St Francis De Sales-Patron Saint of Authors

St Francis De Sales is perhaps one of the coolest Saints I have discovered since I became Catholic. He Was born in 1567 and died in 1622, His life is an example to all.

He was born into nobility, and his father wished him to carry on that nobility, but it was not what God had planned for his life. He studied for many years, eventually becoming a doctor of both law and theology. When done with his studies, he refused to marry the wife that his father had chosen for him, instead becoming a priest in the diocese of Geneva. Geneva was the main hub of Calvinism and a major Protestant city.

St. Francis actively evangelized to the Protestants, hoping to win them back to the Catholic faith. Francis engaged in a mission to convert back the major protestant areas. He went through the countryside, where he was rejected by many. After three years, he still had not converted anyone, but kept up with his mission. He began to write pamphlets to slip under peoples doors. These are compiled in a book now called "The Catholic Controversy". These letters were very influential and won many back to the Catholic Faith. During this time he was also made Bishop of Geneva, which placed him at an even more prominent role.

NewAdvent.com has the following to say about his mission:

"Risking his life, he journeyed through the entire district, preaching constantly; by dint of zeal, learning, kindness and holiness he at last obtained a hearing. He then settled in Thonon, the chief town. He confuted the preachers sent by Geneva to oppose him; he converted the syndic and several prominent Calvinists. At the request of the pope, Clement VIII, he went to Geneva to interview Theodore Beza, who was called the Patriarch of the Reformation. The latter received him kindly and seemed for a while shaken, but had not the courage to take the final steps. A large part of the inhabitants of Le Chablais returned to the true fold "

Throughout the years St Francis wrote many books among them was Introduction to the Devout Life. His amount of writing is the reason that he was proclaimed Patron Saint of Journalists and Writers.

He died in 1622 at Lyons, and was proclaimed a Saint in 1665 by Pope Alexander VII. In hindsight it can be seen that he was a truly a hero during the time when many sought to destroy the Church and its faith.

Feast Day: January 24


"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."
-Prayer of St Francis De Sales

Eucharist(7) Final one

well, this blog series has come to an end. i hope that these quotes have helped you understand what Catholics believe about the Eucharist, and how the belief has been consistent over the past 2000 years. Here is the last group of quotes that take us up to the modern day.

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Moreover, in the Blessed Sacrament Our Lord Himself is the light which manifests Him as our model and reveals His beauties to us. He is Himself His light, His means of being known, just as the sun is itself its own proof. To make Himself known, He has only to show Himself. Recognition of Him need not come from its being reasoned out. A child does not have to discourse with himself to recognize his parents. Our Lord reveals Himself through His presence, just as parents do. But as we grow to know His voice better and as our hearts become more sympathetic to Him in emptying themselves of what is not him, our Lord manifests Himself in a clearer and more intimate manner, which only those know who love Him. He gives the soul a divine conviction which overshadows the light of human reason. Look at Magdalen,: one word from Jesus and she recognizes Him. He acts the same way in the Blessed Sacrament: He says one word only, but it rings in our very hearts: "It is I!...." We sense His Presence; we believe in it more firmly than if we were to see Him with bodily eyes."
-St Peter Julian Eymard (19th Century)
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"This is a real presence which includes every dimension of who Jesus is: body and blood, human soul and divine person. The consecrated Eucharistic species are the Lord and therefore command our adoration. We do not adore ourselves, nor the ordained priest, nor the Bible, even though these are vehicles for Christ's spiritual presence; we do adore the Eucharist, this blessed sacrifice made really present sacramentally."
- Francis Cardinal George of Chicago(20th Century)
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"It took me a long time as a convert to realize the presence of Christ as Man in the Sacrament. He is the same Jesus Who walked on earth, Who slept in the boat as the tempest arose, Who hungered in the desert, Who prayed in the garden, Who conversed with the woman by the well, Who rested at the house of Martha and Mary, Who wandered through the cornfields, picking the ears of corn to eat.

Jesus is there as Man. He is there, Flesh and Blood, Soul and Divinity. He is our leader Who is always with us. Do you wonder that Catholics are exultant in this knowledge, that their Leader is with them? "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."
-Dorothy Day(20th century)
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"The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life,"
- Pope John Paul II (20th Century)
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"Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the Living Heart of each of our parishes,"
- Pope Paul VI (20th century)
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The substantial conversion of bread and wine into his body and blood introduces within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of "nuclear fission," to use an image familiar to us today, which penetrates to the heart of all being, a change meant to set off a process which transforms reality, a process leading ultimately to the transfiguration of the entire world, to the point where God will be all in all .
-Pope Benedict XVI (21st Century)

Eucharist (6)

And we keep on going!

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"Give me the grace to long for Your holy sacraments, and especially to rejoice in the presence of Your body, sweet Savior Christ, in the holy sacrament of the altar."
- St. Thomas More(Late 15th/Early 16th Century)
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"The eternal tide flows hid in Living Bread. That with its Heavenly Life too be fed..."
-St John of the Cross (16th Century)
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"Do you know what Mass is? In the Church it is what the sun in our world, it is the soul of our faith, the center of our religion, the end and center of all the ceremonies, rites and sacraments. In a word it is the summary of all that is beautiful and good in the Church of God."
- St. Leonard of Port Maurice (Late 17th/Early 18th Century)----
"In the Blessed Sacrament
God loves us so tenderly,
He empties Himself completely.
O, who could believe it?
Withholding nothing, He gives his all.
He gives his flesh for us to eat
He gives his blood for us to drink.
He gives his soul, his infinite being
To transform us into Himself.
Praised be the Blessed Sacrament!"
-St Louis de Montfort (18th Century)
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"God is everywhere, in the very air I breathe, yes everywhere, but in His Sacrament of the Altar He is as present actually and really as my soul within my body; in His Sacrifice daily offered as really as once offered on the Cross,"
-St Elizabeth Ann Seton (Late 18th, Early 19th Century)