THE COMPLETE
INTRODUCTION TO THE
DEVOUT LIFE

PARACLETE

GIANTS

ABOUT THIS SERIES:

Each Paraclete Giant presents collected works of one of Christianity’s greatest writers—“giants” of the faith. These essential volumes share the pivotal teachings of leading Christian figures throughout history with today’s theological students and all people seeking spiritual wisdom.

Also in this Series…

THE COMPLETE FÉNELON
Edited with translations by Robert J. Edmonson, CJ and Hal M. Helms

THE COMPLETE JULIAN OF NORWICH
Translation and commentary by Father John-Julian, OJN

THE COMPLETE THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX
Edited with translations by Robert J. Edmonson, CJ

THE COMPLETE MADAME GUYON
Edited with translations by Rev. Nancy C. James, PhD

THE COMPLETE IMITATION OF CHRIST
Translation and commentary by Father John-Julian, OJN

For more information, visit www.paracletepress.com.

PARACLETE

GIANTS

The COMPLETE

Introduction to the

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

Translation and Commentary by
Father John-Julian, OJN

i
PARACLETE PRESS BREWSTER, MASSACHUSETTS

2013 First Printing

The Complete Introduction to the Devout Life

Copyright © 2013 by The Order of Julian of Norwich

ISBN 978-1-61261-235-5

The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) are trademarks of Paraclete Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Francis, de Sales, Saint, 1567-1622.

[Introduction à la vie dévote. English]

The complete introduction to the devout life / Francis de Sales ; translation and commentary by Father John-Julian, OJN.

p. cm. — (Paraclete giants)

ISBN 978-1-61261-235-5 (trade pbk.)

1. Meditations. I. John-Julian, Father, O.J.N., translator. II.Title.

BX2179.F8I54 2013

248.4’82—dc23

2012051578

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete Press
Brewster, Massachusetts
www.paracletepress.com
Printed in the United States of America

May it please God that this book, the most perfect of its kind in the opinion of contemporaries of the saint, be read now as it formerly was by practically every one. If this were done, Christian piety certainly would flourish the world over and the Church of God could rejoice in the assurance of a widespread attainment of holiness by her children.

—POPE PIUS XI, Rerum Omnium Perturbationem, 1923

TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION

THE MAN

The European Savoy is a peculiar territory. In the sixteenth century, its area straddled the western Alps and overlapped bits of what are now France, Switzerland, and Italy, and it included a Mediterranean port at Nice. Since the early fifteenth century it had been an independent duchy, a mini-nation, ruled by the Duke of Savoy, and because of its location—just across the bay from Calvin’s Geneva and between Catholic France and Italy—it was the scene of much religious disruption during the years following the Reformation. François de Sales, Lord of Boisy,¹ was a Savoyard Catholic aristocrat in the diplomatic service of the Duke of Savoy. His son François—our Francis de Sales—was born in the elegance of the family’s alpine Château de Sales² near Annecy³ on August 21, 1567. It may have been a portent that the room in which he was born was adorned with a large painting above the fireplace of Saint Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds, and when he was baptized he was named by his godparents “François Bonaventure.”⁴ He was the firstborn of thirteen children and the eldest of six brothers.⁵

Francis’s earliest education was in the hands of his young mother and the Abbé Déage, who was to become Francis’s tutor and remain his companion for over forty years.⁶ At the age of six,⁷ Francis was sent—with three of his cousins—to the nearby College de la Roche⁸ on the Arve River (which flows through Geneva as well) and two years later to the Chappuchin College⁹ in Annecy, where in the nearby St. Dominic’s Church¹⁰ he received First Communion and later was confirmed. When he was eleven, he took the first step toward a life in the Church by the emotional act of requesting and receiving the tonsure.¹¹ (His father considered this merely a boyish phase and still intended that his son have a career in public life.)

When Francis was fifteen, his father arranged for him to enter the College of Navarre in the University of Paris (because that was the college that had traditionally been attended by the noble families of Savoy). But Francis begged off and, with his mother’s intercession, was allowed instead to enter the College of Clermont—because it was supervised by the Jesuits and famous for both piety and academics.¹² At the college, Francis did extremely well in the academic disciplines of philosophy and rhetoric (the latter clearly evident in the style and literary quality of his later writings). The study of theology and Scriptures was predictably his favorite, but in deference to his father (who still intended him for high social position) he took lessons in horsemanship, dancing, and fencing. He remained at the college for six years.

During his youth, the extreme Calvinist version of the Augustinian doctrine of predestination had become central in Protestant teaching (that is, that one’s state in eternity was predetermined by God at one’s birth, and no action during life could alter that—one was either “saved” or “damned” regardless of the life one lived), and this doctrine was thus much in the mind of religious thinkers of the day and widely debated. In November 1585, at the age of nineteen, Francis came face-to-face with this doctrine and began to be obsessed with the fear that he might not be among the predetermined “elect.” This theological anxiety grew until it became overwhelming and began to affect his physical health. For a month he suffered this mental torture until one evening (as Abbé Déage tells us¹³) he entered the Church of St.-Etienne-de-Grés in Paris and found there a prayer tablet with a copy of the Memorare¹⁴ on it. He began reciting the prayer fervently and ran to the chapel of the Black Madonna. After an hour kneeling there, he made a heroic act of abandonment, saying: “Whatever you have desired concerning me, Lord, in your eternal secret of predestination and reprobation, you whose judgments are unfathomable.… I will love you always, at least in this life, if it is not given me to love you in eternity. If, deserving it, I am to be … among the damned who will never gaze upon your face, grant that at least I may not be among those who curse your holy name.”¹⁵ All fear and despair left him, and he was at peace. From that time on, Francis credited the Blessed Virgin’s prayers with saving him from total desolation and heresy, and soon thereafter he made a vow of lifelong chastity.

In 1588, Francis was called home by his father and dispatched to the University of Padua to study jurisprudence. He remained there for four years—again excelling in his studies. He came under the influence of the humanist Jesuit Antonio Possevino, who remained a lifelong friend and advisor. In the summer of 1590 an epidemic of typhoid hit Padua. Francis became seriously ill and expected to die (to the extent that he willed his body to the medical school, saying, “At least I will offer something to the public since I have offered nothing else in my life”¹⁶). He recovered, but continued to be troubled in his mind by theological problems. It was at this time that he developed two practices of piety that would later influence his writings: The first he labeled “Preparation”—each morning upon arising, he examined the day ahead, considering what his duties would be, what possible obstacles he might encounter, and how he would deal with them. The second he called “Spiritual Sleep”—a rudimentary mental prayer, wordlessly considering God’s goodness, his past kindnesses, the vanities of the world, and the virtues of the saints.¹⁷ Finally, at the age of twenty-four, he was awarded a doctoral degree in both law and theology.

After graduation, in 1592, Francis made a pilgrimage to the Holy House at Loreto,¹⁸ paid a visit to Rome and Venice, and then returned home. During his eighteen months there, he was admitted as an advocate to the senate, and his father formally granted him lands in the eastern Savoy so that he would have a title: Seigneur de Villaroget.¹⁹ His father had also chosen a wealthy heiress as a bride for his son. However, Francis courteously rejected the marriage and refused an offer from the Duke of Savoy of a seat in the Senate of Chambéry. At this point, only his mother and a few close friends knew of Francis’s hope and intention to enter a life of religion, and he dreaded the thought of telling his father.

At just this time, the provost²⁰ of the Cathedral Chapter of Geneva died, and Francis’s cousin, Canon Louis de Sales, put forth Francis’s name for the post to the pope, who sent approval. So Francis finally told his father of his hopes for the priesthood. The reaction was extremely and unqualifiedly negative. But when his father learned of the significance and authority of the ecclesiastical position Francis had been offered, he relented, and the post of Provost of the Chapter and Vicar General²¹ of the diocese of Annecy was formally awarded to Francis. On the very day of his father’s consent, Francis formally gave up all his birthright and titles and put on clerical dress. Three weeks later he was admitted to the minor orders,²² in June he was ordained Subdeacon and Deacon, and six months later—in December 1593—he was ordained priest by the bishop of Geneva in the parish church of Thorens. In late December he was formally installed as Provost. In his installation homily, Francis defined his program: “It is by charity that we must shake the walls of Geneva, through love that we must invade, through love that we must recover it.… I propose neither steel nor that [gun]powder that has the odor and flavor reminiscent of the infernal furnace.… We must live according to Christian tenets in such a way that we may be truly canons—that is to say, men living under a holy rule—and children of God not only in name, but in fact.”²³

At this point we must understand that during the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation, John Calvin had established his headquarters in Geneva and eventually persuaded the city council to outlaw Catholicism, the practice of any Catholic rites, and the presence of ordained Catholics in the city.²⁴ This meant that the Catholic bishop of Geneva—while retaining his title—was forced to establish a cathedral-in-exile twenty-five miles away in Annecy, across the border in the Savoy. It was there that Francis had become Provost.

Meanwhile, in the Chablais—the northernmost province of the Duchy of Savoy—the Protestants had also gained control. The Duke of Savoy wanted the province returned to Catholicism, but the first missionary sent to the area had been driven out by Calvinist soldiers. Francis and his cousin Louis volunteered themselves, and in 1594 the grateful bishop assigned them as missionaries to the Chablais.²⁵ They set out on foot but found that they could not safely stay in Thonon, the capital of the province, because they were threatened with murder—so they settled three miles away in the garrisoned fortress of Allinges. Every day they went to the one Catholic church in Thonon and preached (often to only four or five terrified Catholics), and every night they returned to Allinges. They were harassed by ruffians, endangered by the extreme winter cold, and even attacked by wolves during their travels.²⁶ A public ordinance forbade the Calvinists to listen to his sermons, so Francis printed up leaflets and tracts and plastered them all over the city, even slipping them under doors—a means of communicating unheard of before then.²⁷ (These handouts were later gathered with Francis’s sermons and published under the title of The Controversies, also known as Open Letter to Protestants.)

In the first seven months, the priests made only one convert. Then they began to preach in the public squares and invited Calvinists to debate with them publicly. In their second winter in the Chablais, they made nearly two hundred converts. At about that time, at great personal risk to himself and at the bidding of the pope, Francis traveled secretly to Geneva three times to meet with Théodore de Bèze (Calvin’s successor and the leader of the Geneva Protestants) to discuss possibilities of reconciliation. The discussions between the thirty-year-old Francis and the seventy-year-old de Bèze were irenic and amiable but produced no conversion.

The Visitation Sisters recorded an event about this time that demonstrates Francis’s integrity. He was just leaving the church after having preached on the verse from Matthew’s Gospel (5:39b): “If one strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him also the other” when a Calvinist confronted him: “If I were to slap you now, would you turn the other cheek so that I could do it again?” After a moment’s silence, Francis replied, “My friend, I know well what I ought to do, but I do not know what I would do, for I am so weak. However, you can always go ahead and try.”²⁸

In 1595, for lack of financial support, Louis had to leave the Chablais, and Francis, at some risk, moved his own residence into Thonon proper. He had hoped financial help would come from his father, but it was refused, and he only secretly received some clothing and a little money from his mother. On Christmas in 1596, Francis celebrated the first Mass in the Thonon Church of St. Hippolytus in sixty years. A year later Francis arranged a celebration of the Forty Hours Devotion.²⁹ Since it was still too dangerous in Thonon, a procession of some 500 marched the eighteen miles to the city of Annemasse, Francis himself led another procession from Annecy, and still others joined with a final attendance reported to be 30,000. A year later, the celebration was held twice with the Duke of Savoy and the Papal Legate present. According to Vatican records, 2,300 converts were made in eleven days.³⁰ Finally, having spent four years in the Chablais, and having reopened some eighteen abandoned parishes, providing them all with books, sacred vessels, and crucifixes, Francis turned the ministry over to others and returned to Annecy.³¹

The next two years Francis spent assisting the bishop—often on diplomatic assignments. On one occasion he was sent to Paris as an envoy to King Henry IV and made a great impression. “‘If I had not already been converted, M. de Genève would have done it!’ said the king. ‘He is a rare bird indeed: devout, learned, and a gentleman into the bargain … gentle and humble—deeply pious but without useless scruples.’”³²

Bishop de Granier sent his vicar general to propose to Francis that he allow his name to be submitted to be bishop coadjutor.³³ Francis absolutely declined: “I was not born to command.… I will write, I will come, I will go, I will do anything to please his Lordship apart from that, but I must not consider the bishopric.” With much persuasion, however, he finally yielded under obedience, but within days was struck with a serious illness. He fell so deeply into a coma that it was believed he had died, but he survived and was bedridden for four months.³⁴ After his recovery, Francis traveled to Rome, underwent a deep examination before thirty cardinals and bishops (which he passed with the pope’s highest praise) and, when he returned, was finally consecrated bishop on December 8, 1602. In 1604, with his friend Madame Barbe Acarie (who took the name of “Marie of the Incarnation” when she professed vows), Francis was instrumental in bringing Teresa of Ávila’s Discalced Carmelites to France. While helping them settle in, he was informed of the death of Bishop de Granier and hurried back to Annecy to begin his own years as Prince-Bishop of Geneva.³⁵

Francis was a very hands-on bishop, highly valuing personal contact with his people. He arranged diocesan synods, reorganized administrative patterns, and commenced the practice of parish visitations, twice visiting every parish in his diocese. He also formed the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and personally taught catechism classes—even to the point of inventing a kind of sign language by which he taught prayers to a young man born deaf (for which Francis would later be named patron saint of the deaf).

At one point in later years Francis was improbably accused of joining a plot against the king. He traveled immediately to Paris, where the king not only laughed at the accusation but also offered to make Francis the bishop of Paris. Francis’s reply was: “Sire, I have married a poor bride, and I cannot desert her for a richer one.”

In Lent of 1604, when preaching a series of Lenten sermons in Dijon, he had a dream/vision of meeting a young woman dressed in widow’s clothes, and a few days later he saw her in the church. She was the woman we know as Jane Frances de Chantal. Their meeting led to an extremely intense spiritual relationship that produced a remarkable and world-famous correspondence and a new religious order.³⁶

In 1606 the new pope, Leo XI—who had long been a friend of Francis’s—wrote that he wished to make Francis a cardinal. Francis was devastated and distraught by the offer. He wrote to a friend, “If it rested with me, and I had to take only three steps to receive the Cardinal’s hat, I would not take them.”³⁷ Francis was much relieved when the sudden death of the pope brought an end to proposals of the cardinal’s hat for him.

Meanwhile, Francis also met Madame Louise de Charmoisy (who had become his cousin by marriage).³⁸ She wanted to live a devout life while remaining with her family. His writings to her became the basis of his most famous book, Introduction to the Devout Life, in 1609. The book was re-edited and augmented five times by Francis until his final edition in 1619. It became so popular that the French queen Marie de’ Medici sent an English translation adorned with diamonds to King James I of England.³⁹

In 1600 Francis’s father had died, and since the duke had never really been reconciled to his son’s life in religion, it was a relief for Francis and he drew nearer to his mother and his siblings. But in 1608 his much beloved youngest sister also died, and he wrote Madame de Chantal: “I am just a man and nothing more. My heart has been broken in a way I could not have thought possible.”

Two years later—in the same year in which his mother died—Francis and Madame de Chantal formally established the Institute of the Visitation of Saint Mary,⁴⁰ which was meant to provide a religious structure for women of fragile health and for widows—those who would ordinarily not be admitted to a traditional religious order. Their purpose was to go out in threes to visit the sick and poor, and while that may sound to the modern ear like a singularly appropriate undertaking for nuns, the fact is that it was utterly scandalous and unheard of in seventeenth-century France. All women religious under vows were to be totally enclosed and strictly cloistered—allegedly for their own protection (but, of course, that allowed the male hierarchy to maintain its patriarchal control over all women religious). So Francis’s founding of such a wide-open and actively ministering religious community is a classic example of his own reforming humanism. However, a few years after the founding, the archbishop of Lyon required that the Sisters be formed into a traditional religious order and be rigorously cloistered.⁴¹ Francis’s efforts for an open order had failed.

In 1615 Francis began a major literary work, A Treatise on the Love of God—written partly for the Sisters of the Visitation—it contains most of his own spiritual and mystical insights. Like all his writings, its purpose is to increase and strengthen devotion, but this work includes much more by way of theological elucidation than the rest of his writing—which tends to be more practical and pragmatic. It also has neither the literary style nor the practical simplicity of his earlier book. It was his intention to write a companion volume called A Treatise on the Love of Neighbor, but that was never realized.

During these years Francis lived a life of simplicity and selflessness. He became famous for his almsgiving (to such a degree that he was reproached by his steward, who pleaded that there was little money left to run the house). On one occasion a servant gave one of the bishop’s old tunics to a poor man, who complained that it was badly worn—so Francis invited him into his rooms and opened his closet: “Go, see if there is anything better.” And the surprised complainant admitted: “This was the best that was there.”⁴²

On another occasion the bishop entered a room unexpectedly and saw his valet drop a pen and try to hide a piece of paper on which he had been writing. When asked, the young man reluctantly admitted that it was a love letter to a young widow he was in love with and showed the bishop the letter. “You do not know how to do it,” said Francis, who sat down and wrote a love letter. “Here,” he said, “copy out this letter, seal it and send it, and you will see that everything will be all right.” The valet and the widow were married soon thereafter.⁴³

In 1618 Francis had occasion to travel to Paris—his first visit in sixteen years. When it was announced that he would preach in the Church of the Oratory there, the crowds were so dense that he had to climb through a window to get into the church. During this visit to Paris, Francis became a close friend of Vincent de Paul, who later wrote of him, “On thinking over his words, I felt such admiration for him that I was inclined to see him as the man who most closely resembled the Son of God upon earth.”⁴⁴

In 1621 a gift was given Francis: his young brother Jean-François de Sales was consecrated bishop and named coadjutor in Francis’s own diocese—so his own brother became his assistant and eventual successor. However, while Jean-François proved to be intelligent and active, he was also unlike Francis in that he was severe, reserved, and lacking in humane gentleness. Francis spent long hours teaching his brother the vagaries of episcopacy and said, “He will correct many mistakes that I have made in my charge, where I confess I have failed in all things—except in affection.”⁴⁵ Since Francis’s health was beginning to fail, his brother’s assistance was important and appreciated.

In the next year, the Duke of Savoy and King Louis XIII⁴⁶ arranged a festive gathering in Avignon to celebrate the end of the war between France and Spain, and the duke asked Francis to join him. The bishop was interested in obtaining some religious privileges for the French part of his diocese, so he accepted. However, before he left home, he made unusually thorough arrangements—including his last will and testament—that suggest he may have suspected he would not return.

Traveling in full state, the ducal cavalcade arrived in Avignon in October after a bitterly cold journey. Francis had already become too ill to participate in the ceremonies, and he turned back. On the way home—having endured some wretched accommodations along the way—he eventually met his beloved Mother Jane Frances de Chantal in Lyon, where the Sisters provided a gardener’s cottage for him on their grounds. He remained there for a month and tried to keep up with preaching and letter writing and caring for the Sisters. But just after Christmas he suffered a stroke.

At the time, the only treatments for stroke victims involved (1) the application of cantharides⁴⁷ to the temples, which blistered the skin, and (2) the pressing of red-hot metal plates against the nape of the neck, producing excruciating pain.⁴⁸ Francis was thus tortured with the latter twice—both times just as he regained consciousness. The Sacrament of Extreme Unction (the anointing of the sick) was administered, but he was unable to receive Communion because of his recurrent vomiting. Then one of the nuns asked for a last word of advice. By then Francis could not speak, but he gestured for a piece of paper and on it wrote one word: HUMILITÉ. He died on December 28, 1622.⁴⁹ One source says that his Jesuit friend Father Jean Fourier was present at his deathbed.⁵⁰

In postmortem examination, it was reported that his liver had been “burnt up,” one lung had been wounded “by a sword,” part of the brain had been “bloodied,” and three hundred (sic!) gallstones were found.⁵¹ His body was embalmed and taken—all save the heart⁵²—in solemn procession to Annecy, where his funeral obsequies were held on January 29, and he was interred by his own request near the high altar in the first Visitation convent church in Annecy. During the French Revolution, Francis’s relics were removed and hidden, and when peace had come, they were returned to the restored church and to a new shrine in 1912.

Pope Alexander VII (1599–1667)—who was twenty-three years old when Francis died and would have known the Savoyard’s work—was a great supporter of the Jesuits who strongly promoted Francis’s work. Alexander beatified Francis in 1661 and formally canonized him in 1665. The pope had written about Francis to his nephew: “I entreat you once again to find your delight in studying the writings of M. de Sales, in being an assiduous reader of them, and in being his obedient disciple, and faithful imitator. It is to his Philothea (which is the best guide one can have for walking in the path of virtue) that I owe, for the last twenty years the correction of my conduct; and if there is any good in me, I owe it to this book. I have read it over and over again, and I could not do without it.”⁵³

Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) formally declared Francis to be a “Doctor of the Church”⁵⁴ in 1877 and wrote: “This universally held opinion of the excellence of De Sales’ wisdom arises from the quality of his teaching which, because of his holiness, so exceeds the norm that it is judged to be fitting for a Doctor of the Church and impels us to acknowledge that this man should be counted among the most distinguished teachers Christ our Lord has given to his spouse, the Church.… He showed all Christians that the path to virtue was so easy that thereafter true piety shone its light everywhere and gained entrance to the thrones of kings, the tents of generals, the courts of judges, custom houses, workshops, and even the villages of herdsmen.… Moreover we order that the books, commentaries, and all the works of this Doctor of the Church, be cited, introduced, and used both privately and publicly in schools, academies, colleges, lectures, disputations, interpretations, assemblies, other ecclesiastical studies, and all Christian activities as the case requires.”⁵⁵

In 1923 Pope Pius XI (1857–1939) named Francis to be the patron saint of writers and journalists: “It appears that Francis de Sales was given to the Church by God for a very special mission. His task was to give the lie to a prejudice that the ideal of genuine sanctity is impossible of attainment or, at best, is so difficult that it surpasses the capabilities of the great majority of the faithful and is, therefore, to be thought of as the exclusive possession of a few great souls. St. Francis likewise disproved the false idea that holiness was so hedged around by annoyances and hardships that it is inadaptable to a life lived outside cloister walls.… since St. Francis, up to this time, has not been named the Patron of Writers in any solemn and public document of this Apostolic See, We take this happy occasion, after mature deliberation and in full knowledge, by Our Apostolic authority, to hereby publish, confirm and declare by this encyclical, everything to the contrary notwithstanding, St. Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church, to be the Heavenly Patron of all Writers.”⁵⁶

The Order of the Visitation continues to thrive to this day, and the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, and the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales are named in his honor—as is the uninhabited St. François Atoll in the Alphonse Group of the Seychelles Islands,⁵⁷ and a tiny Francophone municipality in south-central Quebec, Canada.

THE WOMAN

It sometimes seems that Francis spent much of his life surrounded by women. His mother had been the major influence on his youth and vocation and even the sole support of his missionary work. There was his famous relationship with Madame Jean Frances de Chantal, his celebrated correspondent, with whom he founded the Order of the Visitation. With Madame Barbe Acarie, he brought the first Discalced Carmelites to France. Jacqueline Coste followed him from Geneva to Annecy and became a founding member of the Visitation Community. Francis was spiritual director to the abbess Angelique Arnaud of the famous Jansenist convent at Port Royal. He served as Chief Almoner for Princess Christine of Turin. And then there was Louise de Charmoisy—the little-known and anonymous “Philothée” of An Introduction to the Devout Life.⁵⁸

In 1586 she was born Louise de Châtel in Parfondel, Normandy—the daughter of Jacques de Châtel, Seigneur d’Hastevillette, Esquire, and Françoise de Rueil. Louise was related to Catherine de Clèves, the dowager Duchess of Guise, to whom she became lady-in-waiting and with whom she spent her early years at the royal court in Paris. In the summer of 1600, at the age of fourteen, she was married to Jean-Claude de Chaumont Vidomne, Seigneur de Charmoisy—a second cousin and close friend of Francis de Sales—and she left Paris for the Savoy. The change from the bustling, sophisticated royal court of Paris to the rural country of the Savoy was a shock for the beautiful and brilliant young girl. Jean-Claude owned four chateaus and several farms and vineyards, and she had responsibility for the ordering of all these residences.

In 1603 Louise met Francis (who at that time had been a bishop for only a month), and thereafter she attended Mass at the cathedral in Annecy whenever possible. She was deeply impressed by Francis’s preaching and wanted to ask his advice, but it would be another four years before she finally approached him to request spiritual guidance. The earliest surviving letter from Francis to Louise is from May 1606, and it seems to carry hints that he would be “available” for spiritual direction were she to ask. After becoming Louise’s director in 1607, Francis wrote to Jane Frances: “In our holy nets I have discovered a fish that I have wanted for four years. I must confess the truth: that I am extremely happy about this worthy woman. I commend her to your prayers that our Lord may make fast in her heart the resolutions that he has put into it. She is quite a golden soul, who is very earnest to serve her Savior. If she keeps it up, it will bring ripe fruit.”⁵⁹ It is clear that from their first meeting Francis had recognized in Louise a serious, conscientious, and sincere desire for the devout life, and had hoped she would speak to him about it. Sister Rosalie Greiffier (who knew her personally) described Louise: “She was a remarkable woman for her beauty and her brilliant qualities; she had been raised at court, and nature and fortune had combined their gifts. In one word, she possessed all the advantages that the world values. These adulations made her the object of nourishing in her soul the spirit of frivolity and vanity—but when she heard the holy bishop she threw herself at his feet, deplored her past life, and gave herself to God without reserve.”⁶⁰

Louise bore three children, for whom Francis stood as godfather: Henri, Françoise, and Jean-François, the last of whom received emergency baptism at birth and died before he was a year old.⁶¹ As a close friend and relative of the family, Francis often celebrated Mass in the household chapel of Louise’s Château de Villy.

Shortly after Francis had assumed her spiritual direction, Louise was called away to Chambéry for a time and asked Francis to write to her. First, he recommended that she be in touch with Father Jean Fourier, the head of the Jesuit College in Chambéry. Second, he had previously prepared several brief tracts or memos (mémoires) on the spiritual life that he sent along with her. Third, he carried on a fulsome correspondence with her (as well as with many others). These various writings came to be the core of An Introduction to the Devout Life.

In 1613 Louise’s husband Claude was involved in a scandal. He had been secretary to the Duke of Nemours for nearly fifteen years when he was suddenly replaced by a new favorite of the duke named Berthellot (who was, apparently, an unctuous sycophant much despised by all the local officials). On February 20, 1613, this Berthellot was passing through the forest of Sonnaz by night when he was waylaid and thrashed. It was dark night and no one could be recognized, but he accused Claude de Chamoisy, and Francis’s own brother Janus, and the whole party that had opposed him. Without evidence or investigation, Claude was banished from Annecy by the duke and put under house arrest in his Château de Marclaz. Louise was visiting in Paris and Normandy during this time and received much sympathy from friends and family when the news reached her.

Francis immediately began interceding on behalf of Claude and Janus with all the authorities, and by October they were released and absolved of all charges. During his mediations, Francis used a phrase that became famous: “If it is enough merely to accuse, then who can remain innocent?”

In the winter of 1616, Francis heard that Louise was dangerously ill in Samoëns (forty-five miles from Annecy), and he set off with a doctor immediately. After staying in Samoëns three or four days, he returned to Annecy, but three days later he had word that she was worse and he set off again. However, there were ten-foot snowdrifts and he could not get through and had to return to Annecy—where word soon came that she had recovered.

In 1618 Claude died and left his son, Henri, the land and Château de Villy. Louise purchased for her son the Barony of Couvette so he would have a proper title. Although she disapproved of his “excesses and violence” she lived with him through his marriage in 1626 until her own death in June 1645—nearly a quarter of a century after her mentor and director, Francis de Sales. Her funeral was conducted in the nearby town of Contamine-sur-Arve (where her death certificate is still preserved), and she was buried with her husband in the Church of St. Francis de Sales in Annecy.

THE BOOK

Francis had an extremely close and devoted relationship with his mother. From his earliest years—indeed, even before his birth—she believed that his vocation was to be in religion. When his father refused to support this calling, his mother privately backed him with aid and some financial assistance. She was extraordinarily devout and pious, and to her Francis was both son and spiritual father. After he was ordained, he served as her confessor and spiritual director.⁶² She frequently consulted him on spiritual matters and followed his advice. For her use, Francis wrote a number of brief articles and memos on the spiritual way that she read and followed faithfully through her whole life.⁶³

Consequently, when Francis met Louise de Charmoisy and was asked to provide her with some written materials to introduce her to the devout life, he had on hand these articles and memos that he had written for his mother, and he sent them on to Louise. In addition, he wrote numerous personal letters to her in answer to her spiritual questions.

Louise shared Francis’s writings with her director, Father Jean Fourier (head of the Jesuit College in Chambéry), and in 1608 he wrote to Francis asking that he publish the material in book form. “What!” replied Francis. “Those wretched scrawls? And the good Father has even had the patience to wade through them?” But finally when all the priests at the college joined in the request and threatened to publish the book themselves, Francis said, “Well, it certainly is strange that according to these good Fathers, I seem to have written a book without knowing it.”⁶⁴ And so he asked that all his letters, notes, and tracts be returned to him. He combined, edited, and augmented them, and so was born his classic opus An Introduction to the Devout Life, published in 1609.⁶⁵ Francis obviously intended the first edition to be a trial run: he wrote in the preface to the reader of that edition (a sentence removed in subsequent editions): “If this attempt meets with your approval, you will see what is lacking in it at my first leisure.”

He did as he had pledged, and the second edition of the book came out less than a year after the first. This second edition differed significantly from the original one (which had contained only three parts). Francis reorganized the chapters and inserted others to fill it out. He explained what he had done in a short “Notice to the Reader,” in which he wrote, “Dear Reader, the second edition presents my little book to you corrected and augmented by several chapters and noteworthy things.”⁶⁶ But it turned out that portions were omitted from the second edition during the printing, so in 1610 a third edition was issued (which was also found to contain faults), and finally a fourth in 1619. In all, Francis had made more than a thousand stylistic alterations since the first edition.⁶⁷ This final 1619 edition must be considered definitive, since it was the last one published under Francis’s own supervision.

Francis’s major life commitment as an ecclesiastic was to undo what he believed to be the Protestant errors of the Reformation but also to correct the Catholic extremes, abuses, and flaws that had provoked the Reformers. For Francis, what came to be called the Catholic Counter-Reformation was still definitely a reformation—and for him that meant wherever possible giving love precedence over law, reason over judgment, and humanity over convention. He was very critical of clerical corruption, indulgences, slack discipline in monastic houses, inadequately educated clergy, absentee bishops, and an upsurge of critical condemnation of humanity by the church.⁶⁸ This put Francis in the train of the great Renaissance humanists Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Leonardo Bruni, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Gerhart Groote, Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More, Baldassare Castiglione, François Rabelais, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Michel de Montaigne, Giordano Bruno, and Michelangelo. Indeed, it was the humanist Lorenzo Scupoli whose 1589 Spiritual Combat (along with Thomas Kempis’s Imitation of Christ) became a primary influence in Francis’s spiritual life and writings. Francis could arguably be described as embodying the ultimate maturation and flowering of the Counter-Reformation. He never compromised basic Catholic teaching or core practice but handled all of it with a compassionate and temperate style. To contrast the medieval Church’s approach to that of Francis would be like comparing the twisted skeletal corpus of the Plague Crucifix in Cologne to the radiant humanity of Michelangelo’s David.

At times the exceeding gentleness with which Francis received heretics and sinners almost scandalized his friends, and one of them said to him, “Francis of Sales will go to Paradise, of course; but I am not so sure about the Bishop of Geneva—I am almost afraid his gentleness will play him a shrewd turn.” “Ah,” said the Saint, “I would rather account to God for too great gentleness than for too great severity. Is not God all love? God the Father is the Father of mercy; God the Son is a Lamb; God the Holy Ghost is a Dove—that is, gentleness itself. And are you wiser than God?”⁶⁹

The Introduction is one of the earliest books that laid out an effective, systematic, structured process for the development of a life of devotion⁷⁰—and the first one addressed primarily to the laity. (As one author put it: “It is clear that the composition of a purely theoretical work was beyond him.”⁷¹) This idea that deeply serious piety was within the proper sphere of lay Christians who were not clergy or vowed monastics tended to be submerged again in the following centuries only to resurface in the work of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

In a very real sense, Francis redefined “devotion” and what it meant to be “devout.” For him, “devotion” did not mean pious posturings or multiplied rote prayers, but a simple and true love of God.⁷² His spirituality aimed to enhance, embellish, and refine all that is human—one’s life, one’s friendships, one’s relation to others and to God—rather than to deny, abnegate, and warp that humanity.⁷³ He does not advocate unrealistic austerity and severity, but rather active and willing cooperation with God’s will. His spirituality was a “well-mannered devotion.”⁷⁴

But Francis’s advice was never merely permissive or laissez-faire. He also made strong spiritual demands on his readers and directees. In one case Madame de Chantal’s servants amusingly testified, “Madame’s first guide made her pray only three times a day, and we were all annoyed by it, but the bishop of Geneva makes her pray all hours of the day, and this disturbs no one.”⁷⁵

The classical pattern of spiritual growth that lies behind Francis’s directions is that of the Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive States (or Ways). This paradigm seems to have originated with Pseudo-Dionysius in the late fifth century, and is referred to in the work of Thomas Aquinas, Ignatius of Loyola, Garcia de Cisneros, and John of the Cross, among others.⁷⁶

The Purgative State describes the condition of beginners who have been purged of mortal sin and strive toward true humility by mortification of earthly desires, renunciation of one’s own will in favor of God’s, and the embrace of charity. Most of one’s prayer in this state is meditation on the danger and results of sin. In this state, God is purifying the soul and preparing it for heavenly life.

The Illuminative State describes one for whom mortal sin is fairly easily avoided, and one is absorbed with fresh insights and perceptions concerning the true nature of God. One’s prayer is usually meditation oriented to the Incarnation, and silence and retirement are normative. It is often characterized by fluctuation between significant spiritual solace and desolate barrenness and pain. Patience and faithful loyalty to God are the positive products of this state.

The Unitive State describes one who has entered completely into the love of God and finds total peace in that divine union. All one’s motives are of charity and fulfillment, and prayer becomes mainly a sweet contemplative gazing upon the mystical reality of God and peaceful endurance of whatever trials or ordeals may present themselves. One is not without pain, but the suffering tends to be contextualized and borne with patience and willingness.

The reader will find that Francis has followed this classical paradigm of spiritual development without using the above specific terms. In Part I, he provides his reader with methods to disconnect from the proclivities or desires for sin and earthly consolation. In Part II, he provides instruction about how to raise the soul closer to God in prayer and the reception of the sacraments. In Part III, he advises on ways to develop and practice the virtues. In Part IV, he gives suggestions about how to avoid temptation. In Part V, he helps the reader to form resolutions and remain steadfast in the peace of the devout life.

From the moment of its first publication, An Introduction to the Devout Life has been one of the five or six foundational texts for serious Christian spiritual development, joining such works as Kempis’s Imitation of Christ and the writings of Ignatius Loyola, Bonaventure, Teresa of Ávila, and John of the Cross—with the advantage that unlike the Introduction most of the other works were not addressed to the ordinary Christian layperson. Francis’s systematic and methodical proposals remain valid, applicable, and tremendously useful to the modern Christian who wishes seriously to seek a truly devout life.

We might remember Francis’s words in his Treatise on the Love of God (10, 1):

Man is the perfection of the universe,
the spirit is the perfection of man,
love is the perfection of the spirit,
and charity is the perfection of love.

NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION

Francis personally revised and augmented his book through five editions from 1609 to 1619. Our translation is based on his final 1619 edition. (The privilege du roi—royal permission to publish—was given in 1608, but the first edition was not actually printed until 1609.) During the seventeenth century and thereafter, there have been many unauthorized editions—mostly by Protestant writers who made illicit additions and omissions. By 1656 the book had been translated into more than seventeen different languages.

Francis addresses the book to an unidentified “Philothea” (Latin: female “Lover of God”). In my translation, I have replaced that specific name with “my child.” Francis was criticized for addressing the book to a female, and some men apparently dismissed the book for that reason. But Francis replied to the criticism in his (later) Treatise on the Love of God by saying: “It is the soul that aspires to devotion that I chose to name ‘Philothea’—and men have souls as well as women.”

In this work I have attempted to take the reader along with me on the translation path by frequently explaining a particular turn of phrase or unusual grammatical structure. I do this especially since my translation sometimes varies considerably from other “standard” translations and I want the reader to know why.

One of a translator’s challenges has to do with French names and titles. François de Sales is a French name that in simple translation would be “Francis of Sales.” However the name “Francis de Sales” (translating the François but retaining the French de) has become virtually universal. So, I make no claim to any consistency in my translations of names and titles—I have tended to keep the French forms, translating when it seems necessary. In order to simplify matters somewhat, I have also resorted to the use of first names rather than extended proper names and titles for the major characters.

I have frequently chosen to retain Gallicisms when they most accurately convey Francis’s specific meaning—however stilted they may sound in English. Father Henry Mackey, osb, wrote in his preface to his translation of de Sales’s Treatise on the Love of God (Benziger; New York; 1884): “One must be extremely careful, in obliterating Gallicisms, not to injure or destroy what belongs to the very texture of the style. St. Francis’s work cannot be made to read as easily as do the empty, superficial writings of the day, or to appear in a spick-and-span modern English dress.”

To my mind, modernization of such a historical text saps it of its beauty, its power, and its historical setting. Consequently, unlike so many current translators, I have tried to avoid modernizing or remodeling Francis’s often elegant language as long as its meaning is plain and clear—however over-formal it may sound in English. For example, in Part V, Chapter 13, Francis wrote: “Ah! My God! How deeply must we imprint this upon our memory!” One modernizer translated that as “Surely we ought ever to remember this.” (Rivingtons; London; 1876).

Possibly the greatest challenge to a de Sales translator are the words that over the years have come to carry a formal and technical meaning in systems of ascetical theology. It is doubly awkward because for the most part these narrowly defined words have been brought over into English—but they have such a particularity of use that they sound extremely odd. For example, profession describes a declaration of acceptance of God’s will, an open avowal or expression of dedication; protestation describes an affirmation or assertion (never a modern “protest”); résolution describes a determination to act or behave in a certain way; a consolation describes a kind of spiritual reward or emotional recompense following a virtuous act; an action (“act” in English) of contrition (or of thanksgiving, or of oblation, or the like) describes a short prayer of that particular nature. Unlike most translators, I have tried to avoid the use of these technical words and replaced them with more meaningful and accurate synonyms wherever possible.

Unless otherwise noted, all scriptural references are in my own translation of the Latin Clementine Vulgate of 1598 (the Bible Francis would have known and used). The numbering of the Psalms and the naming of some books in the Vulgate differ from the more familiar modern numbering and naming. When that occurs, I have used the Vulgate citation and added the more familiar citation in brackets, for instance, Psalm 76:4 [77:3] or 2 Kings 14:24 [2 Samuel].

Francis uses the French Vive Jésus almost as a maxim. It cannot be adequately translated into English. Literally, it would be “Live, Jesus!” which sounds rather foolish. (Usually, the Vive is translated as “Long live …,” as in Vive le roi meaning “Long live the king”—probably originally a version of the older Eastern salutation, “O King, live forever” [see Daniel 5:10 or Nehemiah 2:3]—but that seems simply too odd when applied to Jesus.) I think the sense of it is almost something like “Hoorah for Jesus.” I have chosen to leave the phrase in French in my translation.

I have occasionally repeated commentary notes, when a matter arises more than once and several chapters apart. I assume that few will read the book straight through, and so the reader may well have forgotten a particular notation when encountering the same words some days later.

Finally, it must be recognized that while the Introduction is an extremely useful and deeply significant document for the modern Christian, it is, after all, a historical document, and it must be read with the understanding that its language, images, and ethos reflect the culture of early seventeenth-century, post-Reformation, French Catholicism. (It may be remembered that Galileo Galilei was born only three years before de Sales and Galileo’s heliocentric writings were condemned by the papacy in exactly the same year as the last autograph edition of the Introduction.) Certainly any intelligent reader can make the obvious and necessary historical adjustments while enjoying this treasure of a book.

John-Julian, OJN

PREFACE

BY ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

COMMENTARY ON THE PREFACE

a. Pausias was an ancient Greek painter, living in the early fourth century bc in the city of Sicyon, which at the time was home to several great classical Greek sculptors, artists, and poets. It is said that Pausias invented the encaustic method of painting in which beeswax was colored with pigments and then applied to the surface using heated metal tools, so that the resulting painting would be thick and three-dimensional. Francis refers to the legend that Pausias attempted this new technique in an effort to portray flowers as beautifully as his mistress, the flower-girl Glycera, did in the floral wreathes she made for sale. Pausias is said to have painted Glycera with a garland of flowers in what was considered his masterpiece, a copy of which was purchased by Lucullus at Athens at the massive price of two talents—over $600,000 today (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 21.2).

b. Francis seems to use the Pausias/Glycera story as emphasizing the variety of flowers tried by the painter rather than the realistic depiction of them, which was the point of the original story.

c. The author takes special pains to protest that he does not mean to introduce any new doctrines, but only to propound some methods that may be new to his reader. It must also be remembered that Francis is writing during the lifetimes and teachings of Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross, when there was great controversy and suspicion concerning contemplative prayer.

d. Palma Christi was the medieval name for the plant Ricinus communis (the seeds of which are the source of castor oil). The plant was called “Palma Christi” because of its shiny green hand-shaped leaves and its almost miraculous healing powers. Animals tend not to eat the plant because of its unpleasant taste. This is another of Francis’s extreme analogies: as animals avoid the plant, so ordinary Christians avoid true sanctity.

e. A belief of the ancients found in Pliny’s Naturalis Historia 9.35.

f. The Chelidonian Isles are in the Mediterranean Sea in the Gulf of Lycia in southwest Turkey. Pliny the Elder (ad 23–79) in his Historia (2.105) wrote, “There are many places in which fresh water may be procured from the sea, as at the Chelidonian Isles….”

g. The “firemoth” (also called “atlas moth”) is a moth of the genus Pyroi (Greek for “fiery”) of the Noctuidae family. It is colored in brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows, and the legend is that its colors come from its flying through flame (Aristotle, Historia Animalium 5.19 and Pliny, Naturalis Historia 11.36).

PREFACE BY ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

My dear Reader, I ask that you read this Preface for your own benefit and for mine.

It is said that in ancient times Glycera knew how to vary the design and arrangement of her flowers so completely that with the very same blooms she could create such a huge variety of bouquets that the painter Pausias was simply stopped short when he tried to imitate that diversity of expression, for he could not vary his painting technique in as many ways as Glycera did her bouquets.a So, too, the Holy Spirit orders and displays the lessons of holiness that he gives through the tongues and the pens of his servants, with so great a variety that while the doctrine is always the same, nevertheless, the expressions in which it is articulated are certainly different, according to the varied means by which they are expressed.b I cannot, of course (nor do I want to) write in this Introduction what has already been published by our predecessors on this subject; they are the same flowers that I present to you, my Reader, but the bouquet that I have made will be different from theirs, because of the variety of designs in which it is fashioned.c

Almost all who have written about the holy life have mainly paid attention to those who have completely withdrawn from the business of the world; or at least, they have taught a kind of devotion that leads to such complete withdrawal. But my purpose here is to instruct those who live in towns, on farms, or at court, and whose situation necessitates that they live an ordinary life in external matters. These people are apt to avoid all efforts to lead a holy life, under the pretext of it allegedly being impossible—that since no animal ventures to eat the plant called Palma Christi,d so no one living in the press of earthly affairs ought to venture to seek the palm of Christian piety.

