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 19th (page 19)

 
     Our Lord Jesus Christ died for love of us, so we should, if required, be prepared to die for Him.  Even if we cannot die for love of Him, we can at least live for Him alone.  If we do not live for Him alone, we are really the most treacherous and ungrateful of creatures.  Then is it true that the Divine Redeemer died for us? . . . Yes, He died nailed to the cross to give us life.  Those die who do not imitate Him, since there is neither death nor resurrection apart from the One on the cross.
 

(Sermons 65; O. X., p. 364)

 
 
 
     At the beginning of 1601, Francis de Sales was called to Sales by his venerable father, who was seriously ill.  From there he wrote to Bishop Claude De Granier on January 19th:  “I am here an will remain here as a duty to assist my father who, day by day, advances quickly toward eternal life.  If God does not come to his aid very shortly, with the entire household we will be deprived of the consolation that we have always had of the presence of a good father.”  During, the sufferings of his final illness, it was a tremendous consolation for Baron Boisy to be assisted by his saintly son.  For him, Francis was more than a son; you could almost say that he considered him like a father, both because of the priestly character with which he was invested and because of his many virtues.  Baron Boisy made a general confession of his entire life and received Holy Communion form Francis’s hands. He never tired of giving thanks for the holy and kind attention afforded him, saying hundreds and thousands of times how fortunate he was to have given life to such a son.
 

(A.S. I, p. 471)

 
 

There is no one living who has a heart more tender and affectionate than mine, or feels parting more keenly.  Still, I realize more and more the nothingness of this world and this present life, so that I never turn to God with a stronger sense of love than when He has permitted some misfortune to fall upon me.