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I let a lot of time go by since I finished writing about part four. Never fear: I will pretend that I did it on purpose, because part five is dedicated to "Renewal and Preservation of Devotion."
From the introduction, chapter 1 of part five:
The following spiritual exercises are designed to renew and confirm our resolution to embrace the devout life. The first thing is to be convinced of their importance.
That's St. Francis, beginning at the beginning. I like how he doesn't assume that we know already that devotion needs renewal. Even though we have made it almost all the way through his book, he doesn't assume that we're going to take his word for anything.
…We only too easily fall away from our high purposes unless we often renew our good resolutions, like birds who fall to the ground unless they use their wings to maintain themselves in flight.
We must … renew time and time again our resolutions to serve God lest we fall back, not only to our former state but to a state worse than the first, for this is what always happens when we fall back in the spiritual life.
I'd like to point out here that St. Francis is not proposing we use the spiritual exercises of Chapter Five when we find that we have fallen back, but rather "lest we fall back" — they are preventative medicine. Note the reference to birds. The "renewal" of which Francis speaks here is a constant renewal, not an occasional one.
Here's the first question I have. All along in the middle three parts of the book, Francis has been recommending spiritual exercises to be practiced regularly — so what's going to be different about these? Do we renew our devotion at longer intervals, or in response to certain symptoms of beginning to fall away, or what? I don't know yet — as I progress through this chapter, and maybe after I finish reading it, I'll try to tie it all together into a unified sort of a "program."
Francis draws an analogy — quite a modern one from his early-1600's perspective, I should point out — to annually "stripping" a clock:
No matter how good a clock may be it must be wound up repeatedly and overhauled every year for cleaning, for repairing parts that have become defective, and replacing those that are worn out. Our heart must be, as it were, wound up twice a day by morning and evening prayers and often examined, re-adjusted, and corrected; it should be stripped at least once a year so that all its desires and inclinations may be examined in detail and any defects remedied.
The difference here between the annual review and the more quotidian adjustments: Winding a clock and correcting the time it shows are performed easily through mechanisms built into the exterior of the clock — you attach the provided key and turn it, you reach up and nudge the hands forward or back a little bit. When you "strip" the clock, you're opening it up and taking it all apart and testing each component for worthiness, as well as cleaning all the gunk out of the hidden corners.
Francis continues the clock analogy:
A watchmaker uses fine oil to preserve the mechanism from rust and make it run more smoothly; we should do the same with our heart, after having overhauled it, by means of confession and Holy Communion…
And then he points to the example of the early Christians to suggest a point in the liturgical year where we might conveniently perform this annual overhaul:
St. Gregory Nazianzen* tells us that the early Christians used diligently to renew their baptismal promise on the anniversary of our Lord's baptism; let us gladly follow their example…
The "anniversary of our Lord's baptism" is the solemnity that we celebrate on the Sunday after January 6, Epiphany. So it's coming up on 1/9/11. That gives me a handy deadline for getting through enough of this chapter to allow myself or anyone else to prepare for renewal, no?
So, let's take a look at what's coming up in this part, so we can grasp the overall structure.
I. Chapter 2, "The Value of Your Resolution:" "Make two or three meditations" on the six points listed in the chapter.
II. Beginning with Chapter 3, "Examination of Conscience:" Three separate examinations. "Examine at one time… your conduct towards God, at another your duty to yourself and the state of your inclination, at another your conduct towards your neighbor." Specific advice is given for each of these in Chapters 4-6. ADDED: But see below: Francis offers a shorter form of the examination.
III. Chapter 7, "An Examination of Your General Dispositions:" Now Francis turns away from the examination of sins and considers a more thorough self-examinations of the passions and inclinations that sway us: love, hatred, desire, fear, hope, sadness, joy. We are to take measure of these in ourselves.
UPDATE. Having looked this over again, I think I got that wrong. Actually, this is an alternative form of the examination of sins described in detail in II, above. If the examination of sins is "too laborious" or otherwise inappropriate — maybe you're not much of a sinner, or maybe you have trouble recalling specific sins — Francis prescribes a thorough examination of "dispositions" instead, that is, of the passions and inclinations that sway us: love, hatred, desire, fear, hope, sadness, joy. If we do not perform the detailed examination in II, then we are to take measure of these in ourselves.
(And while we're at it, let's praise St. Francis for making such a crisp distinction between sins and inclinations. The trendy therapy-style attitude toward church makes us really sloppy about this, and it tricks us into confessing things that are not sins and leaving the real sins unconfessed.)
IV. Chapter 8, "Spiritual Acts in Conclusion:" A very specific, seven-step meditation.
V. Beginning with Chapter 9, "Considerations on Renewing your Resolution." Five daily meditations in some detail, given in Chapters 10-14.
VI. Chapter 15, "General Considerations in Conclusion." A complicated chapter consisting of advice to meditate further, to make plans for spiritual practices in the upcoming year, to beg God for help, and finally to make confession and Holy Communion. Chapter 16 is a reminder to stay tranquil when passing from these prayers and sacraments back to daily life.
We're not done yet, but let's pause to look over all that. I count fourteen or fifteen meditations in all, plus going to confession at the end. I guess Francis must mean for us to BEGIN these meditations on the Feast of the Lord's Baptism, because it's going to take us about two weeks at minimum to get through it, and if we tried to end on the Lord's Baptism we'd be stretching back into the Christmas season, which is not the time for that sort of thing. Yeesh! By the time we're done with this it'll be almost Lent.
(Actually, that's not true, at least not this year. Ash Wednesday isn't till March 9. Plenty of time to do all this and still be ordinary for a few weeks before Lent.)
Chapter 17 and Chapter 18 are the last two chapters in part five, and they form a sort of conclusion to the whole book rather than a conclusion to Part Five. Ch. 17 is "An Answer to Two Objections" and Chapter 18 is "Final Advice." I will treat this pair later, along with the "Author's Preface" with which they form a pair of suitable "bookends" for the work as a whole.
So, that's what's coming up. In the next post we'll get into Chapter 2. I'll try to finish part 5 before the ninth of January.
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*St. Gregory "The Theologian" lived from 329 to around 390 in the East.
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