ST. FRANCIS

 DE SALES

INTRODUCTION

Today is the feast of St. Francis de Sales. He’s the Patron Saint of Retail Stores, “de Sales”. Joke. 

Here are a few thoughts coming out of the life of this saint.

Saint’s feast days are usually the day they died. However, St. Francis de Sales didn’t die on January 24. He died on December 28, 1622, but that is the feast of the Holy Innocents, so they moved his feast to today -- the day his bones were moved to his present tomb or something like that.

If his feast is moved again, he wouldn’t mind. That’s the kind of personality he had. In fact, that would be my thought for the day.

St. Francis de Sales was known for his calmness -- his gentleness.

FREDDY

That’s the message I found out about St. Francis de Sales some 58 years ago in the seminary.

In the major seminary we had this teacher, Freddy -- Fred Prenatt. We had him for one class in preaching every week for six years. I remember very little from what he said in class, but I remember him for something he would always say in confession and in sermons, “Omnia suaviter.”

And when asked where that came from, he would say, “St. Francis de Sales”.

And when asked what  “Omnia suaviter”  meant, he would say, “All things sweetly.”

For some reason I never forgot that. I ended up making it sort of a prayer and sort of a motto all through the years, “Omnia suaviter.”

Translated into Italian, “Con calme” or “Reposo”.

Translated into English, “Take it easy”, “Calm down”, “Count to 10”, “A drop of honey does more good than a barrel of vinegar.”

Translated into AA-ese, “Nice and easy.” I’m sure you have all seen that on a bumper sticker. It’s a good thing to remember whenever we are feeling road rage or church rage or classroom rage or shopping line rage or in the house rage.

Nice and easy.

Easy does it.

Omnia Suaviter, Con calme. Relax.

CONCLUSION

Relax. That’s a good message to remember from the life and spirit of St. Francis de Sales.

Take it easy.

Calm down.