Feast of St. Francis de Sales

January 29th

Born:1567 :: Died:1622

St Francis de Sales is another one of my favorite saints. (How many does that make now?) Another of the saints from big families, St. Francis was the oldest of six brothers!  It's hard not to love his gentle, nature-filled lessons and practical kind wisdom.  But as gentle and kind as he always seems in his letters and sermons, I've read that he started out life with a choleric disposition, impatient and inclined toward anger. You'd never know, though. That he could reform so completely, by the grace of God and much perserverence, gives me hope!  He's also well known for his eloquent and inspired writings, as well as a large volume of beautifully encouraging correspondences with the faithful.  If you haven't read any De Sales, I highly recommend him!

Here is an online reprint of St. Francis' Treatise on the Love of God .

St. Francis' Introduction to the Devout Life  can be read online here.

St. Francis de Sales is the Patron Saint of:

Authors
Deafness
Journalists
Writers

Prayer of St. Francis
(from the Treatise on the Love of God, Bk 10)
 
Lord, I am yours,
and I must belong to no one but you.

My soul is yours,

and must live only by you.

My will is yours,

and must love only for you.

I must love you as my first cause,

since I am from you.

I must love you as my end and rest,

since I am for you.

I must love you more than my own being,
since my being subsists by you.
I must love you more than myself,
since I am all yours and all in you.
Amen.

Here is my particular prayer to our patron of the day:

Dear St. Francis de Sales, patron of communicators, pray for all of us who navigate the modern world through the internet. Help us to use it as a source of edification and a means of communicating to others only what is pleasing to God. Amen.
 
 Quotes from St. Francis de Sales:
 

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength."
 
“Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly
 
“Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections.”

“Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.”
 
“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself.”
 

“If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in its Master's presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it again in Our Lord's presence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed.”
 
“Reputation is rarely proportioned to virtue.”
 
“While I am busy with little things, I am not required to do greater things.”

“Have patience to walk with short steps until you have wings to fly.”
 
"If we say a little it is easy to add, but having said too much it is hard to withdraw and never can it be done so quickly as to hinder the harm of our success. "
 
"When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time."

"When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth's sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food."
 
"Always be as gentle as you can, and remember that more flies are caught with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar."

To Celebrate the Feast

Due largely to these last two quotes of St. Francis, his tendency to use analogies from nature, and the golden sweetness and purity of his counsel, it seems only right and good to celebrate his feast day by cooking with honey!

To that end, Catholic Cuisine offers a honey breakfast bar recipe to celebrate this feast, and here is one of many sites which lists many recipes using honey.  One of our favorite honey-based recipes is our homemade granola.  Here's our recipe:

1 box (6 cups) rolled oats
1 cup chopped nuts (we like almonds)
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup honey (or honey mixed with maple syrup)
1/3 cup oil, any kind, but we like safflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 - 1 cup raisins
1/2 - 1 cup chopped dates

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Combine the first 5 ingredients. Warm the honey, add the oil and vanilla. Drizzle the honey-oil over the dry ingredients and toss to coat. Spread the mixture onto 2 cookie sheets. Bake about 30 minutes until golden, stirring every 10 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and stir in dried fruit if used. As the granola cools, it will lose its stickiness and become crunchy. Makes about 9 cups. Store in airtight containers.  Be amazed if it lasts 2 breakfast-times.

Click, copy, and print for a coloring page.

You can also find a lovely coloring page here, at Catholic Playground.

* Did this post look familiar?  :)  It's a repost from last year -- and the year before... But every year I add a little something.  

The Feast of St. Catherine of Laboure

It's no accident, I'm sure, that the child we named for St. Catherine Laboure has a particular inclination for capable service and hard work.  We feel sure that she's been influenced from above.

