EWTN Live - Saint Francis de Sales - Fr Mitch Pacwa, SJ with Fr Thomas Dailey, OSFS - 04-06-2011

this patron saint of writers once said that the measure of love is to love without measure we'll learn more about this extraordinary 16th century state tonight so please stay with us thank you thank you very much and welcome I'm father Mitch Pacwa and welcome to EWTN live our chance to be you guests from all over the world and our guest tonight is a professor of theology and he's the director of the Silesian Center for faith and culture at DeSales University and he's here to help us learn more about the great doctor of the church st. Francis DeSales so please welcome father Thomas Daly both of Daly and their captain okay thank you be here where is the sales university the sales universities in the Diocese of Allentown just south of the city of Allentown which is about midway between New York and Philadelphia okay all right great and how long have you been there well counting my student days I went there as a student our seminary was there I've been on the faculty now for 22 years that's a good long time it is yes enjoy it great place to be oh that's good that's good and one of the things I guess you teach is about st. Francis DeSales I do and in fact surprisingly enough I've been teaching there 22 years and this semester for the first time ever I'm teaching a course on the classic book that Francis DeSales wrote the introduction to the devout life okay that's a it is his classic book that that's probably the book that's most often reprinted of all all of his taxi he's got a number of books that are really wonderful but that's the one that's most commonly printed definitely that's the that's the one that is recognized and has been popular for 400 years now is one of the best-selling devotional books ever yeah now first of all before we go into talking about that book tell us a little bit about the life of st. Francis DeSales we a lot of people know about the Silesians which were founded by st. John Bosco right and that's not your community that's correct your community is called what we are the Oblates of st. Francis DeSales much smaller congregation than the Silesians right the Silesians as you mentioned we're found by Saint John Bosco but he was enamored of st. Francis DeSales followed him early Francis DeSales was born in 1567 lived till 1622 was a bishop in in southeastern France and the territory that's now Geneva he's actually the bishop of Geneva although it's an interesting thing he never lived in Geneva this IVA was not exactly friendly to Catholics at the time it was a Calvinist City correct that's correct but he was still the bishop of Geneva and he he was oldest son of 13 children he grew up in a we probably refer to it as an aristocratic family very well educated went to the University of Paris earned two law degrees at the University of Padua but followed the calling of God whom he really believed was calling him to a life in the church wasn't didn't his father want him to be a lawyer very much so his father has served the doting father of the firstborn son had the son's life all planned out for him he was going to be a diplomat he was going to have a political career for that reason he needed to get a law degree and there's an interesting story Francis DeSales I think because he confided in his mother about his vocation finally got up the courage when he came back from studying law at the University of Padua to tell his father that he was going to to serve in the church and his father at first was not happy in fact the story goes that his father locked himself his father locked himself sort of in a room because he didn't want to say anything all day and then finally of course gave His blessing and he became a priest and eventually the the bishop he became a priest and one of his first tasks was which he volunteered for was to be a missionary to Geneva and and and the area around the lake of Geneva a region called the Chalet and he was in effect attempting to convert the inhabitants back to Catholicism okay how did he do hey by one account he converted 72,000 people back to back to the faith and then the then Bishop of Geneva made him the Provost of the Cathedral chapters or the head of the local clergy as it were and he was named coadjutor Bishop and when his predecessor died he became the Bishop of Geneva but still never got to go live there never lived in Geneva in fact had he been caught going through Geneva at the time they would have been arrested and possibly executed right those are tough times there's not much accumulation going on in those days and not the way we talk about it now no no no as a priest and Bishop he had great concern for the souls he just wasn't trying to rack up numbers of people he converted to correct he had real pastoral concern for the state of the souls and the holiness of the souls that he converted and the rest of his diocese this is why he wrote is that not true yes very much so at the time of course there were there were political concerns and legal concerns and in general that townspeople and the folk who lived throughout the country would be whatever religion the leaders of the government told them to be because they didn't know any better it was it was the time where the Catechism which had just been promoted from the Council of Trent which was just beginning to to catch on in the sense that folks weren't learning about the faith as much as they were simply being whatever they were told to be and so Francis DeSales made it made a very decided effort to educate people and the reason why he's now a patron of Catholic writers and journalists is because when he went into a town the town's name was tonal and the local we'd call it a town council now passed an ordinance that no one was allowed to go hear him preach it was against the law so the people didn't they didn't go so Francis DeSales had the idea that he would write down a summary of what he had intended to preach about and print it the printing press had recently