Welcome to Minute Meditation with St Francis de Sales!   Each Sunday, I will be going through the book Introduction to the Devout Life and sharing a small piece to meditate on for the week.

 

From Chapter 1 – What True Devotion Is

I had such a hard time picking out small passages in this chapter (and have a feeling I’ll have the same problem every week).   It just building on logic and his examples are so colorful, I would love for you to read the whole thing.   If you are time crunched, though, I’ll be happy to try to summarize it.

He gives several examples of people who consider themselves devout.  In the first, a man “repeats many prayers daily, although at the same time he does not refrain from all manner of angry, irritating, conceited or insulting speeches among his family and neighbors.”  Another sets great value on fasting and won’t drink wine or water while doing so but will drink figurative blood caused by his slander and detraction.  The third freely gives of his money but won’t be nice to anyone who disagrees with him.  de Sales had this to say:

When Saul’s servants sought to take David, Michal induced them to suppose that the lifeless figure lying in his bed and covered with his garments, was the man they sought; and in like manner many people dress up an exterior with the visible acts expressive of earnest devotion, and the world supposes them to be really devout and spiritual-minded, while all the time they are mere lay figures, mere phantasms of devotion.

Mere phantasms of devotion.   That phrase strikes me.  Does it strike you?   He further goes on to say:

…devotion is simply a spiritual activity and liveliness by means of which Divine Love works in us, and causes us to work briskly and lovingly; and just as charity leads us to a general practice of all God’s Commandments, so devotion leads us to practice them readily and diligently.  And therefore, we cannot call him who neglects to observe all God’s commandments either good or devout, because in order to be good, a man must be filled with love, and to be devout, he must further be very ready and apt to perform the deeds of love.

I so struggle with performing the deeds of love with a ready heart.  What about me?   Why do I need to do it?   Why should I help?  Can’t I just <insert anything else here>?    Am I alone?

This week, I will be working on having a ready heart to perform deeds of love.  Will you join me?

Jen S.

1 Comment on Minute Meditation with St. Francis de Sales – What True Devotion Is

  1. Nancy
    12 July 2012 at 11:25 PM (12 years ago)

    I am joining you in working on having a ready heart to perform works of love. I have long been an afficionada of St. Francis de Sales… may we all Live + Jesus!
    Nancy´s last blog post ..Throw Wide the Gate

    [Reply]

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