Essays in Idleness

There is a lady who reminds me, each year on the 24th of January, that it is the Feast of Saint Francis de Sales, as celebrated in the present-day Church. But it is rather today, the 29th, in the Church of the Ages; the date was shifted in one of those Bugnini “reforms,” which I am in the practice of ignoring.

“In the midst of the Church he opened his mouth: the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding: He clothed him with the robe of glory,” it sings in the Book of Ecclesiasticus. … “Lying men shall not be mindful.”

Bishop of Geneva, Confessor, Doctor of the Church, Saint Francis de Sales is patron of Catholic writers and journalists everywhere. His Introduction to the Devout Life (4th edition, 1619) is perhaps the most adequate book that could be written under that title. The reader who throws himself into it, will find it is more current than any newspaper or website. Gentle yet lively, it is a last word for the conversion of Calvinists and Leftists; a true “crucible” (melting container) of sweetness and light.