been invented so he came up with what we would nowadays call pamphlets and he would put them on the the lampposts in the town he would slide them under people's doors explaining in very clear terms what he was going to say and how how logical it is and consistent it is and and how the faith makes sense it's not just something you're told to believe and eventually more important people read this and and and we're convinced of its reasonableness and they came out to hear him preach and then pretty much that the whole town came out and the town council eventually allowed him to preach they had to that's pretty good um are those pamphlets still available they were actually collected and put into a book that is called the it was given the title of the Catholic controversy which may not which was not a title that he gave to them but it's essentially laying out the doctrines of the faith in a very systematic point-by-point way and refuting what had been said about the Catholic faith erroneously it's kind of a debate going on on paper no that was his controversial writings and says not that he was a controversy by the way that book the Catholic controversy is available you know still today and if anybody's interested in getting it you can get it at ewtn religious catalogue that's at WWE wtn religious catalogue calm and you can order that or you can call them at one eight hundred eight five four six three one six we like to make st. Francis DeSales available and that would be a great way to learn the Catechism today as well because the the doctrine of the faith has stayed the same right so it still going to see the logic and beauty oh the faith that that he pointed out now let's talk a little bit about some of his spiritual writings where would you like to start well I would start where where he started and that was simply his writing his writings of letters people were constantly asking him questions about the faith and how best to live that out and he would painstakingly write letters back to them I didn't have email in those days and they certainly didn't have text messaging but he produced thousands and thousands of letters on on everyday subjects how do I get through the next day someone we write to him when my when my husband just passed away or my children are sick how do how does that reflect the will of God all kinds of simple ordinary everyday concerns and he would write back and explain how all of that was part of using the French term the devout life or holiness we'd say today and and his his main distinguishing idea which is a little bit difficult for us today because you know we we've appropriated the the teaching of the Vatican Council about a universal call to holiness without using that term that's what Francis DeSales was teaching four hundred years ago everything about our ordinary lives is where we be holy holiness is not something in addition to the rest of life to give you an example a young mother wrote to him and said bishop I'm trying very very hard to to live a good life to be holy but I can't get to church every day I can't get to Mass every day because I have these seven children who to use 21st century language are driving me crazy they're running all over the house you couldn't imagine seven kids doing the right Francis de Sales wrote back to her and again putting yourself back 400 years ago this is stunning the bishop wrote back to her and said madam you should not go to church every day the bishop said this he said you become a saint by being the best mom you can be to those seven people God has put in your life and that that's the sort of practical genius that endeared him to so many people and and and this is the content of his letters and there are there are several volumes of his letters that remain available today in English and that that's where I would start because it was from those letters that his deeper books emerged mm-hmm now some among those deeper books you already mentioned the devout life let's talk a little bit about that okay the introduction to the devout life is just that an introduction to the devout life and he he wrote it actually he was cajoled into writing it by the spiritual director of one of these women from town who wrote to him for advice she showed Francis DeSales his letters to this other priest in a visiting town when she was on a pilgrimage and he said these are these are incredibly worthwhile they should be published in fact he kind of wrote to Francis DeSales and said if you don't publish them yourself I'll do it so Francis DeSales said I'll take care of that so he could edit them and and and really its premise tone the idea as he explains in the very beginning of what devotion the better term in English would be holiness really is and he said holiness is for everyone it's not just for the monks and the nuns and the monasteries which of course were prevalent in Europe at the time it's not just for the clergy it's for the the the the the mother it's for the bricklayer it's for the merchants in town and everyone lives their holiness differently based on their state in life and the rest of the book explains how or really introduces the the ordinary person to a holy way of life Francis DeSales a spirituality is eminently for the laity and and eminently practical yeah he was concerned about the soldier the the merchant the housewife you know all these folks who had different concerns and the clergy and he one of the great lines is that you they should not have the spirituality of a bishop nor bishop of them exactly that you have to have a spirituality appropriate your way of life exactly his starting his starting point was your vocation or your state in life whatever that is that's where you be holy because otherwise holiness is something extraneous to the vast majority of where we spend our time it's it's it's in addition to everyday life in Francis DeSales his idea was no it's it's in and through the everyday that you get that that you practice holiness to give an example from the book he speaks about