The Feast of St. Francis de Sales is January 24, 2020, and we can prepare for it during this Jubilee Year of his spiritual daughter, St Margaret Mary, by imbibing his love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
So this novena begins today, January 15:
« The most spacious and the dearest abode for my heart will be in the cleft the spear made in opening His side. I will make my home in His Fire of Love, in His Divine Heart, pierced for me ; by this burning hearth, I shall feel reviving within me the Flame of Love that was decreasing up to now…” (St Francis De Sales).
January 16:
“Really our small congregation is a handiwork of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The dying Saviour gave birth to us through the opening of His Most Sacred Heart” (St Francis De Sales to the Sisters of the Visitation)
January 17: God’s love is seated within the Savior’s heart as on a royal throne. He beholds through the cleft of his pierced side all the hearts of the children of men. His heart is king of hearts, and he keeps his eyes fixed on our hearts.
January 18: See then how the Eternal Father draws us: he throws in our hearts spiritual delights and pleasures like sacred baits by which he sweetly attracts us to receive and taste the sweetness of his teaching… Grace has forces, not to force but to lighten the heart; she has holy violence, not to rape but to make our freedom in love ”(Treatise on the Love of God II, 12).
January 19: How ardently I long for the Savior’s heart to be king of all our hearts.!
January 20: O sun of our hearts, thou givest life to all things by the rays of thy goodness!
January 21: I will not go until thy heart has strengthened me, O Lord Jesus!
January 22: May the heart of Jesus be the king of my heart!
January 23:
“Over and over, through a multitude of images and exhortations, Francis de Sales beckons to his readers and his listeners, urging them to live with generosity of heart as he did the love of the pierced Heart of Christ. Francis wishes all others to breathe out in union with the divine Heart his own maxim:LIVE JESUS!”
Thus concludes Father John A. Abruzzese in “Francis de Sales and the Heart of Christ”