St. Francis de Sales

I heard a priest once say that a lot of people (whether cradle Catholics, converts or reconverts) who find themselves fully engaged in their Catholic faith sometimes expect that their lives will be cheery, every day will be sunny and, because they are faithfully following God, their lives will be perfect. That, he said, is exactly when evil tries its hardest to creep in to their lives. Sometimes it works its way through tiny little cracks and in many different ways, trying to make the person question their ultimate faith in God. Then one day, I read the following passage from St. Francis de Sales that really struck a chord with me and I have since taken to reading his entire writing "An Introduction to the Devout Life" which is so profound and speaks of living a devout life while still living fully in this world.

Today is his feast day, and in honor of him I thought I'd recommend his writings to you. If the world ever brings you down (like I know it can to me), these writings might help with those attacks that can slip in through those tiny little cracks.


“As soon as worldly people see that you wish to follow a devout life they aim a thousand darts of mockery and even detraction at you. The most malicious of them will slander your conversion as hypocrisy, bigotry, and trickery. . . .

“Philothea, all this is mere foolish, empty babbling. These people aren’t interested in your health or welfare. ‘If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you,; says the Savior. We have seen gentlemen and ladies spend the whole night, even many nights one after another, playing chess or cards. Is there any concentration more absurd, gloomy, or depressing than this last? Yet worldly people don’t say a word and the players’ friends don’t bother their heads about it.

“If we spend an hour in meditation or get up a little earlier than usual in the morning to prepare for Holy Communion, everyone runs for a doctor to cure us of hypochondria and jaundice. People can pass thirty nights in dancing and no one complains about it, but if they watch through a single Christmas night they cough and claim their stomach is upset the next morning. Does anyone fail to see that the world is an unjust judge, gracious and well disposed to its own children but harsh and rigorous towards the children of God?

“We can never please the world unless we lose ourselves together with it. It is so demanding that it can’t be satisfied. “John came neither eating nor drinking,” says the Savior, and you say, “He has a devil.” “The Son of man came eating and drinking” and you say that he is “a Samaritan.”

“It is true, Philothea, that if we are ready to laugh, play cards, or dance with the world in order to please it, it will be scandalized at us, and if we don’t, it will accuse us of hypocrisy or melancholy. If we dress well, it will attribute it to some plan we have, and if we neglect our dress, it will accuse of us of being cheap and stingy. Good humor will be called frivolity and mortification sullenness. Thus the world looks at us with an evil eye and we can never please it. It exaggerates our imperfections and claims they are sins, turns our venial sins into mortal sins and changes our sins of weakness into sins of malice.

“‘Charity is kind,’ says Saint Paul, but the world on the contrary is evil. “Charity thinks no evil,” but the world always thinks evil and when it can’t condemn our acts it will condemn our intentions. Whether the sheep have horns or not and whether they are white or black, the wolf doesn’t hesitate to eat them if he can.

“Whatever we do, the world will wage war on us. If we stay a long time in the confessional, it will wonder how we can have so much to say; if we stay only a short time, it will say we haven’t told everything. It will watch all our actions and at a single little angry word it will protest that we can’t get along with anyone. To take care of our own interests will look like avarice, while meekness will look like folly. As for the children of the world, their anger is called being blunt, their avarice economy, their intimate conversations lawful discussions. Spiders always spoil the good work of the bees.

“Let us give up this blind world, Philothea. Let it cry out at us as long as it pleases, like a cat that cries out to frighten birds in the daytime. Let us be firm in our purposes and unswerving in our resolutions. Perseverance will prove whether we have sincerely sacrificed ourselves to God and dedicated ourselves to a devout life. Comets and planets seem to have just about the same light, but comets are merely fiery masses that pass by and after a while disappear, while planets remain perpetually bright. So also hypocrisy and true virtue have a close resemblance in outward appearance but they can be easily distinguished from one another.

“Hypocrisy cannot last long but is quickly dissipated like rising smoke, whereas true virtue is always firm and constant. It is no little assistance for a sure start in devotion if we first suffer criticism and calumny because of it. In this way we escape the danger of pride and vanity, which are comparable to the Egyptian midwives whom a cruel Pharaoh had ordered to kill the Israelites’ male children on the very day of their birth. We are crucified to the world and the world must be crucified to us. The world holds us to be fools; let us hold it to be mad.”

We have a Teenager in the House!

Today was Geneva's 13th Birthday! It seems the time has gone so quickly. We had a terrific dinner, delicious desserts and she got a couple of nice gifts to mark the special occasion!

Thinking about this being the beginning of her teen years, I wondered if there was a Patron Saint of Teenagers. Sure enough, there is! It is Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, who is known as the Patron Saint of Teenagers and young Catholics. St. Aloysius wanted to be a priest from a young age and wanted to become a Saint out of sheer willpower. When he entered the Jesuits, he was advised to discontinue his boot-camp type of approach and simply follow regular prayer and acts of self-control and self-denial. He thought this approach was too easy, but obeyed nonetheless, which pleased his superiors. He once said, "I am a piece of twisted iron. I entered the religious life to get twisted straight." He died at a young age while compassionately caring for the sick in Rome during the plague of 1591.

Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation. You gave Saint Aloysius both a wonderful innocence of life and a deep spirit of penance. Through his merits, grant that Geneva's young life may be saved from the spirit of this world and have the same sense of innocence and spirit of penance as Saint Aloysius. Through Christ we Pray, Amen.

Happy Birthday, Geneva! We love you!

Making a wish...

Miguel at four months!

Miguel has turned four months old and he's doing great! He rolls over, babbles at us, loves to smile and is very happy! He had a great doctor check up on Thursday (well, except for those pesky shots). The doctor said we could even begin giving him rice cereal. Here's the little man.

That little moustache (and the accompanying smile) is his first taste of cereal.

Epiphany

The Magi set out because of a deep desire which prompted them to leave everything and begin a journey. It was as though they had always been waiting for that star. It was as if the journey had always been a part of their destiny, and was finally about to begin.

--Pope Benedict XVI

Address to seminarians in Cologne

August 19, 2005

Friday we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany. The kids have been anticipating the arrival of the Three Kings since Christmas began, and finally the 12th day of Christmas had arrived! We learned about the Magi following the star that would lead them to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem, and we also learned about the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh they presented to Jesus when they arrived. We made a couple of crafts as we learned more...

Here the kids are painting stars. They first painted corn syrup on the stars.

Then after a few drops of food coloring, they swirled the colors onto the stars.

Their stars looked really good and even stayed really shiny after they dried!

Later at dinner, we had a feast fit for a king! We even had a Rosca de Reyes for dessert! The kids wore the crowns they had made earlier in the day (ok, so I made Miguel's...). They each also received a "golden" gift as a reminder that Jesus received gifts from the Magi. We had a great time!

Advent and Christmas

Christmas this year was a little different in that we traveled all the way to Tucson.

Among other things, we visited the San Xavier Mission.

We also visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We did tons of cool stuff!!

This was the Wild Birds of Prey free fly exhibit.

Where this owl and I made eye contact...

And he took

flight...

And buzzed me!! It was definitely wild!

When we drove down to Cloudcroft and Ruidoso - surprise!! It was snowing!

We weren't exactly prepared for snow...

Look at these kid's faces - not exactly happy...yet.

Gloves and more layers - ok, now we're happy.

Geneva enjoying a candy apple and Christmas lights in downtown El Paso.

The kiddos, now back at home, making rosaries.

We hope your Advent and Christmas has been wonderful!