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 25th  (page 25)

 

     I desire very little, and what I do desire I desire very little; I have hardly any desires, but if I were to begin my life all over again I would want to have none at all . . . Ask for nothing, refuse nothing; we must simply abandon ourselves into the hands of Providence, without nourishing any other desire but to do whatever God wills.  St. Paul practices this act of absolute abandonment at the very moment of his conversion.  When he was deprived of his sight, he immediately said, “And I said: What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me: Arise, and go to Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things that thou must do.” [Acts of Apostles 22:10]  From that moment on he put himself completely at God’s disposal.  All our perfection consists precisely in the practical application of this principle.

 

(Spiritual Treatises XXI, O. VI, pp. 383-384)

 
 

     On January 25th, 1612, Francis de Sales introduced Mother Claude Agnes Joly de la Roche and Marie Aimee de Blonay to the Little House of the Gallery at Annecy.  Noticing that these two dear young girls embraced each other in a kiss of peace before entering the convent, he called over Monsieur de Blonay and said to him, “See, my dear brother, how our two young doves embrace each other.  I hope that God will be greatly pleased to receive their offering.”  Because the congregation was still in its early stages and no time had yet been fixed for the first probation, the holy bishop gave them the habit on this very same day.

 

(A.S. I, p. 626)

 
 

     On the same day in 1615, preaching in the Church of the Barnabites of Annecy, Francis de Sales appeared all illuminated by the flames of divine love and remained for some time in ecstasy, having just spoken these words, “As soon as grace triumphed over Saint Paul, the Lord struck him to the ground, deprived him of his sight and transported him to the third Heaven.  He could say in truth,” . . . And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me. And that I live now in the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself for me. [Galatians 2:20]

 

(A.S. I, p. 626)

 

 

The best and most desirable shrewdness is simplicity itself.