Introduction to the Devout Life E-Book

St. Francis de Sales

• Herausgeber: Publisher s19595
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Words from St. Francis de Sales regarding Modesty. "Be neat, Philothea; let nothing be negligent about you. It is a kind of contempt of those with whom we converse, to frequent their company in uncomely apparel; but, at the same time, avoid all affectation, vanity, curiosity, or levity in your dress. Keep yourself always, as much as possible, on the side of plainness and modesty, which, without doubt, is the greatest ornament of beauty, and the best excuse for the want of it."---St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to a Devout Life, Part Third, Ch. 25"Frequent not the company of immodest persons, especially if they be also impudent, as is generally the case; ...these corrupted souls and infected hearts scarcely speak to any, either of the same or a different sex, without causing them to fall in some degree from purity; they have poison in their eyes and in their breath, like basilisks. On the contrary, keep company with the chaste and virtuous; often meditate upon and read holy things; for the word of God is chaste, and makes those also chaste that delight in it."

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Born in France in 1567

Francis was a patient man. He knew for thirteen years that he had a vocation to the priesthood before he mentioned it to his family. 

When his father said that he wanted Francis to be a soldier and sent him to Paris to study, Francis said nothing. Then when he went to Padua to get a doctorate in law, he still kept quiet, but he studied theology and practiced mental prayer while getting into swordfights and going to parties. Even when his bishop told him if he wanted to be a priest that he thought that he would have a miter waiting for him someday, Francis uttered not a word. Why did Francis wait so long? Throughout his life he waited for God's will to be clear. He never wanted to push his wishes on God, to the point where most of us would have been afraid that God would give up!

God finally made God's will clear to Francis while he was riding. Francis fell from his horse three times. Every time he fell the sword came out of the scabbard. 

Every time it came out the sword and scabbard came to rest on the ground in the shape of the cross. And then, Francis, without knowing about it, was appointed provost of his diocese, second in rank to the bishop.

Perhaps he was wise to wait, for he wasn't a natural pastor. His biggest concern on being ordained that he had to have his lovely curly gold hair cut off. And his preaching left the listeners thinking he was making fun of him. Others reported to the bishop that this noble-turned- priest was conceited and controlling.

Then Francis had a bad idea -- at least that's what everyone else thought. This was during the time of the Protestant reformation and just over the mountains from where Francis lived was Switzerland -- Calvinist territory. Francis decided that he should lead an expedition to convert the 60,000 Calvinists back to Catholicism. But by the time he left his expedition consisted of himself and his cousin. His father refused to give him any aid for this crazy plan and the diocese was too poor to support him.

For three years, he trudged through the countryside, had doors slammed in his face and rocks thrown at him. In the bitter winters, his feet froze so badly they bled as he tramped through the snow. He slept in haylofts if he could, but once he slept in a tree to avoid wolves. He tied himself to a branch to keep from falling out and was so frozen the next morning he had to be cut down. And after three years, his cousin had left him alone and he had not made one convert.

Francis' unusual patience kept him working. No one would listen to him, no one would even open their door. So Francis found a way to get under the door. 

He wrote out his sermons, copied them by hand, and slipped them under the doors. This is the first record we have of religious tracts being used to communicate with people.

The parents wouldn't come to him out of fear. So Francis went to the children. When the parents saw how kind he was as he played with the children, they began to talk to him.

By the time, Francis left to go home he is said to have converted 40,000 people back to Catholicism.

In 1602 he was made bishop of the diocese of Geneva, in Calvinist territory. 

He only set foot in the city of Geneva twice -- once when the Pope sent him to try to convert Calvin's successor, Beza, and another when he traveled through it.

It was in 1604 that Francis took one of the most important steps in his life, the step toward holiness and mystical union with God.

In Dijon that year Francis saw a widow listening closely to his sermon -- a woman he had seen already in a dream. Jane de Chantal was a person on her own, as Francis was, but it was only when they became friends that they began to become saints. Jane wanted him to take over her spiritual direction, but, not surprisingly, Francis wanted to wait. "I had to know fully what God himself wanted. I had to be sure that everything in this should be done as though his hand had done it." Jane was on a path to mystical union with God and, in directing her, Francis was compelled to follow her and become a mystic himself.

