Thought for the Day – 10 January – 4th day after Epiphany and The Memorial of St Léonie Françoise De Sales Aviat (1844-1914) the co-founder of the Oblate Sisters of St Francis de Sales
St Pope John Paul on the Canonisation of St Léonie – 25 November 2001
“The loving plan of the Father “who has made us enter the kingdom of his beloved Son” found a splendid realisation in St Léonie Frances de Sales Aviat, who lived her self-offering to the end.
At the heart of her dedication and of her apostolate, Sister Léonie put prayer and union with God, where she found the light and the energy to overcome trials and difficulties and to persevere to the end of her life in the life of faith, desiring to be led by the Lord – “O my God, let my happiness be found in sacrificing my will and my desires for you!” The resolution which distinguished Mother Aviat so well, “Forget oneself completely“, is also for us an appeal to go against the current of egotism and easy pleasures and open ourselves to the social and spiritual needs of our time.
Dear Oblate Sisters of St Francis-de-Sales, at the school of your foundress, in profound communion with the Church and wherever God has placed you, be determined to receive the present graces and to benefit from them, for it is in God that we find the light and the help necessary in every circumstance!
Trusting in the powerful intercession of the new saint, accept with joy the invitation to live, with renewed fidelity, the intuitions which she so perfectly lived.”
“O my God, let my happiness be found in sacrificing my will and my desires for you!”
AnaStpaul 