| After This Wintertime of Coldness, a Blissful Summer Will Come |
The following article is taken from Selected Letters of St. Francis de Sales.To prepare for our chat on Sunday, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  A blissful summer will come. Photo by Filip Bunkens on UnsplashTo Madame de la Flechere, written in 1609 or 1610 .Indeed, dear daughter, it is not that my heart does not feel tenderly towards you but that I am so harassed by crowds of things to see to that I cannot write when I want to. And then your suffering, which is nothing but dryness and aridity, cannot be remedied by letter; I should have to listen while you tell me all the little things that have been happening, and even then, patience and resignation are the only possible source of healing. After this wintertime of coldness, a blissful summer will come, and we shall be consoled.Alas, daughter, we always hanker for sweetness, happiness and delicious consolation; but bitterness and dryness are really more fruitful. And although St. Peter loved the mount of Thabor and fled from the mount of Calvary, the latter was nevertheless of greater profit than the former, and the blood that is shed on the one is more desirable than the radiance shed on the other. Our Lord is already treating you as being stronger and more grown-up; try to live up to this. It is better to eat bread without sugar than sugar without bread.The anxiety and grief you feel from realizing your nothingness is not pleasant; for although the cause is good the effect is not. No, my dear daughter, this knowledge of our nothingness should not trouble us but should have a soothing, humbling and chastening effect; it is self-esteem which makes us impatient at seeing ourselves vile and abject. Come now, I entreat you by the love of him whom we both love, of Jesus Christ, to live consoled and peaceful in your infirmities. I glory in my infirmities, says our great St. Paul, so that the power of my Saviour may dwell in me. Yes, indeed. for our misery is as a throne to make manifest the sovereign goodness of Our Lord.I wish you a thousand blessings. O Lord, bless the heart of my dear daughter, make it burn like a holocaust of sweetness in honor of your divine love; may it not seek any contentment but in you, nor ask for any other consolation than that of being most perfectly consecrated to your glory. May Jesus be the center of this heart forever, and may this heart be forever in the center of Jesus; may Jesus reign in this heart, and this heart in Jesus.I am in him, more than you could believe possible, Your very affectionate servant,Francis, Bishop of Geneva. Reflections: We have talked about the analogy of the long, cold winters and the trying times of our faith, but how can we also look at it from the lens of something beneficial to embrace, not just look forward to leaving behind us?Why is bitterness and dryness more fruitful than sweetness and consolation? And does this mean heaven is not of benefit to us?St. Francis says that “it is self-esteem which makes us impatient at seeing ourselves vile and abject.” Is there a good kind of self-esteem? How is this different from a harmful self-esteem? Do you get the sense that the letter’s recipient is whining too much? What can we gain by looking at the way St. Francis addresses this problem?What is our “nothingness”?Why are our miseries the vehicle for allowing the power of the Lord to dwell in us?Why is devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus so important? Why not just a devotion to Jesus? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time |