Bulletins

September 2, 2018

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The letter written by Saint Louis (King Louis IX of France) to his son Philip III is familiar to those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours. His feast day we celebrate on August 25. The letter is a beautiful spiritual testament that imparts the departing saint’s words of spiritual and worldly wisdom to his eldest son.

It begins:

My dearest son, my first instruction is that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your strength. Without this there is no salvation. Keep yourself, my son, from everything that you know displeases God, that is to say, from every mortal sin. You should permit yourself to be tormented by every kind of martyrdom before you would allow yourself to commit a mortal sin.

What is familiar to us after that are excerpts that come largely from the beginning of the letter. Here are some other significant passages:

Dear son, I advise you that you accustom yourself to frequent confession, and that you choose always, as your confessors, men who are upright and sufficiently learned, and who can teach you what you should do and what you should avoid. You should so carry yourself that your confessors and other friends may dare confidently to reprove you and show you your faults...

Maintain the good customs of your realm, and put down the bad ones. Do not oppress your people and do not burden them with tolls or tailles, except under very great necessity.

If you have any unrest of heart, of such a nature that it may be told, tell it to your confessor, or to some upright man who can keep your secret; you will be able to carry more easily the thought of your heart.

See to it that all your associates are upright, whether clerics or laymen, and have frequent good converse with them; and flee the society of the bad. And listen willingly to the word of God, both in open and in secret; and purchase freely prayers and pardons.

Love all good, and hate all evil, in whomsoever it may be.

Let no one be so bold as to say, in your presence, words which attract and lead to sin, and do not permit words of detraction to be spoken of another behind his back.

St. Louis, King of France, pray for us!

Fr. Christopher J. Pollard