![]() ![]() Precipitous drops in the marriage and birth rates across the developed world testify to love frustrated by selfishly imposed limits. ![]() Too often this leads to a love of others enveloped within a greater love of self-what Aristotle called not love, but friendship of utility. Yes, people today are still capable of loving, but the way we love is influenced by the culture around us. The modern world, with its exaltation of the individual and his will as masters of the universe, has difficulty understanding love, which is classically defined as willing the good of another. ![]() As the pope’s letter makes clear, the saint’s spiritual counsel remains as poignant as ever in a world that has forgotten how to love because it has forgotten the God who is love. The French bishop devoted his whole life to teaching men and women how to devote themselves to God. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), the bishop of Geneva after Calvinism had overwhelmed the region, with a spiritually rich apostolic letter. Last month on the fourth centenary of his death, Pope Francis honored St. “If a man know that he is beloved, be it by whom it may, he is pressed to love in his turn.” Francis de Sales, whose feast day we celebrate today, in Treatise on the Love of God. “Nothing so much presses man’s heart as love,” wrote St. ![]()
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