St. Francis de Sales

Today’s guest post is by Brandon Rappuhn, a Logos marketing copywriter.

Today is a day of particular interest to the Catholic division at Logos Bible Software: today, the Catholic Church honors St. Francis de Sales, patron saint for journalists and writers (among his many other patronages). I work for Logos both as a writer and as one who promotes the writings of others; in both capacities, I look to St. Francis de Sales as my patron saint. St. Francis de Sales, who wrote in French, Italian, and Latin, wrote books, letters, and pamphlets in his missions to bring converts to the Catholic Church and to bring more sincere devotion out of wayward Catholics. You know him as the writer of Introduction to the Devout Life, a book specifically written for laypeople that calls us into love as a more powerful spiritual devotion than penance. His other major work, Treatise on the Love of God (also called Of the Love of God), and his letters are still on Community Pricing, waiting for enough interest to push them into your libraries.

Since St. Francis de Sales is my personal patron saint for my job here at Logos, I have a vested interest in getting to know him a little bit more. I’ve started reading Introduction to the Devout Life as a bit of a pre-Lent spiritual blitz. His style is humbly penetrating and poetic, and it cuts straight to the core of the weaknesses in my spiritual life.

I’m excited that we have the opportunity to convert St. Francis de Sales’ other writings into Logos’ unique multiplatform format. Let’s get them into production! I’ll conclude with a prayer from St. Francis’ Treatise on the Love of God:

O love eternal, my soul needs and chooses You eternally!
Ah, come Holy Spirit, and inflame our hearts with Your love!
To love — or to die!
To die — and to love!
To die to all other love in order to live in Jesus’ love, so that we may not die eternally.
But that we may live in Your eternal love, O Saviour of our souls, we eternally sing,
“Live, Jesus! Jesus, I love! Live, Jesus, whom I love!
Jesus, I love, Jesus who lives and reigns forever and ever.” Amen.