Three years after working with Jane, he finally made up his mind to form a new religious order. But where would they get a convent for their contemplative Visitation nuns? A man came to Francis without knowing of his plans and told him he was thinking of donating a place for use by pious women. In his typical way of not pushing God, Francis said nothing. When the man brought it up again, Francis still kept quiet, telling Jane, "God will be with us if he approves." Finally the man offered Francis the convent.

Francis was overworked and often ill because of his constant load of preaching, visiting, and instruction -- even catechizing a deaf man so he could take first Communion. He believed the first duty of a bishop was spiritual direction and wrote to Jane, "So many have come to me that I might serve them, leaving me no time to think of myself. However, I assure you that I do feel deep-down- within-me, God be praised. For the truth is that this kind of work is infinitely profitable to me." For him active work did not weaken his spiritual inner peace but strengthened it. He directed most people through letters, which tested his remarkable patience. "I have more than fifty letters to answer. If I tried to hurry over it all, i would be lost. So I intend neither to hurry or to worry. This evening, I shall answer as many as I can. Tomorrow I shall do the same and so I shall go on until I have finished."

At that time, the way of holiness was only for monks and nuns -- not for ordinary people. Francis changed all that by giving spiritual direction to lay people living ordinary lives in the world. But he had proven with his own life that people could grow in holiness while involved in a very active occupation. Why couldn't others do the same? His most famous book, INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOUT LIFE, was written for these ordinary people in 1608. Written originally as letters, it became an instant success all over Europe -- though some preachers tore it up because he tolerated dancing and jokes!

For Francis, the love of God was like romantic love. He said, "The thoughts of those moved by natural human love are almost completely fastened on the beloved, their hearts are filled with passion for it, and their mouths full of its praises. When it is gone they express their feelings in letters, and can't pass by a tree without carving the name of their beloved in its bark. Thus too those who love God can never stop thinking about him, longing for him, aspiring to him, and speaking about him. If they could, they would engrave the name of Jesus on the hearts of all humankind."

The key to love of God was prayer. "By turning your eyes on God in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with God. Begin all your prayers in the presence of God."

For busy people of the world, he advised "Retire at various times into the solitude of your own heart, even while outwardly engaged in discussions or transactions with others and talk to God."

The test of prayer was a person's actions: "To be an angel in prayer and a beast in one's relations with people is to go lame on both legs."

He believed the worst sin was to judge someone or to gossip about them. Even if we say we do it out of love we're still doing it to look better ourselves. But we should be as gentle and forgiving with ourselves as we should be with others.

As he became older and more ill he said, "I have to drive myself but the more I try the slower I go." He wanted to be a hermit but he was more in demand than ever. The Pope needed him, then a princess, then Louis XIII. "Now I really feel that I am only attached to the earth by one foot..." He died on December 28, 1622, after giving a nun his last word of advice: "Humility."

He is patron saint of journalists because of the tracts and books he wrote.

http://www.catholic.org/

::: St. Francis de Sales :::

Index

CONTAINING COUNSELS AND EXERCISES NECESSARY

FOR THE GUIDANCE OF A PERSON FROM THE DESIRE FOR THE DEVOUT LIFE UP

TO A TOTAL COMMITMENT TO LIVE IT

CHAPTER 1: A Description Of True Devotion

CHAPTER 2: The Nature And Exceptional Goodness Of Devotion

CHAPTER 3: Devotion Is Suitable To Every Kind Of Life-Situation And Occupation

CHAPTER 4: The Necessity Of A Guide To Begin And To Make Progress In Devotion

CHAPTER 5: We Must Begin With Self-Purification

CHAPTER 6: First Of All: Purifying Ourselves From Mortal Sins

CHAPTER 7: Secondly: Purifying Ourselves From Attachment To Mortal Sin

CHAPTER 8: The Means To Make The Second Purification

CHAPTER 9: First Meditation: Our Creation

CHAPTER 10: Second Meditation: The Purpose For Which We Are Created

CHAPTER 11: Third Meditation: God's Blessings

CHAPTER 12: Fourth Meditation: My Sins

CHAPTER 13: Fifth Meditation: My Death

CHAPTER 14: Sixth Meditation: The Final Judgement

CHAPTER 15: Seventh Meditation: Hell

CHAPTER 16: Eighth Meditation: Heaven

CHAPTER 17: Ninth Meditation: Deliberate Choice Of Heaven

CHAPTER 18: Tenth Meditation: Deliberate Choice Of The Devout Life

CHAPTER 19: How To Make A General Confession

CHAPTER 20: A Firm Resolution To Impress Upon Oneself The Decision To Serve God, As A Conclusion To The Acts Of Repentance

