1.
Someday, I will become a second Francis Xavier.WISE WORDS OF FATHER FRANCIS SEELOS
I -THIRTEEN BON MOTS OF THE SERVANT OF GOD, FRANCIS X. SEELOS, C.SS.R.
Selected from Fr. Michael Curley's Cheerful Ascetic
by Joseph W Oppitz, C.SS.R.
1.
Someday, I will become a second Francis Xavier.
2. Dear Mother, how I thank you for having taught us children a great devotion to the Mother of God. Such an inheritance from parents is worth more than gold or silver.
3. Today we will have no writing. The Blessed Mother has appeared to me and told me to become a missionary.
4. I was John Neumann's subject, but was more like a son who needed help. In every respect, he was a remarkable father to me.
5. Baltimore is one of the loveliest; and most beautiful cities in all of North America.
6. If these riots continue, I may even have the privilege of becoming a martyr - a wonderful way to go to heaven.
7. According to people I am a thorough saint. In reality, I am a thorough scoundrel.
8. If the Church should ever decide to celebrate the feast of a rude rascal, [Secretary of War] Stanton would easily qualify - even with an octave.
9. I love the work of the missions more than all other labors; it is a complete apostolic employment in the Lord's vineyard.
10. If the Americans were as expert in spiritual matters as they are in business affairs, all of them would be saints.
11. I have made the rounds of all the houses in the province. Only New Orleans yet remains. I have come here to pass the rest of my days and find a lasting resting place at Saint Mary's. I feel I have traveled enough. I shall never leave New Orleans.
12. So the doctor says I am to die! Oh, what pleasant news! How thankful I am! And to you, doctor, how much I have to return thanks for your kindness and attention to me!
13. I never thought it was so sweet to die in the Congregation. I now begin to know what happiness it is to live and die a Redemptorist. Oh, let us love our vocation and strive to persevere in it! Then everything will be all right with us.
Trust in God's Mercy!
It is not your justice but God's mercy which is the motive of your trust. He is the God of all consolations and the Father of mercies. He does not wish the death of sinners but that they be converted and live. He came to heal the sick and to seek those who were lost. He spared the woman taken in adultery. He showed mercy to the thief crucified with him. He took upon himself our punishment. He prayed for his murderers. He now intercedes for us at the right hand of God. None of the damned was ever lost because his sin was too great, but because his trust was too small!
Oh, if only all the sinners of the whole wide world were present here! Yes, even the greatest, the most hardened, even those close to despair, I would call out to them: The Lord is kind and merciful, patient and full of love. I would show them why the Apostles call God the Father of Mercy, the God of all consolation. I would tell them that the prophet in the Old Testament even said that the earth is full of the mercy of God and that mercy is above all His works.
0, Mother of Mercy! You understood the Mercy of God when you cried out in the Magnificat - 'His mercy is from generation to generation.' Obtain for all sinners a childlike confidence in the Mercy of God!
Fools for Christ!
This life is full of obstacles, difficulties for one whose purpose is the close following of Christ. O how few start on this road of the following of Christ! And for this reason it may sometimes appear that the true Christian life is something excessive. Our poor human nature may even call it at times a stupidity to despise a pleasure for God. It is as if somebody said to us: 'How stupid you are to deny yourselves all innocent pleasures which others enjoy without scruple of conscience. Do you only want to go to Heaven? O what a dry, uninteresting form of existence!' To such whisperings of the devil, you must never pay attention.
The kindness of the Priest
Want of urbanity effects no good and affability does no evil. The priest who is rough with people does injury to himself and to others; he sins, at least in ignorance, against charity, patience, poverty, humility and self-denial. He scandalizes all who see him and hear him. Hundreds of souls turn away him, from God and from religion. Thousands reject the Church and the sacraments and perish in eternity solely because they have been badly treated by a priest.
A long experience has taught me the great lesson that God leads men in a human manner by other men whom he appointed to be in His place and who should be of the same kindness as he himself was while on earth. Many a soul might be gained for the true faith and eternal life if sometimes a little more charity, a little more self-denial would be evinced, and if persons would be treated as their personal dispositions and human nature would require. It is true that it requires great virtue and experience to find always the right measure in these things, but we cannot fail much if our intention remains pure.
More on God's Mercy
Yes, my beloved people, God is merciful and his mercy is, as the prophet says, above all his works and, as the Blessed Virgin sings in her beautiful song of praise, his mercy is from generation to generation to all that fear him.... If you therefore wish to live hereafter in the service and fear of God; if you sincerely repent and amend your life; if you forsake forever all those evil ways in order to follow Christ in self-denial and penance; if you really prepare for the life to come, rejoice, for here I present you the balm for all your wounds: the infinite mercy of God.
0 sinner, behold the mercy of God. After having offended him, after having forsaken him, after having preferred sinning to him, he has not yet abandoned you entirely for he speaks to you, calls upon you, invites you to penance, offers you his mercy: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock!"
Men, says Saint Chrysostom, are slow in building up and quick in tearing down, and the saint is right, even in America, where the largest and finest buildings are quickly built up; for to tear them down, if required, is the work of a moment. But quite different it is with God: he was very quick in building up the whole universe and it required but a word and worlds were created.... But the same quickness of building up we find with God in his work of grace. Saint David, Saint Paul, Saint Magdalen, the Good Thief on the Cross--a moment was necessary to make them saints and raise them from the lowest state of sin and passion to a very high degree of perfection and sanctity.
Prayer
God's most earnest desire is to give us his grace, since he wishes the salvation of all; but he gives it under certain conditions. And by neglecting these conditions, he also neglects the means of salvation of all; but he gives it under certain conditions. And by neglecting these conditions, he also neglects the means of salvation. Now, what are the conditions under which God gives grace and strength. I can answer by one word: "Prayer."
As Christians, we are obliged to pray in the name of Jesus: "Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you" (Jn 14:13). But what do we mean when we say that we are obliged to pray in the name of Jesus. It means to pray as our Savior would pray, if placed in our condition.
Our Savior was accustomed to pray in solitude, in the desert, on the mountain, retired from the people, during the night, when all around was silent. And even in the Old Testament, the people are blamed for not praying earnestly. "With their lips they glorify me but their heart is far from me" (Isa 29:13).
Is it possible for us to pray always, to be continually in church, or say the rosary and other prayers the livelong day? ... In order to be well understood, I will here make a comparison. As food is the nourishment of the body, so prayer is the nourishment of the soul. We eat daily in order to preserve life and we are obliged to pray daily in order to preserve the life of our soul, which is the grace of God. But you eat not only once a day but several times, and if you are particularly fatigued and weak you take some extraordinary refreshments. The very same is to be observed with regard to prayer. Your soul requires refreshment several times a day, and if you are severely tempted, and if you feel the weakness of the flesh, you stand more in need of God's grace.
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