And so I have meant to show them that as the oysters live in the sea but absorb not even a drop of salt water in their shells,e and as near the Chelidonian Islesf springs of sweet water spring forth in the middle of the ocean, and as the firemothg flies in the flames without burning its wings, so a strong and faithful soul can live in the world untainted by the worldly atmosphere, finding a spring of holy piety among the bitter waves of this age, and flying amidst the flames of earthly lusts without singeing the wings of sacred desires for the sanctified life. Truly this is difficult, and because of that I would like Christians to give more effort and energy than before in the present, and so it is that, while aware of my own weakness, I shall attempt by this book to provide some help to those who are beginning this noble work with a benevolent heart.

However it is not by my own choice or inclination that brings this Introduction out in public. A soul, truly rich in honor and virtue, at one time received from God the grace to seek the holy life and begged my own assistance with this matter. We were linked by various ties, and for a long time I had noted her inclination toward this goal, so I undertook carefully to teach her, and after leading her through a variety of procedures appropriate to her wish and situation, I allowed her to write down records of my teachings, to which she could turn when needed.a These she shared with a great, wise, and devout monkb who, believing that they might benefit others, urged me strongly to make them public. His effort was successful mainly because his friendship had great impact on my decision, and his judgment great influence over my own judgment.

a. This was Louise de Châtel, Madame de Charmoisy, wife of Francis’s first cousin once removed, Claude de Charmoisy, who was the ambassador of the Duke of Savoy. She placed herself under Francis’s direction in April 1607, when she was about to leave Annecy for six months. Francis gave her some brief treatises (Mémoires) he had written, and these became the core of the resulting book. (Mme de Chamoisy’s home—the Chamoisy House in Annecy—has been preserved and is open to visitors.)

b. A marginal note in the 1609 edition: “It was R. P. Jean Fourier, sj, then Rector of the Jesuit College of Chambery.” Fourier was also Francis’s spiritual director at the time, and his letter to Francis of March 25, 1608, urging him to publish his memos to Mme. de Charmoisy survives.

c. The clause in italics is a variant reading found in some manuscripts.

d. The French is religieux et gens de dévotion—literally, “religious and people of devotion.” When the word “religious” is used as a noun it refers to monks and nuns; “people of devotion” means those who have given themselves entirely to God, often translated as “hermits.”

e. Francis was bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, where he was faced with a primary stronghold of Protestantism and the one-time residence of John Calvin himself. The bishops of Geneva had had the status of princes of the Holy Roman Empire but were literally ejected from the city in 1536 by the Protestants.

f. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that the Dionysius referred to in Acts 17:34 was St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris who was also author of the famous mystical composition On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, which claimed (5:6–7) that the potestas magisterii (“power of teaching”) belongs only to those who have also the “power of order,” that is, to the pope and the bishops—thus supporting Francis’s claim that he was an appropriate teacher. In about 1121, the famed scholar Abelard separated the confusing three Dionysiuses, and modern scholarship proved the book was written by an anonymous Christian in late fifth to early sixth centuries.

So, in order to make the material more useful and suitable, I have reviewed the papers and arranged them together, adding some bits to carry out my intention, but all of this has been done in a great rush. That is why you will find very little precision, but please see it rather as a collection of well-meant advice, which I explain in clear and intelligible words, for that at least is what I have tried to do. But I have given no thought to refinement because I have had so many other projects at hand.

I have addressed my advice to an imaginary “Philothea,” adapting what was at first written for a particular person to apply to the common needs of a wider number. I have chosen a name appropriate for all who seek after a holy life, since “Philothea” means “a lover of God” and the soul which seeks the love of God begins to be in love.c Thus placing before me a soul who seeks the love of God through a holy life, I have set up this Introduction in five parts: in the first of which I try by recommendations and activities to change Philothea’s simple desire into a strong resolution to act—which resolution she is to make after a general confession, by an intentional profession, followed by receiving Holy Communion, during which she gives herself to her Savior and receives him in return and is gladly received into his holy love. That done, I guide her onward by showing her two important means of closer union with his divine Majesty: the Sacraments (by which our gracious Lord comes to us) and holy prayer (by which he draws us to himself). This is the second part. In the third part I describe how she should put into practice specific virtues most appropriate to her development, only emphasizing such particular items that she might not find anywhere else or be unable to work out for herself. In the fourth part I point out the traps set by some of her spiritual enemies and show her how to pass safely through these traps and escape unharmed. And, last, in the fifth part, I lead her aside to rejuvenate herself, take a long breath, and restore her strength, so that thereafter she can go on more boldly and make good progress in the holy life.

This age is very peculiar, and I predict that many would say that it seems that only monastics and people under vows are fit to undertake the guidance of souls in such exceptionally holy ways:d that it requires more time than a bishop of as so important a diocese as mine could spare,e and that it must take too much attention away from being used for important things. But, dear reader, I reply with the great Saint Denisf that the task of leading souls toward perfection appertains above all others to bishops because their order is supreme among mortals, as the seraphim are among the angels,a and therefore their leisure time cannot be more appropriately spent. The ancient bishops and Fathers of the Church were, to say the least, as devoted to their responsibilities as we are, yet they did not refuse to undertake the individual guidance of several souls who sought their help, as we see by their epistles—thereby imitating the apostles themselves, who, while reaping the world-harvest, yet found time to gather up certain individual sheaves with special and personal affection. Who can fail to remember that Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Onesimus, Thecla, and Appiab were the beloved spiritual children of the great Saint Paul, as Saint Mark and Saint Petronillac were of Saint Peter (for Baronius and Galonius have given learned and absolute proof that Saint Petronilla was not his carnal but spiritual daughter)? And is not one of Saint John’s canonical epistles addressed to the “elect lady” whom he loved in the faith?d

a. In the Christian tradition, the seraphim are a category of angels. The Hebrew word seraphim is related to the word for “to burn” and led to the idea that the seraphim were extremely fervent in their burning love for God, and so they were ranked the highest in the nine orders of angels.

b. Timothy, Titus, and Philemon are found in their eponymous epistles in the Bible. Thecla appears in the apocryphal second-century book The Acts of Saints Paul and Thecla that told of Thecla’s conversion and her martyrdom. Onesimus appears in Philemon and Colossians. “Appia, our sister” appears in Philemon 1:2.

c. According to Papias (c. 60–130), Mark was Peter’s “interpreter” and Peter refers to him as “my son Mark” (1 Pet. 5:13). Early legend held that Petronilla was the daughter of Saint Peter (see the apocryphal Acts of St. Peter). However, the Oratorian historians Cesare Bronius (1538–1607) and Antonio Galonius (1557–1605) disproved the legend. Petronilla may have been Peter’s servant or a convert, or the tradition may have developed merely from their similar names.

d. The opening of the Second Epistle of John: “The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth …” (2 Jn. 1). Some modern scholars have suggested that the “elect lady” may refer not to an individual person but metaphorically to one or more of the churches founded by St. John in Asia Minor. Francis seems to think the word electa (“elect”) was the lady’s name rather than an adjective—hence, it is often translated as “the lady Electa.”

e. Italian grape-pickers to this day are usually women, who carry massive four-foot-tall conical baskets on their backs.

f. “Arabia Felix” is one third of ancient Arabia—comprising the present yemen and Oman. The Greek geographer Strabo mentions cinnamon from Arabia Felix (De situ Orbis. 1. 937).

g. Francis overcomplicates his metaphor by introducing tiger hunting: his point is made simply by indicating that the tigress carries her cub to safety, no matter how large or heavy the cub.

h. Pocetto claims that this “great man of letters” was Erasmus (Ecclesial Dimensions 12).

i. This seems to be the woman St. Augustine referred to as “our most religious daughter Flora” in his treatise “On Care of the Dead,” which he wrote to Bishop Paulinus (Augustine, Nicene and Post-Nicene Father, First Series, Philip Schaff, ed., vol. 3, S. Augustine’s Short Treatises).

I concede that the guidance of particular souls is an effort, but an effort that is a comfort, just as that of harvesters and grape-pickerse who are never more pleased than when most busy and heavily burdened. It is a work that refreshes and revives the heart by the comfort that it brings to those who bear it; as is said to be the case of those who carry bundles of cinnamon in Arabia Felix.f It is said that the tigress, having found one of her young left behind by the hunter on the road in order to distract her while he carries off the rest of her litter, takes it up—no matter how big—without seeming overweighted, and speeds only the more swiftly to her den, natural love lightening the burden.g How much more readily will a fatherly heart bear the burden of a soul that he finds longing for holy perfection carrying it on his breast as a mother her little child, without feeling the beloved burden? But without doubt, it is necessary that this must be a fatherly heart; and that is why the apostles and their apostolic followers are wont to call their disciples not merely their children but, even more tenderly still, their “little children.”

But, besides that, my dear reader, it is true that I write about the devout life without being devout myself (but most certainly not without the desire to become so, and it is this desire which gives me the courage to instruct you), for, as a great man of letters has said, “A good way to learn is to study; a better way is to listen; and the very best way is to teach.”h It happens often, said Saint Augustine, writing to his devout Florentina,i that the position of giver includes the right to receive, and the position of teacher, the basis for learning.

a. The story is told in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia (1.25.10). Apelles used Campaspe as the nude model for his famous painting of Aphrodite rising out of the sea. Interestingly, the apocryphal account appears in none of the five major biographies of Alexander.

b. It is significant that Francis makes a distinction between “the common virtues” and the spirituality he intends to promote in this book—so, although he claims his advice is not just for monastics, it is clear that what he offers is not the normal spiritual fare of the ordinary Christian but is offered only to those who wish to take their spirituality more seriously than most.

c. The French genders are confusing here, and most translators have been trapped by the fact that while the French Majesté is a feminine noun, it is masculine in definition. So, the words elle me la donnera seem to say “she may give me herself in marriage eternal,” when in fact the pronouns refer to the noun “Majesty” and should be translated in the masculine. Francis here refers to a kind of “spiritual espousal” so common in the literature of the mystics.

d. The reference is to Genesis 24, in which Abraham’s elderly servant has been sent back to his native city of Nahor to obtain a bride for his son Isaac. When the servant arrives at the well of Nahor, he meets Rebecca, who offers to draw water for his camels, which he takes as a sign that she is to be Isaac’s wife, and he then gives her “jewelry of gold and of silver.”

e. Francis shows himself to be an exemplary Catholic—submitting everything he says or does to the judgment of the Church. This would have been a significant statement in the midst of the Reformation fever rampant in Europe at the time.

f. Although Francis originally dated his Preface in 1608, the work was not published until 1609. St. Mary Magdalen’s liturgical feast day is July 22. (Note: Although this Preface is dated 1608, Francis updated it for its inclusion in this 1619 edition.)

Alexander caused the beautiful Campaspe,a who was so dear to him, to be painted by the hand of the matchless artist Apelles, who, forced to gaze upon Campaspe lengthily, just as he painted the picture on his table, so love was imprinted in his heart, and he became so passionate that Alexander, having recognized it and having pity on him, gave her to him in marriage, depriving himself for love of Apelles, his dearest friend in the world: in which, says Pliny, he showed the grandeur of his heart, as much as he did in his greatest victory.

And now it is my opinion, my reader, my friend, that being a bishop, God wishes that I engrave on the hearts of people not only the common virtues,b but even God’s dearest and most beloved devotion; and for my part, I undertake this willingly, as much out of obedience and to do my duty as for the hope that what I engrave on the spirit of others may lead my own to become a holy lover. Thus, if his Divine Majesty sees me deeply in love, he may give me himself in eternal marriage.c The beautiful and chaste Rebecca, watering the camels of Isaac, was destined to be his bride and received her share of earrings and golden bracelets;d just so I count on the immense goodness of my God that, while leading his beloved lambs to the wholesome waters of devotion, he will take my soul to be his spouse, putting in my ears the golden words of his holy love, and in my arms the strength to carry out his works, in which lies the essence of true devotion, which I beg his Majesty that he will wish to provide to me and to all the children of his Church—the Church to which I would always submit my writings, my actions, my words, my wishes, and my thoughts.e

Annecy, St. Magdalen’s Day, 1608f

PART

ONE

CONTAINING

RECOMMENDATIONS

AND ACTIVITIES

NECESSARY TO GUIDE

THE SOUL—FROM HER

FIRST LONGING FOR THE

DEVOUT LIFE TO HER

FINAL FIRM RESOLUTION

TO EMBRACE IT

PART ONE
COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 1

a. This may account for more spiritual “failures” than almost any other aspect of the spiritual life: that is, setting out with an erroneous (and usually far too exalted) understanding of the goal one hopes to reach. It is a pitfall when one insists on measuring one’s “spiritual growth” by comparing it to some objective distant aspiration. Far better to concentrate on faithfulness in the present, and leave the outcome to God.

b. Arelius (also, Arellius) was a Roman painter “near the age of Augustus.” (Brewster, David, ed.; The Edinburgh Encyclopædia …; J. & E. Parker; Philadelphia; 1832, 15:287). The oddity Francis recounts is found in Pliny (Naturalis Historia 24.22, 25.10).

c. It seems strange that Francis includes the nonpayment of debts at the same level of spiritual significance as malice, spitefulness, slander, harmful language, and refusing forgiveness to one’s enemies. It seems a clear indication that he addresses a reader more deeply committed than may have been common.

d. Another example of Francis’s intention to press for a “more than ordinary spirituality.”

e. A reference to 1 Samuel 19:11–16: “Saul sent his guards to David’s house to take custody of him, that he might be killed in the morning. And when Michal, David’s wife, had told him, saying: ‘Unless you save yourself this night, tomorrow you will die.’ She let him down through a window. And he went and fled away and escaped. And Michal took a statue and laid it in the bed, and put a goat’s skin with the hair at the head of it, and covered it with clothes. And Saul sent officers to seize David: and it was answered that he was ill. And again Saul sent messengers to see David, saying, ‘Bring him to me in his bed, that he may be slain.’And when the officers had come in, they found the image upon the bed and a goat’s skin at the head.”

f. The French has statues et fantômes—literally, “statues and phantoms.”

g. Francis distinguishes between “grace” (uniting one with God), and “charity” (motivating good works), and “sanctity” (habitual goodness integrated into one’s personality). [Note: again I have translated Francis’s dévotion as “sanctity.”]

i PART I. CHAPTER 1.

A Description of True Sanctity

You long for a sanctity, most dear one, because, since you are a Christian, you know that that is a way of living that is very pleasing to the divine Majesty; but since small mistakes committed in the beginning of this kind of undertaking expand a lot as you go along and at the end become too strong to overcome,a so it is of crucial importance that you know what the reality of that holiness is—especially since, while there is only one true sanctity, there is a great assortment of false and futile imitations, and if you do not know which one is the true one, you can deceive yourself and think it is pleasant to follow some notion that is disrespectful and false.

It is said that the artist Areliusb used to portray all the faces of the figures he painted with the air and appearance of the women he loved, and similarly everyone portrays sanctity as agreeing with their own desire and fantasy. One who is devoted to fasting considers himself truly holy as long as he is fasting, even though his heart may be full of malice. And in this fasting, while he may not allow himself to dip his tongue into wine or even water, he does not hesitate to soak it in another person’s blood by his spitefulness and slander. Someone else considers himself holy because he says a great many prayers every day, but afterward his same tongue is aimed at harmful, haughty, and destructive words among his family and neighbors. Another freely takes the contents of his purse to give as alms to the poor, but he cannot open the warmth of his heart to forgive his enemies; while another may pardon his enemies but will never pay what is due to his creditors unless forced by law.c

All those people are ordinarily considered to be religious, but they are not in any way truly holy.d Saul’s men searched for David in his house, but David’s wife, Michal, having put a statue in a bed and covered it with David’s bedclothes, persuaded them that it was David himself who lay ill;e in the same way, so many people cover themselves with a number of external actions that look like holy sanctity, and the world thinks they are truly devout and spiritual people; but in truth they are nothing but hollow mannequins and caricatures of holiness.f

But true and living sanctity takes it for granted that one loves God—so sanctity is really nothing else than true love of God—but not merely a love that is ordinary, because when divine love adorns our soul, it is called “grace,” making us amenable to his divine Majesty; when it gives us the strength to do good, it is called “charity”—but when it attains the degree of perfection in which it is not only doing good but acting intentionally, constantly, and without hesitation, then it is called “sanctity.”g The ostrich never flies at all—chickens do fly, but they do so heavily, miserably, and seldom—but the eagles, the doves, and the swallows fly repeatedly, swiftly, and they rise sky-high. In the same way, sinners do not rise upward toward God, because all their efforts are earthly and intended for the earth; the good people who have not yet reached sanctity fly to God by their good actions, but rarely, slowly, and heavily; the holy people fly to God frequently, without delay, and to lofty heights. In short, sanctity is nothing but a spiritual agility and alertness by means of which charity does its work in us, or we by means of that charity act swiftly and lovingly; and just as charity makes us generally and universally to practice all the commandments of God, so too sanctity makes us do them swiftly and diligently. That is why one may not consider a person who does not obey all the commandments of God either good or holy, because to be good one must have charity, but to be holy in addition to charity one must add great energy and alacrity to charitable actions.

a. Psalm 118:35 [119:35]: “Lead me into the path of your commandments.…”

b. The French is conseils et inspirations—literally, “counsels and inspirations.” It is interesting that the traditional monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience are based on the “Dominical Counsels” (that is, “counsels of the Lord”)—which differentiate between the Lord’s “commands” (that are mandated) and his “counsels” (that are only suggested or advised). Monastics do “more than is required” of ordinary Christians—and it seems that that is what Francis is asking of his directee.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 2

c. Numbers 13:33–34 [13:32–33]: “And they spoke ill of the land, which they had viewed, before the children of Israel, saying: ‘The land which we have viewed, devours its inhabitants: the people that we observed are of a tall stature … in comparison with whom, we seemed like locusts.’”

d. See Numbers 13:31, 14:6–8 [13:30, 14:6–9]: “In the meantime, Caleb, to still the murmuring of the people that rose against Moses, said: ‘Let us go up and possess the land, for we shall be able to conquer it’” and “Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephone, who themselves had also viewed the land, rent their garments, and said to the multitude of the children of Israel: ‘The land which we have gone round is very good: if the Lord be favorable, he will bring us into it, and give us a land flowing with milk and honey. Be not rebellious against the Lord: and fear not the people of this land, for we are able to eat them up as bread. All aid is gone from them: the Lord is with us, fear not.’”

e. Francis compares the labor involved in devout living to Israel’s winning possession of the Promised Land—it involves pain, suffering, and deprivation, but in the end it is sweet, happy, and cordial.

And since all that sanctity lies in some degree of exceptional charity, not only does sanctity make us prompt and active and diligent in observing all God’s commandments, but besides that, she provokes us to do promptly and affectionately as many good deeds as we can—even those which are not required of us but are only recommended or encouraged. For just as a man who has recently recovered from some illness walks only as far as is necessary, but slowly and heavily, so the sinner recovering from his iniquity walks as far as God commands him, but slowly and heavily until he attains to sanctity; for then, like a fully cured man, he not only walks, but he runs and leaps in the path of God’s commandmentsa and, moreover, he goes and runs in the paths of the heavenly suggestions and inspirations.b Finally, charity and sanctity are no more different from one another than “flame” and “fire”—in that charity is a spiritual fire that when it is fanned into flame becomes sanctity: so that sanctity adds nothing to the fire of charity except the flame that makes charity swift and diligent—not only in observing God’s commandments, but in the exercise of the counsels and heavenly inspirations.

i PART I. CHAPTER 2.

The Property and Excellence of Sanctity

Those who discouraged the Israelites from going into the Promised Land told them that it was a land that devours the inhabitants;c that is, that the climate was so unhealthy that one could not live long, and that also the inhabitants were men of so great a stature that they ate other men like locusts. It is just so, my dear child, that the world deprecates holy devotion as much as possible, depicting devout people with a melancholy visage, sad and sorrowful, and affirming that religion gives dismal and miserable moods. But even as Joshua and Caleb protested that not only was the Promised Land good and fair, but also that the Israelites would take an easy and pleasant possession of it,d so the Holy Spirit tells us through the mouth of all the saints, and our Lord has told us with his own lips, that a holy life is sweet, happy, and genial.e

a. Francis has here compiled a list of the actions and attitudes he considers valuable and laudable in the life of a Christian. It could be used as a checklist for Christian virtue.

b. True thyme honey is usually touted as the finest honey on earth and is available only from bees in Greece, Malta, North Africa, and New Zealand.

c. Known as “the breaking wheel,” it was a medieval instrument of torture: the victim was spread-eagled on a large wagon wheel with spokes, and then, with a cudgel, the bones of the victim’s limbs were broken between the spokes. Unless a coup de grâce were given, the mutilated victim could live for hours or days.

d. St. Paul’s words: “I know both how to be humiliated, and I know how to abound both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound, and to suffer destitution” (Phil. 4:12).

e. The reference is to Genesis 28:12—“And [Jacob] saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top of it touching heaven: and also the angels of God ascending and descending by it.” [Note: The Hebrew word sullam might better translate as “staircase” than as “ladder.”]

f. Jacob’s vision included seeing angels ascending and descending on the ladder: it is the flight of Francis’s imagination that he can describe them as “mortals with the heart of angels” or “angels with human form.” If, as Genesis describes, they were “angels,” then they had to take human form to be seen, but to call them “mortals with the heart of angels” is pious fantasy.

g. Francis’s rhapsodizing on the metaphor of Jacob’s ladder is an extensive Gallican fancy in which he imagines the scene and projects his personal vision of the dream as an expansive allegory of spiritual perfection. It is interesting that he sees these beings as “descending” by helping and supporting their neighbors and “ascending” by contemplative prayer to union with God—thereby validating a Christian’s obligations both to (1) service of one’s fellow humans and (2) prayerful union with God.

h. A translation challenge—because la charité can be translated either as “charity” or “love” and la dévotion can be translated as “devotion” or “sanctity.” One is also reminded of St. Paul’s words: “We are the good odor of Christ to God, in those who are saved” (2 Cor. 2:15).

The world sees that devout persons fast, pray, endure injuries, minister to the sick, give to the poor, are careful, restrain their anger, smother and stifle their passions, deny themselves all sensual pleasures, and do many other things which in themselves and in their nature are tough and rigorous.a But the world does not see the inner and heartfelt devotion that makes all these actions pleasant, sweet, and easy. Watch a bee hovering over the thyme—they gather very bitter juices—but by sucking, the bee turns them all to honeyb because that is the bee’s true nature. O, worldly ones, though admittedly the devout souls find much bitterness in their exercises of mortification, in doing them they convert them into sweetness and pleasure. The fires, the flames, the wheel,c the swords seemed like flowers and perfumes to the martyrs because they were godly people. And if devotion can soften the cruelest torments and even death itself, what will it do for exercises of virtue?

Sugar sweetens unripe fruits and compensates for the rawness and bitterness even of those that are ripe. Just so, devotion is the real spiritual sweetening that takes away all the bitterness from mortifications and the pain of the consolations: it removes sorrow from the poor, and presumption from the rich, desolation from the oppressed, insolence from the prosperous, sadness from the solitary, and dissipation from those who are in society; it serves as fire in winter and dew in summer; it knows how to abound and how to suffer want;d how to use both honor and contempt; it accepts pleasure and pain with an equal heart and fills us with a marvelous sweetness.

Ponder Jacob’s laddere (for it is a true picture of the devout life)—the two sides that support the steps represent (1) the prayer which seeks the love of God, and (2) the Sacraments which confer that love; the steps themselves are simply the various degrees of love by which one goes on from virtue to virtue, either descending by the exercise of help and support of our neighbor, or ascending by contemplation to a loving union with God. Consider, too, those who are on this ladder: they are mortals who have the hearts of angels, or angels with human forms.f They are not youthful, but they seem to be because of their vigor and spiritual liveliness. They have wings to fly and soar into God by holy prayer, but they also have feet to walk with humans for a holy and cordial conversation; their faces are beautiful and merry, the more so as they accept all things gently and sweetly; their legs, their arms, and their heads are all uncovered, because their thoughts, their affections, and their actions have no motive or object except to please God. The rest of their bodies are covered with a beautiful and light robe, because while they truly use the world and the things of the earth, they use all in a very pure and sincere way, taking only what is necessary for their condition—such are the truly holy persons.g

Believe me, dear child, sanctity is the sweetest of sweets, the queen of virtues, for it is the perfection of charity. If charity is milk, sanctity is the cream; if it is a plant, sanctity is the flower; if it is a precious stone, sanctity is its brightness; if it is a precious balm, sanctity is its perfume, even that sweet odor that delights mortals and delights the angels.h

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 3

a. See Genesis 1:11–23: “And [God] said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the green herb and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so done. And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that bears fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

b. Psalm 51:10 [52:8]: “But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God forever, yea for ever and ever.”

c. Carthusians live separately as hermits, coming together only for worship and a weekly meal.

d. Capuchins are an order of strict Franciscans founded in 1520.They stress a life of strict poverty, solitude, and penance. Their name comes from the hood (cappuccio) they adopted as part of their habit.

e. Francis was the bishop of Geneva, where all Catholics had been driven from the city and everything Catholic was despised. The “complaint and ridicule” came from the critical Protestants.

f. The exact quote is not found in Aristotle, but the source may be Virgil, who declares the bees are “just” in that they do no harm and repay a farmer’s investment in them (Georgics 4.i).

i PART I. CHAPTER 3.

That Sanctity Is Suitable to Every Vocation and Profession

In creating the world, God commanded each plant to bear its own fruit,a and in the same way he bids Christians—who are the living plants of his Churchb—to bring forth fruits of devotion, each one according to his nature and calling. Devotion must be exercised differently for the noble, the craftsman, the servant, the prince, the widow, the young girl, and the wife; and not only that, but it is necessary to accommodate the practice of devotion according to the strength, the business, and the duties of each separate individual. I ask you, my child, would it be fitting that the bishop should wish to be a hermit like the Carthusians?c And if the married men wished to put aside nothing more than the Capuchinsd do, if the craftsman spent all day in church like a monk, if the monk involved himself in all manner of business for the good of his neighbor as a bishop does, would not such a devotion be ridiculous, disorderly, and intolerable?

Nevertheless such a mistake is often made, and the world—which cannot or will not discriminate between true sanctity and the impropriety of those who think they are holy—complains and ridicules the practice of devotion, which cannot defend itself against such disorders.e

No indeed, my child, devotion does not harm anything when it is true, but on the contrary it improves everything; and when it goes against the proper vocation of anyone it is undoubtedly false. Aristotle says that the bee sucks its honey from flowers without bothering them,f leaving them as whole and fresh as it found them; but true devotion does better still, for not only does it not harm any sort of vocation or activity, but, contrariwise, it adorns and embellishes them. All kinds of precious stones thrown into honey become more brilliant—each one according to its color—and each person becomes better in his or her calling when coupled with devotion. The care of the family is made peaceful there, the love of husband and wife more sincere, service to our King more faithful, all kinds of occupations more pleasant and agreeable. It is an error, indeed a heresy, to wish to banish the devout life from the company of soldiers, the workshop of the craftsman, the court of princes, or the households of families. It is true, my child, that a purely contemplative, monastic, and ascetic devotion cannot be practiced in these other callings, but in addition to these three kinds of devout life, there are several others proper to guide those in the secular state toward perfection. Examples from the Old Testament are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David, Job, Tobias, Sarah, Rebecca, and Judith; and in the New Testament Saint Joseph, Lydia, and Crispus led perfectly devout lives in their trades; we have Saint Anne, Martha, Saint Monica, Aquila and Priscilla in their households; Cornelius, Saint Sebastian, and Saint Maurice with their military arms; Constantine, Saint Helena, Saint Louis, the Blessed Amadeus, and Saint Edward on the throne.a And we even find instances of some who lost their perfection in solitude (which is usually so helpful to perfection), some who had preserved their perfection among the crowds, which seems so antagonistic to it. Saint Gregory says that Lot, who had kept himself pure in the city, fell into sin in his loneliness.b Wherever we are, we can and must aspire to the perfect life.

a. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the Hebrew patriarchs. David was the king of Judea. Job was the protagonist in the book of Job. Tobias appears in the apocryphal book of Tobias. Sarah was Abraham’s wife, Rebecca the wife of Isaac, and Judith the Israelite heroine who assassinated Holofernes, the commander of the enemy troops besieging her city. Joseph was the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Lydia was “a certain womana seller of purple [dye] of the city of Thyatira” with whom St. Paul lodged (Acts 16:14–15, 40); Crispus was the “ruler of the synagogue” in Corinth who was converted and personally baptized by St. Paul (Acts 18:8, 1 Cor. 1:14). St. Anne was traditionally held to be Mary’s mother but does not appear in Scripture; Martha is the housekeeper at Bethany (Lk. 10:39–41, Jn. 11:1–29, 12:2). St. Monica was the mother of St. Augustine; Aquila and Priscilla were a married couple who were driven from Rome to Corinth, where they met Paul, who called them his “helpers in Jesus Christ” (Rom. 16:3). Their home was a refuge for Christians. St. Cornelius was the Roman centurion of Damascus and baptized by Paul (Acts 10) as the first Gentile Christian; legend has it that St. Sebastian was a captain in the Prætorian Guard of the Roman emperor Diocletian, who ordered him killed by archers when he was discovered to be a Christian; another legend tells that St. Maurice was a leader of the (Christian) Theban Legion in the Roman army of the Emperor Maximian. When the Legion refused pagan sacrifice, the entire company was martyred. Constantine was the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire. St. Helena was his mother; St. Louis IX was the saintly king of France; “Blessed Amadeus” was probably the Duke of Savoy (1435–1472) who was beatified in 1677 and known for his charity and concern for the poor. St. Edward was Edward the Confessor.

b. The referenced account appears in St. Gregory the Great’s Homilies on Ezekiel 1, i, Homily 9, § 52. Lot was Abraham’s nephew and was held to be a “righteous man” when he lived in Sodom. But after he and his daughters had fled Sodom and the city was destroyed, they hid in the mountains living in a cave, where his daughters got Lot drunk and copulated with him—hence, he “fell into sin.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 4

c. Tobias 5:4: “But go now, and seek out some faithful man to go with you for his hire.”

d. St. John of Ávila (1500–1569), Audi, filia 55:1. This was an essay on Christian perfection.

e. St. Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) in her Book of the Relations 3.

i PART I. CHAPTER 4.

The Necessity of a Guide to Begin and Make Progress in the Devout Life

The young Tobias was ordered to go to Rages. “But I do not know the way,” he said. “Then go,” his father replied, “and seek some man who will lead you.”c I say the same thing to you, my child: Do you wish to travel the road to sanctity? Seek some good man to guide and conduct you. This is the admonition of admonitions. “No matter what you seek,” says the devout Ávila,d “you will never so reliably discover the will of God as through the way of humble obedience so taught and practiced by all the ancient saints.”

The blessed mother Teresa,e seeing that the Lady Catherine of Cordova made great penances, desired strongly to imitate her in that—against the advice of her confessor, who forbade her to do the like, and she was tempted to disobey him in this. And God said to her: “My child, you are taking a good and assured way. Do you see the penance that she has done? But I more greatly value your obedience.” And she loved that virtue of obedience so much that in addition to the obedience that she owed to her superiors, she took a particular vow to an admirable man, pledging to follow his direction and guidance, which gave her infinite comfort. And similarly after and before her many good souls, in order better to subject themselves to God, have subjected their will to that of his ministers, a practice which Saint Catherine of Sienaa praises in her Dialogues. The devout Princess Saint Elizabethb submitted with intense obedience to the master teacher Conrad; and, see, one of the counsels which Saint Louis gave to his son before he died was, “Make your Confession often, choose a suitable confessor, who is a sensible man, and who can surely teach you to do what is necessary for you.”c

a. St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) Dialogues, Tracttract 4.

b. St. Elizabeth of Hungary (c. 1207–1231). Conrad of Marburg was her severe director.

c. Found in Jean Sire de Joinville (1224–1317), The Life of Saint Louis; Oxford Univ. Press; Oxford, London; 1938, Bk. 2, 145, 224. Normally translated as “sensible,” prud’homme may translate as “a hermit.”

d. See Ecclesiasticus 6:14: “A faithful friend is a strong defense, and he who has found him has found a treasure.”

e. Ecclesiasticus 6:16. (All other commentators have the erroneous citation: Ecclus. 5:16!)

f. Ecclesiasticus 6:17: “He that fears God shall also have good friendship since his friend shall be next to him.”

g. “Selon son cœur”: literally, “according to his heart.”

h. Tobias [Tobit] 5:4–6: “Then his father answered [Tobias] and said: ‘… Go now and seek out some faithful man, to go with you.… Then Tobias went forth and found a splendid young man, standing, before him, and apparently ready to walk. And not knowing that he was an angel of God, he saluted him and said, ‘Where have you come from, good young man?’”

i. This kind of highly dependent relationship with a spiritual director would be strongly frowned upon in our day, but in Francis’s time, it was understood that in taking on a directee, a spiritual director literally took on the entire moral responsibility for the soul of that person. The directee was under absolute obedience to the director.

j. Francis aims for spiritual moderation—both in dealing with one’s afflictions and in dealing with one’s consolations. Under affliction, one needs relief and strength; but in consolation, one needs moderation and regulation lest the comfort and joy be overblown.

k. St. John of Ávila (1500-1569), Advice for a Christian Life (cited by John K. Ryan in his 1989 Doubleday translation of the Introduction).

“A faithful friend,” we are told in Holy Scripture, “is a strong defense, and he who has found him has found a treasure;”d and again: “A faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality; and they that fear the Lord shall find him.”e These sacred words refer primarily to immortality, as you see, for which it is necessary above all things to have a faithful friend who will guide our actions by his advice and counsel, and by that he may guard us against the ambushes and lies of the Evil One. He will be as a treasure of wisdom to us in our afflictions, sorrows, and failings; he will be as a medicine to ease and comfort our hearts in spiritual illness. He will shield us from evil and will make what is good in us even better; and when some weakness assails us, he will prevent it from becoming fatal, for he will raise us up.

But who will find such a friend? The Sage answers: “He that fears God,”f that is to say, the humble who earnestly desire their spiritual progress. Since it is so important for you, my child, to proceed with a good guide on this holy journey of devotion, pray God with strong confidence that he may provide you with one who accords with his spirit,g and have no doubts, for he will give you someone who is good and faithful even if he must send an angel from the sky as he did for young Tobias.h

However, he ought always to be an angel of God for you, that is to say, when you have found him, do not think of him as any ordinary man, and do not entrust yourself to him or his wisdom except as you would to God, who will support you and speak by the mediation of this man, putting into his heart and onto his tongue whatever will be necessary for your happiness, so that you ought to listen to him as to an angel who comes down from the sky to lead you there.i Treat with him from an open heart, in all sincerity and faithfulness, showing him clearly your good and your evil, without deception or pretense. And by those means, your good will be examined and further approved, and your evil will be corrected and remedied; you will be relieved and strengthened in your afflictions, moderated and regulated in your solaces.j

Give to him an extreme confidence mixed with a respectful reverence, so that the reverence does not diminish your confidence nor the confidence lessen the reverence. Trust yourself to him with the respect of a daughter to her father, respect him with the confidence of a son with his mother. In short, that friendship ought to be strong and sweet, utterly holy, utterly sacred, utterly divine, and utterly spiritual.

And for that, choose one among a thousand, Ávilak says. But I say among ten thousand, for there are found less than one would consider capable of this office. He must be full of love, of knowledge, and of discretion, for if one of these three is lacking in him, there is danger. But I say to you again, ask it of God, and having obtained it, bless his divine Majesty, remain steadfast and do not seek any others, but go simply, humbly, and confidently, for you will make a very favorable journey.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 5

a. Song of Songs 2:12: “The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning has come; the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.”

b. See Deuteronomy 21:10–12: “If you go out to fight against your enemies, and the LORD your God deliver them into your hand, and you lead away the captives, and you see in the number of captives a beautiful woman, and you love her and wish to have her as a wife, you shall introduce her into your house; she shall shave her hair and cut her nails.”

c. Colossians 3:9b–10: “… stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new one.…”

d. The French has nos humeurs peccantes—literally, “our unhealthy humors,” reflecting Francis’s contemporary understanding of the humors of the body (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic). The word peccantes is obsolete in modern French.

e. See the account of St. Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts 22:6–16. In verse 16, Ananias says to Paul: “And now why do you delay? Rise up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, invoking his name.” Francis’s “cleansed with a perfect purification” is a hyperbole, assuming that it was Jesus’s miraculous appearance to Paul that cleansed him.

f. Luke 8:2: “And [with him] certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities; Mary who is called Magdalen, out of whom seven demons had gone forth.” St. Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510) is said to have had a miraculous vision that totally transformed her life. The legendary St. Pelagia was supposedly a courtesan who was converted and became a hermit on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

g. Reflecting the theology of his day, Francis apparently believed that the angels on Jacob’s ladder (Gen. 28:12) had actual wings, although there is nothing in Scripture to validate that. Angels are pure spirits. (Hebrews 1:14: “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to minister to them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?”) For Francis’s purposes, however, the simile of angels who could fly but chose to walk makes his point.

h. Proverbs 4:18: “… the path of the just, like the light of dawn, goes forth and increases into perfect day.” (A curious simile: is it the path or the just that/who shines brightly?)

i PART I. CHAPTER 5.

What One Must Begin for the Purifying of the Soul

“The flowers appear in our land,” says the Heavenly Bridegroom, “and the time to prune and trim is come.”a And what are the flowers of our hearts, my child, if not good desires? However, so soon as they appear, it is necessary to put one’s hand to the pruning hook to cut off from our conscience all the dead and superfluous works. When the daughter of a strange land was about to espouse an Israelite, the law commanded her to remove the robe of her captivity, to pare her nails, and to shave her hair;b and the soul that aspires to the honor of becoming the spouse of the Son of God must strip off the old man, and be covered by the new man,c giving up sin: then, it must pare and shave away all sorts of impediments which divert the love of God. This is the beginning of our sanctity: to be purged from our sinful temperament.d Saint Paul, all in a moment, was cleansed with a perfect purification,e and the like grace was conferred on Saint Catherine of Genoa, Saint Magdalene, Saint Pelagia,f and some others, but this kind of purgation is as miraculous and extraordinary in grace as the resurrection of the dead in nature, so that we ought not to aspire to that. The ordinary purification and cure—of bodies or spirits—is made only gradually, by progress from step to step, with sorrow and a slow pace.

Although the angels on Jacob’s ladder had wings, they did not fly but went up and down in order from step to step.g The soul that rises from sin to sanctity has been compared to the dawn,h which does not drive out the darkness in an instant, but little by little. That cure which is made all gently, as the aphorism says, is always more assured; and maladies of the spirit, like those of the body, arrive on horseback and stage coach, while they depart on foot and in small steps.

So we need to be brave and patient, my child, in this business. Alas! What a pity it is thus to see souls that still view themselves as subject to many imperfections, after having exerted an effort at sanctity, start to be anxious, to trouble themselves, to be discouraged, and almost to let their mind be carried by temptation to surrender and retreat; but, also, on the other hand, there is an extreme danger to souls who, through the opposite temptation, are made to imagine themselves purified from all their imperfections at the first day of their purgation; who consider themselves perfect before they are even created, and seek to fly without wings! O my child, how these are in great danger of a relapse through having removed themselves too soon from the hands of their physician. Ah, do not rise up before the light has arrived, says the Prophet, but rise up after you have sat down.a He himself practiced this lesson; although already having been washed and cleansed, he asked to be washed and cleansed still more.b

a. Psalm 126:2 [127:2]: “It is vain for you to rise before light: rise after you have been seated, you that eat the bread of sorrow.” This is a difficult Psalm in the Latin Vulgate. The original Hebrew is “It is vanity that you rise so early and stay up so late, eating the bread of labors.” The meaning is “It is futile to work from before sunrise to after sunset, because God has given the reward of sleep….” “The Prophet,” of course, is David the psalmist.

b. Psalm 50:4: “Wash me even more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” It was believed that David composed all the psalms, so “he himself” is another reference to David.

c. See Psalm 54:9 [55:9]: “I have waited for him who has saved me from cowardliness of spirit and a tempest.” [Note: This Vulgate version is very poorly translated. The Book of Common Prayer has “I would hasten to escape from the stormy wind and tempest.”]

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 6

d. Louis of Granada (1505–1588) was a Dominican friar and author of The Sinner’s Guide. Vincenzo Bruno (1532–1594) was the author of A Short Treatise of the Sacrament of Penance. Francisco Arias (1533–1605) was a Jesuit in Spain and author of Making Use of Confession. Emond Auger (1530–1591) was a French Jesuit and author of A Manual Explaining the Mass with a chapter on “A Formula for Confessing One’s Sins Well.”

e. Francis makes reference here to “the age of reason,” that is, the age at which a person is considered capable of making rational decisions. In early practice, the age of seven was set as “the age of reason,” but more commonly it fell between twelve and fourteen. Before that age, a person could not be thought of as having sinned and was generally not held morally responsible for his or her actions.

f. Here Francis describes what is often called a “Life Confession”—a confession of all of the sins one can remember from one’s entire life. He wisely considers this “spiritual housecleaning” to be the appropriate way to initiate a serious program of spiritual growth and development.

g. One of the serious responsibilities of a person committed to a moral and devout life is to avoid as far as possible situations, circumstances, places, or even persons that could possibly encourage one to sin. This is simply the same psychological dynamic of the alcoholic who avoids bars and gatherings where the consumption of liquor is preeminent.

h. We often tend to engage in fantasy in judging ourselves, and a serious confession forces us to face our own reality and know, thereafter, not to trust ourselves.

The working out of the purification of the soul neither can nor ought to end except with our life—so we are not troubled by our imperfections, for our perfection consists in combating them, and we cannot fight without seeing them, nor vanquish them without meeting them. Our victory does not consist in not feeling our flaws, but in not consenting to them. But simply to be bothered by our imperfections is not to consent to them, and it is necessary sometimes in the practice of humility to find ourselves wounded in this spiritual battle. However, we are never vanquished unless we lose either life or courage.

Moreover, imperfections and venial sins cannot demolish our spiritual life, for that is only lost through mortal sin. Consequently it remains that they do not make us lose courage. Deliver me, Lord, said David, from cowardice and discouragement.c It is a happy state for us in this war because we are always victors as long as we are willing to fight.

i PART I. CHAPTER 6.