Cathy's patron saint, you see, was a hard worker! Originally christened Zoe Laboure, St. Catherine was the daughter of French landowners in the early 19th century, a woman of particular abilities -- and a strong and lively temperament which she perfected to great humility and obedience. Though she was the daughter of middle class parents and a member of a large and loving family, her life was not an easy one.  Little Zoe Laboure, the ninth of eleven children, was only eight years old when her mother died, and since her older sister had entered the convent, she had to take on the care of the house and farm for her father at a very tender age -- but she did so with great capability and patience, waiting for the day when she could also enter the religious life.  Through all her labors, she kept a spirit of charity and cheerfulness, and tended carefully to her spiritual life, rising before dawn every day to begin her day at Mass.  If it had not been for her duties to her family, she would have entered the convent as early as St. Therese of Lisieux would later in the century, but Zoe's father and some of her siblings discouraged her vocation. Still, after numerous obstacles, God's will prevailed and Zoe's choice of an order having been confirmed in a vision of St. Vincent De Paul, himself, she was finally able to enter the Convent of St. Vincent in 1830, when she was twenty-four years old. 

After her profession, Sr. Catherine was sent to a hospital in Paris to work alongside the Sisters of Charity, beginning her many years of labor first in the kitchens, then in the laundry, and finally, working in the hospice for aged gentlemen in Reuilly, where she also was in charge of the chickens.  She continued this charitable work for forty years, to all appearances leading the humble and useful, but unremarkable life of an ordinary Sister.

Very few people knew during Sr. Catherine's lifetime that she was the Sister of the Miraculous Medal -- the honored soul to whom the  Blessed Virgin had entrusted the mission of producing a medal of heavenly design  and special indulgence. The many appearances of Our Lady to Sr. Catherine were a closely guarded secret between her and her confessor -- her identity was not even revealed to the bishop who approved the striking of the medals -- but by the time of Sr. Catherine's death in 1875, a billion medals had been minted and circulated -- and they were already being hailed as miraculous.

Her secret wasn't made known until after her death on December 31, 1876, at the age of seventy: Humble  Sr. Catherine, the hospice nurse, the keeper of the chickens, was the holy Sister into whose capable hands the Mother of God had trusted her Miraculous Medal. The Sisters of the convent were astounded.   The humble nursing Sister whom the Mother of God had visited with intimate charm and comfort in the chapel of St. Vincent in 1830 was found to be an "incorruptible" when her body was exhumed in 1933, and is now preserved whole and beautiful in a glass coffin where it can be seen today at the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Paris.

 St. Catherine was beatified in 1933 by Pope Pius XI and was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1947.  The Medal of the Immaculate Conception, now known as the Miraculous Medal, has become one of the most commonly worn sacramentals in the Catholic Church.

St. Catherine of Laboure, teach us humility and diligence in our stations in life!  Please pray for us!

St. Catherine's incorrupt body as it looks today.  It is located at 140 Rue de Bac, Paris,
at the Chapel of  Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

For an excellent post on St. Catherine with a bazillion wonderful links, run over to a JOYfilled Family.  For a more thorough, beautifully written online read about St. Catherine, go here.  For a coloring page of St. Catherine, run over here. Or click and print below:


In the original French.



And in English.

And, last but not least:
Happy nameday to our Catherine
And all the Catherines out there!

* Reposted from last year.  :0)  

On the Feast of St. Therese of the Holy Child and the Holy Face

Stories of St. Therese as told by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (taken from St. Therese: A Treasured Love Story): 

On Living a Perfect Life

...The one thing that interested (the Little Flower) was being perfect, not like everyone else.  When she was a little girl, very small, her older sister Leonie was getting too big to play with dolls.  One day when Therese and her other sister, Celine, were seated on the lawn, Leonie came out with a big basket filled with small dolls with strips of material and small pieces of lace.  And when Leonie laid the basket down, she took a big doll, and she put it on top of the basket, and she said, "Alright, sisters, now choose what you want."

Therese reached out and said, "I'll take everything."

And she said, "This became the rule of my life.  I wanted everything.  I wanted to be perfect.  I wanted to be God's."

