St. Francis De Sales on Web Design

Lets face it, people judge based upon appearance (at least that is their first natural inclination). Since our youth we all innately presume a correlation between interior dispositions/order with those we observe  externally.

Case and point: If you met me and I had a giant mustard stain on my shirt that had obviously been there for a couple weeks, you would start making judgements. You may assume I am a slob. You may assume I am lazy. You may even assume I am a bad Catholic (being a lazy slob doesn’t usually point to the heights of spiritual growth).

Yet one of the last things we think about when trying to give a good Christian example is how we present ourselves appearance wise.

In Chpt. 25 of Part 3 of his spiritual classic, “Introduction to the Devout Life,” St. Francis De Sales addresses this issue:

“For my own part I should like my devout man or woman to be the best-dressed person in the company, but the least fine or splendid, and adorned, as St. Peter says, with “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit”

When pursuing the spread of the faith online, design cannot be the last item on the list. The web is nothing more than a giant online cocktail party. We are fighting for the interest of individuals who are also being fought for by example a, example b, example c. Do you see the difference between the way these examples present themselves and the way we commonly as Catholics approach ministry on the web? Like it or not we are judged by the standards they set.

It doesn’t matter how good we are at conversing if our appearance from across the room says we’re not worth talking to. 

Steven Lawson

Steven Lawson

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6 thoughts on “St. Francis De Sales on Web Design”

  1. At the same time we must remember that these sites are not attractive for their superior truth and wisdom, but for the ways in which they distract the easily distracted from the truth. We should participate in their society but without condescending to the level of diluting the purity of truth our faith stands upon.

    In the same chapter Francis de Sales says “avoid all vanity, peculiarity, and fancifulness,” and “keep to what is simple and unpretending.” That is to say, always uphold the truth first, design second, or else we will be only creating new distractions for people who are easily distracted.

    As our Lord, we must eat with sinners, but never let anyone think we are relinquishing repentance; it is the truth of the Lord we are broadcasting and that must be the centerpiece when this online cocktail party is so full of falsehood and trickery.

  2. Yeah and the Lord’s Truth is beautiful, we ought, in fact it is our duty to present the Holy of Holies in the upmost Blissful manner that we are capable of, not always approaching him with the assumption that anything we do will never be good enough. Of course it will never be good enough, but my dear friend “mercy” has never heard of being “good enough”. It all comes down to wanting to use our Hearts to kickstart our brains into realizing that the Holy Spirit is gloriously Beautiful and we should at least try to act in imitation, not for fanciful vain reasons but only in so much that He may be seem in a fuller reality by us lowly humans.

  3. This was precisely what I had in mind when I created Catholic Sistas. I don’t think Truth means we forsake beauty in other ways. Our website seeks to provide spiritual nourishment as well as visual appeal for those who like a little style with the Truth. 🙂

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