"Let no one wear a mask, otherwise he will do ill; and if he has one, let him burn it."

St Philip Neri

* * *

"The greatest glory we can give to God is to do his will in everything."

St Alphonsus de Liguori

* * *

"Though the path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good feet, courage, and tenacity of spirit. "

St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church

* * *

 

St. Francis de Sales  (1567-1622)
 Bishop, Founder of the Visitation and Doctor of the Church
 
  TREATISE ON THE LOVE OF GOD
   

By St Francis de Sales
Translated by
Rev. Henry Benedict Mackey, O.S.B.
Under the Direction and Patronage of His Lordship the
Right Rev. John Cuthbert Hedley, O.S.B.
BISHOP OF NEWPORT


"A truly admirable book, which has as many admirers of the sweetness of its author as it has readers. I have carefully arranged that it shall be read throughout our Society, as the universal remedy for all feeble ones, the goad of slothful ones, the stimulus of love, and the ladder of those who are tending to perfection. Oh! that all would study it as it deserves! There should be no one to escape its heat."

--St. Vincent de Paul

Originally published in approximately 1884 by Burns & Oates, Limited, London and Benziger Brothers, New York as Volume II of the series "Library of St. Francis de Sales." This edition photographically reproduced from the Third Edition by arrangement with Burns & Oates.


ISBN 0-89555-526-3
Cover illustration: Portrait of St. Francis de Sales by J. J. Owens (early 20th century), based on the Turin portrait. Courtesy of De Sales Resource Center, Niagara Falls, New York.


DEDICATION
I have dedicated this work to the Mother of dilection and to the Father of cordial love, as I dedicated the Introduction to the Divine child who is the Saviour of lovers and the love of the saved. And as women, while they are strong and able to bring forth their children with ease, choose commonly their worldly friends to be godfathers, but when their feebleness and indisposition make their delivery hard and dangerous invoke the Saints of heaven, and vow to have their children stood to by some poor body or by some devout soul in the name of S. Joseph, S. Francis of Assisi, S. Francis of Paula, S. Nicholas, or some other of the blessed, who may obtain of God their safe delivery and that the child may be born alive: so I, while I was not yet bishop, having more leisure and less fears for my writings, dedicated my little works to princes of the earth, but now being weighed down with my charge, and having a thousand difficulties in writing, I consecrate all to the princes of heaven, that they may obtain for me the light requisite, and that if such be the Divine will, these my writings may be fruitful and profitable to many.


Annecy, the day of the most loving Apostles
S. Peter and S. Paul, 1616.
BLESSED BE GOD.

-St. Francis de Sales
From The Preface