Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

THE SERMONS OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES FOR LENT

GIVEN IN THE YEAR 1622

Translated by Nuns of the Visitation
Edited by Father Lewis S. Fiorelli, O.S.F.S.

"Our entire good consists not only in accepting
the truth of God's word, but in persevering in it."

- St. Francis de Sales

Originally Published by:
TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC.
Rockford, Illinois 61105
Nihil Obstat: Rev. Msgr. John H. Dewson
Censor Librorum

Imprimatur:
+ Most Rev. Robert E. Mulvee
Bishop of Wilmington
Wilmington, Delaware
December 12, 1986
Feast of St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Copyright @ 1987 by the Visitation Monastery of Frederick, MD, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 87-50084
ISBN: 0-89555-260-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed and bound in The United States of America.

TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC.
P.O. Box 424
Rockford, Illinois 61105
1987

This collection of St. Francis de Sales’ Sermons for Lent is available from Tan Books:

Toll Free 1- 800-437-5876
www.tanbooks.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Link to About St. Francis de Sales

Link to Preface

Link to Translator's Note

Link to the First Sermon: Fasting

(Sermon for Ash Wednesday, February 9, 1622, concerning the spiritual fruits of fasting and the conditions which make fasting pleasing to God: fasting universally, that is, with all the senses and with the understanding, memory, and the appetites of the will; how completely the primitive Christians fasted; fasting through humility rather than through vanity, fasting through obedience rather than through self-will, following the community customs in fasting rather than seeking to be singular, fasting only to please God and not for the esteem of men, and the evil of subjecting the commands of God and our superiors to our own human discretion)

Link to the Second Sermon: Temptation

(Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent, February 13, 1622, concerning the universality of temptation, the spiritual danger of idleness, faith as a prime weapon against temptation, slothful souls, presumptuous reliance of beginners on the strength from their sensible fervor, attachment to the consolations of God, Our Lord's example in undergoing temptation from the devil, battling one's faults with patience and perseverance, vain hopes which distract the soul from practicing solid virtue, the folly of avariciously chasing after a multiplicity of devotions, and vain complacency in God's consolations)

Link to the Third Sermon: Faith

(Sermon for Thursday after the First Sunday of Lent, February 17, 1622, concerning faith as the adhesion of the understanding to the truths revealed by God or the Church, living faith which produces the fruit of good works vs. dead or dying faith, vigilant, penetrating faith vs. dormant faith, the supernatural prudence which accompanies vigilant faith, attentive faith, confidence in prayer, perseverance in prayer, patience in prayer, and humility in prayer)

Link to the Fourth Sermon: Eternal Happiness

(Sermon for the Second Sunday of Lent, February 20, 1622, concerning our inability to comprehend eternal happiness, the ability of the soul in Heaven to use its faculties to understand clearly and to love ardently, the soul's joy in heavenly conversations with the angels, saints, Our Lady, Our Lord, and with the Most Holy Trinity, the soul's great joy in recalling Our Lord's mercies to it, His Passion and death, and in seeing the love of His Heart for it, each soul's great delight in receiving a secret name known to God alone, the kiss given by God to the blessed soul, and the endlessness of the joys of eternity)

Link to the Fifth Sermon: Election and Reprobation

(Sermon for the Thursday after the Second Sunday of Lent (coinciding with the Feast of St. Matthias), February 24, 1622, concerning the danger which all Christians live in of refusing to receive the grace of salvation, the danger of even specially favored souls falling from God and being damned, why we must always have a great fear of damnation-even in the religious life, the avarice of the evil rich man, two kinds of avarice and especially that of clinging to what we possess, using God for one's own benefit, non-material avarice, using riches vs. idolizing riches, the avarice and treachery of Judas, the beginnings of spiritual downfall, the salutary fear of sin, availing ourselves of the grace to mortify our evil inclinations, the replacement of those who die or defect from the Apostolic College or from the religious life, and the choice of St. Matthias to replace Judas)

Link to the Sixth Sermon: Mutual Charity

(Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent, February 27, 1622, concerning Our Lord's commandment of love of neighbor, His desire that we be united with each other, the relationship between love of God and love of neighbor, in what way the Commandment of love of neighbor is new, Our Lord's example of love of neighbor, Our Lord's restoration of man to God's image and likeness, seeing and loving Our Lord in our neighbor, the extent to which we should love our neighbor, how it is better to be spent for our neighbor's sake than to spend ourselves for him in the way we choose, union with God and our neighbor in the Most Blessed Sacrament, love of neighbor as the Commandment which God stresses to us the most earnestly, and how we should love our neighbor with the same incomparable ardor and constancy with which Our Lord loved us on the Cross)

