Top 100 Francis De Sales Sayings
#1. everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you His unwavering strength that you may bear it. Be at peace, then, and set aside all anxious thoughts and worries. Francis de Sales
Lettie B. Cowman
#2. At St. Francis de Sales in Atlanta, we do not have an organ. We do not have rehearsals during the week. We do not have a professional choir.
Richard Morris
#4. When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence.
Saint Francis De Sales
#5. Stretch out your hand to Him like a little child to his father so that He may lead you on.
Francis De Sales
#8. He who can preserve gentleness amid pains, and peace amid worry multitude of affairs, is almost perfect.
Saint Francis De Sales
#9. If after all your efforts you cannot succeed, you could not please our Lord more than by sacrificing to Him your will, and remaining in tranquility, humility, and devotion, entirely conformed and submissive to His divine will and good pleasure.
Francis De Sales
#10. Let us think only of spending the present day well. Then when tomorrow shall have come, it will be called today, and then we will think about it.
Saint Francis De Sales
#11. What we need is a cup of understanding, a barrel of love, and an ocean of patience.
Saint Francis De Sales
#12. Truly, by the watering of our Savior's blood, made with the hyssop of the cross, we have been restored to a white incomparably better than that possessed by the snows of innocence.
Francis De Sales
#14. You must grow in love by means of the root, rather than the branches. (S II 7)
Francis De Sales
#15. Work hard every day at increasing your purity of heart, which consists in appraising things and weighing them in the balance of God's will.
Saint Francis De Sales
#16. So many have come to me that I might serve them, leaving me no time to think of myself. However, I assure you that I do feel deep down within me, God be praised.
Saint Francis De Sales
#17. To be pleased at correction and reproofs shows that one loves the virtues which are contrary to those faults for which he is corrected and reproved. And, therefore, it is a great sign of advancement in perfection.
Saint Francis De Sales
#18. Learn to see God in the details of your life, for He is everywhere.
Francis De Sales
#19. There are two sorts of good wills. The one says, "I would do well, but it gives me trouble, and I will not do it." The other, "I wish to do well, but I have not as much power as I have will; it is this which holds me back." The first fills Hell, the second Paradise.
Francis De Sales
#20. Obedience is a virtue of so excellent a nature, that Our Lord was pleased to mark its observance upon the whole course of His life; thus He often says, He did not come to do His Own will, but that of His Heavenly Father.
Saint Francis De Sales
#21. See, this divine lover is at the gate. He does not merely knock, but He remains there knocking. He calls to the soul.
Francis De Sales
#22. There will be nothing which the fullness of His love does not replenish.
Francis De Sales
#23. All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be.
Saint Francis De Sales
#24. When human aid fails us, all is not wanting; for God takes over and takes care of us by His special Providence.
Francis De Sales
#25. All the science of the Saints is included in these two things: To do, and to suffer. And whoever had done these two things best, has made himself most saintly.
Saint Francis De Sales
#26. God is merciful to those who want to love Him and who have placed their hopes in Him.
Francis De Sales
#28. It is better to remain silent than to speak the truth ill-humoredly, and spoil an excellent dish by covering it with bad sauce.
Saint Francis De Sales
#30. Especially beware of bad books; and for nothing in the world let your soul be carried away by certain writings which weak brains admire, because of some vain subtleties which they find therein.
Francis De Sales
#31. What son would not bring his mother back to life and would not bring her into paradise after her death if he could?
Saint Francis De Sales
#32. The King of Glory does not reward His servants according to the dignity of their office, but according to the humility and love with which they have exercised it.
Francis De Sales
#34. Oppose vigorously any tendency to sadness ... You must persevere. By means of sorrow the enemy tries to make us weary of good works, but if he sees that we don't give them up and that being done in spite of his opposition they have become very meritorious, he will stop troubling us.
Francis De Sales
#37. The body is poisoned through the mouth, even so is the heart through the ear ... And even if we do mean no harm, the Evil One means a great deal, and he will use those idle words as a sharp weapon against some neighbor's heart.
Francis De Sales
#38. If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently ... And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed.
Saint Francis De Sales
#39. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, not even if your whole world seems upset. If you find that you have wandered away from the shelter of God, lead your heart back to Him quietly and simply.
Francis De Sales
#40. Examine your heart often to see if it is such toward your neighbor as you would like his to be toward you were you in his place. This is the touchstone of true reason.
Francis De Sales
#41. God desires from us more fidelity to the little things that he places in our power than ardor for great things that do not depend upon us.
Francis De Sales
#44. We must be very faithful, but without anxiety or eagerness; we must use the means that are given to us according to our vocation, and then remain in peace concerning all the rest. For God ... will always be attentive to provide us with whatever is necessary.
Francis De Sales
#45. Is it not a great temptation to be so valiant in imagination and so cowardly in execution?
Saint Francis De Sales
#47. If your church continues in this liberty of conscience, making no scruple to take away what she pleases, soon the Scripture will fail you, and you will have to be satisfied with the Institutes of Calvin, which must indeed have I know not what excellence, since they censure the Scriptures themselves!
Francis De Sales
#48. Let us be what God likes, so long as we are His, and let us not be what we want to be, if it is against his intention.
Saint Francis De Sales
#49. The thoughts of those moved by natural human love are almost completely fastened on the beloved, their hearts are filled with passion for it, and their mouths full of its praises.
Saint Francis De Sales
#50. You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.
Francis De Sales
#51. While extremely sensitive as to the slightest approach to slander, you must also guard against an extreme into which some people fall, who, in their desire to speak evil of no one, actually uphold and speak well of vice.
