nothing but a block of wood...

Ever had a saint pick on you?  Well, you'll know from what I wrote about my five patrons that saints tend to pick on me all the time (Sts. Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila haven't bugged me enough to make the cut list, yet).  The general pattern is thus:

1.  I either find out about the saint randomly (hah!) or research them intentionally.
2.  The saint (images or words or whatever) decide to pop up in my daily life somehow and remind me.
3.  If they're a friend's patron, I start finding stuff by/about the saint to give to them.
4.  #3 leads me to learn more about them.
5.  I find things about them that I can relate to.
6.  Suddenly, I start wondering more about them.
7.  I'm reading things by the saint.
8.  I have an intense encounter with Christ through the writings/life of the saint.
9.  KA FREAKING BOOM

And today, gentle reader, I'd like to share a little bit with you about a saint who's been picking on me for some months now:

St. Francis de Sales

I really never paid any heed to this saint.  I mean, I think that I had a professor in college who was a nun who took his name, but that was about it.  I had no idea who he was other than he wrote some book called Introduction to the Devout Life.  I was reading Time for God  and Fr. Jacques Philippe had an amazing quote by de Sales in there:

"Lord, I am nothing but a block of wood: set fire to it!"  

And, ya'll know how much I love me some fire.  And it's so true.  I'm such an idiot.  No matter how much I think I might know, I don't really know anything.  And I'm just a blockhead. And I can't produce my own zeal, fire, or passion; the Lord does that for me.  The LORD.  He's gotta be the one to throw the Spark.  Because, like it or not, no matter how holy I think I am, I just like to be a passive, inactive, comfy, block of wood.  Sometimes soaked in gasoline (or whatever the hell that means), and along comes a spark, and KAPOW.  Sometimes the spark bounces off.  Bah.  Anyways.

Well, then I found out that one of my friends chose SFDS as a Confirmation patron.  So, of course, you all know how nuts I go about Confirmation patrons.  In my quest to find things regarding St. Francis for my friend, I quickly discovered that the world (or the suppliers of Catholic bookstores in general) must pretty much hate him, because he is always trumped by St. Francis of Assisi or St. Francis Xavier.  This led me to think, "Um, why would someone choose him as a Confirmation patron if so little is known/regarded about him?"

Bahahaha.  So.  A while back, I led a retreat for some junior girls in the mighty state of Michigan.  And in that awesome Catholic high school is one of the most amazing priests I've ever met.  He's only been a priest for a little over a year or so.  Actually, I think coming up on his 2nd year.  So pray for him.  Anyways.  He's like Fr. Luke and Fr. Quinn and Fr. Pat McConnell all rolled in to one.  He's freaking hilarious.  Anyways.

Last year at Catholicfest, I saw this in the merch tent:

I couldn't buy it because I had no money.

So I was in Michigan, in this priest's office, and I saw the book, and I freaked out.  "Father.  Dude.  This is awesome.  I love the Doctors of the Church!"
He was all: "Dude.  Jen.  That's my 'give away free' bookshelf.  Take it."
"DUDE.  Father!"
"Sweet."

Bahaha.  Love that guy.  Well, it sat on my shelf at home for a while before I started finding things for my friend.  It's almost impossible to find holy cards or holy medals of St. Francis de Sales.  The one card that I did find was purely providential- it was in a 25¢ bin of random cards.  The only other thing out there is books.  There's NOTHING SMALL, and I can't afford much else!

Gah.  Anyways, so my quest proving unfruitful, I finally rip this sucker off the shelf and immediately go to St. Thomas, my love, for some consolation.  Welllll, on my way over to him, I find that St. Francis de Sales is in there, too!

So, I'm all like: what the heck?!  Why doesn't ANYONE have ANYTHING besides books?!  I mean, he's only a Doctor of the Church.  And, don't get me wrong.  I love books.   Books are one of my favorites.  But if that's the only thing I'm giving someone, I'm pretty sure it's going to drive them insane after a while.

So I start reading about him, especially the description of his vocational journey, and sections entitled His "Poor Wife", and St. Francis de Sales and Women,  from which I plucked these quotes:

"He is devout and learned, but also at the same time a gentleman, a very rare combination" (583).  This catapulted me back to the table of contents.  I love to know the titles of the doctors of the church (id est: doctor angelicus, doctor gratiae, etc., etc.), but it didn't list his title.  It just called him "the Gentleman doctor."  Dude.  Sweet.  Ya'll know how much I cherish chivalry.

