| v0.9 | Initial edition |
This is releasable.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR DEVOUT SOULS
TO DISPEL THEIR DOUBTS AND
ALLAY THEIR FEARS.
BY
R. P. QUADRUPANI, Barnabite.
Translated from the French.
With an Introduction by
THE MOST REV. P. J. RYAN, D.D.,
Archbishop of Philadelphia, Pa.
ST. LOUIS, MO. 1898.
Published by B. HERDER,
17 South Broadway.
NIHIL OBSTAT.
F. G. Holweck, Censor Librorum.
IMPRIMATUR.
St. Louis, Mo., 1. Oct. 1897. H. Muehlsiepen, V. G., Adm.
The French translation, from which the present English version has been made, is approved by the Archbishop of Paris, the Bishop of Versailles and the Bishop of Meaux.
Copyright, 1898, by Jos. Gummersbach.
—BECKTOLD—
PRINTING AND BOOK MFG. CO.
ST. LOUIS, MO.
These Instructions for Pious Souls, now published in English under the title Light and Peace, were written in 1795 by the illustrious and saintly Barnabite, Padre Quadrupani. They contain a summary of spiritual guidance for earnest Christians in the ordinary duties of life in the world. The author had formed his own spirituality on the model presented by the life and teaching of St. Francis de Sales, and in this little book he reflects the wisdom, prudence and sweetness of that “gentleman Saint.”
The work has passed through uncounted
editions in its original Italian, and through a
large number of editions in both the French
and the German translations. An English
translation was published many years ago, but
besides its present rarity, its many imperfections
warrant the belief that a new rendition
will not be unwelcome. The translator has,
moreover, been encouraged by the persuasion
that the maxims of Father Quadrupani are
The present translation has been made from the twentieth French edition and has been collated with the thirty-second edition of the original Italian published at Naples in 1818. The many recommendations from the Episcopacy of France prefixed to the French translation are here omitted, as the Introduction by the Most Reverend Archbishop of Philadelphia is abundant testimony to the doctrinal solidity of the work.
I. M. O’R. Overbrook, PA.
God’s attributes being infinite and our intellects limited and also darkened by the fall, we see these attributes only in part and “as afar off and through a glass.” In contemplating His awful sanctity, we are overwhelmed with fear and forget His ineffable mercy. Our views are also greatly influenced by our natural temperaments, whether joyous or sad, and change with our environments and moods.
As the blue firmament is ever the same, so
is the great God Himself—“the King of Ages
immortal and invisible, without change or
shadow of vicissitude.” But as the clouds
that hang as veils of the sanctuary are movable
and variegated, now dark and gloomy
and again brilliant in silver or gold, now
opening into vistas of the firmament above
and again closing in darkness, except when
arrows of light pierce them and show their
outlines, so are we variable and inconstant
and need spiritual direction adapted to our
peculiar wants. The naturally joyous, hopeful
✠P. J. RYAN.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR DEVOUT SOULS
TO DISPEL THEIR DOUBTS AND ALLAY THEIR FEARS.
By R. P. QUADRUPANI, Barnabite.
For it is not you who speak, but
the Holy Ghost. (
1. It is absolutely true that in matters of
conscience obedience to a spiritual director is
obedience to God, for Christ has said to His
ministers on earth: “He that heareth you,
heareth Me.” (
2. A soul possessed of this spirit of obedience can not be lost: a soul devoid of this spirit can not be saved. (St. Philip Neri.)
3. Saint Bernard says there is no need for
the devil to tempt those who ignore obedience
and permit themselves to be guided by their
4. Do not fear that your director may be mistaken in what he prescribes for your guidance, or that he does not fully understand the state of your conscience because you did not explain it clearly enough to him. Such doubts cause obedience to be eluded or postponed and thus frustrate the designs of God in placing you under the direction of a prudent guide. It was the priest’s duty to have questioned you further had he not fully understood you, and that he did not do so is a positive proof that he knew enough to enable him to pronounce a safe judgment. God has promised his special help to those who represent Him in the direction of souls. Is not this assurance enough to induce you to obey with promptness and simplicity as the Holy Scripture commands?
5. God does not show the state of our souls
as clearly to us as he does to him who is to
guide us in his place. You should be quite
satisfied, then, if your director tells you the
course you follow is the right one and that
the mercy and grace of your Heavenly Father
are guiding you in it. You should believe and
6. Spiritual obedience is most needful for a Christian. Ignore, therefore, the groundless suspicion that you sin by obeying, and walk confidently in this path exempt from danger. “You sometimes fear,” says St. Bonaventure, “that in obeying you act against the dictates of your conscience, whereas, on the contrary, far from incurring guilt, you really increase your merit before God.”
7. We should allow obedience to regulate not only our exterior actions but likewise our mind and our will. Hence do not be satisfied with performing the works it prescribes, but let your thoughts and desires be also moulded according to its direction. In fact, it is in this interior submission that the merit of spiritual obedience essentially consists.
8. Obedience should be simple and
prompt, without reservation or disquietude.
Simple, because you ought not to argue
about it, but decide by the one thought: I
must obey; prompt, for it is God whom you
obey; without reservation, because obedience
9. When choosing a director, be careful to select one who has the necessary qualifications. He should be not only virtuous, but prudent, charitable and learned. St. Francis de Sales gives the following opinion on the subject:
“Go,” said Tobias to his son, when about
to send him into a strange country, ‘go seek
some wise man to conduct you.’ I say the
same to you, Philothea. If you sincerely
desire to enter upon the way of devotion, seek
a good guide to direct you therein. This
advice is of the utmost importance and necessity.
Whatever one may do, says the devout
Avila, he can never be certain of fulfilling
God’s will, unless he practice that humble
obedience which the saints so strongly recommend
and to which they so faithfully
adhere. And the Scriptures tell us: ‘A
faithful friend is a strong defence: and he
that hath found him, hath found a treasure:
.... a faithful friend is the medicine of life
But who can find such a friend? They that fear God, the Wise Man answers—that is to say, those humble souls who ardently desire their spiritual progress. Since it is so essential, then, Philothea, to have a skilful guide in the devout life, ask God fervently to give you one according to His Heart, and rest assured that when an angel is necessary to you as to the young Tobias, He will give you a wise and faithful director.
In fact, the selection once made, you should
look upon your spiritual guide more as a
guardian angel than as a mere man. You place
your confidence not in him but in God, for it
is God who will lead and instruct you through
his instrumentality by inspiring him with the
sentiments and words necessary for your
guidance. Thus you may safely listen to him
as to an angel sent from heaven to lead you
there. To this confidence, add perfect candor.
Speak quite frankly and tell him unreservedly
all that is good, all that is evil in you, for the
good will thus be strengthened, the evil
weakened, and your soul shall thereby become
‘Choose one among a thousand,’ says Avila: “among ten thousand, rather, I should say, for there are fewer than one would suppose fitted for this office of spiritual director. Charity, learning and prudence are indispensable to it, and if any one of these qualities be absent, your choice will not be unattended with danger. I repeat, ask God to inspire your selection and when you have made it thank Him sincerely, and then remain constant to your decision. If you go to God in all simplicity and with humility and confidence, you will undoubtedly obtain a favorable answer to your petition.”
In conclusion, it may be well to remind you
that the director and the confessor have not
necessarily to be the same priest. St. Francis
My brethren, count it all joy when
ye shall fall into divers temptations.
(
Now if I do that which I will not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin,
which dwelleth in me.
(
1. “If we are tempted,” says the Holy
Spirit, “it is a sign that God loves us.”
Those whom God best loves have been most
exposed to temptations. “Because thou wast
acceptable to God,” said the angel to Tobias,
“it was necessary that temptation should
prove thee.” (
2. Do not ask God to deliver you from
temptations, but to grant you the grace not to
succumb to them and to do nothing contrary
to His divine will. He who refuses the combat,
3. “These persistent temptations come from the malice of the devil,” says St. Francis de Sales, “but the trouble and suffering they cause us come from the mercy of God. Thus, despite the will of the tempter, God converts his evil machinations into a distress which we may make meritorious. Therefore I say your temptations are from the devil and hell, but your anxiety and affliction are from God and heaven.” Despise temptation, then, and open wide your soul to this suffering which God sends in order to purify you here that He may reward you hereafter.
4. “Let the wind blow,” remarks the
same Saint, “and do not mistake the rustling
of leaves for the clashing of arms. Be perfectly
convinced that all the temptations of
hell are powerless to defile a soul that does not
love them. St. Paul endured terrible temptations,
yet God, through love, did not deliver
5. The more persistent the temptation, the clearer it is that you have not given consent to it. “It is a good sign,” says St. Francis de Sales, “when the tempter makes so much noise and commotion outside of the will, for it shows that he is not within.” An enemy does not besiege a fortress that is already in his power, and the more obstinate the attack, the more certain We may be that our resistance continues.
6. Your fears lead you to believe you are defeated at the very moment you are gaining the victory. This comes from the fact that you confound feeling with consent, and, mistaking a passive condition of the imagination for an act of the will, you consider that you have yielded to the temptation because you felt it keenly.
St. Francis de Sales, with his usual simplicity, thus describes this warring of the flesh against the spirit:
“You are right, my dear daughter. There
It is not always in our power to restrain
7. The holy abbot St. Anthony was wont to say to the phantoms of his mind: I see you, but I do not look at you: I see you because it does not depend upon me that my imagination places before my eyes things I would wish not to see; I do not look at you because with my will I repulse and reject you. “It is so much the essence of sin to be voluntary,” says St. Augustine, “that if not voluntary, it is not sin.”
8. The attraction of the feelings towards the
object presented by the imagination is at times
so strong that the will seems to have been
carried away and overcome by a sort of fascination.
This, however, is not the case. The
St. Francis de Sales explains this distinction so plainly and yet so simply in one of his letters, that it may be useful to repeat the passage here:
“Courage, my dear soul, I say
it with great love in Jesus Christ, dear soul,
courage! As long as we can exclaim resolutely,
even though without feeling, My
Jesus! there is no cause for alarm. Do not
tell me it appears to you that you say it in a
cowardly way, and only by doing great
violence to yourself. It is precisely this holy
violence that bears away the kingdom of
heaven. Do you not see, my daughter, it is
a sign that the enemy has taken everything
within our fortress except the impenetrable,
unconquerable tower—and that can never
9. Should it frequently happen that you
have not a distinct consciousness of your success
against temptation, it may be that God
refuses you this satisfaction in order that, lacking
this clear assurance, your knowledge
may come through obedience. Therefore,
when your spiritual director, after hearing
your explanation, says that you have not given
10. To constitute a mortal sin three conditions must co-exist. First, the matter must be weighty; secondly, the mind must have full knowledge of the guilt of the action, omission or dangerous occasion in question; and, thirdly, the will, through a criminal preference for the forbidden action, culpable omission, or proximate occasion of sin, must give full consent. These reflections should serve to reassure your mind if the fear of having committed a mortal sin disturb it, for it is very difficult for this threefold union of conditions to be effected in a God-fearing soul. However, perfect security can come, and ought to come, only from spiritual obedience.
11. In temptations against faith and purity, do not make great efforts to form acts of these virtues, but simply turn a pleading glance towards God, without speaking even to this compassionate Friend concerning the thought that afflicts you, lest thereby you root the evil suggestion more firmly. Then, without disquieting yourself, engage at once in some exterior occupation or continue what you were doing. Make no answer to the tempter, but ignore him, just as though his assault had never occurred. In this way, whilst preserving your own peace of soul, you will cover your enemy with confusion.
The same counsel is given by St. Francis de Sales in his characteristic style:
“Do you know how God acts on these
occasions? He permits the wicked maker of
such wares to come and offer them to us for
sale, in order that by the contempt we show
for them we may testify our love for holy
things. And for this is it necessary, my dear
child, to feel anxious, and to change our position?
No, no. It is only the devil who is
prowling around your soul, raging and storming,
to see if he can find an open door....What!
and you would be annoyed at that?
12. Though you should be assailed by temptations during your entire life time, do not be disquieted, for your merits will increase in proportion to your trials and your crown be accordingly all the brighter in heaven. The only thing necessary is to remain firm in your resolution to despise the efforts of the tempter.
“This serious trial, and so many others that have assailed you and left you troubled in mind, do not at all surprise me, since there is nothing worse. Do not worry, then, my beloved daughter. Should we allow ourselves to be swept away by the current and the storm? Let Satan rage at the door; he may knock and stamp, and clamor and howl, and do his worst, but rest assured that he can never enter our souls but through the door of our consent. Let us only keep that closed tight and often look to see that it is well secured and we need have no concern about all the rest—there is no danger.”—St. Francis de Sales.
13. The most learned theologians and
Who can persevere the whole day in the praise of God?
I will suggest
a help. Whatsoever thou doest do well, and thou hast praised God.
(S. Aug., on
Oh! what do I suffer interiorly whilst with my mind I consider
heavenly things;
and presently a crowd of carnal thoughts interrupt
me as I pray.
(Imit., B. III., c. XLVIII., v. 5.)
1. We ought to love meditation and should make it often on the Passion of our divine Lord, striving above all to derive therefrom fruits of humility, patience and charity.
2. If you experience great dryness in your
meditations or other prayers, do not feel distressed
and conclude that God has turned His
Face away from you. Far from it. Prayer
said with aridity is usually the most meritorious.
*It is quite a common error to confound
the value of prayer with its sensible
“All this trouble comes from self-love
and from the good opinion we have of ourselves.