You know the only reason we are unhappy, my good people, is because we are not striving enough to be holy as she was, wanting everything.  We are like trapeze artists.  We just let go of one trapeze, and we're still in mid-air, and we haven't caught hold of the other...  and we're not sure we will.  But when there is a resolute will to do everything and bear everything for God's sake, then life becomes happy on the inside.

So this is our first lesson about the Little Flower and a lesson of hope for you.  May we never give up hope.  You are much better than you think you are -- all of you.  You wouldn't be reading this otherwise.  First of all, you are kind, otherwise you wouldn't have bought this book! (Or stopped by to read this blog post!)  Second, you are patient, otherwise you wouldn't have stayed with me this far.  Third, you are charitable.  Fourth, you have a lot of fortitude because you continue along with me.   And so I might go on with all the other virtues.

Now you've got a good start for perfecting your life, so pray now to the Little Flower to not be ordinary!  You know, what is killing the world today is ordinariness.  Flatness.  Dullness.  Want of fire.  We can't be happy unless we are in love, and when we have perfect love, which is the love of God, then we are supremely happy.  You already have this love in great measure.

So then picture St. Therese again on her lawn reaching out for the basket of dolls saying, "I want everything."  And you say you want everything. You want perfect life.  That's what you want, and not for a few more years.  You want truth, not just the truths of literature to the exclusion of science.  You want love, not a love that knows satiety or fed-up-ness.  You want perfect life and perfect truth and perfect love, and that's God.



St. Therese playing St. Joan of Arc
in a play at Carmel

 The way of St. Therese is easy.  It's living the life that you are living now, only making it holy.  You sacramentalize it.

For example, take the water in the baptismal font.  See how the Church uses that as a symbol for cleaning the soul?  The bread is matter that's used to communicate to you the Divine Life in the Eucharist, and oil is for healing in the Sacrament of the Sick.  So your housework, your office work, whatever you happen to do, that's where you start to be a saint.  There.  What the Little Flower gives us is this supreme lesson in contrast with the past.  She's very modern.  There is no need of anyone wearing a hair shirt.  Our neighbors are hair shirts!  Life is a hair shirt!  We have to put up with it.

So if you want to know where you start to be a saint, start right where you are now.  Only, want to be perfect, saying to God, "I want everything.  I want You."  That's love.  That's happiness.


On Her Holy Death

One of the priests who was taking care of (St. Therese) at her death said, "Are you resigned to dying?"

She said, "I don't need any resignation to die, I need a resignation to live."  She said, "I have lived for our Lord, I want to die for Him.  This is my Love, and I want to be with the Beloved."

It was that simple.  What then was her judgment like?  Do you think she went to purgatory?  No.  She said she wouldn't go to purgatory.  That's confidence, isn't it?  That was not pride.  She said, "What is there in purgatory to burn?"

She said, "I have been a victim of Divine Love.  I've burned myself out for Him and, therefore, there will be nothing to burn in me for purgatory."

Her Intercession In Heaven

Now we come to her intercessory power in heaven.  And this is a point where I believe we need deep instruction -- intercession.  We do not mention it enough perhaps, in our sermons and in our teaching, but intercession means pleading for others. Now let me read you some of the last words of the Little Flower about her intercession:

Confidently I count upon not remaining inactive in heaven.  My desire is to still work for the Church and for souls.

You see, she didn't think that heaven was a place of total repose.  She says, "I'm going to work in heaven."

In another place she says, "Because I withdraw from the battlefield, I'm not going to be at rest."

To continue her words:

This I shall ask of God, and I am certain that He will hear me.  If I quit already the battlefield, it is not with a selfish desire of taking my rest.  Suffering has long since become my heaven here below and it is difficult to imagine how it will be possible for me to become acclimatized to a country where joy reigns unmingled with any sorrow.  Jesus must need to transform my soul completely as I couldn't stand eternal bliss.