virtues and and he emphasizes what he calls the little virtues now that that's a bad marketing term for Francis DeSales but he says he says look he says everyone wants to practice would would love to practice the big ones everyone would love to be courageous and save someone from a burning house or be magnanimous in in their generosity he says all well and good he said the problem is most of us will never have a chance to do that what I encourage you to do because everybody can do it no matter what your your job your your way of life is is to practice the little virtues like being humble or being gentle or being simple anyone can do those everyone can do those and they are as virtuous as the big showy virtues I said it's a bad it's a bad marketing term for them because we we hear the word little virtues and we think out there just little things so you start trying to be gentle with everyone as I often say to folks try that on the highway or to be humble about things or to or to be simple yeah how can we how can we be B just to use an expression of his just be who we are and be that perfectly well for the love of God who made us who we are ya know these are important things and this is another book that we have a religious catalogue that would be well worth having people pick up in order to read how do I get to be holy in my way of life you know I've got laundry to do you know how can I be holy well I'm trying to do the laundry and the kids are just going outside to make more dirty clothes so what do i what do i do and how do I find patience in that situation exactly I mean there are chapters in there on on how we should speak how we should dress and and and and there's some humor in that in what he says in there he's speaking about our appearance and how we dress and and keep in mind he's writing to two folks in the court the princes and the princesses and he said you you know he said remember he said old people should never try to dress fancy that it's just folly they look ridiculous so leave that leave that folly to the young you know and and and he's talking about the the person of a more advanced age who's trying to still look like she's 16 so you had that same problem absolutely which is why Francis DeSales of spiritualities so so timeless and and still perfect for today we were speaking in class the other day about games you know again games at the court were part of the courtly life and and Francis DeSales he said you know some games are okay some you probably shouldn't waste your time with he said but the real principle is everybody needs leisure everybody needs to take a break once in a while and that's a good thing sometimes sometimes we we we get into the thinking that I I have to work all the time or or I have to work at being holy all of the time when in fact even in leisurely pursuits we can be holy so as I'm teaching this to to the 20 year olds in my class I'm trying to show them pictures of the ancient games he was talking about ancient versions of croquet and chess then I flashed up on the screen the big picture of March Madness I said what about that they all thought it was perfectly fine I said it is so but here's here's the principle of Francis DeSales anything game recreation sport is good if it helps us but if it takes all our attention and all our affection this is that can be a problem then then you can produce the the statistics in March about how productivity and most businesses in the country goes down because everybody's watching the game that's the kind of absorption that that he would say that's probably not a good thing so it's that it's that sort of as one as Elizabeth stopped an English biographer and writer about Francis DeSales she called it inspired common sense that's what he gives us inspired common sense it's everyday ordinary matters elevated to a life of holiness you know this you know it's not common to think of holiness and our recreation you know that that's that's usually we're taking a break when we were from everything and we think we can think of ourselves taking a break from holiness if we were not careful but he says no that that's that's not it that you that holiness belongs everywhere including in our leisure one of the one of the great teachings of Francis de Sales and he actually incorporated it in a little book that he wrote for the sisters of the visitation of Holy Mary the the order that he founded with Saint Jane - Chantal and it's called the direction of intention he says if at the beginning of anything we do if we can be conscious of directing whatever it is we do to the love of God if we can consciously say I'm doing this for the love of God then I have just made holy whatever it is I'm doing it could be baking it could be driving it could be playing basketball it's now something I've given to God he said that's how the vast majority of people become holy one of the other things that is also important about him is he had an important relationship with Saint Jane Francis Chantel tell us a little bit about that relationship Saint Jane and Francis DeSales founded the religious order known as the visitation of Holy Mary but to back that up Jane was a widow in the town of Dijon her was for the mustard yes absolutely absolutely her brother was the arch was the Bishop of Dijon and it was tradition back then that during Lent you would invite bishops from neighboring towns to come in and preach the Lenten sermons so Francis DeSales was invited to Dijon sitting in front of him is chantal and both of them had this uncanny sense we'd call it an inspiration that they were to meet that they were to do something incredible for God Francis DeSales became her spiritual director through long years of of correspondence and conversation and discerning the will of God Francis DeSales began this new religious order changing being the first of the sisters and what was new about it at the time was that they weren't necessarily going to take the traditional vows of chastity and poverty and obedience they were going to Val to love