If our hearts do not melt with tenderness,
if we have no relish or sensible feeling
in prayer, if we do not enjoy great interior
sweetness during meditation, we are at once
overwhelmed with sadness: if we find difficulty
in doing good, if some obstacle is
opposed to our pious designs, we give way to
disquietude and are eager to conquer all this
and to be free from it. Why? Undoubtedly
because we love consolations, our own comfort,
our own convenience. We wish to
pray immersed in sweetness, and to be virtuous
that we may eat sugar; and we do not
The same teaching is given by another great master of the spiritual life:
“We frequently seek the gratification and consolation of self-love in the testimony we desire to render to ourselves. Thus we are disturbed about our lack of sensible fervor, whereas in reality we never pray so well as when we are tempted to think we are not praying at all. We fear to pray badly then, but we should fear rather to give way to the vexation of our cowardly nature, to a philosophical infidelity, which ever wishes to demonstrate to itself its own operations—in fine, to an impatient desire to see and to feel in order to console ourselves.
There is no penance more bitter than this
state of pure faith without sensible support.
Hence I conclude that it is freer than any
other from illusion. Strange temptation! to
seek impatiently for sensible consolation
through fear of not being sufficiently penitent!
3. You will sometimes imagine that at prayer your soul is not in the presence of God and that only your body is in the church, like the statues and candelabras that adorn the altars. Think, then, that you share with those inanimate objects the honor of serving as ornaments for the house of God, and that in the presence of your Creator even this humble rôle should seem glorious to you.
“You tell me that you cannot pray well. But what better prayer could there be than to represent to God again and again, as you are doing, your nothingness and misery? The most touching appeal beggars can make is merely to expose to us their deformities and necessities. But there are times when you cannot even do this much, you say, and that you remain there like a statue. Well, even that is better than nothing. Kings and princes have statues in their palaces for no other purpose than that they may take pleasure in looking at them: be satisfied then to fulfil the same office in the presence of God, and when it so pleases Him He will animate the statue.”—St. Francis de Sales.
4. When you have not consciously or voluntarily yielded to distractions, do not stop to find what may have been their cause, or to discover if you have in any way given occasion to them. This would be simply to weary and disquiet yourself unprofitably. From whatever direction they come, you can convert them into a source of merit by casting yourself into the arms of the Divine Mercy. St. Francis de Sales when asked how he prayed, replied: “I cannot say it too often—I receive peacefully whatever the Lord sends me. If he consoles me, I kiss the right hand of his mercy; if I am dry and distracted, I kiss the left hand of his justice.” This method is the only good one, for as the same Saint says: “He who truly loves prayer, loves it for the love of God: and he who loves it for the love of God, wishes to experience in it naught but what God is pleased to send him.” Now, whatever you may experience in prayer, is precisely what God wills.
5. St. Francis de Sales teaches us that
merely to keep ourselves peacefully and tranquilly
in the presence of God, without other
desire or pretension than to be near him and
to please him, is of itself an excellent prayer.
“Remember that the graces and favors of
prayer do not come from earth but from
heaven and therefore that no effort of ours can
acquire them, although, it is true, we must
dispose ourselves for their reception diligently,
yet withal humbly and tranquilly. We ought to
keep our hearts wide open and await the blessed
dew from heaven. The following consideration
should never be forgotten when we go to
prayer, namely, that we draw near to God
and place ourselves in His presence principally
for two reasons. The first is to render to God
the honor and the homage we owe Him, and
this can be done without God speaking to us
or we to Him, for the duty is fulfilled by
acknowledging that He is our Creator and we
are His vile creatures, and by remaining before
Him, prostrate in spirit, awaiting His commands.
The second reason is to speak to God
and to listen to Him when He speaks to us by
His inspirations and the interior movements
of grace.... Now, one or other of these two
advantages can never fail to be derived from
In this way we do not force ourselves to speak to God, for we know that merely to remain close to him is as useful, nay, perhaps more useful to us, though it may be less to our liking. Therefore when you draw near to our Lord speak to him if you can; if you cannot, stay there, let him see you, and do not be anxious about anything else.... Take courage, then, tell your Saviour you will not leave him even should he never grant you any sensible sweetness; tell him that you will remain before him until he has given you his blessing.”—St. Francis de Sales.
6. The same Saint gives further valuable advice as follows: “Many persons fail to make a distinction between the presence of God in their souls and the consciousness of this adorable presence, between faith and the sensible feeling of faith. This shows a great want of discernment. When they do not realize God’s presence dwelling within them, they suppose He has withdrawn himself through some fault of theirs. This is an ignorant and hurtful error. A man who endures martyrdom for love of God does not think actually and exclusively of God but much of his own sufferings; and yet the absence of this feeling of faith does not deprive him of the great merit due to his faith and the resolutions it caused him to make and to keep.”
7. Your vocal prayers should be few in number but said with great fervor. The strength derived from food does not depend upon the quantity taken but upon its being well digested. Far better one Our Father or one Psalm said with devout attention than entire rosaries and long offices recited hurriedly and with restless eagerness.
8. If you feel whilst saying vocal prayers—those
not of obligation—that God invites you
9. Prepare yourself for prayer by peaceful recollection and begin it without agitation or uneasiness. St. Francis de Sales has this to say on the subject: “Some little time before you are going to pray, calm and compose your heart, and be hopeful of doing well; for if you begin without hope and already devoid of relish, you will find it difficult to regain an appetite.... The disquiet you experience in prayer, accompanied by great eagerness to discover some object that can fix and satisfy your thoughts, is of itself sufficient to prevent you finding what you seek. When a thing is searched for with too great eagerness, one may have his hands or his eyes almost upon it a hundred times and yet fail to perceive it. This vain and useless anxiety in regard to prayer can result in nothing but weariness of mind, and this in turn produces coldness and apathy in your soul.”
10. Be careful not to overburden yourself
with too many prayers, either mental or vocal.
11. Never repeat a prayer, even should
you have said it with many distractions. You
cannot imagine the innumerable difficulties
in which you may become entangled by the
habit of repeating your prayers. Therefore I
beg of you not to do it. *In St. Ignatius’
time there was a certain religious of the
Society of Jesus who was a victim of this
kind of scruple. The recital of the daily
Office always kept him much longer than
was necessary because he would repeat again
and again and for hours at a time any passage
that he suspected had not been said with
sufficient attention. St. Ignatius tried to correct
him by various means, but in vain. At
length the thought occurred that one scruple
might be cured by another. He therefore
commanded the poor Jesuit, under pain of sin
12. You should never repeat a prayer nor a
“This temptation should be treated
exactly the same as temptations of the flesh: do
not dispute with it at all, rather imitate the
children of Israel who made no attempt to
break the bones of the paschal lamb but cast
them into the fire. You need not answer the
enemy, nor even pretend to hear what he says.
Let the wretch clamor at the door as much as
he wants to, it is not even necessary to call:
Who is there? What you tell me is no doubt
true, you say, but he annoys me and the
uproar he makes prevents those within from
St. Augustine says that the devil is a formidable giant to those who fear him, but only a miserable dwarf to those who despise him.
13. Should it happen that the whole time
given to prayer be passed in rejecting temptations
or in recalling your mind from its
wanderings, and you do not succeed in
giving birth to a single devout thought or
sentiment, St. Francis de Sales is authority
for saying that your prayer is nevertheless
all the more meritorious from the fact of its
being so unsatisfactory to you. It makes you
more like to our divine Lord when he prayed
in the Garden of Gethsemani and on Mount
Calvary. “Better to eat bread without sugar,
“When your mind wanders or gives way to distractions, gently recall it and place it once more close to its Divine Master. If you should do nothing else but repeat this during the whole time of prayer, your hour would be very well spent and you would perform a spiritual exercise most acceptable to God.”—St. Francis de Sales.
14. It is well to bear in mind that in commanding us to pray always our Saviour did not mean actual prayer, as that would be an impossibility. The desire to glorify God by all our actions suffices for the rigorous fulfilment of this precept, if this desire be habitual and permanent. “You pray often,” says St. Augustine, “if you often have a desire to pay homage to God by your actions: you pray always if you always have this desire, no matter how you may be otherwise employed.”
“Need we be surprised that St. Augustine
often assures us that the whole Christian life
is but one long, continual tending of our
hearts towards that eternal justice for which
15. You should never omit or neglect the duties of your state of life in order to say certain self-imposed prayers. These duties are a substitute for prayers and are equally efficacious, St. Thomas teaches, for obtaining the graces you stand in need of and which are promised to those who ask them properly. It is even more meritorious to perform some work for the love of God, to whom we offer it, than merely to raise the soul to Him by actual prayer.
“Every person is bound to observe
strictly the duties of his particular calling.
Whoever fails to do this, although he should
raise the dead to life, is guilty of sin and
should the sin be grave deserves damnation if
he die therein. For example, bishops are
obliged to make a visitation of their diocese
in order to console and instruct their flock
and to rectify whatever may be amiss. If I,
a bishop, neglect this duty I shall be lost
16. Make frequent use of the prayers called ejaculations,—which are short and loving aspirations that raise the soul to its Creator. According to St. Francis de Sales, ejaculations can in case of necessity replace all other prayers, whereas all other prayers cannot supply for the omission of ejaculations.
“Acquire the habit of making frequent ejaculations. They are sighs of love that dart upwards to God to sue for His aid and succor. It will greatly facilitate this custom if you keep in mind the point of your morning’s meditation that you liked best and ponder it over during the day. In sickness let pious ejaculations take the place of all other prayers.—St. Francis de Sales.
17. Ejaculatory prayers can be made at all times, wherever we are or whatever we may be doing. They might be compared to those aromatic pastilles, which we may always have about us and take from time to time to strengthen the stomach and please the palate. Ejaculations have a like effect on the soul by refreshing and fortifying it.
18. The monks of old, of whom St. Augustine
19. I cannot too earnestly urge you to accustom yourself to the profitable and easy practice of making frequent ejaculations. It is far preferable to saying many other vocal prayers, for these when too numerous are apt to employ the lips only rather than to reanimate and enlighten the soul.
20. St. Theresa’s opinion is that the body should be in a comfortable position when we pray, as otherwise it is difficult for the mind to pay the proper attention to prayer and to the presence of God. Do not then fatigue your body by remaining too long prostrate or kneeling: the important thing is that the soul should humble itself before God in sentiments of respect, confidence and love.
Read Chap. XIII, Part II, of the Introduction to a Devout Life.
A sacrifice to God is an afflicted
spirit; a contrite and humble heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise.
(
1. According to the teaching of St. Thomas there are three ways of doing penance, namely, fasting, prayer, and alms-deeds—either corporal or spiritual. Therefore you must not suppose you are prevented from doing penance when not allowed to subject your body to severe fasts and painful mortifications. The other two penitential works, prayer and alms-giving, can in this case take the place of corporal austerities in the fulfilment of the Christian duty of penance. Observe also that it is not in accordance with the spirit of the laws of God and of his Church, which prescribe fasting, to injure your health thereby, nor to hinder the accomplishment of the duties of your state of life.
2. Labor, sickness, disappointments, reverse of fortune, dryness in prayer, all these when accepted with resignation are penitential works, such, too, as are the more agreeable to God from their being so distasteful to ourselves. All virtues may be divided into two great classes, active and passive. The characteristic of the active virtues is to do good, of the passive, to endure evil. Now the virtues of the second class are more meritorious and less perilous. In the active virtues nature can have a large share, and a dangerous self-complacency, or satisfaction in their effects, may easily glide into them. This danger is less to be feared in the practice of the passive virtues, especially when the sufferings are not of our own choosing but come to us direct from the hand of God.
3. St. Jerome teaches that when the devil cannot turn a soul away from the love of virtue, he tries to urge it to excessive mortification, in order that it may thus become exhausted and lose the vigor indispensable to its spiritual progress. Numbers of devout people have fallen into this snare.
4. “I charge you,” says St. Francis de
Sales, “to preserve your health carefully, for
God exacts this of you, and to husband your
5. We learn from Cassian and St. Thomas that in a celebrated conference held by the holy Abbot St. Anthony with the most learned religious of Egypt, it was decided that of all virtues moderation is the most useful, as it guards and preserves all the others. It is owing to the lack of this essential moderation in their devotional exercises and mortifications that many persons whilst seeking holiness find only ill health. As a consequence they eventually abandon the path of perfection, judging it impracticable because they have attempted to walk in it bound with fetters.
6. St. Augustine makes the following apt
comparison, which you can look upon as a
good rule in this matter: “The body is a
poor invalid confided to the charity of the
soul, the soul being commissioned to give it
7. From these various opinions it is easy to see how false are certain maxims met with in some ascetical works: for example, that it is of small consequence if one should shorten his life by ten or fifteen years in order to save his soul. If this were true, a much surer way would be to secure a still speedier death, and see to what that would lead. No: it is not permissible in ordinary practice to impose upon ourselves arbitrarily any kind of mortification that would directly tend to shorten life. “To kill one’s self with a single blow,” says St. Jerome, “or to kill one’s self little by little—I make but slight distinction between these two crimes.” Life, health and strength are blessings that have been given us in trust, and we cannot lawfully dispose of them as though they belonged to us absolutely.
8. The example of those saints who practised
extraordinary penances deserves our
The French translator of these Instructions
had a conversation in Rome with the
learned and pious Jesuit, Rev. Father Rozaven,
on this subject. Speaking of the extraordinary
fasts and mortifications of St. Ignatius,
Father Rozaven said: “Do not let us confound
cause and effect. It is not because he did
these things that Ignatius became a saint: on
the contrary, it is because he was already a
saint that it was possible and permissible for
him to do them.” In truth every act that
I said: I will confess against
myself my injustice to the Lord,
and thou hast forgiven the wickedness
of my sin. (
But if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the Just.
