St. Francis de Sales indicates that a consideration of the goodness of God and the evil of sin leads to a change of mind and heart (cf. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter 20). This change "is a repentance by which we resolve to break away from our sinful habits, detest the sins we have committed, and make good (as far as we can) the offence and damage to God and to His law" (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter 18). Repentance restores us to union with God through love (cf. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter 18)

He stresses the importance of being sincerely sorry for our sins and being firmly determined to change our behaviour in order to receive fruitfully the Sacrament of Reconciliation. "Always have a sincere sorrow for the sins you confess, no matter how small they may be, with firm determination to correct yourself in the future...Many confess the venial sins from force or habit and as it were to do what is expected, without thinking at all of correcting themselves. They continue to be weighed down by such sins all their life and in this way lose many spiritual benefits and advantages...Indeed, it is an abuse to confess any kind of sin, mortal or venial, without wanting to be freed from it" (Introduction to Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 19).

"Everything conspired during this winter (1594-95) to discourage Francis and Louis de Sales: the rigor of a season that was particularly severe; the relentlessness of the Protestant ministers, which proved to be very influential over the people. They hurled "a thousand jibes and mockeries" at him, as one of his biographers said, they called him "hypocrite, idolater, false prophet"; they accused him of magic and sorcery; they "set up ambushes" for him. It was bruited about that they had the right - even the duty, perhaps - to put him to death, since he was violating public order!" (Andre Ravier, "Francis de Sales: Sage & Saint," p. 67).

It is important to discover the quality of the 'martyrdom' on which the Catholic Church in Chablais was founded. We know the exacting character of the apostolate of the Saint. The winter was a bitterly cold one and it was through deep snow that he trudged the countryside... One night he had to sleep up in a chestnut tree to escape wolves. All this he underwent out of love. His friends often attempted to dissuade him from persisting in Chablais, pointing out he risked death: 'I would willingly die for the faith' he had answered. While praying before Saint Anthony's Altar, he heard a voice telling him in the spirit 'you desire as I did to be a martyr; but you will not become one; you yourself must become the instrument of your martyrdom.' From then on Francis determined to mortify himself in Christ for the salvation of his flock, and to miss no opportunity to prove his love. He learned to warn others: 'No better martyrdom should be sought than sincere mortification of self. This will become one of the principles of spiritual devotion, one of the secrets of his asceticism and of his apostolate. Faced with the toughness of the impenetrable mass to convert, he resolved to resort to spiritual weapons: "Prayer - Alms - Fasting" he said, "are the three strands that make the rope too strong to be broken by the enemy" (Lajeunie. Vol. 1, pp. 196-197).