because if you love everything else is included more distinctly they were not going and part of what they would do would be to love others which meant they would leave the monastery once in a while and go into town and care for the sick or the poor not in a hospital sense but but simply in a visiting sense hence the the visitation it was the first religious order of its kind to do that prior prior to that there are always enclosed monasteries so that was the novelty of what they started and again it goes back to that key Silesian principle that doing ordinary things extraordinarily well is what will be about the second distinction of the order is that it would accept into the monastery women who quite frankly would not be able to survive in other monasteries they were elderly there were widows they were infirm because again Francis DeSales believed and taught that holiness was for everyone not Jo's not just those who had the strength to endure a vigorous religious life to this day I'm told the the visitation orders the only enclosed a religious order in the world that has as part of its rule that women can go and spend a weeks at a time inside the monastery with the sisters because again it's it it's continuing that tradition of welcoming in anyone and and and living the ordinary life extraordinarily well so the visitation sisters are still around today yes they are they're here in Mobile in fact I that would be the closest monastery I believe will be Alabama yes and Georgetown in Washington DC in Massachusetts there are st. Louis New York there throughout the United States the throughout the world still so he was also someone who assisted in the founding of an order as well as running a diocese and evangelizing in that diocese to bring to restore unity in the church plus giving spiritual direction to people and writing books to to help with the spiritual life sounds like he was pretty busy it's probably why he was so skinny he never slowed down and in fact many folks tried to get him to slow down but he believed that this was all the Lord's will for him and he and he kept going as long as he could and they and add to that was that with the the princes and the Kings were also calling upon him to do diplomatic work so this is you know in one sense he's the kind of saint that the modern world can rien de s-- cover and make application to our own situation like you said in Vatican Council you know that the call to holiness was said to be a universal call to holiness and his theology fits that very well fits it perfectly nowadays we would talk about the merger of faith and culture the the concept of culture so heavily promoted by Pope John Paul the first second and and that was his idea how to bring the the beautiful truths of our faith into engagement with the culture of wherever you live and whatever you do that's exactly what Francis DeSales was about that's that's why we've created a center for faith and culture that tries to continue this in the 21st century good so then you run that yes oh that's good to get a lot of students involved in it we do we have students we have a leader a two-year leadership program for students that's unique in the country that we have students going through every year we have we have what we call the faith and reason Honors Program an academic honors program that has run through the center lots of lectures and and and programs and panel discussions and and although all seeking to bring again the beauty of what we believe to the to the issues of modern life okay great we have to take a break but we're gonna be back in a couple of minutes we'd like to get your questions and your comments on this great st. Francis DeSales so please stay with us welcome back we have a really nice audience here with us today and they're from different parts of the country and they've come here on pilgrimage and we'd love to invite you to come here and join us on pilgrimage if you can be with us please contact our pilgrimage department at two zero five two seven one two nine six six that's two zero five two seven one two nine six six or go to our website WWE wtn calm and with they'll give you all kinds of information about where you can stay the scheduling of the masses are the most important thing scheduling of the programs and tours of the network and directions on how to get up to hands-full to see the sisters so we'd love to have you come here and visit us it makes it a lot more fun for me too so are you ready for some questions I think so alright let's go over the call you have Nicholas underline hold Nicholas yes father are you from my question is did st. Francis DeSales have a 10th temperamental nature I was told that once and I wanted to know if that was true or not and also did he speak to that issue at all in any of his writings because we all are a little temperamental at times I think it's a it's a great question in fact they got I'm not defensive that's right it's a great question and you're you're very correct temperamental might actually be putting it nicely Francis DeSales admitted himself that he had a hot streak to him in fact many of those who were with him often wondered how come he did not get angry in situations where someone was ridiculing him or or mocking him or calling out against him it was almost expected that you would you would get angry and his famous response was wood would you wish for me to lose in 15 minutes what I've spent my whole life trying to control so he knows that that hot streak is in him but he also knows that it's it's not the best way to deal with folks and so we were he worked very hard at it he there's a chapter in the intraday introductions in the devout life about anger and and and if you also know his life story it's his own chapter so yes he he had that potential in him but he worked very diligently to counteract that by being gentle we have a question from studio audience sir were you from I'm from New Mexico New Mexico good to have you here and what's your question well it's not about the topic but