(
Whose sins ye shall forgive,
they are forgiven them: and
whose ye shall retain, they are
retained. (
1. The sacrament of penance is a sacrament of mercy. We should therefore approach it with confidence and in peace. Saint Francis de Sales assures us that for those who go to confession once a week a quarter of an hour is enough for the examination of conscience, and a still shorter time for exciting contrition. Not even this much is necessary, he adds, for those who confess more frequently.
2. Faults omitted in confession either because they were forgotten or because they seemed too trivial to mention, are nevertheless effaced by the absolution. St. Francis de Sales has this to say on the subject: “You must not feel worried if you cannot remember your sins when preparing for confession, for it is incredible that any one who often examines her conscience would overlook or be unable to recall such faults as are important. Neither should you be so keenly anxious to mention every minute imperfection, every trifling fault; it is enough to speak of these to our Lord, with a sigh of regret and a humble heart, whenever you remark them.” And do not imagine in consequence that you are guilty of secret sins which you are hiding from your confessor. This fear is an artifice made use of by the devil to disturb your peace of mind.
You must not be so anxious to tell everything,
nor to run to your superiors to make a
great ado over each little thing that troubles
you and that will, perhaps, be forgotten in a
quarter of an hour. We must learn to bear
with generosity these trifles which we cannot
remedy, for ordinarily they are only the consequences
3. Rest assured that the more closely you examine your conscience the less you will discover that is worth the trouble of telling. Moreover, you must remember that too long an examen fatigues the mind and cools the fervor of the heart.
4. To those who in their confessions are
inclined to confuse involuntarily movements
with sins, Saint Francis de Sales gives the
following useful advice: “You tell me that
when you have experienced a strong feeling
of anger, or have had any other temptation,
5. “Omit from your confessions”—we
again quote the same Saint—“those superfluous
accusations which so many persons make
merely through habit: I have not loved God
sufficiently; I have not prayed with enough
fervor; I have not loved my neighbor as much
6. Those who go to confession frequently should always bear in mind what the saintly director says in addition: “We are not obliged to confess our venial sins, but if we do so it must be with a firm resolution to correct them, otherwise it is an abuse of the sacrament to mention them.”
7. After confession keep your soul in peace, and be on your guard—this is a point of cardinal importance—against giving access to any fear about the validity of the sacrament, either as regards the examination of conscience, the contrition, or anything else whatsoever. These fears are suggestions of the devil whose aim it is to instil bitterness into a sacrament of consolation and love.
“After confession is not the time to
8. It is essential to be sorry for our sins—it is not essential to be troubled about them. Repentance is an effect of love of God, anxiety is an effect of self-love. In the midst of the keenest and most sincere repentance we can still thank God that He has not permitted us to become yet more culpable. Let us promise Him a solid amendment, relying for success solely upon the assistance of divine grace; and should we fall again a hundred times a day, let us never cease to renew the promise and the hope. God can in an instant raise up from the very stones children to Abraham and exalt the most corrupt natures to the highest degree of sanctity. At times He does so, but usually it is His will that we long continue to bear the burden of our infirmity: let us not then lose our trust in Him, nor mistake a state of trial for a state of reprobation.
*God has, indeed, on some occasions cured sinners instantaneously and without leaving in them any trace of their previous maladies. Such, for instance, was the case with the Magdalen. In a moment her soul was changed from a sink of corruption into a well-spring of perfection, never again to be contaminated by sin. But, on the other hand, in several of the beloved disciples this same God allowed many marks of their evil inclinations to remain for some time after their conversion, and this for their greater good. Witness Saint Peter, who, even after the divine call, was guilty of various imperfections and once fell totally and miserably by the triple denial of his Lord and Master.
“Solomon says there is no one more insolent
than a servant who has suddenly become
mistress.
*There is no sight more pleasing to Heaven than to witness the persevering and determined struggle of a soul which, throughout, remains united to God by a sincere desire and a firm resolution not to offend him—and maintaining this struggle calmly and patiently even when it is to all appearance fruitless. Such a soul, resigned to retain its defects if it is God’s will, yet determined notwithstanding to fight against them relentlessly, is more precious in the eyes of God than if the practice of virtue were easy for it and it were in peaceful possession of spiritual gifts. Labor, then, in the presence of your heavenly Father; struggle on with strength and courage; but do not be too desirous of success, for when this craving for self-satisfaction is excessive it is sure to be accompanied by vexation and impatience.
“Evil things must not be desired at all,”
says Saint Francis de Sales, “nor good things
immoderately.” And elsewhere: “I entreat
of you, love nothing too ardently, not even
the virtues, for these we sometimes forfeit by
“We should labor, therefore, without any uneasiness as to results. God requires efforts on our part, but not success. If we combat with perseverance, nothing daunted by our defeats, these very defeats will be worth as much to us as victories, and even more. But beware!--there is a rock here! If this conflict is not undertaken in perfectly good faith, we will try to deceive ourselves as to the genuineness of our efforts by calling the cowardice which caused us to refuse the battle a defeat, and by dignifying with the name of trial the results of our own effeminacy and sloth.”*
9. Contrition is essentially an act of the
10. Do not make violent efforts to excite your soul to contrition, for these only have the effect of producing anxiety, weariness and oppression of mind. On the contrary seek to become very calm; say lovingly to God that you wish sincerely you had never offended Him and that with the assistance of His grace you will never offend Him more—that is contrition. True contrition is a product of love, and love acts in a calm.
11. “An act of contrition,” says St. Francis
de Sales, “is the work of a moment.”
Cast a rapid glance at yourself to see and
detest your sins, and another towards God to
promise Him amendment and to express a
hope of obtaining His assistance in keeping
this promise. David, one of the most contrite
“You ask how an act of contrition can be made in a short time? I answer that a very good one can be made in almost no time. Nothing more is needed than to prostrate oneself before God in a spirit of humility and of sorrow for having offended Him.”—St. Francis de Sales.
12. You say you would wish to have contrition but cannot succeed in feeling it. Saint Francis de Sales replies: “The ability to wish is a great power with God, and you thus have contrition by the simple fact that you wish to have it. You do not feel it indeed at the moment, but neither do you see nor feel a fire covered with ashes, nevertheless the fire exists.” The immoderate desire of sensible sorrow comes from self-love and self-complacency. A sorrow that satisfies only God is not sufficient for us, we wish it to satisfy us also; we like to find in our sensibility a flattering and reassuring testimony of our love of good.
13. If God does not grant you the enjoyment
of sensible sorrow, it is in order that
you may gain the merit of obedience, which
14. Do not conclude that you lack contrition
or that your confessions are defective,
because you fall again into the same faults.
It is very essential to make a distinction in
regard to relapses. Those that are the offspring
of a perverse will which has preserved
an affection for certain venial sins, takes
pleasure and wishes to take pleasure in them,—these
should not be tolerated; we must
vigorously attack them at the very root and
not allow ourselves any respite until they are
utterly exterminated. But those relapses that
proceed from inadvertence, from surprise notwithstanding
constant vigilance, from the
infirmity and frailty of our nature, to these we
shall remain partially subject until our last
breath. “It will be doing very well,” says
Saint Francis de Sales, “if we get free of certain
faults a quarter of an hour before our
“You complain that you still have many faults and failings notwithstanding your desire for perfection and a pure love of God. I assure you that it is impossible to be entirely divested of self whilst we are here below. We shall always be obliged to bear ourselves about with us until God transfers us to heaven; and whilst we do this we carry something that is of no value. It is necessary, therefore, to have patience, and not to expect to cure ourselves in a day of the numerous bad habits contracted through past carelessness in regard to our spiritual welfare. Pray do not look here, there and everywhere: look only at God and yourself; you will never see God devoid of goodness, nor yourself without wretchedness and that wretchedness the object of God’s goodness and mercy.”—St. Francis de Sales. (After the examination of conscience read the Following of Christ, B. III., Chap. XX.)
Fénelon speaks in the same tone:
“You
should never be surprised or discouraged at
your faults. You must bear with them patiently
yet without flattering yourself or sparing
correction. Treat yourself as you would
another. As soon as you find you have committed
a fault make an interior act of self-condemnation,
turn to God to receive a penance,
and then tell your fault with simplicity
to your director. Begin over again to do well
as though it were the first time, and do not
grow weary if you have to make a fresh start
every day. Nothing is more touching to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus than this humble and
patient courage. We should not be cast down
if we have many temptations and even commit
numerous faults. ‘Virtue,’ says the Apostle,
‘is made perfect in
infirmity.’
15. Habitually add to your confession some
general accusation of all the sins of your past
life, or of such of them as occasion you most
16. Banish from your mind the dread of
having omitted any sins in either your general
or ordinary confessions, or of not having explained
their circumstances clearly enough.
The learned theologian Janin sets forth the
following rules on the subject: The Church, the
interpreter of the will of Jesus Christ, requires
sacramental integrity in confession, and not
material integrity. The former consists in
the confession of all the sins we can remember
after a sufficient examination, the duration of
which should be regulated by the actual state
of the conscience. Material integrity would
require a rigorously complete accusation of all
the sins we have committed with their number
and circumstances, without the slightest
omission. Now sacramental integrity may be
reasonably exacted since it exceeds no one’s
ability; whilst material integrity, on the contrary,
could not be exacted without the sacrament
becoming an impossibility; for, no
matter how carefully we make our examination
*Do not be uneasy because you fail to remember all your failings in order to tell them in confession. This is unnecessary, because as you often fall almost without being aware of it, so you often get up again without perceiving it; just as in the passage you quote it is not said that the just man sees or feels himself fall seven times a day, but simply that he falls seven times a day: in like manner he gets up again without noticing particularly that he has done so. Hence have no anxiety about this, but frankly and humbly confess whatever you remember, and commit the rest to the tender mercies of him who puts his hand under those who fall without malice that they may not be bruised, and raises them up again so gently and swiftly that they scarcely realize they had fallen.—St. Francis de Sales.*
17. By a diligent examination of conscience you have thoroughly satisfied all the requirements for sacramental integrity; therefore banish whatever doubts and fears may come to beset you, for they are nothing but temptations.
18. Should you suspect that you failed to fulfil these requirements owing to not having been particular enough about your examination of conscience, you may feel sure that your confessor has by prudent interrogations supplied for whatever may have been wanting on your part. And if he did not question you further it was due to the fact that he understood clearly enough the nature of your sins and the state of your soul, and this is the object of sacramental accusation.
19. How great then is the error of those
poor souls who wish continually to make their
general confessions over again, either through
fear of incomplete examination or of insufficient
sorrow; and how blameworthy the
weak complaisance of those confessors who
offer no opposition to their doing so! If such
fears were to be listened to, every one would
be obliged to pass his entire life in making
and repeating general confessions, for they
“I have found in your general confession all the marks of a sincere, good and earnest confession. Never have I heard one that more thoroughly satisfied me. You may rely on this, for in these matters I speak very plainly. However, if you really omitted something that ought to have been told, consider if you did so consciously and voluntarily, in which case, if it was a mortal sin or you thought it one at the time, you would undoubtedly have to make the confession over again. But if it were only a venial sin, or though mortal you omitted it out of forgetfulness or some defect of memory, have no scruples; for at my soul’s peril, I assure you there is no obligation to repeat your confession. It will be quite sufficient to mention the matter to your ordinary confessor. I will answer for this.”—St. Francis de Sales.
20. It is the teaching of the saints and
doctors of the Church that when a general
21. Remember, in conclusion, that according to the common opinion of the saints, the fear of sin is no longer salutary when it becomes excessive.
Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood,
ye shall not have life in you.
(
And he sent ... to say to those who were invited, that they should
come; for now all things were ready. And they began all at once
to make excuse.
(
And if I send them away fasting ... they will faint in the way.
(
My heart is withered; because I forgot to eat my bread.
(
1. Frequent communion is the most efficacious
of all means to unite us to God. “He
that eateth my flesh,” said our divine Saviour,
“abideth in Me and I in
him.”
2. St. Bernard calls the Holy Eucharist the love of loves. Hence you should desire to receive it frequently in order to be filled with this divine love.
3. St. Francis de Sales says there are two classes of persons who should often receive holy communion; the perfect, to unite themselves more closely to the Source of all perfection, and the imperfect to labor to attain perfection; the strong that they may not become weak, the weak that they may become strong; the sick that they may be cured, and those in health that they may be preserved from sickness. You tell me that your imperfections, your weakness, your littleness make you unworthy to receive communion frequently; and I assure you it is precisely because of these that you ought to receive it frequently in order that He who possesses all things may give you whatever is wanting to you.
*The following words on this subject will
not perhaps be considered by others as giving
much additional value to the authority of the
saintly Bishop of Geneva. They do so, however,
in ours, because they are from the lips
of a holy religious whose memory will always
be dear to us——from a man whose last moments
The spirit of the Church has at all times
been the same in regard to this important
subject. Fénelon says in his letter on frequent
Communion that St. Chrysostom admits of no
medium between the state of those who are
in mortal sin and that of the faithful who are
in a state of grace and communicate every
day. In vain certain Christians, believing
themselves purified and just, do no penance as
sinners and nevertheless abstain from Communion,
because, they say, they are not perfect
enough to receive it. This intermediate state
is not only most dangerous for one who wilfully
remains in it, but is also injurious to the
Blessed Sacrament. Far from doing honor to
the Holy Eucharist by depriving ourselves of
it, we offend our divine Lord when we decline
to partake of the Banquet to which He invites
us. In a word, according to this early Father
We will quote the Saint’s own words:
“Many of the faithful are weak and languishing,
many among them sleep. And how,
you say, does this happen since we receive
the Blessed Sacrament but once a year? That
is precisely the cause of all the trouble! For
you imagine that merit consists not so much
in purity of conscience as in the length of time
intervening between your Communions. You
consider no higher mark of respect and honor
can be paid to this Sacrament than not to
approach the Holy Table often.... Temerity
does not consist in approaching the Altar
frequently, but in approaching it unworthily
were this but once in an entire life time....
