On the Go with St. Frances de Sales
Day 1
God has given you existence. Consider the kind of being God has made you: the first in the visible world, capable of everlasting life and of perfect union with (God).
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 1.9)
Day 2
God has placed you in this world to use his goodness for you, by giving you his grace and his glory. For this he has given you the understanding to know him, the memory to remember him, the will to love him, the imagination to represent to yourself his blessings, the eyes to see the wonders of his work, the tongue to praise him.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 1.10)
Day 3
How often has (God) given you his Sacraments? How many times inspirations, interior lights, and warnings to correct you? How often has (God) forgiven you your sins? Consider for a short while, in detail, how gentle and loving God has been to you.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 1.11)
Day 4
(God) gives stronger expression of his passionate love for us. He commands us to love him with all our strength so that neither thought of his majesty and of our misery, which makes so infinite a disparity and inequality between him and us, nor any other pretext would turn us away from loving him.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 2.8)
Day 5
(God) is not content to proclaim publicly his extreme desire to be loved, so that every person can have part in his loving summons. He even goes from door to door, knocking and rapping, and protesting "if any person opens his door, he will enter into his house and dine with him." He will give that person proof of every kind of good will.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 2.8)
Day 6
This rich, full, and plenteous sufficiency which God freely bestows on sinners so that they can love him is seen almost everywhere in Scripture. See, this divine lover is at the gate. He does not merely knock, but he remains there knocking. He calls to the soul, "Come, arise, make haste, my love." and "puts his hand into the lock" to try if he can open it.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 2.8)
Day 7
That (God) may not only enjoy the affections of our heart but also the effects and operations of our hands, he also desires to be like a seal on our right arm, so that it may not be put forth or used except for deeds done in his service.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 10.13)
Day 8
In spite of the all-powerful strength of God's merciful hand, which touches, enfolds, and bends the soul with so many inspirations, calls, and attractions, the human will remains perfectly free, unfettered, and exempt from every form of constraint and necessity. Grace is so gracious; it has the power not to overpower but to entice our hearts.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 2.12)
Day 9
Be determined to accept whole-heartedly all the inspirations that God may be pleased to send you. When they come, welcome them as ambassadors of the heavenly King who wants to enter into a marriage with you. Think of the love which inspires them and cherish these holy inspirations.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 2.18)
Day 10
Consider the eternal love which God has for you. Already, before our Lord Jesus Christ as man suffered for you on the Cross, his divine Majesty thought of you in his sovereign goodness and loved you infinitely. That is why he has prepared for you the graces and favors he has bestowed on you.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 5.14)
Day 11
As St. Paul says, in the same manner (Jesus) has forsaken himself, he has emptied himself, he has dried up his greatness and glory, he has resigned his throne of incomparable majesty, and if it is permissible to say so, he has "annihilated himself," to come down to our humanity to fill us with his divinity, to crown us with his goodness, to raise us up to his dignity, and to grant us the divine being of "children of God."
- (Treatise on the Love of God 10.17)
Day 12
Our Lord, in coming into the world, has so raised our nature higher than all the angels, the cherubim, and all that is not God, and has made us so like himself, that we can say with certainty that we resemble God perfectly. He has taken our likeness onto himself and given his likeness to us.
- (Sermon for 3rd Sunday of Lent)
Day 13
We should say to our brother or sister, "How greatly you resemble that noble Man, for you remind me of my Savior and my Master." And upon the assurance that he or she would give us, that we would give each other, that we do indeed recognize the resemblance of the Creator and that we are his children, how many tokens of affection ought we not to give to one another!
