'Intoduction to The Devout Life'; St Francis De Sales

I found this on the TLM according to St. Francis de Sales,... I think you and others might like very much
This priest gives a series of five talks,... he explains the Mass and how we can more fully participate with the meditations of St. Francis de Sales
I listened to part 1 yesterday and next Sunday after Mass I will do part 2
His other sermons on this site are wonderful!
I think he is located in Florida but I am not sure where
His name is Fr. David Nix
http://padreperegrino.org/category/podcasts/talks/page/2/

 

Thanks very much! I look forward to hearing these, St Francis De Sales was quite a find for me.

 

Wow, sunburst! Thank you so much for this link. A quick glance shows it to be very good.
I am going to post an article from the theology section there on the 'Vatican has fallen' thread.

 

Good to know - I am going to back to the death beds of my grandparents and great grandparents and great, great grandparents (I have traced my family tree) and pray for their salvation at the hour of death.

 

When we pray it is the Holy Spirit praying within us. Thus we partake of the infinite and our prayers become Trans-temporal.

It is worth bearing in mind though that there is one place were our prayers cannot reach, the place were the Wall set is to high, the place were all Mercy ends and that place is fixed; Hell. Our Prayers are free to roam anywhere except there.

Something to remember , some things are fixed.

The Damned will remain forever Damned.

 

Belfast Castle this afternoon, walking the dogs

 

St Francis De Sales uses the most beautiful analogies and refers to some wonderful Scriptural types in his writings, reminding me so much in his wonderful wise simplicity of the Dear Lord Himself.

One thing he wrote stuck in my mind the last few days and I have been thinking about it a lot.

In writing of holiness he compares it to the angels , 'Ascending and Descending the ladder to heaven'.

This idea of greater and lesser personal holiness seems to me usually alien to Protestant thought. Generally they tend to see things black and white, as being saved and not being saved (there are exceptions to this such as with John Wesley and the Methodists and the Quakers and of course High Anglicanism)

But, since the Reformation , the Enlightenment and the French Reformation we are, all of us in this very secular world seen as much as a muchness. We are all in the one boat so to speak, to be thought of as the same. A good example of this is in Socialist and Communist thought were we talk of the , 'Masses'

Catholic Mystical sprituality is quite different I think. Each soul is very much an individual. We can see this so much in the lives of the saints. In the case of St John the Baptist we can see for instance that the child saint actually leapt in his mothers womb at the presense of Mary. St John the Evangelist actually led his head on the breast of Jesus and we are told St John was very much a favourite.

In the American Constitution we are told that , 'All men are Created equal' This may do well for the political understanding; it fits not at all for the Mystical. For souls the angels ascend and descend. We were created to know , love and serve God. If we do so ,we join him in Heaven. If we fail to do so we will be flung into hell. There are no in betweens.

But each souls does so in differing ways and to differing extents. Even from the very womb. So it would be wrong to regard us all as equal, for we are not. St Thomas Aquinas in talking of the Choirs of Angels says that one Choir of angels differs so much from another that they are each a different species. So with the saints.

But St Therese of Liseaux comments that there is no jealousy in Heaven , each of us is filled with God as much as we can be. But we have all different sized hearts.

This reminds me in a way of the American Dream. It all lies before us, but we all have to go out and grab it.

Or again it reminds me of walking over the mountains. Some walk just a mile in the foothills. Some go right on into the very depths and climb the highest peaks. It is up to us.

Heaven itself is like this , a giant barn dance, with some folks really leaping in the air in their love.

It is up to us. Let us resolve to climb the very highest peaks. Let us determine to become very great saints.

 

By God's grace, Amen.

 

In Chapter Three, St Francis reminds us that everyone is called to holiness but each of us in their way. A Carthusian monk is for instance called to a different path than ,say, a mechanic. A Bishop to say a married man with a large family.

This reminds me of a story my mother told me. She said before she married she was very fond of prayer , especially in going to Church. But with the first of her ten children she no longer found the time and felt very guilty about this. She mentioned this problem to a Holy old priest in confession who simply laughed and said,

'Your children are your prayers now!'

She said after this she no longer felt the slightest twinge of guilt.

It is very cold and dark here at the moment. I am getting ready to take the dogs a walk through the city streets before going on the night shift. Dusk has just gone. I notice time and time again at this time fo day a great hunger for the Lord. A wish just to be with Him. A longing, like a homesickness to go to heaven. But I have always found it the greatest consolation to recall that Jesus is present in our hearts as though in a Tabernacle and so we are each of us , in a real sense , Churches in which Jesus is always present. That He is always present.

I saw an old Irish plaque the other day in which was written,

'God is present ,

Bidden or unbidden'

I also saw the most beautiful words of St Tereasa of Avila in which she reminds people of the same thing. I must see if I can find them.

