Rediscover "Kindness" 365-days-a-yr w/ St. Francis de Sales, patron of journalists
Link to Day 16 of 33 Consecration Journey & Spiritual Direction Questions about the Secret of Joy in English, Italian, German translated by Rembrandt from the original Portuguese & authored by Pe Nuno
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
you have given the world its true light,
Jesus, your Son — the Son of God.
You abandoned yourself completely
to God’s call and thus became a wellspring
of the goodness which flows forth from him.
Show us Jesus. Lead us to him.
Teach us to know and love him,
so that we too can become
capable of true love
and be fountains of living water
in the midst of a thirsting world.
Pope Benedict XVI from Deus Caritas Est (God is Love)1
THE ROSARY HOUR PODCAST NEWSLETTER | NOTES FOR 24 & 25 JANUARY 1st EDITION2| REVIEWED BY IZZY NUNZIATO
Saint Francis de Sales:
1593: 18 December followed the Lord’s call & was ordained a priest
1602: became Bishop of Geneva
1665: canonized a saint
1878: Pope Pius IX declared him a doctor of the Church
HOLY MEN AND WOMEN
D. Manuel Clemente dá uma introdução em português aqui::3 https://www.snpcultura.org/vol_introducao_vida_devota.html
Pope Benedict XVI gave a presentation about this great saint who introduces “the Devout Life” in a summary worth rediscovering as we think of exploring new ways to combat the Spirit of the World in 2024.
We’ve also linked you to various guests to the Rosary Hour Podcast who have provided our team with spiritual direction in 2023 in a brief documentary we put together last summer and which is featured in Day 16 of the Consecration Journey. Fr. Anthony Gramlich returns with his notes “on suffering”. See:
Here is an excerpt from that presentation on St. Francis de Sales:4
God is God of the human heart” (The Treatise on the Love of God, I, XV).
by: Pope Benedict XVI:
“These apparently simple words give us an impression of the spirituality of a great teacher of whom I would like to speak to you today: St Francis de Sales, a Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
Born in 1567, in a French border region, he was the son of the Lord of Boisy, an ancient and noble family of Savoy. His life straddled two centuries, the 16th and 17th, and he summed up in himself the best of the teachings and cultural achievements of the century drawing to a close, reconciling the heritage of humanism striving for the Absolute that is proper to mystical currents.
He received a very careful education; he undertook higher studies in Paris, where he dedicated himself to theology, and at the University of Padua, where he studied jurisprudence, complying with his father’s wishes and graduating brilliantly with degrees in utroque iure, in canon law and in civil law.
In his harmonious youth, reflection on the thought of St Augustine and of St Thomas Aquinas led to a deep crisis. This prompted him to question his own eternal salvation and the predestination of God concerning himself; he suffered as a true spiritual drama the principal theological issues of his time. He prayed intensely but was so fiercely tormented by doubt that for a few weeks he could barely eat or sleep.
At the climax of his trial, he went to the Dominicans’ church in Paris, opened his heart and prayed in these words:
“Whatever happens, Lord, you who hold all things in your hand and whose ways are justice and truth; whatever you have ordained for me... you who are ever a just judge and a merciful Father, I will love you Lord.... I will love you here, O my God, and I will always hope in your mercy and will always repeat your praise.... O Lord Jesus you will always be my hope and my salvation in the land of the living” (I Proc. Canon., Vol. I, art. 4).
Pope Benedict XVI continues:
“The 20-year-old Francis found peace in the radical and liberating love of God: loving him without asking anything in return and trusting in divine love; no longer asking what will God do with me: I simply love him, independently of all that he gives me or does not give me. Thus I find peace and the question of predestination — which was being discussed at that time — was resolved, because he no longer sought what he might receive from God; he simply loved God and abandoned himself to his goodness. And this was to be the secret of his life which would shine out in his main work: The Treatise on the Love of God.