Link to the Seventh Sermon: Proper Conduct in Illness

(Sermon for the Thursday after the Third Sunday of Lent, March 3, 1622, concerning the cure of St. Peter's mother-in-law, the celibacy of St. Peter, the Communion of Saints, God's lordship over all things, two methods of meditating, the wonderful submission to God and resignation into the hands of her superiors of St. Peter's mother-in-law as she lay ill with fever, over-eagerness in seeking cures from God, St. Bernard's words that religious must not be concerned with their bodily illnesses, over-eagerness in seeking remedies for illness, the admirable submission to God's will of St. Peter's mother-in-law and how we should imitate her, using one's health to serve God, and the practice of true evangelical poverty in time of illness)

Link to the Eighth Sermon: God's Spiritual Providence

(Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 6, 1622, concerning God's special spiritual care of those who have withdrawn from the world to follow the Savior on the "mountain" of perfection, how God's Providence is greater in proportion to the soul's lack of anxiety for its own needs, how we must diligently use the ordinary means to attain perfection and how, if these fail, God would sooner work a miracle than leave us without assistance, how God tests souls, anxiety to be rid of spiritual pains rather than trusting God to console us as He wills, the twin virtues of humility and generosity, how Our lord reproduced the five loaves and two fishes, how religious souls must be satisfied when God gives them only a sufficiency (or even less), and how God will continually renew the spiritual goods which we have)

Link to the Ninth Sermon: Proper Fear of Death

(Sermon for the Thursday after the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 10, 1622, concerning Our Lord's raising of the son of the widow of Nairn, Our Lord's motives for performing this miracle-and in this manner, burial in the Old and in the New Law, God's creative power in raising the dead, the error of some ancient philosophers who say we should not fear death, the holy Fathers' teaching that we must fear death without fearing it, how even saintly souls should fear death, St. Paul's desire for death and Job's desire for death, the secret language of love, that it is good to fear death, how this fear should be combined with confidence in God's Providence, how in order to die well we must lead a good life, how we should daily remind ourselves that we shall die, and how we should always bear in mind the account we must someday render to God, and keep ourselves in the state we would wish to be found in at death)

Link to the Tenth Sermon: Hearing the Word of God

(Sermon for Passion Sunday, March 13, 1622, concerning the goodness which should be practiced by those who preach God's word, how we should esteem God's word even if it is taught by a sinful person, how a person's refusal to believe Our Lord's word proves the evilness of that person-not of Our Lord, how all sin is a result of defection from truth, how God's word is Truth, how Lucifer's sin as well as that of our first parents resulted from a choice of vanity over truth, how we should remain attentive to the truths of faith, our culpable failure s. live according to the truths of God's word, the dispositions With which we should hear God’s word and the unimportance of distractions and dryness in the lower part of our soul as long as the higher part of the soul is devoted and reverent toward God's word)

Link to the Eleventh Sermon: Humility and Obedience

(Sermon for Palm Sunday, March 20, 1622, concerning the perfection and imperfection found in every creature (except the Blessed Virgin) -including the angels in Heaven and the lives of the saints, how we should take note of and profit from the imperfections in the lives of the saints, how we should not use the faults of the saints to excuse our own failings, worldly prudence vs. the folly of the Cross, fraternal correction, the ass and colt upon which Our Lord entered Jerusalem and what they represent, Our Lord's humility and patience and submission, perfect obedience vs. obedience full of worldly prudence, the proper answer to make to the objections of worldly prudence, Our Lord's confounding of the maxims of the world, and our blessedness in imitating Him)

Link to the Twelfth Sermon: The Passion of Our Lord and What It Means

(Sermon for Good Friday, March 25, 1622, concerning the brass serpent which saved the Israelites, the sinlessness of Christ, the manner in which He redeemed us, the two natures of Christ and our three "natures," Our Lord as Savior, how our salvation comes from looking upon our Savior, Our Lord's seven last words, His prayer for forgiveness for those crucifying Him, His pardon of the good thief and of St. Peter, and the bad thieves and Judas' damnation; the danger of damnation and how we should both fear and hope, Our Lord's confiding of Our Lady and St. John to each other, the darkness on Good Friday, Our Lord's great sorrow over those who would not profit from His Passion, His feeling of abandonment by His Father, His thirst, His obedience in remaining on the Cross and how we should imitate Him, the Cross as the one way of salvation, and Our Lord's perfect commending of Himself into His Father's hands and how we should do likewise, making no reservations)