“Oh, then, soul, most beautiful among all creatures, so anxious to know the dwelling place of your Beloved [God] so you may go in search of him and be united with him, now we are telling you that you yourself are his dwelling and his secret inner room and hiding place. There is reason for you to be elated and joyful in seeing that all your good and hope is so close as to be within you, or better, that you cannot be without him. Behold, exclaims the Bridegroom, the kingdom of God is within you [Lk. 17:21]. And his servant, the apostle St. Paul, declares: ‘You are the temple of God’ [2 Cor. 6:16]. It brings special happiness to a person to understand that God is never absent….” (Stanza 1; emphasis added)

St John of the Cross

 

St Francis mentioned that each person has their own Spiritual Path. But it occurs to me that every soul has different stages or occurences, changes on her or his path, some of which can be very sudden and radical indeed. As for instance in a sudden conversion experience, ill health, depression , losing a loved on a change in prayer stage and so on. People talk about the pains of growing up, of adolescence but these inner spiritual pains can be much , much more painful. Few of us can reasonably expect to stay in the same spiritual place and perhaps this is well that is so. But change can bring about intense pain even anguish and I think we need to be aware of this.

I think this generation may be much more prone to this pain to this radical series of changes. For we are much , much more challenged and called more, I think to go up higher.

When my mother died I found a little simple prayer book, much , much worn, she must have used it for many, many years. I think her spiritual life may have been mostly a very, very steady serene one. I remember asking her when she was dying of cancer if she was not tempted to doubt God's existence, she was horrified at this and said to me,

'But that would be mad!!!

Such a rock like Faith.. but we in our generation less like rock and more like water or fire. It does not mean a lesser Faith but one that swirls about a lot more, that is more fluid, more subject to change, like a boat in a storm.

 

This isn;t about St Francis De Sales or the book but I thought I would post it here instead of opening a new thread, since this is ongoing.

I discovered with joy Mel Gibson's recent film, 'Hacksaw Ridge', on Netflix a couple of days ago and watched it with deep interest; so touching. For those of you unfamiliar with the film here is a trailer, to explain:

 

The hero of the film, Desmond Doss was a Seventh Day Adventist and so a Pacifist and conscientious objector. During the War there were reports of Seventh Day Adventists being beaten to death by German NCO's in the Wermacht using their belts/buckles. So sad.

Desmond won the Congressional Medal of Honour for his courage under fire, to be honest I never heard or read of braver actions in my life, mind blowing.

 

But anyway there was a scene in the film that touched me so much it nearly brought me to tears; it brought back so many memories. Desmond Doss had been brought up before a Court Martial for refusing to obey orders. His father a Decorated old Veteran from the First War appeared and defended his son successfully.

 

Anyway this scene brought me back years ago to when I was in prison in Long Kesh. I happened to sing a Republican song one night and the guards came a riot squad and beat me nearly unconcious with wooden clubs. Covered in blood I was lifted and thrown in a bare concrete cell in the middle of a snow storm with no heating, no bed or blankets totally bare for several days on my own. While there the guards came in and beat up up once more.

My father came to vist me and I came in covered with dried blood and in a bad way , with my wounds quite evident. When my poor old father saw the state I was in he became enraged and they dragged him out shouting poor man.

But you know there are moment sin the spiritual life which define you. I had spent my whole time there just praying the rosary and felt no bitterness at all for those who beat me or caused such pain to that poor old man.

Prayer brings forgiveness. But Private Doss's father defending his son reminded me of this and brought tears to my eyes.

'Struggles place us at the Foot of the Cross and the Cross places us in Heaven'

St John Vianney (the Cure of Ars)

 

Padraig, Great movie! Desmond saved men and you're saving souls!

"Please Lord let me get one more, let me get one more."

 

Thank you for telling us about this Padraig. It has touched my heart. I think of Immaculee Ibigiza who forgave those who murdered her family. She said it was the Rosary that changed her as she hid from the roaming mobs. She prayed Rosary after Rosary all those terrible months.

 

I had no idea that this is the Feast of St Francis De Sales until the priest at mass today mentioned it. He said one thing about St Francis which I never knew and that is that the centre of his spirituality is whatever you are doing , do well, that holiness is found in just this. This sounds very like the Little Way of St Therese.

At the prayers we prayed for a, 'Share in the meekness' of Francis. I think people can be off put by the thought of being meek, we think of , 'Meek as a mouse'. But I think it means to be slow to put yourself first, of being quick to anger or prove yourself right.
Not a bad idea.

 

Someone mentioned to me in an email about not being able to gel with St Therese of Liseaux (whose 'Little Way seems on the surface so similiar to that of St Francis.

Most people get no further in studying her than reading her autobiography , 'Story of a Soul' . But contemporary accounts of her are fascinating and throw all kinds of new light on her.

I sent this email in reply.

She had a most terrible death of TB. The Mother Superior was neurotic (she used to have the nuns catch mice for her pet cat) and refused to pay money for her morphine. She died in the utter darkness of the Dark Night.




She was a real soldier, I love her for this

Also if you look at some of the photographs of her you can see she went through the mill, the fire. That she was one tough cookie. On the other hand there is too much of a tendency to turn her into a sugar figure , too sickly sweet, 'St Therese of the Roses' and so on.....but she was not like that.

She was tough, tough, tough.