Novena to St. Francis de Sales

O great prelate and blessed man according to God’s own Heart! perfect imitator of the meekness of Jesus, extirpator of heresy, ardent lover and docile disciple of the Holy Spirit that spoke by thy pen; listen to my prayer! O ever compassionate refuge of the afflicted, whose sweet charity to the weakest and most imperfect of thy fellow-creatures, marked thee out like thy beloved Master as the “Friend of sinners”. Show thyself such towards us by obtaining for us the intentions of this Novena, N. Receive us, O great master of solid perfection, into the number of those whom thou didst form according to the true spirit of the interior life. Teach us, O thou, one of the most humble of men! how to be great in the gifts of heaven, and yet nothing in our own eyes, save sin. O angel of peace and meekness! ask for us that spirit of peace which surpasseth all understanding, and a condescending charity and universal meekness in our conduct towards our neighbour. But principally teach us thy own favourite lesson of perfect conformity to the Will of God, that we may repose tranquilly in the arms of His adorable Providence, and by pure love in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that we may cast all our solicitude on God, so as “to ask nothing and refuse nothing”; at least to ask nothing more earnestly for ourselves and others than the treasure of Divine Love, and to refuse nothing so resolutely as the misfortune of consenting to the least sin. Through Jesus Christ, etc. Amen.