Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales - March

[Hildegard of Bingen]

Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales

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


March 19th (page 79)

     Thinking of the grandeur of Saint Joseph, consider the words, “Extend Thy mercy to them that know Thee, and Thy justice to them that are right in heart.” [(cf. Ps 36:11] I would like to say a few words about this saint whom we love so much because he has cultivated love in every heart. My God, how good and upright this great saint must have been if the Lord gave him the lofty privilege of being entrusted with His mother and His Son! With these two responsibilities, he could have been envied by the angels. Could anyone in all heaven possess any greater privilege than this? Who is there among the angels who could be compared with the queen of angels? And who can compare with the Son of God Himself? Yet Saint Joseph was closer to them than anyone else.

(Letters 671; O. XV, p. 33)

In the early morning of March 19th, 1614, the feast of Saint Joseph, Francis de Sales sent this not to Mother Chantal: “My dear daughter, here are the litanies of the glorious father of our life and of our love. I wanted to send them to you written in my own hand, but, as you know, I am not own master. Nevertheless, I have taken the time to look them over, correct them and put in the necessary accents, so that our daughter of Chantal can more easily sing them without making mistakes.” Wherever he was on the feast of Saint Joseph, Francis de Sales always preached about him. He was never at a loss for words in speaking of the spirit and heart of Saint Joseph. “Nothing excites me so much,” he used to say, “as the title of foster father of Jesus Christ.”

(A.S. III, p. 473)

Spiritual consolations are good; He who gives them to us is wonderful.

But the fact that we receive them should not be the reason for being good.