St. Francis de Sales
“There undoubtedly is such a true devotion [that leads to salvation], there are also many spurious and idle semblances thereof [false ways]; and unless you know which is real, you may mistake, and waste your energy in pursuing an empty, profitless shadow” (St. Francis de Sales).
St. Francis de Sales has many wonderful books written with easy to understand guidance to Eternal Life. They can guide the souls craving for holiness correctly to Life. His works are considered to be one of the easier of the saints works to understand and in general they are written for the laity (non-consecrated religious person). However many people run into problems with his work because they enter into his instruction without having a strong conviction to change. His works don’t deliver much “fear of the Lord” to inspire us to persevere when struggles come along like St. Alphonosus or St. Anthony Mary Claret, and other saints do. Therefore, to begin reading St. Francis de Sales wonderful guidance one needs to gain much fear of the Lord or his works would just wind up being read for entertainment or misunderstood and not being utilized as life changing instruction that it is meant to be.
St. Francis wrote his books for souls who are already strongly convicted to strive to become saints and understand the consequence of sin, who already want to wholeheartedly surrender everything for the love of God but simply don’t know how or want to gain more incite to the Way. His books are reletively easy, but they aren’t easy enough for the true novice to religious life as they jump into much sacrifice and prayer right away using terminology many don’t understand. Sadly, there aren’t any books by saints, that I have found, which to lead souls from the first call or for souls who have been pursing holiness but on the wrong path, with little progress and need much correction. Lifting Our Values has done our best to create a resource “Out of Darkness into Light” that will repair the wrongful paths we have been lead to travel on and give us the proper foundation we need to have the grace to be able to successfully live St. Francis de Sales instruction. Some, who already have an established religious life, can even use both books together as much of his style and order of change in “Introduction to the Devout Life” parallels to the guidance in “Out of Darkness into Light.” Nonetheless, after the correct foundation has to be established and firm reason to change before anyone can pick up St. Francis de Sales spiritual direction or any saints books, and continue to grow in holiness towards salvation.
The following are just some of the 16 books he has published:
- Introduction to the Devout Life (pdf)
- Treatise on the Love of God (pdf)
- Discerning God’s Will
- Letters from St. Francis
- Letters on Eternity
- Letters on Prayer and Joy among Difficulties
(e-book links are complements of goodcatholicbooks.org)
St. Bridget of Sweden
“Christians are now acting towards me as the Jews acted towards me…Only pride is delightful in their ears, only the lust of the world [pleasures of the world] delights their eyes…Nevertheless, I am still so merciful that I will happily receive each and everyone who begs for my forgiveness and says: ‘Lord, I know that I have sinned severely and I gladly want to better myself through your grace.'” (Jesus to St. Bridget of Sweden).
St. Bridget of Sweden was a wife and mother of 8 children, who later upon her husband’s death became a third order Franciscan and then the founder of her own nuns. She was a mystic who went to confession daily and desired to love God perfectly. She had visions and revelations starting at the age of 10 that are fantastic, which an angel, the Blessed Mother, and Jesus spoke with her mostly about the suffering of Christ because of our constant unrepentant, unchanged, sins.
Her writings “The Prophecies and Revelations of St. Bridget of Sweden” are a must read for someone who wants to develop a greater understanding of the consequence of sin.
(pdf. of St. Bridget of Sweden’s online Book is complements of saintbooks.net)
St. Louis Marie de Montfort
“T
he elect [those who obtain Heaven] who are willing to be made conformable to the crucified Christ by carrying their cross are few in number. It would cause us to faint away from grief to learn how surprisingly small is their number.” –St. Louis De Montfort, (A Letter to the Friends of the Cross, II. The Practices of Christian Perfection, #14)
St. Luis de Montfort entered studies to become a priest at a young age. He developed a strong devotion the the Blessed Mother and a passion for preaching. Needing help to save souls, He would beg the angels to help him wins souls for God.
He was constantly occupied with seeking Gods’ will and preaching missions. He didn’t waste a moment of his time on worldly interests but devoted all moments to the honor and glory of God and found time to write several books about the incredible blessings we obtain from having true devotion to Mary, as he titled one of his books.
For those who struggle with having the grace to abide by God’s commands, reading St. Luis de Montfort’s work will surely give anyone great incite to the necessity of having the constant assistance of the Mother of God, known as Marian Spirituality, by our side to help us in our efforts to run and win the race towards Life and be motivated to carry our cross, with Christ in His Letter to the Friends of the Cross.
The following is a .pdf online resource of St. Louis de Monfort’s books:
God Alone which includes all of his major works including the following:
Please read: “Why ‘Very Few Christians are Saved'” –St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church
p.s. please understand there are many translations of each book and each translation might have the quotes from the saints slightly different.
St. Alphonsus Liguori
“All persons desire to be saved, but the greater part, because they will not adopt the means of being saved, fall into sin and are lost.” -St. Alphonsus, (A Christian’s Rule of Life, Ch. 1, sect. 1)
St. Alphonsus was a bishop and theologian. He is also the Doctor of the Church and the patron saint of confessors. He was called by God to write book after book to bring Fear of the Lord (fear of sin and its consequence), knowledge of the Way to Heaven, and moral theology to God’s children in the hopes of saving some. He encourages a complete change of life into loving God by working daily to abandon sin through reconciliation, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
His works are a must read. He holds nothing back; his guidance is clear and direct. From giving wonderful correct advice on how to be a holy priest in “The Dignity and Duties of the Priest,” to guiding you and me to holiness through deeply contemplative meditations in “The Way of Salvation and of Perfection,” any soul who reads his works should be moved from being lukewarm into surrendering all for the love of God.
A large majority of St. Alphonsus works are available on Kindle from Amazon
The following are .pdf online resources of St. Alphonsus’s books.
St. Alphonsus has a large variety of books available online some of the titles include:
- The Passion of Christ – Taken from The Way of Salvation and of Perfection and Miscellany
- The True Spouse of Jesus Christ
- Sermons for Sundays of the Year
- History of Heresies
- Preparation for Death – (part 2) – (part 3) – (part 4)
- Uniformity with God’s Will – also titled Conformity to God’s Will – download as PDF
- Maxims for Obtaining Perfection in the Love of Jesus Christ
- Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary
- Way of the Cross
Self-Denial to Salvation Writings of St. Alphonsus (PDF format)
The following PDF books include scanned images of the book, and are therefore large (over 30 MB).
- The Way of Salvation and of Perfection
- The Incarnation, Birth, and Infancy of Jesus Christ; or, The Mysteries of the Faith
- The Holy Eucharist
- Victories of the Martyrs
- The True Spouse of Jesus Christ, Part I
- Dignity and Duties of the Priest; or, Selva
- The Holy Mass
- The Divine Office: Explanation of the Psalms and Canticles
- Preaching
- Miscellany
- Letters
- General Correspondence: Volume I; Volume II; Volume III
- Special Correspondence: Volume IV; Volume V
(Links to books are complements of goodcatholicbooks.com)
Please read: “Why ‘Very Few Christians are Saved'” –St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church
p.s. please understand there are many translations of each book and each translation might have the quotes from the saints slightly different.