READ IN THE ORIGINAL”TREATISE” in FRENCH HERE:
https://hosted.desales.edu/w4/salesian/icss_de/online/francais/theotimus_fr.pdf
Pope Benedict XVI also draws attention to the fact that St. Francis, …
“As the Pastor of a poor and tormented diocese in a mountainous area whose harshness was as well known as its beauty” once wrote the following reflection:
“I found [God] sweet and gentle among our loftiest rugged mountains,
where many simple souls love him and worship him
in all truth and sincerity; and mountain goats and
chamois leap here and there between
the fearful frozen peaks to proclaim his praise”
(Letter to Mother de Chantal, October 1606, in Oeuvres, éd. Mackey, t. XIII, p. 223).
Nevertheless the influence of his life and his teaching on Europe in that period and in the following centuries is immense. He was an apostle, preacher, writer, man of action and of prayer dedicated to implanting the ideals of the Council of Trent; he was involved in controversial issues dialogue with the Protestants, experiencing increasingly, over and above the necessary theological confrontation, the effectiveness of personal relationship and of charity; he was charged with diplomatic missions in Europe and with social duties of mediation and reconciliation.
Yet above all St Francis de Sales was a [Spiritual] [D]irector: from his encounter with a young woman, Madame de Charmoisy, he was to draw the inspiration to write one of the most widely read books of the modern age, The Introduction to a Devout Life”…
… in which… he, the author, writes this Preface. St. Francis de Sales begins like this:
Dear Reader:
I request you to read this Preface for your own satisfaction as well as mine. The flower-girl Glycera was so skilled in varying the arrangement and combination of her flowers, that out of the same kinds she produced a great variety of bouquets; so that the painter Pausias, 1 who sought to rival the diversity of her art, was brought to a standstill, for he could not vary his painting so endlessly as Glycera varied her bouquets. Even so the Holy Spirit of God disposes and arranges the devout teaching which He imparts through the lips and pen of His servants with such endless variety, that, although the doctrine is ever one and the same, their treatment of it is different, according to the varying minds whence that treatment flows. Assuredly I neither desire, nor ought to write in this book anything but what has been already said by others before me. I offer you the same flowers, dear reader, but the bouquet will be somewhat different from theirs, because it is differently made up. Almost all those who have written concerning the devout life have had chiefly in view persons who have altogether quitted the world; or at any rate they have taught a manner of devotion which would lead to such total retirement. But my object is to teach those who are living in towns, at court, in their own households, and whose calling obliges them to a social life, so far as externals are concerned. Such persons are apt to reject all attempt to lead a devout life under the plea of impossibility; imagining that like as no animal presumes to eat of the plant commonly called Palma Christi, so no one who is immersed in the tide of temporal affairs ought to presume to seek the palm of Christian piety.”
LINK HERE TO STUDY THE DEVOUT LIFE IN 2024: HERE IS THE TEXT in ENGLISH in 2024:
https://www.catholicspiritualdirection.org/devoutlife.pdf
OR CLICK TO LINK TO THE ORIGINAL in FRENCH via PROJECT GUTENBERG here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/53540/pg53540-images.html
ORIGINAL TEXT ON ST. FRANCIS DE SALES BY PAPA BENTO XVI:
LINK TO READ THE ORIGINAL TEXT by POPE BENEDICT HERE: IN ENGLISH5
READ THE ORIGINAL TEXT IN PORTUGUESE: PAPA BENTO XVI, AUDIÊNCIA GERAL
READ THE ORIGINAL TEXT IN ITALIAN: PAPA BENTO XVI
SEE ALSO: “From Struggles With Temper to Path of Charity, St. Francis de Sales is a Model for Us All” by: Joseph Pronchen6
DAY 16 of the 33-DAY CONSECRATION JOURNEY | QUESTIONS TRANSLATED
Today, we begin in the lead up to Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, FR. NUNO’S SPIRITUAL DIRECTION on the idea of “JOY”. SEE yesterday’s Consecration Journey to pray the prayers with us.
ALSO, for those interested in the SECRET LINK TO SPIRITUAL DIRECTION DOCUMENTARY (previously UNRELEASED officially, IN THE ABOVE POST), click above.
