Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. Francis de Sales, on the Need to ‘Keep a Calm, Restful Spirit’)

“Anxiety arises from an unregulated desire to be delivered from any pressing evil, or to obtain some hoped-for good.…Therefore, whensoever you urgently desire to be delivered from any evil, or to attain some good thing, strive above all else to keep a calm, restful spirit, steady your judgement and will, and then go quietly and easily after your object, taking all fitting means to attain thereto. By easily, I do not mean carelessly, but without eagerness, disquietude, or anxiety.” —St. Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life (1609)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. Francis de Sales, on Protecting Against a Vice by a Contrary Virtue)

“When attacked by some vice, we must practice the contrary virtue as much as we can and refer all the others to it. By this means we will vanquish our enemy and at the same time advance in all the virtues. Thus if assaulted by pride or anger, I must devote and direct all my actions to humility and meekness and adapt all exercises of prayer, the sacraments, prudence, constancy, and sobriety to this end. To sharpen his tusks the wild boar rubs and polishes them with his other teeth and thus files and sharpens them all. So also a virtuous man undertakes to perfect himself in the virtue most needed for his own protection must file and polish it by exercise of the other virtues.” —St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church, Introduction to the Devout Life, translated by John K. Ryan (1609)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. Francis de Sales, on Why the World is Populated)

“The world is only peopled to people heaven." — St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church, Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World (1995), translated by Rev. Henry Benedict Mackey (1995)

Quote of the Day (St. Francis de Sales, on Patience)

“Do not limit your patience to this or that kind of injury and affliction. Extend it universally to all such as those God pleases to send you or let it happen to you. Some men wish to suffer no tribulations except those connected with honor, for example, or to be wounded or made a prisoner in war, persecuted for religion, or impoverished by some lawsuit they win. Such people do not love tribulation but the honor that goes with it. The truly patient man and true servant of God bears up equally under tribulations accompanied by ignominy and those that bring honor.”—St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church, Introduction to the Devout Life, translated by John K. Ryan (1609)

Quote of the Day (St. Francis de Sales, on Angels)

“Make yourself familiar with the angels and behold them frequently in spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you.” — Bishop of Geneva St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), “On the Honor and Invocation of Saints,” in The Saint Francis de Sales Collection (2016)

Quote of the Day (St. Francis de Sales, on ‘The Excellence of God's Paradise’)

"Consider a calm, beautiful night and think how good it is to see the sky with its countless varied stars. Next add its beauty to that of a fine day in such a way that the brilliant sun does not prevent a clear view of the stars or moon. Then say boldly that all this beauty put together is of no value when compared to the excellence of God's paradise."— St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church, Philothea (God loving Soul), or The Introduction to the Devout Life (1609)

Quote of the Day (St. Francis de Sales, on Dealing With ‘Difficulties and Contradictions’)

“When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.” — Attributed to St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

Quote of the Day (St. Francis de Sales, on ‘Holy Confidence’ in God)

“It is a very fine thing to feel ashamed of oneself when one realizes one's own imperfections and misery, but the feeling must not drag on lest one lose heart. It is necessary to raise the heart to God with a holy confidence, founded not in our strength but in God. We indeed change, but God never does; He always remains equally good and merciful toward us, whether we are weak and imperfect or perfect and strong. I always say that our misery is the throne of God's mercy, and so we must realize that the greater our misery, the greater should be our confidence in Him.” —St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Spiritual Discourses II