my question is why don't we as the church consider when Jesus comes down to earth a second time to get his mother for her assumption the second coming so when when Jesus came for the Assumption of Mary into heaven why isn't that the second coming do you want to take that I'll try to answer that one Francis DeSales actually wrote often about the assumption I'm not sure he ever he ever dealt with that question but I I think the the the imagery certainly of the assumption is not so much Jesus coming down to get his mother as as his mother being raised to heaven so it's not the geographical idea of Jesus changing places as much as it is his mother changing places right so he didn't come down she went up that would be my answer that sounds like a good answer and also it's very important that you know he didn't come to judge the world at that time where is that the second coming he'll be coming to judge the world and and straighten everybody out his mother he didn't have to straighten out true alright we have a caller Joe hello Joe hi how you doing fine were you from I'm from Staten Island New York great we got a couple here from Staten Island it's good to have you with us so what's your question I was wondering Francis teach on top of Francis DeSales and James nice and tall who they based a saint and hood on and if there was anybody and who their favorite Saints were who their favorite Saints were a while that would be tough to narrow down if you look through the writings of Francis DeSales he names countless numbers of saying says as examples of what he's teaching Francis DeSales was named for Saint Francis of Assisi his his own favorite Saints I'm not sure that there would be what at one in particular but the saintly life was certainly something that he was trying to teach about I don't think we modern people have as much appreciation of how many Saints seem to impact the lives of people in the 16th and 17th century that people they were you know we don't have as many Saints days as they did every day had its own Saint and they would be very devoted for the saint of the day short and also there they're living in that part of the world where those Saints came from and and so there's there's a there's an almost natural linkage with for the folks in Spain for all the saints from from Spain and and then the number of them as an example so he he does reference a lot of different Saints in his writings but I don't know that there's any one in particular that you would call his favorite okay sir were you from I'm from Charleston South Carolina good to have you here welcome and your question my question is st. Francis DeSales he writes a lot about living out your daily vocation and your station in life and to live it well how did he incorporate the Beatitudes into that teaching well I saw a lot of the Beatitudes of Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 fit into the spirituality of st. Francis DeSales very easily and very much so in in the sense that he wrote you'll find when you read his writings that that the sacred scriptures are woven through it almost as if they were his own language and certainly he appeals to the Beatitudes and the blessedness that that's what he's aiming for that that's what the devout life is to be meek to be humble of heart to be peaceable all of those Beatitudes are in fact what in essence what he's talking about what he's doing is is taking those ideas those very valuable ways of being and and in trying to say that you be that you you have that attitude of being in being a tradesman or being a soldier or being a parent or in in whatever state of life that is so what he was really doing was merging the two yah blessed are the meek would applied to a soldier as much as to a bishop or a housewife very much yeah yeah and he would try to bring that in we have another Joe on the line hello Joe how are you fine were you from I'm from Pennsylvania about an hour south of DeSales oh great good to have you and what is your question my question is about st. Francis DeSales as the patron saint of deaf people there doesn't seem to be a lot written about that but but I know he's declared the patron of the death and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that yeah tell us Mike I could have but I have to confess I can't talk about it with sign language I don't know well where that came from and in fact Francis DeSales is one of the patron saints of the Deaf and where that came from goes back to what we were talking about earlier and and and Francis de Sales is concerned to educate the faithful he had on his on his staff when he was a bishop one of the folks working there who was hard of hearing and could could barely hear but Francis DeSales says to himself if holiness is for everyone then it includes him too and so I've got to figure out a way to communicate this the Catechism and and and prayers and and educate this young man who can't hear so Francis DeSales created kind of his own sign language his own rudimentary form of communicating with someone who couldn't hear his words and for that reason among others was named patron saint of the deaf okay so no so wasn't just the Trappist who had come up with a sign language he also came up with the sign language I I don't know what it was I'm not sure anyone knows what it was but but the the the the key parts of the story is he wanted to communicate how to pray and and the elements of the catechism so even this person who worked for him and he figured out a way to go out to the servant and and that's the methodology of Francis DeSales that that's the idea of merging faith and culture that's the idea of of a universal call to holiness I'll take this great gift of our faith and our spirituality and our our beliefs and get it to you however I have to do it okay good we have another question from our studio audience sir were you from New Mexico New Mexico are you related to that other young man that was here what's your question why just why don't some priests were there on priestly garments