This photo shows a patisserie in Annecy, the hometown of St. Francis de Sales. This saint made the spiritual life sweet, attractive, and accessible, like these treats. Have you read any works by St. Francis de Sales lately?

Instead of condemning poor everyday sinners like you and me, he showed us how to take our weaknesses and turn them into strengths, how to profit from our faults, how to pick ourselves up and keep going on the road to Heaven.

"It is, perhaps, because the halo surrounding St. Francis de Sales was the illumination of human frailties purified, that the heart of erring humanity clings so lovingly to his memory. No fault was too petty, no sin too heinous for his gentle consideration. A skillful spiritual chemist, he carefully analyzed every act, trivial or serious, with reference to its influence upon the human soul. With great tenderness, he made the sinner conscious of the exact condition of his soul, and then like a loving brother, he firmly grasped that sinner's hand, and with sweet words of encouragement and loving persuasion, he led the poor weary soul to the feet of God, and taught it how to stay there."

~Martha Murray, from "Immortelles of Catholic Columbian Literature compiled from the Works of American Catholic Women Writers by the Ursulines of New York," 1896.