Friday, November 4 : Saint Francis Xavier

I have no idea what to write you from these parts [India and Sri Lanka] except this: the consolations bestowed by our Lord God to those who go among the pagans to convert them to the faith of Christ are so great that, if there is any joy to be had in this life, it is surely this. I’ve often heard it said to someone going about amongst these Christians: “Lord, do not give me so many consolations in this life! Yet since, in your infinite goodness and pity, you are giving them me, take me into your holy glory! For indeed, there is such great suffering in living without seeing you after you have shown yourself to your creature in this way”. Ah! If only those who look for knowledge in study took as much trouble in looking for the consolations of the apostolate as they give day and night to the pursuit of knowledge! If only those joys that the scholar seeks in what he is learning he were to seek in making his neighbor feel what he is in need of to know and serve God, how much more consoled he would find himself to be and better prepared to give an account of himself when Christ returns and asks him: “Give me an account of your stewardship” … I will end, asking our Lord God … to bring us together in his holy glory. And to obtain this blessing let us take as our intercessors and advocates all the holy souls of the region where I now am. … I beg all these holy souls to obtain for us from our Lord God, for so long as we remain separated, the grace of feeling his holy will in the depth of our souls and of fulfilling it perfectly.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team