or in public so why don't some priests wear their pre the garb when they're in public so father well I'll apply to you know I'm undressed tonight that's a very broad question of course I'm thinking as you asked that I'm thinking of a priest who used to be a pastor of one of our parishes who himself was was a builder construction man and he was known in the neighborhood for being very very good at it well when he's working with concrete all day he didn't have his priestly lunch when he came in for mass of course he put his cassock on so part of the answer to your question is that there may be a reason why a situation but in general I there isn't necessarily an answer for that Francis DeSales would make the point that while of course it is important to to dress as who we are he writes in the introduction to the devout life that that he doesn't agree with with those thinkers who say you change a person or you you convert a person or you grow starting from the outside it's not the clothes that make you who you are in this example but you start with a person's heart and in a sense change from the inside so he was not a big fan of external feats of of courage and holiness but but make your heart humble and gentle and the outside world will follow obviously they go together in an integrated life but that's a that's a long way of saying I'm not really sure how to answer your question you know I I think sometimes some priests want to identify with people in the world as a way to be on their level and communicate with them and you know that that I think that that would be a noble motive but the other side of that I I find is I travel a lot I'm in airports people would know I was a priest if I wasn't wearing Roman collar and people will stop me you know and that's one of the reasons why I wear the clerics is so that you know friends I was just in the airport in Atlanta on Sunday coming back home from some lectures and a young soldier wanted his rosary blessed so you know if I wasn't wearing clerics he would never stop to get his rosy blessed but he wanted a blessed and I was able to be their Foreman and do that so that's that's I think that overall the benefits of wearing our clerics far outweigh those are not wearing them so that's a good thing we have another call we have Tom on the line hello Tom hello father Mitch yeah were you from Tom I'm from San Antonio Texas great city and what is your question well father Mitch I remember you from the John a Kankan burg show in the 1970s when you were a young priest right so I'm glad to see you hale and hearty and I'm also a graduate of DeSales Catholic High School in Lockport New York in 1952 and remember so many seminarians from nagger University from from the OSF s congregation there and so many high schools in Philadelphia I think Roman Catholic High School there and my question is and I was I was a class behind father David Whelan who was one of your provincials recently and a good friend of mine I wondered what the Oblates of st. Francis DeSales are doing in the 21st century to recapture the wonderful wonderful charisma they had in the 1960s in cities like Philadelphia in Lockport and cities in Ohio are they still running high schools what is the focus of the Oblates of st. Francis DeSales well I thank you Tom it's a good question you you've your rattle awful names and places that are certainly familiar to me the car is amublance of st. Francis DeSales our purpose as a religious order is not linked to a specific activity such as teaching or preaching but it's really to carry forth the the the spirit of st. Francis DeSales in whatever we do which again is keeping with that solution spirituality certainly many Oblates had been involved in education a particularly secondary school or high school education we still are probably about half of our province a little less than half now still does that work but we also try to follow the call of the church to go where we're needed so for example a lot of Oblates are pastors of parishes in North Carolina where they simply don't have the clergy to staff the parishes Oblates are our military chaplains and Hospital chaplains and again it goes back to that that foundational idea of Francis DeSales that holiness is for all of these different activities so our work as a congregation while it was you know numerically obvious and numerically large and concentrated in schools Northeast Catholic High School the school in Philadelphia was at one time the largest secondary school in the world we had a hundred hundred and ten priests I think in the school in a high school huge that school recently was closed because there aren't the students anymore so as times are changing and and and people are moving our goal is to our hope is to be able to move with them and still bring that that wisdom and spirit of Francis DeSales wherever they are you know one of the things that you know you've spoken about is the way that you know the Francis DeSales spirituality is oriented towards people of all sorts of different lifestyles does he have much that deals specifically with family life you know I know that he has spirituality for the housewife and the husband and such but is there much on family life well not so much in the way we're speaking about it today okay what we're looking for because again his writings grew out of responses to questions so he's responding to the housewife or he's responding to the the military man who has left his family at home and certainly he writes about the relationship between spouses and the relationship between children and parents but he doesn't he doesn't address the family as a whole in the sense of the way we speak about family life today you know probably because they didn't have the same problems that we have different time different place right right we have another caller I'm John on the line hello John hi hi were you from Parma Ohio great and what's your question it's about him being patron of writers is there a written form letter the st. Francis if somebody wrote