CHAPTER 21: Concluding The Firm Resolution

CHAPTER 22: We Must Purify Ourselves From Attachment To Venial Sin

CHAPTER 23: We Must Purify Ourselves From Attachment To Useless And Dangerous Things

CHAPTER 24: We Must Purify Ourselves From Evil Inclinations

CHAPTER 1:

A Description Of True Devotion

You seek devotion, dearest Philothea, because as a Christian you know that it is a virtue very pleasing to God. Small mistakes made at the beginning of any project grow infinitely great as it progresses, and in the end are almost impossible to correct. Hence you should know, before everything else, what is the virtue of devotion.

There is only one true devotion while there is a very large number of false and meaningless ones. So if you cannot recognize true devotion, you could be deceived and waste time in following some devotion that is irrelevant and irrational.

Aurelius used to draw all the faces in the pictures he painted with the expressions and appearance of the women he loved. (42) So, each one represents devotion according to his liking and imagination. He who is in the habit of fasting will think that because he fasts he is very devout, even though his heart is filled with hatred. He will not take a sip of wine, or even of water, anxious about sobriety but he has no scruples to sip the blood of his neighbour by speaking ill or by false statements.Another considers himself devout because of the very great number of prayers he recites every day, even though soon after this he speaks words that are annoying, full of pride and hurtful to those in his house and to his neighbours. Another very gladly opens his purse to give alms to the poor but cannot take any gentleness from his heart to forgive his enemies. Yet another will forgive his enemies but will not pay what he owes unless he is legally forced to do so. All such persons are generally looked upon as devout whereas in fact they are not.

When Saul's soldiers came looking for David in his house, Michal placed a statue on a bed and covered it with David's clothes and so made them believe that it was David himself asleep due to illness (1 Samuel 19:11-16). In the same way, many people cover themselves with various external actions related to holy devotion. The world takes them for people who are truly devout and spiritual, whereas in reality they are nothing more than statues and illusions of devotion.

Dear Philothea, devotion that is true and living presupposes the love of God, rather it is nothing else than a true love of God. It is not, however, love as such. In so far as divine love enriches us it is called grace, which makes us pleasing to God. In so far as it gives us the strength to do good, it is called charity. But when it grows to such a degree of perfection that it makes us not only to do good but rather moves us to do it carefully, frequently and promptly, it is called devotion. Ostriches never fly, hens fly only awkwardly, quite low and rarely; but eagles, doves and swallows fly often, swiftly and very high. In the same way, sinners do not fly towards God but rather all their movements are on the earth and for the things of the earth. People who are good, but have not yet progressed to devotion, fly towards God by their good deeds but rarely, slowly and with difficulty. Persons who are devout fly to God frequently, promptly and freely.

In short, devotion is nothing else than a spiritual agility and liveliness by means of which charity realizes its actions in us, or we do so by charity, promptly and lovingly.

Just as it is the work of charity to make us keep all the commandments of God in general and without any exception, so it is the work of devotion to make us do so promptly and earnestly. Therefore, whoever does not keep all of God's commandments cannot be considered either good or devout, because to be good one must have charity. To be devout one must not only have charity but a great liveliness and promptness in doing charitable actions.

Since devotion is to be found at a certain level of charity that is extraordinary it makes us prompt, active and earnest in keeping all of God's commandments. But, more than this, it rouses us to do as many good works as we can, promptly and lovingly, even though they are in no way commanded but rather only counselled or inspired.

A man, who has recently recovered from some illness, walks only as much as he needs to, but slowly and with difficulty. So also, a sinner healed of his sinfulness moves ahead to the extent that God commands him, and that too slowly and with difficulty until he acquires devotion. After that, like a man in good health he not only walks but runs joyfully in the way of God's commandments (Ps. 118:32). Even more, he moves ahead and runs in the paths of God's counsels and inspirations.