Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Saint Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church: "to preach"

I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father
-- John 15: 9-17

The Roman Pontiff and the bishops, as authentic teachers, preach to the People of God the faith which is to be believed and applied in moral life. It is also incumbent on them to pronounce on moral questions that fall within the natural law and reason.
-- CCC 2050

St Francis de Sales in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"
The evangelical counsels manifest the living fullness of charity, which is never satisfied with not giving more. They attest its vitality and call forth our spiritual readiness. The perfection of the New Law consists essentially in the precepts of love of God and neighbor. The counsels point out the more direct ways, the readier means, and are to be practiced in keeping with the vocation of each:

'[God] does not want each person to keep all the counsels, but only those appropriate to the diversity of persons, times, opportunities, and strengths, as charity requires; for it is charity, as queen of all virtues, all commandments, all counsels, and, in short, of all laws and all Christian actions that gives to all of them their rank, order, time, and value. (St Francis de Sales, Love of God 8,6)' "

-- CCC 1974



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