Today October 22 is the Feast of Blessed John Paul 11, soon to be canonized, next April 27 2014.
Our Holy Founder, St. Francis de Sales can be viewed in relation to our newest Blessed Pope John Paul 11.
Father John Sankarathil, OSFS masterfully shows us how!
“Pope John Paul II captured the Salesian concept of the love of God and presents a loving image of God to modern humanity. In an age where secularism and indifferentism manipulate people, the Pope invited all to experience a God, who is merciful, loving and caring. It is not the fear of evil and punishment that leads humanity to God, but His loving nature, His desire to encounter humanity in all its fragility. The Pope states it in the homily:
Doctor of love, Saint Francis de Sales has unceasingly emphasized the lively source of the covenant of God with man: God loves us, God accompanies us at each stage of life, with a patient and faithful love; God puts in us His desire for what is good; an attraction towards what is beautiful and good. In His Providence, God gives us life to be made according to His image and His likeness. And God calls us to always partake of what constitutes the grandeur of His own life,perfect love.He accords us interior liberty; He renders us capable of tasting the certitude of being loved, and of making the firm resolution to respond to that love”
Read it in full here:
http://web1.desales.edu/assets/salesian/library/Sankarathil-JP2.pdf