A Year with the Saints - 24 May

Know and be assured that all those thoughts which give disquiet and agitation of mind are not in any wise from God, who is the Prince of Peace; but they always proceed either from the devil, or from self-love, or from the esteem which we have of ourselves. These are the three fountains from which all our perturbation springs. Therefore, when thoughts of such a nature come to us, we ought to reject them at once and make no account of them. - Saint Francis de Sales

Here is the reason why this Saint was never seen perturbed or disquieted. It was because he scorned the temptations of the devil, and was humble in heart, and a sworn enemy of self-love. When the Abbot Isaac was asked by another monk why the devils feared him so much, he replied: "At the time I entered religion, I made a resolution never to let an impatient act or angry word escape me, and by the grace of God, I have never broken it." Yet God knows how many temptations and trying circumstances he had met!

- text taken from A Year with the Saints, composed by an unknown Italian, translated by a member of the Order of Mercy; it has the Imprimatur of Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan, Archdiocese of New York, New York, 21 January 1891