to get his intercession and I was wondering what were the qualities he had to be named that particular patron let's start off with that first of all what were the qualities of Saint Francis of the sales who that would make you the patron saint of writers well in in the papal decree naming him the patron of writers what was mentioned was his ability to convey religious truth in a way that ordinary folks would understand it was his inventiveness and initiative in communicating the word that story about his using pamphlets when he wasn't allowed to preach it was his his emphasis on educating people in the faith from teaching the Catechism to his deaf servant to beginning schools and and sodality Xand and other CCD we would refer to it nowadays in his diocese so all of these things and and quite frankly simply the the beauty of his writing I'm told that Francis DeSales is written works are to this day studied in in classes of French literature not for their religious content but for the the style with which he wrote so he's a really good writer saying really important things in a way that people can understand and that communicates our faith all of those things add up to his being a patron saint of Catholic writers and then the other part of his question is there a standard formed for Francis DeSales interceding not that I know of that there are there are novenas of Francis DeSales there's a method for Francis that Francis DeSales had for praying the rosary there are there are various devotional prayers connected with Francis DeSales most of which we have published on on the website at the at the University so what's the website of the University well it's WWD sales de si le s edu and then sales as de si le yes edu and then go to the link for the Silesian center and you'll find our library and I want to give the edges for the Silesian Center for faith and culture that's what that's your what your Institute is called the Silesian Center for faith and culture DeSales University and it's at 2755 station Avenue 27:55 station Avenue Center Valley Pennsylvania and the zip code is one eight zero three four there's also a phone number you can call six one zero two eight two one one zero zero six one zero two eight to 1100 or there again the website and the website sounds like it'd be pretty interesting to have no Venus to st. Francis DeSales if somebody out there wants to be a writer they could pray a novena to st. Francis DeSales for that gift right one of the things that we're trying to do with with the website and the solution Center it is to be a place where folks can go to learn more about Francis DeSales so we have a we have a very large electronic library where are these these documents and devotions and articles and and primary writings about Francis DeSales all of that can be found online or whose writings online as well several of them are or link we have links to where they are or we have links to the stores where you can resource centers where you can get them okay most of those that have been translated into English are available in do you have some of the French originals available we have a couple up there but I'm not sure how many folks from France are visiting our web site so we didn't work real hard at that part something to work on especially since it's such a classical form you know that I find that interesting that st. Francis DeSales wrote in very beautiful French and so much so that it's still considered classic style I I think that this is a another important element of the ministry that learning how to write and how to use language correctly is a way to learn how to think more clearly and put it out there Francis DeSales actually he had a very good friend named Antoine fara who was the president of the Senate at the time together they found that in an academy but those two would actually write to each other in Latin and they would almost play a game to see who could who could write the reply in a nicer or fancier Latin because they believed in language in fact fathers son was one of the founding members of the French Academy so language is important in the friends academy is what is the the guardian of the French language and the French culture even today an academic limited number of seats for folks around the world very prestigious Guardian of language and culture but but it's certainly through language that that that the faith gets communicated it's a faith of the word the word made flesh so that language becomes very important whether in spoken form or in written form one of Francis DeSales as great works is his his letter that 99 page letter but it's a letter about preaching and and how to preach great for it for for priests and the clergy to learn from again all about the importance of that word and how how critical that is to our faith all right well thank you well afraid we've run out of time thank you very much for being with us most welcome and informing us about st. Francis and I'd like you to join me in giving a blessing to our audience be happy to bill mighty god bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you and he lead you in all of your ways by his peace may God bless you the Father the Son the Son and the Holy Spirit amen and you know we can bring you Father daily to talk about one of the great saints of the church and all the other guests who come here because this network is brought to you by you you make it possible with your donations to EWTN without your help we can't not we cannot exist it just won't happen so please keep us in between your gas bill your electric bill and your cable bill and we'll be able to pay all of our bills god bless you and thank you very much you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 30,165

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Keywords: EWTN, EWTN Live, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, Fr. Thomas Dailey, Saint Francis de Sales, Catholic

Id: VNRRpOX1GFk

Length: 56min 32sec (3392 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 07 2011