Thank you to my classmate Don Wright for nominating me for Alumni Salesian Spirit Award, for the others in my class who supported my nomination and for the committee in selecting me. Congratulations, also, to the other Award recipients.
I want to offer a very special thank you to my parents, , my wife, my children, grandchildren, friends and the Oblates for their love, support and for the unique glimpses of God, [the Master Craftsman] that they have shown me over the years. This Award highlights DSU’s core values of gratitude, gentleness, humility, hospitality, wisdom based most importantly on Faith, values our society and our world desperately need.
Grateful to receive this award, allow to offer you a few thoughts from St. Francis de Sales. The Gentleman saint advises us to “Walk joyfully through life & if at times you cannot walk with faith & courage.” [Everyday with Francis deSales, June 12] And to “Be who you are & be that well, to give honor to the Master Craftsman whose handiwork you are.” [St. Francis de Sales, Oeurves, XII. Letter 289 10 June 1607]
When people from my parish [Our Lady of Perpetual Help] ask for advice in strengthening their spiritual life, I very often offer them de Sales’ Direction of Intention and My Day Is Ending prayers [See below]. Those prayers help me each day and they can help anyone who seeks peace and joy as they journey through our troubled world.
May God Be Praised.
Direction of Intention
“My God, I give you this day. I offer you, now, all of the good that I shall do … and I promise to accept, for love of you, all of the difficulty that I shall meet. Help me to conduct myself during this day In a manner [most] pleasing to you.”
Day Is Ending Prayer
“Thank you for all the gifts of the day,
for the place I spent it And for those with whom I spent it, for all its joys
and all its sorrows, for the troubles overcome and for those that remain.
I offer you the silence of this night, its darkness and its solitude. Whether you chose
under the cover of this night to take away the problems of this day, or leave them for tomorrow, I will bless your name.
Thy will be done. Amen
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