Quite a few years ago in my Protestant days I discovered the Treatise on the Love of God by St Francis of Sales (1567-1622) - whose feast day is today - and he helped me on my journey into the Catholic Church through this book. He had an extraordinarily gentle and loving spirit, and I was delighted to discover more recently that he loved our St Teresa and her writings. He also had a hand in the spread of the Teresian Carmelites into France, which took on astonishing proportions in the seventeenth century. The Office of Readings for today includes a passage from his Introduction to the Devout Life which succinctly and clearly lays out the importance of recognising that the life of faith is lived by everyone differently according to the person’s ‘character, station, and calling’. ‘I say that devotion must be practised in different ways by the nobleman and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by the unmarried girl and by the married woman. But even this distinction is not sufficient; for the practice of devotion must be adapted to the strength, to the occupation and to the duties of each one in particular’. This is of the utmost importance for us Seculars and might be regarded as a kind of manifesto for us.
Intercessions:
Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela), Agnes – cancer
Siena, Elara – sick children
Rosemarie – multiple afflictions
Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated
RIP Anthony Kirke, husband of Judith Kirke OCDS (distributors of the Carmelite Diary)
RIP Roswitha Watson OCDS (former President of St Therese Community, Oxford)
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