Appearances by:
Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson (Author and Professor at Pepperdine University, Malibu California, USA); Interviewed on Bishop Barron Presents for Word on Fire;
Rev. Father Anthony Gramlich, Assistant Rector, The National Shrine of the Divine Mercy;
Dr. Bob Schucts, Author and Founder of the JP 2 Healing Center;
Dr. Blythe Kaufman, Author and Founder of Children's Rosary;
Dr. Fr. Edward Looney, Priest, author, Podcaster;
Donna Marie Cooper O'Boyle, author of 40+ books;
Keith Nester, Down To Earth Ministry;
Padre Nuno Rocha, Pastor of 25 years, CPM Portugal;
Peter Herbeck, author and Vice President of Renewal Ministries;
Dr. Josephine Lombardi, Assistant Dean of Theology at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto;
Dr. Fr. Charles Nahm, Opus Dei and Spiritual Director; with Fr. Chris Alar, Series Narrator and guest to the RHP who visited the Digital Café to talk about St. Paul on January 25, 2023. Fr. Alar’s updated ending to our podcast is added to our Season 2 broadcasts.
Earlier this week, the Rosary Hour Podcast posted Teresa Tomeo / Dr. Josephine Lombardi / Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson discussions re: the topic of “Humility” for the Consecration Journey; also, Dr. Bob Schuchts reflected on “Meekness” (or Patience).
If you missed it, here is Asher Kaufman’s interview slotted as Episode 4:
EVENT REMINDERS
RADIO MARIA USA BROADCAST WITH CHILDREN’S ROSARY ® FEB 10
SAVE-THE-DATE
Join Zosia and Dr. Kaufman for this Rosary broadcast:
The following Litany will be prayed in February, the Vigil for Our Lady of Lourdes and Day 33 of the Consecration Journey.
LINK TO THE ORIGINAL DIGITAL TOOLKIT FOR ROSARY LEADERS FROM 2022
See also the following Toolkit for Rosary Leaders
TALK BY FR. PETER TURRONE
WHERE (CITY): TORONTO
VENUE (CHURCH): St. Peter’s Church
WHEN: FEB. 1
TIME: 7 PM
33-DAY CONSECRATION ENDS CONSECRATION ON FEB 11
Consecration Day will be Feb. 11 when we also remember Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, a great Spiritual Director to the world on the Spirituality of St. Faustina and who passed on that day in 2020. BELOW is a short write up by the Marian Fathers that you can tuck away for Consecration Day as we revisit the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy prior to Mercy Sunday and the role played by Fr. Micahlenko in bringing Divine Mercy to the world.
Father Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, the world-renowned expert on the life and spirituality of St. Faustina — the man who smuggled photographic images of the pages of St. Faustina’s Diary out of Communist-occupied Poland in the 1970s and later documented her beatification and canonization miracles — died Thursday, Feb. 11, from illness related to COVID-19. He was 90. He drew his last breath at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. As God would have it, he died on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It was Our Lady of Lourdes who, in 1858, appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous and identified herself thusly: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
“There are two days when Our Lady in the mystery of her Immaculate Conception is celebrated: the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception celebrated on Dec. 8, and the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes,” said the Very Rev. Kaz Chwalek, MIC, the provincial superior of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy Province of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. “The Immaculate Conception, Patroness of the Marian Fathers’ Congregation, prepared her special son to enter into the Father’s House on her special feast.”
The Lord prepared Fr. Seraphim for eternal life throughout his whole life, Fr. Kaz said. In the minutes before his death, Fr. Seraphim received the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, and the Eucharistic Jesus, the food for the journey. He also received the Apostolic Pardon through the holy mysteries of our redemption for the release from all punishments in this life and in the life to come.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/rest-peace-fr-seraphim-michalenko-mic-1930-2021
Coming soon, with permission from the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, Amelia and Asher will share their recording of the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy for the Rosary Hour Podcast.
EXPLAINING THE FAITH | THE MARIANS OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
One year ago, Fr. Chris Alar came to the Rosary Hour Podcast for an interview with respondent Dr. Bob Schuchts led by Children’s Rosary Q and A. Here was last year’s interview for those new to our podcast and who missed it.7
Here is his Fr. Chris’s latest Explaining the Faith talk: “Martyrdom and Christian Persecution” in which he asks, “Does God Want Bloodshed?”
FOOTNOTES
This was reviewed by Izzy; however, AI has been doctoring the internal texts by inserting typos into our posts. We apologize in advance and hope this issue is resolved soon.
