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 25 (page 86)

       Think for a moment of the piety of the Madonna when the angel told her that the Spirit would overshadow her. What sentiments of humility, confidence and courage! At the very moment when she understood that God had given her His heart, that is, His Son, she gave herself to God.

       Her soul was flooded with charity, so she could say with the sacred spouse, ". . . Fort to thee will pray: O Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear my voice." [Sg 5:4] As far as we are concerned, we receive a similar grade in Communion, because not an angel but Jesus Christ Himself assures us that in it the Holy Ghost descends on us. Heavenly power covers us with its shadow and the Son of God really comes to us. He can say that He is conceived and born in us. Truly then, the soul can respond with the Madonna, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her." [Lk 1:38] - (Spiritual Directory, Art. 12)

      On March 25th, 1599, while still in Rome, Francis de Sales had the good fortune of receiving Communion from the hands of Pope Clement VIII. He received such singular graces from the Lord in that Communion that he always wanted to remember them. In a note written in his own hand we read the following: "The day of the Annunciation, having received Holy Communion from the hands of the supreme pontiff, my soul was very much consoled interiorly. God deigned to grant me a great understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation. He gave me to understand how in an inexplicable manner the Word had voluntarily taken flesh through the power of the Father and the operation of the Holy Ghost in the most chaste womb of Mary and so commenced to live among us. The God-Man also gave me a deep and exquisite knowledge of transubstantiation and about His entrance into my soul; He also gave me special lights about the ministry of the pastors of the Church."

(A.S. III, p. 638)

Mary most holy is the mystical beehive in which the Spirit and the Lord have prepared the honeycomb of the most sweet honey, Jesus Christ.