Friday, January 23, 2009

Saturday, January 24, 2009

St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal


From Saint and Thought For Every Day, by Blessed James Alberione


St. Francis de Sales
Bishop and Doctor

St. Francis was born of noble and pious parents in France in 1566. He gave up a career in order to become a priest. Sent to preach to the Calvinists of Chablais, it is said that he converted some sixty-two thousand. Together with St. Jane Frances de Chantal, he founded the Order of the Visitation. He died on December 28, 1622.

Two outstanding virtues of St. Francis were: meekness and humility of heart. Let us imitate him in his virtues.

Humility in Prayer.

What is especially missing is a ready recourse to prayer. The personal initiative to pray shows our interior humility; it shows that we feel the need of God, of advice and of inspiration; that we feel the need of the mercy of God for our sins, that we want God to keep His hand on our head because we could fall into any danger.

From A Year With Blessed James Alberione, compiled by J. Maurus

In Search of Self

St. Francis de Sales wrote, "If you want to know the state of a soul, we must analyze its passions one by one. Like the player of a lute sounding all the chords, trying to harmonize those which are not, tightening one and loosening another, thus if after sounding the chords of hatred, love, desire, fear, hope, sadness and joy of the soul, we find that these passions are not in harmony with the motif we want to play the glory of God - we can make them harmonize through the grace of God and with the help of our spiritual director.

What is important is that the chords of our heart must be in harmony with the music we want to play, that is the hymn: glory to God and peace to humanity.    

The examen has this essential purpose of showing whether the chords play well this music.The chords of my heart are my internal dispositions. We must therefore test them to know what sound they produce... Let us launch on self-discovery.

What Strikes Me Most Today

What strikes me most today is the line, "that we feel the need of the mercy of God for our sins, that we want God to keep His hand on our head because we could fall into any danger." I sometimes feel that the times I most need to pray are the times I least feel like praying. But often at those times that I don't feel like praying, I am still aware of my need for God's mercy, often even more so. I hope that remembering this will help me to develop a more ready recourse to prayer.

What strikes you most today? Please click on "COMMENTS" below to leave your thoughts.




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Why?

Why a blog? Why St. Paul? Why do I think I have any business doing this?
We are all on a spiritual journey. We all want that journey to lead us to heaven, to eternity with God. For this journey, we need one another.
The journey so far has led me to read and learn about so many forms of authentic Catholic spirituality - Ignatian, Benedictine, Carmelite, Dominican, Franciscan, etc. My biggest problem was that I came to love each one tremendously. I began reading more and more, spending more and more time at the Daughters of St. Paul bookstore on Watson Road here in St. Louis. Who would have thought my greatest conversion story would take place in a bookstore? Mine was not quite as sudden or dramatic as St. Paul on the road to Damascus, but getting to know the Daughters of St. Paul affected me no less significantly.
The sisters are Eucharistic by nature. The first time I entered the chapel in their bookstore, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and one of the sisters was on her knees, gazing at Christ, with an indescribably beautiful smile on her face. I had a glimpse of heaven. I knelt at one of the other kneelers and noticed on the wall behind the monstrance the words: "Fear not, I am with you. From here I want to enlighten. Atone for sin." I had that brief moment of absolute certainty that I was on the right path.
Over the last several years I have worked my way through as many books, CD's, DVD's and conversations with the Daughters of St. Paul that time has allowed. Time is at such a premium for all of us. Years ago we were told that with advances in technology we would have much more free time on our hands. We all know this has not been the case. Our lives are busier and more hectic than ever. Even if we are unable to find time to read good books, see enlightening movies or attend lectures and discussions, maybe we could all spend a little time on the internet supporting one another on our faith journeys. Many of you know more about many aspects of Catholic spirituality than I do.
Pope John Paul the Great called us all to a New Evangelization, to share the Gospel with the world. I am hoping we can all be St. Paul in this blog space by sharing Christ with one another and with others. St. Paul travelled to many foreign and often hostile regions to evangelize the world; we are fortunate to be able to use the internet to reach even farther and more quickly.
The idea of using today's means of social communication to spread the Gospel was given to Blessed James Alberione on the night between the centuries (December 31, 1900 - January 1, 1901). He was a 16 year-old seminary student adoring Christ in the Blessed Sacrament when a special light came to him from the Host. Following this, Blessed James Alberione became the founder of the Society of St. Paul priests, the Daughters of St. Paul, the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master, Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd, Sisters of the Queen of Apostles, and numerous institutes that are also part of the Pauline family.
So what is Pauline spirituality? In my experience, Pauline spirituality encompasses all the teachings of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and love of all the other spiritualities and Saints of the Church. It is the members of the Pauline family who are the happiest people I know! It is loving God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit with all our hearts and souls, through the intercession of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, and St. Paul.
So why St. Paul? I can relate to St. Paul. We first meet him in the New Testament as a sinner. He has a thorn in his side that God decides is best not to take away. I sometimes wish I knew what that thorn was, but it's probably better I don't know. I like to pretend it is one of my many weaknesses or faults. If St. Paul could go from persecuting Christ and His Church to becoming the person responsible for spreading the Gospel and establishing the Church in foreign lands, the least I can do is start a blog. I have been especially inspired by my two favorite bloggers, Sr. Margaret Charles Kerry, fsp, and a Pauline Cooperator named Rae Stabosz. I believe Sr. Margaret and Rae are doing just what St. Paul and Blessed James Alberione would be doing with the internet.
In future blogs (which will be shorter than this first post!), I would like to share writings of St. Paul, Blessed James Alberione, and many others. I look forward to others sharing writings from other Catholic spiritualities and writers. An especially Pauline way of sharing is to point out to one another what aspects particularly speak to each of us.
Another Pauline trait is to pray for one another. My prayer is that we support one another on our path to holiness. Our goal is to glorify God in all that we do - so let's do it!