Of the First Purification That Is from Mortal Sins

The first purification that must be made is that from sin—the means to do that is the holy Sacrament of Penance. Seek the most worthy confessor you can find; take into hand one of the little books that have been written to help the conscience, like Grenada, Bruno, Arias, Auger.d Read them well, and notice point by point how you have offended, from your first use of reason to the present hour. And if you distrust your memory, put in writing what you have recalled.e Having thus prepared and collected the sinful inclinations from your conscience, detest them, and reject them with contrition and abhorrence as great as your heart is capable of, considering these four things: that by sin you have lost the grace of God, abandoned your place in paradise, accepted the eternal pains of hell, and renounced God’s eternal love.

You see, my child, that I am now speaking of a general confession of your whole life, which certainly, I admit, is not always absolutely necessary, but I consider that it will be found extremely useful in this beginning, and therefore I strongly advise it.f Often the ordinary confessions of those who live a common and everyday life are full of great faults because they often do no preparation—or very little—and so do not have the necessary contrition. And so it happens that they go to confession with a tacit intention to return to sin, to such a degree that they do not choose to avoid the occasion of sing or take the crucial measures for amendment of life. And in all such cases a general confession is required to ensure the soul. But, in addition, a general confession calls us to a knowledge of ourselves,h provokes a helpful shame about our past life, and makes us appreciate the mercy of God, which has waited so long for us. It eases our hearts, relaxes the mind, raises up in us good resolve, provides raw material to our spiritual director for giving advice applicable to our situation, and opens our hearts so we can make the ensuing confession more confidently. Thus for good reason, it seems to me, I cannot speak of a deep renewal of spirit and a wholehearted turning of our soul to God through the effort of a devout life without advising this general confession.a

a. Francis is quite unyielding, saying in effect: “If you are going to be serious about this thing and take my advice, then you will start with a life confession.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 7

b. This a curious kind of redaction in which Francis assumes that some of the children of Israel were reluctant to leave Egypt. (The French reads literally, “not all left out of affection.”) But the scholarly understanding is that among those following Moses there were “foreign elements” who were not “children of Israel.”

c. See Numbers 11:4–5: “As you see, a mixed rabble who traveled with them [in the desert] were enflamed with longing, sitting down and weeping, and the children of Israel joining with them, and saying, ‘Who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free of charge: we think also of the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions and the garlic.’”

d. Genesis 19:15, 17, 25–26: “When it was morning, the angels pressed [Lot], saying, ‘Take your wife and the two daughters you have, lest you perish in the wickedness of the city.’ And they led him out and set him outside the city, and there they spoke to him saying, ‘Save your life; do not look back….’ And [the Lord] destroyed these cities, and all the country round about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth. And [Lot’s] wife, looking behind her, was turned into a statue of salt.”

e. Francis is a strict taskmaster: he demands not only formal and sacramental repudiation of sin, but a more inward and heartfelt rejection of even the desire for sin. His metaphor concerning melon-eaters demonstrates a universal spiritual danger: that of intentionally dwelling on sin in one’s mind. This, of course, is a moral extension of Jesus’s words in Matthew 5:28: “But I say to you that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

f. The French that I translate as “wicked love life” is mauvais amours (literally, “bad loves”). It occurs in Samuel Pepys’s diary when he speaks of visiting one of his illicit girlfriends: “Thence, my mind wandering all this day upon mauvais amours which I be merry for…”; and the phrase has been used widely in literature—by Verlaine in a poem, Georges Sand in a novel, Spinoza in a treatise, and even as a title of a book by Roberto Piccamiglio.

g. Francis locates “the true essence of devotion” in the unconscious and constant execution of good works.

i PART I. CHAPTER 7.

The Second Purification: That of the Attachment to Sin

Indeed, all the children of Israel left the land of Egypt, but not all left out of eagerness,b and that is why, when wandering in the desert, some of them regretted not having the vegetables and flesh of Egypt.c In the same way, there are penitents who leave sin yet without leaving their longing for sin; that is to say, they propose to sin no more, but it is with a certain regret that they have to be deprived of and abstain from the unfortunate delights from the sin—their heart renounces sin and moves away from it, but does not leave, for it frequently turns aside and looks back, like Lot’s wife at the edge of Sodom.d They abstain from sin like sick men abstain from melons, which they do not eat because the doctor says there is a threat of death if they eat any, but they fret themselves about abstaining, they talk about it, haggle over when they may have it, would at least like just to touch a melon, and calculate the pleasures of those who can eat them.e For just so these weak and cowardly penitents abstain for a while from sin, but with regret—they would like much to be able to sin without being damned—they speak with resentment and an appetite for sin, and they calculate the pleasures of those who do it. Thus a man who is resolved on some revenge will change in confession, but soon after he is to be found among his friends talking about the quarrel, saying that but for the fear of God he would do this or that and that it is hard to keep the divine law to forgive; would to God it were allowed to avenge one’s self! Ha! Who cannot see that even if this poor man is not in sin, he is altogether entangled with his love of sin, and although he may have come out of Egypt, he yet hungers for it and longs for the garlic and onions he used to eat! It is the same with the woman who, having detested her former wicked love life,f yet takes delight in being sought after and flirted with and admired. Alas! Such people are in great danger.

Be sure, my child, that since you seek to lead a devout life, you must not only relinquish sin; but you must prune your heart of all affections that relate to sin; for, besides the danger of a relapse, these wretched affections will perpetually enfeeble your spirit and weigh it down, so that you will not be able to do good works promptly, attentively, and frequently (in which lies the true essence of devotion).g Souls that are out of the state of sin, yet retain such likings and lethargy, in my opinion, resemble children who are of an ashen color and are not sick, but all their actions are sick: they eat without appetite, sleep without rest, laugh without joy, drag themselves about rather than walking. For souls like these settle for so much spiritual lethargy that they lose all the grace of good activities, which are few in number and of little effect.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 8

a. The word I have translated as “brutal” is véhémente, which frequently translates as “violent”—a very strong word to describe true contrition. Francis does not see contrition as a sentimental matter of sweetness and flowers.

b. Note that Francis makes a distinction between the sinful act and the attraction and appeal that sin offers, and he condemns both! It is one thing to stop sinning—and quite another to stop wanting to sin.

c. A pious hyperbole—the legend holds that Mary Magdalene and some other followers of Christ were set adrift in a vessel without oars or sail (in one legend it is a marble boat!). They were guided by Providence to the port of Marseilles, and the Magdalene was said to have retired to the barren wilderness of Saint-Baume, where she lived as a recluse in a cave until her death.

d. Another hyperbole, but possibly based on Psalm 118:133 [119:133]: “Direct my steps according to your word and let no iniquity have dominion over me.” (Legend understood David to be the author of the Psalms.)

e. “The same Prophet” also refers to the psalmist King David. In 2 Peter 1:17–19, the author recalls hearing the words on the Mount of Transfiguration: “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” and continues: “So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed.” The “prophetic message” was found in Psalm 2:7: “The LORD has said to me, ‘You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.’”

f. Psalm 102:5 [103:5]: “Your youth will be renewed like an eagle’s.”

i PART I. CHAPTER 8.

The Way to Bring About This Second Purification

The first experience in reaching this second purification is a sharp and strong dread about the great evil that sin brings us, by means of which we enter into a deep and brutala contrition (provided it is true), even if it is small, which when joined to the virtue of the Sacraments, purges us of sin; and just so, when it is large and intense, it purges us of all the affections that are governed by sin.b A slight hatred or a weak and feeble resentment makes us have a reticence toward the one we hate and makes us flee from his company; but if a mortal, violent hatred exists, we not only flee from and detest the person who provokes it, but we loathe him, we cannot endure the presence of his allies, parents, or friends, nor even his picture or anything that concerns him. Just so when a penitent does not hate the sin except with a weak contrition (however true that contrition) he will truly resolve not to sin again; but when he hates the sin with a strong and vigorous contrition, he will not merely abhor sin itself, but also every affection, addiction, and roadway to sin.

It is necessary, then, my child, that we expand our contrition and repentance so that it may reach even to the very smallest bits of sin. Thus it was that the Magdalene in her conversion so entirely lost all taste for sins and its pleasures that she never again thought of them;c and David declared his hatred not only of sin itself, but also of every path and way that led to it.d It is this point that consists of the renewing of the soul that the same Prophete compares to the renewal of the eagle’s strength.f

Now, in order to attain this dread of sin and this breadth of contrition, you must use the following meditations carefully, which if you practice them well will, by the grace of God, uproot from your heart both sin and the principal fondnesses for sin. It is for this purpose that I have drawn them up. Do them one after another, according to how I have marked them—only one each day—and using that in the morning if possible, for the morning is the clearest time for all actions of the Spirit—and then ponder it through the rest of the day. If you are not yet familiar with how to make a meditation, you will find that in the Second Part.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 9

a. Francis now presents an extensive and specific pattern of practical instruction on the means of developing a devout life. Unlike many mystics, Francis’s work is specifically didactic.

b. Francis dives immediately into a controversial consideration of the preexistence of the human soul. It is also interesting that without intending it, he quietly (and radically) anticipates Darwin by 250 years by noting that “the world was already old” before humanity appeared.

c. The French is Dieu vous a fait éclore de ce rien—literally, “God has made you to bloom from this nothing.” The word éclore can mean “to hatch” or “to bloom” or “to dawn”—all of which are singularly beautiful poetical notions when linked to the creation of a human being.

d. The highly orthodox point is made that God’s creation of human beings was an act of gratuitous goodness. Some modern theologians have suggested that the Creation followed inevitably as an extension of God’s relational nature itself.

e. Francis reminds us of the preeminence of humanity among the variety of creatures because of two aspects of human nature: (1) the human ability to live in eternity; and (2) the human ability live in perfect union with God—aspects shared by no other creature.

f. The author now follows a standard pattern: he names the simple action first (which I have put in italics) and then expands on the means by which it is to be achieved or carried out.

g. Apparently Francis was thinking of two psalms: Psalm 38:7: “Nevertheless, man passes through like a phantom,” and Psalm 8:5a: “What is man that you are remembering him?”

h. Psalm 99:3b: “… he himself made us and not we ourselves.”

i. Psalm 137:8b: “… despise not the work of your hands.”

j. Genesis 18:27: “And Abraham answered and said, ‘Behold now, I have ventured to speak to the LORD; I who am dust and ashes.’”

i PART I. CHAPTER 9.a

Meditation 1: Of Creation

Preparation

1. Place yourself in the presence of God.

2. Beg him to inspire you.

Reflections

1. Consider that only a few years ago you were not in the world, and your being was an absolute nothing. Where were you, O my soul, at that time? The world was already old, and of us there was as yet no sign.b

2. God has made you bloom out of this nothingness,b in order to make you what you are, not because he had need of you, but only out of his goodness alone.d

3. Consider the being that God has given you; for it is the primary being of this visible world, able to live eternally, and to be perfectly united to his divine Majesty.e

Affections and Resolutionsf

1. Humble yourself utterly before God. Say from the heart with the psalmist, “O Lord, before you I am an absolute nothing—and how do you have memory of me to create me?”g Alas, my soul, you were yet engulfed in that ancient nothingness and would be there still today if God had not drawn you out. And what would you do within that nothingness?

2. Give God thanks. O great and good Creator, how much am I indebted to you, since it suited you to lay hold on me in that nothingness, in order by your mercy to create me as what I am? What can I ever do worthily to praise your holy Name and thank your immeasurable goodness?

3. Humble yourself. But alas, my Creator, instead of uniting myself to you by love and service, I made myself very rebellious by my disordered affections, moving away from you to join myself to sin, not honoring your kindness, as if you had not been my Creator.

4. Prostrate yourself before God. O my soul, know that the Lord is your God; it is he who has made you, and not you yourself.h O God, I am the work of your hands.i Therefore I will not seek to rest in myself, who, as far as I am concerned, am nothing. For what do you glorify yourself, you who are but dust and ashes?j Why do you, a true nothing, exalt yourself? And for my humiliation, I will do such and such a thing to endure such and such contempt. I want to change my ways and henceforth follow my Creator, and be honored with the being he has given me; I will use it entirely in obedience to his will by the means I will be taught about, which I will inquire more through my spiritual father.

a. Psalm 102:1: “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and everything that is in me bless his holy Name.”

b. Reminiscent of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s famous prayer: “Whatever I am or have, you have given to me, and I give it all back to you, to be disposed of according to your will…,” which Francis would certainly have known.

c. In some modern translations this apostrophe to the Blessed Virgin Mary is omitted (as is the final Hail Mary)—apparently to make the text more palatable to Protestants.

d. The French words un petit bouquet de dévotion are usually translated “a little devotional bouquet,” but in English that sounds too “precious” and prissy. The French use of the word bouquet, however, also carries the sense of “memento” or “souvenir,” and that seems more appropriate at the end of the meditation.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 10

e. Psalm 83:12 [84:10]: “For God loves mercy and truth: the LORD will give grace and glory.”

f. An amazing catalog of six aspects of created human nature that Francis corrals as given in order that humans can serve God. It is built on the classic Augustinian definitions of the functions of the human mind: understanding, memory, and will—to which Francis has added imagination, sight, and speech. (See St. Augustine, On the Holy Trinity, Ch. 11.§17.)

g. Francis is stern: all actions that do not contribute to knowing God, thinking of God, loving God, recognizing God’s mercies, seeing God’s marvelous works, and praising God are to be “rejected and avoided.”

h. The author does not make his claims as abstract or theoretical assertions, but refers immediately to empirical evidence of the unhappiness of those who do not follow his proposed way.

i. A fine demonstration of skillful rhetoric: If one was not thinking about, remembering, and loving God, what else were these functions to be used for?

j. A classical definition of sin is “disorder,” and making oneself a servant of the world that was specifically created not to be served (to be a servant) is an example of a sinful disruption of cosmic order—of the very underlying nature of things.

Conclusion

1. Thank God. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and with all your being praise his holy Name;a his goodness drew me out of nothingness, and his mercy created me.

2. Offer. O my God, with all my heart I offer you the being you have given me; I dedicate and consecrate it to you.b

3. Pray. O God, strengthen me in these affections and resolutions. O holy Virgin, commend me to the mercy of your Son along with all those for whom I pray, et cetera.c

Our Father, Hail Mary.

At the end of your prayer, let your mind wander a little, and gather a little souvenir of devotiond from the reflections you have made, to appreciate it through the day.

i PART I. CHAPTER 10.

Meditation 2: Of the End for Which We Were Created

Preparation

1. Place yourself before God.

2. Beg him to inspire your heart.

Reflections

1. God did not bring you into the world because he had any need of you (who are wholly useless to him) but solely that he might manifest his goodness in you, giving you his grace and glory.e And to this end he gave you understanding in order to know him, memory for you to remember him, a will that you might love him, imagination that you might represent his kindness, eyes that you might behold the marvels of his works, a tongue that you might praise him, and so on with all your other faculties.f

2. Being created and sent into the world for this intent, all contrary actions should be rejected and avoided,g as also you should scorn as idle and superfluous whatever does not serve this purpose. Consider the unhappiness of those who do not think of this—who live as though they believed they were created only to build houses and plant trees, to gather riches, and to behave childishly.h

Affections and Resolutions

1. Humble yourself, blaming your soul for its misery, which before now has not thought even a little or not at all of all this. Alas, my God, will you ask what I was thinking when I did not think of you? What did I remember when I forgot you? What did I love when I did not love you?i Alas, I ought to have fed myself on the truth, but I stuffed myself instead with vanity, and I served the world that was created only to serve me.j

a. Another fine rhetorical ploy: personifying the objectionable behaviors and addressing them directly. Note that the first three (memories, friendships, deeds) are good in themselves but are perverted by sin. The last two, selfindulgence and complacency, are themselves sinful.

b. The French is mon esprit, literally, “my spirit,” but esprit can often be translated as “mind.”

c. “The grandeur of your goodness” (la grandeur de votre débonnaireté) is a particularly felicitous and grandly poetic phrase.

d. “The delights” (les délices) is curiously plural in the original text.

e. Francis is offering a general style of addressing God and expects the reader to insert the information uniquely relevant to her, hence the “such-andsuch” phrases (frequently omitted by translators).

f. The French word for “rubbish” is fatras and elsewhere has been translated as “jumble” or “litter” or “balderdash” or “hodgepodge.”

g. “Horror” (horreur) is a very strong and forceful word. Francis presses his reader to experience extreme revulsion to the enumerated sins.

h. Episcopalians will recognize the phrase from Rite II Eucharistic Prayer A: “Holy and gracious Father: In your infinite love you made us for yourself.…”

i. It may be noticed that Francis has his disciple ask “when,” not “if”—in confidence that the day will come eventually.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 11

j. It is interesting that Francis does not betray a dualistic hatred of the body. Rather than repudiating the body as the lowly, earthbound occasion for sin (as was a common medieval approach), Francis celebrates the divine gift of the body and counsels his protégé to do the same.

k. “More worthy than you” (valent mieux que vous: literally, “worth more than you”) is a curious phrase, and its meaning for Francis is not all clear. Does it speak of moral worth? Social worth? I think he means “more deserving” because it seems peculiar that a mentor would apparently degrade his protégé as “worth less” than others.

2. Abhor your past life. I renounce you, vain thoughts and useless cogitations. I disavow you, O frivolous and hateful memories. I renounce you, unfaithful and disloyal friendships, wasted and worthless deeds, ungrateful self-indulgences, and regrettable complacencies.a

3. Turn to God. You, my God, my Savior, you shall henceforth be the sole object of my thoughts—no, I will never apply my mindb to thoughts that are disagreeable to you. My memory will fill every day of my life with the grandeur of your goodness,c so gently exercised on my behalf. You will be the delightsd of my heart and the sweetness of my affections.

From now one such-and-such rubbishf and recreations to which I had applied myself, such-and-such vain activities in which I spent my days, suchand-such affections that engaged my heart will be to me as horrors,g and with this intention I will use such-and-such remedies.

Conclusion

1. Thank God, who has made you for so admirable an end. You have made me, O Lord, for yourself,h that I may eternally enjoy the immensity of your glory; when shall I be worthy of that? When shall I know how to bless you as is my duty?i

2. Offer. O dearest Lord, I offer you all my affections and resolutions, with my whole soul and heart.

3. Pray. I entreat you, O God, that you would find my desires and longings acceptable and give your holy blessing to my soul, to enable me to fulfill them through the merits of the blood of your dear Son, precious blood poured out upon the cross.

Gather your little souvenir of devotion.

iPART I. CHAPTER 11.

Meditation 3: Of the Gifts of God

Preparation

1. Place yourself in the presence of God.

2. Beg him to inspire your heart.

Reflections

1. Consider what bodily favors God has given youj—what body, what conveniences to maintain it; what health, and what proper comforts for that; what friends; and what benefits. But consider it with a comparison to how many other persons who are more worthy than youk but who are without these benefits: some unsound in body, health, or limbs, others abandoned to the mercy of shame, contempt, and dishonor, others overcome by poverty, while God did not want you to be so miserable.

a. The French word rustiquement means “rustically” or “boorishly” or “uncouthly” (which certainly has at least overtones of prejudice).

b. Again one is curious about what Francis meant by “free time and opportunity” (French: un loisir et commodité, which means literally “a leisure and convenience”). Does it mean that his protégé has lived a privileged lifestyle?

c. Psalm 85:5 [86:5]: “For you, LORD, are sweet and mild: and plenteous in mercy to all who call upon you.”

d. See Psalm 8:5: “What is man that you remember him? Or the son of man that you visit him?”

e. Again, Francis uses an effective (and extreme) rhetoric: literally, “I have opposed the abyss of my ingratitude to the abyss of your grace and favor.”

f. Notice the shift from an apostrophe addressed to the soul to an exclamatory interrogation.

g. Psalm 61:1: “Shall not my soul be subject to God? for from him comes my salvation.”

h. The French of Psalm 25:7 [26:7] is Pour éclater en actions de grâces, Et raconter toutes vos merveilles, literally, “To burst into acts of grace [that is, thanksgiving] and tell of all your marvels.”

i. Again, Francis uses the “such-and-such” phrase as a fill-in-the-blanks exercise: he suggests what needs to be done and leaves it up to the reader to make relevant and specific application in the immediate realities of life. In a sense, it is the intention and the broad action that carry moral value and spiritual worth; the detailed specifics are ethically irrelevant.

j. Here Francis puts words into the mouth of the reader, saying, as it were, “Here is what you should be saying at this point.” I have added the bracketed words and quotation marks to make that clear.

k. From the beginning Francis has made it part of the process of spiritual growth to recognize God’s actions that were done in the past and to resurrect those memories as well as being concerned with the present and future.

l. Once again note that some later editions of the Introduction omit references to the Blessed Virgin and the saints—plainly to make the book more palatable to Protestants.

2. Consider the gifts of the spirit. How many are there in the world who are stupid, mad, or senseless, and why are you not in their number? Because God has favored you! How many are there who were raised roughlya and in extreme ignorance, while divine Providence made you to be raised civilly and honorably?

3. Consider the spiritual gifts. O my child, you are of the children of the Church; God has taught you his knowledge from your youth. How many times have you been given his Sacraments? How many times inspirations and inner lights, reprimands for your amendment? How many times have you been pardoned for your faults? How many times delivered from situations when you were lost or you were in danger? And in these past years has there not been free time and opportunity for you to advance for the good of your soul?b See that even a little speaks well of how much God has been sweet and gracious to you.

Affections and Resolutions

1. Admire God’s kindness. O, how good my God has been to me! O, how good it is that your heart, Lord, is abundant in mercyc and generous in loving-kindness! O my soul, let us speak forever of how much good the Lord has done for us!

2. Marvel at your own ingratitude. What am I, Lord, that you have memory of me?d O, how great is my unworthiness! Alas, I have trodden your benefits under foot. I have abused your graces, turning them into abuse and contempt against your sovereign goodness. I have set the depth of my ingratitude against the depth of your grace and favor.e

3. Arouse your appreciation. Knowing this, O my soul, no longer be unfaithful, ungrateful, and disloyal to your great Benefactor!f How should not my whole soul be subject to God,g who has worked so many marvels and graces in me and for me?h

4. And so, my child, withdraw your body from such-and-such pleasures;i make it disposed to the service of God, who has done so much for it. Set your soul to know and recognize him by such-and-such activities that are suitable for that. Make careful use of the means provided in the Church to save you and to love God. [That is,]j “Yes, I will frequent prayer and the Sacraments; I will listen to the holy word; I will put the inspirations and counsels into practice.”

Conclusion

1. Thank God for the knowledge of your duty that you have been given—and of all the benefits you have already received.k

2. Offer your heart and all its resolutions to him.

3. Pray that you may be strengthened to practice them faithfully by the merits of the death of his Son. Implore the intercession of the Virgin and of the saints.l

Our Father, Hail Mary.
Gather the little spiritual souvenir.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 12

a. In the seventeenth century, the age of reason (or age of discretion) was generally accepted to be seven years. Before that time, a child was not held morally responsible for his or her actions and, hence, could not sin. Consequently, one “began to commit sin” after one’s seventh birthday.

b. Francis mercilessly catalogs virtually all dimensions of sin: against God, self, and neighbor; by actions or words; or by inner thoughts and desires.

c. Moral theology accepted the fact that for all mortals temptations (“inclinations”) to sin would arise inwardly, but that did not imply moral culpability as long the temptations were not intentionally entertained in one’s mind.

d. Psalm 39:13 [40:13]: “My iniquities have overtaken me, and I was not able to see. They are multiplied more than the hairs of my head.…”

e. Ingratitude has often been seen as a manifestation of pride, the worst of the capital sins and the root of all others. “In every sin there is material ingratitude to God…” (Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ques. 107, §2).

f. This sentence is almost beyond distasteful: the French has un apostème—literally, a tumor—and un égoût—literally, a sewer.

g. Luke 15:16: In the biblical story the prodigal son does not throw himself at his father’s feet—he doesn’t have a chance to do so because his father sees him and runs to greet him.

h. Luke 7:38: In Francis’s day the story of the woman who washed Jesus’s feet with her tears was thought to be about Mary Magdalene.

i. John 8:4: Francis presents something of a hyperbole. Scripture only speaks of the woman “taken in adultery,” not “all kinds of adulteries.”

j. Notice that here Francis expresses a deep mystical reality: he suggests that his protégé declare that she wishes to live and die within God.

i PART I. CHAPTER 12.

Meditation 4: On Sin

Preparation

1. Place yourself before God.

2. Beg him to inspire your heart.

Reflections

1. Think how much time has passed since you began to commit sin,a and see how, since that first beginning, sins have multiplied in your heart—how every day has increased sins against God, against yourself, and against your neighbor, by deed, by word, by desire, and thought.b

2. Consider your evil inclinations and how much you have followed them.c By these two points you will see that your sins are in greater number than the hairs of your headd or the sand of the sea.

3. Consider separately the sin of your ingratitude toward God, which is a broad sin that releases all the others and makes them infinitely more gross;e thus, see how many privileges God has given you, and how you have taken advantage of the Giver, especially how much you have scorned the inspirations and how many good impulses you have rendered futile. And again, more than that, how many times have you received Sacraments, and where are their fruits? What has happened to the precious jewels with which your dear Bridegroom has adorned you? All that has been buried under your iniquities. With what preparation have you received those Sacraments? Think of this ingratitude with which, when God was trying to save you, you always fled from him and led yourself astray.

Affections and Resolutions

1. Humble yourself in your wretchedness. “O my God, how dare I come before your eyes? Alas, I am no more than a cancer on the world and a cesspit of ingratitude and iniquity.f Is it possible that I have been so disloyal, that I have not left a single one of my senses, not one virtue of my soul that I have not spoiled, violated, and soiled—not one day of my life has passed without my producing such evil consequences. Was this what I ought to exchange for the gifts of my Creator and for the blood of my Redeemer?”

2. Ask pardon and throw yourself at the Lord’s feet like the prodigal son,g like a Magdalene,h like a woman who would have soiled her marriage bed with all kinds of adulteries.i Have mercy, Lord, on this sinner! “O living fount of compassion, have pity on this wretched one.”

3. Resolve to live better. “O Lord, never again, with the help of your grace, no, never again will I abandon myself to sin. Alas, I loved it too well—I detest it and I embrace you, O Father of mercy. I wish to live and die in you.”j

a. The French has les plantes de mon cœur, literally, “the plants from my heart.” I translate the word as “underbrush” because what is implied is some kind of impeding and hindering foliage of sin in the heart that needed to be rooted out. It could be translated as “sinful growths.” And, again, Francis provides a fill-in-the-blank with his “such-and-such.”

b. A person deeply serious about spiritual growth will never consider the work completed—no matter how much advance is apparent. The saint will always see herself or himself as a miserable sinner. Measuring one’s own spiritual growth is an absolute guarantee of spiritual failure, since one can never be objective about such matters.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 13

c. This entire meditation is a memento mori—a reminder of mortality—often associated with the words from Ecclesiasticus 7:40: “In all you do, remember your last end, and you will never sin.” Notice that this begins a series of meditations on the classical Four Last Things—Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven.

d. In ecclesiastical judicial usage, dies certus and dies incertus refer to the degree of certainty of when a particular day will arrive or whether it will arrive at all.

e. A perceptive psychological insight: that death always comes earlier than we think!

f. The French is good here: Il renversera sens dessus dessous vos yeux. Literally, “It will reverse direction top below before your eyes.”

g. Notice the constant shifts among “you,” “I,” and “we” in this paragraph—it is a style Francis uses often in order to make his advice seem more “immediate,” more instantly applicable.

4. In order to expunge past sins, accuse yourself bravely, and let there not be a single sin that you do not reveal.

5. “I will do all that I can completely to uproot the underbrusha from my heart, especially such-and-such, which troubles me most.”

6. “In order to do this, I will constantly follow the counsels that will be given me, never seeming to myself that I have done enough to atone for so great past faults.”b

Conclusion

1. Thank God for having waited until this hour for you and for giving these good intentions.

2. Make an offering to him of your heart in order to carry them out.

3. Pray that he would strengthen you. (etc.)

i PART I. CHAPTER 13.

Meditation 5: Of Deathc

Preparation

1. Place yourself in the presence of God.

2. Ask his grace.

3. Imagine yourself to be at the end of life, on your deathbed, with no hope of recovery.

Reflections

1. Consider the uncertainty of the day of your death.d O my soul, one day you will leave this body. When will that be? Will it be in winter or in summer? In city or village? By day or by night? Will it be unexpected or with warning? Will it be by sickness or by accident? Will you have time for your confessor or not? Will you be assisted by your confessor or spiritual father? Alas, of all these things we know nothing at all: only it is certain that we will die, and always earlier than we think.e

2. Consider that then the world is at an end, for that is what you will see: there will be no more for you. It will be thrown upside down before your eyes.f Yes, because all the pleasures, the vanities, the earthly joys, the vain affections will appear to us as phantoms and clouds. “O wretch that I am, for what trifles and dreams have I offended my God?” Then you will see that we abandoned God for nothing. To the contrary, the devotion and the good works will then seem to you so precious and sweet. “Why did I not follow that beautiful and gracious road?” Then the sins that seemed very little will look like mountains, and your devotion very small.g

a. The last word in French is puant. Most translators try to avoid its literal meaning, which is “stinking,” and use “repulsive” or “loathsome,” but it definitely refers to decaying flesh.

b. The word I translated as “monstrous” in French is considérable, literally, “notable, eminent, illustrious, important.” Other translators have used “powerful” or “hard.” I think the primary idea is that death is “huge” and “beyond caring.”

c. Matthew 25:31–33: “And when the Son of Man shall come in his majesty, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty; and all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.”

d. Note that, for Francis, judgment after death will mean simply that one continues in the direction one has taken in this life. For him responsibility for one’s place in eternity is decided by each mortal based on the decisions that person made on earth. This is a notably enlightened understanding in the seventeenth century.

e. Deuteronomy 33:27a: “His dwelling is above, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

f. One is reminded of the long sequence hymn that was chanted at Masses for the dead: the Dies Irae that begins “O, Day of wrath….”

g. Matthew 24:42: “Watch, therefore, because you do not know what hour your Lord will come.”

h. It seems that Francis is advising that his protégé not base friendships and associations on earthly or fleshly love, but on heavenly love alone—which can never fade or die.

i. Note that once again sin is spoken of as disorder and virtue as order.

j. The French has un bouquet de myrrhe. Myrrh is a resin of several small, thorny trees in the Middle East. It was associated with death and burial (see John 19:39, where Nicodemus brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes to use in embalming Jesus’s body). This is also an obvious reference to the line from the Song of Songs 1:13: “A bundle of myrrh is my love to me.”

3. Consider the wide and torpid farewells that your soul will say to this low world. It will say farewell to riches, to vanities and vain companions, to pleasures and pastimes, to friends and neighbors, to parents, to children, to husband, to wife—in short to all creation. And at the end to its own body, which it will forsake—pale, wan, wasted, hideous, and stinking.a

4. Consider the eagerness they will have to take up that body and hide it in the earth—and that done, the world will not think of you anymore, nor will there be any more memory—no more than you have thought of others. “God rest his soul!” someone will say, and then that is all. O death, how monstrous you are!b How pitiless you are!

5. Consider that when it leaves the body, the soul must make its way to the right or the left.c Alas, to which will yours go? Which direction will it take? None other than that which it had begun in this world.d

Affections and Resolutions

1. Pray God and throw yourself into his arms.e “Alas, Lord, receive me into your protection on that dreadful day!f May that hour be happy and favorable, even if all the others of my life may be sad and miserable for me.”

2. Despise the world. “Since as I do not know the hourg in which I must leave you, O world, I do not wish to be attached to you. O my dear friends, my dear associates, let me not give you more affection than a holy friendship that can last eternally. For why link myself to you in a way that is necessary to leave and break the bond?”h

3. “I will prepare myself for that hour and take every necessary care to make this passage happily; I want to ensure the state of my conscience as much as possible, and I want to put in order such-and-such failures.”i

Conclusion

Thank God for these resolutions that he has given you. Offer them to his Majesty. Entreat him to grant you your happy death by the merit of the death of his Son. Implore the assistance of the Virgin and the saints.

Our Father, Hail Mary.
Make a garland of myrrh.j

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 14

a. Luke 21:26: “Men withering away for fear and the expectation of what shall come on the whole world.”

b. See Joel 3:2.: “I shall gather together all nations, and bring them down into the valley of Jehosaphat” (part of the description of the promised land of Judah).

c. Matthew 25:31: “And then the Son of Man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him.…”

d. Compare Paul’s description of his conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts 26:13: “At noon, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven above, brighter than the sun, shining round about me….”

e. See Daniel 7:10b: “… thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred stood before him; he sat in judgment and the books were opened.”

f. Mark 4:22: “For there is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest: neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light.”

g. Matthew 25:41: “Depart from me, cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.”

h. Francis rhetorically personifies his heart and the eternity of suffering and addresses them both in apostrophes. Notice that here Francis makes no reference to purgatory—only to the final extremes of hell and heaven—although the idea of purgatory as a temporary punishment for lesser sinners preceding heaven was established in the twelfth century and was virtually universal among Catholics by the seventeenth. It is possible that Francis purposely omitted it since the very existence of purgatory was strongly ridiculed and repudiated by the Protestants with whom Francis found himself surrounded.

i. Matthew 25:34: “Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: ‘Come, blessed ones of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’”

j. Francis does an effective rhetorical job here by first parsing each sentence by word and phrase and then by demonstrating reverse parallels between the curses of the evil and the blessings of the good.

i PART I. CHAPTER 14.

Meditation 6: Of Judgment

Preparation

1. Place yourself in the presence of God.

2. Beg him to inspire you.

Reflections

1. At the end, after the time which God has appointed for the end of this world, and after a quantity of terrible signs and warnings, for which men will wither with terror and fear,a fire will come like a deluge, burning and reducing to ashes all the face of the earth, without any of the things we see escaping.

2. After the deluge of flames and of wrath, all men shall rise from the earth (except those who are already risen), and at the voice of the archangel they shall appear in the valley of Jehosaphat.b But, alas, with what difference! For some will be in glorious and shining bodies, others in hideous and horrible bodies.

3. Consider the majesty with which the sovereign Judge will appear, surrounded by all his angels and saints;c having before him his Cross, shining brighter than the sun,d the sign of grace for the good and of severity for the evil.

4. This sovereign Judge by his fearful command, which will be carried out instantly, separates the good from the evil, setting the one on his right hand, the others on his left—an eternal separation after which these two groups will never be together again.

5. This separation done, the books of consciences opened,e we will see clearly the malice of the wicked, and the contempt they have had for God; and also the penitence of the good, and the effects of the grace of God they have received. Nothing will be hidden.f O God, what confusion for some, what comfort for the others!

6. Consider the final sentence of the wicked. “Go from me, cursed ones, to eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his companions.”g Weigh these most heavy words. “Go,” he says; this is a word of perpetual abandonment that God spoke to such unhappy ones, banishing them forever from his presence. He calls them “cursed ones.” O, my soul, what a curse! A universal curse, which includes all other curses—an irrevocable curse, which includes all the ages and eternity. He added: “to eternal fire.” Look, O my heart, on that vast eternity; O unending eternity of suffering; how horrendous you are.h

7. Consider the opposite sentence of the good. “Come,” the Judge says. Oh, that is a word agreeable to salvation, by which God draws us to himself and receives us in the bosom of his goodness. “Blessed of My Father”—O dear blessing, which includes all blessing! “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.”i O God, what grace, for that kingdom will have no end!j

a. Job 26:10–11: “He has set the bounds about the waters, till light and darkness come to an end. The pillars of heaven tremble at his command.”

b. 1 Corinthians 11:31: “But if we were to judge ourselves, of course we would not have been judged.”

c. One of the petitions in the English Great Litany of 1544 was, “From battle murder, and sudden death: good Lord, deliver us.” It was based on a fifth-century form used in Rome. The petition to be delivered from sudden death expressed the hope that one would have time to prepare for death with penance, confession, and Holy Communion.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 15

d. It is hard for us to understand now, but in Francis’s day it was still commonly held that hell was literally a physical place—a massive dark cavern, beneath the ground, “at the bottom of the earth.” Revelation 20:9 describes a “… lake of fire and sulfur …”

e. One common description of heaven is “the Beatific Vision”—to be deprived of that vision would be hell.

f. After Absalom had killed his brother Amnon, he was alienated from his father, King David. See 2 Kings 14:24, 28, 32 [2 Samuel]: “But the king [David] said, ‘Let [Absalom] return into his house, but let him not see my face.’ So Absalom returned into his house and did not see the king’s face and Absalom dwelt two years in Jerusalem, and did not see the king’s face.” “And Absalom sent to say to the king, ‘Why have I come from [exile in] Gessur? It would be better for me to be there: I beseech you, therefore, that I may see the face of the king.…’”

Affections and Resolutions

1. Tremble, O my soul, at that recollection. O God, who can provide for me for that day in which the pillars of heavena will tremble with fear?

2. Detest your sins, which alone can cause you to be lost in that terrible day.

3. Ah, I want to judge myself now, so that I will not be judged at the end.b I want to examine my conscience, and condemn myself, accuse myself, and punish myself, so that the Judge may not condemn me on that terrible day. Therefore, I will make my confession and accept the necessary advice.

Conclusion

Thank God that you are given the means of protecting yourself for that day, and time for repentance.c Offer him your heart to do it. Pray that he arranges the grace for you to perform it well.

Our Father, Hail Mary.
Collect a souvenir.

i PART I. CHAPTER 15.

Meditation 7: Of Hell

Preparation

1. Place yourself in God’s Presence.

2. Humble yourself, and ask his aid.

3. Picture to yourself a dark city, all stinking with the burning of sulfur and pitch, full of citizens who cannot leave.d

Reflections

1. Even so the damned are inside the abyss of hell, as in that wretched city—suffering indescribable torments in all their senses and in all their limbs, because since they have used their senses and limbs for sin, so it is that they suffer in all their limbs and all their senses the pains due to sin. The eyes—for their treacherous and evil glances, now suffer the horrible vision of devils and of fire; the ears—for having taken pleasure in vicious speeches, will never hear anything except weeping, lamentation, and despair—and also with the other senses.

2. Beyond all these sufferings, there is one greater still: the privation and pain of loss of the glory of God that they are barred from ever seeing.e If Absalom found that being deprived of the amiable face of his father, David, was more vexing than his exile,f O God, how miserable to be deprived forever of seeing your sweet and gentle face?

a. For Francis, the endlessness of the torments of hell is the worst punishment. It is interesting that he predicts emotional results from such an eternity of torture: despair (because there is no hope of release), blasphemies (cursing and blaming God), and rage (at the powerlessness to do anything about it). Notice that these traits are a product of damnation, not only its cause.

b. Some versions of the text read Épouvantez votre âme par les paroles de Job—“Terrify your soul with the words of Job,” but all follow that with a quotation from the prophet Isaiah. Either Francis or his printers were confused about the citation.

c. Isaiah 33:14b: “Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? Which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

d. An unusual and forceful phrasing: Confessez que vous l’avez mérité, mais combien de fois! “Confess that you have deserved it, but how many times!”

e. Another fill-in-the-blank intention or resolution. Francis doesn’t discount the unique individuality of his protégé.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 16

f. Francis’s use of the word “Paradise” is temporarily confusing in that the word refers primarily to the Garden of Eden (especially when capitalized) and only secondarily to heaven itself (which is Francis’s obvious use). In some religious traditions, Paradise is a place of postmortem happiness in which the good await the end of the world and their final entry into heaven.

g. I know of no other Christian writer who has described heaven as a combination of the beauties of both night and day at one and the same time. It ends up being a hyperbole that can be suggested as a simile but can never be actually envisioned.

3. Consider especially the eternity of these sorrows that alone makes hell unbearable. Alas, if a flea in your ear, if the heat of a slight fever makes an ordinary night so long and tedious, how terrible will be the night of eternity with so many real torments! From this eternity arise eternal despair, blasphemies, and endless furies.a

Affections and Resolutions

1. Terrify your soul with the words of the prophet:b “O my soul, will you be able to live eternally with this everlasting burning and this consuming fire.”c Do you wish to lose your God forever?

2. Confess that you have deserved it—and how many times!d “However, from now on I want to separate myself from the contrary way. Why would I want to descend into that abyss?”

3. “I will thus make such-and-such an effort to avoid sin,e which alone can can give me that eternal death.”

Give thanks, offer yourself, pray.

i PART I. CHAPTER 16.

Meditation 8: On Paradisef

Preparation

1. Place yourself in the presence of God.

2. Invoke his aid.

Reflections

1. Consider a beautiful, serene night, and think how good it is to see the heavens with that multitude and variety of stars. Now join that beauty of a night with the beauty of a gorgeous day—so that the brilliance of the sun does not obscure the clear sight of the stars nor of the moon.g And then, after that, say boldly that all that beauty put together is nothing compared to the excellence of paradise: “O, how desirable and agreeable, how precious is that city!”

2. Consider the nobility, the beauty, and the multitude of citizens and inhabitants of that happy country—those millions and millions of angels, of cherubim and seraphim, that company of apostles, of martyrs, of confessors, of virgins, of holy women.a The multitude is innumerable.b Oh, how happy is that company! The least one of all is more beautiful to see than the whole world. What will it be like to behold them all? And, my God, how happy they are! They always sing the sweet song of eternal love; they always enjoy a constant happiness; they share one with the other an inexpressible contentment, and they live in the consolation of a happy and indissoluble company.

a. The list of inhabitants of heaven is reminiscent of the verses in the fourth-century Te Deum:

To you all angels, all the powers of heaven,
Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise…
The glorious company of the apostles praise you.
The noble fellowship of prophets praise you.
The white-robed army of martyrs praise you.

It is notable that Francis includes “holy women” (not just virgins) in his list of heavenly inhabitants—reminding the reader that the notes on which the Introduction was based were written to a devout laywoman.

b. It is a little surprising that Francis makes as much as he does of the “community” in heaven—at a time and place when the salvation of the individual was of overriding concern. It was not until the papal promulgation of Lumen Gentium in 1964 that the Church came to be defined as “the People of God” (that is, a community) rather than “the Body of Christ.”

c. “Blessed are you forever” is a line from a Lenten poem of St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373), and it is used repeatedly in the sixteenth-century works of St. Teresa of Ávila.

d. Notice that Francis has developed a style for his “Affections and Resolutions” sections: he tends to begin each entry with a statement of advice and admonition and then proposes a sample response, putting suggested or appropriate words in the mouth of his reader/protégé—basically saying, “You might respond to my advice with words like these….”

e. Hebrews 11:16: “But now [the ancient Jewish patriarchs] desire a better—that is to say—a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared for them a city.”

f. One is reminded of Revelation 21:2: “And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

g. Francis does not set pleasure against pain, but “disagreeable and flimsy pleasures” against “eternal and infinite pleasures.”

h. The French is Quel esprit avais-je de mépriser des biens si désirables (literally, “What spirit did I have to despise so desirable good?”) but esprit has a plethora of meanings from “spirit” or “ghost” to “character” or “understanding.” I think what Francis asks here is, “What was driving me when I rejected God’s goodness?”

i. The French has ce séjour tant délicieux (literally, “that such-a-delicious stay”).

j. A truly exceptional rhetorical metaphor: as if he would say, “Don’t you see that we are as much enslaved to this world as the Israelites were in Egypt?”

