Monday, January 24, 2011

Patron of Writers

Today is the Feast of St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church; his Introduction to the Devout Life is one of the great early modern spiritual classics, and was at one time so popular that there were even abridged versions for Protestants that were quite widely read in Protestant countries. A small selection from that work:

Take care, then, never to speak of God, or those things which concern Him, in a merely formal, conventional manner; but with earnestness and devotion, avoiding the affected way in which some professedly religious people are perpetually interlarding their conversation with pious words and sayings, after a most unseasonable and unthinking manner. Too often they imagine that they really are themselves as pious as their words, which probably is not the case.

Francis de Sales is patron saint of writers and communicators (in part because of the popularity of his works and in part because he pioneered the use of the religious tract); because of this the Catholic Church has its 'World Social Communications Day', mandated by Vatican II, on his feast. Last year the Pope's message for World Communications Day encouraged priests to engage in digital media; this year he gave an exhortation for Christians to be more charitable online.