Digital Reminders
Isn't technology wonderful? This past week, I had a unique experience with my iPhone. Last Saturday I woke up and I had this notification on my lock screen: “Jim’s birthday is today? Call him?” followed by the phone icon. I [...]
January 2019
What it takes to be a Saint?
A cursory look at the life of Saint Léonie Aviat can mislead us into thinking that her road to holiness was easy. After all, she grew up in a loving, middle class French family. Their home was across the street [...]
August 2018
St. Jane de Chantal
August 12: Feast of Saint Jane de Chantal. Saint Jane’s advice to the Visitation Sisters at Nevers: A soul abandoned completely to Divine Providence desires only God and is detached from all but him: there is no eventuality that [...]
June 2018
Annecy! A Salesian Vacation
Anyone even remotely familiar with St. Francis de Sales, St. Jane de Chantal , the Visitation Sisters or the Oblates of St Francis de Sales will grasp the joy that floods one’s heart in seeing or hearing the name of [...]
The Generosity of God’s Love Knows No Bounds!
When we allow our human heart to be surrounded by God's heart, we find joy and hope in the nooks and crannies of each moment and God present in every wrinkle of our day. This awesome love that God has [...]
Salesian Spirituality & Fake News
By this point, I am sure that we are familiar with the term “fake news.” The term itself refers to a type of news that is found in traditional news (print & TV) and in social media websites that has [...]
May 2018
Married Love and Devotion
In Part 3 of the Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis reflects on how husbands and wives contribute to each other’s holiness: "The union of husband and wife in holy devotion . . . is the best and most fruitful [...]
January 2018
How one woman is turning her chemo into charity; a response to suffering
"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 [...]
December 2017
Drawing Near to the Infant Jesus
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. [...]
SFS on Marriage: Fidelity
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 [...]