3. Finally, consider how good they all have it to enjoy God, who rewards them forever with his loving esteem, and this opens their hearts into the very depths of delight. How good to be united forever to one’s God! They are like happy birds who fly and sing forever in the air of the Divinity that surrounds them on all sides with incredible pleasures. There each one vies with the others and without envy sings the praises of the Creator: “Blessed are you forever,c O our sweet and sovereign Creator and Savior, you who are so good to us and so freely share your glory with us,” and God reciprocates, giving his perpetual blessing to his saints:

“Blessed are you forever, my dear creatures,” says he, “who serve me and praise me forever with great love and courage.”

Affections and Resolutionsd

1. Admire and rejoice in the heavenly country:e “O, how beautiful you are, my dear Jerusalem.”f

2. Blame your heart for the little courage it has had till now by allowing itself to be diverted so far from the road to this glorious dwelling place. “Why have I pulled away so far from my supreme happiness? Ah, miserable one! For the sake of disagreeable and flimsy pleasures, I have mile after mile left behind these eternal and infinite pleasures.g What dispositionh did I have that I could scorn such desirable things for so vain and contemptible desires?”

3. Nevertheless, seek passionately after that pleasant sojourn.i “O, since you have been pleased, my good and Sovereign Lord, to turn my steps into your ways, nevermore will I again look back. Go, O my dear soul, go to that final rest. Let us journey to that blessed land that is promised to us. What are we doing in this Egypt?”j

4. Thus: “I will put away from myself such things as divert me or delay me on this journey.”

5. So, “I will do such-and-such things that can guide me.”

Give thanks, offer, pray.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 17

a. In Francis’s use, it is appropriate to translate bon ange (“good angel”) as “guardian angel.”

b. A second reference to Tobias [Tobit] 5:5–15 in which Tobias was guided on his travels to the city of Rages by a “beautiful young man” who was, in fact, the archangel Raphael.

c. Through all these chapters on heaven and hell, Francis strongly emphasizes that mortals have free choice about their eternal habitation—that they determine their afterlife by the decisions they make on earth and that their eternal goal is determined entirely by the directions they choose to take in the world.

d. This reference to the Blessed Virgin Mary has been omitted in some translations intended for Protestant readers.

e. Francis could well add “nor as hard as the Church makes it out to be.” His goal is to show how smooth the road to virtue is and how much support and good will one has from God and the saints to follow it.

f. The French for “Be fearless” is simply hardiment (literally, “boldly” or “daringly”).

g. Francis brings all the saints as judicial witnesses to the fact that the way of virtue is much more pleasant than the way of the world. (This flies in the face of sour-faced virtue mongers!)

i PART I, CHAPTER 17.

Meditation 9: About the Manner of Selection and Choice of Paradise

Preparation

1. Place yourself in the presence of God.

2. Humble yourself before him, and ask his inspiration.

Reflections

Imagine yourself alone with your guardian angela in an open field, as was the young Tobias on his way to Rages,b and that he shows you paradise opened wide, with the delights revealed in the last meditation you have made on paradise; then, on the other hand, he shows you hell opened wide, with all the torments also in your last meditation on hell.

1. Consider that it is actually true that you stand between hell and paradise, and that the one and the other are open to receive you, according to the choice that you will make.c

2. Consider that the choice that you make of the one or the other in this world will last eternally in the next world.

3. Consider too, that while the one and the other are open to receive you according to your choice, so it is that God, who is prepared to give either the one out of his justice or the other out of his mercy, nevertheless longs with a consummate hope for you to choose paradise. And your guardian angel urges you with all his might, offering you on behalf of God a thousand graces and a thousand aids to help you rise to it.

4. Jesus Christ, on high in heaven, looks down upon you in his goodness and invites you sweetly: “Come, O my dear soul, to eternal rest within the arms of my goodness, where I have prepared for you the immortal delights in the abundance of my love.” And see with your inner eyes the Holy Virgin who invites you with motherly love: “Courage, my child, do not choose to despise the wishes of my Son, nor the many sighs I offer for you, yearning with him for your eternal salvation.”d See the saints who exhort you, and a million holy souls who invite you sweetly, wishing only one day to see your heart joined with theirs, to praise God forever, and assuring you that the way to heaven is not as hard as the world makes it out to be.e “Be fearless,f most dear friend,” they say. “Whoever considers well the way of devotion by which we have mounted will see that we came to those delights with incomparably more delight than those of the world.”g

a. Notice that Francis changes from the practical “Affections and Resolutions” title to the simple and profound words “The Choice.” It is important to recognize that Francis keeps personal choice in the forefront of considerations of the afterlife rather than either divine judgment or predestination.

b. The “purchase” is a reference to the Atonement—the belief that by giving his life on the cross, Jesus purchased salvation and heaven for all of us.

c. A pious qualification. Francis says, “It’s not just that I will enjoy the consolations and joys of heaven, but what matters more is that I can ‘love and bless’ God forever.”

d. Once again, here is an example of Francis’s emphasis on the community dimension of salvation.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 18

e. The French for “left” is gauche—in English that means “uncouth” or “tasteless” or “tacky.” The same overtones carry with “left” in several languages based on the Latin word sinistra, which means “left” but also “improper,” “adverse,” “inauspicious,” or “evil.” It is no wonder Francis puts the devil on the left.

f. Francis’s fairly exhaustive catalog of sins includes hatred, envy, wrath, murder, greed, pride, lust. The only ones of the classical Cardinal Sins not included are gluttony and sloth.

g. Two overarching products of sin: “without order and without control”—sin is seen as disorder, as a world or a person “out of order”; and the formal opposition to human inclination to sin is self-control.

h. Now and again a careful reader can note examples of Francis’s own sanctity—here, for instance, his reaction to the monstrous evil of the citizens of hell is not judgment but compassion for them!

The Choicea

1. “O hell, I detest you now and forever; I detest the torments and the pains; I detest your misfortune and endless misery, especially those endless blasphemies and curses that you vomit up against my God—but turning my heart and my soul to your side, O beauteous paradise, eternal glory, imperishable happiness, I choose you forever irrevocably as my home, and choose my sojourn in your beautiful and holy mansions and in your holy and pleasing tabernacles. O my God, I bless your mercy and accept the offer that you are pleased to make me. O Jesus, my Savior, I accept your eternal love, and acknowledge the purchaseb that you have made for me of a place and a lodging in this blessed Jerusalem—not so much for anything else, as for the chance to love and bless you forever.”c

2. Accept the favors that the Blessed Virgin and the saints have offered you. Promise them that you will deliver yourself to them.d Offer your hand to your guardian angel so that he may lead you there—and hearten your soul with this choice.

i PART I. CHAPTER 18:

Meditation 10: About the Manner of Election and the Choice That the Soul Makes for a Devout Life

Preparation

1. Place yourself in the presence of God.

2. Humble yourself before him, and ask his aid.

Reflections

1. Once more imagine yourself in an open plain, all alone with your guardian angel, and on the lefte you see the devil seated on a great exalted throne, with many of the infernal spirits near him, and all around him a large troop of worldly men who, all bareheaded, recognize him and do him homage—some by committing one sin and others by another. Look at the countenances of all the wretched courtiers of this abominable king—notice those monstrous with hatred, envy, and anger; and others who are killing each other; others emaciated as they plan and rush to make wealth; others paying attention to vanity without any kind of pleasure except what is useless and vain; other villains lost and rotting in their brutal lusts.f See how they are all restless, without order, and without control; see how they despise each other, and how they love each other only under false pretenses.g Lastly, you will see a calamitous republic—tyrannized by this cursed king—that will move you to compassion.h

a. The devout are pictured with their angels—see Matthew 18:10: “See that you do not despise one of these little [followers of mine]: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” Also note that in Acts 12:15, when Peter is miraculously freed from prison and arrives at the door of John Mark’s home, the servant girl Rhoda hears his voice but the assembly of disciples say, “It is his angel.” The idea that each person has a tutelary or guardian angel is even older than Christianity.

b. The beautiful phrase “kingdom of devotion” seems to be unique to Francis.

c. This entire descriptive passage is simply amazing for a seventeenth-century Roman Catholic prince-bishop: to praise the married state so profusely, and to compare the love between a married couple and humanity’s love of Jesus Christ.

d. In the Catholic baptismal rite, the candidate was asked, Abrenuntias Satanæ? (“Do you renounce Satan?”) Et omnibus operibus eius? (“And all his works?”) Et omnibus pompis eius? (“And all his retinue?”) and the candidate replies, Abrenuntio (“I do renounce them”). So Francis’s Christian protégé would have made such a renunciation at the time of baptism (or had one made on her behalf by godparents).

e. “Christ the King” and “King of Kings” are quite common designations for Jesus, but “King Jesus” is an unusual one. It may find its origin in Acts 17:7, in the Thessalonian Jews’ charge against Jason for harboring Christians: “… and these act against Caesar’s decrees, saying there is another king, Jesus.”

f. Francis’s meaning is unclear: who/what is the reader “between”? Is King Jesus “one” and heavenly saints “the other”? Or is the “happy and holy company of the devout” an earthly group of holy folk? Or does he mean that company is the Church?

g. A curious compendium of saints: Mary and Joseph are, perhaps, predictable, but St. Louis (Louis IX of France, d. 1270) and St. Monica (d. 387—mother of St. Augustine) seem odd.

h. One is reminded of the appearance of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene in which she doesn’t recognize him until he calls her by her name (Jn. 20:14–16)

i. Revelation 2:10b: “Be faithful until death: and I will give you the crown of life.”

j. In Job 41:25, Leviathan is described as “king over all the children of pride” (“Mystically it is understood of the devil who is king over all the proud”: Biblia Sacra; Baronius Press; London; 2009, 585).

2. On the right side, behold Jesus Christ crucified, who with heartfelt love prays for those poor tormented ones that they may escape this tyranny, and who calls them to himself. Look at the great company of devotees who are around him with their angels.a Contemplate the beauty of that kingdom of devotionb that shows this troop of virgins (both men and women) whiter than the lily—this gathering of widows, full of holy mortification and humility. See the rows of many married people who live so sweetly together with mutual respect that cannot be without a great love; see how these devout souls join the care of their outer family with the care of their inner one—that is, the love of husband with that of the heavenly Spouse.c Look all around—you will see all of one holy countenance, sweet, amiable, who listen to Our Lord, and all wish to fix him in the midst of their heart. They rejoice, but with a gracious, charitable, and well-ordered joy. They love one another, but with a very pure and sacred love. Those who have afflictions among the devout people do not trouble themselves much and are not ashamed. In short, see the eyes of the Savior who comforts them and whom all seek together.

3. You have already renounced Satan with his sad and miserable retinue,d by the good conditions you have begun—but nevertheless you have not fully arrived at King Jesuse nor altogether joined the happy and holy company of the devout ones—you have always been between the one and the other.f

4. The Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, St. Louis, St. Monica,g and a hundred thousand others in the ranks of those who lived in the world now invite and encourage you.

5. The crucified King calls you by your own name:h “Come, O my beloved, come at last that I may crown you!”i

The Choice

1. “O world, O vile company, never will I enlist beneath your banner. I have forever abandoned your madness and emptiness. King of pride,i king of evil, infernal spirit, I renounce you and all your empty pomp; I detest you and all your works.j

a. “Jesus king of gentleness” occurs in a poem by St. John of the Cross and in the fifth-century hymn Aurora lucis rutilat translated by John Mason Neale in 1851.

b. Reminiscent of the traditional Act of Contrition: “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you, and I detest all my sins, because of your just punishments, but most of all because they offend you, my God, who are all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 19

c. Julian of Norwich: “By contrition we are made pure, by compassion we are made ready, and by true yearning for God we are made worthy. These are three means, as I understand, by which all souls come to heaven—that is to say, those who have been sinners on earth and shall be saved…. And even though the soul is healed, its wounds are seen before God, not as wounds, but as awards” (Revelations, ch. 39).

d. Luke 7:34–48. The name “Simon the Leper” derives from a nonscriptural medieval tradition.

e. 1 Kings 3:9–10: “And the Lord came and stood and called as he had called before: Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said: Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

f. Luke 10:16: “He that hears you, hears me.”

2. And turning to you, my sweet Jesus, king of happinessa and of eternal glory, I embrace you with all the powers of my soul; I adore you with all my heart; I choose you now and forever for my king, and with sacred devotion I would make irrevocable homage to you and I submit myself to obey your holy laws and ordinances.b

3. O holy Virgin, my dear Lady, I choose you for my guide; I surrender myself under your banner; I offer you a particular respect and a special reverence. O my guardian angel, present me to this holy assembly, do not abandon me until I have come to this happy company, with whom I say and will say forever, as a testimony of my choice, “Jesus lives! Vive Jesus!”

i PART I. CHAPTER 19.

How One Should Make a General Confession

So, my child, these meditations are necessary to fulfill our intention, and when you have done them, go on bravely in the spirit of humility to make your general confession—but I entreat you, be not troubled by any sort of trepidation. The scorpion who stings us is venomous when it strikes us, but when reduced to oil, his venom is a great remedy for his own sting—just so, sin is disgraceful only when we commit it, but when it is converted by confession and penitence, it becomes honorable and salutary.c Contrition and confession are so beautiful and of so good an odor that they erase the ugliness and dissipate the stink of sin. Simon the Leper said that Magdalene was a sinner, but Our Lord said that she was not, and he does not speak of the perfume that she poured but of the magnitude of her love.d

If we are truly humble, child, our sin will displease us extremely because God is offended by it, but accusing ourselves of our sin will be sweet and pleasant for us, because God is honored by that. For us that is a kind of relief to tell the doctor plainly what torments us.

When you arrive before your spiritual father, imagine yourself to be on Mount Calvary, at the feet of Jesus Christ crucified, whose precious blood drops down on every side to wash you clean from your sin, for, although this is not the actual blood of the Savior, it is the merit of that shed blood which washes profusely around penitents in the confessionals. So then open your heart fully, in order to drive the sins away by confession, for to the same degree that they are driven away, the precious merit of the divine Passion will enter there to fill it with blessing. But say truly everything; simply and candidly and completely satisfy your conscience in this good thing. And, that done, listen to the admonitions and directions of the minister of God, and say in your heart, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”e (Yes, it is God, my child, whom you hear, because he spoke through his agents: “Who listens to you, listens to me.”f)

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 20

a. John K. Ryan in his translation notes, “In this chapter St. Francis de Sales clearly shows his training as a lawyer.”

b. The idea of heaven being a royal court ruled by an enthroned God is common in Holy Scripture. (See 1 Kings 22:19–23, Isaiah 6, Revelation 4.)

c. The idea that God created the world or humans “out of nothing” would have been unknown in the most ancient traditions that portrayed God as bringing order out of a preexistent chaos (as appears in a careful reading of Genesis). The first idea of creation ex nihilo (“from nothing”) is probably found in the apocryphal book 2 Maccabees 7:28: “I beseech you, look at heaven and earth and at all that is in them, and realize that God made them out of nothing, and humanity also.” The idea was embraced by both Jewish and Christian scholars from the second century onward.

d. Again, Francis leaves space for the reader to insert her or his own age and the time of making this General Confession.

e. The French word is saintement and the translation “holily” is awkward and unfortunate, but it is the only entirely accurate word to use.

f. In the case of infant baptism, the godparents profess vows in the name of the child.

g. The French word is violé and is extremely strong—literally, “raped” or “ravished.”

h. The entire paragraph is one single sentence!

i. The French word immoler means “immolate”—literally, “to sacrifice one’s life ritually.”

After your confession, take in hand the following declaration that serves as a conclusion to all your contrition; read it carefully and with as much feeling as is possible for you.

i PART I. CHAPTER 20.

An Authentic Declaration to Impress on the Soul the Resolution to Serve God, and to Conclude Its Acts of Penancea

I, the undersigned, recognized and standing in the presence of God eternal and of all the heavenly court,b having considered the immense mercy of his divine goodness toward me, a very unworthy and wretched creature, whom he has created out of nothing,c preserved, sustained, delivered from so many dangers, and filled with so many blessings, but also having considered the incomprehensible sweetness and clemency with which this great God has so graciously tolerated my iniquities, so often and so cordially inspired me, urging me to mend my ways and so patiently waiting for penance and repentance until this Nthd year of my age, regardless of all my ingratitudes, disloyalties, and infidelities in which, at variance with my conversion and scorning his graces, I so impudently offended him: and after considering that on the sacred day of my baptism I was so happily and holilye devoted and dedicated myself to my God to be his child, and that in defiance of the profession that was made in my name,f I have time and again unfortunately profaned and violatedg my spirit, applying it and using it against the divine Majesty; finally, returning now to myself, prostrate in heart and spirit before the throne of divine justice, I acknowledge, admit, and confess that I am lawfully accused and convicted of the crime of treason against God, and guilty of the death and passion of Jesus Christ because of the sins I have committed, for which he died and suffered the torment of the cross, so that I am worthy consequently to be forever lost and damned.h

But turning myself toward the throne of the infinite mercy of this same eternal God, after having detested with all my heart and all my strength the iniquities of my past life, I humbly need and request grace and pardon and mercy, with complete absolution of my offense, by virtue of the death and passion of the same Lord and Redeemer of my soul, on whom I depend as the sole ground of my hope. I again confess and renew the sacred profession of loyalty made on my behalf to my God in my baptism, renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh, despising their wretched suggestions, vanities, and lusts, for the time of my present life and for all eternity. And, turning to my kind and pitying God, whom I wish, intend, and resolve to bring myself irrevocably to serve and to love now and forever, to this end devoting and dedicating my mind with all its faculties, my soul with all its powers, my heart with all its affections, my body with all its senses. I resolve nevermore to misuse any part of my being against his divine will and sovereign Majesty, to which I sacrifice and immolatei myself in spirit, in order to be forever loyal to him—an obedient and faithful creature—without any wish ever to retract it or repent of it. But, alas, if by suggestion of the enemy or by any human weakness, it happens that I violate anything in this my resolution and consecration, I protest as of now, and I set myself up, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to raise myself so quickly that I recognize what I am doing and turn myself again to the divine mercy without any delay or expansion of sin.

a. Francis poetically claims that the entire Church on earth and in heaven hears this declaration because the priest is present as representative of the whole Church.

b. Francis uses a metaphor—likening the penitent’s spiritual self-sacrifice to the sweet smell of sacrificial incense.

c. Psalm 139:7 [140:6]: “I said to the LORD, ‘You are my God; hear, O LORD, the voice of my supplication.’”

d. Psalm 72:26b [73:26b]: “You are the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever.”

e. Vive Jésus is French—literally, “Live, Jesus!” The phrase is usually translated “Long live [name]” (as in Vive le roi—“Long live the king”). Some have translated it as “Glory be to Jesus!” Since accurate translation is impossible, I have chosen to leave it in French. Found in Steps to the Temple, the 1646 collection of Richard Crashaw’s works, is the two-line poem:

Live Jesus, Live, and let it bee
My Life to dye, for love of thee.

The two lines are entitled “The Author’s Motto.” There is no way of knowing if Crashaw took this from Francis, but since he converted to Catholicism in 1644, it is entirely possible.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 21

f. A traditional form of absolution of a confessed sinner by a priest: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive you all your offenses; and, by his authority committed unto me, I absolve you from all your sins: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Book of Common Prayer 1979, 451).

g. The “kiss of peace” is a Christian liturgical practice. See Romans 16:16 and 1 Peter 5:14. (“Salute one another with a holy kiss.”) It takes place in the Mass prior to Communion as a symbol of the bonds of community and fellowship among the congregation. In this case, it is a reception of the new penitent into the divine society of faith. (The French for “fellowship” is société—literally, “society” or “company.”)

h. The French for “agreement” is contrat—literally, a legal term for “contract” or “deed” or “bargain.”

i. The French for “covenant” is traité—literally, “treaty” or “tract.”

j. A wonderful legalism. Francis is saying, “You get a good deal in this agreement—you get both God and eternal life!”

This is my will, my intention, and my inviolable and irrevocable resolution, which I admit and confirm without reservation or exception, in the same sacred presence of my God, and before the eyes of the Church Triumphant, and before the face of the Church Militant, my Mother, who hears this my declaration in the person of the one who, as a representative of the Church, hears me in this action.a Be pleased, O my God eternal, almighty, and all good—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—strengthen this resolution in me, and accept this my sincere and inner sacrifice in the odor of sweetness.b And, since it has pleased you to give me inspiration and the will to act, give me also the strength and grace required to complete it. O my God, you are my God,c God of my heart,d God of my soul, God of my spirit! In this I know and adore you now and for all eternity. Vive Jésus!e

i PART I. CHAPTER 21.

Conclusion of This First Purification

Having made this resolution, wait attentively, and open the ears of your heart, that you may in spirit hear the absolution which the Lord of your soul, sitting on the throne of his mercy, will speak on high in heaven before the angels and the saints at the same time that in his name the priest absolves you here below on earth.f Be sure that all that company of blessed ones will rejoice at your happiness, singing a song of incomparable joy, and all will give the kiss of peace and of fellowshipg to your heart, given in grace and holiness.

O God, my child, how wonderful an agreementh this is by which you made a happy covenanti with his divine Majesty, since in giving yourself to him you gain both him and eternal life for yourself!j There is no more than, taking the pen in hand, you sign the act of your affirmationa with a good heart, and then after that you go to the altar where God, for his part, will sign and seal your absolution. And the promise that he will make of his paradise, giving his own self in his Sacrament, as a stamp and sacred seal on your renewed heart.b And in this way, it seems to me, dear child, your soul will be purged of sin and of fondness for sin.

a. The French for “the act of your affirmation” is l’acte de votre protestation—literally, “The act of your protestation”—but the word protestation has a positive dimension rarely seen in English—as in “I protest my good faith” or “a protestation of friendship.”

b. “Agreement,” “covenant,” “sign the act,” “sign and seal,” and “stamp and sacred seal” are all judicial terms. Francis is using language he knows well, which comes across as making confession and absolution overly legalistic.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 22

c. The French for “rubbish” is déchets, which carries the very distasteful sense of “waste products” and has been used to describe offal and excrement. Francis does not spare his protégé about the offensive nature of sin.

d. Venial sins are named from the Latin venia, which means “forgiveness”—venial sins are generally easily forgiven sins that are not thought to endanger the soul’s salvation and, according to Catholic teaching, do not require confession to a priest. What we commonly call “a white lie” would be a typical venial sin.

e. An important distinction in moral theology is made between the temptation to commit a sin and the actual commission of that sin. To many modern minds the temptation is confused with the sin itself; merely “wanting to do” or “thinking of doing” a sin is not sinful—indeed, it is universal.

But, since these fondnesses are easily revived in the soul because of our weakness and our concupiscence (which can be mortified but cannot end while we live down here on earth), I will give you advice that, if you practice it well, will preserve you from now on from mortal sin and all its attractions so that sin can never gain a place in your heart; and since the same advice serves also for a more perfect purification, before I give it to you, I want you to hear something more about this absolute purity to which I want to lead you.

i PART I. CHAPTER 22.

That It Is Necessary to Purge Oneself of Inclinations One Has to Venial Sins

As the day breaks, we see more clearly in the mirror the spots and stains on our face; and similarly, as the inner radiance of the Holy Spirit enlightens our conscience, we see more distinctly and more clearly the sins, inclinations, and imperfections that can prevent us from reaching true devotion. And the same light that shows us these defects and rubbishc fires up our desire to be cleansed and purged.

You will discover then, my child, that besides the mortal sins and fondness for mortal sins from which you have been purged by the exercises noted above, you have also in your soul many inclinations and attractions to venial sins.d I do not say that you will discover venial sins, but I say that you will discover attractions and inclinations to such sins. However, one is quite different from the other.e We can never be wholly free of venial sins—at least to persist for a long time in such purity—but we may well have no attraction to venial sins. Certainly it is one thing to lie once or twice with a light heart about something of little importance and another thing to defend lying and to be fond of that kind of sin.

And I say now that it is necessary to purge your soul of all these inclinations it has to venial sins—that is to say, one should not voluntarily nourish the will to continue and persevere in any kind of venial sin, because this would be too great a wickedness—to choose, knowingly, to keep in our conscience a thing so displeasing to God as a willingness to offend him. Venial sin, although small it may be, offends God, although it does not displease him as much as mortal sin, which wants to damn or destroy us. But if venial sin displeases him, then any will or inclination that one has to venial sin is nothing but an effort to try to offend his divine Majesty. Is it really possible that a noble soula would want not only to displease his God, but even to enjoy offending him?

a. The French for “noble soul” is une âme bien née, literally, “a well-born soul”—a trace remaining of the culture’s class system, which is frequently missed in translation.

b. Ecclesiastes 10:1: “Dying flies spoil the sweetness of the ointment. Wisdom and glory are more precious than a small and short-lived folly.” (Tradition has it that the book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon—the archetype of the “wise man.”)

c. The major determinant of culpability in moral theology is the paradigm of intention. Without intention to sin, there is no sin; one cannot sin “by mistake.” Francis deals with that issue here where he explains that venial sins that come and go, passing quickly and disappearing, are of little or no concern, but once one begins to intentionally entertain those sins, to “extend affection to them” (in Francis’s words), they become impediments to true virtue and threaten genuine devotion.

d. The scientific fact is that there are at least five kinds of spiders worldwide who specifically trap and kill bees—but never inside the hives But, however inaccurate scientifically, Francis’s simile still holds true.

e. Francis sets a very high standard for his protégé. Most “good Christians” would be happy to settle for a few minor venial sins, but Francis insists they should be expunged. It is clear that Francis’s spiritual goal of “devotion” is higher than ordinary Christian moral life.

f. Francis’s last thrust for virtue is a subtle shaming, claiming that only a soul that was not “generous” (généreuse also carries the senses of “liberal,” “bountiful,” or “courageous”) would voluntarily choose to offend or annoy God.

These inclinations, my child, are in direct opposition to devotion, as inclinations to mortal sin are to love—they make the power of the spirit languid, hamper divine consolations, and open the door to temptations—and although they may not destroy the soul, at least they render it extremely ill. “Dead flies lose and spoil the sweetness of the ointment,” says the wise man.b He means that the flies only settling on the ointment and eating it in passing only damage what they eat, leaving the remainder untouched, but when they fall into it and die there, they deprive it of its value and corrupt it. Similarly, venial sins come to a devout soul and do not remain there for a long time, do not damage it much, but if these same sins remain in the soul for the affection it extends to them, they will without doubt destroy the sweetness of the ointment, that is to say, the holy devotion.c

The spiders do not kill the bees,d but they spoil and corrupt their honey and encumber their honeycombs so that the bees can no longer maintain their house, and this is what happens when spiders remain among them. Just so venial sin does not kill our soul, but it spoils the devotion and hampers its strength with bad habits and evil inclinations of the soul, so that it can no longer maintain the openness to love in which lies devotion; but that applies when the venial sin remains in our conscience by the affection we extend to it. It is nothing, my child, to speak some little lie, or to let oneself get out of line in words, in actions, in glances, in dress, in gaiety, in play, in dances, provided that as soon as these spiritual spiders have entered our conscience, we drive them out and banish them, as the bees do with the real spiders. But if we allow them to stay in our souls, and not only that, but if we are inclined to encourage them to remain and multiply, soon we will see our honey lost and the hive of our conscience poisoned and undone.e

But I say again one more time, what likelihood is there that a generous soul will please itself by displeasing its God, choosing to be unpleasant to him and electing to desire what it knows would be annoying to him?f

i PART I. CHAPTER 23.

That It Is Necessary to Purge the Proclivity for Useless and Dangerous Things

Plays, balls, festivities, ceremonial affairs, and theatrical comedies in their true nature are by no means bad things, but rather indifferent—capable of being either good or bad activities. Nevertheless, those things are still dangerous, and fondness for them is even more dangerous. Therefore, my child, I say again that while it is permissible to play, dance, dress, attend respectable theater, and dine well, if you find that you have an obsession for these things, that is something contrary to devotion and harmful and perilous. It is not bad to do these things, but to be too fond of them. It is a shame to sow in the soil of your heart the seeds of such vain and foolish longings. It displaces more worthy impressions and prevents the energy of the soul from being used for good tendencies.a

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 23

a. In keeping with the agricultural image of sowing seeds in the soil of one’s heart, the French for “energy” here is le suc—literally, “the juice” or “the sap.”

b. The Nazirites (from the Hebrew nazir meaning “separated,” “consecrated,” “devoted”) were particularly devout Jews who took formal vows to (a) abstain from the fruit of the vine; (b) leave their hair uncut; (c) avoid all contact with the dead; and (d) never eat any unclean food. Numbers 6:3–4: “They shall abstain from wine, and from everything that may make a man drunk. They shall not drink vinegar of wine, or of any other drink, nor anything that is pressed out of the grape; nor shall they eat grapes either fresh or dried. All the days that they are consecrated to the LORD by vow, they shall eat nothing that comes out of the vineyard, from the seeds even to the skins.”) It is likely that John the Baptist and Samson were vowed Nazirites. Francis’s purpose in introducing the subject of Nazirite vows is to demonstrate that one need avoid not only things that are sinful in themselves, but also anything that might conceivably lead one to be attracted to those sinful things.

c. Francis’s primary pedagogical method involves the use of metaphors, similes, and analogies, and these are drawn from a vast breadth of cultural lore, from Scripture to legend to science.

d. Francis reminds us of Jesus’s teaching that it is possible to sin by intentionally entertaining the desire. Matthew 5:27–28: “You have heard that it was said of old: You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, that whoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 24

e. Jerome, Epistle 108. St. Paula (347–404) was a disciple of St. Jerome and became a monastic model for Christian widows.

f. Francis demonstrates significant psychological insight—probably based loosely on something like the four humors theory of Hippocrates (460–370), represented as “temperaments” and “emotional aspects” by the Persian philosopher-scientist Avicenna (980–1037): sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic.

Thus the ancient Nazirites abstained not only from all that could make one drunk, but also from both sweet and sour grapes—not because the sweet and sour grapes were intoxicating, but because there was the danger that eating sour grapes would arouse the desire to eat sweet grapes, and eating sweet grapes would awaken the craving to drink fermenting grape juice or wine.b Just so, I do not say that we cannot use those dangerous things: but I do say that we can never set our fondness on them without affecting our devotion. When the stags have put on too much weight, they take themselves aside and hide in the thicket, knowing that with their burden of fat they are not able to run should they be pursued. The heart of a mortal encumbered with useless, superfluous, and dangerous affections surely cannot promptly, comfortably, and easily follow after his God who is the real purpose of devotion. Little children entertain themselves and are excited running after butterflies, and no one finds that bad because they are children. But is it not a ridiculous thing and rather pathetic to see grown men rushing after and entertaining themselves with such unworthy trifles as the things I have named, which, in addition to their uselessness, threaten to disrupt and upset us in pursuit of them?c That is why, my dear child, I tell you that it is necessary to expunge these longings, because although the acts themselves are not always incompatible with devotion, the longings for them are always detrimental.d

i PART I. CHAPTER 24.

That It Is Necessary to Purge Oneself of Evil Inclinations

We still have certain natural inclinations, my child, which do not have their origin in our particular sins, nor are they properly sin, neither mortal nor venial, but are called “imperfections,” and their acts are called defects and deficiencies. For example, Saint Paula, according to the story of Saint Jerome,e had so great an inclination to sorrows and regrets, that with the death of her children and her husband, she courted the chance of dying of grief. That was an imperfection and not a sin, since it was against her liking and her will. There are those who are naturally thoughtless, some surly, others oppose the opinions of anyone else, others are inclined to indignation, others to anger, others to love, and, in fact, there are few people in whom we cannot notice some kind of such imperfections.f However, although these imperfections seem proper and natural to each one, so it is with care and affection that one can correct and moderate them and even get rid of them and purge them away—and I tell you, child, that it must be done. People have found a way to change bitter almonds to sweet by piercing only the bottom of the almond tree in order to squeeze out the sap.a Why is it that we cannot let go of our perverse inclinations to become better? There is no one so good-natured that she cannot be made bad by malicious habits—and neither is there any natural inclination so intractable that it cannot be conquered and overcome—first by the grace of God, and then by industry and diligence. Therefore, I shall now give advice and propose some activities through which you may purge your soul from dangerous attractions, imperfections, and from all inclinations to venial sins. And so you will secure your conscience more and more against truly mortal sin. God give you the grace to practice these well.

a. The almonds from the bitter almond tree (nux amara) contain poisonous prussic acid. The idea of boring a hole near the foot of the tree to let the bitter sap run out was proposed by Aristotle; Theophrastus said the hole should be nine inches above the ground; Africanus places the hole four inches above the root; and Pliny the Elder adds that one should dig around the stock, drill the hole, and wipe away the sap as it emerges (Porta, Giambattista; Natural Magick;young & Speed; London; 1658; p. 92).

PART

TWO

CONTAINING VARIOUS

SUGGESTIONS FOR

RAISING THE SOUL TO

GOD BY PRAYER AND THE

SACRAMENTS

PART TWO
COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 1

a. Francis uses the term l’oraison mentale (“mental prayer”) for nonverbal meditation and contemplation. I have chosen to translate that as “interior prayer” since “mental” to a modern reader would tend to imply “brain work,” whereas Francis’s mental prayer implies work of the heart.

b. John 8:12: “Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” Also, John 9:5: “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

c. Song of Songs 2:3: “As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. In his shade I had sat with great desire. And his fruit is sweet to my taste.” (Traditionally in the Song of Songs, “my beloved” is understood symbolically to be Christ.)

d. See John 4:6–14: The account of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at “Jacob’s well” in which Jesus says, “If you had known who it is who said to you ‘Give me to drink,’ then perhaps you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water.”

e. John 14:6: “Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

f. The method of making mirrors out of plate glass (rather than metal) was invented by sixteenth-century Venetian glassmakers on the island of Murano, who covered the back of the glass with mercury. The mercury, however, was toxic and was soon replaced by an alloy of tin, antimony, and lead.

g. A major Christological tradition holds that the primary purpose for the incarnation of Jesus was to manifest the previously invisible and incomprehensible Godhead to humanity—that Jesus was born on earth to show humanity what God was like.

h. John 6:41: “The Jews therefore murmured at [Jesus], because he had said: ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven.’” The reference to Jesus’s words is standard, but Francis’s application of it is unique—that because bread is eaten with a variety of other foods, so Jesus-as-Bread should be engaged with in a variety of prayers and actions.

i PART II. CHAPTER 1.

Of the Necessity of Prayer

1. Since prayer puts our intellect in the clarity of the divine light and exposes our will to the warmth of heavenly love, there is nothing that can so purge our intellect of its ignorances and our will of its dissolute affections. It is the water of blessing, which by its watering causes the plants of our good desires to become green and to flower, washes our souls clean from their imperfections, and quenches the passions of our hearts.

2. But especially I commend sincere interiora prayer to you, and particularly as it shapes itself around the life and Passion of Our Lord. If you contemplate him frequently in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with him, you will learn his ways, and you will form your own actions after the pattern of his. He is the light of the world;b therefore it is in him, by him, and for him that we shall be guided and enlightened. He is the tree of desirec in whose shade we must refresh ourselves. He is the living fountain of Jacob,d for the washing away of all our stains. Finally, children learn to speak their language by listening to their mothers and stammering words with them. And so we, dwelling near our Savior by meditation and observing his words, his actions, and his inclinations, we shall learn through his grace to speak, to act, and to desire like him.

We must stop here, my child, and believe me, we cannot go to God the Father except through this gate.e Just as the glass of a mirror cannot give our reflection if it were not for the tin or lead behind it,f so also the Godhead could not be contemplated by us in this lowly world if it were not joined with the sacred humanity of Christ,g whose life and death are the most appropriate, agreeable, pleasant, and helpful objects that we can choose for our regular meditation. It is not for nothing that the Savior is called “the bread that came down from heaven,”h for, just as bread should be eaten with all kinds of food, so the Savior should be meditated upon, considered, and sought in all our prayers and actions. His life and death have been laid out and arranged in various degrees to be used for meditation by several authors. The ones I recommend are Saint Bonaventure, Bellintani, Bruno, Capilia, Grenada, and DuPont.a

a. St. Bonaventure (1221–1274) is still respected and his teaching still used. The other people—most of whom are contemporaries of Francis—are little known or used today: Matthia Bellintani de Solo (1534–1611), The Practice of Mental Prayer;Vincenzo Bruno (1558–1640), Meditations on the Mystery of the Passion; Andrea Capiglia or Capilia (1530–1609), Meditations on the Gospels; Luis de Granada (1504–1588), The Sinner’s Guide; and DuPont [Luis de la Puente] (1545–1624), Meditations on the Mysteries of our Holy Faith.

b. “Dinner” for Francis was the noon meal—as is common in monasteries where supper is only a light evening meal.

c. With real spiritual insight Francis forbids extending the meditation for more than an hour—it is common for spiritual beginners to overdo religious exercise, which carries the dual threat of (a) pride, smugness, and self-satisfaction; and (b) exhaustion and eventual abandonment of the practice.

d. Here is clear evidence that Francis is writing this for the laity in families, not for clergy or monastics. One recalls the words of St. Teresa of Ávila: “We need no wings to go in search of him, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon him present within us” (The Way of Perfection 28:2).

e. Francis is probably referring to the time-honored traditional Act of Presence prayer: “My God, I firmly believe that you are everywhere present and see all things. You see my nothingness, my inconstancy, my sinfulness. You see me in all my actions. You see me in this my meditation. I bow down before you, and worship your divine Majesty with my whole being. Cleanse my heart from all vain, wicked, and distracting thoughts. Enlighten my understanding, and inflame my will, that I may pray with reverence, attention, and devotion.”

f. “The Hours” refers to the Divine Office, a set of eight religious services spread over the day that Catholic priests and most monastics are obliged to recite: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Tierce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, and Compline.

g. It is plain that Francis writes not for clergy or monastics, but for the ordinary layperson who might be troubled by “the great amount of business” (la multitude des affaires).

3. Use an hour every day before dinnerb—if you can, at the beginning of your morning, because you will have your spirit less hindered and more fresh after the night’s rest. Also, do not put in more than an hour unless your spiritual father tells you explicitly to do so.c

4. If you can make your meditation in the church, and if you find enough peace there, that will be something easy and convenient because no one—neither father, nor mother, nor wife, nor husband, nor anyone else—can keep you from simply remaining in the church for an hour, whereas being in some family obligations, you could probably not guarantee that you would have one hour so free in your house.d

5. Start all kinds of prayers—be they interior or vocal—in the presence of God.e Keep that rule without exception, and in a little time you will see how much it will benefit you.

6. If you have faith in my advice, you will say the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Creed in Latin, but you should also learn them well in the words of your own speech, so that while reciting the common language of the Church, you can still enjoy the wonderful and appealing meaning of the holy prayers, which, I must say, will fix them deeply in your thoughts and motivate your attraction to their meaning. And do not rush to say many prayers, but teach yourself to say what you say lovingly, for one Our Father said with feeling is better than several recited quickly and glibly.

7. The Rosary is a very useful way of praying, as long as you know how to recite it properly, and in order to do that, there are some little books that teach the method of saying it. It is good also to recite the litanies of Our Lord, of Our Lady, and of the saints, and all the other vocal prayers that are provided in the approved manuals and in the Hoursf—with the reservation, however, that if you have the gift of interior prayer, you should always keep that in the principal place, so that if after that either because of the great amount of businessg or for some other reason you cannot do the vocal prayer, do not trouble yourself over that and content yourself to say simply, during or after the meditation, the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Apostles’ Creed.

8. If when saying vocal prayers, you sense your heart drawn and invited to interior or mental prayer, do not refuse to follow it, but let your spirit glide gently in that direction, and do not worry yourself about not having completed the vocal prayers you had intended. The interior prayer that you have made in their place is more pleasing to God and more useful for your soul. (I except the Divine Office if you are vowed to say it, for in that case it is necessary to do one’s duty.)

9. If it should happen that all your morning goes by without the sacred exercise of interior prayer, either because of the amount of business or for some other cause (which you should try to avoid as far as possible), try to make up for the omission in the afternoon, in some hour further from the meal (because if you do it immediately after eating and before digestion is completed, much drowsiness will overcome you, and your health will be involved). If you cannot do it during the entire day, it is necessary to repair that loss by increasing exclamatory prayers and by reading some book of devotion with penitence that may settle the rest of this shortcoming, and, along with that, make a strong resolution to regain balance the next day.a

a. Francis has the wisdom to know that a primary element in serious spiritual growth is the absolute reliability of a regular pattern of prayer and practice. The moment this is voluntarily compromised, it becomes easier to compromise it again and again until it has slipped away entirely.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 2

b. Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774–1821), founder of the Sisters of Charity, virtually quoted Francis when she wrote: “As birds find the air wherever they fly, and fish are surrounded by water wherever they swim, so wherever we go, we must find God everywhere” (Handwritten instructions to her Sisters).

c. The French has considération that can well be translated “consideration,” but in Francis’s use, it often refers to an intellectual deliberation that makes “reflection” a better translation.

d. Psalm 138:8 [139:7]: “If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present.”

e. Genesis 28:16–17: “And when Jacob awoke out of sleep, he said, ‘Truly the LORD is in this place and I did not know it.’And trembling he said, ‘How terrible is this place! This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven.’”

i PART II. CHAPTER 2.

A Short Method of Meditation.
The First Step of Preparation:
The Presence of God

But perhaps, my child, you do not know how to practice interior prayer, for unfortunately few people know in our time. That is why I will show you a simple and brief method for doing this, until—by reading several fine books that have been written on the subject and above all through practice—you can be further instructed. And I mention first the preparation—which consists of two points: the first is to put yourself in the presence of God; and the second is to call upon his help. And in order to place yourself in the presence of God, I will propose four main methods that you can use at the beginning.

The first lies in a deep and careful understanding of the whole presence of God—that is to say, that God is in everything and everywhere, and that there is no place or thing in this world where there is not his very real presence—so that like the birds wherever they fly always find the air, just so wherever we are, we find God present.b Everyone knows this truth, but everyone is not careful to understand it. Blind men who do not see a prince who is present with them do not refuse to hold themselves in respect if they are aware of his presence; but the truth is that insofar as most people do not see him, they easily forget that God is present, and, having forgotten, they lose respect and reverence even more easily. Alas, my child, we do not see God who is present with us, and although the faith warns us of his presence, if we do not see him with our eyes, we often forget and behave as if God were very far from us; for although we know he is present in all things, if we do not think of it, it is as though we did not know it. That is why, when beginning prayer, it is necessary to incite our soul to attentive thought of and reflectionc on the presence of God. This was the understanding of David when he wrote: “If I climb up to heaven, you are there; and if I go down to hell, you are there.”d And also we ought to use the words of Jacob when he saw the sacred ladder: “Oh, how fearful is this place,” he said, “Truly, God is here, and I did not know it.”e He means that he did not think of it, for anyway he must have known that God was in everything and everywhere. So, coming to prayer, you must say with your whole heart and from your heart: “O my heart, my heart, God is truly here.”

a. Francis uses this phrase also in a letter of spiritual direction to Madame de Limojon: “That says it all: to have a heart gentle toward one’s neighbor and humble toward God. At every moment give this heart, the very heart of your heart, to our Savior. You will see that as this divine, delicate Lover takes his place in your heart, the world with its vanities and superfluities will leave” (Wright, Wendy, ed.; Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal; Paulist Press; Mahwah, NJ 1988, 156).

b. Psalm 72:26 [73:26]: “For you my flesh and my heart have fainted away; you are the God of my heart, and God is my portion for eternity.”

c. Acts 17:28: Speaking to the men of Athens, Paul said: “For in him we live, and move, and exist.”

d. From the account of St. Stephen’s martyrdom (Acts 7:55): “But [Stephen], being full of the Holy Spirit, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.’”

e. Song of Songs 2:9: “My beloved is like a roe deer or a young hart. Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattices.” The medieval Church taught that the romantic Song of Songs was a metaphor for the love between Christ (as the Bridegroom) and the Church (as the Bride).

f. Two things to note: first, Francis here expresses the Catholic understanding of the Sacrament of the altar that although the outward aspects of bread or wine remain unchanged, the inward “essence” of the bread and wine has been changed to the Body and Blood of Christ. Christ is truly and actually spiritually present under the forms of bread and wine. Second, it is certainly a theological stretch to say (as Francis seems to do) that the Christ present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist “sees us and notices us whether or not we see him” as from behind a tapestry!

g. One of the hardest dimensions of one’s beginning serious spiritual development is the inclination to take on much too much at the beginning. Francis cautions against that here, recommending simplicity, brevity, and restraint.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 3

h. Psalm 50:13 [51:12]: “Do not cast me away from your face; and do not take the Holy Spirit from me.”

