Source: Le Carême avec Saint François de Sales – La Visitation Sainte-Marie d’Annecy (visitationannecy.org)
Sunday
“… If you knew God’s gift and who is the one who
tells you, “Give me something to drink.”
John 4:5-42
Sermon of the 3rdTh Friday of Lent, March 18, 1594.
Works VII 148
Jacob had a fountain made, and Joseph was buried there, it was there that Our Lord had arrived, weary and tired of the path he had made; he sat on the fountain, like anyone else. Now, Our Lord was not weary without reason, for he had walked a long time, no doubt on foot, and it was already noon;
… Here comes the poor Samaritan woman, but soon happy and three times happy, who came to fetch water: O blessed Samaritan woman, you come to draw the water of the daily, and you have found the immortal water of the grace of the Savior.
Happy Rebekah, who, coming to the fountain, found there the servant of Abraham who allowed her to meet Isaac and become his wife. But happier are you, Samaritan woman, you come to fetch water now, and you find Our Lord who, from sinful that you were, transforms you into his daughter and his wife.
Jesus does not ask him to drink only to drink, but to make him drink the water of grace. The woman said to him, “And how then do you ask me to drink?” because the Jews have no relationship with the Samaritans. She knows it’s not a matter to ask for a little water, but she tells him that as a reproach.
Jesus answers: “If you knew who is the One who asks you to drink…” because it is the One who came to water all souls, it is the One who came to shed his blood to water the Church, it is the One who came not to call the righteous, but the sinners, to penance.
See how she will deflect the words of Our Lord: She speaks of a gift from God, she will speak of the things of the earth. Our Lord speaks of living water and she speaks of dead water.
Consider the difference between the two waters: one quenches thirst, but it is not for long; the other soothes him eternally. It is two thirst, one of the body, the other of the soul; for desires are a thirst of the soul, as the psalm tells us: “My soul thirsts for God, fountain of living water.”
Monday
“In the Synagogue, Jesus said, ‘
Amen, I say to you, no prophet is welcomed in his country.’
Luke 4,24-30
Plan of a sermon by Saint Francis de Sales delivered on February 27, 1617.
Works VIII, 311
A day that Christ was in Nazareth, he entered the synagogue and, after the reading of the Book of Isaiah, he instructed the people, so that all were in admiration and bore testimony to him; unnecessarily, however, for they said: Is it Not the carpenter’s son? Isn’t that the carpenter? Where does it come from This wisdom? He, who saw them talking together, knew what they were talking about. said and answered them:
You will apply to me in doubt the Proverb: Doctor heal yourself yourself. Do as great things here as we have heard. And St. Mark concludes: He could not do any miracle there, if It is that he heals some sick people by laying hands on them; and it was astonished at their disbelief. And St. Matthew: He did not do there Many miracles, because of their unbelief.
It is in Scripture two truths that God wants above all to inculcate in us and that he wants us always taught in the Church: the first is that if we lose ourselves, it is through our fault: the second, that we owe our salvation only to God. Those Two dogmas are opposed to two very pernicious heresies that of the Pelagians and that of Lutherans. Hosea exposes this double truth in these very terms: loss comes from you, Israel, you are the cause of your loss because you neglect the help that I present to you, is there no balm in Gilead, or nt there Does he have no doctors there? Why then has the wound of my people not been been closed? I stand at the door, come to me.
God therefore does not repel anyone if he is not repulsed, he does not abandon anyone if he is abandoned, he rejects no one if he is not rejected. The Lord was astonished Or rather, he showed us an astonishing thing, namely, that at the sight of so many of wonders, the men who owed him the greatest gratitude, to whom he had given the greatest help, did not convert. Oh! what an astonishing thing, since it astonishes the Lord himself!
Saint Marc said however: He could not perform any miracles because of their disbelief, that is, he could not because their disbelief stood in the way; It would have been neither fair nor just, in Ordinary conditions. God leaves man his freedom: he who created you without you, will not save you without you; He made you without As far as you know, He will not save you without you wanting to.
Tuesday
“I You forgave all this debt because you begged me. Didn’t you have to, in your turn, have pity on your companion, as I myself had had pity on you? Mt
18:32-32
Extracts points to meditate on Sunday prayer according to St. Francis de Sales.
(Pamphlets). Works XXVI, 412-414-415
Father, we are poor and full of debts… And who, Holy Father, is a son poorer and more burdened with debt than I?
Behold, like another publican, I pray you, forgive me so many debts of sin by which I have offended you. O Father, because I have sinned against all your law, but the riches of your mercy infinitely surpass them.
Remember, O Father, your mercies that are eternal. And just as you have shown mercy to so many of your servants, deign to forgive me all my sins.
Lord, you have set limits in the sea, but you have left your mercy boundless, so that it may always go to find sinners laden with debts, to forgive them…
Finally, I ask you, Holy Father, by your infinite mercy, by the virtue of that passion which your Son endured on the wood of the cross, and by the merits and intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and of all the elect who have existed since the beginning of the world, to deign to forgive us of our debts.
I also beg you, O Father, to give me enough virtue and grace that I may perfectly forgive those who have offended me; and if you find in my heart any remnant of imperfection against those who have offended me, you, Father, by the fire of your charity, make it disappear, make no trace or shadow of grudge dwell in my heart.
Wednesday
“As the disciples had gathered around Jesus, on the mountain, he said to them, ‘Before heaven and earth disappear, not a single point, not a letter will disappear from the law until all things come to pass.'”
Mt 5–17
From the Treatise on the Love of God L.8 ch. 5 v 71-72-73.
