Category: St. Francis de Sales
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Introduction to the Devout Life: Structure of Part III, “The Practice of Virtue.”
I have already written about the first two chapters of Part III, which function as an introduction and which guide the judgement in selecting virtues to practice. The rest of this part is given up to discussions of specific virtues or habits both good and bad. There are forty-one chapters in all, but some of the…
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On making do with the Liturgy of the Hours — interruptibly.
Commenter MelanieB wrote a great comment on the post waaaay back here, the one with St. Francis de Sales's advice on praying a devotion appropriate to one's state in life. Totally worth reposting, especially since you might miss it if I don't. I had written that although the Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH) appeals to…
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St. Francis de Sales on “baby steps.” Sort of.
There's lots more about prayer and the sacraments in Part 2 of Introduction to the Devout Life, but I would like to move on to Part 3, "The Practice of Virtue." I'll write more in another post about the overall structure of this part of the book; right now I want to focus on the…
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Introduction to the Devout Life: St. Francis de Sales on Confession.
Really good stuff, continuing the theme of specific and practical advice, especially looking forward to actually reforming oneself. Be sincerely sorry for the sins you confess, however slight, firmly resolving to avoid them in future. Those who make a habit of confessing their venial sins without thought of amendment remain under the weight of them…
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Introduction to the Devout Life, 2-6 through 2-8: Getting specific.
St. Francis de Sales continues his beginner's advice on how to pray and meditate. Just like the previous advice from part 2 that I blogged in the last post in this series, these instructions are useful to know before you start implementing the "novena" of ten meditations that appears in part 1. I found myself turning…
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Introduction to the Devout Life 2-1 through 2-8: A how-to.
Soon after Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope, I stopped in at a local Catholic bookstore looking for some of the stuff he'd written. I knew he was a heavy theologian, and while I style myself an armchair theologian I didn't necessarily think I was up for anything too hard, so I picked up a…
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Introduction to the Devout Life 1-9 through 1-18: A novena for conversion to the devout life and detachment from sin.
The last time I wrote about St. Francis de Sales's work of spiritual guidance, Introduction to the Devout Life, I outlined the structure of Part 1 as a sort of three-step program for the renunciation of attachment to sin and other things that get in the way. Step one involved a series of meditations, which…
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Introduction to the Devout Life: Structure of 1-5 through 1-24.
Yeah, I skipped blogging 1-4. It’s about having a spiritual director. I don’t have one and I don’t anticipate getting one anytime soon, so I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. I have, however, read quickly through the rest of Part 1. I want to take a moment to step back from the…
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Introduction to the Devout Life, 1-2.
I started blogging on this spiritual classic in this post. Here is another installment from St. Francis de Sales, in chapter II. As usual, I add paragraph breaks to improve blogginess, a quality unknown in the first years of the seventeenth century. First point. I continue to be struck by Francis’s emphasis on the virtues…
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Introduction to the Devout Life 1-1.
This week's new project I hope I will actually finish: reading Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales. I became interested in Salesian spirituality recently after reading a bit posted on Conversion Diary, and went on to read the book that Jen recommended. From what I have read so far, the aspect…
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Toy houses.
Jen at Conversion Diary has a post up with a quote from St. Francis de Sales that I'd never encountered before. Quoting it in full because it deserves it: Soon we shall be in eternity and then we shall see how insignificant our worldly preoccupations were and how little it mattered whether some things…
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In case you were wondering about the name.
Mary Jane (born last Monday, for those of you just tuning in) is named after my maternal grandmother, who goes by "M. J." I was casting about for a potential middle name a couple of weeks before her birth, and lit upon the saint whose memorial is celebrated today, Jane Frances de Chantal. (Technically, she…
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