Also, in the section titled St. Francis de Sales and Women, I found this lovely little gem as the author described the relationship between SFdS and St. Frances de Chantal:
"The relationship between these two Saints proves beyond doubt that a full and flowering affection between a man and a woman is compatible with a life of perfect chastity and the truest love of God" (585).  Aaaaand BOOM goes the dynamite.

So all of this piqued my interest immediately, and I knew I had to find out more about him.  For instance, he converted an entire community of Calvinists... which estimates to about 72 THOUSAND people.  Amazing.  So I went looking for the only thing that I knew he wrote: An Introduction to the Devout Life.  Well, when I found that, I also found this:

The title just kind of smacked me in the face.  It's actually the second in a 4-part series titled Consoling Thoughts.  So I bought it, and boy, it's been pretty interesting so far, and I just made it through the introduction.  I already feel like I can relate to the saint in several ways.  For example:

"Walk simply in the way of the Lord, and do not torment your mind.  We must hate our defects, but with a tranquil and quiet hatred- not with a spiteful and troubled hatred- and, if necessary, have patience to witness them and to turn them to account by a holy self-abasement.  For want of this, my daughter, your imperfections, which you view so closely, trouble you much, and by this means are retained, there being nothing that better preserves our defects than fretfulness and anxiety to remove them" (Sermon for the Feast of St. Magdalene). (xxii).

I loved him instantly.  Not only is that what I'm going through right now, but he preached it on the feast day of my Patron.  Love, love, love.

Also, he tended to handle friendship the same way I do:
"Through a great part of my soul I am poor and weak, but I have a boundless and almost immutable affection for those who favor me with their friendship.  Whoever challenges me in the contest of friendship must be very determined, for I spare no effort."

Kapow.  My heart just about exploded.

Ok ok ok ok ok ok.  So.  Remember #2 from the list above?  Check it: Recently, I've decided to become a parishioner at St. Joseph's Oratory in Green Bay, one of the parishes that's home to Institute of Christ the King.  Last Sunday, Canon was announcing the feast of St. Francis de Sales, which would be celebrated as a solemnity next Sunday (their calendar confuses the heck out of me, but I'm eager to learn more), and I noticed the statue of a saint at the front of the chapel.

Now, I had NO idea who the heck that is (I'm terrible with statues of saints), but I got the inclination that it might be St. Francis de Sales.  A trip to the google search engine certainly confirmed that.

Then.  THEN, I go to the motherlode that is wikipedia, and check out what it has to say about The Institute, and what I read nearly blew my face clean off with awesomeness:

The charism of the Institute is based on the example of its three patron saints:

• Saint Francis de Sales,^[1] who emphasized teaching the Catholic faith with patience and charity, and encouraging all Catholics to seek a life of holiness through the ordinary means of the Church, such as devout attendance at Mass and frequent confession.

• Saint Benedict, with his love for the solemn celebration of the liturgy, his emphasis on work and prayer, his "Benedictine hospitality," and his role in laying the groundwork for an integral Christian civilization in medieval Europe.

• Saint Thomas Aquinas, with his emphasis on the harmony between faith and reason.

aaaaaand BOOM goes the dynamite.

If the first one was an affirmation of St. Francis picking on me and drawing closer to the Lord through him, the fact that one of their main patrons is my love, St. Thomas Aquinas, affirms that this is the place for me to be.

I freaking LOVE IT when stuff like this happens.  Now I just need to get to know St. Benedict. I already have a few of "his" crosses, so that's a pretty good start.

Dude.  I am such a freaking Catholic NERD.

He's also patron of deaf people and those with bad hearing, as the freaking tank took up sign language so he could evangelize those who were unable to hear.

I love this guy.  It's the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Doctor Caritatis (Doctor of Charity), ora pro nobis.

In other news, I just finished reading Veritatis Splendor and Humana Vitae.  Um?  Everyone. EVERYONE should read Humana Vitae.  All the encyclicals are online, for free!  No excuses!

Busy weekend coming up!  Finished some presents for some new twinsies arriving in May!  Yay!  Babies! I want 20!  Or whatever.  Need my spouse to find me first.  Gah!

That's about it for now.  I'm sure I'll write a monumental post on Aquinas soon.  Or on the two encyclicals.  

Happy Feast Day!  Don't forget to FEAST!

Out

PS- Just learned this:  In the last few pages in Story of a Soul, St. Therese comments on the Song of Songs.  And WHAT, may I ask, was Aquinas writing about when he died?  The Song of Songs!  KAPOOYAH!  I love it when my Saints are related!