The second way to place yourself in that sacred Presence is to think that not only is God in the place where you are but that he is very particularly in your heart and deep in your spirit, to which he gives life and animates with his divine Presence, being there as the heart of your heart and the spirit of your spirit.a For as the soul, spreading throughout the body, finds itself present in all its parts and still resides in the heart as a special residence, so in the same way God is truly present in all things, yet attending in a special way to our mind, and for this David called God “God of my heart”b and Saint Paul said that “we live, we move, and exist in God.”c Therefore, in consideration of this truth, stir up a great reverence in your heart as the seat of God who is so intimately present.

The third way is to consider our Savior who in his humanity looks down from heaven upon all the people of the world, but particularly on the Christians, who are his children, and especially those who are in prayer whose actions and conduct he notes. Nor is this a mere imagination, but a veritable truth, for although we do not see him, from on high he bears us in mind. St. Stephen saw him at the time of his martyrdom,d so we can well say with the Bride: “Here he is behind the wall, seeing through the windows, looking through the lattice.”e

The fourth way consists of using our simple imagination, depicting the Savior in his sacred humanity, as if he were as near us as we are accustomed to depict our friends, and saying, “I imagine that I see such a one who is doing this and that. I seem to see him, or something like him.” But if the holy Sacrament of the altar were present then this Presence would be real and not purely imaginary, for the species and appearances of bread would be like a tapestry behind which Our Savior is really present and sees us and notices us whether or not we see him in his true form.f

Use one of these four ways to place your soul in the Presence of God before praying—it is not necessary to use them all at once, but take one at a time, and that briefly and simply.g

i PART II. CHAPTER 3.

The Second Step of Preparation:
Concerning Invocation

Invocation is made in this manner: your soul, realizing itself to be in the presence of God, will prostrate itself in a profound reverence, acknowledging its great unworthiness to remain before such a sovereign Majesty (and yet knowing that this same Kindness wills it), the soul asks the grace to serve well and adore him in this meditation. If you wish, you can use some short, fiery wordsh like those of David here: “Do not reject me, O my God, from before your face, and do not take the favor of your Holy Spirit from me.” “Let your face shine upon your servant,”a and “I will consider your wonders.”b “Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law: and I shall keep it with all my heart.”c “I am your servant, grant me understanding,”d and such words as that. You will also add the invocation of your guardian angel and of the holy people who are involved in the mystery on which you meditate,e as in a meditation around the death of Our Lord you can invoke Our Lady, Saint John, the Magdalene, the good thief,f so that the feeling and inner emotions that they experienced may be revealed to you;g and in the meditation on your death, you can invoke your guardian angel, who will find himself present then, so that it inspires you with fitting reflections; and for the other mysteries as well.

a. Psalm 30:17 [31:16]: “Make your face to shine upon your servant; save me in your mercy.”

b. Psalm 118:18 [119:18]: “Open my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law.”

c. Psalm 118:34 [119:34]: “Give me understanding and I will search your law; and I will keep it with my whole heart.”

d. Psalm 118:125 [119:125]: “I am your servant: give me understanding that I may know your testimonies.”

e. The French here is des sacrées personnes qui se trouveront au mystère que vous méditez, literally “of the holy people who find themselves in the mystery on which you wish to meditate.” (The word “mystery” in this book is a technical term, which refers simply to the subject matter of a meditation, for example, the raising of Lazarus, or the healing of the blind man, or the beating of Jesus by the soldiers, and so on.)

f. All of whom are biblically certified to have been present at the Crucifixion.

g. The longing to “experience” or “participate in” the Crucifixion was universal in the late medieval Church. As the mystic Julian of Norwich writes: “I thought that I wished to have been at that time with Mary Magdalene and with the others who were Christ’s lovers, and therefore I desired a bodily sight wherein I could have more knowledge of the bodily pains of our Savior, and of the compassion of Our Lady and of all his true lovers who at that time saw his pains, for I wished to be one of them and to suffer with them” (Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 2).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 4

h. These are technical terms used by many in the field of ascetical theology.

i. Francis makes the classical distinction here between kataphatic and apophatic meditation. Kataphatic meditation mentally uses words and images (a method promoted in Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises), and this is what Francis recommends when he suggests the imaging of various events. Apophatic meditation is meditation without any images or verbal thoughts (characterized by the work of The Cloud of Unknowing), and it can be called “the prayer of the heart,” moving beyond what the intellect can grasp, and beyond verbal expression or explanation. There is also the classical distinction between “discursive meditation” and “contemplative prayer.” Francis’s method is “discursive” in that it uses memory (to recall the event meditated upon), understanding (to comprehend the religious meaning of the event), and will (to make resolutions on the basis of that understanding). Contemplative prayer is more passive, merely opening oneself to God and God’s will and pleasure.

i PART II. CHAPTER 4.

The Third Step of Preparation:
Concerning the Subject Matter of the Mystery

After these two ordinary steps of the meditation, there is a third, which is not common to all kinds of meditation: it is that called by some “the composition of place” and by others “the interior lesson.”h It is nothing other than proposing to one’s imagination the substance of mystery on which one wishes to meditate, as though it were really happening and was going on in our presence. For instance, if you wish to meditate on Our Savior on the cross, you imagine yourself to be on Mount Calvary and that you see all that is done and said on the day of the Passion—or if you wish (for it is all the same) you may imagine that in the same place where you are, the crucifixion of Our Lord is happening in the way the Evangelists described it. And I say the same thing when you meditate on death (as I noted in the above meditation on it) so also that of hell, and in all similar mysteries where it comes to visible and tangible matters, but there is no question of wanting to use this kind of imaging for the other mysteries of God’s greatness, the excellence of virtues, the purpose for which we are created, which are invisible matters.i It is true that one can well use some similarity and analogy to aid in reflection, but that is difficult to discover, and I want to discuss this with you so simply that your spirit will not be worked up very much making new inventions.

Now, by the means of this imaging, we bind our minds to the mystery that we ponder so that it does not go running here and there, neither more nor less than when one puts a bird in a cage or a hawk attached to its traces so it remains on the fist. However, some will tell you that it is better to represent the mysteries in the simple thoughts of the Creed and a simple understanding wholly internal and spiritual. Or to consider that the things are done in your own mind, but this is too subtle for the beginning, and until God raises you higher, I advise you, my child, to keep yourself in the lowly valley I have shown you.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 5

a. The goal of Francis’s instructions is eminently practical: it is to produce affective longings for God and a holy way of life, and it is aimed at deepening one’s commitment to God.

b. Francis’s meditation is an intellectual exercise—thinking about words or images or events—but he makes a clear distinction that it is defined by its goal—which is not to become more intelligent or informed or to compose essays or books, or even (as the Scholastics taught) to be able to dispute formally and rhetorically, but to love God more and to increase in virtue.

c. The French word is marchandé, literally, “haggling” or “bargaining.”

d. One of the dangers of presenting so specific a method of meditation (as Francis does) is that one can easily become obsessive about the method itself. Here Francis counsels simply to stop in the midst or to move forward—depending solely on one’s sense of reward or benefit.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 6

e. Francis obviously holds that the determination of morality and virtue depends primarily on the will—the psychological organ of human choice. Both virtue and sin find their origin in the human will and its freewill ability to choose without restraint.

f. Thomas Kempis’s book The Imitation of Christ was very popular during Francis’s lifetime.

g. André Capilia (1530–1609) wrote Meditationi sopra tutti gli evangelii dell’anno (“Devout Meditations on All the Gospels of the Year”). It was translated into French in 1601, but as far as I can discover it has never been translated into English. Francisco Arias (1533–1605) wrote An Exhortation to Spiritual Profit (translated into English in de Molina, Antonio; A Treatise on Mental Prayer; The English College Press; St. Omer, France; 1617; reprinted in 1970 by Menston Scolar Press; Yorkshire, UK).

h. Throughout the book, the use of the French les affections presents a constant translation problem because the obvious translation—“affections”—is usually too “soft” and “slight” in English use, but the other synonyms like “loves,” “likings,” “fondnesses,” and so on are also off base. “Feelings” or “emotions” are close, but they seem too corporal, too physical, too much over-the-top. There is a deep sense of “commitment” or “devotion” intended—like the drive a disciple has in his heart to follow a master—and no single English word conveys all of that.

i PART II. CHAPTER 5.

The Second Part of Meditation: Concerning Reflections

After the imaging has played its part, there follows the work of the understanding that we call meditation, which is nothing else except one or more reflections made so as to move our affection into God and to divine things.a In that, meditation is different from study and other ways of thinking and deliberations that are not made in order to acquire virtue or the love of God, but for some other purposes and intentions, such as becoming a scholar or writing or engaging in debate.b So, having thus fixed your mind, as I said, within the limits of the subject on which you wish to meditate, whether by imagination (if the subject is material) or by simple presentation of it (if it is spiritual), you will begin to reflect on it, as you can see from the examples of all the forms of meditations that I have given you. And if your mind finds enough flavor, light, and fruit in one of the reflections, you should stop yourself there without going further—doing as the bees who do not leave the flower until they have gathered all the honey. But if you do not light upon what you wish in one of the reflections, after a bit of hesitationc and testing, pass on to another, but move calmly and simply in the matter, without rushing.d

i PART II. CHAPTER 6.

The Third Part of Meditation: Concerning Affections and Resolutions

Meditation spreads good impulses in the will, or active part of our soule—such as the love of God and of neighbor, a craving for paradise and glory, zeal for the salvation of souls, the imitation of the life of Our Lord,f compassion, admiration, joy, fear of God’s disfavor and of judgment and hell, hatred of sin, trust in the goodness and mercy of God, shame for our bad past life; and in these affections our mind must pour out and reach as far as possible. If you want help in this, take in hand the first volume of Meditations of Dom André Capilia, and see his preface: for in that he presents the method with which one must expand his affections; and more fully, Father Arias in his Treatise on Prayer.g

However, my child, you must not stop short in general affections,h without turning them into special resolutions and specifics for your own correction and amendment. For instance, the first word that Our Lord said on the cross: spread without doubt a good inclination to imitation in your soul, namely, the desire to forgive your enemies and to love them. But I say now that this is a little thing, if you do not add a special resolution such as this: “Knowing this, I will not upset myself anymore about particular unfortunate words that one or another—a neighbor man or woman, my manservant or maidservanta—say to me, nor this or that contempt that is done to me by this one or that one; on the contrary, I will say and do such-and-such a thing to win them over and to smooth things”—and so of other matters as well. In this way, my child, you will correct your faults in a short time, whereas with affections alone without resolutions, it would be done sluggishly and with difficulty.

a. Francis obviously addresses the gentry who would be expected to have servants.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 7

b. The French word actions is always translated as “acts,” but this is a very particular devotional vocabulary: an “act” refers to a prayer that affirms a particular dimension of devotion; an “act of thanksgiving” is a prayer of gratitude; an “act of oblation” is a prayer of self-offering; an “act of supplication” is a prayer entreaty; and an “act of contrition” is a classical prayer of penitence.

c. References to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and the invocation of the saints have been omitted in some editions of the book—apparently to avoid offense to Protestants.

d. Francis’s delicate allegorical reference to a “spiritual scent” reminds us of the religious use of incense, and it has good biblical precedence in 2 Corinthians 2:14–16: “Now thanks be to God who always makes us triumph in Christ Jesus and manifests the odor of knowing him through us in every place. For we are the aroma of Christ to God, in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one indeed the fragrance of death unto death, but to the others the fragrance of life unto life.”

e. Francis counsels a “cooling down” period after meditation—like that done following strenuous exercise.

i PART II. CHAPTER 7.

The Conclusion and Spiritual Souvenir

Finally, the meditation must be concluded with three acts,b which must be done with the greatest humility possible: the first, an act of thanksgiving, thanking God for the affections and resolutions that he has given us, and for his goodness and mercy, which we have discovered in the mystery of your meditation. The second is the act of oblation by which we offer to God the same goodness and mercy, the death, the blood, and the virtues of his Son—and, together with those, our own affections and resolutions. The third act is that of supplication, in which we ask from God and implore him to communicate to us the graces and virtues of his Son and to give a blessing to our affections and resolutions so in the end we may have strength to execute them faithfully, then we pray the same for the Church, for our pastors, parents, our friends, and others, using the intercession of Our Lady, the angels, and the saints.c Finally, as I have said, it is proper to say the Our Father and Hail Mary, which is the universal and required prayer of all the faithful.

To all of this I add the need to gather a little souvenir of devotion, and here I mean that those who have walked in a garden do not leave willingly without taking in their hands four or five flowers for the scent and to keep for the length of the day; and so when our minds have thought about some mystery through meditation, we ought to choose one or two points that we found most to our liking (and more specifically to our advancement) for us to recall for the rest of the day and for the spiritual scent.d But this is done in the same place where we have made the meditation—either staying there or walking alone for a while afterward.e

i PART II. CHAPTER 8.

Some Useful Advice on the Subject of Meditation

It is especially important, my child, that at the end of your meditation you retain the resolutions and reflections you will have done, to practice them vigilantly then and there. This is the great fruit of meditation, without which it is often not only useless but harmful—because the virtues meditated upon and not practiced sometimes swell the mind and the audacity, and we think we are already what we had resolved and decided to be, which is without doubt true if the resolutions are vivid and strong, but not being so, they are thus vain and dangerous if they are not practiced.a It is necessary then to strive by all means to practice them and to seek opportunities—both small and great. For instance, if I have resolved to win over by gentleness of heart those who offend me, I will seek daily for any opportunity to meet them in order to greet them amicably, and if I cannot meet them, at least to speak well of them and to pray God in their favor.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 8

a. A long and confusing sentence: Francis holds that if one does not put the resolutions into practice immediately and unambiguously, they may foster the false sense of having accomplished them merely by having made the resolutions.

b. It is Francis’s constant insistence that one take one’s spiritual steps slowly, calmly, and gently, acclimating oneself carefully to the new “climate” that the meditation and resolutions have provided—but with care that one’s attention be diverted no further than is necessary for the common aspects of life and business.

c. The metaphor of the heart as a “vessel of fine porcelain” is interesting in that during Francis’s lifetime, frantic experiments were being made in Florence to attempt to reproduce the precious porcelain being imported from China, but they were largely unsuccessful. It wasn’t until 1708 that Europeans discovered how to make porcelain (and even then it was a trade secret guarded closely by its German inventors).

d. Francis held a very enlightened view in declaring the practice of law, the trade of merchants, and a housewife’s responsibilities to be equal to prayer as “according to God’s will.” It is another evidence that this book is not being written for “professional religionists” but for the ordinary Christian layperson.

e. Another rare enlightenment: that Francis is not “method-bound” but recognizes that the Holy Spirit may work in various ways, and Francis counsels his protégé to “let go of the reins” when she senses that God is leading in a different direction. This kind of humility is rare in teachers of spiritual methodology, many of whom are convinced that their pattern is the end-all-and-be-all.

At the end of this deeply felt prayer, it is necessary for you to take guard not to give shock to your heart, as you spread the balm that you have received by way of prayer. I mean it is necessary to maintain a little silence and slowly to stir your heart gently, from prayer to business, maintaining as long as possible the feeling and affections you have conceived.b A person who may have received in a vessel of fine porcelain some liquid of great price, in order to carry it into his house, will tread carefully, not looking from side to side but always before himself, for fear of encountering a stone or taking a wrong step, watching the vessel to see that it does not spill. And you must do the same at the conclusion of your meditation: do not be distracted suddenly but simply look ahead of yourself, as it were; if you must meet someone whom you are obliged to entertain or attend to, you must accommodate yourself to that, but in such a way that you also pay attention to your heart, so that as little as possible of the liquid of holy prayer spills out.c

You must accustom yourself to know how to pass from prayer to all sorts of activities that your vocation or profession justly and legitimately require of you, even though they seem far from the feelings that we have received in prayer. I mean to say, that a lawyer must know how to go from prayer to pleading in court, the merchant to traffic, a married woman to the duties of marriage and to the care of her household, with as much calmness and tranquility as for one’s spirit not to be troubled by it, because since both the one and the other are according to God’s will, it is necessary to make the movement from one to the other in the spirit of humility and devotion.d

It will sometimes happen that immediately after the preparation, your feelings may find themselves deeply moved by God; then, my child, you must let go of the reins, not trying to follow the method that I have given youe—since, ordinarily, the reflections should precede the affections and resolutions—but if the Holy Spirit gives you the affections before the reflection, you must not look for the reflection, since it was only intended to stir up the affections. In short, when the affections present themselves to you, you must receive them and give them place whether they arrive before or after the reflections. The only object in placing the affections after the points of consideration in meditation is to make the different parts of meditation clearer, for it is a general rule that when affections arise they are never to be checked, but always encouraged to flow freely. And this applies also to the acts of thanksgiving, of oblation, and of petition, which must not be restrained either, although it is well to repeat or renew them at the close of your meditation. But your resolutions must be made after the affections, and quite at the end of your meditation, and that all the more because in these you must enter upon ordinary familiar subjects and things that would be liable to cause distractions if they were intruded among your spiritual affections.a

a. Anyone who takes meditation seriously knows that one can never predict what may happen during meditation—indeed, the unexpected is normative. Consequently, one may need to “rearrange” the process Francis provides, but he gives very appropriate counsel in recommending that one not make resolutions for the future until the very end—specifically because one is then about to “reenter” ordinary life where the resolutions will be tested.

b. The word “colloquy” has also entered the vocabulary of those who write about spiritual meditation. It simply means “imaginary discussion,” for example, with God, with other persons involved in the imagined scene, with the saints and angels, with oneself, and even with inanimate objects. (In imagination, one can address the Holy Cross itself to ask what it had seen or felt during the Passion.) The result can often be one’s own projections, but it can provide insights from one’s subconscious that may prove valuable.

c. Examples of colloquies in the Psalms: Psalm 23:9 [24:9]: “Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates”; Psalm 41:6 [42:6]: “Why are you sad, O my soul? And why do you trouble me?”; Psalm 48:1 [49:1]: “Hear these things, all you nations: give ear, all you inhabitants of the world”; and Psalm 67:16–17 [68:15–16]: “The mountain of God is a rich mountain, a high and rich mountain. Why contend, you high mountains, against the mountain that God loves to dwell?”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 9

d. The French is les sécheresses, literally “the droughts.” “Dryness” has also become a technical word referring to those periods when meditation seems boring, unproductive, and a waste of time. Francis’s advice is that when that happens in meditation and internal prayer, one should simply turn to ordinary vocal prayer and start “saying” prayers.

e. Genesis 32:26b: “[Jacob] answered: ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’”

f. Matthew 15:27: “Yes, Lord, for the dogs also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters.” (Francis has inserted the nonbiblical phrase “I am a dog.”)

g. Francis’s central message here is simply: Do not demand or expect constant comfort, solace, and warmth in meditation—often there will be only aridity, coldness, and ennui.

h. It is almost humorous to see how clearly Francis addresses himself to the gentry who would be familiar with the behavior of royal courtiers.

Amid your affections and resolutions it is well occasionally to make use of colloquies,b and to speak sometimes to Our Lord, sometimes to angels, or to those persons who are concerned in the mystery you are meditating, to saints, to yourself, your own heart, to sinners, and even to the inanimate creation around, as one sees that David does in his Psalms,c as well as do other saints in their meditations and prayers.

i PART II. CHAPTER 9.

For the Drynessd That May Come in Meditation

Should it happen sometimes, my child, that you have no taste for nor consolation in meditation, I urge you not to be troubled, but sometimes open the door to vocal prayer: lament yourself to Our Lord; confess your unworthiness; pray that he will be your aid; kiss an image of him if you have one; and speak to him the words of Jacob: “I will not let you go, LORD, except you have given me your blessing”;e or with the Canaanite woman, “Yes, Lord, I am a dog, but the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.”f

Other times, you can take a book in hand and read it attentively until your mind is stimulated and returned to you; or sometimes rouse your heart by some conduct and attitude of outward devotion—such as prostrating yourself on the ground, crossing your hands over your breast, kissing a crucifix—all, that is, if you are in some secluded place.

If, after all this, you are not comforted, however great your dryness may be, do not trouble yourself further, but continue to hold yourself in a devout attitude before your God.g How many courtiers appear a hundred times a year in the chamber of the king without hope of speaking with him, but only in order to be seen by him and to pay their homage.h Thus do we come, my dear child, to prayer—simply to pay our homage and show our loyalty. If it pleases the divine Majesty to speak to us and converse with us by means of holy inspiration and inner comforts, that will be without doubt a great honor and a wonderful pleasure, but if it does not please him to give us that gift, leaving us here without speaking any more than as if he does not see us and as if we were not in his presence, nevertheless, we must not leave; indeed, to the contrary, we must remain there before that sovereign Goodness, with a devout and peaceful attitude. And when he inevitably accepts our patience and notices our diligence and perseverance, if at another time we return to him, he will encourage us by his consolations, showing us the sweetness of holy prayer. But when he may not do this, my child, let us content ourselves to know that it is for a much greater honor only to be near him and in his sight.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 10

a. It is interesting that Francis uses both a mechanical metaphor (agencements means “fittings” or “fixtures”) and a zoological metaphor (surgeons means “outgrowths” or “suckers”) for these additional short prayers.

b. Virtually all spiritual growth, development, and practice begin with confession of sins and their purgation. As a spiritual director of mine once put it: “One does not put clean clothing on over a filthy body—take a shower first, and then get dressed.”

c. This is a popular theological concept: that human beings were created and placed in time on earth in order to use that time to prepare for the timelessness of eternity. It has been said: “Change now to be ready for changelessness.”

d. Notice that curiously Francis changes from second person singular (“you”) to first person singular (“I”). It seems that he does so when he enters into playing the character of his reader, putting words in her mouth and so forth.

e. The visit to a sick person seems an unusual non sequitur, but it fits in Francis’s recommendation of considering ways to serve God in ordinary everyday activities.

f. It is a major premise of ascetical and moral theology that one is only able to do good or avoid evil by the gift of God’s grace.

g. When Francis recommends an action or words, he often uses a phrase like “such-and-such,” meaning that he is merely offering a suggestion and expects his reader to supply her or his own version.

h. See Romans 7:18: “For I know that what is good does not dwell in me, that is to say, in my flesh. For it is with me to will, but to accomplish what is good I do not by any means contrive.”

i PART II. CHAPTER 10.

Devotions for the Morning

Besides your full and patterned interior prayer and your other daily vocal prayers, there are four other kinds of shorter prayers, which are like fittings on and outgrowths ofa the other great prayer, among which the first is that which is done in the morning, as a general preparation for all the day’s work. It should be done in this way.

1. Thank and adore God profoundly for the grace that has preserved you safely through the preceding night, and if you have in anything committed some sin, ask forgiveness for yourself for it.b

2. Understand that this present day has been given to you so that you may gain the coming day of eternity,c and make a firm resolve to use this day well for that purpose.

3. Anticipate what activities, what affairs, and what occasions you may encounter today in which to serve God—and what temptations may arise for you to offend him, either by anger or by vanity, or by some other disturbance; and, by a holy resolution, prepare yourself to make good use of the means that you could offer to serve God and promote your devotion—just so, to the contrary, prepare yourself to prevent, fight, and overcome whatever might offer itself against your salvation and the glory of God. And it is not enough just to make that resolution, but you must prepare the means to act on it.d For instance, if I anticipate having to handle some business with a person who is hot-tempered and quick to anger, not only will I resolve not to give offense, but I will prepare amiable words in order to prevent it, or get the assistance of someone who may keep it in check. If I foresee that I may wish to visit a sick person, I will consider the hour and the comforts and relief that I may make for him.e And so of others as well.

4. That done, humble yourself before God, acknowledging that by yourself you can do nothing of all you have planned, neither avoiding evil nor doing well.f And, as though you held your heart in your hands, offer it with your good intentions to the divine Majesty, begging him to take it under his protection and to strengthen it to succeed well in his service, and do this by such-and-such inner words:g “O Lord, behold this poor and miserable heart, which, because of your goodness, has conceived some good affections—but, alas, it is too frail and weak to do the good it desiresh unless you impart your heavenly blessing (which is the purpose for which I stand in need, O gracious Father) by the merit of the Passion of your Son in whose honor I dedicate this day and the rest of my life.” Call upon Our Lady, your guardian angel, and the saints that they may assist you to this end.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 11

a. Francis uses the word “dinner” to refer to the noon meal (which in monastic tradition is the major meal of the day).

b. Francis suggests that one can revivify the affections and warmth (“fire”) of a previous meditation by imagining the presence of the crucified Jesus and moving one’s heart to “a dozen” strong desires, self-imposed hardships, and loving “darts.”

c. The French words are élancements amoureux, literally, “loving darts” or “amorous pangs” or “tender twinges.” It is likely that Francis here refers to what came to be called “arrow prayers” or “exclamatory prayers” that are very brief prayerful statements, for example, “God help me!” or “God be with me!”

d. It is noted that Francis again shifts from the pronoun “you” to the indefinite “one” when he puts himself into the position of the reader or protégé. It also avoids using male or female pronouns and is a common usage in Europe—less common in America.

e. Francis is famous for his sensitivity to specific methodologies of spiritual practice—and his sympathy for the inexperienced beginner.

f. The phrase “in thoughts, in words, or in deeds” is common to the earliest liturgical forms of confession.

g. Francis—ever the spokesman of the institutional Church—calls the penitent to make a formal, auricular confession to a priest as soon as possible.

h. Notice that Francis here reverts to the second person singular: “You” and “Your.”

i. Malachi 4:2: “But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise with healing in his wings: and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd.”

But all these spiritual acts must be done briefly and quickly, before one leaves the room if possible, so that through this practice everything you do through the whole day will be sprinkled with the blessing of God, but I beg you, my child, never to skip this practice.

i PART II. CHAPTER 11.

Devotions for Evening and Examination of Conscience

Just as before your material dinnera you made a spiritual meal by means of meditation, so, too, before your supper you must make a little supper—at least a devout and spiritual appetizer. So, take some leisure time a little before the hour of supper, and, prostrated before God, placing your mind in the presence of Jesus Christ crucified (whom you signify to yourself by a simple consideration and inner glance), renew the fire of your morning meditationb in your heart by a dozen strong aspirations, mortifications, and loving dartsc you will express to that divine Savior of your soul, either by repeating the points that you liked most in the morning meditation, or by stirring up some other new subject—whichever you like best.

As for the examination of conscience (which should always be done before going to bed), each one knows what he must do:

1. Oned thanks God for the protection he has given us in the past day.

2. One examines how one has conducted oneself through all the hours of the day, and in order to make this easier, one may consider where, with whom, and in what activity one has been engaged.e

3. If one finds one has done anything good, one makes an act of thanksgiving to God; if, on the contrary, one has done anything bad, in thoughts, in words, or in deeds,f one begs pardon of his divine Majesty with a resolution to confess at the first opportunityg and to amend oneself vigilantly.

4. After that, commend to divine Providenceh your body, your soul, the Church, parents, friends. One prays Our Lady, the guardian angel, and the saints to watch over us and for us, and with the blessing of God, we will take the rest he appointed for us.

These devotions should never be forgotten—nor those of the morning—because by those of the morning you open the windows of your soul to the Sun of justice,i and by these of the evening you close the windows to shadows of hell.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 12

a. One is reminded of God’s question in Genesis 3:9 as he visits the Garden of Eden: “And the LORD God called Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’”

b. Luke 9:58: “Jesus said to him: ‘The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’”

c. Devotion to the wounds of Christ and the concept of dwelling within those wounds was widespread in earlier tradition, for example:

St. Augustine: “the wound made in the side of the Crucified when pierced by the lance, by which those enter who come to Him” (De Civitate Dei 15, 26: PL 41, 47).

The Venerable Bede: “… the Evangelist makes use of an apt word, when he says not ‘struck,’ or ‘wounded,’ but ‘opened,’ that is, the door in the midst of His side, through which the way to heaven might be opened to us” (De Templo Salamonis, 8: PL 91, 753).

St. Bonaventure: “… let us approach that most humble Heart of Jesus most high, that is to say, through the door in his side pierced with the lance; there without doubt lies hidden an ineffable treasure of most desirable love.” (Vitis Mystica 3, S, and 24, 3).

St. Catherine of Siena: “You shall find the source of charity in the pierced side of the crucified Christ. I wish you to establish yourselves there and make a dwelling there for yourselves” (from the Dominican Office for the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena).

Thomas Kempis: “If you cannot soar up as high as Christ sitting on his throne, behold him hanging on his cross. Rest in Christ’s Passion and live willingly in his holy wounds” (Imitatio Christi, bk. 2:1).

d. Psalm 30:3 [31:3]: “Be to me a God, a protector, and a house of refuge, to save me”; and Ecclesiasticus 34:19b: “He is a defense from the heat and a cover from the sun at noon.”

e. Psalm 72:23b [73:23a]; Psalm 15:8 [16:8]; Psalm 122:1 [123:1]; and Psalm 24:14 [25:14a].

f. “Build a cell inside your mind, from which you can never flee” (The Life of Catherine of Siena, trans. Conleth Kearns; Michael Glazier; Wilmington; 1994, 135).

i PART II. CHAPTER 12.

On Spiritual Retreat

It is here, dear child, where I very affectionately wish for you to follow my advice, for in this article lies one of the most certain means for your spiritual progress.

As often as you can during the day, call your mind back into the presence of God by one of four ways that I have mentioned to you.

Consider what God is doing and what you are doing—you will see his eyes turned in your direction and constantly fastened upon you by an incomparable love. “O God,” you will say, “why do I not always look upon you as you always look upon me? Why do you think of me so often, my Lord, and why do I think so seldom of you? Where are we, O my soul? Our true place is God, and where do we stand?”a

As the birds have their nests in the trees for their retreat when they need it,b and the stags have their bushes and their refuges on which they can rely and take cover, helping themselves to the cool shade in summer. So too, child, our hearts must pick and choose some place each day, either on Mount Calvary, or within the wounds of our Lord,c or on some other place close to him, to make their retreat in all sorts of occasions, and there refresh and restore themselves among the external affairs, to be as in a fortress, so they can defend themselves from temptations. Happy, indeed, will the soul be that can say to Our Lord in truth: “You are my house of refuge, my secure castle, my roof against the rain, and my shade against the heat.”d

Remember, then, my child, always to make several retreats into the solitude of your heart while you are physically involved in discussions and business—and this mental solitude cannot be disrupted by the multitude of those around you, for they do not surround your heart as they surround your body, if your heart dwells on its own in the presence of God alone. This is the exercise that King David practiced among all his activities as he demonstrates a thousand times in his Psalms, as when he says: “O LORD, I am always with you. I see my God always before me. I have raised my eyes to you, O my God, who dwells in heaven. My eyes are always on God,”e and also the discussions are not ordinarily so serious that one cannot from time to time withdraw the heart to restore this divine solitude.

When the father and mother of Saint Catherine of Siena deprived her of any place or free time to pray and meditate, Our Lord inspired her to make a small chapel inside her mind, into which she could withdraw inwardly, to enjoy this holy solitude of heart amid her outward affairs. And afterward, when the world attacked her, she still received no inconvenience, because, she said, she locked herself in her interior closet where she was comforted by her heavenly Bridegroom. And, consequently, she advised her spiritual children to make a chamber in their heart and to dwell there.f

a. Psalm 101:7–8 [102:6–7]: “I am become like a pelican of solitude; I am like a night-raven in the house. I have watched and have become a sparrow all alone on the rooftop.”

b. One legend had it that the pelican pierced her own breast and poured her blood into the mouths of her dead chicks, who then came back to life—an obvious metaphor for Christ, the Eucharist, and the Resurrection. (The legend was based on the fact that when a pelican returns to her nest to feed her young, she presses the pouch of her bill against her breast to empty it into her chicks’ mouths—and it looks like she is piercing her breast with her bill.) Many ecclesiastical depictions of pelicans include the motto: “Thus has Christ loved us.” And see also St. Thomas Aquinas’s Eucharistic hymn Adoro te devote, with the lines:

Like the noble pelican of the legends blest,
Feed this erring child with blood from your holy breast,
Blood whose one drop brings salvation to a sinful race,
And will purge the evil world by its cleansing grace.

c. St. Elzear of Sarban (1285–1323) was a famous French nobleman whose life was an example of Francis’s conviction that the life of devotion could be lived within the secular world of court, business, and worldly duty. He and his wife were Third Order Franciscans. Elzear’s nephew (and godson) became Pope Urban V, who canonized both Elzear and his wife, Delphine. Their feast day is on September 26.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 13

d. Francis uses the term oraisons jaculatoires, usually translated as “ejaculatory prayers.” Because of the unfortunate sexual overtones of the word in English, I have chosen to translate it as “exclamatory prayers.” In common usage they are often called “arrow prayers.”

e. “The brethren in Egypt are reported to have very frequent prayers, but these very short, and, as it were, sudden and exclamatory, lest wakeful and stirred attention (which is indispensable in prayer) should vanish or lose its intensity by prolonged exercises” (Philip Schaff; Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Augustine, Epistle 130 §20).

f. A unique and poetical expression of the concept that human beings share some dimension of divinity with God (that is, “in the image” of God)—humans waft a divine fragrance!

Sometimes, then, move your mind into your heart where, separated from everyone, you can deal heart-to-heart of your soul with her God, saying with David: “I have watched and become like a pelican of solitude; I have become like the night-raven or an owl in the ruins, like the sparrow alone on the roof.”a These words besides their literal meaning (which testifies that this great king took several hours to stand alone in the contemplation of spiritual things) show us their mystical sense as three excellent retreats or hermitages where we can practice our solitude in imitation of our Savior, who on Mount Calvary was like the “pelican of solitude,” whose blood revived its dead chicks.b In his Nativity in a lonely stable, he was like the owl among the ruins mourning and weeping for our faults and sins. And on the day of his Ascension, he was like the sparrow, withdrawing and flying to the sky that is like the roof of the world. And in all these three places we can make our retreats from amidst the turmoil of business.

When the blessed Elzear, Count of Arian in Provence,c had been long absent from his devout and chaste wife, Delphine, she sent a man expressly to know of his health, and he made this response: “I am doing well, my dear wife, and if you wish to see me, seek me in the wound in the side of our dear Jesus, for that is where I dwell, and where you will find me. Otherwise you will seek me for nothing.” He was a Christian knight, that one!

i PART II. CHAPTER 13.

Of Aspirations, Exclamatory Prayer, and Good Thoughtsd

One retires in God because one aspires to it, and one aspires in order to retire there; so that the aspiration for God and spiritual retreat support each other; both come out of and are born from holy thoughts.

Aspire continually for God, my child, by short, ardent surges of your heart: admire his beauty, invoke his aid, throw yourself in spirit at the foot of the cross, adore his goodness, beg him often for salvation. Offer him your soul a thousand times a day; fix your inner eyes on his kindness; offer him your hand like a little child to her father so that he leads you; take him into your bosom like a lovely garland; raise him up in your soul like a banner; and make a thousand kinds of various movements of your heart in order to provide you with the love of God and to lift you to a passionate and tender fondness for that divine Spouse.

In this way one makes exclamatory prayers—which the great Saint Augustine advises so precisely to the devout lady Proba.e My child, our mind is devoted to the intimacy, nearness, and familiarity of its God, is itself all fragrant with his perfections,f and if this practice is easy, it is because it can be interlaced in all our business and occupations without at all inconveniencing them, especially since either in the spiritual retreat or the inner exclamations, one makes only brief and short diversions, which help as much as hinder us in what we do. The pilgrim who takes a little wine to gladden his hearta and refresh his mouth, although he stops a little for that, does not break his journey, and indeed takes strength to complete his pilgrimage more vigorously and more readily, having paused only in order to go forward better.

a. Psalm 103:14b–15a [104:14b–15a]: “… that you may bring bread out of the earth, and that wine that may gladden the heart of man.” (Madeiran wine from Gascony has long been called “the pilgrim’s wine” because the pilgrim’s path to the famous shrine at Compostela passes through the wine country of Gascony.)

b. Francis again takes an enlightened position, recommending a very individual and personal style of prayer rather than some prepackaged, formally approved written form. It was more common in the Catholic tradition to distrust such personal liberation and to require the use of official forms and prayers.

c. The French word is les élancements, literally “twinges” or “darts” or “pangs.” Francis speaks here of exclamatory prayer, so I have used “exclamations.”

d. “My confession then, O my God, in your sight, is made both silently and not silently. For in sound, it is silent; in affection, it cries aloud” (St. Augustine, Confessions, bk. 10); and “Hear, Lord, my inner voice, which with a strong intention I have addressed to your ears” (St. Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 27, §7).

e. Quoted in Digby, The Broad Stone of Honour…; Quaritch; London; 1876, 152; and in de Sales, Francis (Ryan, John K., tr.), Introduction to the Devout Life; Doubleday; New York; 1972, p., 294. (Some French editions have St. Georges instead of St. Gregoire.)

f. Psalm 68:1, 15b, 3b [69:1, 16b, 3b]: “Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even to my soul,” and “Deliver me from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters,” and “I come into the depth of the sea, and a tempest has overwhelmed me.”

g. During the Arian heresy controversies in 379, the philosopher Maximus the Cynic allied himself with Peter, the Arian patriarch of Alexandria, and tried to take Gregory’s position and had himself ordained archbishop of Constantinople. Rather than fight, Gregory decided to resign, but his congregations induced him to stay, and they ejected Maximus (Rosemary Ruether, Gregory of Nazianzus: Rhetor and Philosopher; Oxford University. Press; NY; 1969, 109).

h. St. Fulgentius (c. 462–527) began his religious life as a monk and had to flee from two different monasteries when they were attacked by the Arian heretics. Eventually he began to live the life of a hermit and was renowned for his holiness of life. He was eventually made bishop of Ruspe in Tunisia.

Many have amassed a lot of vocal aspirations that are truly very useful, but by my advice, you ought not to be bound to any set words, but to pronounce either on your lips or in your heart whatever love suggests to you on the spot because that will provide as much as you wish.b It is true that there are certain words that have a particular power to satisfy the heart in this situation, as are the exclamationsc sown so thickly in the psalms of David, the various invocations of the Name of Jesus, and the bursts of love written in the Song of Songs. Spiritual hymns also serve the same purpose, provided that they are sung with care.

Finally, just as those who in love with a human and natural love almost always have their thoughts turned toward the chosen beloved, their hearts full of affection toward her, their mouth full of her praises, and in her absence, they do not lose the opportunity to express their passions by letters, and find no tree without inscribing on its bark the name of the one they love—so those who love God cannot stop thinking of him, panting for him, longing for him, and speaking of him, and would, if it were possible, engrave on the breast of every person in the world the holy and sacred Name of Jesus. And so all things call them to this same thing, and there is no creature who does not proclaim the praise of their beloved. And, as Saint Augustine says (after Saint Antony), everything in the world speaks to them in a language, silent but very intelligible, in favor of their love;d all things lead to good thoughts, from which subsequently are born powerful sudden surges and aspirations in God. Here are some examples:

Saint Gregory, bishop of Nazianzus, himself told his peoplee how, walking on the shore of the sea, he noticed the advancing waves on the shore left shells and little periwinkles, stems of seaweed, small oysters, and similar discards that the sea rejected, in a manner of speaking, spitting them out over the edge, and then returning by other waves, the sea took them again and swallowed some of them, while the surrounding rocks stood firm and immobile although the water smashed in roughly and crashed against them. And then he made this beautiful reflection on this: that like the shells, periwinkles, and stems of seaweed, the feeble let themselves be carried away sometimes by affliction, sometimes by consolation, at the mercy of the tides and waves of fortune, but those of great courage remain firm and immoveable in all kinds of storms, and from this thought he gave birth to the exclamations of David: “O LORD, save me, for the waters have come into to my soul! O LORD, deliver me from the deep waters. I am carried to the depth of the sea and the tempest has overwhelmed me.”f For Gregory was then in grief for the offensive usurpation of his bishopric by Maximus.g When Saint Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe,h found himself in a general assembly of Roman nobles, which Theodoric, king of the Goths, harangued, and seeing the splendor of all the lords who sat in rank each according to his title, “O God,” he said, “how beautiful must be the heavenly Jerusalem, since here one sees such stateliness of earthly Rome.” And if in this world so much splendor is granted to lovers of vanity, what glory must be reserved in the other world for those who contemplate the Truth.

a. Anselm (1033–1109) was born in Aosta in Piedmont, Italy (eighty-three miles across the Alps from de Sales’s Geneva), and had been the abbot of Bec in France when he was called to be the archbishop of Canterbury. He is best remembered for Cur Deus Homo, his famous treatise on the Atonement. The incident with the hare is recounted in Eadmer’s biography.

b. Recorded in St. Athanasius, “The Life of Saint Antony” (Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 4:131), with this added: “And so [Antony] was unwilling to receive the letters, saying that he did not know how to write an answer to such things. But being urged by the monks because the emperors were Christians, and lest they should take offense on the ground that they had been spurned, he consented that they should be read, and wrote an answer approving them because they worshipped Christ, and giving them counsel on things pertaining to salvation.”

c. Thomas of Celano (Placid, Herman, tr.); The First and Second Life of St. Francis; Franciscan Herald Press; Chicago; 1963, 40.

d. St. Bonaventure (Emma Gurney Slater, tr.); The Life of St. Francis; J. M. Dent; London; 1904, 86.

e. Francis Boriga (1510–1572) was the fourth Duke of Gandia. After his wife died, he renounced his titles and possessions in favor of his son, became a Jesuit, and was ordained a priest. He became a close friend of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Teresa of Ávila, and later he became one of the most famous superior generals of the Society, noted for his piety.

f. Cited in de Sales, Francis (Ryan, John K. tr.), Introduction to the Devout Life; Doubleday; NY; 1972, 295, as “Saint Basil; Oratio de Pardiso; appendix.”

