"The truly loving heart loves God's good pleasure not in consolations only but also in afflictions." (St. Francis de Sales-Treatise on the Love of God) Recently a woman contacted me, wanting to make a donation to our parish ministry to the [...]
Blessed Louis Brisson shares his thoughts at Christmas time with his spiritual children: “A little child walks along holding his mother’s hand, distrusts his own strength, and is not bold. May you be the same and venture nothing without God. [...]
Back in October, I wrote on “the union of hearts” as the first of three qualities that Francis de Sales called for in marriage. The second quality is fidelity. Obviously such fidelity excludes romantic, sexual attachments to anyone outside the [...]
and Crosses! As our national holiday of Thanksgiving approaches, how can we be grateful with a particularly Salesian heart? St. Francis de Sales’ suggests we delight in all God’s inspirations within us, and that we accept with gratitude even the [...]
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Mt 23:12) The above verse from Matthew’s Gospel (featured in the Lectionary for the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time) follows Jesus’ critique of the Pharisees (and scribes) for [...]
In Part 3 of the Introduction to the Devout Life, in his Instruction to Married Persons, Francis de Sales reflects on the holiness of marriage and exhorts his readers to a married love that is “completely holy, completely sacred, and [...]
"No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light…” Lighting a lamp, only to subsequently hide [...]
Pope Francis has declared September 1st, as an annual day of prayer, penance and thanksgiving for creation. In his Treatise on the Love of God, St Francis de Sales wrote in Book, 2, Chapter 2: God spoke but one word, [...]
