Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales - March

[Hildegard of Bingen]

Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales

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


MARCH 26th ( page 87)

      Oh, contemplate how Jesus Christ our Savior, at the moment of His Incarnation, took us all without exception on His shoulders, because from that moment He accepted the task of redeeming us by His death on the cross! The Redeemer's soul knew all of us by name, above all on the day of His passion, when He offered His tears, His prayers, His blood and His life for all, and addressed His Eternal Father on our behalf with this loving aspiration: "Father, I take upon myself all the sins of poor Theotimus. I am ready to undergotorment and death so that he may be freed." O supreme love of the heart of Jesus! What heart can ever bless Thee as devoutly as it ought?

(T.L.G. Book 12, Ch. 12; O.V., p. 344)

     On March 26, 1599, Francis de Sales wrote to his dear cousin Louis in Rome, "Ingenuously I confess to you that in the examination God spared me confusion, although, reflecting on what I am, I did not expect this. The vicar general, Canon de Chisse, assured me that he left the consistory happier than I myself. As a good and faithful friend, he certainly wasted no time in writing to Savoy about the signs of paternal kindness with which the pope honored me. This has put me under an obligation to be a still more loving son and faithful servant of the holy Roman Church. However, whatever our friends may write, remember that they tend to exaggerate the good, just as our enemies exaggerate the evil. When all is said and done, we are what we are in the sight of God.

(A.S. III, p. 667)

Self-love is a great busybody; it wants to be everywhere, to embrace everyone and to tie itself down to nothing.