"Introdução à Vida Devota": S. Francisco de Sales oferece um contributo para crescer em Deus para o mundo
Da “Introdução à Vida Devota”, de S. Francisco de Sales, edição da Voz Portucalense, apresentamos o prefácio, assinado pelo bispo do Porto e vice-presidente da Conferência Episcopal Portuguesa, D. Manuel Clemente.
Prefácio
Em boa hora se reedita a Introdução à vida devota, obra maior de S. Francisco de Sales (1567-1622). Em boa hora, porque a oportunidade é grande e urgente.
Como o próprio autor reconheceu e disse, os que até então tinham escrito sobre a devoção – o verdadeiro amor e entrega a Deus – dirigiam-se sobretudo a “religiosos” presentes ou futuros e apartados do mundo. Não é esse o seu intento, nem do livro, que nascera das orientações espirituais que dera a uma cristã comum, espiritualmente exigente.
E é por isso que a “vida devota” de Francisco de Sales é verdadeiramente inaugural do catolicismo moderno. Na Idade Média, de que ainda lhe chegara tanta coisa, “converter-se” quase significava entrar nos claustros ou em ambientes próximos deles. Mas para o bispo de Genebra, constante caminheiro de terras dissidentes, entre católicos e protestantes, e contínuo correspondente de tantos que lhe escreviam, já não bastava ser assim. Mais do que apartar-se do mundo, era no mundo que importava estar e exercitar-se, na união a Deus e no testemunho cristão.
Para isso escreveu esta obra em 1608 e a reviu depois. Como ele próprio esclarece no prefácio: “Os que até hoje trataram da devoção, quase todos tiveram em vista instruir as pessoas que vivem muito arredias e avessas ao trato e comércio do mundo, ou pelo menos ensinavam uma espécie de devoção que leva a esse total retiro. Pelo contrário, eu quero instruir e guiar os que vivem nas cidades, no seio da família, na Corte e palácios dos grandes…”. Aí mesmo, onde a vida ganhara mais dispersão e contraste no respeitante a convicções e costumes, aí mesmo se devia revigorar o amor a Deus e ao próximo, na densidade espiritual de cada um: “Dirijo as minhas palavras a Filotea, […] porque Filotea quer dizer amante ou enamorada de Deus”.
A obra nasceu por isso teórico-prática, sendo toda a devoção um sentimento exercitado. Tira, se assim quisermos, toda as consequências duma autêntica conversão. E assim prossegue, de passo em passo, em cinco partes: na primeira, contêm-se “os avisos e exercícios necessários para levar a alma desde o seu primeiro desejo de vida devota até uma absoluta e formal resolução de abraçá-la”. Entrevê-se que a exigência de mudança espacial, entre o mundo e o claustro, se alarga agora à resolução firme de aperfeiçoamento espiritual, para viver com Deus no mundo.
Na segunda parte visa-se a elevação da alma a Deus, pela oração e os sacramentos; na terceira, a consequente prática das virtudes, nas situações mais concretas do dia a dia de qualquer um; na quarta, avisos contra tentações correntes; e na quinta deixam-se mais “exercícios e avisos para renovar a alma e confirmá-la na devoção”.
A terminar, Francisco de Sales responde de avanço à objecção de que proporia de mais para gente comum. Na verdade, o que sugere de oração mental, meditação particular e práticas concretas para crescer na verdadeira devoção – ou vida espiritual, como diríamos hoje - já parecia demasiado naquela altura… Para ele tratava-se, apenas, de propor o que Cristo propõe a qualquer seguidor generoso. Requerendo, isso sim, uma auto-definição que marque o tempo com prioridades assumidas e distinga no espaço público uma personalidade singular: “Os filósofos alardeavam de filósofos, para que os deixassem viver filosoficamente; e nós devemos dar-nos a conhecer como amantes da devoção, para que nos deixem viver devotamente”.
https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110302.html
Also, embedded is the Symbols procession from World Youth Day preparations that took place one year ago with participants from the Camino to Santiago, a presentation which was put together by our Junior producer, Amelia with the support of our Directors, Godric with Dan and Rembrandt.