Did Saint Francis de Sales REALLY say that

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Apparently he did. This is an excerpt from an article by Michael Voris of ChurchMilitant.com (typos are not mine, they’re in the article itself)
Saint Francis de Sales poses the troubling thought that the surest way to Hell is to be a channel of grace — yes, a channel of grace. That is because a channel is merely that which something, like water, passes through without actually changing the channel. The channel is nothing more than a conduit. Judas was a channel fo grace. Caiaphas was a channel of grace. Pontius Pilate was a channel of grace. Our redemption was secured in part through the fact that these men were channels of grace. But their actions were evil. God can and does bring good effects from evil actions (“O Happy Fault”), but that does not convert the evil choice into something good. The action remains evil in and of itself.

What St. Francis de Sales counsels us to be are reservoirs, not channels, of grace. Reservoirs fill up with grace, and then having reached capacity, spill over to others without losing any of the grac themselves. This is our plan of action, to be “full of grace” to whatever our capacity, and spill it over to others. We must recall when it comes to the divintely mandated duty to save souls, the first one we must save is our own.
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ always acts through Mary as a channel.
All conversions and favors take place by means of and through the intercession of this Blessed Mother.
She is the universal channel of grace for mankind.
The Universal Mediation of graces fall entirely to the sole Mediatrix between Jesus Christ and men, and from her they overflow to men.
As a channel of grace, Our Lady is rather the surest way to Heaven!!
 
Okay, how about documentation that doesn’t come from Michael Voris?
 
If the expanded quote is accurate, so what? Anything can be a channel of grace.
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ always acts through Mary as a channel.
All conversions and favors take place by means of and through the intercession of this Blessed Mother.
She is the universal channel of grace for mankind.
The Universal Mediation of graces fall entirely to the sole Mediatrix between Jesus Christ and men, and from her they overflow to men.
As a channel of grace, Our Lady is rather the surest way to Heaven!!
If you take the definition of “channel” which was quote in the OP, then Mary is so much more, surely, that to call her a “channel” is not to do justice to her role.
 
If you take the definition of “channel” which was quote in the OP, then Mary is so much more, surely, that to call her a “channel” is not to do justice to her role.
Nobody is reducing Our Lady to a mere channel.
She merits an endless array of titles.
None do her justice.

Our Lady does bring us Christ.
But sincere Catholics seem to have it backwards in their claims that Our Lady always points us to Christ.
When the truth is that Christ points to Our Lady.

Just look at most of the sacred art, some miraculous images, of the maternal image of Our Lady with the Divine Infant, where God points to the Blessed Virgin.

Our Lord points directly to His Mother, as if to tell us, “If you would come to Me, go to her. For what she asks of Me, I will give her.”
 
Our role in life is to be channels of grace to others. And we shall be effective conduits of God’s blessings to the world in the measure that we ourselves are filled with His grace.
~Fr. John Hardon, S.J.

We are the community of believers, we are the People of God and in this community we share the beauty of the experience of a love that precedes us all, but that at the same time calls us to be ‘channels’ of grace for one another, despite our limitations and our sins.
~Pope Francis
 
St. John of the Cross also says something similar when he points out that many priests attend to the spiritual and moral needs of others, but use that as an way to ignore their own.

Christi pax.
 
St. John of the Cross also says something similar when he points out that many priests attend to the spiritual and moral needs of others, but use that as an way to ignore their own.

Christi pax.
Of course, the love of God and our own salvation comes before our charity to others.
How can a holy priest or child of God be considered a mere conduit or ignoring their own soul or even evil, when they use the main sources of divine grace; prayer, sacraments, and the practice of virtue, given to us from the mercy of God and through us to others?
Perhaps St. Francis de Sales counsel was directed to those who are outside the true Church of Christ.
 
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