St. Francis de Sales (Memorial)

January 24,2004

by Rev. Herbert Nichols

St. Francis de Sales was a bishop, a Doctor of the Church, a spiritual director, author, preacher, co-founder of the Order of the Visitation, all of this in 55 years of life.

He was born in the 1600’s and studied initially to be a lawyer but really wanted to become a priest. Eventually, he was ordained and went to a province of France where people were poor and whose faith was weakened and confused by the Reformation.

His sermons were clear and short. He used to remark that "the more you say, the less people remember." He wrote out his teachings in leaflets or pamphlets, which later made him the patron saint of journalists.

While he was bishop of Geneva, he wrote "The Introduction to the Devout Life," a spiritual classic which is still read and studied today.

St. Paul says in today’s 1st reading that he was given the privilege of preaching to the Gentiles the riches of Jesus Christ. In his preaching and writing, St. Francis de Sales was given the privilege of preaching to ordinary people the magnificent possibility of holiness.

He teaches us that we are all called to holiness, whatever the circumstances of our life. The shape of our spiritual lives may differ, but we can all be heroically holy.

He teaches us that the "present moment", not the past or the future, is the place where we come to know and live God’s will.

He teaches us the significance of the ordinary, done extraordinarily well, as the key to holiness.

He has also been called the "Gentleman Saint." He treated everyone, even his opponents, with respect. He preached the love of God and lived it. He never took differences personally and was never caustic, cutting or biting in his response to opponents.

He preached Christ both in the pulpit and out of it. Not all of us are called to preach Christ in the pulpit. But we are all called to preach Christ in our daily life.