Friday, September 20 : Saint Francis de Sales

The possessions which we have are not our own: God has given them to us to cultivate and he wishes us to render them fruitful and profitable… Always deprive yourself, therefore, of some part of your means, giving them to the poor with a willing heart… It is true that God will return it to you, not only in the next world but also in this, for there is nothing which makes a person prosper in temporal matters so much as almsgiving. But till such time as God shall repay it, you will always be impoverished to that extent. Oh! how holy and rich is the impoverishment which is caused by almsgiving. Love the poor and poverty, for by this love you will become truly poor, since, as Scripture says: “We become like the things that we love” (cf. Hos 9:10). Love makes them that love equal to one another: “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” says St Paul (2Cor 11:29). He might have said: “Who is poor, with whom I am not poor?” For love made him become such as those whom he loved. If, then, you love the poor, you will be truly participating in their poverty and poor like them. Now, if you love the poor, be often among them; be pleased to see them in your house, and to visit them in theirs; associate willingly with them; be glad that they are near you in the churches, in the streets and elsewhere. Be poor in speech with them, speaking to them as their equal; but be rich in deed, giving them of your goods as one that possesses more abundantly. Will you do even more?… Become a servant of the poor; go to serve them… with your own hands… and at your own expense. This service has more glory in it than a throne.

maronite readings – rosary,team