Why then regulate the number of Communions
by the law of time, instead of by purity of
conscience, which should alone indicate how
many times to receive? This divine Mystery
is nothing more at Easter than at all other
seasons during which it is celebrated continually.
It is ever the same, that is to say,
ever the same gift of the Holy Ghost. Easter
Other Fathers of the Church speak in the same way of Holy Communion:
“If it is daily bread,” says Saint Ambrose, “why do you partake of it but once a year?... Receive it every day in order that every day you may benefit by it. Live in such a manner that you may deserve to receive it every day, for he who does not deserve to receive it every day will not deserve to receive it at the end of the year.... Do you not know that every time the Holy Sacrifice is offered, the death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord are renewed to the atonement of sin? And yet you will not partake daily of this Bread of Life! When one has received a wound does he not seek a remedy? Sin which holds us captive is our wound: our remedy is in this ever adorable Sacrament.”
In order that it may be plainly proved that
the faithful of the present day have no reason
“Christians should believe in this Sacrament and reverence it with such a firm faith, with so much fervor and piety, that they may often receive this Super-substantial Bread; that it may be, in truth, the life of their soul and the perpetual health of their spirit, and that the strength they derive therefrom may enable them to pass from the temptations of this earthly pilgrimage to the repose of their heavenly fatherland.... The Council would have the faithful receive Communion each time they assist at Mass, not only spiritually, but sacramentally, that they may derive more abundant fruit from the Holy Sacrifice.”
4. The evening before your Communion devote some little time to recollection in order to ponder the inestimable gift that God is about to bestow upon you, and endeavor also to excite in your soul the desire and the hope of finding therein your delight.
5. Do not conclude that you derive no
benefit from Holy Communion because you
find no perceptible increase in your virtues.
Observe, moreover, that there is no real increase in virtue without a corresponding growth in humility. Consequently the more virtuous you are the less so you will esteem yourself; the worthier you are to approach your God, the more profoundly will you feel your unworthiness. For man, no matter to what degree of virtue he attain, cannot be otherwise than weak and sinful here below, and he realizes his baseness more and more distinctly in proportion to his advancement in grace and in light.
Fénelon speaks as follows on the same subject:
“Hitherto you lacked the light to discover
in your soul many movements of our
malicious and depraved nature, which now
begin to reveal themselves to you. In proportion
as light increases we find ourselves
6. Do not fear that you are ill-prepared for Holy Communion and abuse the Sacrament because in receiving it you are cold, indifferent, and devoid of feeling. This is a trial sent or permitted by God to test your faith and to advance you in merit. All that has been said in regard to dryness in prayer might be repeated here. Try to have an abiding desire to feel for the Blessed Eucharist as ardent transports of love as were ever experienced by the saints. A desire is equivalent before God to the thing desired, as I have already quoted for you from Saint Gregory the Great; therefore you should be satisfied with this when you can attain nothing higher. Everything over and above this is grace, not merit.
7. If you dare not receive Holy Communion
often because you are not worthy, then you
must never receive it, for you will never be
worthy. What creature could be worthy to
receive a God? Nay more, to follow out this
“How many scrupulous Christians do we not see languishing for want of this divine Food! They consume themselves with subtle speculations and sterile efforts, they fear, they tremble, they doubt, and they vainly seek for a certainty that cannot be found in this life. Sweetness, unction, are not for them. They wish to live for God without living by him. They are dry, feeble, exhausted: they are close to the Fountain of Living Water and yet allow themselves to die of thirst. They desire to fulfil all exteriorly, yet do not dare to nourish themselves interiorly: they wish to carry the burden of the law without imbibing its spirit and its consolation from prayer and frequent Communion!”—Fénelon.
8. In regard to Holy Communion, therefore,
do not confine yourself to a consideration
of your own unworthiness, but temper this
with the thought of God’s mercy. The
guests at the symbolic marriage-feast,—a
9. St. Francis de Sales says that when we
cannot go to Holy Communion without giving
annoyance to others, or without failing against
duties of charity, justice or order, we should
be satisfied with spiritual Communion. “Believe
me,” he adds, “this mortification, this
deprivation, will be extremely pleasing to
God and will advance you greatly in His love.
One must sometimes take a step backward in
order to leap the better.” It was not by frequent
Communion that the holy anchorites
sanctified themselves, but by the exact observance
of the duties of their calling. Saint
Paul the Hermit received Holy Communion
but twice during his long, penitential life,
nevertheless he was precious in the sight of
God. A propos of this subject Saint Francis
de Sales gives us this admirable advice: “In
proportion as you are hindered from doing the
good you desire, do all the more ardently the
good that you do not desire. You do not like
to make such or such an act of resignation,
“I have often admired the extreme resignation
of Saint John the Baptist, who remained
so long in the desert, quite near to our Lord,
without going to see, hear and follow Him.
And after baptizing Jesus, how could he have
allowed Him to depart without uniting himself
to Him with his bodily presence, as he was
already so united to Him by the ties of affection!
Ah! the divine Precursor knew that
in his case the Master was best served by
deprivation of His actual presence. Well,
my dear daughter, it will be the same with
you in regard to Holy Communion. I mean
that for the present God will be pleased if in
accordance to the wish of the superiors whom
He has placed over you, you endure the privation
of His actual presence. It will be a great
11. Never refrain from receiving the Holy Eucharist because you happen to be beset by temptations; this would be to capitulate to your enemy without offering any resistance. The more combats you have to sustain, the greater the necessity of providing yourself with the means of defence, and these are to be found in the Blessed Sacrament. Go courageously then and renew your strength with the Food of the strong and victory shall be yours.
12. Be careful not to frequent the Holy Table because such and such a person does so: an imitation common for the most part to women’s vanity and jealousy, says Saint Francis de Sales. It is through love that our divine Saviour gives Himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament: love alone should lead us to receive it.
13. Holy Communion should not be partaken
of with the same frequency by all the
faithful. All, indeed, must have the same
The sabbath was made for man,
and not man for the sabbath.
(
1. Every day of our life should be employed in glorifying God, but there are certain days He has particularly appointed whereon to receive from us a more special exterior worship. These are Sundays and holydays.
2. It is therefore obligatory upon us to sanctify such days. The ordinary means of fulfilling this duty are, principally, works of charity, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacraments, sermons, religious instructions, and spiritual reading.
3. Nevertheless, we should avoid over-fatiguing the mind and wearying the body by too many exercises of devotion. Excess even in holy things is wrong, as virtue ends where excess begins. All that was said on this subject in the chapter on Prayer is equally applicable here.
4. Moreover it is well to know that a friendly visit, a walk, a lawful diversion, all of which can be referred to God, serve also for the sanctification of Sundays and holydays, when undertaken with a view to please Him. The same may be said of such daily occupations as are required of man by his bodily needs.
“How often we are mistaken in our point of view! I tell you once again it is not the outward aspect of actions that we must look at, but their interior spirit, that is to say, whether or not they are according to the will of God. By no means regard the nature of the things you do, but rather the honor that accrues to them, worthless as they are in themselves, from the fact that God wishes them, that they are in the order of his providence and disposed by His infinite wisdom. In a word, if they are pleasing to God, and recognized as being so, to whom should they be displeasing?”—Saint Francis de Sales.
5. These things are said for the instruction
of those who are eager and anxious on
Sundays and holydays of obligation to heap
devotion upon devotion and who make a crime
of everything that is not an exterior act of
6. Should it happen that you are obliged to travel on Sunday or to attend to some unforseen business, do not be disquieted about the impossibility of fulfilling your customary devout exercises. Replace these with pious ejaculations, which, as I have already said, can in case of necessity supply for the omission of all other prayers.
7. Remark, in conclusion, that to assist at
a low Mass suffices strictly speaking for the
sanctification of the Sunday or holyday. Even
this may be omitted by those persons whom
duty obliges to attend the sick, to mind the
house, or to take care of young children; for
these being works of justice and charity and
good in themselves, may, when performed
with a pure intention and accompanied by
I do not speak at all of the sick, for by their sufferings they can sanctify every day and make each one equal to the greatest festival.
“Worldly notions are forever blending with our thoughts and throwing them out of perspective. In the house of an earthly prince it is not so honorable to be a scullion in the kitchen as to be a gentleman-in-waiting. But it is different in the house of God, where those in the humblest positions are oft-times the most worthy; for although they labor and drudge it is done for the love of God and in fulfilment of His divine will; and the true value of our actions is fixed by this divine will and not by their exterior character. Therefore he who truly loves God’s will in the accomplishment of his duties, does not allow his affections to become engaged in any of his spiritual exercises; and so, if sickness or accident interfere with them he experiences no regret. I do not say indeed that he does not love his devotions, but that he is not attached to them.”—Saint Francis de Sales.
“If you have a sincere regard for the virtues
of obedience and submission, I wish that,
Blessed is the man whom Thou
shalt instruct, O Lord, and shalt
teach him out of Thy Law.
(
All scripture divinely inspired,
is profitable to teach, to reprove,
to correct, to instruct in justice.
(
1. Spiritual reading is to the soul what food is to the body. Be careful, therefore, to select such books as will furnish your soul with the best nourishment. I would recommend you to become familiar especially with the works of Saint Francis de Sales.
2. When the choice of reading matter is made by the advice of a spiritual director the teaching it contains should be looked upon as coming from the mouth of God.
3. Do not affect those lives of the Saints
in which the supernatural and marvellous
predominate. The devout imagination becomes
inflamed by such reading and is imbued
“We ought not to wish for extraordinary
things, as, for example, that God would take
away our heart, as He did with Saint Catherine
of Sienna’s, and give us His in return. But
we should desire that our poor hearts no longer
live save in subjection to the Heart of our loving
Saviour, and this will be the best way of
imitating Saint Catherine, for we shall thus
become meek, humble and charitable.... True
holiness consists in love of God, and not in
foolish imaginations and dreamings that nourish
self-love whilst they undermine obedience
and humility. The desire to have ecstacies
and visions is a deception. Let us turn rather
4. Use still greater precautions in regard to ascetical works. Many of these are carelessly written, confound precepts with counsels, badly define the virtues by not showing the limits beyond which they become extravagances, and entertain the reader with trifling and purely exterior practices that are more apt to flatter self-love than to reform the heart.
5. It has been remarked very justly by a learned theologian that the ignorance and indiscreet zeal of certain writers of ascetical books have furnished the heretics of later times with arms to attack our holy religion and to turn it into ridicule.
6. A judicious author expresses himself
thus on the same subject: “In order to write
on spiritual matters it is not enough to have
great piety,—great learning is also necessary.
A man actuated by the best motives in the
world may yet have strange delusions, and
feed his imagination with devout extravagances.”
7. Almost every day we find ascetical works published which contain many inaccuracies of the kind described. Exercise great care, therefore, in the selection of this kind of reading or you may injure your soul instead of sanctifying it. The safest course is to consult your director on the subject.
Casting all your solicitude upon
Him for He hath care of you.
(
Let Thy mercy descend upon us according to the trust we have placed in Thee. (Cant. Saint Ambrose.)
1. “Blessed is the man who hopes in the Lord,” says the Holy Spirit. The weakness of our souls is often attributable to lukewarmness in regard to the Christian virtue of hope.
2. Hold fast to this great truth: he who hopes for nothing will obtain nothing; he who hopes for little will obtain little; he who hopes for all things will obtain all things.
3. The mercy of God is infinitely greater than all the sins of the world. We should not, then, confine ourselves to a consideration of our own wretchedness, but rather turn our thoughts to the contemplation of this divine attribute of mercy.
4. “What do you fear?” says Saint Thomas of Villanova: “this Judge whose condemnation you dread is the same Jesus Christ who died upon the Cross in order not to condemn you.”
5. Sorrow, not fear, is the sentiment our
sins should awaken in us. When Saint Peter
said to his divine Master: “Depart from me,
O Lord, for I am a sinful man,” what did
our Saviour reply? “Noli timere,—fear
not.”
6. Our miseries form the throne of the
divine mercy, we are told by Saint Francis de
Sales, for if in the world there were neither
sins to pardon, nor sorrows to soothe, nor
maladies of the soul to heal, God would not
have to exercise the most beautiful attribute of His divine
essence. This was our Lord’s reason for saying that He
came into the world not for the just but for
sinners.
7. Assuredly our faults are displeasing to God, but He does not on their account cease to cherish our souls.
It is unnecessary to observe that this applies only to such faults as are due to the frailty inherent in our nature, and against which an upright will, sustained by divine grace, continually struggles. A perverse will, without which there can be no mortal sin, alienates us from God and renders us hateful in His eyes as long as we are subject to it. At the feast spoken of in the Gospel, the King receives with love the poor, the blind, and the lame who are clothed with the nuptial garment,—that is to say, all those whom a desire to please God maintains in a state of grace notwithstanding their natural defects and frailty: but his rigorous justice displays itself against him who dares to appear there without this garment. This distinction, found everywhere throughout the Gospels, is essential in order to inspire us with a tender confidence when we fall, without diminishing our horror for deliberate sins.
A good mother is afflicted at the natural
defects and infirmities of her child, but she
loves him none the less, nor does she refuse
him her compassion or her aid. Far from it;
for the more miserable and suffering and deformed
8. We have, says Saint Paul, a good and
indulgent High-Priest who knows how to compassionate
our weakness, Jesus Christ, who
has been pleased to become at once our Brother and our
Mediator.
