Source: Lent with Saint Francis de Sales – The Visitation of Saint Mary of Annecy (visitationannecy.org)
First week of Lent-Saturday
“You have learned that it has been said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy,’ well I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may truly be the sons of your Father who is in heaven’
Mt 5:43-45
From the Treatise on the Love of God Book X ch. 11. Works V, 204
As God created man in his image and semblance, so he ordained a love for man in the image and semblance of the love that is due to his divinity.
Why do we love God, Theotimus? The cause for which one loves God, says St Bernard, is God himself; as if he were saying that we love God because He is the most sovereign and most infinite goodness. Why do we love ourselves in charity? Certainly, it is because we are the image and semblance of God. And since all men have this dignity we also love them as ourselves, that is, as most holy and living images of divinity. For it is of this quality that we belong to God, of such a close covenant and such a kind dependence, that it makes no difficulty to call ourselves our Father, and to name us his children. It is in this capacity that we receive His grace and that our spirits are associated with His Most Holy, rendered by way of saying. ‘participants of his divine nature’ as St Peter says.
And so, therefore, the same charity which produces the acts of God’s love, produces as and when those of love of neighbor, and just as Jacob saw that the same ladder touched heaven and earth, serving also to the angels to descend as to ascend, we also know that the same dilection extends to cherish God and neighbor, raising us to the union of our spirit with God, and bringing us back to the loving society of neighbors, so that we love our neighbor asi it is in the image and semblance of God.
First Week of Lent – Friday
“As the disciples had gathered around Jesus, on the mountain, he said to them: … If your righteousness does not surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So, when you go to present your offering on the altar, if, there, you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering, and go first to reconcile yourself… Mt
5:20-24
From the Treatise on the Love of God, Book VIII, chaps. 8 and 9. Works V, 84-85)
The words with which our Lord exhorts us to strive and pretend to perfection are so strong and pressing, that we cannot conceal our obligation to commit ourselves to this purpose.
This is the very difference of the commandment in the council, which the commandment obliges us on pain of sin, and the council invites us without penalty of sin. Nevertheless, I say that it is a great sin to despise the claim to Christian perfection, and still more to despise the warning by which Our Lord calls us. It is irreverence against Him who, with so much love and sweetness, invites us to perfection, to say ‘ I do not want to be holy, nor perfect, nor to have more part in your benevolence, nor to follow the advice you give me to make progress. To profess not to follow the advice, it cannot be done without contempt for the one who gives it…
Although not all counsels can and should be practiced by every individual Christian, if one is obliged to love them all, because they are all good.
We will show enough to love all counsel when we devoutly observe those that are suitable for us. God has given many that everyone may observe some of them, and there is no day that we do not have some opportunity.
Let us rejoice when we see people undertaking the following of counsels, for charity obliges us not only to love what is good for us, but to love again what is good for our neighbour.
First Week of Lent – Thursday
“As the disciples were gathered around Jesus on the mountain, He said to them, ‘Ask, you will be given; search, you will find … Indeed, whoever asks receives”
Mt 7:7-8
From a sermon by St. Francis de Sales, March 22, 1615. Works IX, 48-49-50
Between meditation and contemplation, there is a petition that is made, when after having meditated on the goodness of Our Lord, his infinite love, his omnipotence, we enter into confidence to ask him and ask him to give us what we desire… but true prayer is that which is done by grace, when we ask for something that is not due to us, and ask it of someone very super-eminent above us, as God is. Then comes contemplation, which is nothing but to wallow in the good of the One we have known in meditation. This complacency will make our bliss in Heaven.
The ancient Christians were so assiduous in prayer that, for this, several of the ancient Fathers called them the ‘suppliants’ and others called them the ‘doctors’ because, by means of prayer, they found a remedy for all their ills. They were still called monks, because they were very united.
Prayer is necessary to man; the tree that does not have enough soil to cover its roots cannot survive; Thus the man who has no particular attention to divine things would also be able to stand.
Now prayer, according to most of the Fathers, is nothing but an elevation of the spirit to heavenly things; others say it is a request, but the two opinions do not contradict each other because by raising our spirit to God, we can ask Him what we think is necessary.
The main request we must make of God is the union of our wills with His, and the final cause of prayer is to want only God.
First Week of Lent – Wednesday
The Queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and there is more here than Solomon”
Lk 11:29
From the Treatise on the Love of God. Works IV, 197
Oh! how delicious is the holy light of faith, by which we know with unparalleled certainty, not only the history of the origin of creatures and their true use, but also that of the eternal birth of the great and sovereign divine Word, to whom and by whom all things were made, and which with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God, Very unique, very adorable, and blessed from centuries to centuries.
That if divine truths are of such suavity, being proposed in the dark light of faith, O God, what will it be when we contemplate them in the light of the noon of glory?
