Weekly Reflection 1/19/2020

REFLECTION

NAME THAT SAINT!

January 18-19, 2020

Patron of Catholic writers, the Catholic press, journalists, the deaf, and adult education.

Doctor of the Church Catholic Lectionary. He laid the basis for the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the “universal call to holiness”; i.e. every baptized Christian is called to holiness and sanctity lived within their own state of life; and not just the clergy, those in religious life, nor the contemplative who retire from active participation in the world. His most famous book “Introduction to Devout Life” was written for ordinary lay people. He recognized that Christian marriage and family life is itself a call to holiness. For him, the key to love of God was prayer, and the test of prayer was a person’s actions. He believed the worst sin was to judge someone or to gossip about them even if one says it was done out of love.

He wrote pamphlets to explain true Catholic doctrine and put them under the doors of Calvinist. When the parents saw how kind he was as he played with their children, they began to talk to him. It is believed he brought 40,000 people to the Catholic Church. He was intelligent, gentle, knowledgeable, and devout.

He worked with St. Jane de Chantal and co-founded the Order of Visitation of Holy Mary. He is often featured with the Heart of Jesus and a Crown of Thorns. His feast day is January 24. (For more interesting background and the source of this article see Catholic Online Saints and Angels) i.e. St. Francis de Sales.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Mac Hickey