03-04-2021, 11:54 AM
Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales
Teachings and Examples from the Life of the Saint by Salesiana Publishers
March 4th (page 64)
What the bees on the thyme; they find a very bitter juice, but, by sucking it, convert it into honey. O worldly people! At times devout souls encounter great bitterness in their works of mortification, but by performing them they change them into something most sweet and delicious. Because they martyrs were devout men and women, fire, flame, wheel and sword seemed to be flowers and perfume to them. If devotion can sweeten the most cruel torments and even death itself, what must it do for virtuous actions?
(INT. Part 1, Ch. 2; O. III, p. 117)
In March, 1615, Father de la Riocere was in Annecy for the Lenten sermons. Francis de Sales told him of his interest in the cause of canonization of Prince Amadeo, duke of Savoy, his sovereign, saying that the Church would find it a great means of resisting the present evils, to exalt after their death those who had lived holy lives. Consequently, he wrote to Pope Paul V, to the cardinals of the Congregation of Rites and to several other people who might be able to help him in this holy enterprise. This saint, who worked so hard for the glorification of another saint, did not even suspect that God would one day inspire many others to procure for him precisely what he was trying to do now for his sovereign.
(A.S. III, p. 77)
In our duties we must always calmly and with composure, performing them as
Promptly as possible and as well as we can. With precipitation, instead, our tasks
Will be poorly done or not done at all.