9. Do not forfeit your peace of mind by wondering what destiny awaits you in eternity. Your future lot is in the hands of God, and it is much safer there than if in your own keeping.
10. The immoderate fear of hell, in the opinion of Saint Francis de Sales, can not be cured by arguments, but by submission and humility.
11. Hence it was that Saint Bernard, when tempted by the devil to a sin of despair, retorted: “I have not merited heaven, I know that as well as you do, Satan; but I also know that Jesus Christ, my Saviour, has merited it for me. It was not for Himself that He purchased so many merits,—but for me: He cedes them to me, and it is by Him and in Him that I shall save my soul.”
12. Far from allowing yourself to be dejected by fear and doubt, raise your desires rather to great virtues and to the most sublime perfection. God loves courageous souls, Saint Theresa assures us, provided they mistrust their own strength and place all their reliance upon Him. The devil tries to persuade you that it is pride to have exalted aspirations and to wish to imitate the virtues of the saints; but do not permit him to deceive you by this artifice. He will only laugh at you if he succeed in making you fall into weakness and irresolution.
To aspire to the noblest and highest ends gives firmness and perseverance to the soul. (Read The Imitation, B. III, C. XXX.)
Walk before Me and be perfect.
(
I have lifted up my eyes to
the mountains, from whence
help shall come to me.
(
1. The constant remembrance of God’s presence is a means of perfection that Almighty God Himself prescribed to the Patriarch Abraham. But this practice must be followed gently and without effort or disturbance of mind. The God of love and peace wishes that all we do for Him should be done lovingly and peacefully.
2. Only in heaven shall we be able to think actually and uninterruptedly of God. In this world to do so is an impossibility, for we are at every moment distracted by our occupations, our necessities, our imagination. We but exhaust ourselves by futile efforts if we try to lead before the proper time an existence similar to that of the angels and saints.
3. Frequently the fear comes to you that
you have failed to keep yourself in the presence
of God, because you have not thought of
Him. This is a mistaken idea. You can,
without this definite thought, perform all
your actions for love of God and in His presence,
by virtue of the intention you had in
beginning them. Now, to act is better than
to think. Though the doctor may not have
the invalid in mind while he is preparing the
medicine that is to restore him to health,
nevertheless it is for him he is working, and
he is more useful to his patient in this way
than if he contented himself with merely
thinking of him. In like manner when you
fulfil your domestic or social duties, when you
eat or walk, devote yourself to study or to
manual labor, though it be without definitely
thinking of God, you are acting for Him, and
this ought to suffice to set your mind at rest
in regard to the merit of your actions. Saint
Paul does not say that we must eat, drink and
labor with an actual remembrance of God’s
presence, but with the habitual intention of
glorifying Him and doing His holy will. We
fulfil this condition by making an offering
each morning to God of all the actions of the
4. For this purpose, make frequent use of ejaculatory prayers. We have already spoken of them. Accustom yourself to make these pious aspirations naturally and without effort, and let them for the most part be expressive of confidence and love.
5. Should it happen that a considerable space of time elapses without your having thought distinctly of God or raised your heart to Him by any loving ejaculation, do not allow this omission to worry you. The servant has performed his duty and deserves well of his master when he has done his will, even though he may not have been thinking of him the while. Always bear in mind the fact that it is better to work for God than to think of Him. Thought has its highest spiritual value when it results in action: action is meritorious in itself by virtue of the good intention which preceded it.
If I glorify myself, my glory
is nothing.
(
For behold I was born in iniquities:
and in sins did my
mother conceive me.
(
1. Few persons have a correct idea of this virtue. It is frequently confused with servility or littleness.
2. To attribute to God what is God’s, that is to say everything that is good, and to ourselves what is ours, that is to say, everything that is evil: these are the essential characteristics of true humility.
*Hence it would appear at first sight that
simple good sense ought to suffice to make
men humble. Such would be the case were
it not that our faculties have been impaired
and vitiated in their very source by pride,
that direful and ineffaceable consequence of
original sin. The first man, a creature owing
3. As God drew from nothingness everything that exists, in like manner does He wish to lay the foundations of our spiritual perfection upon the knowledge of our nothingness. Saint Bonaventure used to say: Provided God be all, what matters it that I am nothing!
4. When a Christian who is truly humble commits a fault he repents but is not disquieted, because he is not surprised that what is naught but misery, weakness and corruption, should be miserable, weak and corrupt. He thanks God on the contrary that his fall has not been more serious. Thus Saint Catherine of Genoa, whenever she found she had been guilty of some imperfection, would calmly exclaim: Another weed from my garden! This peaceful contemplation of our sinfulness was considered very important by Saint Francis de Sales also, for he says: “Let us learn to bear with our imperfections if we wish to attain perfection, for this practice nourishes the virtue of humility.”
5. Some persons have the erroneous idea
that in order to be humble they must not
recognize in themselves any virtue or talent
6. Praise is naturally more pleasing to us than censure. There is nothing sinful in this preference, for it springs from an instinct of our human nature of which we cannot entirely divest ourselves. Only the praise must be always referred to Him to whom it is due, that is to say, to God; for they are His gifts that are praised in us as we are but their bearers and custodians and shall one day have to render Him an account for them in accordance with their value.
7. The soul that is most humble will also
have the greatest courage and the most generous
confidence in God; the more it distrusts
itself, the more it will trust in Him on whom
it relies for all its strength, saying with Saint
Paul: I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth
me.
“We should be actuated by a generous and noble humility, a humility that does nothing in order to be praised and omits nothing that ought to be done through fear of being praised.”—Saint Francis de Sales.
8. It is even good and sometimes necessary
to make known the gifts we have received
Yea, Father: because so it
has pleased Thee.
(
O my Father, if it be possible,
let this chalice pass from
me. Nevertheless not as I
will, but as Thou wilt.
(
1. We should recognize and adore the will
of God in everything that happens to us.
The malice of men, nay of the devil himself,
can cause nothing to befall us except what
is permitted by God. Our divine Lord has
declared that not a hair of our heads can fall
unless by the will of our Heavenly
Father.
2. Therefore in every condition painful to
nature, whether you are afflicted by sickness,
assailed by temptations, or tortured by the
injustice of men, consider the divine will and
say to God with a loving and submissive heart:
Fiat voluntas tua—Thy will be done: O my
3. By this means we render supportable the severest pain and the most trying circumstances. “Do you not feel the infinite sweetness contained in that one sentence, the will of God?” asks Saint Mary Magdalen de Pazzi. Like unto the wood shown to Moses, that drew from the water all its bitterness, it sweetens whatever is bitter in our lives.
4. Without this practice, so comformable to faith, and without the light and strength that result from it, the pains and afflictions of life would become unbearable. This is what Saint Philip de Neri meant when he said: It rests with man to place himself even in this life either in heaven or in hell: he who suffers tribulations with patience enjoys celestial peace in advance; he who does not do so has a foretaste of the torments of hell.
5. Not only is it God who sends or permits our troubles, but He does so for the good of our souls and for our spiritual progress. Do not, then, make a matter of complaint that which should be a motive for gratitude.
6. Saint Francis de Sales says that the
cross is the royal door to the temple of sanctity,
7. Notice that I say, to suffer for the love
of God, for, as Saint Augustine remarks, no
person can love suffering in itself. That is
contrary to nature, and moreover, there would
no longer be any suffering if we could accept
it with natural relish. But a resigned soul
loves to suffer, that is she loves the virtue of
patience and ardently desires the merits that
result from the practice of it. A calm and
submissive longing to be delivered from our
cross if such be the will of God, is not inconsistent
with the most perfect resignation.
*The Redeemer of the World seems to
wish to show us in His Agony the degree of
perfection which the weakness of human
nature can attain amidst the anguish of sorrow.
In the inferior portion of the soul
where the faculty of feeling resides, instinctive
repugnance to suffering, humble prayer for
relief if it please God to accord it; and in the
superior portion of the soul where the will
resides, entire resignation if this consolation
be denied. A desire for more than this, unless
called to it by a special grace, would be foolish
In the following terms Saint Francis de Sales proposes to us this same example of our Saviour’s resignation during His agony: “Consider the great dereliction our Divine Master suffered in the Garden of Olives. See how this beloved Son, having asked for consolation from His loving Father and knowing that it was not His will to grant it, thinks no more about it, no longer craves or looks for it, but, as though He had never sought it, valiantly and courageously completes the work of our redemption. Let it be the same with you. If your Heavenly Father sees fit to deny you the consolation you have prayed for, dismiss it from your mind and animate your courage to fulfil your work upon the cross as if you were never to descend from it nor should ever again see the atmosphere of your life pure and serene.” (Read The Imitation. B. III., Chapters XI and XV.)
The same Saint also gives us some sublime
lessons in resignation applied to the trials and
“Would to God,” he says elsewhere,
speaking on the same subject, “that we did
not concern ourselves so much about the
And again: “You should resign yourself perfectly into the hands of God. When you have done your best towards carrying out your design (of becoming a religious) he will be pleased to accept everything you do, even though it be something less good. You cannot please God better than by sacrificing to him your will, and remaining in tranquillity, humility and devotion, entirely reconciled and submissive to his divine will and good pleasure. You will be able to recognize these plainly enough when you find that notwithstanding all your efforts it is impossible for you to gratify your wishes.
For God in his infinite goodness sometimes
sees fit to test our courage and love by depriving
us of the things which it seems to us
would be advantageous to our souls; and if
he finds us very earnest in their pursuit, yet
humble, tranquil and resigned to do without
them if he wishes us to, he will give us more
blessings than we should have had in the possession
of what we craved. God loves those
Having therefore such hope, we use much confidence.
(
Fear is not in charity: but perfect charity casteth out fear,
because fear hath pain. And he that feareth is not perfect
in charity.
(
1. There are persons who look upon scrupulosity as a virtue, confounding it with delicacy of conscience, whereas it is, on the contrary, not only a defect but one of a most dangerous character. The devout and learned Gerson says that a scrupulous conscience often does more injury to the soul than one that is too lax and remiss.
2. Scruples warp the judgment, disturb
the peace of the soul, beget mistrust of the
Sacraments and estrangement from them, and
impair the health of body and mind. How
many unfortunates have begun by scrupulosity
and ended in insanity! How many, more
3. Scrupulosity is an unreasonable fear of sin in matters where there is not even material for sin. But the victim does not call his doubts and fears scruples, for he would not be tormented by them if he believed he could give them that name. He should, however, place implicit reliance in the opinion of his spiritual guide when he tells him they are such and that he must not allow himself to be influenced by them.
4. In all his actions a scrupulous person sees only an uninterrupted series of sins, and in God nothing but vengeance and anger. He ought, therefore, to consider almost exclusively the attribute of the divine Master by which He most delights to manifest Himself, mercy, and to make it the constant subject of his thoughts, meditations and affections.
“We should do everything from love and
nothing from constraint. It is more essential
5. There is but one remedy for scruples and that is entire and courageous obedience. “It is a secret pride,” says Saint Francis de Sales, “that entertains and nourishes scruples, for the scrupulous person adheres to his opinion and inquietude in spite of his director’s advice to the contrary. He always persuades himself in justification of his disobedience that some new and unforseen circumstance has occurred to which this advice cannot be applicable.” But submit”, adds the Saint, “without other reasoning than this: I should obey, and you will be delivered from this lamentable malady.”
6. By sadness and anxiety the children of God do a great injury to their Heavenly Father. They thereby seem to bear witness that there is little happiness to be found in the service of a Master so full of love and mercy, and to give the lie to the words of Him who said: “Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavily burdened and I will refresh you.”
“Woe to that narrow and self-absorbed
soul that is always fearful, and because of fear
Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about
many things.
(
Always active, always at rest. (St. Augustine.)
1. Be on your guard lest your zeal degenerate into anxiety and eagerness. Saint Francis de Sales was a most pronounced enemy of these two defects. They cause us to lose sight of God in our actions and make us very prone to impatience if the slightest obstacle should interfere with our designs. It is only by acting peacefully that we can serve the God of peace in an acceptable manner.
Do not let us suffer our peace to be disturbed by precipitation in our exterior actions. When our bodies or minds are engaged in any work, we should perform it peacefully and with composure, not prescribing for ourselves a definite time to finish it, nor being too anxious to see it completed.”—Scupoli.
2. Martha was engaged in a good work when she prepared a repast for our divine Lord, nevertheless He reproved her because she performed it with anxiety and agitation. This goes to show, says Saint Francis de Sales, that it is not enough to do good, the good must moreover be done well, that is to say, with love and tranquillity. If one turn the spinning-wheel too rapidly it falls and the thread breaks.
3. Whenever we are doing well we are always doing enough and doing it sufficiently fast. Those persons who are restless and impetuous do not accomplish any more and what they do is done badly.
4. Saint Francis de Sales was never seen in a hurry no matter how varied or numerous might be the demands made upon his time. When on a certain occasion some surprise was expressed at this he said: “You ask me how it is that although others are agitated and flurried I am not likewise uneasy and in haste. What would you? I was not put in this world to cause fresh disturbance: is there not enough of it already without my adding to it by my excitability?”
5. However, do not on the other hand succumb
6. In order to acquire tranquillity in action it is necessary to consider carefully what we are capable of accomplishing and never to undertake more than that. It is self-love, ever more anxious to do much than to do well, which urges us on to burden ourselves with great undertakings and to impose upon ourselves numerous obligations. It maintains and nourishes itself on this tension of mind, this restless anxiety which it takes for infallible signs of a superior capacity. Thus Saint Francis de Sales was wont to say: “Our self-love is a great braggart, that wishes to undertake everything and accomplishes nothing.”
