From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Be ready and watch   
      
   "And for this very reason there is also a word of the Savior to   
   prepare us for that day, in these words: 'Be ready and watch, for He   
   comes at an hour you do not know.' For, according to the blessed Paul:   
   'We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one   
   may receive according as he has done in the body, whether it be good   
   or bad.'"   
   -St. Athanasius, Incarnation of the Word, 56.5, 4th century   
      
      
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   January 24th - St. Francis de Sales   
   (1567-1622)   
      
   Francis de Sales was one of the 13 children of a nobleman of Savoy, in   
   eastern France. Frail as a child, he was tutored privately; but he   
   proved to be highly intelligent, and naturally truthful and docile.   
      
   As a teenager, Francis was sent to study at the University of Paris.   
   The sons of nobles who frequented this university usually lived in the   
   College de Navarre. Preferring a less worldly residence, Francis   
   signed up with the Jesuit College de Clermont. He studied theology and   
   became adept at it, and he also took a vow of perpetual chastity.   
      
   Before long, however, he underwent the traumatic temptation of fearing   
   the loss of his soul. Finally, he prayed, “O God, even if I may not be   
   permitted to see You in heaven, grant nevertheless that while alive I   
   may love You with all my heart.” After he had made that total offering   
   of himself, the terrible temptation ceased completely. This dreadful   
   trial taught him how to sympathize with people who had grave spiritual   
   difficulties.   
      
   Although Francis had majored in theology, he had not yet declared his   
   intention to become a priest. He knew well that his father wanted him   
   to remain in the world and marry, so along with theology he studied   
   the “social arts” of riding, fencing and dancing. After his term in   
   Paris he went to Padua, Italy, to take a course in law. Only in 1593   
   did he succeed in getting his father’s permission to be ordained a   
   priest of the diocese of Geneva.   
      
   In his early priestly years, Father Francis quickly acquired a   
   reputation as a clear and moving preacher, a helpful confessor, and a   
   great benefactor of the poor.   
      
   In those days, the diocese of Geneva, in French Switzerland, also   
   extended into Savoy, France. The French reformer John Calvin had by   
   that time won over many Savoian Catholics to Protestantism, and   
   weakened the morale of the remaining Catholic minority. The duke of   
   Savoy asked the bishop of Geneva to send Catholic priests into the   
   Savoian district of the Chablais, in order to win its population back   
   to the Church. Francis volunteered, and was accepted. Fearing for the   
   life of his son, Francis’ father told the bishop that he had no   
   intention of seeing his priest son martyred. But the young priest   
   urged the bishop to stand firm. Whatever the risk, he considered this   
   mission to be his duty.   
      
   The father’s fears were not baseless. Francis, while working in the   
   Chablais, was beaten up once by a mob and twice escaped assassination.   
   (He was also treed one whole night by hungry wolves.) But by   
   perseverance and prayer he won back many lapsed Catholics and   
   strengthened the wavering. One device that he used was to write,   
   publish and distribute leaflets that summarized the teachings of the   
   Church. The approach he took was also effective. He did not condemn   
   anybody; he just showed his love for them.   
      
   In 1602 Father Francis was consecrated bishop of Geneva. Now his   
   influence became still wider. His skill as a spiritual director led   
   him to establish, in collaboration with St. Jane Frances de Chantal,   
   the order of Visitation nuns. The Sisters of St. Joseph, too, are   
   traceable to his inspiration.   
      
   But St. Francis also did much to cultivate lay piety. A series of   
   spiritual letters that he wrote to a lay relative, later collected   
   into a book, became his famous Introduction to the Devout Life.   
   Particularly because of this brilliant little work, he would   
   eventually be proclaimed a doctor of the Church. The spiritual   
   doctrine that he teaches is firm but gentle. As he himself points out,   
   you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.   
      
   Canonized in 1665, St. Francis de Sales was in 1933 declared by Pope   
   Pius XI the patron saint of journalists. This was because of his   
   doctrinal leaflets. Francis might also be appropriately designated   
   patron saint of premature infants. He himself had been a “preemie”!   
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Lord, are they few that are saved? But he said to them: Strive to   
   enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter,   
   and shall not be able.   
   --Luke 13:23-24   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have   
   set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose   
   life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your   
   God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to   
   you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord   
   swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give   
   them.–[Dt 30: 19-20]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   PRAYER FOR COURAGE   
      
       Dear God, give me courage,   
       for perhaps I lack it more than anything else.   
      
       I need courage before men against their threats   
       and against their seductions.   
      
       I need courage to bear unkindness,   
       mockery, contradiction.   
      
       I need courage to fight against the devil,   
       against terrors and troubles, temptations,   
       attractions, darkness and false lights,   
       against tears, depression, and above all fear.   
      
       I need Your help, dear God.   
      
       Strengthen me with Your love and Your grace.   
      
       Console me with Your blessed Presence   
       and grant me the courage to persevere   
       until I am with You forever in heaven.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)