Works X, 322
God’s desire to make us Keeping His commandments is extreme.
The sweetest commandments become bitter if a tyrant and cruel heart imposes them, they become very kind when Love commands them.
Many keep the commandments, As medicines are swallowed, more for fear of dying damned, than for the sake of the pleasure in living at the whim of the Savior. But, as there are people who, for pleasant that is a drug, have reluctant to take it, only Because it is called medicine, so there are souls who have in it Horror actions commanded, only because they are commanded.
On the contrary, the heart that loves, loves the commandments, and the more difficult they are, the sweeter he finds them and pleasant, because it more perfectly satisfied the Beloved and rendered him more honor. Also the sacred lover, finds so much sweetness to the commandments, that nothing gives him so much breath. Also the cross, mortification, the law of the Savior is a burden, but for the loving heart, this charge relieves the heart and reinvigorates it.
The mixed work of holy love is more pleasant to the taste than a pure sweetness. Divine love makes us like this. in accordance with God’s will, and makes us carefully observe His commandments, as absolute desire; the complacency we find at Observing them is stronger than the need to obey that would be imposed on us by the law. This complacency converts necessity into a gentle violence of love, And even the difficulty becomes pleasant.
Thursday
“Jesus cast out a demon who made a man mute”
Lk. 11,14
Interviews and answers to various questions.
Works VI 209,414, 418
The virtue of good conversation requires that we contribute to holy and moderate joy, and to graceful conversations that can serve as consolation or recreation to neighbor, so that we do not cause him trouble by our scowling and melancholy countenances, or refuse to recreate ourselves in the time that is destined to do so…
How should simplicity be observed in conversations and recess?
I answer you: as in any other action, although in this one there must be a holy freedom and frankness to discuss subjects that serve the spirit of joy and recreation. You have to be very naïve in conversation; however, we must not be inconsiderate, especially since simplicity always follows the rule of God’s love. But although you sometimes said something that seemed not to be so well received by all as you would like, you should not have fun making reflections and examinations on all your words; Oh no, for it is self-esteem no doubt that makes us make these inquiries, if what we have said and done is well received.
Holy simplicity does not turn away to the right or to the left, but simply follows its path. That if she encounters there any opportunity to practice any virtue, she uses them carefully as a proper means to attain her perfection, which is the love of God, but she does not hasten to seek them; nor does it despise them. She is not troubled by anything; she stands still in the confidence she has that God knows her desire, which is to please her, and that is enough for her.
For useless words, he does not say: everything that is said by recess is not useless. It is necessary to recreate well and not always hold the spirit bandaged, because it would be dangerous to become sad and melancholic.
When we strive for perfection, we must strive for white, and not bother when we do not meet it. You have to go very simply, to the frank daisy, and do the recess well.
FRIDAY
“A scribe came forward and said to him, ‘What is the first of all the commandments? Jesus answered: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and here is the second: you shall love your neighbor as yourself”
Mk 12:28-31
Treatise on the Love of God. 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.
Theotime, to love one’s neighbour out of charity is to love God in man or man in God: it is to love the creature for God’s sake.
The young Tobias, accompanied by the angel Raphael having approached Raguel his relative, to whom nevertheless he was unknown, Raguel had not looked at him sooner than, turning to his wife Anne, he said: See how similar this young man is to my cousin … Then Raguel stepped forward and kissed him with many tears: Blessing be upon you, my child,” he said, “for you are the son of a very good character…
Don’t you notice that Raguel, without knowing little Tobias, kisses and caresses him? Where does this love come from if not from the love he bore to old Tobias to whom this child resembled so strongly? Blessed are you, he said, but why? Not certainly, because you are a good young man, for I do not know yet, but because you are a son and resemble your father who is a good man.
True God, Theotime, when we see a neighbor created in the image and semblance of God, should we not say to one another: Look, see this creature, how it resembles the Creator? Should we not give him a thousand and a thousand blessings? And what? For her sake? No, certainly, for the love of God who formed her in his image and seems, for the love of God of who she is, to whom she is, by who she is, in who she is, for who she is. And this is why divine love not only commands love of neighbor, but produces and pours it out itself in the human heart.
Saturday
“Two men went up to the Temple to pray… The Pharisee stood there and prayed to himself: My God, I thank you because I am not like other men, thieves, unjust, adulterers or like this publican… The publican stood at a distance and did not even dare to raise his eyes to the sky.”
Lk 18:10-13
From Introduction to Devout Life. Part 3 ch. 4-5-29 Works III, 139,146,241
To receive God’s grace in our hearts, we must have them empty of our own glory. Certainly, nothing can humiliate us so much before God’s mercy as the multitude of his benefits, nor so much humiliate before his justice, as the multitude of our misdeeds…
We must not fear that the knowledge of what He has put in us will swell us, provided that we are attentive to this truth, that what is good in us is not of us. Alas! Do mules leave to be heavy and stinking beasts, to be loaded with the prince’ s precious and perfumed furniture? What good do we have that we have not received? And if we have received it, why should we be proud of it?…
But, if seeing the graces that God has given us, some kind of vanity came to tickle us, the infallible remedy will be to resort to the consideration of our ingratitudes, our imperfections, our miseries. If we consider what we have done when God has not been with us, we will know well, that what we do when He is with us is not in our way or of our own; we will enjoy it but we will glorify God alone, because He is the author of it…
This fool of a Pharisee considered the publican to be a great sinner, but he was greatly mistaken. Alas! Since God’s goodness is so great that a single moment is enough to receive His grace, what assurance can we have that a man who was yesterday a sinner is a sinner today? The previous day should not judge the present day. Only the last one judges them all.