- (Sermon for 3rd Sunday of Lent)
Day 14
Even if temptation to any sin should last all our life, it cannot make us displeasing to God as long as we do not take pleasure in it and do not yield to it. For in temptation we are not active but we bear it. And as long as we take no pleasure in it we cannot be guilty.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 4.3)
Day 15
As the morning grows brighter, we see more clearly in the mirror the stains and dirt on our face. In the same way, the more the interior light of the Holy Spirit shines upon our consciences, the more distinctly and clearly we see the sins, inclinations and imperfections which can prevent us from acquiring true devotion. The same light, which shows us these defects and failures, inflames us with the desire to cleanse and purify ourselves of them.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 1.22)
Day 16
Nothing indeed can humble us so much before the mercy of God as the multitude of his benefits, and nothing can humble us so deeply before his justice than the multitude of our misdeeds. As we consider in detail our sins so also let us reflect in detail on the graces he has given us.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 3.5)
Day 17
I advise you that in all circumstances and everywhere you must love your abjection. Abjection is the littleness and lowliness that is in us without our thinking of it. I tell you plainly that the abjections most profitable to us and pleasing to God are those which happen to us by unforeseen events or by our condition in life. We receive them such as God sent them to us whose choice is always better than ours.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 3.6)
Day 18
This miserable life is only a progressive journey to the happy life to come. Therefore let us not be angry at all with one another on the way. Let us walk in the company of our (family) and companions, gently, peacefully and kindly. Do not accept any pretext whatever to open the door of your heart to anger.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 3.8)
Day 19
In all your affairs, rely entirely on the providence of God through which alone all your plans succeed. Do as little children. While gathering and managing the goods of this world with one hand, hold fast with the other to the hand of your heavenly Father, turning to him from time to time to see if your actions and occupations are pleasing to him.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 3.10)
Day 20
You see the glass of water or that little piece of bread which a devout soul gave to some poor man in the name of God. It is a little matter, certainly, a thing almost unworthy of consideration to man's judgment. Yet God rewards it, and in return for it immediately gives an increase in charity.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 3.2)
Day 21
The more keenly we look at our image as it appears in a mirror the more attentively it looks back at us. The more lovingly God casts his eyes of mercy upon our soul, which is made in his image and likeness, the more attentively and ardently our soul in turn regards his divine goodness, thus corresponding with its little power to every increase this supreme mercy makes in God's love for us.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 3.2)
Day 22
There are times when the soul neither hears its beloved nor speaks to him, nor does it feel any sign of his presence. It simply knows that it is in God's presence, to whom it is pleasing that the soul is there. We look at him or at something out of love for him; we listen to him or those who speak for him, or we do some work, no matter what it may be, for his honor and in his service. Thus we remain in God's presence.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 6.11)
Day 23
If prayer is a conversation of the soul with God, then by prayer we speak to God and God in turn speaks to us. We aspire to (God) and breathe in (God); (God) reciprocally inspires us and breathes upon us.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 6.1)
Day 24
In (prayer) nothing is spoken between God and the soul except from heart to heart. The language of lovers is so special in character that no one understands it but themselves.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 6.1)
Day 25
The indifferent heart is like a ball of wax in God's hands, ready to receive all the impressions of his eternal good pleasure. It is a heart without choice, equally ready for all things and having no other object for its will except the will of God. It does not place its love in the things God wills but in the will of God who wills them.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 9.4)
Day 26
Within Christ's maternal breast his divine heart foresaw, disposed, merited, and obtained all our benefits not only in general for all men but for each of us in particular. His breasts of sweetness prepared for us that milk which is his movements, his attractions, his inspirations, and the dear delights by which he draws, leads, and nourishes our hearts into eternal life.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 12.12)
Day 27
O Jesus, my Savior, how worthy of love is your death, for it is the supreme effect of your love. Therefore, in the eternal canticle I imagine to myself this joyous cry of praise will be repeated at every moment; "Live, Jesus, live; your death upon the tree shows all your boundless love for me."
- (Treatise on the Love of God 12.13)
Day 28
O love eternal, my soul needs and chooses you eternally! Ah, come Holy Spirit, and inflame our hearts with your love! To love -- or to die. To die -- and to love! To die to all other love in order to live in Jesus' love, so that we may not die eternally.
- (Treatise on the Love of God 12.13)
Day 29
That we may live in your eternal love, O Savior of our souls, we eternally sing, "Live, Jesus! Jesus, I love. Jesus whom I love, Jesus who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen."
- (Treatise on the Love of God 12.13)
Day 30
Is it possible that I have been loved, and loved so tenderly, by my Savior? That he thought of me personally in all these little events by which he has drawn me to himself? How much then should we love, cherish, and make good use of all this for our benefit! This is extremely kind; this loving heart of my God thought of me, loved me, and obtained for me a thousand means of salvation. This he did as though there was no other soul in the world he could think of.
- (Introduction to the Devout Life 5.13)
