SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES VATICAN CITY, 2 MAR 2011 (VIS). The general audience catechesis was dedicated to St. Francis de Sales, born in 1567 into a noble family of Savoy. In his youth, reported the Holy Father, he "experienced a profound spiritual crisis as he pondered the thought of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. Crisis that led him to question the salvation of soul and predestination of God against him, dramatic living in the big theological questions which agitated the time. " At twenty years, however, "he found peace ... God's love in unconditional love, trusting in divine love. Such was the secret of his life. "Then he recalled that Francis de Sales was ordained priest in 1493 and Bishop of Geneva in 1602, when the city was the stronghold of Calvinism." Apostle, preacher and writer, man of prayer and Action ... engage in debate with Protestants, he experimented beyond the necessary theological controversy effective personal relationships and love. "With St. Jane de Chantal, he founded the Order of the Visitation, characterized a total consecration to God in simplicity and humility. Francis de Sales died in 1622.
In his Introduction to the devout life, he extended an invitation that might seem revolutionary for its time: "Being entirely to God and live fully in the world the duties of his state ... Thus was born by the call to the laity attention to the consecration of things temporal and sanctification of everyday life, which stressed the Vatican II and contemporary spirituality. " Benedict XVI then quoted another major work of this Doctor of the Church, the Treaty of God's love: "In a time of great mystical fervor, it is a sum and both a ... On magnificent literary style of Scripture, François Sales of it deals with the union between God and man, developing a series of images inter-personal God as father and lord, husband and friend. "This treaty offers a profound meditation on the human will and a description of his journey from death to live in total abandonment of the will as the good pleasure of God. At the summit of union with God ... we find a stream of charity which extends to the expectations and needs of all. " He concluded by saying that today, in a period "in search of freedom, despite violence and concerns, the news of this great spiritual leader and peacemaker told his disciples the spirit of freedom, this true freedom that culminates in the total teaching of the reality of love. St. Francis de Sales is an exemplary witness of Christian humanism, familiarity with presentation, using parables sometimes poetic. He reminds us that man carries within him a longing for God and that he alone can find and achieve true joy. "
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