It is said that Saint Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury (whose birth has greatly honored our mountains),a was admirable in the practice of good thoughts. On one occasion when he was traveling, a hare chased by dogs ran under the horse of that holy prelate as an available refuge from imminent danger of death, while the dogs clamored all around, not daring to violate the immunity to which their prey had recourse—this was a truly extraordinary spectacle, which made all his procession laugh, while the great Anselm was weeping and shedding tears. “Ah, you laugh,” he said, “but the poor beast does not laugh; the enemies of the soul, having pursued and abused her through many twists and turns by all sorts of sins, wait at the narrow passage of death to ravish and devour her, and she, terrified, searches everywhere for relief and refuge, and if she does not find any, her enemies mock and scoff.” Having said this, he went away sighing.

Constantine the Great wrote respectfully to Saint Antony, at which the monks who were about him were amazed, and he said to them, “Why are you in awe that a king should write to a man? Rather be in awe that eternal God wrote his law to mortals, and more, that they spoke face-to-face in the person of his Son.”b Saint Francis saw a sheep all alone among a flock of goats. “Look,” he said to his companion. “How that poor little sheep is gentle among the goats. Our Lord was as gentle and humble among the Pharisees.”c And in another place, seeing a little lamb eaten by a pig, he said all in tears, “Ah! Little lamb, you truly represent the death of my Savior!”d

That great man of our age, Francis Borgia, while he was still the Duke of Gandia, going hunting had a thousand devout thoughts. He said to himself afterward, “I am amazed that while the falcons return to the fist, allowing themselves to have their eyes covered and to be fastened to a perch, but men return so angrily to the voice of God.”e The great Saint Basil says that the rose among the thorns makes this warning to men: “What is most pleasant, things in this world, O mortals, are mixed with sadness. Nothing here is pure: regret is always attached to joy, widowhood to marriage, care to fertility, ignominy to glory, expense to honors, disgust to delights, and sickness to health.” “The rose,” said the holy man, “is a beautiful flower, but it gives me great sadness, warning me of my sin for which the earth has been condemned to bear the spines.”f

A devout soul, gazing on a brook and seeing the sky with the stars reflected in a clear and serene night, said: “O my God, these stars will be under my feet when you have housed me in your holy tabernacles, and just as the stars of heaven are reflected in the earth, so the men of the earth are reflected in heaven in the living fountain of the Divine Love.” Another, seeing a river flowing, exclaimed, “My soul will never find rest until it is drowned in the sea of the Godhead, which is its source.” And Saint Frances,a noticing a pleasant stream on the shore where she knelt to pray, was rapt in ecstasy, repeating these words beautifully several times: “The grace of my God flows as gently and as sweetly as this little stream.” Another seeing the flowering trees sighed, “Why am I alone without a blossom in the garden of the Church?” Another, seeing the little chicks gathered under their mother, said: “O Lord, keep us under the shadow of your wings.”b Another, seeing the sunflower,c said: “When will it be, my God, that my soul will follow the attraction of your goodness?” And seeing pansies in a garden—beautiful to see, but without the fragrance—he said, “Ah, such are my thoughts—nice to speak, but without effect or result.”d

a. St. Frances of Rome (1384–1440).

b. Psalm 16:8b [17:8b]: “Protect me under the shadow of your wings.”

c. De Sales’s French for “sunflower” is le tourne-soleil, literally, “the sun-turner” since the flower turns throughout the day to keep its face to the sun.

d. There is a parallel wordplay here: the French pensées means “pansies” and also means “thoughts”—so the pansies remind the speaker of his thoughts! (The same word play has Ophelia say to Hamlet, “And there’s pansies—that’s for thoughts” [Hamlet, act 4, sc. 5]).

e. Francis testifies and has given examples to show that literally everything on earth can be used mystically to produce holy and useful reflections. He criticizes those who see only sin in worldly creatures—possibly a mild reproof of the Calvinists (whose center was in Francis’s own see city of Geneva, which he was not allowed to enter) who tended to be puritanical and judgmental, condemning as sinful everything that was not “spiritual.”

f. Quoted in Ryan, John K., tr.; Introduction to the Devout Life, 295.

g. Francis here refers to St. Jerome’s Letter 108 to Eustochium (Paula’s daughter), in which he provides a rich biography of Paula and the epitaph he wrote for her tomb—but the details Francis mentions occur in the rest of the letter, not specifically in the epitaph on the tomb.

h. Francis makes claims for “this spiritual retreat and these exclamatory prayers” that seem almost unreasonably hyperbolic since, as specific spiritual practices, they did not have a long history and few other champions.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 14

i. At least three times Francis uses the phrase “the sun of…” to indicate the highest or best of its kind, for instance, “the sun of all virtues” in Part III, Chapter 5.

j. Song of Songs 8:5: “Who is this that comes up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning on her beloved?”

k. Song of Songs 3:6: “Who is she who goes up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatic spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and all the powders of the perfumer.”

There, my child, thus one draws the good thoughts and holy aspirations from whatever presents itself in the diversity of this mortal life. Unhappy are those who turn created things away from their Creator in order to convert them into sins. Happy are those who convert the creatures to the glory of their Creator and use their own vanity to honor the truth.e Indeed, as Saint Gregory Nazianen says: “I am accustomed to turn all things to my spiritual benefit.”f Read the devout epitaph that Saint Jerome made for Saint Paula, for it is a beautiful thing to see as it is all scattered throughout with the sacred aspirations and insights that she drew from all kinds of encounters.g

Now, in the practice of this spiritual retreat and of these exclamatory prayers lies the great work of devotion: it can supply all the defects of all other prayers, but its absence cannot in any way be made up for by any other means. Without this, one cannot lead the contemplative life well, and the active life can only be done badly. Without this, rest is idleness, work only troublesome—that is why I implore you to grasp this with all your heart, without ever departing from it.h

i PART II. CHAPTER 14.

Of the Most Holy Mass and the Need to Attend

1. I have not yet spoken to you of the sun of spiritual exercises,i which is the very holy, sacred, and very sovereign Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Mass, the center of the Christian religion, the heart of devotion, soul of piety, the ineffable Mystery that comprises the unfathomable depths of Divine Love, and by which in reality God bestows himself on us, magnificently conveying his grace and favors.

2. Prayer made in union with this Divine Sacrifice has an indescribable power, of such a kind, my child, that by this the soul is filled with heavenly favors—like leaning on her Belovedj—that makes it so full of spiritual perfume and sweetness, that it resembles a column of aromatic wood smoke, myrrh, incense, and all the powders of the perfumer, as it is said in the Song of Songs.k

a. Francis is enlightened to use the positive “assist at Holy Mass.” It was more common, albeit less accurate, to speak of “hearing Mass” or “attending Mass.” And he shows further enlightenment when he speaks of offering the Mass “with the priest.” It was much more common to speak of the priest as offering the Mass alone and the people merely “hearing” or “watching.”

b. St. John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood, bk. 6, 4.

c. The three classical states of the Church: the Church Triumphant (in heaven), the Church Expectant (in purgatory), and the Church Militant (on earth).

d. Reminiscent of the doxology at the end of the Prayer of Consecration in the Catholic Mass: “… Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor are Yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever. Amen.”

e. It should be noted that in the medieval and early modern Catholic Mass, the congregation was not expected to take part, but rather to engage in personal and private devotions while the priest celebrated the Mass, merely murmuring the Latin in such a situation.

f. Note that Francis considers that the Lord himself actually gives the final blessing through the agency of his priest.

g. The “mysteries” are usually biblical events—for example, Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, or Jesus’s birth, or the Crucifixion—which are used as the basis for meditation.

3. Make all sorts of efforts in order to assist every day at the Holy Mass, to offer with the priest the sacrifice of your Redeemer to God the Father a for yourself, and for the whole Church. “The angels in great number are always present,” as Saint John Chrysostom says, “to honor this Holy Mystery,”b and we are with them, and having the same intention, we cannot but receive many favorable influences from such companionship. The choirs of the Church Triumphant and of the Church Militantc attach themselves and join Our Lord in this Divine Action, for with him, in him, and by himd to steal the heart of God the Father and make his mercy ours. What blessedness for a soul devoutly to contribute its affections for something so precious and desirable.

4. If, by force of circumstances, you cannot be present in person at the celebration of this Sovereign Sacrifice, at least you ought to transport your heart there to assist with a spiritual presence. At some hour in the morning, then, go in spirit into the church, if you cannot do otherwise; unite your intention to that of all Christians, and do the same inner devotions in the place where you are that you would do if you were actually present at the celebration of the Holy Mass in some church.

5. Or, in order hear the Holy Mass, either actually or mentally, as is suitable: (1) From the beginning until the priest goes up to the altar, make preparation with his—which consists in putting yourself in the presence of God, recalling your unworthiness, and asking pardon for your faults. (2) From the time the priest is at the altar until the Gospel, reflect on the birth and the life of Our Lord in this world, by a simple and general reflection. (3) From the Gospel until after the Creed, reflect on the preaching of Our Savior; affirm that you wish to live and die in the faith and in obedience to the Holy Word and in the union of the Holy Catholic Church. (4) From the Creed until the Our Father, apply your heart to the mysteries of the death and passion of our Redeemer, which are actually and essentially represented in this Holy Sacrament that—with the priest and with the rest of the people—you offer to God the Father for his honor and your salvation. (5) From the Our Father until the Communion, try to make a thousand desires of your heart, fervently wishing to be forever joined and united in Our Savior by eternal love. (6) From the Communion until the end, thank the Divine Majesty for his incarnation, for his life, for his death, for his passion, and for the love that he shows us in this Holy Sacrifice, beseeching that by means of this he may always be merciful to your parents, to your friends, and to the whole Church;e and, humbling yourself with all your heart, devoutly receive the divine blessing that Our Lord gives you through the mediation of his minister.f

But if you wish to make your meditation during Mass on the mysteriesg that you are going to follow daily, it will not be necessary that you interrupt yourself to make these particular acts, but it will suffice that at the beginning you direct your intention to wish to adore and to offer this Holy Sacrifice through the practice of your meditation and prayer, so that then in all meditation the aforesaid acts will be found, either expressly or tacitly and virtually.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 15

a. The “Office of the Hours” refers to the various brief prayer services held throughout the day and, in Francis’s day, they were recited in the parish church: Prime (c. 6 am), Tierce (c. 9 am), Sext (c. noon), None officium (c. 3 pm), and Vespers (usually at 4 or 5 pm). The word “office” in this use is from the Latin officium, meaning “duty” or “obligation”—it was the duty of every priest to recite these Offices daily.

b. “How I wept, in your hymns and canticles [of the Divine Office], touched to the quick by the voices of your sweet-attuned church. The voices flowed into my ears, and the truth distilled in my heart, from which the affections of my devotion overflowed, and tears ran down, and I was happy there” (St. Augustine, Confessions 9, 14).

c. A quite amazing and progressive recognition on Francis’s part: that communal worship was preferable to private prayer.

d. Confraternities, brotherhoods, guilds, societies, or sodalities were organizations often established in parishes for particular devotional purposes, that is, to foster devotion to a particular saint, or a commitment to assist at daily Mass, or certain patterns of specific prayer.

e. Once again Francis underlines the basic principle that mortals were made to live and work in the company of others—that humanity is communal in its very divinely created nature.

i PART II. CHAPTER 15.

Of Other Public and Communal Practices

Besides that, my child, on Holy Days and Sundays you should attend the Office of the Hours and of Vespers,a as your convenience will allow, for those days are dedicated to God, and one must do more for his honor and glory then than on other days. You will feel a thousand pleasures of devotion in this way, as did Saint Augustine, who testifies in his Confessions that hearing the Divine Offices at the beginning of his conversion, his heart melted in loveliness, and his eyes in tears of piety.b Moreover (so I say once and for all), there is always more good and more consolation in the public Offices of the Church than in private devotions, God having so ordered that the communal be preferred above all sorts of particular private separation.c

Be glad to enter into the confraternitiesd of the place where you are, and especially those whose practices produce more fruit and edification, for in those you will practice a kind of obedience more pleasing to God. Although the confraternities are not commanded, they are nevertheless recommended by the Church, and she gives witness to her desire that many enroll there by giving indulgences and other privileges to their members. Moreover, it is always a very charitable thing to concur with some and to cooperate with others in their good objectives. And, although it might happen that one does as good practices by oneself as one does in common with the others (and perhaps one’s preference is more to work privately), yet God is more glorified by the union and contribution that we make of our good works with our brothers and neighbors.e

I say the same thing regarding all kinds of public prayers and devotions, in which, as much as is possible for us, we must bring them our good example, for the edification of our neighbor and our desire for the glory of God and the common goal.

i PART II. CHAPTER 16.

How One Should Honor and Invoke the Saints

Since God very often sends us inspirations by means of his angels, we also must send back our aspirations by the same intermediaries. The holy souls of the dead who are in heaven with the angels and, as Our Lord said, “equal and like the angels,”a fulfill also the same function: to inspire us and to draw us in by their holy prayers. My child, let us join our hearts to the heavenly spirits and the blessed souls. Just as the young nightingales learn to sing with their elders, so by the holy exchange that we make with the saints, we can better pray and praise God. “I will sing praises,” said David, “in the sight of the angels.”b

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 16

a. Mark 12:25: “For when they shall rise again from the dead, they shall neither marry nor be married, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”

b. Psalm 137:1b [138:1b]: “I will sing praise to you in the sight of the angels.”

c. The phrase “mother of our sovereign Father, and consequently our grandmother” is peculiar and confusing because it seems to refer to Jesus as “Father.” John K. Ryan (Francis’s most faithful translator) in his 1961 version has it, “She is the Mother of our sovereign Father and consequently she is our own Mother in an especial way.” Some translators have changed the phrase to “mother of our sovereign Lord, and consequently our mother.” (There is an inquiry into the phrase in The Ecclesiastical Review, vol. 51 [1914], which concludes unconvincingly that it is meant to be “playfulness” on Francis’s part.) See also the following note.

d. It is notable, again, that the Catholic Francis does not call upon the Blessed Virgin to work miracles but instead seeks to know her love and to imitate her virtues.

e. St. Peter Faber (1506–1546) had been a college roommate of Francis Xavier in Paris, and the two became close friends with Ignatius Loyola. Faber was among the first five to take vows in Ignatius’s new Jesuit order.

f. Francis’s text has “The Company of the Name of Jesus,” which is the formal name of the Jesuit order.

g. This is a reference to Madame Guillelmine d’Arenthon d’Alex, the mother of the priest Pierre Critan of Thonon, who was Francis’s close personal friend.

h. An unexpected personal reminiscence of Francis, the bishop of Geneva.

Honor, revere, and respect with a special love the sacred and glorious Virgin Mary. She is mother of our sovereign Father and consequently our grandmother.c Therefore, let us run to her and, as her little children, let us cast ourselves into her bosom with a perfect confidence at all times, on all occasions, turning to this sweet Mother, invoking her motherly love, and, by trying to imitate her virtues, let us have in place a true child’s heart.d

Make yourself familiar with the angels. Notice them invisibly present in your life, and, above all, love and reverence the guardian angels of the diocese where you live, of the people with whom you live, and especially your own. Pray to them often, praise them constantly, use their aid in all your affairs, both spiritual and temporal, that they may help with your intentions.

The great Peter Faber,e the first priest, first preacher, and first theological teacher of the Jesuits,f and first companion of the blessed Ignatius, the founder, came one day from Germany where he had done great service for the glory of Our Lord, and passing through this diocese—his birthplace—told that having crossed many areas of the heretics, he had received a thousand consolations from the guardian angels of the various parishes, whom he had seen to have been particularly favorable either by preserving him from the snares of the heretics or by making several souls more biddable and open to receive the teachings of salvation. And he said that with such earnestness that a lady, young at the time, having heard it from his lips, repeated it with deep feeling only four years ago—that is to say, more than sixty years later.g (I was pleased this past year to have consecrated an altar in the place in which God gave birth to this blessed man—in the little village of Villaret among our most rugged mountains.)h

Choose a few special saints whose lives you can better appreciate and imitate and in whose intercession you have special confidence—like the one whose name has already been assigned to you at your baptism.

i PART II. CHAPTER 17.

How One Should Hear and Read the Word of God

Be devoted to the word of God, either by hearing it in familiar conversation with your spiritual friends or by listening to a sermon. Listen to it always with attention and reverence; make good profit from it and do not permit any of it to fall uselessly to the ground, but receive it like a precious balm in your heart in imitation of the most holy Virgin, who carefully preserved all the words that were said in praise of her Child.a And remember that Our Lord collects the words we speak in our prayers just as we gather those he speaks to us through preaching.b

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 17

a. Luke 2:51b: “And [Jesus’s] mother kept all these words in her heart.” (Francis adds the words “said in praise of her Child,” which do not appear in the Gospel.)

b. As far as I can determine, this line is uniquely Francis’s—a winsome thought of God gathering the words of our prayers like a farmer reaping a harvest—that our words of prayer do not simply evaporate but are garnered into God’s heavenly barn!

c. There is little point in identifying all these authors: Bonaventure is still studied; for a time, Gerson was thought by the French to have authored The Imitation of Christ (probably what Francis was thinking of here); Scupoli’s The Spiritual Combat is still read today, as are the works of Augustine and Jerome.

d. Francis has the words selon votre vacation (literally, “depending on your vacation”), which makes little sense. Most translators think the French word should be vocation (“calling” or “vocation”). “Inclination” is one of a variety of possible translations.

e. The first saints mentioned—Paul of Thebes (d. c. 341); Francis of Assisi (d. 1226); Mother Teresa of Ávila (d. 1582); Charles Borromeo (d. 1584); Louis, King of Frances (d. 1270); Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153)—were all known for having lived deeply devout lives that could be imitated. The other saints were extreme ascetics: Mary of Egypt (d. c. 421), a harlot who became an extreme penitent, living naked in the desert; Simon Stylites (d. 459) lived an ascetic life atop a pillar for thirty-nine years; Catherine of Siena (d. 1380) was renowned for extreme fasting for years; the mystic Catherine of Genoa (d. 1510) was noted for praying without aids (such as rosaries);Angela Merici (d. 1540) was founder of the Ursuline Sisters.

f. The French has prévenant notre cœur en ses bénédictions (literally, “preceding our heart into his blessings”). Compare Psalm 20:4a [21:3a]: “You have preceded him with blessings of sweetness….”

g. Francis basically describes “inspiration” as any inner, spiritual state produced by God. The word inspiration (identical in French and English) derives from the Latin for “breathe in”: spirare means to breathe.

Always carry with you some beautiful book of devotion, like those of Saint Bonaventure, Gerson, Denis the Carthusian, Louis Biosius, Grenade, Stella, Arias, Pinelli, DuPont,Ávila, The Spiritual Combat, the Confessions of Saint Augustine, the Epistles of Saint Jerome, and the like,c and daily read one with a great devotion, as though you were reading letters that the saints might have sent you from heaven, to show you the way and to give you the courage to go.

Also read the stories and lives of the saints where, as in a glass, you will see the picture of the Christian life and adapt their actions to your benefit depending on your inclination.d For although many of the actions of the saints may not be exactly imitated by those who live in the world, yet they all can be followed to some degree—the solitude of Saint Paul, the first hermit, is imitated in your retreats, both spiritual and actual; the extreme poverty of Saint Francis by the practice of poverty (as we have already noted); and so on concerning the others. It is true that there are some stories that may give more light for the conduct of our lives than others—like the life of Blessed Mother Teresa (which is excellent for that); the lives of the first Jesuits; that of Saint Charles Borromeo, archbishop of Milan; of Saint Louis; of Saint Bernard; the Chronicles of Saint Francis; and others like those. There are still others that are more about admiration than imitation, such as that of Saint Mary of Egypt, Saint Simon Stylites, the two saints Catherine—of Siena and Genoa—Saint Angela, and other such which do not fail, nevertheless, to give a broad general taste of the holy love of God.e

i PART II. CHAPTER 18.

How One Should Receive Inspirations

What we call “inspirations” are all the inner attractions, activities, reproaches and regrets, insights and intuitions that God produces in us, guiding our heart into his affectionf by his fatherly care and love, to awaken us, to stimulate us, to assist and attract us to holy virtues, heavenly love, and good resolutions—in short, to everything that drives us on toward our eternal good.g This is what the Bridegroom invokes, knocking at the door and speaking to the heart of his Bride, waking her when she sleeps, calling and clamoring when she is absent, inviting her to taste his honey, and to gather apples and flowers in his garden, and singing, and making his voice sound sweet in her ears.a

a. This sentence takes its images from the love story in the Song of Songs, which was interpreted as an allegory: the Bride being the Church and Christ the Bridegroom.

Hosea 2:14b: “I will speak to her heart.”
Song of Songs 5:2: “I am sleeping, but my heart awoke; it is my beloved knocking.”
Song of Songs 2:10: “Lo, my beloved speaks to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come away.”
Song of Songs 4:11: “Your lips, my spouse, are as a dripping honeycomb, honey and milk are under your tongue.”
Song of Songs 5:1: “Let my beloved enter my garden and eat the fruit of my apple trees.”
Song of Songs 6:1: “Where is your beloved gone, O you most beautiful among women? Where is your beloved turned aside?”

b. The French is difficult here, but notice that “the match is proposed to her”—not that the suitor proposes to her. It suggests the intervention of a parent or a matchmaker (who in seventeenth-century French Catholic society was often the priest).

c. Curiously, Francis parallels a marriage proposal to (a) God’s inspiration, and (b) the descent into sin, and (c) the ascent to virtue.

d. Francis speaks against rejecting, ignoring, or merely enduring an inspiration—he calls for one to be pleased and delighted by it in one of its forms, that is, to delight in an intuition rather than to reject it.

e. Psalm 94:10–11 [95:10–11]: “Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart. And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.”

f. Song of Songs 5:6b: “My soul melted when [my beloved] spoke.”

g. Another indication that Francis believes in a will-based morality: that it is the action of the human will that determines the morality of the act. Here, the will’s giving consent to inspiration is seen as “the perfect act of virtue.”

For the complete decision about a wedding match, three actions must occur regarding the damsel whom one wishes to marry: first, the match is proposed to her; second, she considers the proposal; and, in third place, she consents.b Just so, when God wishes to work in us, by us, and with us some act of great love, first, he proposes it to us by his inspiration; second, we consider it; third, we consent to it. So, too, as there are three steps to descend to sin—temptation, pleasure, and consent—as also there are three steps to mount to virtue—inspiration (which is contrary to temptation), delight in the inspiration (which is contrary to delight in the temptation), and consent to the inspiration (which is contrary to consent to the temptation).c

Even should the inspiration last the whole length of our life, we would not by any means be pleasing to God if we did not take pleasure in it.d On the contrary, his divine Majesty would be offended as he was against the Israelites whom, as he said, he was seeking to convert for forty years, without their ever being willing to listen to him, so that he swore in his wrath against them that they would not enter into his rest.e In the same way, the gentleman who had served a damsel for a long time would be very displeased if, after that, she would not hear of the marriage he desired.

The pleasure we take from the inspirations is a great step toward the glory of God and already begins to please his divine Majesty, for although this pleasure is not yet an entire consent, it is a certain inclination to it. And if it is a good sign and something very useful to be pleased at hearing the word of God (which is like an external inspiration), it is also something good and pleasing to God for one to take pleasure in inner inspiration. It is this pleasure of which the sacred Bride speaks when she says: “My soul melted with joy, when my beloved spoke.”f So also the gentleman is already very content with the damsel whom he serves and feels encouraged when he sees that she is pleased by his attendance.

But, after all, it is the consent that is the perfect act of virtue,g for if we have been inspired, and we have been pleased with the inspiration, and we nonetheless subsequently refuse consent to God, we are very much ignoring and greatly offending his divine Majesty, for it seems that there is more contempt. This is what happened to the Bride, for, although the sweet voice of her Beloved had touched her heart with a holy comfort, nevertheless, when she did not open the door for him but excused herself with a frivolous reason, with what righteous indignation did the Bridegroom pass on and leave her! And so also the gentleman who, after having sought a damsel for a long time and rendered her willing service, would finally be rejected and despised would have more reason for discontent if his efforts had never been accepted or encouraged.

My child, resolve to accept willingly all the inspirations that it pleases God to give you, and when they arrive, receive them like the ambassadors of the heavenly King who wishes to contract marriage with you. Listen peacefully to their proposals, consider the love with which you are inspired, and make much of the holy inspiration. Give your consent to the holy inspiration, but a consent that is full, loving, and constant. For in this way, God, whom you cannot compel, will consider himself greatly obliged by your love.a But before consenting to the inspirations about important or extraordinary things, do not be deceived, but always consult your guide,b so that he can determine whether the inspiration is true or false, particularly since the enemy, seeing a soul ready to consent to inspirations, often proposes false things in order to deceive—this he can never do as long as shec obeys her director with humility.d

a. A peculiar interpretation of Song of Songs 5:5–8a: “I arose up to open to my beloved: my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the choicest myrrh. I opened the bolt of my door to my beloved: but he had turned aside and was gone.”

b. Francis always assumes that the protégé has a spiritual director of some experience and wisdom.

c. Notice that Francis always refers to the soul with the feminine pronoun—reflecting not only the grammatical gender of the noun l’âme, but the nature of the human spirit/soul as well.

d. The ascetical principle enunciated by Francis here is that one is always incapable of assessing one’s own spiritual state accurately since one’s perceptions are frequently (always?) contaminated by ego without one being aware of it.

e. The execution of the inspiration is the final essential step—because however spiritually accomplished may be the acceptance and consent to the inspiration, unless it is acted upon, it is morally irrelevant.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 19

f. Scripture passages legitimizing the Sacrament of Penance: Matthew 16:19: Jesus says to his apostles: “Whatever you shall bind on earth will be bound also heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven”; and John 20:23: “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose you retain, they are retained.”

g. The legend appears in Pliny, Naturalis Historia 8.17.43: “Lionesses are very lecherous, and this is why lions are so fierce and cruel.… The lion knows by the scent and smell of the leopard when the lioness has played her mate false and therefore when the lioness has committed a fault in that way, she goes to a river and washes away the strong and rank odor of the leopard.”

h. The French has les huits jours (literally, “the eight days”), an idiom for “a week.”

i. Classical moral theology differentiates between venial and mortal sins. Mortal sin is the knowing, intentional, and willful violation of God’s law—called “mortal” because it involves spiritual death and separation from God, and, in Catholic tradition, may be forgiven only in formal, sacramental Confession. Venial sins are slight sins, often committed without intent to sin, and they are forgiven simply by wanting forgiveness.

The consent having been given, it is necessary with great care to bring its effects to fruition and to proceed to the execution of the inspiration, which is the height of true virtue, for to have consent in the heart without putting it into effect would be like planting a vineyard without wanting it to bear fruit.e

But all this is marvelously useful for the good practice of the morning exercise and the spiritual retreats that I spoke of above, for in this way we will prepare ourselves to do good—not only in general principles, but in particular instances.

i PART II. CHAPTER 19.

On Holy Confession

Our Savior has left to his Church the Sacrament of Penitence and Confession, so that in these we may cleanse ourselves of all our iniquities, no matter how often or how much we have been defiled.f Therefore, my child, never allow your heart to remain infected with sin for long since you have a remedy so available and easy. The lioness who has been near a leopard goes quickly to wash herself in order to remove the odor so that the lion does not become offended and angry.g The soul that has consented to sin must have a horror of itself and cleanse itself as soon as possible for the respect that it bears for the eyes of her divine Majesty who sees it. Bur why do we die a spiritual death since we have so sovereign a remedy?

Make your Confession humbly and devoutly every week,h and always, if you can, when you receive Communion, even if do not feel in your conscience any guilt of mortal sin, because by Confession you will not only receive absolution of venial sinsi (which you confess) but also a great ability to avoid them in the future, a great wisdom to discern them well, and abundant grace to repair all the loss you have incurred. You practice the virtue of humility, of obedience, of simplicity, and of love—and in this single practice of Confession you exercise more virtue than in any other.

Always have a true distaste for the sins that you confess—even if they are small—with a firm resolution to correct yourself in the future. Some people, confessing only venial sins out of habit and by way of routine, without intending in any way to correct them, remain burdened throughout their lives and so lose much of the spiritual goods and benefits. If you were to confess to having lied, although without harm, or to having used loose language, or to having gambled too much, repent and make a firm intention to amend yourself.a It is an abuse to confess any kind of sin, either mortal or venial, without wishing to rid oneself of it, since Confession has been instituted for that very purpose

a. It seems that Francis is suggesting (properly) that such minor sins as “harmless” lying, careless language, or unwise gambling are venial sins, forgivable merely through repentance and a firm commitment to amend (that is, not through mandatory formal Confession).

b. Francis’s distinction is a significant one: between confessing sins and confessing sinfulness. The latter is not only useless to the priest hearing the Confessions and giving advice, but to the penitent as well because there is no remedy for “sinfulness,” just as there is no medication for “illness”—a specific needs to be indicated so that some particular antidote can be offered and some hope of actual behavioral amendment upheld. Many religious bodies with liturgical traditions provide a form for General Confession of broad sinfulness in their public liturgies.

c. Francis presses his protégé to examine the clear intention behind each of the questionable acts and to narrow the definition of the specific sin by examining that intention.

d. A reference to Revelation 3:16: “… because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.”

e. Francis’s emphasis is once again on the motive for the sin, since it is literally one’s intention that determines the moral state of any particular act and the culpability of the actor. In order to commit mortal sin, one must (a) know what it is, (b) recognize it as sin, and (c) nevertheless choose to proceed with it. One cannot commit a sin “by mistake” or “by chance,” or in ignorance of it. The idea of “unknown sin” is a pre-Christian concept when sin was understood to be simply “breaking one of the laws of God”—and one could easily offend against one of the 613 laws of Leviticus without knowing it. But under the Christian dispensation culpability requires intention.

f. A simple and essential triad: (1) the deed, (2) the motive, (3) the duration.

g. The classical vocabulary of moral theology includes the word “supererogation,” which means basically “something beyond the call of duty”—here Francis suggests that although the confession of venial sins is not required, it might be useful to do it as an act of supererogation.

Do not make only superfluous accusations as some do by rote, for example, “I have not loved God as much as I ought”; “I have not prayed with as much devotion as I ought”; “I have not loved my neighbor as I ought”; “I have not received the Sacraments with as much reverence as I ought”; and the like. The reason is that in saying those things, you say nothing in particular to help the Confessor know the state of your conscience, since all the saints of heaven and all mortals on earth would be able to say the same things were they to confess.b Examine the particular reason you have to make these self-accusations, and when you have discovered it, accuse yourself of the specific fault that you have committed, simply and forthrightly.c For instance, you accuse yourself of not having loved your neighbor as you ought—that may be because seeing the great needs of a poor person whom you could easily have helped and consoled, you had no concern for him. Well, then, accuse yourself of that specific, and say, “Having seen a poor person’s needs, I did not help him as I could, by negligence, or by hardness of heart, or by contempt …” according to what you know of the occasion of this sin. Also, do not blame yourself for not having prayed to God with as much devotion as you ought—but if you have welcomed distractions, or if you failed to choose a place, time, or posture necessary for attention in prayer, accuse yourself in all simplicity depending on whatever you find wrong, without alleging that broad generality which in confession is neither cold nor hot.d

Again, do not be content to speak about the facts of your venial sins, but accuse yourself of the motive that induced you to commit them.e For instance, do not be content with saying that you had lied without harming anyone, but say if it was either for vanity (in order to praise or excuse yourself), or out of frivolous mirth, or from obstinacy. Or if you have sinned by gambling, explain whether it had been for the desire to win or for the pleasure of the company, and so on. Say if you have long loitered in your evil, especially since the length of time ordinarily much increases the sin—as well as there being a great difference between a fleeting vanity that passed in our mind for the space of a quarter hour, and that which our heart had indulged in for a day, two days, or three days. So it is necessary to tell the deed, the motive, and the duration of the sins.f Although one is not usually obliged to be this fastidious in the declaration of venial sins (as one is not specifically required to confess them), still those who wish to purify their souls in order to better attain holy devoutness must be careful properly to inform the spiritual physician of the malady—however small it may be—that they want to be cured.g

a. In spiritual direction, it is extremely helpful to the director to understand something of the client’s personality, predilections, habits, and vulnerabilities so that a potentially harmful direction might be recognized early as matching a characteristic of that client.

b. It is a cardinal rule for those making a Confession that so far as is humanly possible one must never name or indentify or implicate any other person who may have participated or cooperated in the confessed sin. For example, one could confess taking part in a robbery but must never identify one’s accomplices.

c. Francis—in a remarkable bit of psychological foresight—speaks of what a later Freudian would call “repression” and the “subconscious,” in which the sense of guilt concerning certain sins is repressed and the sins forced out of one’s conscious memory and repressed in the subconscious. In the listed chapters, Francis discusses ways to bring those matters to the surface.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 20

d. Mithridates VI (134–63 bc) was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in Anatolia (which is now Turkey). He was one of the Roman Empire’s most formidable enemies.

e. Mithridate is a semi-mythical antidote for poisoning, containing up to sixty-five ingredients. It was a highly sought-after drug in southern Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as a remedy for the Plague. It was still being compounded by physicians as late as 1786.

f. John 6:59b: “Whoever eats this Bread will live forever.”

Do not avoid saying what is necessary for them to hear in order to comprehend the true nature of your offense clearly, such as the issue that led you into such anger or to encourage someone else in his vice. For instance, a person whom I don’t like speaks some slight word to me as a joke, I take it badly, and it makes me angry—but if someone else who has been friendly with me speaks even a harsher word, I would have taken it well. So in confession, I ought thus not to avoid saying that I gave way to speaking words of anger against a person, taking badly something he had said to me—not for the quality of his words, but because I disliked him; and if it is necessary for you actually to quote the words in order to be clear, I think it would be good to speak because accusing oneself trustingly, one discovers not only the sins that have been committed, but also the evil inclinations, customs, habits, and other roots of sina through which the spiritual father gains a fuller knowledge of the heart he is treating and the remedies that are appropriate for it. Nonetheless, it is necessary to conceal the identity of a third party who may have cooperated in your sin, so far as it is possible.b

Beware of a number of sins that live and reign almost imperceptibly in the conscience, so that you can confess them and you can purge yourself.c And to this end, carefully read Chapters 6, 27, 28, 29, 35, and 36 of Part III, and Chapter 7 of Part IV.

Do not lightly change your Confessor, but having chosen one, continue to report to him with an account of your conscience on the days appointed for that. Tell him frankly and without guile the sins you have committed, and from time to time—like every month or two—tell him the state of your inclinations (though by those you have not sinned), as if, for instance, you were tormented by sadness, grief, or if you are inclined to jauntiness, desirous of acquiring worldly goods, or similar inclinations.

i PART II. CHAPTER 20.

Of Frequent Communion

It is said that Mithridates,d king of Pontus, who invented the poison called after him, mithridate,e so thoroughly impregnated his body with it that when he tried after that to poison himself to avoid slavery under the Romans, it was never possible. The Savior has instituted the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, which really contains his Body and his Blood, so that whoever eats it lives forever.f Because of that, whoever uses it often devoutly so strengthens the health and life of his soul that it is almost impossible that he could be poisoned by any sort of evil feelings. One cannot be nourished by that flesh of life and yet dine on the tokens of death—just as the mortals in the earthly Eden could have avoided a bodily death by the nourishment of the basic fruit that God had put there, just so we can avoid spiritual death by virtue of this Sacrament of life.a If fruits that are softer and prone to corruption—as cherries, apricots, and strawberries—can be stored easily throughout the year preserved in sugar and honey,b it is no wonder if our hearts, frail and weak, are preserved from the corruption of sin when they are sweetened and honeyed by the incorruptible flesh and blood of the Son of God.c

a. This passage is extremely confusing in the French as Francis tries to make a literary parallel between the mythology of Mithridates and the Blessed Sacrament. Basically he is saying that just as Mithridates avoided death by consuming the antidote, so Adam and Eve avoided bodily death by eating the fruits in Eden, and so we can avoid spiritual death by consuming the Eucharist.

b. Honey acts as a preservative because the high concentration of sugar in honey forces the water by osmosis out of any yeast or bacteria cells that could otherwise contaminate the food. Eventually, this osmosis destroys those cells by drawing out all their water and drying them up (Cf. Chemical and Engineering News; Vol. 80, No. 45; September 11, 2002).

c. One cannot but think of Psalm 18:10b–11 [19:10b–11]: “The judgments of the LORD are true, justified in themselves, more to be desired than gold and many precious stones: and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.”

d. This is a quotation from the book De Ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus 33.1 (“Of Church Dogma”) that in Francis’s time was believed to have been written by St. Augustine, although modern scholarship ascribes it to Gennadius of Marseilles (d. c. 497).

e. This is a very odd paragraph because it is so unlike the rest of Francis’s writing in which he takes strong (and sometimes difficult) stands—but to shilly-shally on something as unusual as daily Communion suggests to me that he must have been awkwardly involved in some particular situation having to do with frequency of Holy Communion. If that were not so, one wonders why something as “neutral” as frequent Communion could generate such almost frightened refusal to take a stand.

f. The French is l’affection, and it is only very rarely translated as “ailment” or “disease” or “sickness,” but such a translation is necessary here, or there would be literary redundancy within the sentence.

g. The French is en quelque sorte de sujétion, literally, “in some kind of subjection.” Francis may be suggesting that the reader might be “in service” and, therefore, under constraint to one’s employers—or it could simply refer to one’s duty to parents.

h. The French is bizarres, literally, “queer,” “strange,” or “whimsical”—it is an oddly strong word to apply to one’s perception of those to whom one owes “constraint.” Again, there seems to be a hint that this is an issue Francis has had to deal with personally (and uncomfortably).

O my child, the Christians who will be damned will remain without answer when the just Judge makes them see the wrong that they have done in dying spiritually since it was so easy for them to have remained in life and in holiness by eating of his Body, which he had left to them for that purpose. “Poor wretches,” he will say, “why are you dead, since you had control of the fruit and meat of life?”

“I neither commend nor condemn receiving Communion of the Eucharist daily, but I urge and exhort everyone to receive Communion every Sunday, as long as one’s spirit is without a desire for sin.”d These are the exact words of Saint Augustine, with whom I neither condemn nor absolutely recommend that one receive Communion every day, but I leave that to the discretion of the spiritual father of whoever wishes to solve this point, because that disposition required for so frequent a Communion must be very refined. It is not good to give general advice, but because this disposition, however refined, can be found in many good souls, it is not good either to divert or dissuade everyone in general, so it must be addressed by the consideration of the inner state of each individual. It would be imprudent to advise everyone indiscriminately to such frequent usage, but it would also be imprudent to blame anyone for it—and especially when he would be following the advice of some worthy director. The response of Saint Catherine of Siena was gracious when she was criticized by reason of her frequent Communion—that Saint Augustine neither praised nor condemned daily Communion. “Well,” she said, “I beg you not to condemn it, and I shall be content.”e

But, my child, you see that Saint Augustine urges and advises strongly that one receive Communion every Sunday—so do this as often as you can. Since, as I presume, you have no kind of liking for mortal sin nor any fondness for venial sin, you have the true disposition which St. Augustine requires, and even a more excellent one, because not only do you not have the sicknessf of sin, but you do not have even a desire for sin, so that when your spiritual father finds it proper, you may beneficially receive Communion more frequently than every Sunday.

Many legitimate impediments may still occur to you, not on your part, but on the part of those with whom you live, which could give occasion to the wise director to tell you that you should not receive Communion so often. For instance, if you are in some kind of constraint,g and those to whom you owe obedience or reverence are so ill-informed or so peculiarh that they are disturbed and troubled to see you receiving Communion so often, perhaps, all things considered, it would be good to adapt to some extent to their weakness and receive Communion only once every two weeks—but that is intended in case one cannot in any other way overcome the difficulty. One cannot deal with this sort of thing in broad, general terms: it is necessary to do what one’s spiritual father says (although I can assuredly say that among those who wish to serve God devoutly, the greatest lapse of time between Communions would be a month).

a. Is Francis dealing with a protégé who might be inclined to use Holy Communion as an excuse to avoid responsibilities? Or to pout? Or to undertake a pious pose to avoid work or service? Since he seems to be counseling that care should be taken to avoid any such, it is logical that it has been a problem he has encountered in the past.

b. The French word is coquilleux, literally, “a cockle shell”—a peculiar term apparently used metaphorically for someone tightly closed and impenetrable. Francis must know that he is addressing a woman whose husband or in-laws could be very hard-hearted about such matters—or who could even be unsympathetic Protestants.

c. That is, the Old Testament.

d. Francis refers to what came to be called the Year of Jubilee: see Deuteronomy 15:1–2: “In the seventh year you shall make a remission, which shall be celebrated in this order: he to whom anything is owing from his friend or neighbor or brother cannot demand it again, because it is the year of remission of the LORD.” He then undertakes some interpretive casuistry in declaring that the rule against collecting debts did not preclude paying them, should the debtor wish to do so.

e. The “marriage duty” (or “the bridal duty” or “conjugal rights”) regarding sexual intercourse finds its origin in 1 Corinthians 7:3–6: “Let the husband render the debt to his wife, and the wife also in like manner to the husband. The wife does not have power over her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also does not have power over his own body, but the wife. Do not defraud one another, except, perhaps, by consent, for a time that you may give yourselves to prayer; and return together again lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency.” Submitting to sexual intercourse was considered a debt owed to one’s spouse. [According to early medieval Christianity, intercourse between husband and wife was to be avoided on Saturday, on Sunday, on Wednesday, and on Friday, in the forty days of Lent, and before other feasts at which one might receive Communion.] (Brown, Peter; The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity; Columbia University Press; New York; 1988, 256).

f. Francis applies a familiar casuistry here: a husband ought not to demand sexual intercourse on the day his spouse has received Communion, but the wife who has received Communion could offer intercourse—qualified by the somewhat ambiguous phrase “if devotion is the cause of that wish.”

If you are sensible about it, there is no mother or wife or husband or father who would prevent you from receiving Communion often—for since the day of your Communion, you would not drop the duties appropriate to your situation, but you would be more sweet and more gracious with them, and that you will not refuse them any sort of servicea—then there is no likelihood that they would wish to divert you from that practice, which will bring them no inconvenience—unless they were of an extremely closedb and unreasonable mind, in which case perhaps your director would want you to accommodate them.

I must say a word for married people: God found it wrong, in the Old Law,c that creditors would exact payment of what they are owed on festival daysd but he never found it wrong for debtors to pay and discharge their debts to those who required them. It is an improper thing—though not a great sin—to demand payment of the marriage duty on the day one had received Communion, but it is not something unseemly and even meritorious to pay it willingly.e Therefore, no one should be denied Communion because of rendering this duty if, in fact, devotion is the cause of that wish.f It is certain that in the early Church Christians received Communion every day, although they were married and blessed by the birth of children. That is why I have said that frequent Communion does not make for any sort of inconsistency, neither to parents, nor to wives, nor to husbands, providing that the soul that receives Communion is sensible and discreet.

As for physical illness, there is none that is a legitimate impediment for that holy participation, except one that would lead to frequent vomiting.