“It appears to me that you are over eager
and anxious in the pursuit of perfection....
Now I tell you truthfully, as it is said in the Book of
Kings,
I rejoiced at the things that
were said to me: We shall go
into the house of the Lord....
Sing joyfully to God, all the
earth: serve ye the Lord with
gladness.... Why art thou sad,
O my soul, and why dost thou
trouble me?
(Psalms
And God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes.
(
1. Sadness, says Saint Francis de Sales, is the worst thing in the World, sin alone excepted.
2. It is a dangerous error to seek recollection in sadness: it is the spirit of God that produces recollection; sadness is the work of the spirit of darkness.
3. Do not forget the rule given by Saint Francis de Sales for the discernment of spirits: any thought that troubles and disquiets us cannot come from the God of peace, who makes his dwelling-place only in peaceful souls.
“Yes, my daughter, I now tell you in writing what I before said to you in person, always be as happy as you can in well-doing, for it gives a double value to good works to be well done and to be done cheerfully. And when I say, rejoice in well-doing, I do not mean that if you happen to commit some fault you should on that account abandon yourself to sadness. For God’s sake, no; for that would be to add defect to defect. But I mean that you should persevere in the wish to do well, that you return to it the moment you realize you have deviated from it, and that by means of this fidelity you live happily in the Lord.... May God be ever in our heart, my daughter.... Live joyfully and be generous, for this is the will of God, whom we love and to whose service we are consecrated.”—Saint Francis de Sales. (Imitation, B. III., Chap. XLVII.)
4. It is wrong to deny one’s self all diversion.
The mind becomes fatigued and depressed
by remaining always concentrated in
itself and thus more easily falls a prey to sadness.
Saint Thomas says explicitly that one
may incur sin by refusing all innocent amusement.
Every excess, no matter what its
5. Recreations and amusements are to the life of the soul what seasoning is to our corporal food. Food that is too highly seasoned quickly becomes injurious and sometimes fatal in its effects; that which is not seasoned at all soon becomes unendurable because of its insipidity and unpalatableness.
6. As to the amount of diversion it is right to take, no absolute measure can be given: the rule is that each person should have as much as is necessary for him. This quantity varies according to the bent of the mind, the nature of the habitual occupations, and the greater or less predisposition to sadness one observes in his disposition.
7. When you find your heart growing sad, divert yourself without a moment’s delay; make a visit, enter into conversation with those around you, read some amusing book, take a walk, sing, do something, it matters not what, provided you close the door of your heart against this terrible enemy. As the sound of a trumpet gives the signal for a combat, so sad thoughts apprise the devil that a favorable moment has come for him to attack us.
Now the Lord is a spirit: and where the spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty.
(
For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in
fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption of sons,
whereby we cry: Abba, Father.
(
Love God and do what you will. (Saint Augustine.)
1. Christian liberty of spirit, so earnestly
recommended by the saints, consists in not
becoming the slave of anything, even though
good, unless it be of God’s will. Thus our
purest inclinations, our holiest habits, our
wisest rules of conduct, should yield without
murmur or complaint to every manifestation
of this divine will, in order that they may
never become for us obstacles or impediments
to good or the occasion of trouble and disquietude.
By this means only can we perform
“I leave you the spirit of liberty; not
that liberty which hinders obedience, for
such is the liberty of the flesh, but that which
excludes scruples and constraint.... We ask
of God above all things that his name be hallowed,
that His kingdom come, that His will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. All this
implies the spirit of liberty; for provided
God’s name be sanctified, that His divine
Majesty reign in you, that His will be done,
the spirit desires nothing more.”
2. St. Francis de Sales, speaking on this important subject, says: “He who possesses the spirit of liberty will on no account allow his affections to be mastered even by his spiritual exercises, and in this way he avoids feeling any regret if they are interfered with by sickness or accident. I do not say that he does not love his devotions but that he is not attached to them.”
3. A soul that is attached to meditation, if
interrupted, will show chagrin and impatience:
a soul that has true liberty will take the interruption
4. The fruits of this holy liberty of spirit are prompt and tranquil submission and generous confidence. Saint Francis de Sales relates that Saint Ignatius ate flesh meat one day in Holy Week simply because his physician thought it expedient for him to do so on account of a slight illness. A spirit of constraint would have made him allow the doctor to spend three days in persuading him, he adds, and would then very probably have refused to yield. I cite this example for the benefit of timid souls and not for those who seek to elude an obligation by unwarranted dispensations.
*This matter is of such importance and a
just medium so difficult to follow in practice,
that it seems useful to transcribe the following
passage from Saint Francis de Sales in its
entirety, with the rules and examples it contains,
in order that the proper occasions for
“A heart possessed of this spirit of liberty is not attached to consolations, but receives afflictions with all the sweetness that is possible to human nature. I do not say that it does not love and desire consolations, but that its affections are not wedded to them.... It seldom loses its joy, for no privation saddens a heart that is not set upon any one thing. I do not say it never loses it, but if it does so it quickly regains it.
The effects of this virtue are sweetness of temper, gentleness, and forbearance towards everything that is not sin or occasion of sin, forming a disposition gently susceptible to the influences of charity and of every other virtue.
The occasions for exercising this holy freedom are found in all those things that happen contrary to our natural inclinations; for one whose affections are not engaged in his own will does not lose patience when his desires are thwarted.
There are two vices opposed to this liberty
of spirit,—instability and constraint, or dissipation
and servility. The former is a certain
excess of freedom which causes us to change
It remains for me to give you some examples
The first is that a person must never abandon
his pious practices and the common rules
of virtue unless it is plainly evident that God
wills that he do so. Now this will is manifested
in two ways,—through necessity and
through charity. I desire to preach this Lent
in some little corner of my diocese; however,
if I get sick or break my leg I need not give
way to regret or inquietude because I cannot
do as I intended, for it is evident that it is the
will of God that I serve Him by suffering and
not by preaching. Or, even if I am not ill
or crippled, but an occasion presents itself of
going to some other place which if I do not
avail myself of the people there may become
Huguenots, the will of God is sufficiently
manifest to make me amiably change my
plans. The second rule is that when it is
necessary to make use of this liberty of spirit
from motives of charity, care should be taken
that it is done without scandal or injustice.
Thus it is a false idea of the spirit of liberty that would induce married women to keep aloof from their husbands without legitimate reason under pretext of devotion and charity.... This spirit rightly understood never interferes with the duties of one’s vocation nor prejudices them in any way. On the contrary, it makes every one contented in his state of life, as each should know it is God’s will that he remain in it.
Saint Charles Borromeo was one of the
most austere, exact and determined of men;
bread was his only food, water his only drink;
he was so strict, that during the twenty-four
years he was an Archbishop he went into his
garden but twice, and visited his brothers
only on two occasions and then because they
were ill. Yet this austere priest when dining
with his Swiss neighbors, which he often did
in order to move them to amend their lives,
did not hesitate to join them in drinking toasts
Saint Spiridion, a bishop of olden times, once gave shelter to a pilgrim who was almost dying of hunger. It was the season of Lent and in a place where nothing was to be had but salt meat. This Spiridion ordered to be cooked and then gave it to the pilgrim. Seeing that the latter, notwithstanding his great need, hesitated to eat it, the Saint, although he did not require it, ate some first in order to remove the poor man’s scruples. That was a true spirit of liberty born of charity.”—Saint Francis de Sales.*
5. Again, it is this Christian spirit of freedom
that excludes fear and uneasiness in
regard to all those things which God has not
permitted us to know. It gives us a sweet
and tender confidence as to the pardon of our
6. I earnestly exhort you never to make indiscreet vows in the hope of thus increasing the merit of your ordinary works. One can attain the same end by many ways that are easier and less dangerous. Those who are guilty of this imprudence often run the risk of breaking their vows and of thus sinning gravely. And if they avoid this misfortune it is only at the expense of their peace of soul, sacrificed to a craven and unquiet servitude which is totally incompatible with the tranquillity and confidence required in the great work of our spiritual perfection.
7. Many pious persons are too prone to
advise obligations of this kind. If they do
8. Do not allow yourself to be misled by the example of some of the saints who made vows. Rarely is the desire to imitate certain extraordinary practices of theirs an inspiration of divine grace: rather is it a temptation from the devil inciting us to pride and temerity. Saint Francis de Sales exclaimed: “Give me the spirit that animated Saint Bernard and I shall do what Saint Bernard did.” Let us apply ourselves, I repeat, to the imitation of those simple and solid virtues by which the saints attained sanctity, and be content to admire those supernatural acts that suppose it already acquired.
9. To bind one’s self by arbitrary vows
without compromising salvation, three things
Conduct me, O Lord, in Thy
way, and I will walk in Thy
truth. (
Except the Lord build the
house, they labor in vain who
build it. (
1. A Christian is not obliged to be perfect, but to tend continually towards perfection; that is to say, he must labor unceasingly and with all his strength to increase in virtue. To make no attempt to advance is to go back.
You see it is a question not of succeeding but of laboring earnestly and sincerely. Success does not depend upon us. God grants that or refuses it or defers it according to what He knows is best for us.
“Let us do three things, my dear daughter,
says Saint Francis de Sales: first, have a pure
intention to look in all things to the honor
and glory of God; second, do the little we can
towards this end, according to the advice of
our spiritual father; third, leave the care of
...“Allow yourself to be governed by
God; do not think so much of yourself; make
a general and universal resolution to serve
God in the best manner you are able and do
not waste time in examining and sifting so
minutely to find out what that may be. This
is simply an impertinence due to the condition
of your acute and precise mind which wishes
to tyrannize over your will and to control it
by fraud and subtlety.... You know that in
general God wishes us to serve Him by loving
Him above all things and our neighbor as
ourselves for love of Him; and in particular,
to fulfil the duties of our state of life; that is all.
But it must be done in good faith, without deceit
or subterfuge, and in the ordinary way of
this world, which is not the home of perfection;
humanly, too, and according to the
limitations of time; to do it in a divine and
angelic manner and according to eternity
2. Now the means to be employed in laboring
for perfection and in making progress in
virtue do not consist in multiplying prayers,
fasts and other religious practices. Some
good religious who had fasted three times a
week during an entire year, thought that in
3. Instead, then, of continually adding to
your religious exercises, study to perfect yourself
in the practice of those you already perform,
doing them with more love and peace
of soul, and with greater purity of intention.
Should it happen that you are unable to perform
all your usual devotions conveniently,
omit a portion of them so that the remainder
may be done with greater tranquillity. The
spirit of perfection, says Saint Bernard, does
Most people when they wish to reform, pay much more attention to filling their life with certain difficult and extraordinary actions, than to purifying their intention and opposing their natural inclinations in the ordinary duties of their state. In this they often deceive themselves, for it would be much better to make less change in the actions and more in the dispositions of the soul which prompt them. When one is already leading a virtuous and well regulated life it is of far greater consequence, in order to become truly spiritual, to change the interior than the exterior. God is not satisfied with the motions of the lips, the posture of the body, nor with external ceremonies: What he demands is a will no longer divided between Him and any creature; a will perfectly docile ... that wishes unreservedly whatever He wishes and never under any pretext wishes aught that He does not wish.
This will, perfectly simple and entirely
devoted to God, you should bear with you
4. Apply yourself in a particular manner
to become perfect in the fulfilment of the
duties of your state of life; for on this all perfection
5. Perfection has but one aim and it is the
same for all,—to wit, the love of God; but
there are divers ways of attaining it. Among
the saints themselves we find most striking
6. Never be afraid that you are not following
the way of perfection because you still
have defects and commit many faults. This
was true of the greatest saints, for Saint
“Act like the little child who, when it feels that its mother is holding it by the sleeve, runs about quite boldly and without being surprised at all the little falls it gets. Thus, as long as you find that God is holding you by the good will and the resolution He has given you to serve Him, go on bravely and do not be astonished that you stumble and fall occasionally. There is no need to be troubled about it, provided that at certain intervals you cast yourself into your Father’s arms and embrace Him with the kiss of charity. Go on your way, then, cheerfully and heartily, doing the best you can; and if it cannot always be cheerfully, let it at least be always courageously and faithfully.” —Saint Francis de Sales.
7. But we must bear in mind the vast difference
that exists between the love of sin and
sin committed inadvertently or from weakness.
(See Confession, § 14.) Affection for
8. Therefore in place of troubling yourself about these accidental falls, inseparable from human nature, make them turn to your spiritual advantage by causing them to increase your humility. It often happens, says Saint Gregory the Great, that God allows great defects to remain in some souls at the beginning of their spiritual life that by means of them they may grow in self-knowledge and learn to place their entire confidence in Him. Saint Augustine tells us that God in his infinite wisdom has been better pleased to bring forth good out of evil than to hinder the evil itself. Thus when you learn to draw fruits of humility from your faults, you correspond to the sublime designs of God’s unspeakable providence.
9. Should you happen to fear that you are not walking in the true way of perfection, consult your director and place implicit reliance upon the answer he gives you. Who is the saint that has not had to suffer because of a like doubt? But they were all reassured by the consideration of God’s infinite goodness and by obedience to their spiritual father.
“Some persons, although conscious of a
sincere desire to serve God, nevertheless are
disposed to feel alarmed about their spiritual
condition, at the remembrance of all they
have heard and read in regard to false consciences,
self-illusion and the deceptive security
of those who are following a wrong path.
