Dealing with Anger
If you’re like me, you tend think of Francis de Sales as a man of moderation, someone who by personality, as well as by principle, avoided extremes. After all, he did offer as a motto, “Moderation in all things except [...]
July 2017
June 2017
Loving Our Faults
Failing Successfully The New York Times recently reported on the trend among some elite colleges to host courses and seminars on failure. As these schools tend to welcome the nation’s best and brightest graduating high school seniors, many of these students [...]
Consecrated Life vs. Married Life
Consecrated Life vs. Marriage Is one really more holy than the other? There was a time when I believed that a vocation to the consecrated life was superior to, and holier than, the state of matrimony. After all, St. Paul [...]
The “New” Evangelizing and the Salesian Tradition
In the closing pages of his book American Church, Russell Shaw describes the “New Evangelization”: "The key to new evangelization as a high priority of a new American Catholic subculture isn't institutions and programs...Where to begin? It has to start [...]
Bishop St. Francis de Sales: A Fortnight on Freedom in His Writings
The Founder of the Visitation Sisters, Bishop St. Francis de Sales, held deep theological positions on the concept of freedom. We will manifest his thinking during the “Fortnight for Freedom” through Fr. Eunan McDonnell’s book, The Concept of Freedom in [...]
The Fear of Forever
Recently I met with two men who are recent college grads - one who is thinking of entering religious life and one who is engaged to be married. Both are great guys and, as I listened, both had the same [...]
May 2017
Who are you…
“Be who you are and be that well.” This has to be one of the most quoted lines from St. Francis de Sales. It obviously resonates in many hearts. So…. Who are you? If we want to be who we [...]
The Fourth Face of Love — Effective Love
This and other postings in this series are taken from a day of recollection I did for the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales in 2016. Effective love is love that is experienced and expressed in the way in which [...]
The Third Face of Love — Affective Love
This and other postings in this series are taken from a day of recollection I did for the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales in 2016 As I wrote in an earlier posting, at times when Francis writes about affective [...]
The Second Face of Love — Benevolence
Note: This and subsequent posts are taken from a day of recollection in 2016 which I gave to the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales in 2016. What does Francis de Sales mean by the love of benevolence? Basically he [...]