of life;
rather look to them with full hope
as they arise.
God, whose very own you are,
will lead you safely through all things;
and when you cannot stand it,
God will carry you in His arms.
Do not fear what may happen tomorrow;
the same everlasting Father who cared for you today
will take care of you then and every day.
He will either shield you from suffering,
or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace
and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
Those words momentarily stopped my fretful languishing. While I didn’t abandon my fretting completely, whenever things would start me back down the worry path, I would read Francis’ words again. And again. This was faith-filled counsel I could trust, because I knew the God of whom the writer spoke. Yet I needed reassurances of God’s closeness and care in the midst of my trial.
Long before I knew of his groundbreaking book, Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis had captured the attention of my worrisome heart. He reminded me of who God is, and who I am in God’s sight. He spoke this fundamental truth: my fears were no match for the magnitude of God’s hope and love in my life.
It would be some years before I would read, and pray through, the Introduction. Yet it has now become one of the books I most often recommend. For Francis is a humble and wise mentor.
Francis de Sales (1567–1622) was the bishop of Geneva and a gifted communicator, who helped people come to know Christ and to grow in their faith. As a friend and a writer, he encouraged, consoled, and invited all those seeking his counsel and spiritual direction into a deeper union with Jesus Christ. Besides attending to his ministerial duties, he was a prolific letter writer. His pamphlets and books resulted in thousands of conversions to the Catholic faith.
De Sales’ approachable wisdom continues to inspire people today. He is a Doctor of the Church, and specifically a Doctor of the Laity, because of the volume you hold in your hands. Introduction to the Devout Life is considered the Church’s first complete treatise on lay spirituality. Writing four hundred years prior to the Second Vatican Council, Francis de Sales maintained that holiness is not just for priests and religious — it is for everyone.
Long before the documents of Vatican II coined the phrase “the universal call to holiness,” Francis taught that holiness is possible in every vocation. He wrote for ordinary people in ordinary life — people with jobs and families and the pressures of daily living. He maintained that living a devout life offers extraordinary results. Francis said that holiness and devotion perfects one’s vocation and profession!
In short, devotion is simply a spiritual activity and liveliness by means of which divine love works in us and causes us to work quickly and with love….
The difference between love and devotion is just like that which exists between fire and flame: love is a spiritual fire which becomes devotion when it is fanned into a flame….
But true devotion … not only does not hinder any vocation or duty, but it adorns and beautifies it. (Introduction, Part I, chs. 1 and 4)
The goal of the Introduction is to help us grow in union with Christ, for without Christ, there is no Christian life. The Introduction offers us a short course in spirituality that will pay dividends our whole life long.
The book is divided into five parts.
Part I’s purpose is to turn our desire for God toward resolution for God. In spiritual terms, we might call this process purgation. It’s a phase of exploring, and perhaps wrestling with, making a firm decision to choose to live for God. It’s a time of honest assessment and discovering what might be holding us back from living a full life. While that may sound difficult, Francis is a friendly and trustworthy guide who calls us to embrace a brighter path.
The focus of Part I includes ten meditations — reality checks, really — that prepare us to strengthen our resolve for God. Sometimes readers pause to make Part I a personal retreat for ten days, so as not to rush through those first meditations. Francis invites us to conscientiously place ourselves in God’s presence each day, asking for his divine help, and then carefully considering the various topics that are covered.
The central message of Part II contains valuable instructions for prayer. It is filled with good advice on how to meditate and pray. Two things from Part II have proven valuable in my life over the years: creating a spiritual bouquet after my prayer time, and learning to pray with spiritual aspirations as I go through the day.
Whenever I’m reading Scripture or some spiritual book, or even when something strikes me during Mass, I employ Francis de Sales’ recommendation to make a spiritual bouquet to carry with me through the day. Francis recommends taking time for prayer in the morning, before the work of the day begins. That way, we can recall the prayer and let it bear fruit throughout our day. He describes how to gather and appreciate a spiritual bouquet this way:
When walking in a beautiful garden, most people like to gather a few flowers as they go, to keep and enjoy their scent during the day. So, when the mind explores some mystery in meditation, it is good to pick out one or more points that have particularly caught your attention and are most likely to be helpful to you through the day. (Introduction, Part II, ch. 7)
For me, coupled with creating a spiritual bouquet is developing the habit of spiritual aspirations. These are little prayers that I pray aloud, or silently, depending on my situation. Francis describes these as “short, ardent movements” of the heart toward God. He writes:
Praise his excellence, invoke his aid, cast yourself in spirit at the foot of his cross, adore his goodness, offer your whole soul a thousand times a day to him, fix your inward gaze upon him, stretch out your hands to be led by him as a little child to its father, clasp him to your breast as a fragrant bouquet, praise him in your soul as a standard….
Neither is this a difficult practice. It can be interwoven with all our duties and occupations, without hindering them. (Introduction, Part II, ch. 13)
Part III offers instructions on growing in the virtues. And who among us doesn’t need a dose of that? None of us are ready-made saints; we have to work diligently to grow in virtue.
I have to admit the instructions on humility get me every time. But as I get older, they seem to sting a little less than when I first read them years ago. Today I am so much more in agreement with Francis’ assessment of my needs — I’m slowly starting