In order to receive Communion weekly, it is necessary to have neither mortal sin nor any desire for venial sin and to have a great desire for Communion; but to receive Communion every day, one must, in addition to that, have overcome most evil inclinations and that it be by the advice of a spiritual father.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 21

a. The French has élancements d’amour, literally, “dartings of love” or “twinges of love.” Francis uses these words to refer to short, exclamatory prayers or “arrow prayers” (such as “God help us!” or “Blessed be God!” or “Lord, may your will be done!”)

b. Francis is rare in his use of fragrance and perfumes as metaphors for blessings and beauty. See Song of Songs 1:1b–2a, 3a: “Your breasts are better than wine, perfumed sweetly with the finest perfumes.… Draw me, and we will run after you to the fragrance of your perfumes.”

c. Francis’s overarching positive contention is that grace and favor are readily available if we can learn to ask for and accept them.

d. Based on Matthew 8:8: “And the centurion answered and said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed.” The phrase repeated thrice in the priest’s silent prayers before Communion, accompanied by a smiting of the breast. In modern use, it is repeated by both priest and people.

e. Francis obviously sees a poetic comparison of the Sacrament with the manna in the desert—Exodus 16:31: “And the house of Israel called the name of the bread manna: and it was white like coriander seed, and its taste was like honey-cakes.”

f. One of the most grammatically challenging passages in the book and seldom accurately translated.

g. Philippians 2:7: “But [Jesus] emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.” A Christological doctrine usually referred to by the Greek word kenosis (keno means “to empty”). It asserts that Jesus voluntarily gave up at least some of his divine attributes—for example, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence—during his life on earth.

i PART II. CHAPTER 21.

How to Receive Communion

Commence the night before to prepare yourself for Holy Communion by several aspirations and loving exclamatory prayers.a Retire at a little earlier hour so you can also rise earlier in the morning. And if you were to awake in the night, quickly fill your heart and your mouth with some fragrant words by which your soul is perfumed to receive the Bridegroom,b who, watching you while you sleep, is preparing to bring you a thousand graces and favors if on your part you are willing to receive them.c In the morning get up with great joy for the happiness you hope for, and, having made your Confession, go with great confidence—but also with great humility—to receive the heavenly food that nourishes you for immortality. And, after you have said the sacred words “Lord, I am not worthy,”d do not move your head or your lips either to pray or to sign, but open your mouth slowly and moderately, and, raising your head as much as is necessary to give convenience to the priest to see what he is doing, receive full of faith, of hope, and of love that One in whom, by whom, and for whom you have faith, hope, and love. O my child, picture to yourself that the bee, collecting the dew of heaven and the most exquisite juice of earth from the flowers, and having reduced them to honey, carrying it into her hive, just so the priest taking from the altar the Savior of the world, the true Son of God (who like the dew has descended from heaven) and true Son of the Virgin (who like the flower is sprung from the earth of our humanity), puts the food of sweetnesse into your mouth and into your body. Having received him, stir up your heart to do homage to the King of salvation. Share with him your inner concerns; be aware that he is within you where he has put himself for your happiness; and finally make him as welcome as you possibly can and behave in such a way that one recognizes in all your actions that God is with you.

But when you cannot have the benefit of receiving Communion actually in the Holy Mass, receive Communion at least in your heart and mind, uniting yourself by an ardent desire to that life-giving Flesh of the Savior.

Your grand intention in Communion ought to be to make progress, be strengthened and consoled in the love of God, for you ought to receive for the sake of love that which love alone has given you.f No, the Savior cannot be thought of in any action that would be either more loving or more tender than this, in which he empties himself,g in a manner of speaking, and demeans himself by becoming food in order, finally, to pierce our souls and unite himself intimately with the hearts and bodies of his faithful.

If people in society ask why you receive Communion so often, tell them that it is to learn to love God, to cleanse yourself of your imperfections, to comfort yourself in your afflictions, and to support yourself in your weaknesses. Tell them that two kinds of people need frequent Communion: the perfect, because being well-disposed, they would be very wrong not to approach the source and fountain of that perfection—and the imperfect, so that they can lay claim to perfection; the strong so they may become weak, and the weak so they may become strong; the sick to be healed, and the healthy that they may fall sick; and as for you—as imperfect, weak, and sick as you are—you need to commune often with your Perfection, your Strength, and your Physician. Tell them that those who do not have much worldly business ought to receive Communion often because they have the convenience, and those who have much worldly business because they have the need, just as one who works hard and who is burdened with troubles ought also to eat solid food and do so frequently.a Tell them that you receive the Holy Sacrament in order to learn how to receive it well, because no one does an action well that he has not practiced frequently.b

a. Francis’s strategy to vitiate criticism about frequent Communion covers every possible population—and some in highly spiritual and mystical modes, such as strong to become weak, healthy to become sick, and so on.

b. Francis suggests that the more often one receives Communion, the more sincere, deeply felt, and practically useful Communion becomes.

c. This seems an unusually exhaustive conclusion to the heavily qualified and moderated advice in the previous chapter. One senses that this is what Francis holds as personal belief and the extensive qualifications were motivated pragmatically to avoid criticism.

d. “Upon the Alps and such high mountains, [hares] are of white color as long as the snow lies; and it is truly believed, that all winter long they live by eating snow: for surely when the snow is thawed and melted, all the rest of the year they are brown and reddish as before” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 1, 60).

So, receive Communion often, my child—indeed, as often as you canc (with the advice of your spiritual father). And, believe me, the hares turn white in winter among our mountains because they neither see nor eat anything but snowd—and so by adoring and consuming the beauty, goodness, and purity in this divine Sacrament, you will become all beautiful, all good, and all pure.

PART

THREE

CONTAINING MUCH

ADVICE REGARDING THE

PRACTICE OF THE VIRTUES

PART THREE
COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 1

a. The French has “king of the bees,” which I have changed to “queen,” and the French has petit peuple, literally, “little people,” which is a common idiom for “the lower classes.” The event described is the swarming of a bee colony, that is, the natural process by which colonies reproduce themselves: the queen leaves the hive with about sixty percent of the workers and founds a new hive.

b. Psalm 1:3: “And he [whose will is in the law of the LORD] shall be like a tree planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit in due season.”

c. Ecclesiasticus 22:6a: “An unwelcome tale is like music in mourning.”

d. Francis probably refers to the Stoics and Cynics (who tended to repudiate joy) versus the Hedonists and Epicureans (who tended to encourage pleasure).

e. Romans 12:15: “Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep.”

f. 1 Corinthians 13:4: “Charity is patient, is kind, charity does not envy, does not deal perversely, is not puffed up.”

g. Francis addresses a common spiritual challenge: it is relatively easy to practice virtues that seem noble and make one feel romantically gallant. It is more difficult to practice the drab, lackluster virtues that, however, are more widely needed. Francis speaks of these almost as commodities of which one needs to keep a good backup supply.

h. “Her abstinence was so great as to be almost immoderate; and her fasts and labors were so severe as almost to weaken her constitution” (St. Jerome, Epistle 108, Ad Eustochium 17).

i. Acts 6:1-2: “In those days, the number of disciples increasing, a murmuring rose of the Greeks against the Hebrews, for that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the Twelve, calling together the multitude of the disciples, said, ‘It is not right that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.’” Francis deals with a common moral conundrum—one is called to practice two virtues that are exclusive. Francis uses one’s vocation as the determinant.

i PART III. CHAPTER 1.

Of the Choice One Must Make in the Practice of the Virtues

The queen of bees never takes to the fields, without being surrounded by all her workers.a And love never comes into a heart to dwell there without its entourage of other virtues. Disciplining them and putting them to work as a captain does his soldiers, but love does not put all into action all at once nor equally, nor at all times, nor in all places. The just person is like the tree that is planted by the watercourse that bears its fruit in its season,b because love waters a soul, producing in her virtuous works, each in its season. “Music, no matter how pleasant to oneself, is unwelcome at a mourning,” says the Proverb.c This is a great default in which several who undertake the practice of some particular virtue, insist on putting it into action in all sorts of gatherings, and, like the ancient philosophers,d they wish either always to weep or always to laugh. And even worse they blame and censure those who do not always practice the same virtues as they do. He ought to rejoice with the joyful and weep with the weeping, says the Apostle,e and love is patient, kind,f generous, prudent, and docile.

Nevertheless, there are virtues that have almost universal use and that should not only act on their own part, but also spread their qualities to the actions of all the other virtues. Occasions do not often present themselves to practice bravery, magnanimity, or brilliance, but gentleness, temperance, honesty, and humility are some virtues that ought to tinge all the actions of our life. There are more noble virtues than these, but the use of these is more important. Sugar tastes better than salt, but salt has a more frequent and wider use. That is why it is necessary always to have a good and prompt supply of the general virtues, since they are most normally useful.g

Among the practices of virtues, we ought to prefer what is more conformed to our duty and not what is more conformed to our taste. It was Saint Paula’s preference to practice the harshness of bodily mortification in order more easily to enjoy spiritual pleasures, but she had a greater duty to obey her superiors. That is why Saint Jerome admits that she was wrong: in that, against the advice of her bishop, she undertook excessive abstinences.h The Apostles, on the other hand, had been commissioned to preach the Gospel and distribute the heavenly bread to souls, and hence judged extremely well that they would be wrong to leave this holy mission to practice the virtue of caring for the poor, however excellent that virtue.i Every calling has a special need to practice some particular virtue—some are the virtues of a bishop, others those of a prince, others those of a soldier, others those of a married woman, others those of a widow—and while it would be good if everyone practiced all the virtues, nevertheless, all do not have to be practiced equally, but each person must cultivate particularly those required by the sort of life to which he is called.

a. Jerome in his Letter 125 to Theodore concludes with the words: Nudus nudum Christum sequi, literally, “Naked to follow the naked Christ.” The adage was picked up by St. John Cassian, St. Bernard, St. Francis, Meister Eckhart, Thomas à Kempis, and some fifty other medieval authors.

b. “The discipline” was a short whip of knotted cords (often with thorns tied into the knots) used by some ascetics to whip themselves as a means to overcome temptations of the flesh.

c. John the Merciful (or John the Almoner) was the patriarch of Alexandria (606–616). In his youth he told of having the vision Francis describes—except that Francis omits from the revelation the name the damsel gave to John—“Compassion”—without which Francis’s exemplum makes less sense.

d. Francis mistakes Eulogius, the patriarch of Alexandria, with the holy man Eulogius who lived in the late third and early fourth century. The legend has Eulogius taking an Arian leper into his house and solemnly vowing to care for him all his life. After fifteen years, the leper spoke of leaving and Eulogius was troubled because of his vow. So they went to St. Antony of the Desert, who bade them remain together. Shortly after that, they died within days of each other (Athanasius [Budge, E., tr.]; The Paradise; or Garden of the Holy Fathers … etc.; Chatto & Windus; London; 1907).

e. Louis IX of France founded hospitals and served as nurse in several: the Paris hospital called “Les Quinze-Vingts” (for three hundred blind men), the House of the Felles-Dieu for reformed prostitutes, and hospitals at Pontoise, Vernon, and Compiègne. (John-Julian; Stars in a Dark World; Outskirts Press; Denver; 2009).

f. “The Lady whom I shall serve has no other suitor, no poet has ever sung her praises, and no knight has ever fought her battles; for I will be the faithful lover of the Lady Poverty, whom all men else despise” (Jewett, Sophie; God’s Troubadour…; Crowell & Co.; New York, 1910).

g. John the Deacon records that as Gregory poured water over the hands of a pilgrim, the pilgrim disappeared. That night in a dream Gregory saw Jesus, who said: “On other days you have received me in my members, but today you have received myself” (John the Deacon; Life of Gregory; bk. 2, §22).

h. The story of Tobias is told in the apocryphal biblical book Tobias [Tobit].

i. The widowed Princess Elizabeth (1207–1231) was driven from her home by her brother-in-law—eventually she joined the Third Order of St. Francis and gave herself to the care of the sick.

Among the virtues that do not concern our particular duty, it is necessary to prefer the most excellent and not the most obvious. Comets ordinarily seem larger than the stars and seem much greater in our eyes. Nevertheless, the comets are not comparable—neither in grandeur nor in quality—to stars, and they appear large only because they are close to us and of a coarser material than the quality of the stars. Likewise, there are certain virtues that—because they are close to us, visible, and, as it were, physical—are highly valued and always preferred by the crowd. Thus the temporal rites are commonly preferred to the spiritual—the hair shirt, fasting, nakedness,a the discipline,b and mortifications of the body are preferred to sweetness, gentleness, modesty, and other mortifications of the heart, which, nevertheless, are far more excellent. Choose then, my child, the finest virtues, and not the most popular; the most excellent, and not the most obvious; the best and not the bravest.

It is useful that each one choose a specific practice of some virtue—not to abandon the others, but to keep one’s mind more precisely ordered and occupied. A beautiful girl, brighter than the sun, decorated, royally adorned, and crowned with a crown of olives appeared to Saint John, bishop of Alexandria, and said, “I am Compassion, the eldest daughter of the Great King; if you can have me for your friend I will take you into his presence.” He knew that this was mercy to the poor that God was advising him, so that, afterward, he gave himself so much to that practice that he was called Saint John the Merciful.c Eulogius of Alexandria, wishing to do particular service to God, and not having enough strength either to embrace the solitary life or to put himself under the obedience of another, took into his home a miserable wretch who had lost everything and was rotted by leprosy, in order to practice charity and mortification for himself, and in order to do this with more dignity, he vowed to honor, deal with him, and serve him as a servant does his master and lord. But upon some temptation occurring to the leper and Eulogius, to separate one from the other, they turned to the great Saint Antony, who said to them: “Take care, my children! Do not separate one from the other, for you are both near your end. If the angel does not find you together, you run great danger of losing your crowns.”d

The king Saint Louis visited hospitals as though he were paid for it, and tended the sick with his own hands.e Saint Francis loved poverty above all things and called it “Lady Poverty”;f Saint Dominic loved preaching, from which his order took its name. Saint Gregory the Great liked to entertain pilgrims after the example of the great Abraham, and like Abraham, he received the King of Glory under the form of a pilgrim.g Tobias gave himself to charity by burying the dead;h Saint Elizabeth, however great a princess she was, loved self-abasement;i Saint Catherine of Genoa, being widowed, dedicated herself to serving in the hospital. Cassian relates how a devout lady, wanting to practice the virtue of patience, turned to Saint Athanasius who, at her request, sent a poor widow with her, who was annoying, wrathful, and insufferable—who, constantly scolding that devout woman, gave her a good subject for practicing gentleness and patience with dignity.a

a. Cassian tells that at first Athanasius, not understanding the woman’s request, sent a humble and submissive widow; but when the woman explained that she had needed to practice patience, Athanasius sent her the shrewish widow instead (Cassian, John; Conferences 18. 14).

b. These lines seem to be a peculiar patchwork of psalm verses, but written in verse form. Some translators simply replace Francis’s text with the text of the psalm itself: Psalm 44:10b, 14-–15a [Ps. 45]: “The queen stood at your right hand, in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety.… All the glory of the king’s daughter is from within, in golden borders, surrounded with varieties.” John Ryan translates this rhyming poetic version:

In golden garments, rich and rare,
Embroidered o’er with figures fair.

c. “After two years of age the male wild boar grows tusks from both the upper and lower canines curving upwards. The top tusks are hollow and act as a permanent whetstone against which the lower tusks are continually sharpened. The lower tusks are indeed extremely sharp” (Goulding, M..J.; Wild Boar in Britain;Whittet Books; Suffolk; UK; 2003).

d. “It is not at all an easy task to discover the one virtue that surpasses all others and to give to that one the scepter and palm. Just as it is not easy in a meadow fragrant with many blossoms to find the most fragrant and beautiful. Hospitality is a fine thing … among sinners was the harlot Rahab, by choice, who for her hospitality won peace and salvation.” (Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 14, De Pauperum Amore, §1–2).

e. Rahab was the Canaanite harlot who hid the Israelite spies and helped them escape from Jericho; when Jericho was conquered, her life was spared by Joshua because of it (Josh. 6). This event is referred to in Hebrews 11:31: “By faith Rahab the harlot perished not with the unbelievers, having received the spies with peace,” and also in James 2:25. Rahab is one of four non-Israelite women included in Jesus’s genealogy in Matthew 1:5.

And so among the servants of God, those who devote themselves to tending the sick, others giving aid to the poor, others securing the advancement of Christian doctrine among little children, others picking up lost and misguided souls, others decorating churches and adorning altars, and others serving as the means to peace and concord among people. In that they imitate the embroiderers who on diverse backgrounds lay on a beautiful variety of silks, gold, and silver to make all sorts of flowers. So, too, the pious souls who undertake some particular devout practice to serve as a background for their spiritual embroidery where they practice a mixture of all other virtues, in this way keeping their actions and affections united and ordered by their relation to the one primary practice. In this way they showed their spirit:

In her gorgeous dress of cloth of golden fabric
And divers works with needle sewn.b

When we are in battle with some vice, it is essential, for as long as we can, to adopt the practice of the opposite virtue and relate everything to that, because in this way we will defeat our enemy and we will not abandon our advance in all the virtues. If I were to fight against pride or anger, it would be necessary that in everything I should incline and turn toward humility and meekness and for this I must turn the other practices—prayer, sacraments, prudence, perseverance, and moderation—to the same purpose. For, as the wild boars sharpen their tusks by rubbing and polishing them against their other teeth (which by the same process are also filed and sharpened),c the virtuous person, having undertaken to perfect himself in the virtue that he most needs for his defense, must file and polish it by the exercise of other virtues, which by refining that one will all become more excellent and more polished—just as it happened to Job who exercised particular patience against so many temptations that troubled him and became completely holy and upright in all sorts of virtues. And so he arrived, as Saint Gregory Nazianzen says, by one single act of some virtue, well and perfectly practiced—a person who had attained the height of virtuesd (referencing Rahab who had just performed the act of hospitalitye) attained a supreme glory. But that applies when such an action is done perfectly, with great fervor and charity.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 2

a. “Losing ground is therefore good, for it indicates a longing after the good, not as yet indeed gained, but more eagerly and earnestly desired” (Saint Augustine, Oratio 20, on Ps. 119 [118]).

b. Recounted in William St. Thierry, The Life and Three Acts of Saint Bernard 1.4.6: “Bernard was at first so severe in his discipline that the monks, though obedient, began to be discouraged. Their apathy made him realize his fault, and as a penalty he condemned himself to a long silence. At length he was bidden by a vision to start preaching again. He now took care that food should be more plentiful, though it was still coarse and simple” (Vann, Joseph; Lives of Saints, with Excerpts from their Writings; J. J. Crawley & Co.; New York; 1954)

c. 1 Corinthians 9:22b: “I became all things to all men that I might save all.”

d. The story is found in St. Jerome’s Letter 180.§21: “No young girl of sound and vigorous constitution could have delivered herself up to a regimen so rigid as that imposed upon herself by Paula, whose physical powers age had impaired and enfeebled. I admit that in this she was too determined, refusing to spare herself or to listen to advice.” Francis’s citation of Jerome’s justification for his judgment of Paula is an exact quotation.

i PART III. CHAPTER 2.

Continuing the Same Discourse on the Choice of Virtues

Saint Augustine says brilliantly that those who are beginners in devotion commit certain mistakes that are blameworthy depending on the severity of the laws of perfection but are nonetheless commendable, since they give a good prediction of future excellence in piety, to which they serve as an inclination.a The low and coarse fear that engenders excessive scruples in the souls of those who are newly emerging from a life of sins is a commendable virtue in the beginning, and a sure sign of a future purity of conscience—but this same fear would be blameworthy in those who are well advanced, in whose hearts love ought to reign, which love little by little drives out this kind of servile fear.

In his beginnings, Saint Bernardb was full of rigor and harshness toward those who put themselves under his leadership, to whom he announced initially that it was necessary to leave the body and to come to him with the spirit alone. Hearing their confessions, he rejected with an extraordinary severity all sorts of faults, however small they were, and urged those poor apprentices so strongly toward perfection that by his force he actually pushed them into flight, because they lost heart and breath seeing themselves so forcefully pushed up so direct and steep a rise. Do see, my child, that it was the most ardent zeal for perfect purity that caused this great saint to these approaches, and that zeal was a great virtue—but a virtue, nonetheless, which could not admit to being at fault. And so God himself, by a holy vision, corrected Bernard, pouring into his soul a sweet, friendly, and tender spirit, by means of which he was completely changed. He accused himself deeply for having been so strict and severe, and he became so gracious and considerate with each one that he became “all things to all in order to win all.”c

Saint Jerome has recounted how Saint Paula, his dear daughter, was not only excessive, but obstinate in the practice of bodily mortifications, and refusing to yield to the adverse advice Saint Epiphanius, her bishop,d had given her in that regard, and in spite of that, she allowed herself to be so carried away with the grief for her own dead loved ones that she was at least in danger of death; finally he concluded this way: “Some will say that instead of writing of praise for this holy person, I have written blame and vituperation, but I affirm to Jesus—whom she served and whom I also wish to serve—that I do not lie on one side or the other, thereby putting down who she is, as one Christian to another—that is to say, I am writing the history, not a panegyric, and that her vices may be virtues in others.” He means that the defects and faults of Saint Paula would be taken as virtues in a less perfect soul, just as there are actions that are considered imperfections in those who are perfect, which would, nonetheless, be taken as great perfections in those who may be imperfect. It is a good sign when the legs of a patient swell at the end of his illness, for that shows that nature already is reinforced and rejects the superfluous humorsa—but the same sign would be bad in one who was not sick, for it would be recognition that nature had not enough force to dissipate and dispel the humors. So, my child, we must have a good opinion of those in whom we see the practice of the virtues, albeit imperfectly, since the saints themselves have often practiced in this way; but as for us, it is necessary that we ourselves take care to practice them, not only faithfully but sensibly, and for this purpose to observe closely the advice of the Wise Man not to rely on our own prudence, but on that of those whom God gives to us as directors.b

a. The understanding of medical problems based on the body’s “humors” (from the Greek chymos, meaning “juice” or “sap”) was first propounded by Hippocrates (430–370 bc) and was commonly taught and practiced throughout the West well into the nineteenth century. It postulated four humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm, and defined illness or disease as an imbalance among the humors. It was believed that superfluous humors often passed out through the legs and feet (especially if they are submerged in warm saline solution)—thus, swollen legs for a sick person suggested that the excessive and imbalanced humors were in the process of dispersing (Paracelsus [Waite, A.E., tr.]; The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings…; J. Elliot & Co.; London; 1894).

b. Proverbs 3:5: “Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely upon your own prudence.” (Note: The “Wise Man” is a reference to King Solomon, who was believed in Francis’s day to have written the Book of Proverbs.)

c. Francis here describes “spiritual extremities.” While he does not discredit these radical manifestations, he cautions that they must not be sought as ends in themselves—they are not virtues or goods that should be goals for one’s life of prayer. It is important to realize that the famed mystic Teresa of Ávila had died only about twenty-five years before Francis began writing the Introduction, and her writing had become widely famous by then. (Indeed, she was canonized in the year of Francis’s death.) She specifically describes most of these extreme ascetical phenomena in her books: The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection. It is very likely that it is these books (or others like them) Francis refers to here.

d. An almost prickly justification: if God wanted us to be angels, he would make us into angels—meanwhile, we should concentrate on simple, practical, human matters.

e. Francis consistently insists that his counsel and advice are meant for “ordinary” Christians and are designed to foster simple Christian virtues, not hugely elevated or extreme spiritual states.

f. See 1 Samuel 9. Saul sets out to find his father’s strayed donkeys. When he has traveled a long way without success, he asks to see the local seer, and he is led to the prophet Samuel, who had been warned of his arrival by the Lord. Following the Lord’s instructions, Samuel anoints Saul as king of Israel.

g. See Genesis 24. Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac from his native country. The servant arrived at the local well where Rebecca offered to water his camels. He took that as a sign and arranged for her to return with him to be Isaac’s wife.

There are certain things that many believe are virtues that are not, and about these I must speak to you a word: these are the ecstasies or raptures, faintings, imperviousness to pain, spiritual marriage, levitations, transformations, and other such attainments discussed in certain books, which promise to elevate the soul to purely intellectual contemplation, to the material binding of the spirit, and to profound intensification of life. You see, my child, these attainments are not virtues.c They are, rather, rewards that God gives for virtues—or even rather hints of the bliss of the future life, which sometimes are given to mortals to make them desire parts of what is wholly present in heaven. But for all that, it is not necessary to lay claim to graces such as these since they are by no means necessary to serve and love God well—which must be our special ambition. Indeed, these graces are very seldom acquired by labor and effort, since they are phenomena rather than actions, which we can receive but cannot bring about in ourselves. I would add that we have not undertaken to make ourselves anything but good people, people of devotion, pious men, pious women—that is why it does good for us to invest ourselves in that goal. If it should please God to raise us up to angelic perfections, we would then be good angels,d but in the meantime, we simply apply ourselves simply, humbly, and devotedly to little virtues, whose conquest Our Lord has set in our care and labor—such as patience, meekness, mortification of heart, humility, obedience, poverty, chastity, tenderness toward our neighbor, bearing with his failings, diligence, and holy fervor.e

Willingly allow these marvels to the lofty souls. We do not merit so high a rank in the service of God. We will be more than happy to serve in his kitchen, in his pantry, to be his lackeys, his porters, his house boys. After that, if it seems good to him, he may withdraw us into his office and private council room. Yes, my child, the King of glory does not reward his servants according to the dignity of the offices they hold, but for the love and humility with which they perform them. Saul, seeking his father’s donkeys, found the kingdom of Israel;f Rebecca, watering the camels of Abraham, became wife of his son;g Ruth, gleaning after Boaz’s reapers and lying at his feet, was raised to his side and made his wife.a Certainly, pretensions so high and elevated are greatly subject to illusions, deceptions, and falsehoods, and it happens sometimes that those they think to be angels are not even good men, and that makes for more grandeur in the words and language they use than in their attitude and in the work they do. But do not despise or censure recklessly, but in blessing God for the marvels of others, let us humbly keep on our way—lower, but more certain, less excellent but more suitable to our inadequacy and littleness—in which, if we keep humbly and faithfully, God will raise us to truly noble grandeurs.b

a. See Ruth 2 and 3. The Moabite widow Ruth traveled with her mother-inlaw to Bethlehem, where she went to glean after the reapers in a grain field belonging to the wealthy Boaz. Boaz noticed her and directed his reapers to leave grain in the field for the gleaner. At Naomi’s suggestion, Ruth goes to Boaz’s bed secretly in the evening, and eventually he acquires her for a wife.

b. As one can tell from the three examples above, Francis’s advice is to stay still and remain lowly and humble, and God will raise one up if that is God’s will.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 3

c. Hebrews 10:36: “Patience is necessary for you that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise.” In Francis’s day, it was believed that St. Paul (“the Apostle”) had written the Letter to the Hebrews. Modern scholarship has shown that not to be true.

d. Luke 21:19: “In your patience you shall possess your souls.”

e. “The Scripture exhorts us to possess our souls in patience. Whosoever is out of patience is out of possession of his soul. Men must not become bees; … animasque in vulnere ponunt [that put their lives in the sting]” (Francis Bacon; Essays, Civil and Moral; Cassell & Co.; London; 1905 [First published in 1597]).

f. See Matthew 24:13: “But he that shall endure to the end, he shall be saved.”

g. Charles Borromeo (1538–1584) was the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584. To his credit, he was called “the spiritual soul” of the Council of Trent and was an outstanding reformer in the Counter-Reformation, clearing the churches of collections of statues and ornate tombs, revising both Missal and Breviary, and supervising the writing of a new catechism. To his discredit, he ardently attacked heresy and witchcraft (and the theater) and sentenced more than a dozen to brutal death by fire. His reforms were strongly opposed by both civic and ecclesiastical leaders. Francis would have known of him since much of his work was concentrated in the Swiss cantons.

i PART III. CHAPTER 3.

Concerning Patience

“You need patience, so that doing the will of God, you may bring back the promise,” says the Apostle.c Yes, for as the Savior had said, “In your patience you shall possess your souls.”d That is the greatest happiness for mortals, my child, to possess one’s soul, and to the extent that patience is more perfect, the more perfectly do we possess our souls.e

Remember frequently that Our Savior has saved us by suffering and enduring, and in the same way, we must work out our salvation through sufferings and afflictions, enduring insults, obstacles, and troubles with as much meekness as is possible for us.f

Do not limit your patience to this or that kind of insults or afflictions, but extend it universally to all those that God sends you or allows to happen to you.

There are those who are not willing to suffer unless the tribulations are honorable, for example, to be injured in war, to be prisoners of war, to be mistreated for religion, to be impoverished by some quarrel out of which they come as winners—and these do not love tribulation, but the honor that comes with it. The person who is truly patient and a servant of God bears equally troubles related to shame and those that are honorable. To be despised, criticized, and attacked by the wicked are only sweet words to a man of courage, but to be despised, attacked, and mistreated by good people, by friends, by parents, that is where there is some spiritual benefit. I respect more the meekness with which the great saint Charles Borromeog for a long time suffered public reproaches that a famous preacher of an extremely reformed ordera made against him in the pulpit—more than all the attacks he received from others. For just as the stings of the bees are more painful than those of the flies, the evil that one receives from good people and the attacks they make are much more unbearable than the others—and nevertheless, it still happens often that two good people, both having good intentions, provoke great persecutions and attacks on one another.

a. Almost certainly this refers to “The Humiliati”—a religious order of men who continued living with their wives and families but lived notably devout lives under strict vows against swearing, arguing, cheating, and the like. The Order had become wealthy and corrupt, and Borromeo began an extensive (and very unpopular) reformation of the Order. As a result, a member, Girolamo Donati, attempted to murder the cardinal in his private chapel. The bullet was stopped by his vestments and only bruised his skin. Borromeo asked that his assailants be forgiven—but two were beheaded and two were hanged.

b. Francis faces the classical theological conundrum: if God is omnipotent, then illness and tribulations must be part of his will or they would not happen. Francis here hones in even more specifically as he points out to his protégé that not only may the sickness itself be God’s will, but even the kind of sickness, and the location, and the company may all be part of God’s will as well.

c. “To every sinner the first step of enlightenment is the humility of confessing, in that he refuses to spare himself, who does not blush to confirm the evil that he has done, by accusing himself he defends himself most quickly.… Thus it is above everything needful that we both confess of our own accord the evil things we have done and do not deny them when others charge us with them.… Whence it appears without all doubt what extraordinary purity [Job] was of in the sight of Almighty God, since he both avoided evil things so as not to commit them, and yet what things he did happen to commit he did not conceal from men—so that to him there should be both the high credit of righteousness to have shunned sin, and the safekeeping of righteousness to have brought to light what he was not able to shun” (Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job 2:32–34).

d. One of Francis’s unpretentious bons mots—in French, Qui se plaint pèche!—“One who complains sins!” But it is a harsh judgment to identify “complaining” with “sin.”

e. This is part of Francis’s understanding that nothing happens without the will of God involved—either the actual will or the permissive will—that is, either God directly wills some good, or God allows trouble, pain, or illness in order to bring something good out of it. Francis suggests that a passive acceptance of God’s will is most spiritually productive.

Be patient—not only regarding the big and major afflictions that happen to us, but also the annoyances and misfortunes that are connected with them. Many people would be glad to accept troubles, provided that they are not inconvenienced by them. “I wouldn’t get angry,” says one, “at becoming poor, if it weren’t that it would prevent me from entertaining my friends, raising my children, and living respectably as I wish.” And another says: “I would not bother myself about it if it were not that the world might think that this happened to me by my own fault.” Another would be completely at ease that someone had slandered him, and he would suffer very patiently as long as no one believed the slanderer. There are others who are quite willing to have some of the foul inconveniences, it seems to them, but not to have all of them. They are not impatient, they say, at falling ill, unless they did not have enough money for a doctor or if they would be too great a bother to those around them. Now I say, my child, that it is necessary to have patience not only at being sick, but at accepting that it is the sickness that God wills, in the place he wills, among the people he wills, and with whatever difficulties he wills—and it is the same for other tribulations.b

When trouble comes upon you, oppose it with the remedies that are available and in accord with God, because to do otherwise would tempt his divine Majesty—but having done this, wait the result that God approves with complete resignation. If it pleases him that the remedies overcome the sickness, thank him with humility; but if it pleases him that the sickness overcomes the remedies, bless him with patience.

I am of Saint Gregory’s opinion:c when you are justly accused of some fault that you have committed, humble yourself deeply and confess that you deserve the accusation that has been made against you. If the accusation is false, excuse yourself meekly, denying being guilty, because you owe that reverence to the truth and to the edification of your neighbor. But if after your true and legitimate excuse someone continues to accuse you, do not trouble yourself and do not try to make them accept your excuse, for after having done your duty to the truth, you must do it also to humility. And in this way you offend neither the care you must have for your good name nor the affection you must have for peace, meekness of heart, and humility.

Complain as little as you can about wrongs that may be done to you, for it is a sure thing that ordinarily one who complains sins,d especially since self-love always makes us feel that the injuries are greater than they are.e But most of all, do not make your complaints to people who are easily resentful and malevolent. If it is appropriate for you to protest to someone either in order to remedy the offense or to quiet your mind, it is important that it be to peaceful souls and those who love God well, for otherwise, instead of unburdening your heart, they would bring on greater uneasiness—instead of removing the thorn that pricks you, they would drive it further into your foot.

a. Romans 4:2: “For if Abraham were justified by works, he would have glory, but not before God.”

b. Francis constantly presses for truth and authenticity—opposing and revealing what has come to be called “the false self.” He demonstrates psychological insights far in advance of his times as he discusses less-thanpraiseworthy motives.

c. John 16:21: “A woman when she is in labor has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, she does not remember the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.”

d. This is a sensitive metaphor for spiritual growth—a mystical identity with the Blessed Virgin Mary carrying Jesus in her womb—and Francis pushes a bit beyond Church tradition by suggesting that if the Christ is to be born to us (as to the Virgin) there will be labor pains—the Church tradition had it that the Blessed Virgin experienced no labor pains. It is notable that Francis sees these “devotion pains” as being inflicted by opposition. Perhaps he refers to the tensions that existed between the culture of the Reformation and his own Counter-Reformation; for example, to the Reformation mind, devotion to the saints or frequent Communion or extensive retreats would be deemed foolish.

e. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the ideal Christian life came to be seen as an imitation of the life of Jesus Christ—so, celibacy, poverty, submission, and humility all became important merits. Francis continues that tradition although he sees it mainly as a spiritual exercise of Christlike virtues (such as acceptance of pain by spiritually uniting it with Christ’s Passion).

f. Honey made from wild thyme—especially thyme from Greece, Sicily, or New Zealand—is considered the finest in the world.

Some people when they are ill, afflicted, or injured by anyone restrain completely from complaining and showing their suffering, for in their opinion (and it is true) to do so is obviously a major failure of strength and generosity—but nevertheless they very much desire and seek by various devices for everyone to feel sorry for them, to have great compassion for them, and to consider them not only afflicted, but patient and courageous. Now this is correctly a “patience,” but it is a false patience, which in fact is nothing other than a very fastidious and very subtle ambition and vanity. “They have the glory,” says the Apostle, “but not before God.”a The truly patient neither complains of his illness nor desires that anyone pity him. He speaks of his illness candidly, truthfully, and simply, without lamenting, without complaining, without exaggerating it. If someone pities him, he accepts the pity patiently unless one pities him for some distress that he does not have, for then he will say modestly that he does not suffer from it and thus remains peacefully between the truth and patience, admitting his illness but not complaining of it.b

As for opposition, which will come to you in the practice of devotion (for that will not fail), remember the words of Our Lord: “A woman about to give birth to her child has great distress, but seeing her child born, she forgets it especially that a mortal has been born into the world.”c For you have conceived in your soul the most worthy child in the world—who is Jesus Christ—and before he is formed and given birth at all, it is not possible that you would not feel the labor—but take courage, for once these sorrows are past, an eternal joy of having given birth to such a man in the world will remain with you. However, he will be entirely formed in your heart and in your deeds by our imitation of his life.d

When you are sick, offer all your aches, pains, and weaknesses in service to Our Lord and beg him to join them to the torments that he received for you. Obey the doctor; take the medicines, meat, and other remedies for the love of God, remembering the gall that he drank for love of us. Seek to be healed in order to render him service, but do not refuse to lie ill in order to obey him. And dispose yourself for death, if that were to please him, in order to praise and enjoy him.e Remember that the bees during the times they make honey live and eat a very bitter food, and similarly we can never do deeds of great gentleness and patience—or better make the honey from excellent virtues—than while we eat the bread of bitterness and live among afflictions. And as the honey that is made of the flowers of thyme—a small bitter herb—is the best of all,f just so the virtue that is practiced in the bitterness of the vilest, worst, and most dismal tribulations is the most excellent virtue of all.

a. Meditation on the sufferings of Jesus Christ is an example of two traditions: (1) that of identification with the humanity of Jesus—his pains, his sufferings, his deprivations, and so on. In the earliest centuries of Christian history, little was made of Jesus’s humanity, and the emphasis was on his risen divinity, but by the fourteenth century the emphasis began to move to an affective identification with his weakness and suffering; and (2) kataphatic meditation—the concentration on a specific image (in this case, the crucified Jesus) in prayer.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 4

b. 4 Kings 4:3–4 [2 Kings 4:3–4]: “And [Elisha] said to [the widow]: ‘Go, borrow from all your neighbors’ empty vessels, not a few. And go in and shut your door when you are within, and your sons. And pour [oil] into all these vessels.’” Note: The widow was destitute with nothing but a little oil, and her sons were about to be sold into slavery to pay her debts—Elisha’s miracle multiplied the little oil she had so she could sell it, pay her creditors, and have enough money to live on. Francis’s emphasis here is on the emptiness of the vessels.

c. “The doves need to have with them the bird which is called Tinnunculus [kestrel] for she defends them, and (by a certain natural power that she has) scares and terrifies all other hawks: so that they cannot abide either to see her, or to hear her cry. Thus the doves love these birds above all others” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 10.57).

d. “Humility is the first virtue inasmuch as it removes the obstacles to faith—per odum removens prohibens, as St. Thomas says. It removes pride and makes a man subject to and a fit recipient of grace” (Catholic Encyclopedia [Encyclopedia Press, 1913], 7:544).

e. Vainglory (pride) has been defined by most moral theologians as an unwarranted and inaccurate perception of oneself and one’s skills, accomplishments, or capability. Francis expands the definition by saying that it is pride about some quality one doesn’t have, or an accomplishment of someone else that one claims as one’s own, or something that is not worthy of praise.

f. The French I have translated as “pleat” is goderon—a rare word from the verb goder, literally, “to crease” or “to pucker.”

Look often with your inner eyes on Jesus Christ crucified, naked, blasphemed, slandered, abandoned, and finally overcome with every sort of trouble, sorrow, and travail, and consider that all your sufferings—neither in quality nor in quantity—are in any way comparable to his—and that you will never suffer for him to the extent that he suffered for you.a

Consider the torments that the past martyrs suffered and those which so many people endure now—much more grievous, without any comparison, than those you have—and say, “Alas, my travails are comforts and my pains are roses in comparison with those who without support, without assistance, without relief, live in a continual death, overwhelmed with afflictions infinitely greater than mine.”

i PART III. CHAPTER 4.

Concerning Outward Humility

Elisha said to the poor widow, “Borrow vessels—a great many empty vessels—and pour oil into them.”b To receive the grace of God into our hearts, it is necessary that they be emptied of our own vanity. The kestrel, screaming and standing up to the birds of prey, scares them away by some secret attribute and ability; this is why the doves love them above all other birds and live in security near them.c Just so, humility drives away Satan and preserves us in the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and for that all the saints—but particularly the King of saints and his Mother—have always honored and cherished that precious virtue more than any other among all the morals.d

We call that vainglory which one bestows upon oneself, whether something that is not in us, or something that is in us but is not ours, or something that is in us and ours but does not merit one’s glorifying oneself about it.e Noble birth, the favors of the great, public honors are things that are not in us but either were in our predecessors or in the esteem of other people, not ourselves. There are some who become proud and haughty by riding a good horse, wearing a feather in their hat, by being extravagantly dressed, but who cannot see this is madness? Or if there is glory in this it is for the horse, for the bird, and for the tailor, and what cowardly courage is it to borrow one’s esteem from a horse, a feather, or a pleat?f Others pride and value themselves for having grown a moustache, for a well-combed beard, for curly hair, for delicate hands, for knowing how to dance, to mimic, to sing—but are they not lacking in gallantry who want to increase their value and add to their reputation by such frivolous and foolish things? Others for a little learning want to be honored and respected in the world, as if everyone should go to school under them and take them as their schoolmasters. That is why they are called pedants. Others strut about on account of their beauty and believe that the whole world is flirting with them. All this is utterly vain, foolish, and impudent, and the glory that one may take from such weak matters is called vain, silly, and frivolous.

a. The French baume here refers to “balsam” (all other translations have “balm”), which is an aromatic resin from trees of the genus Commiphora used since the sixth century to add fragrance to olive oil when confecting Sacred Chrism, the most revered Holy Oil used in the sacraments of the Church. Balsam sinks in water, whereas the olive oil floats on the surface. Pliny said that the balsam of Judea was the foremost of all scents. (One also wonders if Francis may have been using wordplay to criticize his infamous predecessor, the bishop of Geneva Pierre de La Baume, who was expelled by the Calvinists in 1533.)

b. “If [the shellfish] have their full time and season to seed, the pearls also will thrive and grow large: but if in the time it happens to grow light, then they close their shells together, and for lack of nourishment are kept hungry and fasting, and so the pearls stop growing and therefore do not prosper. Moreover, if it thunders, [the shellfish] suddenly close up tight, and then they generate only growths … like bladders puffed up and filled with wind, and no bodily substance at all: and these are the abortive and untimely fruits of these shellfish” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia IX, 9: 35).

c. “[Pliny] finishes by saying that the plant [saffron] loves to be beaten and trodden underfoot, the best qualities growing in footpaths and frequented places. In fact, as he remarks—‘The worse it is treated, the better it thrives’” (Color Trade Journal [1917], 51).

d. Francis may have been thinking of himself—for he had received from the pope the gift of the rare and prized titles of both Bishop and Prince of Geneva.

e. The French for “he dishevels” is il se hérisse—literally, “he bristles up” or “he makes himself shaggy.”

f. “And [the peacock] wonders at the beauty of his feathers, and rears them up like a circle about his head, and then he looks at his feet, and sees the foulness of his feet, and as though he were ashamed he lets his feathers fall suddenly, and all the tail downward, as though he took no heed of the fairness of his feathers” (Anglicus Bartholomaeus [d. 1272], De Proprietatibus Rerum, Bk. 12).

g. Song of Songs 7:13: “All the fruits of the mandrake give forth a scent in our gates,” and “Of the appels of mandrake, if a man smell of them thei will make hym slepe and also if they be eaten. But they that smell to muche of the apples become dum” (Turner, William; A Niewe Herball; John Kynge; Cologne; 1562). [This author was the first to grow mandrake roots in England.]

One knows genuine goodness as one knows genuine balsam—one makes the test of balsam by dropping it in water because, if it sinks to the bottom and remains there, it is considered to be the finest and most precious.a So, to know if a man is truly wise, learned, generous, or noble, one must see if his good traits tend toward humility, modesty, and obedience, for then they will be genuinely good, but if they float on the surface and seek to be noticed, they are as much less genuine as they are more obvious. Pearls that are formed and nourished by wind and the sound of thunder are nothing but a shell of pearl and are empty of substance;b and just so the virtues and good qualities of people who are received and nourished in pride, in boasting, and in the vanity are nothing more than a simple outward show of good, without blood, bone, or strength.

