Posted on August 27, 2017 View all news
Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus! Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!
This coming Friday is First Friday, a day in which we specifically honor and make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Everyone is encouraged to attend Mass this day. I also encourage everyone to consider stopping by Church to make a Holy Hour during our all-night vigil. Please find a sign-up sheet near the side door of the Church to sign up for an hour of Adoration.
Getting back to our teachings from St. Francis de Sales, please find this quote regarding sadness. In the world today, it is easy to fall into sadness, which can be very detrimental to the spiritual life. We should always be aware of this possibility, so that we do not allow anything to steal away from us that supernatural spirit of joy that we are called to have.
Have a blessed week ahead!
“Saint Paul says that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” So we see that sorrow may be good or bad according to the several results it produces in us. And indeed there are more bad than good results arising from it, for the only good ones are mercy and repentance; whereas there are six evil results, namely, anguish, sloth, indignation, jealousy, envy and impatience. The Wise Man says that “sorrow hath killed many, and there is no profit therein,”and that because for the two good streams which flow from the spring of sadness, there are these six which are downright evil.
The Enemy makes use of sadness to try good men with his temptations:–just as he tries to make bad men merry in their sin, so he seeks to make the good sorrowful amid their works of piety; and while making sin attractive so as to draw men to it, he strives to turn them from holiness by making it disagreeable. The Evil One delights in sadness and melancholy, because they are his own characteristics. He will be in sadness and sorrow through all Eternity, and he would fain have all others the same.
The “sorrow of the world” disturbs the heart, plunges it into anxiety, stirs up unreasonable fears, disgusts it with prayer, overwhelms and stupefies the brain, deprives the soul of wisdom, judgment, resolution and courage, weakening all its powers; in a word, it is like a hard winter, blasting all the earth’s beauty, and numbing all animal life; for it deprives the soul of sweetness and power in every faculty.
Should you, my child, ever be attacked by this evil spirit of sadness, make use of the following remedies. “Is any among you afflicted?” says Saint James, “let him pray.”Prayer is a sovereign remedy, it lifts the mind to God, Who is our only Joy and Consolation. But when you pray let your words and affections, whether interior or exterior, all tend to love and trust in God. ‘O God of Mercy, most Loving Lord, Sweet Saviour, Lord of my heart, my Joy, my Hope, my Beloved, my Bridegroom.'” – St. Francis de Sales