Saint Francis De Sales
#54. Even as birds on the wing meet the air continually, we, let us go where we will, meet with that Presence always and everywhere.
Francis De Sales
#56. Everybody finds themselves sometimes deficient in what they need, and put to inconvenience ... the richest people may easily be without something they want, and that is practically to suffer poverty. Accept such occurrences cheerfully, rejoice in them, bear them willingly.
Francis De Sales
#57. When we abandon all to Him, He takes a tender care of us, and His Providence for us is great or small according to the measure of our abandonment.
Francis De Sales
#58. One single day of devotion is worth more than a thousand years of worldly life.
Francis De Sales
#59. Examine from time to time what are the dominant passions of your soul, and having ascertained this, mold your life, so that in thought, word, and deed you may as far as possible counteract them.
Saint Francis De Sales
#60. Never be hurried in anything. Do all things calmly and in a spirit of repose. Do not lose your inward peace even if everything seems to be going wrong. What is anything in life compared to peace of soul?
Francis De Sales
#61. There are no galley-slaves in the royal vessel of divine love - every man works his oar voluntarily!
Saint Francis De Sales
#62. It is to those who have the most need of us that we ought to show our love more especially.
Saint Francis De Sales
#63. Naturally we all have an inclination to command, and a great aversion to obey; and yet it is certain that it is more for our good to obey than to command; hence perfect souls have always had a great affection for obedience, and have found all their joy and comfort in it.
Saint Francis De Sales
#64. We can never attain to perfection while we have an affection for any imperfection.
Saint Francis De Sales
#65. Be not miserable about what may happen tomorrow. The same everlasting Father, who cares for you today, will care for you tomorrow.
Saint Francis De Sales
#66. The highest degree of meekness consists in seeing, serving, honoring, and treating amiably, on occasion, those who are not to our taste, and who show themselves unfriendly, ungrateful, and troublesome to us.
Saint Francis De Sales
#67. Never does our good God leave us save to hold us better; never does He let go of us save to keep us better; never does He wrestle with us save to give Himself up to us and to bless us.
Francis De Sales
#68. Frequently give up some of your property by giving it with a generous heart to the poor ... It is true that God will repay us not only in the next world but even in this.
Francis De Sales
#69. We are sometimes so busy being good angels that we neglect to be good men and women.
Saint Francis De Sales
#70. The slow pace of our perfection has to be borne with patience, provided that on our part we always do whatever we can to continue advancing.
St. Francis De Sales
#71. It is not those who commit the least faults who are the most holy, but those who have the greatest courage, the greatest generosity, the greatest love, who make the boldest efforts to overcome themselves, and are not immediately apprehensive about tripping.
Saint Francis De Sales
#72. A dance is the devil's procession, and he that entereth into a dance, entereth into his possession.
Saint Francis De Sales
#73. Strive to see God in all things without exception. Do not smother yourself ... If you start smothering yourself with a host of cares and longings and wishes ... you will be disabling yourself from serving God with all your heart.
Saint Francis De Sales
#74. There is always more profit and more consolation in the public Offices of the Church than in private acts of devotion, God having willed to give the preference to communion in prayer over all individual action.
Francis De Sales
#76. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections.
Francis De Sales
#77. One great remedy against all manner of temptation, great or small, is to open the heart and lay bare its suggestion, likings, and dislikings before some spiritual adviser; for, ... the first condition which the Evil One makes with a soul, when he wants to entrap it, is silence.
Saint Francis De Sales
#78. Grace is never wanting. God always gives sufficient grace to whoever is willing to receive it.
Francis De Sales
#80. The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not "What a lovely sermon!" but "I will do something."
Saint Francis De Sales
#81. Go in all simplicity; do not be anxious to win a quiet mind, and it will be all the quieter. Do not examine so closely into the progress of your soul. Do not crave too much to be perfect, but let your spiritual life beformed by your duties, and by the actions which are called forth by circumstances.
Saint Francis De Sales
#83. For every great temptation there will be many small ones. Wolves and bears are more dangerous than flies, but we are bothered most by flies.
Saint Francis De Sales
#84. A man who can own pearls does not bother about shells, and those who aspire to virtue do not trouble themselves over honors.
Francis De Sales
#85. When all shall fail us, then God will take care of us, and then all will not fail us since we shall have God.
Francis De Sales
#87. God requires a faithful fulfillment of the merest trifle given us to do, rather than the most ardent aspiration to things to which we are not called.
Saint Francis De Sales
#88. 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.
Francis De Sales
#89. A good discourse is that from which nothing can be retrenched without cutting into the quick.
Saint Francis De Sales
#90. I have the same opinion of dances that physicians have of mushrooms: the best of them are good for nothing.
Saint Francis De Sales
#92. Faith fills a man with love for the beauty of its truth, with faith in the truth of its beauty
Saint Francis De Sales
#93. Many would be willing to have afflictions provided that they not be inconvenienced by them.
Francis De Sales
#95. The acts of daily forbearance, the headache, or toothache, or heavy cold; the tiresome peculiarities of husband or wife, the broken glass ... all of these sufferings, small as they are, if accepted lovingly, are most pleasing to God's Goodness.
Francis De Sales
#97. One of the most evil dispositions possible is that which satirizes and turns everything to ridicule. God abhors this vice, and has sometimes punished it in a marked manner
Saint Francis De Sales
#98. Let is walk ... joyously, dear souls, among the difficulties of this passing life ... These pains will have an end when our life ends, after which there will be only joy, only contentment, only eternal consolation.
Francis De Sales
#99. He would never exhort the faithful to persevere if he were not ready to give them the power to do so.
Francis De Sales
#100. Little deeds that proceed from charity please God and have their place among meritorious acts.
Francis De Sales
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