivered.

It is very fine to be aware of our misery and imperfection, but we must not stop there, nor fall into discouragement, but pick ourselves up by a holy confidence in God. The foundation of this rest in God and not in us, because we change and God never changes.

                 Excerpted from Dom Mark Daniel Kirby, OSB's vultus.stblogs.org ("Vultus Christi")
                 posting of January 29, 2011 (Feast-day of St. Francis de Sales).

2/5/14