The Queen of Sheba, who, to the greatness of Solomon’s fame, had left everything to come and see him, having arrived in his presence, and having listened to the wonders of wisdom which he spread in his words, all mad and in admiration, exclaimed that what she had learned by hearsay of this wisdom was not half the knowledge which sight and experience gave her.
Ah, how beautiful and amicable are the truths that faith reveals to us! But when we arrive in the heavenly Jerusalem, we will see the great Solomon, seated on the throne of his sapience, manifesting with incomprehensible clarity the eternal wonders and secrets of his sovereign truth, with so much light that our understanding will see in presence what he had believed here on earth: oh then! What delights! What ecstasies! What admirations! No, never, shall we say in this excess of suavity, never could we have thought to see such delectable truths!
First Week of Lent – Tuesday
“When you pray, don’t ramble like the pagans… You therefore pray thus: Our Father, who art in heaven, thy name be sanctified,
Mt 6:7-15
From a sermon by St. Francis de Sales, April 5, 1615. Works IX 60-63
This good Master has shown us the order that must be kept in our requests.
We must ask, first, that His Name be sanctified, that is, that He be recognized and worshipped by all men; whereupon we ask what is most necessary to us, namely, that his Kingdom should come to us, that we might be inhabitants of heaven; and then let his will be done. And after these three requests, we add: ‘Give us our daily bread today.’
Jesus Christ makes us say, ‘Give us our daily bread,’ because underneath this name bread, all temporal goods are understood. We must be very sober to ask for these goods… Those who pray with perfection ask very little of these goods, but remain before God, like children before their father, trusting him with all their trust.
It is not prayer to mumble something between one’s lips, if the attention of the heart is not joined to it. Prayer is nothing more than talking to God. Now, it is certain that talking to God without being attentive to Him, and to what is said to him, is something that is very unpleasant to him. God looks more to the heart of the one who prays than not to the words he says…
‘Give us our daily bread today’ shows us that we have to ask for it every day. And if you tell me that you have not prayed today, I will answer you, that you look like beings without reason.
First Week of Lent – Monday
Jesus said to his disciples, “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him,
then he … he will separate men from one another”
Mt 25:31-33
From the Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9 chapter 1
Theotime, we must have an extreme complacency to see how God exercises his mercy by so many various favors that he distributes to Angels and men, in heaven and in earth: and how he practices his justice by an infinite variety of punishments and chastisements. For his justice and mercy are equally kind and admirable in themselves, since both are nothing but one most unique Goodness and Divinity.
But as the effects of his justice are bitter and full of bitterness to us, he always softens them by mixing those of his mercy.
Thus, death, afflictions, sweats, the labors with which our lives abound, which, by God’s just ordinance, are the punishments of sin, are also, by his gentle mercy, rungs to ascend to heaven, means to enjoy in grace, and merits to obtain glory.
If the saints, considering on the one hand the torments of the damned, they praise their divine justice and cry out, ‘You are just, O God, you are just, justice forever reigns in your judgments’, but seeing, on the other hand, that these punishments, though eternal and incomprehensible, are nevertheless much less than the coulpes and crimes for which they are inflicted, delighted with the infinite mercy of God, O Lord, they will say, that you are good, since at the height of your anger you cannot contain the torrent of your mercies until they drain their waters to the greatest derelictions!
First Sunday of Lent
“Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil”
Mt 4:1-11
Sermon of 1er Lenten Sunday February 16, 1614 (IX 23)
Our Lord wanted to be tempted to show us how to behave in all kinds of temptations and how we should resist.
It is an abuse to think that you can achieve perfection without being attracted to flaws. Vain are the thoughts of the people of the world who believe that pious souls are not tempted; But more vain and futile are the complaints which Christian souls make of their temptations and aridities, for they can gain much thanks to them.
… The devil did not lose heart, and said to him: If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. Jesus did not want it to show us that if we are joined by the devil in a high place, such as the Christian life, and he suggests to us some perverse intentions, or sorrows, we must not descend from it, but remain there, because God will know how to convert our evil intention into a good one.
Some people, very eager for perfection, want to rush to achieve it. They hear that the saints performed admirable works: some rushed to be martyred for God, others fasted for whole weeks; then they say, “Since the Saints did this, we want to do it too.” You are mistaken: the saints did not attain holiness there, but they did so because they were holy. Those who rushed did so by inspiration of God, for otherwise they would have sinned out of pride.
So do not do what you say: “It is better to employ forty days of fasting for my sanctification than to drag myself to perfect.” Oh no, it will not make you holy; But on the contrary, persevere and courageously endure the vexations and trials that will arise in your life, resisting temptations with great patience and humility, never giving in to the desire to be delivered from them. Everyone must walk in his own way: the way of the saints was to do what they did, but yours is to achieve, or try to achieve, perfection little by little, and not all at once, as you would like.