Salesian Literature

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St. Francis de Sales, renowned author of The Introduction to the Devout Life, was also a dearly beloved Pastor, famous for his gentle, sensible advice on matters spiritual and practical.  Like a seventeenth-century, Dear Abby, this holy priest wrote more than twenty thousand thoughtful, fascinating, personal letters to people who approached him for guidance.

 

These letters to persons in all walks of life show that the spiritual difficulties people had three hundred years ago are largely the same that you and I have today: impatience, anger, discouragement, difficulties in prayer, family strife, sickness, and fear of death.

 

In his touching letters to people suffering these and other common troubles, St. Francis de Sales shows how God wants each of us to deal with such problems and how we can gain the strength and courage to do so.  Indeed, he shows how we can even learn to see God’s will in them and to do His will joyfully.

 

Among the topics covered by St. Francis are:

    

Family, work, and prayer: how to set your priorities

Temptation and sin: you can turn them into spiritual victories

Anxiety about the future: your job, your children, anything at all. It can be overcome!

Helplessness: how to cope when you’re not in control – especially in sickness, age or pregnancy

Family problems: how to keep calm in their midst – and even use them to improve your life!

Your flaws: the right response.  Plus, ways to bear faults you can’t overcome

Prayer: do you pray too much? St. Francis helps you decide

The death of loved ones and your own approaching death – how should a Christian respond?

Charity: have you succumbed to its dangerous counterfeit?

Flagrant sinner – how a Christian must act around them

And dozens of other helpful topics!

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Prayer, Faith and Accepting Your Vocation

 

Foreword

Thy Will be done

Do the will of God joyfully

Serve God where you are

Let us be what we are, and let us be it well

Our faith should be naked and simple

There are two principal reasons for prayer

Little virtues prepare for contemplation of God

We must remain in the presence of God

Never does God leave us save to hold us better

 

Loving and Serving God in your Daily Life

 

Marriage is an exercise in mortification

As far as possible, make your devotion attractive

Have patience with everyone, including yourself

Keep yourself gentle amid household troubles

Do what you see can be done with love

Parents can demand more than God Himself

Avoid making your devotion troublesome

Have contempt for contempt

Lord, what would You have me to do?

Take Jesus as your patron

Remain innocent among the hissing of serpents

Never speak evil of your neighbour

Extravagant recreations may be blameworthy

We must not ask of ourselves what we don't have

If you get tired of kneeling, sit down

You will not lack mortification

We must always walk faithfully

Illness can make you agreeable to God

You are being crowned with His crown of thorns

Often the world calls evil what is good

Rest in the arms of Providence

In confidence, lift up your heart to our Redeemer

We must slowly withdraw from the world

This dear child was more God's than yours

Think of no other place than Paradise or Purgatory

How tenderly I loved her!

Calm your mind, lift up your heart

Miserable beggars receive the greatest mercy

 

Bearing one's cross

 

Love God crucified, even amid darkness

Do not desire mortifications

Practise the mortifications that are given to you

O good Cross, so loved by my Saviour

You only want to bear the crosses that you choose

 

Overcoming Fear, Temptation, Failure and Discouragement

 

We must be patient as we seek perfection

Have courage, for you have only just begun

Be gentle and charitable to your soul

God loves greater infirmity with greater tenderness

We must bear ourselves until God bears us to Heaven

Self-love can be mortified, but never dies

We must attain holy indifference

Lean on the mercy of God

To change the world, we must change ourselves

In patience shall you possess your soul

Do not worry yourself about temptations

We must not be fearful of fear

Constrain yourself only to your serving God well

True simplicity is always good and agreeable to God

We must do all by love and nothing by force

Be then all for God

 

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