Source: Lent with Saint Francis de Sales – The Visitation of Saint Mary of Annecy (visitationannecy.org)
Second Sunday of Lent
“Lord, it is good that we are here … Mt
17:1-9
Sermon for the 2ndTh Sun. of Lent. February 23, 1614 (Works IX 27)
… We must not say like St. Peter: “It is good that we are here” but: “It is good that we pass through here to go to the mountain of Calvary”.
It is necessary to climb the mountain of Thabor to be consoled there, you will say, because it helps and advances the weak souls who do not have the courage to do good, if they do not feel satisfaction. Certainly, forgive me, true perfection is not acquired by consolation.
Don’t you see it in our mystery today? These three Apostles having seen the glory of Our Lord then abandoned him at his Passion, and St. Peter, who had spoken ever more boldly, nevertheless committed a very great sin by denying his Master.
One descends from the mountain of the sinful Thabor, but on the contrary one descends from that of Forgiven Calvary, provided that one stands firm at the foot of the Cross as Our Lady, which is the model of all that is beautiful in heaven and on earth.
And we hear the voice of the Eternal Father who says: “This is my beloved Son, listen to him”. It is therefore necessary to obey the Eternal Father by following Our Lord to listen to His Word. And so he teaches us that all of us, whatever our condition, must pray and pray, for this is where Our Lord speaks to us. I am not saying that we should pray as much as each other, for it would not be wise for those who have many affairs to remain as long in prayer as the religious.
But there would be no point in listening to Him if we did not do what He tells us, faithfully observing His commandments and His wills.
Now, to listen to him, there would be many people; likewise to follow him on the mountain of Thabor, but very little on that of Calvary. This one is nevertheless more profitable than the other; in the same way it is more profitable to do the will of God, or to love him, despite an event that upsets us, than to listen to Our Lord speak in the consolation that we sometimes receive in prayer.
Second Week of Lent – Monday
« Jesus said to the crowd, “Give and you shall receive; a full, packed, shaken, overflowing measure, which will be poured into your apron; for the measure you have used will also serve you.”
Lk 6:36-38
From the Treatise on the Love of God Book 3 ch. 7
When, after the labors and hazards of this mortal life, good souls come to the port of the eternal, they ascend to the highest and last degree of love to which they can attain; and this final increase being conferred upon them as a reward for their merits, it is departed to them, not only in the ‘good measure’ but also in a hurry, piled up, and spreading on all sides, as Our Lord says. So that the love that is given as wages is always greater in one each than that which was given to him to deserve.
Now, not only will each one in particular have more love in heaven than he ever had on earth, but the exercise of the least charity in the heavenly life will be much happier and more excellent than that of the greatest charity that is in this obsolete life. For up there all the saints practice their love incessantly, without any remission, while here on earth, the greatest servants of God, drawn and tyrannized from the necessities of this dying life, are compelled to suffer a thousand and a thousand distractions that often remove them from the exercise of holy love.
In heaven, Theotime, the loving attention of the blessed is firm, constant, inviolable, and cannot perish or diminish: their intention is always pure, free from the mixture of any other inferior intention; in short, this happiness of seeing God clearly and loving Him invariably is incomparable. There is therefore more contentment, sweetness and perfection in the exercise of love among the inhabitants of heaven than in that of the pilgrims of our earth.
Second Week of Lent – Tuesday
« Do not call anyone on earth Father, for you have only one Father, the one who is in heaven.”
Mt 23.9
The Lord’s Prayer paraphrased by St. Francis de Sales.
Works XXVI, 386, 388, 393
O Eternal Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of lights, Holy Father, Most Gentle and loving Father, Creator Father of
the universe, when shall I deserve to call you Father, I, earth, dust and ashes, the last of all your servants?
And what good have you discovered in me or in some other child of Adam, that you have willed to be our Father?
This word testifies to me the immense love that you bear me Lord, which is why your Evangelist, amazed, says: ‘See what love the Father has shown us, that we are called children of God, and that we are indeed children?’
He also teaches me and also warns me that I must love you with all my heart… Do nc Father, let all other love be cast out of my heart, let it be inflamed, so that between you, my Father, and me, your child, there may be a continual love for one another.
This word “Father” excites me to ask you the things that are necessary for me, for the father never denies his child what he sees as necessary, as long as he can give it to him. I know, my Father, that you can and you will: you can because you are almighty, you want, because you are all good. I am not lacking in needs: I am wounded by many sins, I need remedies; you, Father, are the doctor who heals every languor and heals every infirmity…
You are, Lord, our Father! How great is your goodness! You not only communicate this name of Father to your angels and saints who are in your house, but you also want to communicate it to those who are in this world, and not only to the rich and powerful, but to the poorest shepherds who sleep on the bridges and in the forests sleep on the bare earth.
It seems to me, Lord, that you are like the sun that communicates its light and sends its rays to the smallest flower of the mountain… so you, my Lord, also communicate your sweet name of Father to the great and the little one, and you want us to call you “Father!”
Second Week of Lent – Wednesday
“The mother of James and John approached Jesus with her two sons and prostrated herself to make a request. Jesus said to him, “You don’t know what you’re asking,
can you drink the cup I’m going to drink?” And they said, ‘We can.'”
Mt 20:20-22
From a sermon by St. Francis de Sales, May 6, 1616 or 1617. Works IX 76-79
See how great our misery is! We want God to do our will and we do not want to do His, except when it conforms to ours. Most of us, if we examine ourselves well, will find our demands to be greatly impure and imperfect; if we are praying, we want God to speak to us, to come to us to visit, console and recreate; we tell Him that He does this, that He gives us that. And if he does not, though for our greater good, we worry, trouble, and grieve.
