| He Spilled His Sweat and Blood So as to Unite Them to Ours |
Hi Susan,At our Living Jesus Chat Room this Sunday we will be talking about a letter written from Francis de Sales to St. Jane de Chantal, written from Annecy on May 4, 1514, taken from Selected Letters of St. Francis de Sales.To prepare for our chat, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  Shroud of Turin positive and negative displaying original color information (Public Domain)Before we meet, my very dear Mother, my soul greets yours with countless good wishes. May God fill it wholly with the life and death of his Son, Our Lord.A year ago and at about this time I was at Turin, and while I was showing the Holy Shroud to a great crowd of people, several drops of the sweat that was pouring from my face chanced to fall on to the Holy Shroud itself; and then our heart made this prayer: O may it please you, Saviour of my life, to unite my unworthy sweat to yours, and to spill my blood, my life, my affections in union with the merits of your holy sacrifice. [Editor note: The Holy Shroud (in French ‘Le Saint Suaire’ i.e. sudarium) is thought to have been brought to France from Constantinople after the capture of the city by the Latins in 1204. It was eventually given to the Dukes of Savoy and deposited in 1502 at the Sainte Chapelle in Chambery where St. Francis’s mother dedicated her as yet unborn child to Our Lord. The Shroud was taken to the cathedral of Turin in 1578 where the incident here described took place. The Bishop of Beiley tells us that St. Francis had a great devotion to the Shroud and called it his country’s shield and greatest relic. It was his favorite devotional picture, and he had many copies of it, painted, engraved, embroidered, which he put in his room, his chapel, his oratory, his study, his reception rooms, and also in his breviary.] My very dear Mother, the Prince Cardinal was annoyed that my sweat fell on to my Saviour’s Holy Shroud; but it entered my heart to say to him that Our Lord was not so particular, and that he had spilled his sweat and blood so as to unite them to ours and give them the prize of eternal life. And may our sighs unite with his so as to rise in the odor of sweetness before the eternal Father.But now another memory comes back to me. When my brothers were ill as children, I have seen my mother wrap them in my father’s shirt, saying that a father’s sweat could heal his child. On this holy day may our heart be wrapped in our divine Father’s Shroud which bears the marks of Christ’s sweat and blood; and there may our heart lie buried as at the death of our divine Saviour in an unchanging resolution ever to remain dead to itself until it rises again in eternal glory. We are buried, says the Apostle, with Jesus Christ in his death, so that we should no longer live the old life but the new life. Amen. Reflections: What does it mean to be filled with the life and death of Jesus?In this brief letter, St. Francis talks about the Shroud of Turin. This holy relic has gotten a lot of extra attention in our age. Regardless of whether it is the true shroud or not, what significance does it hold knowing how many devotees (and saints like St. Francis) have seen it and touched it (and dropped beads of sweat on it)?St. Francis found the falling of his sweat to be a moment for spontaneous prayer, but he was rebuked by a Cardinal. He gave a pious response about uniting our sweat and ourselves with Our Lord. Was he being too relaxed in this response about the Lord not being so particular, similar to “God doesn’t care what you wear to church” or “Come as you are” kind of stance?Why are physical (“sacramental”) items so important for helping to deepen our faith and devotion?What if you were allowed to touch the Shroud? Would you feel more united to our Lord? But compare that to receiving the Holy Eucharist — his body, blood, soul and divinity.If we have a new life in Christ and yet we still stumble and fall into sin, what exactly is different about our lives compared to the time before we were regenerated by baptism? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time U.S. |