Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales - January

[Hildegard of Bingen]

Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales

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

 

January 15th (page 15)

 
     I am not terribly concerned about living out these brief and passing moments, so long as I can live eternally with my God in glory.  We have already started out on our trip to eternity, and we have taken the first steps; provided our eternity is a happy one, why worry about the passing moments of trial in this life?  These tribulations last three or four days and are to be followed by so much eternal glory and joy!  How is it possible that we are not prepared to put up with them?  . . . Everything that has no bearing on eternity is mere vanity.
 

(A.S., p. 359)

 
     On January 15th, 1591, Francis de Sales, seriously ill at Padua, said to his servant that , as the sone of a family, he could  make only a spiritual testament.  He had already willed his soul to God – he said – and bequeathed his body to the medical students so that his poor body that had been useless during his lifetime could be of some use after his death.  And he added, “I would be very happy if by this means I could put a stop to the disputes that go on over the use, for the study of anatomy, of the bodies of those who suffer capital punishment.”  It pleased the Lord, however, to reward the humility of his servant by disposing the members of the Academy of the Athenaeum to elect him as their patron and build in his honor a magnificent chapel, where his feast is celebrated with all due solemnity every year.
 

(A.S. p. 359)

 
 

God does not measure our perfection by the many things that we do for Him, but by how we do them.