In other words, she said, "When I go to heaven, I do not lose my interest in this world, I keep it."  Therefore, she became very confident that she would be our advocate and our attorney in the Kingdom of Heaven.  And continuing her thought:

Just now a few notes of distant music fall upon my ear and set me thinking that very soon I shall hear melodies beyond compare.  Yet this thought cannot give me but a moment's gladness.  Only one expectation makes my heart throb.  It is the love that I shall receive and the love that I shall be able to give.  I feel that my mission is now to begin.  My mission is to make others love the good God as I love Him, to give to souls my little way.  I will spend my heaven in doing good upon earth...

Prayers for the Feast Day and Every Day

Morning Prayer of St. Therese

O my God!  I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.

O my God!  I ask of Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear the grace to perfectly fulfill
Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all Eternity. Amen.

Miraculous Prayer for the Intervention of St. Therese

O glorious St. Therese, whom Almighty God has raised up to aid and cousel mankind, I implore your Miraculous Intercession.  So powerful are you in obtaining every need of body and soul that our Holy Mother Church proclaims you a "Prodigy of Miracles... The Greatest Saint of Modern Times."  Now I fervently beseech you to answer my petition (describe your petition here) and to carry out your promises of spending Heaven doing good on earth... of letting fall from Heaven a Shower of Roses.  Henceforth, dear Little Flower, I will fulfill your plea "to be made known everywhere," and I will never cease to lead others to Jesus through you.  Amen.

Ways to Observe the Feast of The Little Flower

* Coloring Pages for St. Therese's Feast Day from wonderful Charlotte at Waltzing Matilda -- and her personal St. Therese story to enjoy,  as well!

* Scads of ideas for cooking  on St. Therese's day over at Catholic Cuisine!

* A treasure trove of  celebration ideas can be found over at Shower of Roses!

*  The autobiography of St. Therese, The Story of a Soul, is free, online, here...  And starting at $4.79 here for a hardbound copy.

*And St. Therese: A Treasured Love Story, by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen can be found here.

Feast of St. Margaret of Scotland

Born: c. 1045

(in Castle Réka, in the region of Southern Transdanubia, Hungary)

Died: 16 November 1093 (aged c. 48)

(at St Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle, Midlothian, Scotland)

Canonized: 1250 by Pope Innocent IV

Major shrine: Dunfermline Abbey (East Port, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) 

Traditional Feast: June 10;

Patronage: Dunfermline; Scotland; The Queen's Ferry; Anglo-Scottish relations

The story in a nutshell:  Saint Margaret was one of three children of the English prince Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside; she was the neice of King St. Edward the Confessor and related to St. Stephen of Hungary. When the Normans overtook England in the late eleventh century, sometime after the death of Prince Edward, Margaret's mother, Agatha, attempted to escape to the continent, but her ship grounded on the rocky shore of Scotland.  The place where they landed near the village of North Queensferry is now known as St. Margaret's Hope. In a strange land and in danger, still, of the Normans, the family sought the protection of King Malcom II of Scotland and eventually Margaret and Malcom were married.
 
Theirs was a fruitful and holy marriage.  They had eight children, six sons and two daughters: Edward, (killed in 1093); Edmund of Scotland; Ethelred, abbot of Dunkeld; King Edgar of Scotland; King Alexander I of Scotland; King David I of Scotland (revered as a saint); Edith of Scotland (also called Matilda, married King Henry I of England); Mary of Scotland (married Eustace III of Boulogne). Along with the duties of state and motherhood, St. Margaret was the perfect example of piety and charity throughout her reign.  She served the poor before she, herself, ate; she rose at midnight every night to attend holy Mass; she was known for her work in religious reform and influenced her husband, the king, and her children, as well, in the precepts of just rule.

 Margaret was ill when she learned of the deaths of her husband and their eldest son, Edward in a fight against the English; she died three days later, November 16, 1093.

Because the feast of St. Gertrude is celebrated on November 16th, the Church marks her feast on this day, June 10th.