Our divine Master said, therefore, “Can you drink with me the chalice prepared for me?” They answered, ‘We can,’ and He added, ‘Do you know that it is to drink my chalice? Do not think that it is to have dignities, favors and consolations, oh no certainly! but to drink my chalice is to participate in my Passion, to endure pain and suffering, nails, thorns, to drink the fiel and vinegar.’
The martyrs were suddenly drinking this chalice… Is it not a great martyrdom never to do one’s own will, to submit one’s judgment, to skin one’s heart, to empty it of all its impure affections and of all that is not God; not to live according to his inclinations and moods, but according to divine will and reason?
It is a martyrdom that is very long and boring and must last all our lives, but in the end will obtain us a great crown for our reward, if we are faithful to it.
Second Week of Lent – Thursday
“Jesus said this parable: There was a rich man, who wore luxury clothes… A poor man named Lazarus… was lying in front of the gate… Now the poor man died… The rich man also died… At the time of the dead he was in the grip of torture, he looked up and saw Abraham from afar with Lazarus… »
Lk 16:19-23
From a sermon by St. Francis de Sales. February 24, 1622.
Works X 249-252
It is always man who lacks grace, and never grace We don’t miss it. Who will ensure and live without apprehension to lose this Pardon, or to refuse him his consent? Who will not be afraid to fall out of not rendering to God the service due to him, each according to his duty and obligation?
Was not the bad rich man called to the same vocation as Lazarus?… Yes, no doubt, this is quite clear in the Gospel; Because the bad rich man was Jewish since he calls Abraham Father! Father Abraham, he said he, begging him to send Lazarus to him; and God had testified to him that He loved him by giving him the enjoyment of many goods.
Hey, nevertheless, we see in the Gospel these two men, also called of God, the one who has the most received and who is most obliged to serve him, does not serve him, but lives and dies miserably, while poor Lazarus serves him faithfully and dies fortunately!
When God created angels In heaven he establishes them in his grace, from which it seemed that they did not were never to fall, nevertheless Lucifer came to revolt… Who therefore does not will tremble? And which assembled company, or vocation will be found that is free from danger? O God no matter what. There are everywhere to fear and subject to preserve oneself in great humility.
Stick to the tree of your profession, each according to your vocation, but do not let walk in holy fear, all the time of your life, lest he want to walk with too much confidence and Boldness, you did not fall into the nets of sin.
Second Week of Lent – Friday
“Jesus said to the chief priests and the Pharisees, ‘Listen to this parable: A man owned a estate, he planted a vine, surrounded it with a fence, dug a press and built a tower, and then he rented it to winegrowers… Mt
21:33
From a letter from Saint Francis de Sales to Baroness de Chantal. February 24, 1606. Works XIII, 145
I am going to tell my listeners that their souls are the vine of God: the cistern is faith, the tower is hope, and the press, holy charity; the hedge is the law of God that separates them from other unfaithful peoples.
To you, my dear daughter, I say that your good will is your vineyard; the cistern are the holy inspirations of perfection which God rains down from heaven, the tower is chastity, by which, as it is said of David’s, it must be of ivory; The press is obedience, which gives great merit for the actions it expresses; The hedge is our wishes.
Oh! may God preserve this vine which he has planted with his hand and may he cause the saving waters of his graces to abound more and more in his cistern.
May God forever be the protector of his tower; May God always want to give all the turns to the press, which are necessary for the expression of good wine, and always keep closed and closed this beautiful hedge with which he has surrounded this vine, and let the angels be its immortal winegrowers.
To God, my dear daughter… I am going to the press of the Church, to the holy altar, where the sacred wine of the blood of that delicious and unique grape that your holy abbess [the Virgin Mary], as a heavenly vine, has happily produced for us is perpetually distilled.
SATURDAY
“I will go back to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son”
Lk 15:21
From the Treatise of 1 t Love of God L. 3 ch. 3
The soul is the wife of Our Lord when it is just; and because she is not just that she should not be in charity, she is not so married as she is not led ‘into the cabinet’ of those delicious perfumes of which it is spoken in the Canticle.
Now, when the soul that has this honor commits sin, it falls pale with a spiritual failure; And this accident is, in truth, very unexpected, for, who could ever think that a creature wanted to leave his creator and sovereign good, for things so light as are the beginnings of sin?
Certainly, heaven is astonished, and if God were subject to passions, he would fall to a failing heart for this misfortune, as, when he was mortal, he expired on the cross to redeem us from it… but, since it is no longer required that he use his love to die for us, when he sees the soul thus precipitated into iniquity, he rushes for the ordinary to his aid, and with a mercy not like opens the door of the heart, by impulses and remorse of conscience, which precede by several clarities and apprehensions which he has thrown into our minds, by means of which he brings the soul back to itself and puts it back in good feelings.
And all this, my Theotime, God has done in us and without us, by his very amiable goodness that warns us of his sweetness. For, as our pale bride had remained dead in her pamoison, without the king’s help, so the soul would remain lost in its sin if God did not warn it.
That if the soul, being thus excited, adds its consent to the feeling of grace, seconding the inspiration which forewarned it, and receiving the required help and remedies which God has prepared for it, He will reinvigorate it, and lead it by various movements of faith, hope and penance, until it is completely restored to true spiritual health, which is nothing but charity.