There are two ways of forming a false conscience:
first, by choosing among our duties
those for which we feel most attraction and
natural tendency, and then, in order to give
ourselves up to them more than is necessary,
to persuade ourselves we can neglect the
others. Thus a person with a preference for
exterior acts of religion will spend all day
praying or attending sermons and offices of
the Church and considers herself very devout,
although she may have been neglecting
her temporal duties. Another, being differently
It is evident, therefore, that the first rule to be observed in order to avoid these dangerous illusions and to walk securely in the way of perfection, is to apply ourselves in a special manner to the practice of those duties for which we feel least innate attraction, and always to mistrust our natural virtues however good they may appear. Then there is one consideration that should serve to reassure all Christians who are in earnest about their salvation; whilst they act in good faith and deal frankly and sincerely with their confessor, it is impossible for them to become the victim of a false conscience.
In the following passage Saint Francis de Sales recommends us to watch carefully over our natural tendencies and to substitute for them as much as possible the inspirations of grace, which he calls living according to the spirit:
“To live according to the spirit, my beloved
daughter, is to think, speak and act according
to the virtues that are of the spirit, and not
according to the senses and feelings which are
of the flesh. These latter we should make serve
us, but we must hold them in subjection and
not allow them to control us; whereas with
Hence, as I have said before, my dear
daughter, to live according to the spirit is to
have our actions, our words and our thoughts
such as the spirit of God would require of us.
In fine, to live according to the spirit is to do in all circumstances and on all occasions whatever faith, hope and charity demand of us, without even waiting to consider if we are or are not influenced by our natural disposition. (The Imitation of Christ, B. III., Ch. LIV.)
10. Generally speaking it is only after a long and painful struggle that one succeeds in climbing the mount of perfection. There are some statues, says Saint Francis de Sales, that it has cost the artist thirty years’ labor to perfect. Now the perfecting of a soul is a much more difficult work. We must therefore set about it with tranquillity, patience and confidence in God. We shall always obtain what we wish soon enough if we obtain it at the time God pleases to grant it.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye
have love one for another.
(
He who saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother,
he is in darkness even until now.
(
1. Our divine Lord has said that His disciples should be known by their love one for another. This christian virtue of charity makes us love our neighbor in God, the creature for the sake of the Creator. Love of God, love of our neighbor,—these virtues are two branches springing from the same trunk and having but one and the same root.
2. Assist your brethren in their needs
whenever you can. However, you should
3. When your neighbor offends you he does not cease on that account to be the creature and the image of God; therefore the christian motive you have for loving him still exists. He is not, perhaps, worthy of pardon, but has not our Saviour Jesus Christ, who so often has forgiven you much more grievous offences, merited it for him?
4. Observe, however, that we can scarcely
avoid feeling some repugnance for those who
have offended us, but to feel and to consent are
two distinct and widely different things, as we
have already said. When religion commands
us to love our enemies, the commandment is
addressed to the superior portion of the soul,
the will, not to the inferior portion in which
reside the carnal affections that follow the
natural inclinations. In a word, when we
speak of charity the question is not of that
human friendship which we feel for those who
are naturally pleasing to us, a sentiment wherein
we seek merely our own satisfaction and
“Charity makes us love God above all
things; and our neighbor as ourselves with a
love not sensual, not natural, not interested,
but pure, strong and unwavering, and having
its foundation in God.... A person is extremely
sweet and agreeable and I love her tenderly:
or, she loves me well and does much to oblige
me, and on that account I love her in return.
Who does not see that this affection is according
to the senses and the flesh? For animals
that have no soul but only a body and senses,
love those who are good and gentle and kind
to them. Then there is another person who
is brusque and uncivil, but apart from this is
really devout and even desirous of becoming
gentler and more courteous: consequently,
not for any gratification she affords me, or for
any self-interested motive whatever, but solely
for the good pleasure of God, I talk to her,
aid her, love her. This is the virtue of charity
indeed, for nature has no share in it.”—Saint
Francis de Sales.
(Read
The literal and exact fulfilment of the evangelical
precept is often found impracticable.
“To love our neighbor as ourselves does not mean that we should have for him that intense feeling of affection that we have for ourselves, but simply that we wish for him, and from the motive of charity, what we wish for ourselves. Pure and genuine love, love having for its sole end the object beloved, should be reserved for God alone, and to bestow it elsewhere is a violation of a divine right.”
5. But although it is forbidden us to show
hatred or to entertain it voluntarily against the
6. Always be ready and willing to excuse the faults of your neighbor, and never put an unfavorable interpretation upon his actions. The same action, says Saint Francis de Sales, may be looked upon under many different aspects: a charitable person will ever suppose the best, an uncharitable one will just as certainly choose the worst.
“Do not weigh so carefully the sayings
and doings of others, but let your thought of
them be simple and good, kindly and affectionate.
You should not exact of your neighbor
greater perfection than of yourself, nor be
surprised at the diversity of imperfections;
for an imperfection is not more an imperfection
7. It is very difficult for a good christian to become really guilty of rash judgment, in the true sense of the word,—which is that, without just reasons or sufficient grounds he forms and pronounces in his own mind in a positive manner a condemnation of his neighbor. The grave sin of rash judgment is frequently confounded with suspicion or even simple distrust, which may be justifiable on much slighter grounds.
8. Suspicion is permissible when it has for its aim measures of just prudence; charity forbids gratuitously malevolent thoughts, but not vigilance and precaution.
9. Suspicion is not only permissible, but it is at times an important duty for those who are charged with the direction and guardianship of others. Thus it is a positive obligation for a father in regard to his children, and for a master in regard to his servants, whenever there is occasion to correct some vice they know exists, or to prevent some fault they have reasonable cause to fear.
10. As to simple mistrust, which should
not be confused with suspicion, it is only an
But if you have bitter zeal, and there be contentions in
your heart, glory not, and be not liars against the truth: for
this is not wisdom descending from above, but earthly, sensual,
diabolical.
(
For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God.
(
1. Zeal for the salvation of souls is a sublime virtue, and yet how many errors and sins are every day committed in its name! Evil is never done more effectually and with greater security, says Saint Francis de Sales, than when one does it believing he is working for the glory of God.
2. The saints themselves can be mistaken
in this delicate matter. We see a proof of
this in the incident related of the Apostles
Saint James and Saint John; for our Lord
3. Acts of zeal are like coins the stamp upon which it is necessary to examine attentively, as there are more counterfeits than good ones. Zeal to be pure should be accompanied with very great humility, for it is of all virtues the one into which self-love most easily glides. When it does so, zeal is apt to become imprudent, presumptuous, unjust, bitter. Let us consider these characteristics in detail, viewing them, for the sake of greater clearness, in their practical bearings.
4. In every home there grows some thorn,
something, in other words, that needs correction;
for the best soil is seldom without its
noxious weed. Imprudent zeal, by seeking
awkwardly to pluck out the thorn, often succeeds
only in plunging it farther in, thus rendering
the wound deeper and more painful.
In such a case it is essential to act with reflection
and great prudence. There is a time to
speak and a time to be silent, says the Holy
Spirit.
5. Some persons are even presumptuous enough in their mistaken zeal to meddle in the domestic affairs of strange families, blaming, counselling, attempting to reform without measure or discretion, thus causing an evil much greater than the one they wish to correct. Let us employ the activity of our zeal in our own reformation, says Saint Bernard, and pray humbly for that of others. It is great presumption on our part thus to assume the rôle of apostles when we are not as yet even good and faithful disciples. Not that you should be by any means indifferent to the salvation of souls: on the contrary you must wish it most ardently, but do not undertake to effect it except with great prudence, humility and diffidence in self.
6. Again, there are pious persons whose
zeal consists in wishing to make everybody
adopt their particular practices of devotion.
Such a one, if she have a special attraction for
meditating on the Passion of our divine Lord
or for visiting the Blessed Sacrament, would
like to oblige every one, under pain of reprobation,
to pass long hours prostrate before the
crucifix or the tabernacle. Another who is
especially devoted to visiting the poor and the
7. Bear well in mind that the zeal which
would lead you to undertake works not in conformity
with your position, however good and
useful they may be in themselves, is always a
false one. This is especially true if such
cause us interior trouble or annoyance; for
8. Saint Paul condemned in strong terms
those Christians who showed a too exclusive
preference for their spiritual masters; some
admitting as truth only what came from the
mouth of Peter, others acknowledging none
save Paul, and others again none but Apollo.
What! said he to them, is not Jesus Christ
the same for all of you! Is it then Paul who
was crucified for you? Is it in his name you were
baptized?
9. “If your zeal is bitter,” says Saint
James, “it is not wisdom descending from on
high, but earthly, sensual,
diabolical.”
10. The value and utility of zeal are in
proportion to its tolerance and amiability.
True zeal is the offspring of charity: it should,
then, resemble its mother and show itself like
to her in all things. “Charity,” says Saint
Paul, “is patient, is kind, is not ambitious
and seeketh not her own.”
“You should not only be devout and love
devotion, but you ought to make your piety
useful, agreeable and charming to everybody.
The sick will like your spirituality if they are
11. Never allow your zeal to make you over eager to correct others, says the same Saint; and when you must do it remember that the most important thing to consider is the choice of the moment. A caution deferred can be given another time: one given inopportunely is not only fruitless, but moreover paralyses beforehand all the good that might have subsequently been done.
12. Be zealous, therefore, ardently zealous
for the salvation of your neighbor, and to further
it make use of whatever means God has
placed in your power; but do not exceed
“I must look upon whatever presents itself
each day to be done, in the order of Divine
Providence, as the work God wishes me to do,
and apply myself to it in a manner worthy of
Him, that is with exactness and tranquillity.
I shall neglect nothing, be anxious about nothing;
as it is dangerous either to do God’s work
negligently or to appropriate it to one’s self
through self-love and false zeal. When our
actions are prompted by our own inclinations,
we do them badly, and are pretentious, restless,
and anxious to succeed. The glory of
God is the pretext that hides the illusion.
Self-love disguised as zeal grieves and frets if
it cannot succeed. O my God! give me the
grace to be faithful in action, indifferent to
success. My part is to will what Thou willest
and to keep myself recollected in Thee amidst
all my occupations: Thine it is to give to my
Blessed are the meek for they shall possess the land.
(
Learn of me because I am meek.
(
1. Our Lord offers us in His Divine Person a model of all the virtues. Meekness, however, is the one that He seems to have wished more particularly to propose for our imitation since He said: “Learn of Me for I am meek and humble of heart.”
2. Try, therefore, to acquire and always
preserve in your soul this christian virtue and
to make all your exterior actions correspond
with it. I do not say that you should never
have the slightest feeling of irritation, as that
would be to expect an impossibility; but you
should be attentive to repress these movements
and never yield to them voluntarily. It is
natural for man to be often assailed by anger,
says Saint Jerome, but it is peculiar to the
3. A Christian, says Saint Bernard, who has no one at hand who gives him occasion to suffer, should seek such a person eagerly and buy him at any price, that he may have opportunity to practice meekness and patience. If you are not disposed to go to this expense, at least profit of whatever opportunities divine Providence has given you gratuitously, that you may accustom yourself to the exercise of these two inestimable virtues.
4. An excellent rule to follow is to make
a compact with your tongue such as Saint
Francis de Sales did with his, namely, that
the tongue remain silent whenever the feelings
are irritated. Otherwise you will begin
to speak with the sincere resolution to keep
within the bounds of moderation and prudence,
but you will never succeed in so doing, because
the bridle once loosened you will invariably
be carried farther than you wished. Reprimand
from an angry man can do no good.
Reproof is a moral remedy: how would it be
possible for you to select and administer this
remedy with discernment and prudence, when
you yourself are ill and stand in need of both
5. When obliged to reprove the fault of another, never fail to pray that God will speak to the person’s heart whilst your words are sounding in his ears.
6. Observe, however, with Saint Gregory
the Great and Saint Thomas, that if those it is
your duty to correct abuse your mildness and
considerateness, you are then justified in repressing
their boldness with vigor and firmness.
“Speak to the fool,” says the Holy
Spirit, “the language that his folly renders
necessary, that he may not continue wise in his own
eyes.”
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may give light to all who are in a house.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see
your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
(
Contend not in words, for it is to no profit, but to the subversion
of the hearers.
(
1. Conversation should be marked by a gentle and devout pleasantness, and your manner when engaged in it, ought to be equable, composed and gracious. Mildness and cheerfulness make devotion and those who practice it attractive to others. The holy abbot Saint Anthony, notwithstanding the extraordinary austerities of his penitential life, always showed such a smiling countenance that no one could look at him without pleasure.
2. We should be neither too talkative nor too silent,—it is as necessary to avoid one extreme as the other. By speaking too much we expose ourselves to a thousand dangers, so well known that they need not be mentioned in detail: by not speaking enough we are apt to be a restraint upon others, as it makes it seem as though we did not relish their conversation, or wished to impress them with our superiority.
“Take great care not to be too critical of conversations in which the rules of devotion are not very exactly observed. In all such matters it is necessary that charity should govern and enlighten us in order to make us accede to the wishes of our neighbor in whatever is not in any way contrary to the commandments of God.”—Saint Francis de Sales.
3. Do not conclude from this that it is necessary to count your words, as it were, so as to keep your conversation within the proper limits. This would be as puerile a scruple as counting one’s steps when walking. A holy spirit of liberty should dominate our conversations and serve to instil into them a gentle and moderate gaiety.
