Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales - March

[Hildegard of Bingen]

Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales

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


March 14th (page 74)

     Do not love anything too much, I beg you, not even virtues, for, by loving them too much we run the risk of losing them. Be what you are and do it well, to honor the Artificer who has made you . . . Be what God wants you to be, provided you belong to Him totally. \Do not try to be what you want to be, contrary to God’s will. Even if we were the most excellent creatures in the world, of what use would this be if we are not living according to the will of God?

(Letters 289; O. XIII, p. 53)

      On March 14th, 1599, Francis de Sales presented to Pope Clement VIII various memoranda for the systematization of the Catholic Faith in the Chablais and for the reestablishment of the same faith in the provinces of Ternier and Gaillard. Although be omitted nothing that could contribute to this matter and did not fail to recommend himself to people who had influence with the Holy Father, he was, all the same, more often to found at the altars and tombs of the martyrs buried in the Vatican. One day he graciously said to a person who was complaining about delays in conducting business with the Roman authorities, “I find this delay not so much a result of the wise deliberations of Rome but as a sign of Divine Providence, so that visitors may be given a chance to leisurely visit the holy places and to recommend their affairs to God and His martyrs.”

(A.S. III, p. 339)

If we spend our time in prayer in a poor and careless manner,

We are robbing time from God.