Some thoughts on the story of St. Margaret:  What an example of priorities in the midst of distraction is today's saint!  St, Margaret, in her example of piety and charity, influenced a whole kingdom toward goodness, but she also raised her children so well that not one of them fell away from their spiritual home in the Church, not one of them (that we know of) turned to the treachery so common to the powerful in her day.  This mother, a queen, raised an abbot, a saint, and six just rulers.  Can you imagine the temptations that surrounded them all, though, in the royal court?  It was not easier to avoid the world, the flesh, and the devil in the eleventh century than it is now, but somehow, with the help of God, Margaret managed to do it.  What focus!

It seems like it should be a complicated thing, doesn't it?  Saving everyone's souls and our own, too, I mean. We're not ruling actual kingdoms, us moms surfing the web today, but we still have an awful lot on our plates, so many duties to attend to in our daily plebian lives: running our homes, supporting our husbands, taking care of the needs of our family, the education of our children, the stresses of jobs, obligations to our parishes, our friends and our extended relations... And then there's the tv, the computer, the cell phone...  St. Margaret didn't have those distractions!  But the question is the same for us today as it was for her in the eleventh century. How do we do all that we must do in the midst of all the distractions in our world and still penetrate into the souls of each our children, too?

 St. Margaret knew the secret and perfected it and we can do it, too, if we want to.  What did she do so right?  It's not much of a secret.  And it's not complicated.  Anyone who becomes very successful in worldly things uses the same trick to get where they want to be: they forge ahead with single-mindedness of purpose.  Everything they do is focused on a goal.  An Olympic hopeful concentrates all his actions and thoughts toward a gold medal; a rich man spends all his time and effort for financial gain; a saint funnels all his energy toward God;  and a mother of saints performs all her duties while loving God.  Her children see, hear, feel and absorb this love of God and it becomes their own. 

Single-mindedness of purpose.  Focus. Focus so concentrated it encompasses all things in the big picture and delves into all the little things in the small picture.  Everything for the honor and glory of God.

Not complicated.... but easy to do?  Goodness, no!  The concept is easy to understand, but mastering the skill of spiritual recollection takes lots of practice.  And prayer.  And renewed intention every. single. day.  Every. single. minute.  And this is hard to do.  I'm not good at it.  Dang, but I get distracted!  But, this is not something we can give up on.  I'm constantly pulling myself by the bootstraps and expect to have to do so for the rest of my life. But it's worth it.  I can't save my soul if I don't do everything possible to save my childrens' souls, and I can't save my childrens' souls if I don't do everything possible to save my own.  It's definitely worth it.

And thankfully we have the inspiration and intercession of our heavenly friends to help us...  Saints who've "been there, done that."

St. Margaret, Pray for Us!

Saints With and From Large Families

Because it's the feast St. Catherine of Siena, the twenty-third of twenty-four children, I'm posting the saints we've collected (so far) who are the happy members or parents of highly blessed families ~ families containing five or more children.

Here's our list. Please let us know who needs to be added!

Queen St. Margaret of Scotland, the mother of eight children
St. Therese of Lisieux, the ninth child
St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother was the eleventh of thirteen children
St. Thomas Aquinas was the sixth son of the noble Aquino family
Gianna Beretta Molla was the 10th of 13 children, mother of 4, the last of whom she died to save (Thanks, MM)
Pope St. Piux X was the second of eleven children in the Sarto family
Queen St. Clotilda bore five children
St. Catherine of Genoa was the youngest of five children
Faustina Kowalska of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the third of ten children (Thanks, Rachel)
St. Bridget of Sweden was the mother of eight children
St. Hedwig was one of eight children and the mother of seven
St. Charles Borromeo was the third of six children
St. Thomas More was the father of four children, but also had a stepdaughter and two wards, plus several other students whom he mentored
St. Bernadette of Lourdes, one of six named children (Thanks, Squelly)
St. Leonides, a martyr of the third century, was the father of seven sons
St. Louis de Montfort was one of eighteen children
St. Joan of Arc was one of five siblings
St. Francis de Sales was the oldest of six brothers
*St. Casimir of Poland -- the third of thirteen children (added 5-24-11)