4. If you hear some evil spoken of your neighbor do not immediately become alarmed, as the matter may be true and quite public without your having been aware of it. Should you be quite certain that there is calumny or slander in the report, either because the evil told was false or exaggerated or because it was not publicly known, then, according to the place, the circumstances and your relations towards those present, say with moderation what appears most fitting to justify or excuse your neighbor. Or you may try to turn the conversation into other channels, or simply be content to show your disapprobation by an expressive silence. Remember, for the peace of your conscience, that one does not share in the sin of slander unless he give some mark of approbation or encouragement to the person who is guilty of it.
5. Do not imitate those who are scrupulous
enough to imagine that charity obliges them
to undertake the defence of every evil mentioned
in their presence and to become the self-appointed
advocates of whoever it may be that
has deserved censure. That which is really
wrong cannot be justified, and no one should
attempt the fruitless task: and as to the
6. The regard we owe our neighbor does not bind us to a politeness that might be construed as an approval or encouragement of his vicious habits. Hence if it happen that you hear an equivocal jest, a witticism slurring at religion or morals, or anything else that really offends against propriety, be careful not to give, through cowardice and in spite of your conscience, any mark of approbation, were it only by one of those half smiles that are often accorded unwillingly and afterwards regretted. Flattery, even in the eyes of the world, is one of the most debasing of falsehoods. Not even in the presence of the greatest earthly dignitaries, will an honest, upright man sanction with his mouth that which he condemns in his heart. He who sacrifices to vice the rights of truth not only acts unlike a christian, but renders himself unworthy the name of man.
7. In small social gatherings try to make
8. Disputes, sarcasm, bitter language, and intolerance for dissenting opinions, are the scourges of conversation.
9. Although this adage comes to us from a pagan philosopher, we might profitably bear it always in mind: “In conversation we should show deference to our superiors, affability to our equals, and benevolence to our inferiors.”
10. Generally speaking, it is wrong for
those whom God does not call to abandon the
world, to seclude themselves entirely and to
Fénelon, who perhaps had even greater occasion than Saint Francis de Sales to teach men of the world how to lead a Christian life in society, wrote as follows to a person at court:
“You ought not to feel worried, it seems to me, in regard to those diversions in which you cannot avoid taking part. I know there are those who think it necessary that one should lament about everything, and restrain himself continually by trying to excite disgust for the amusements in which he must participate. As for me, I acknowledge that I cannot reconcile myself to this severity. I prefer something more simple and I believe that God, too, likes it better. When amusements are innocent in themselves and we enter into them to conform to the customs of the state of life in which Providence has placed us, then I believe they are perfectly lawful. It is enough to keep within the bounds of moderation and to remember God’s presence. A dry, reserved manner, conduct not thoroughly ingenuous and obliging, only serve to give a false idea of piety to men of the world who are already too much prejudiced against it, believing that a spiritual life cannot be otherwise than gloomy and morose.”
11. If all confessors agreed in instilling
these maxims, which are as important as they
are true, many persons who now keep themselves
in absolute seclusion and live in a sad
12. Never remain idle except during the time you have allotted to rest or recreation. Idleness begets lassitude, disposes to evil speaking and gives occasion to the most dangerous temptations.
Women also in decent apparel, adorning themselves
with modesty and sobriety.
(
1. Clothing is worn for a threefold object: to observe the laws of propriety, to protect our bodies from the inclemency of the weather, and, finally, to adorn them, as Saint Paul says, with modesty and sobriety. This third end is, as you see, not less legitimate than the other two, provided you are careful to make it accord with them by confining it within proper limits and not permitting it to be the only one to which you attach any importance, so that neither health nor propriety be sacrificed to personal appearance.
2. External ornamentation should correspond
with each one’s condition in life. A
just proportion in this matter, says Saint
Thomas, is an offshoot of the virtues of uprightness
and sincerity, for there is a sort of untruthfulness
in appearing in garments that
3. Be equally careful, then, to avoid over-nicety and carelessness in respect to matters of toilet. Excessive nicety sins against moderation and christian simplicity; negligence, against the order that should govern certain externals in human society. This order requires that each one’s material life, and accordingly his attire which is a part of it, be suitable to his rank and condition; that Esther be clad as a queen, Judith as a woman of wealth and position, Agar as a bond-woman.
5. I shall not speak of immodest dress, for these instructions being intended for pious persons or for those who are endeavoring to become such, it would seem unnecessary. Nevertheless, as some false and pernicious ideas on this subject prevail in the world and lead into error souls desirous to do right, here are some fundamental principles that can serve you as a rule and save you from similar mistakes.
5. A generally admitted custom can and
even should be followed in all indifferent
matters; but no custom, however universal it
I will pay my vows to the Lord before all his people....
Lo, I will not restrain my lips.... I have not concealed thy mercy
and thy truth from a great council.
(Psalms
That which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops....
Whosoever shall confess me before men, I will also
confess him before my Father who is in heaven.
(
1. Charity towards your neighbor, tolerance for his opinions, indulgence for his defects, compassion for his errors, yes; but no cowardly and guilty concessions to human respect. Never allow fear of the ridicule or contempt of men to make you blush for your faith.
2. We are not even forbidden to call one
human weakness to the assistance of another
that is contrary to it: men do not like to contradict
Long-standing custom will make resistance, but by a better habit shall it be subdued. (Imitation, B. III., c. XII.)
To him who shall overcome, I will grant to sit with me in
my throne, as I also have overcome.
(
1. We should not undertake to perfect ourselves upon all points at once; resolutions as to details ought to be made and carried out one by one, directing them first against our predominant passion.
2. By a predominant passion we mean the source of that sin to which we oftenest yield and from which spring the greater number of our faults.
3. In order to attack it successfully it is
essential to make use of strategy. It must be
approached little by little, besieged with great
caution as if it were the stronghold of an
4. For example, if your ruling passion be anger, simply propose to yourself in the beginning never to speak when you feel irritated. Renew this resolution two or three times during the day and ask God’s pardon for every time you have failed against it.
5. When the results of this first resolution
shall have become a habit, so that you no
longer have any difficulty in keeping it, you
can take a step forward. Propose, for instance,
to repress promptly every thought
capable of agitating you, or of arousing interior
anger; afterwards you can adopt the
practice of meeting without annoyance persons
who are naturally repugnant to you; then of
being able to treat with especial kindness
those of whom you have reason to complain.
Finally, you will learn to see in all things,
even in those most painful to nature, the will
of God offering you opportunities to acquire
merit; and in those who cause you suffering,
only the instruments of this same merciful
providence. You will then no longer think of
repulsing or bewailing them, but will bless and
thank your divine Saviour for having chosen
6. Some saints recommend us to make an act of hope or love or to perform some act of mortification when we discover that we have failed to keep our resolutions. This practice is good, but if you adopt it do not consider it of obligation nor bind yourself so strictly to it as to suppose you have committed a sin when you neglect it.
7. It is by this progressive method that you can at length succeed in entirely overcoming your passions, and will be able to acquire the virtues you lack. Always begin with what is easiest. Choose at first external acts over which the will has greater control, and in time you can advance from these, little by little, to the most interior and difficult details of the spiritual life.
8. Resolutions of too general a character, such as, for example, to be always moderate in speech, always patient, chaste, peaceable and the like, ordinarily do not amount to much and sometimes to nothing at all.
9. To undertake little at a time, and to pursue
this little with perseverance until one has
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned
and which have been committed to thee; knowing of whom
thou hast learned them.
(
1. The writer of these instructions makes no pretension to have derived them from his own wisdom. The material was furnished him by the greatest saints and the most eminent doctors of the Church. You can therefore believe in them with great confidence, follow them without fear and adopt them as a safe and reliable guide in your spiritual life.
2. If you try to regulate your practice by
making personal and indiscriminate application
of everything you find in sermons and
books you will never be at rest. One draws
you to the right, the other to the left, says
Saint Francis de Sales: doctrine is one, but
its applications are many, and they vary
3. It would then be better for you individually, without lessening your respect and esteem for books of devotion and for preachers animated by the spirit of God, to confine yourself as far as practice is concerned to the advice of your director and to the teachings of the saints as presented in this little volume.
4. Recall what has been already said, that
5. Without this rule of firm and confident obedience, books and sermons and all that is said and written for the multitude, will become for you a source of fatiguing inquietude, and of doubts and fears, owing to the fact that you will try to assimilate things which were not intended for you.
6. Remember, moreover, the pleasant saying of Saint Philip de Neri,—namely, that he had a special predilection for those books the authors of which had a name beginning with the letter S.; that is to say, the works of the saints, because he supposed them to be more illumined by heavenly wisdom.
Now, in observing these instructions you
will have for guide and director not the poor
sinner who has compiled them for the glory
of God and the good of souls, but Saint
Augustine, Saint Thomas, Saint Philip de
Neri and especially Saint Francis de Sales,
in whom the Church recognizes and admires
A cause of frequent error and trouble, particularly in regard to Holy Communion, is that feelings are confused with acts of the will. The faculty of willing is the only one we possess as our own, the only one we can use freely and at all times. Hence it follows that it is by the will alone that we can in reality acquire merit or commit sin. The natural virtues are gratuitous gifts of God. The world is right in esteeming them for they come from Him, but it errs when it esteems them exclusively for they do not of themselves give us any title to heaven. God has placed them at the disposal of our will as means to an end, and we can make a good or bad use of them just as we can of all God’s other gifts. We may be deprived of these natural virtues and live by the will alone, spiritually dry and devoid of sentiment, and yet in a state of intimate union with God.
This explanation is intended to reassure
such persons as are disposed to feel anxious
when they find nothing in their hearts to correspond
with the effusions of sensible love
with which books of devotion abound in the
preparation for Holy Communion. These
usually make the mistake of taking for granted
the invariable existence of sentiment, and of
addressing it exclusively. How many souls
do we not see who in consequence grow
alarmed about their condition, believing they
are devoid of grace notwithstanding their firm
will to shun sin and to please God! They
should, however, not give way to anxiety, nor
exhaust themselves by vain efforts to excite in
their hearts a sensibility that God has not
given them. When He has granted us this
gift we owe Him homage for it as for all
others; but God only requires that each of His
creatures should render an account of what he
has received, and free-will is the one thing
that has been accorded indiscriminately to all
men. Thus we find Saint Francis de Sales,
who possessed in such a high degree sensible
love of God and all the natural virtues, making
this positive declaration: “The greatest proof
we can have in this life that we are in the
Pious persons can make use of the following prayers with profit when they are habitually or accidentally in the condition described above. They will then see how the will alone, without the aid of feeling, can produce acts of all the christian virtues.
I will go unto the altar of God. (
It is obedience, O my God! that leads me
to Thy Holy Table: the tender words by
which Thou hast invited us would not have
sufficed to draw me, for in the troubled state
of my soul I cannot be sure they are addressed
to me. Misery and infirmity are claims for admission
to Thy Feast, but nothing can dispense
from the nuptial garment. Therefore when
I turn my eyes on myself, after having raised
them to Thee, I doubt, I hesitate, I tremble;
for if I go from Thee I flee from life, and if I
approach unworthily, to my other sins I add
the crime of sacrilege.
Notwithstanding, then, the doubts that cross my mind, I wish to believe, O my God! and I do believe all that Thy holy Church has taught me. I have not forgotten that brilliant light of Faith which Thou didst cause to illumine my soul in the days of mercy in order that the precious remembrance of it should serve me as support in the days of trial and temptation.
In spite of these vague fears that seem to
extinguish hope within my soul, I know that
although Thou art the mighty and strong
God before whom the cherubim veil themselves
with their wings, the just and all-seeing God
who discovers blemishes in the purest souls,
still Thou wishest to be in the most Holy
Sacrament only the Victim whose Blood
effaces the sins of the world; the Good Shepherd
who hastens after the strayed sheep and
carries it tenderly and unreproachfully back
to the fold; the divine Mediator who comes
Notwithstanding the coldness and insensibility that benumb my soul, I know that I love Thee, O my God! since my will prefers Thy service to all the joys of this world, since Thy grace is the sole good to which I aspire, and because I suffer so much by reason of my lack of sensible love for Thee.
No, I am not indifferent, Thou knowest, O my God! that I am not indifferent to this Most Holy Sacrament which I approach unmoved by any sensible feeling: for Thou seest that although I find in Holy Communion neither relish nor consolation, I would yet make any sacrifice in order to receive it.
I feel neither hatred nor horror of sins to
which the world does not attach shame and
contempt; I experience no sensible sorrow for
the sins I have committed, but I know, O my
No, my God, I shall not pray Thee to grant me sensible enjoyment, not even that of Thy spiritual gifts: what I implore of Thy grace is to keep my will ever turned towards Thee and never to permit it to fall or wander anew on the earth.
Lord! into Thy hands I commend my spirit.
(Read The Imitation, Chapters IV., XIV., XV. of B. IV.; and Chapters XXV., XLVIII and LII of B. III.)
If you have an ardent desire for the sensible
love of God, a desire that cannot but be pleasing
to Him provided you are at the same time
There are few prayers better calculated to dispose the soul to receive this great grace than the XVI. and XVII. chapters of the IVth. Book, and XXI. and XXXIV. of the IIId. Book of The Imitation.
For thanksgiving after Communion, read Chapters XXXIV., V., XXI., II. and X. of the III. Book of The Imitation.
Genesis
1 Kings
Psalms
32:5 34 40 41 43 51:7 51:19 66 86 94:12 100 102 121:1 122 127 150 150:5
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Isaiah
Matthew
5:4 5:15-16 9:13 10:27-32 10:30 10:30 11:28 11:29 26:39
Mark
Luke
5:8 5:32 6:32-34 9:54 10:16 10:21 10:41 12:7 14:17-18
John
6:54 6:57 8:54 12:47 13:35 20:23
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
1 John
Revelation
Tobit
Sirach
ii iii iv v vi vii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193