Maxims and counsels of St. Francis de Sales for every day of the year

by Saint de Sales Francis

274.

My dear daughter, we must flay the victim if we would have it acceptable to God. In the Old Law, God would accept no victim as a holocaust if it had not first been flayed; in like manner our hearts can never be immolated and sacrificed to God until they shall have been flayed, stripped of their old skin, that is, of their habits, inclinations, repugnances, and superfluous affections.