Showing posts with label Basics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Basics. Show all posts

Friday, April 27, 2007

leave all to Him

the other day I posted in "Daily with De Sales" the quote for April 29 instead of April 26. It was a Providential "mistake."

So long as we tackle all our troubles ourselves, we shall be always worried and tired, and Our Lord will leave us to our own devices; but when we leave everything to Him, He will look after all our troubles Himself. The interest that God will have for us will be in proportion to the degree that we abandon ourselves to Him. I am not just speaking of temporal things, but also of spiritual ones. The Lord Himself taught this same truth to His beloved Saint Catherine of Siena: "Always think about me, my daughter, and I will think about you." Oh, how happy are those loving souls who know how to observe this rule, thinking only about the Lord, faithfully keeping themselves in His presence, listening to what He has to say to their hearts, obeying His divine inspiration and attractions, and not living or aspiring for anything but to please Him. (Sermons 71; O. X, p. 300)

I had been trying ''too hard.'' You know, prayer, mortification, ''dying to self'' all that good stuff but growing tired and discouraged at nos seeing "progress" ... and then this comes up: "but when we leave everything to Him, He will look after all our troubles Himself. " He is the one sanctifying me. Not me. Its not about me. Its about Him. It not about being ''sanctified'' its about living with Him.

We should become Saints without even realizing.
Just sitting at His feet.

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and now...randomness:




don't ask, my brain works in weird ways. Turtles and Jackrabbits... yeah.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Some of the basics of the teachings of St. Francis of Sales. For your enjoyment and edification.
  1. Universal Call to Holiness. Father Francis wrote Introduction to the Devout Life mainly for lay people. He believed (and rightly so) that holiness is the vocation of every single Christian.
  2. Father De Sales favorite description of Christ is ''meek and humble of heart.'' He used to say we are called to be meek to our brothers and to ourselves and humble before our God.
  3. Humility. Father De Sales called his children to recognize their sinfulness in light of the Mercy of God.
  4. Father Francis has been called ''The Gentleman Saint" for his great gentleness. We are called to gentleness towards others. He called us to practice "the little virtues", namely patience, kindness, joy, the virtues that make life in community a path to holiness.
  5. He repeatedly calls us to gentleness to self.’Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself.” He scorned anxiety, scruples and fear. He considered them the greatest obstacle for a soul wanting to reach holiness.
  6. Father calls us to live perfectly our current state and to become Saints right there. “Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.”
  7. He calls us to Perseverance in our spiritual exercises and in the practice of virtue. “The soul that transplants its heart from plan to plan cannot profit or gain proper growth in perfection, since perfection does not consist in beginnings but in accomplishments”
  8. Father highlighted the necessity of living in the Now. He stressed that we should become Saints right now right here, never in despair of the past or in fear of the future. "The same Eternal Father who cares for you today will take good care of you tomorrow and every day of your life. Be at peace then and put aside all useless thoughts, all vain dreads and all anxious imaginations."