Honors, rank, dignities are like saffron that thrives best and most abundantly when trodden underfoot.c It is no longer an honor to be handsome when one looks at oneself—for beauty to have good grace it must be overlooked. Learning dishonors us when it inflates us and it degenerates into pedantry.

If we are fastidious about ranks, about positions, about titles, then we also expose our qualities to examination, to investigation, and to contradiction—we make them vile and wretched—for an honor that is beautiful has been received as a gift, and ugly when it is demanded, sought after, or asserted.d When the peacock spreads his tail in order to see himself, by raising his beautiful feathers, he dishevelse all the rest and shows then and there what ugliness he has.f Flowers that are beautiful when planted in the ground wither when handled. And just as those who smell the mandrake root from a distance and as they pass by receive a lot of sweetness, while those who smell it closely for a long time become faint and sick, just so, honors give a sweet comfort to those who smell them from afar and lightly, without being fooled by them or being officious, but those who love them and feed on them are extremely blameworthy and deserve reprimand.g

The pursuit and love of virtue begins to make us virtuous, but the pursuit and love of honors begins to make us contemptible and wrong. Well-born minds do not amuse themselves with the petty rubbish of ranks, honors, and titles—they have other things to do. Such things are the characteristic of idle minds. Whoever can have the pearls does not bother about the shells, and those who aspire to virtue are not easily impressed by honors. Certainly each one can take and keep his rank without violating humility, provided that it is done dispassionately and without contention.a For as those who come from Peru, in addition to the gold and the silver they carry, often bring monkeys and parrots because they do not cost them much and do not add much weight to their ship.b Just so, those who aspire to virtue can take their ranks and honors that are due them, provided that this does not cost them much care and attention, and they are clear of charges of disorder, disturbance, disputes, and quarrels.c However, I do not speak of those whose dignity regards the public, nor of special occasions that call for a great significance, for in such cases, it is necessary that each one keep what rank or position belongs to him, with prudence and discretion accompanied by charity and courtesy.

a. Surely the Prince Bishop of Geneva—one of the highest ecclesiastical ranks in Europe—would need to make provisions that one could “keep his rank” if the claim is made peacefully and without fighting for it.

b. Between 1521 and 1660, the Spanish had imported 18,000 tons of silver from Mexico and Peru that accounted for one-third of the wealth of the entire European continent. The “Quaker Parrot” was originally brought to Europe from Peru and Argentina in the seventeenth century.

c. It seems that Francis must have seen or known of local instances of what may have been contrary claims to titles or ranks.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 5

d. Thomas Aquinas was known as “the Angelic Doctor” by several popes and bishops in the nineteenth century—both because of his own sanctity and the exhaustive treatment of the nature of God in his theological works—that is, he had an angel’s access to God. The classic Scholastic question—“How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”—is his.

e. “… Meditation must be the cause of devotion, because through meditation man conceives the thought of surrendering himself to God’s service. Indeed a twofold consideration leads him thereto. The one is the thought of God’s goodness and loving kindness and this thought wakens love that is the proximate cause of devotion. The other thought is that of man’s own shortcomings, on account of which he needs to lean on God” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 2 of 2. 82. 3).

f. 1 Corinthians 4:7b: “What do you have that you have not received? And if you have received it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it?”

g. The French word for flatter is chatouiller and carries the meaning “to tickle” or “to titulate” or “to spur a horse lightly.”

h. The French phrase n’est pas de notre façon ni de notre crû means literally “it is not our style or our growth.” The words are from the French vineyards, where the harvest of grapes was called the cru (or “growth”). For instance, in Bordeaux premier cru (or “first growth”) means the finest wine. I have chosen to translate cru as “fruit.”

i PART III. CHAPTER 5.

Concerning Inner Humility

But you wish, my child, that I should lead you more deeply into humility—for to do as I have said is almost more wisdom than humility—so I now pass on to it. Many dare not or do not wish to consider the graces that God has given them in particular, for fear of arousing vainglory and complaisance, but in that they are certainly wrong, for since, as the great Angelic Doctord said, the true means of attaining the love of God is by consideration of its benefits—the more we know, the more we will love—and as the individual benefits move us more powerfully than the common ones, so they should be given more careful consideration.e

Of course, nothing can so greatly humble us before the mercies of God more than the multitude of his benefits, nor can any thing so humble us before his justice more than the multitude of our misdeeds. Let us consider what he has done for us and what we have done against him—and as we consider our sins piece by piece, let us also consider his graces piece by piece. We do not have to fear that the knowledge of what he has given us will puff us up, as long as we are aware of this truth: that what goodness may be in us is not ours. Alas! Do mules cease being stupid, foul beasts merely because they are carrying precious furniture and perfumes of the prince? What good do we have that we have not received? And if we have received it, why do we wish to take pride in it?f On the contrary, a vigorous consideration of the graces received should make us humble, for that knowledge begets gratitude. But if in seeing the graces that God has given us some sort of vanity comes to flatterg us, the infallible remedy will be to resort to reflection on our ingratitude, our imperfections, our miseries. If we consider what we have done when he was not with us, we will well understand that what we do when he is with us is neither our fashioning nor our fruit.h We will even enjoy and rejoice because we have it, but we will glorify God alone because he is the author.

a. Luke 1:46, 49: “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord because he that is mighty has done great things to me….’”

b. 2 Corinthians 12:11c: “… I am in no way less than those who are beyond measure Apostles, although I am nothing.”

c. 1 Corinthians 4:13: “We are blasphemed and we implore; we are made as the refuse of this world, the off-scouring of all continuously to this point.”

d. Francis presents an odd social paradox in order to make an extreme point: if it were morally permissible, a truly humble person might even do arrogant and prideful things so no one would know she or he was humble!

e. A statement of radical ethics: Do not even pretend to be humble if you are not actually humble at heart!

f. A statement from a society that was highly class-conscious. Francis’s single exception about not letting one’s humility show would be to step back and allow a more highly ranked person to precede oneself, even though that person might not demand her or his rightful position.

g. Francis points out that common courtesy sometimes calls for a word or phrase that may not be entirely sincere: for instance, beginning a letter “Dear So-and-so” when the person may not actually be dear to us at all.

h. There is some subtle humor beneath the pronouncement: since the humble person already thinks that he is worthless, he is glad if someone shares his opinion.

Thus the Blessed Virgin proclaims that God has done great things, but that is only in order to humiliate her and magnify God: “My soul,” she says, “magnifies the Lord, because he has done great things for me.”a

We often say that we are nothing,b even that we are misery itself and the refuse of the world,c but we would be very sorry to be taken at our word and have someone describe us that way in public. On the contrary, we make a pretense of running away and hiding so that someone will run after us and seek us. We pretend to want to be last and seated at the lower end of the table, but that is in order to move more expediently to the high end. True humility does not make a show of it and speaks very few words about itself because it desires not only to keep the other virtues out of sight, but also mainly it seeks to conceal itself. If it were lawful to lie, to pretend, or to scandalize one’s neighbor, humility might perform arrogant and prideful actions in order to hide beneath those and live utterly unknown and hidden.d

Here then is my advice, my child: either let us not speak words of humility at all, or let us speak them with true inner feeling, consistent with what we express outwardly. Let us never lower our eyes without humbling our hearts. Let us not pretend that we want to be last if with a good heart we would not wish it.e Now, I hold this rule to be so generally applicable that I allow no exception—only that I add that civility may sometimes require that we offer precedence to those who would surely not take it themselves, and yet it is not duplicity or feigned humility (because the single offer of precedence is only the first mark of honor, and since we cannot give them the whole, it does not hurt to give them that first sign).f I would say the same about certain words of honor or respect that, strictly speaking, may not seem entirely true, because they are nonetheless close enough as long as the heart of the one who utters them has a true intention to honor and respect the person about whom one speaks. Although the words mean more than what we actually say, we are not doing evil when we use them as common usage requires.g It is true that I would still prefer that our words matched our feelings as closely as possible, so as to exercise genuine simplicity and candor in all things and in all places. A truly humble person prefers that someone else says that he is miserable, that he is nothing, that he is not worth anything, rather than that he is to say it himself. At least if he knows that someone has said it, he does not contradict it, but agrees heartily because, since he firmly believes it himself, he is glad that another shares his opinion.h

Many people say that they leave inner prayer to the Perfect Ones and that they are not worthy to practice it. Others protest that they dare not receive Communion frequently because they do not feel pure enough. Others, that they fear to bring shame on the devotion if they involve themselves because of their great distress and weakness. And others refuse to use their talent in the service of God and their neighbor because, they say, they know their weakness and they fear they will become proud of themselves in being agents of any good—so that in enlightening others, they would consume themselves. All this is only artifice and a kind of humility that is not only false, but malicious, by which one means implicitly and subtly to find fault with the affairs of God, or at least, covers up the very love of his own opinion, his own mood, and his own laziness with a pretense of humility. “Ask of God a sign in the heavens on high or in the depths of the bottom of the sea,” said the Prophet to the unfortunate Ahaz, and he responded, “No! I will not ask and I will not tempt the LORD.”a Oh, the villain! He pretends to have a great reverence for God and under the guise of humility excuses himself from striving for the grace of God to which the Divine Goodness summons him. But does he not see that when God wishes to reward us, it is prideful to refuse? That we are obliged to accept the gifts of God? And that it is humility to obey and to follow his will as closely as we can?b It is God’s will that we be perfect,c uniting ourselves to him and imitating him as closely as we can.d The proud person who trusts in himself has good cause not to dare to undertake anything, but the humble person is all the more courageous in that he recognizes himself to be more powerless—and the weaker he considers himself, the more bold he is, because he has full confidence in God, who delights in expanding his omnipotence within our weakness and exalting his mercy on our misery.e Therefore, we must humbly and fervently undertake all that is deemed proper for our advancement by those who guide our souls.

a. Isaiah 7:10–12: “And the LORD spoke again to Ahaz [king of Judah] saying, ‘Ask a sign of the LORD your God, either in the depths of hell or in the height above.’And Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask, and I will not tempt the LORD.’” Ahaz was an idolatrous and evil king who ignored the prophets Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah, invited the armies of Assyria to capture and destroy the north kingdom of Israel, and who even sacrificed his own son on the pagan altar he had erected in the Jerusalem temple. Accounts of his reign are found in 2 Kings 15 and 16.

b. Ahaz’s refusal to “ask a sign” seems a small peccadillo to justify calling him a “villain”—it was Francis’s knowledge of Ahaz’s further grievous sins that legitimizes the accusation. But this is one of those places where it seems there are unexpressed issues beneath the surface—perhaps Francis’s own—possibly a justification for his having accepted the hugely powerful royal bishopric?

c. Matthew 5:48: “Therefore, be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

d. Ephesians 5:1: “Therefore be imitators of God, as most dear children.”

e. An example of Francis’s rhetorical training: two parallel paradoxes—the self-sufficient fears acting while the humble (who thinks himself weak) has courage for anything because he trusts in God.

f. One is reminded of Socrates’s words: “…“I am better off than [this wise man]—for he knows nothing, but he thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know. In this last instance, then, I seem to have a slight advantage of him (Plato, Apologia 21d [trans. Jowett]).

g. Francis’s message here is somewhat obscure: what he suggests is that if one has some creditable knowledge it is not a case of showing off if one uses that knowledge in a specific instance to help one’s neighbor—either by showing him something for his own good that he doesn’t know (for example, telling him not to pour gasoline directly on a flame because you know that the fire can follow the gasoline stream back into the can and explode it) or by sharing something that will make him feel better.

h. “[On the small island named Tylos in the Persian Gulf] there is another tree bearing a blossom like a damask or carnation rose. This flower shuts tight at night, starts to open in the morning at the sunrise, and by midday shows out at the full. The inhabitants have an adage and saying among them that the tree sleeps all night, and wakes up in the morning” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 12.23).

To think one knows what one does not know is positively silly.f To wish to appear learned in some field of knowledge when one does not know it is an insufferable vanity. For myself, I would not even want to appear learned in what I do know, just as on the other hand, I do not wish to appear an ignoramus either. When charity requires it, one must share plainly and quietly with one’s neighbor not only he needs for his information, but also what is useful to him for his consolation, because humility—which hides and conceals the virtues in order to protect them—nonetheless reveals them when charity demands, in order to increase, expand, and improve them.g In this instance, humility resembles that tree of the isles of Tylos that at night shuts up and closes its beautiful carnation flowers and does not open them until sunrise, so that the locals say that the flowers are sleeping at night.h For just so humility covers and hides all our human virtues and perfections and does not let them be seen except for the sake of charity, which is not so much a human virtue as a heavenly one, not so much a moral but a divine virtue. Charity is the true sun of the virtues and should always take precedence over them. So, a humility that is detrimental to charity is undoubtedly a false virtue.a

a. The first list of mortal (“deadly”) sins was compiled by Evagrius of Pontus (345–399) and rearranged by Pope Gregory the Great (540–604). It included lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. It was understood that the increasing seriousness represented increased fixation on the self—which made pride the most egregious. Consequently, pride’s opposite virtue (humility) was considered the highest moral virtue. However, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity took precedence over the moral virtues, so humility was subservient to charity.

b. 1 Corinthians 3:18: “Let no man deceive himself: if any among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” The most obvious “fool for Christ” in the Western Church was St. Francis of Assisi.

c. 2 Kings 6:12b, 14, 16, 20, 21a, 22ab [2 Samuel]: “Therefore David went and brought the Ark of God into the city of David with joy.… And David danced with all his strength before the LORD, and David was girded with a linen ephod…. And when the Ark of the LORD was come into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul [and wife of David], looking out through a window, saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.… And David returned to bless his own house, and Michal the daughter of Saul, coming out to meet David, said, ‘How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself before the handmaids of his servants, and was naked, as if one of the clowns were to be naked.’And David said to Michal ‘I will both play and make myself more despicable than I have done; but I will be humble in my own eyes.’”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 6

d. In Latin abjectio literally means “dejection, casting down, casting out, throwing away”—hence, by implication, a kind of humbling. Since it is rare in present-day common use, I have chosen to use the word abasement that conveys the same sense.

e. Luke 1:46–48: “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord. And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior because he has regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.’”

I would choose neither to play the fool nor to act the sage—for if humility prevents me from acting the sage, sincerity and honesty prevent me also from playing the fool; and if vanity is contrary to humility, then artifice, affectation, and pretense are contrary to honesty and sincerity. If some great servants of God have pretended to be fools in order to render themselves more lowly before the world,b we must admire them and not imitate them, for they had reasons to go to such excess, and they were so special and extraordinary that no one else should draw any conclusions from them for oneself. And as for David, when he danced and leaped before the Ark of the Covenantc (a little more than ordinary propriety required), it was not that he wanted to play the fool, but with all simplicity and without affectation, he made those outward movements conform to the extraordinary and excessive joy that he felt in his heart. It is true that when Michal, his wife, reproached him for his foolishness, he was not sorry to see himself disgraced but persevering in the natural and faithful demonstration of his joy, he testified that he was very glad to receive a little criticism for the sake of his God. Following from that, I will tell you that if for the actions of a true and natural devotion you are considered contemptible, wretched, or foolish, humility will cause you to rejoice in this fortunate criticism—for its cause is not in you, but in those who do it.

i PART III. CHAPTER 6.

That Humility Makes Us Love Our Own Abasement

But I go further and say to you, my child, that in every thing and every place you should love your own abasement. But, you will say to me, “What does that mean: love your own abasement?” In Latin abjectio means humility,d and humility means abasement, so that when Our Lady’s sacred hymn says, “… because Our Lord has seen the humility of his servant, all generations will call her blessed,”e she means that Our Lord had graciously looked with a genial heart on her abasement, weakness, and lowliness in order to fill her with graces and favors. Nevertheless, there is a difference between humility and abasement—for abasement is the smallness, meanness, and vileness that is in us without our acquiescence, but as for the virtue of humility, it is the actual knowledge and voluntary recognition of our abasement. But the chief point of humility lies not only in voluntarily recognizing our abasement, but in loving it and reveling in it. And this must not be for lack of courage or generosity, but in order to more highly exalt the divine Majesty and to value your neighbor more highly in comparison to ourselves. And this is what I urge you to do, and in order to hear me better, know that among the ills that we suffer some are abject and others honorable. Many people can adapt themselves to honor the able ones, but almost no one wishes to adapt to the abject ones. Picture a devout hermit, all ragged and fraught with cold—everyone honors his tattered habit, with compassion for his suffering.a But if a poor craftsman, a poor gentleman, or a poor young lady were in the same circumstance, they would be scorned and mocked. Thus you see that their poverty is abject poverty. A monastic devoutly accepts a harsh censure from the superior, as a child from a father—and everyone calls that mortification obedience, and wisdom. A knight and a lady could endure the same thing from someone, but then, even if it were for the love of God, everyone would call it cowardice and lack of courage. See? This is yet another abject evil. Or one person has a ulcer on his arm, and another person has it on his face—the former has only the ulcer itself, but the latter has scorn, disdain, and humiliation as well as the ulcer.b So I declare at this point that we must not only love the malady (which is done by the virtue of patience) but we must also cherish the abasement itself (which is done by the virtue of humility).c

a. Sadly, in modern culture, that “devout hermit” would most likely be seen as mentally ill!

b. Francis’s distinction between “honorable ills” and “abject ills” seems to depend on social acceptance (honorable) or social rejection (abject)—it is interesting that the distinction is not one of essence (that is, it does not depend on the actual nature of the ill itself) but of common toleration or common intolerance. Thus the distinction depends ultimately on the social norms of one’s culture.

c. It is a little unclear here whether Francis is speaking of loving one’s own malady and abasement or that of another. Charitably, one might accept both meanings.

d. Again, it seems clear that Francis is addressing his own culture—under the circumstances of modern-day culture, these lists of abject and honorable virtues might well differ from his.

e. It seems curious that Francis lists the forgiveness of injuries as “despised in the eyes of the world.” Perhaps he is suggesting that revenge is the more commonly accepted response to injury.

f. The ascetical concept behind Francis’s discussion of abasement (French: abjection) is that the devout Christian is called to turn cultural norms upside down—to accept what the rest of the world rejects, to embrace what the rest of the world despises.

g. Francis is thinking of such things as inadvertently stepping in front of someone in a queue—in which there is no moral issue, but one might properly receive some mortifying censure—and should accept it unreservedly.

h. It is clear that for Francis apology and repair of damage done to another does not mean that one ought, therefore, to consider oneself freed from the abasement or mortification the word brought.

i. On a scale of moral value, Francis suggests that avoiding the shame such a sin brings upon one is more spiritually harmful than committing the sin in the first place.

In addition, there are abject virtues and honorable virtues. Patience, gentleness, simplicity, and humility itself are virtues that the worldly consider vile and base; on the other hand, they highly value prudence, courage, and liberality.d There are also the actions of the same virtue: some of these are despised and others are honored. To give alms and to forgive injuries are two actions of the virtue of charity—but the first is honored by everyone and the other despised in the eyes of the world.e A young gentleman or a young lady who do not abandon themselves to the dissipation of a debauched group, to talk, play, dance, drink, or dress like the rest, will be taunted and censured by the others, and their modesty will be called either bigotry or affectation—to love that is to love one’s abasement. And here is another kind of abasement: we go to visit the sick; and if they send me to the most wretched among them, that will be for me an abasement according to the world—which is why I ought to love it. If they send me to persons of quality, that is a spiritual abasement, for there will be neither as much virtue nor merit, and so I should love that abasement as well. If one falls in the street, besides the harm, one suffers the shame—and that is an abasement we must love too.f

There are even faults in which there is nothing ill except the abasement alone, and humility does not require that one should intentionally commit those, but it requires clearly that one should not worry when they are committed. These include certain stupidities, discourtesies, and mistakes that should be avoided before they are done in order to exercise courtesy and discretion; also, when they are done, one must endure the abasement that comes to one and accept it wholeheartedly in order to conform to holy humility.g I say further that if I am driven by anger or licentiousness to speak unsuitable words that offend God and my neighbor, I should deeply repent and be extremely sorry for the offense, and I should try to repair it myself as well as I can—but I must not disregard the abasement and the scorn that will occur.h And if the one could be separated from the other, I would readily dismiss the sin and humbly hold on to the abasement.i

a. Francis makes it clear that even though we may obtain much humility by experiencing some ill, we must not entertain that ill intentionally simply in order to feel a humble shame or guilt.

b. This is a very subtle implication of Francis’s teaching about humility and abasement: if my own abasement by some peculiar circumstance were to be harmful to a neighbor, I must reject my own degradation for my neighbor’s sake, but continue to hold myself in a lowly state privately and inwardly. For example: if I were falsely accused of an improper or immoral relationship with some other person, I would be morally bound to deny the accusation clearly and publicly in order to spare that other person—although I might still remember the judgment and scorn I had felt when accused and use it to remind myself of my own lowliness. For Francis, scorn and humility are always moral goods—unless another is harmed by them.

c. With the proper caution of a spiritual director, Francis sets a warning signal against masochism—it is best if one merely accepts the difficulties that occur normally and naturally in the course of one’s life, rather than staging abasements intentionally. (And adding the delightful parenthesis about God “whose choices are always better than ours.”)

d. This is a common ascetic challenge: accept the abasements that affect the things one likes most—for instance, if one is talkative, one might choose to be silent. But Francis leaves an escape clause by declaring that the chosen abasements must not interfere with one’s vocation—possibly an autobiographical caution to himself.

e. “The great king” is, of course, King David. In Francis’s day it was believed that all the Psalms had been written by David—an opinion since superseded in modern scholarship.

f. Psalm 83:11b [84:9b]: “I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners.”

g. Psalm 21:7 [22:6]: “I am a worm, and no man; the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.”

h. See Psalm 18:11: “[The fear of the Lord is] more to be desired than gold and many precious stones, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.”

But although we may love the abasement that results from an evil, using just and legitimate means, we must seek a remedy for the evil that caused it—and especially when the evil is of some significance. If I were to have some loathsome sore on my face, I ought to arrange a cure for it, but not one that would make me forget the abasement I received from it.a If I were to do something that offends nobody, I would not apologize for it because even if it were a fault it would not be permanent. I could apologize in that case only to escape the abasement that came to me—but that is something humility could not approve. However, if by mistake or by folly I have offended or scandalized someone, I will repair the offense by a genuine apology, especially since the damage may be lasting and charity requires me to remove it. Moreover, it sometimes happens that charity requires that we resolve our own abasement for the good of a neighbor for whom our reputation is vital; but in such cases while removing our abasement before the eyes of a neighbor in order to avoid a scandal, we must wrap it and hide it inside our heart so that it edifies us.b

But you will want to know, my child, what kinds of abasements are best, and I tell you clearly that the most profitable to the soul and pleasing to God are the ones we have by accident or by our state in life, because we have not chosen those and have received them as sent to us by God—whose choices are always better than ours.c But if we were to choose, the greater ones are better and those are valued most highly that are most against our own inclinations—provided they are consistent with our vocation.d For, to put it once and for all, our choice and our selection spoil and undermine almost all our virtues. Ah, yes! That will give us the grace to say with that great king,e “I would rather be abject in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of sinners.”f No one can say this, my child, except him who to exalt us lived and died in such a way that he was “the reproach of mortals and the outcast of the people.”g

Now I have told you many things that will seem hard when you reflect on them, but, believe me, they will be sweeter than sugar and honey when you practice them.h

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 7

a. The French word is émail and generally means “enamel” (which is how most translate it), but it has a second and more subtle meaning of “luster, gloss, or brilliance.” And it seems that Francis’s intention here is to use the metaphor to suggest that a pile of many precious stones has more brilliance than merely one or two—so, too, personal glory comes from many praises and honors, not just one—in his words, from extraordinary virtue, not just simple virtue.

b. “The Sage” (or “Wise Man”) is Jesus, the Son of Sirach, author of the book Ecclesiasticus 41:15: “Take good care of a good name, for this will continue with you, more than a thousand precious and great treasures.”

c. Notice that Francis’s final justification for the maintenance of a “good name” is the common good of society! He means that society could not function unless it were possible to trust each other’s reputation and to have faith that the one with a “good name” would not deliberately do harm to others.

d. One is reminded of Revelation 22:2: “In the midst … was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

i PART III. CHAPTER 7.

How One Must Conserve a Good Reputation While Practicing Humility

Praise, honor, and glory are not bestowed upon people as rewards for simple virtue, but for extraordinary virtue. For by praise we wish to persuade others to esteem the excellence of certain people—by honoring them, we demonstrate that we esteem them ourselves. And glory is, in my opinion, nothing more than a certain brilliance of reputation that springs from the combination of several praises and honors. If honors and praises are like precious stones, then from a heap of them proceeds glory—like a brilliance.a Now, just as humility cannot allow us to have any aim to stand out or any expectation of being preferred to others, it also cannot permit that we aim at praise, honor, or glory, which are proper to superiority alone. But it nonetheless allows, as the Sageb says, that we are permitted to have a care of our good name—because one’s good name is not a sign of any particular excellence, but only of a simple and common integrity and uprightness of life, which humility does not forbid us to acknowledge within ourselves or to desire a reputation for. It is true that humility would scorn a good reputation if charity had no need of it, but because a good name is one of the foundations of human society, and without it we would be not only useless but harmful to the publicc (because of the scandal it would provoke), charity demands and humility agrees that we should crave a good name and carefully preserve it.

Besides, just as the leaves of the trees—which themselves are not very valuable—serve very well, not only to beautify the trees but also to preserve the fruits while they are still tender,d so, too, a good reputation—which in itself is not a thing to be greatly longed for—is useful, not only for the adornment of our life, but also for the preservation of the virtues, and mainly those tender and frail ones. The duty to maintain our reputation and actually to be what we are esteemed for calls for a generous courage, a strong and gentle insistence.

Let us preserve our virtues, my dear child, because they are pleasing to God—great and sovereign Objective of all our actions—but just as those who wish to protect the fruits do not content themselves only with making them into preserves, but also putting them into unique containers for their keeping, similarly, although the Divine Love may be the principal preserver of our virtues, so it is that we can still use a good reputation as very proper and useful for this.

However, it will not do that we be too eager, exact, and meticulous in this preservation of our good name, for those who are so touchy and sensitive about their reputations are like those who take medicines for every sort of little inconvenience because they, thinking to preserve their health, destroy it altogether—and those who wish to maintain their reputation too fastidiously besmirch it entirely, for by this sensitivity they become bizarre, quarrelsome, and unbearable and actually provoke the malice of the scandalmongers.a

a. In Francis’s day this would be the kind of person who challenged anyone to a duel who had made any kind of critical remark about him, or one who took extreme public offense at a false accusation. Defensiveness often implies guilt.

b. Aside from the fable’s patent inaccuracy, I have searched every classical source for Francis’s claim (Aristotle, Plato, Herodotus, Lucian, Pliny, Thucydides, Aelian, Livy, Ptolemy, Lucretius, Porphyry, Apuleius, Ovid, and Phaedrus) and have found it nowhere.

c. A somewhat confusing maxim: Francis means one who tries for some kind of standing or respect from “everyone” (that is, including the corrupt and dissolute) will ultimately lose the respect of all.

d. “Virtue is the fount whence honour springs” (Christopher Marlowe, [1564-1593]; Tamburlaine the Great, Act II, Scene 4).

e. Francis makes clear that (a) one ought not to do anything that would offend the righteous, and (b) one ought not to do anything that would please the wicked.

f. The French is arrache and means “uproot” or “wrest” or “tear away”—a very strong word!

g. Psalm 51:4 [52:2]: “All the day long your tongue has concocted injustice; like a sharp razor you have fashioned treachery.” (In Francis’s day it was believed that all the psalms had been written by King David.)

h. Francis is unyielding in his evaluation of “a good name” above every kind of enjoyment or entertainment no matter how innocent, but each of those things that he suggests may have to be forsaken can carry within it a sinister dimension: one can get the reputation of being a gossip, an obsessive, a friend of sinners, or a waster of time.

Ignoring and disregarding the insult and calumny is ordinarily a much more effective remedy than resentment, dispute, or revenge. Scorn for the injuries makes them vanish, but if one becomes angry, it seems as if one is admitting them. Crocodiles damage only those who fear themb—and certainly slander harms only those who let themselves be troubled by it.

Excessive fear of losing one’s reputation reflects a great distrust of the basis on which it was founded—that is, the truth of a good life. Towns that have wooden bridges over major rivers are afraid that they will be carried away by any kind of flood waters, but those who have bridges of stone are not at all worried except about extraordinary flooding—thus, those who have a strong Christian soul ordinarily scorn the torrents of abusive language, but those who feel weak worry themselves about every remark. Certainly, my child, one who wants to have a good reputation with everyone loses it with everyone;c and the one who deserves to lose honor is the one who wants to gain a reputation from those whose vices make them truly infamous and dishonored.

Reputation is nothing more than a sign that indicates where virtue lodges, so virtue must always be preferred in all things and all places.d That is why if someone says that you are a hypocrite because you maintain devotion, or if someone takes you for a person of little courage because you have pardoned an injury, make fun of all of that. For besides, such judgments are made by fools and stupid people, while one must not forsake virtue nor turn away from its path in order to save one’s reputation; the more so as one must prefer the fruit before the leaves, that is to say, the inner and spiritual good before all the external goods. It is necessary to be jealous for, but not idolaters of, our good name—and just as we should not offend the eyes of good people, also we should not wish to satisfy the eyes of the wicked.e The beard is an ornament to a man’s face and her hair is to a woman’s. If one were painfully to pull outf all the whiskers from the chin and the hair from the head it would not be possible to grow again, but if one only cuts it, or even if it were shaved, it would grow again soon after and would return stronger and more dense. So also although our reputation is cut, or even completely destroyed, by the tongue of slanderers—which is, as David says, like a sharp razorg—one need not worry oneself, for soon it will reappear not only as beautiful as it was, but even more solid. But if our vices, our cowardice, and our evil living take away our reputation, it will be difficult for it ever to come back, because the root has been torn up. However, the root of a good name is goodness and integrity, and as long as they are in us they can always replicate the honor that is their due.

We must give up this fruitless conversation, that useless habit, this frivolous friendship, that obsession with sports, if it harms our reputation, because our good name is more valuable than any sort of empty enjoyments.h But if our exercise of piety, our advancement toward goodness in devotion, and progress toward heaven makes someone murmur, grumble, or slander, let those dogs bay at the moon,a for if they can excite a bad opinion against our good name, and thus cut and shave off the hair and beard of our reputation, soon it will reappear, and the razor of gossip will finally be as useful for our honor as the pruning knife is to the vine, causing it to abound and multiply its fruits.b

a. The wonderful phrase in French is laissons aboyer les mâtins contre la lune, meaning literally “let the mongrels bark against the moon”—a very strong rejection for a bishop to use!

b. Francis simply declares that one should try not to give cause for criticism—unless, of course, it is one’s religious devotion that is being criticized—then he recommends one pay no attention and have no concerns about it.

c. A wonderfully memorable phrase: if our detractor persists in persecution, we simply persist in abasement! One is reminded of St. Edmund the Martyr—when the Viking chief threatened, “Don’t you realize that I have the power to kill you?” St. Edmund replied, “But don’t you realize I have the power to die?”

d. 2 Corinthians 6:8: “[In all things let us show ourselves as ministers of God] by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers yet true; as unknown yet known.”

e. Psalm 68:8 [69:8]: “… for your sake I have borne disgrace; shame has covered my face.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 8

f. There are three kinds of holy oils: “Oil of the Sick”—used to anoint those who are ill; “Oil of the Catechumens”—originally used to anoint those pagans who were beginning Christian instruction; and “Holy Chrism”—used in the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, and in the coronation of royalty. “Chrism” is made by mixing balsam with pure olive oil. (The balsam keeps the oil from spoiling and also gives it a very distinctive, pleasant odor.)

g. Matthew 11:29: “Take up my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.”

h. “O patient charity, with no lack of compassion—to be perfect she is also benign” (St. Bernard, Tractatus de Caritate, ch. 5).

Let us always have our eyes on Jesus Christ crucified; let us walk in his service with confidence and ease, but wisely and discreetly. He will be the protector of our good name, and if he allows that it be taken from us, it will either be to give us a better one or so that we can share in holy humility (one ounce of which is worth a thousand pounds of honor). If someone blames us unjustly, let us peacefully oppose the calumny with the truth; if that person persists, let us persist in abasing ourselves.c By putting our reputation with our soul in the hands of God, we will have the best guarantee. Let us serve God “through the good and bad renown”d after the example of Saint Paul, so that we can say with David: “O my God, this is for you that I have endured the disgrace and shame has covered my face.”e

I exclude, however, certain crimes so heinous and infamous that no one should suffer the slander when he can justly acquit himself, and certain persons whose good reputation is depended on for the edification of others. In this case, following the advice of the theologians, it is necessary quietly to continue to seek reparation for the damage received.

i PART III. CHAPTER 8.

Of Meekness Toward Our Neighbor and Remedies Against Anger

Holy Chrism, which one uses in church according to the apostolic tradition for Confirmations and blessings,f is composed of olive oil mixed with balsam, which represents (among other things) the two dear and beloved virtues that are manifested in the holy person of Our Lord, which he specifically recommended, as if by these our heart would be especially devoted to his service and applied to his imitation: “Learn from me,” he said, “for I am meek and humble of heart.”g Humility perfects us with respect of God and meekness with respect to our neighbor. The balsam (which, as I said above, always falls to the bottom of all liquids) symbolizes humility, and the olive oil (which always rises to the top) symbolizes meekness and gentleness, which overcomes everything and excels among the virtues as being the flower of charity (which, according to Saint Bernard, is in its perfection when it is not only patient, but meek and mild as well).h

But beware, my child, that mystical chrism composed of meekness and humility remains in your heart, for it is one of the great tricks the Enemy does by amusing several people with words and the outer forms of these two virtues who, without examining carefully their inner affections, think they are meek and humble and, nonetheless, are not so in fact. One recognizes that because despite their ritual meekness and humility, at the slightest contradictory word, at the slightest little injury they receive, they rise up with an unparalleled arrogance. It is said that those who take a preservative called “Saint Paul’s Grace”a do not swell up when bitten or stung by a viper, provided that “Grace” is pure.b In the same way, when humility and meekness are good and true, they protect us from the swelling and inflammation that injuries usually cause in our hearts. If when we are stung and bitten by the slanderers we become proud, swollen, and angry, it means that our humility and meekness are not real and honest, but are insincere and superficial.

a. The French is la grâce de saint Paul (“St. Paul’s Grace”), but as one old edition had it, la graisse de Saint Paull (“St. Paul’s Grease”), and in the 1891 English edition from Longmans Green & Co. in London, the phrase was translated as “The Fat of St. Paul.”

b. “There was a quack salve formerly in use for the bites of snakes, partly compounded of adders’ fat. The name is obviously derived from St. Paul’s adventure with the viper on the Island of Melita in Acts 28” (Egan, Edward, tr.; Introduction to the Devout Life, 243).

c. Genesis 45:24: “So [Joseph] sent away his brothers, and at their departing he said to them: ‘Do not be angry on the way.’”

d. Curiously, most French editions in this place have Joseph dit (“Joseph says…”) when the reference is clearly to the Epistle of James. All English editions I know have corrected it.

e. James 1:20: “For the anger of man works not the justice of God.”

f. “Others on this occasion talked very much of antipathies and produced a thousand instances of such strange effects; for example, the sight of a ram quiets an enraged elephant…” (Plutarch, Symposiacs, bk. 2, ques. 7).

g. “… but it fell afterwards upon the poor serjeant’s head in a torrent, who had learned perhaps one maxim from his trade, that a cannon-ball always doth mischief in proportion to the resistance it meets with, and that nothing so effectually deadens its force as a woolpack” (Fielding, Henry; Amelia: a. Millar; London; 1752. Reprint: Battestin, Martin, ed.; Clarendon Press; Oxford;1983). Literary references to cannonballs and wool-packs are frequent and plentiful through the mid-nineteenth century.

h. Ryan cites St. Augustine, City of God 14.19, but I have been unable to verify it.

i. “It is much better for us to forbear from anger, even when one has given us just cause for it” (St. Augustine, Epistle 38.2).

j. Ephesians 4:26: “Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” “The Apostle” is, of course, St. Paul—author of the Epistle to the Ephesians.

When the holy and illustrious patriarch Josephc sent his brothers from Egypt to his father’s house, he only gave them one recommendation: “Do not be angry on the way.” I would say the same thing to you, my child. This wretched life is only a conveyance to blessed happiness. Therefore, do not be angry on the way with one another, walk with the company of our brothers and companions meekly, peacefully, and amiably. But I tell you clearly and without qualification, do not be angry at all, if that is possible, and do not accept any pretext whatsoever to open the door of your heart to wrath, for Jamesd says it simply and without reservation that “the wrath of man does not effect the righteousness of God.”e

It is necessary truly to resist evil and curb the vices of those who are in our care, consistently and quietly. Nothing so quiets an angry elephant as the sight of a lamb,f and nothing breaks the force of a cannonball like wool.g One does not prize the correction that comes from passion (even though accompanied by reason) as one does that which has no other origin than reason alone, for the rational soul is subject to reason—it is not subject to passion except through tyranny, and hence when reason is accompanied by passion, it becomes odious and its just authority is debased by association with tyranny. Princes honor and console the people infinitely when they visit with a peaceful retinue, but when they lead armies—even if that is for the public good—their coming is always unpleasant and damaging, because even though they exactly enforce military discipline among the soldiers, if they cannot ever do it so well that some disorder will not arise by which the good man is trampled. So when reason prevails and peaceably administers punishment, correction, and reproof (even though it is done strictly and precisely) everyone likes it and approves of it, but when reason comes with anger, wrath, and rage (which are, says Saint Augustine, reason’s soldiersh) it makes itself more feared than loved and even reason’s own heart is trampled and abused. “It is better,” says the same Saint Augustine writing to Profuturus, “to refuse entry even to just and equitable anger than to admit it, however small it is,i because if it is admitted, it is difficult to expel, especially since it enters as a small twig and in no time it grows and becomes a log.” For if once anger can gain the night and the sun goes down on our anger (which is forbidden by the Apostlej), it is converted into hatred and there is no way to get rid of it, because it feeds on a thousand false excuses, so no angry person ever thought his anger unfair.

a. Francis demonstrates a depth of psychological sensitivity on an entirely practical level; and in one paragraph he uses two strong metaphors that would have been meaningful to his protégé—the snake’s body following its head and the noisy bailiff. His counsel here is simple: deal with your anger at first notice, when it is very small, but do so carefully—the equivalent of “counting to ten.” It is incredibly perceptive of him to know that if the corrective is applied too brutally and roughly, it will agitate rather than pacify.

b. Psalm 30:10 [31:9]: “Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am afflicted. My eye has been troubled by wrath, my soul, and my belly.”

c. “… if to you as a man anything has happened such as was confessed by someone who was truly a man of God in the words of the psalm, ‘My eye was discomposed by wrath,’cry to the Lord, as he did, “‘Have pity on me, O Lord, for I am weak,’ so that he may stretch forth his right hand to you, rebuking the storm of your passion” (St. Augustine, Epistle 250.3)

d. Matthew 8:24–26: “And, lo, a great disturbance arose in the sea so that the boat was covered with waves, but [Jesus] was asleep; and when they came to him and wakened him, saying, ‘Lord, save us; we are perishing,’ and Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, men of small faith?’Then rising up he commanded the winds and the sea, and a great calm was made.”

e. A wise counsel: frequently the best protection we have against sin is to develop habits of virtue—so that in any unexpected situation, we will react on the basis of a good pattern of behavior without having to analyze each circumstance. Francis’s reification of “meekness and gentleness” as objects one could stockpile is inspired.

f. Song of Songs 4:11a: “Your lips, my spouse, are a dripping honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue….”

g. This is a badly overstretched simile and a highly fanciful allegorical exegesis, but it also betrays something of the social class of the recipient of these letters because the French translated here as “our own household” is les domestiques, normally translated as “the servants.”

Therefore it is better to attempt to learn to live without wrath than to use it moderately and wisely, and when through imperfection and weakness we are surprised by it, it is best to drive it away quickly than to attempt to bargain with it, for if we give it a little freedom, it will make itself manager of the place—like the serpent who easily pulls his whole body in wherever he can put his head. But you will ask me, “How do I drive anger away?” It is necessary, my child, that at the first slight touch of anger you have, you should gather your forces quickly—not impetuously, but gently and nonetheless seriously—the reason being (as we see in the crowds of several senates and parliaments that the bailiffs shouting “Quiet, there!” make more noise than those they want to silence) so, as it happens, many times by wanting to repress our anger impetuously, we excite more trouble in our heart than anger itself would have done, and the heart thus troubled cannot be its own master.a

After this gentle effort, practice the advice that Saint Augustine in his old age gave to the young bishop Auxilius. “Do what a man ought to do,” he says, “if what the man of God says in the Psalm happens to you: ‘My eye is troubled with great wrath,’ appeal to the Lord, crying ‘Have mercy on me, Lord,’b so that he may extend his right hand to suppress your anger.”c I mean that it is necessary to invoke God’s help when we see ourselves troubled by anger (in imitation of the Apostles when they were tormented by wind and storm on the watersd) because he will command our passions to cease and there will be great calm. But I still warn you that prayer made against present and pressing anger must always be performed calmly and peacefully, and not violently. This must be observed in all the remedies we use against this evil.

With that, as soon as you find yourself acting angrily, repair the fault by an act of submissiveness, exercised promptly toward the same person against whom you were angered. For just as it is an absolute remedy against a lie that one retract it immediately as soon as we realize what we had said, so too it is a good remedy against anger to repair it immediately by an opposite act of submissiveness. For, as one says, fresh wounds are more easily treated.

Moreover, when you are calm and without any focus of anger, store up a great stock of meekness and gentleness, saying all your words and doing all your deeds, small and great, in the most mild fashion possible for you,e remembering that the Bride in the Song of Songs not only had honey on her lips and on the tip of her tongue, but had it also below the tongue,f that is to say, in her breast, and there was not only honey, but milk also, so it is necessary not only to have a sweet word for our neighbor, but also our entire breast—that is to say, everything within our soul. And do not merely have the sweetness of honey, which is aromatic and fragrant (that is to say, the sweetness of polite conversation with strangers) but also the sweetness of milk among our own household and neighbors—those who lack this will appear as angels in the street but devils in the home.g

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 9

a. The pastoral Francis steps down from his high seat and lovingly suggests, “Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

b. With a wonderful rhetorical flourish, Francis demonstrates the foolish paradox of judging oneself for faults from the past by committing the same faults in the present. This is ideal counsel for a spiritual director to use.

c. A very subtle and paradoxical psychological understanding: that resentment and bitterness at one’s own failures may have at their roots the sin of pride—which does not want to see itself as anything less than perfect. Hence, there is resentment at any indication of imperfection.

d. This is not Francis’s first appeal to reason as the basis for action. Here he claims (accurately) that “violent” repentance can be the result of a momentary inclination (for instance, one is overcome with a deep pang of guilt and sorrow for some sin and the inclination of the moment is to punish oneself inordinately, whereas a night’s sleep and clear reason will make that penance more reasonable and appropriate).

e. Moral theologians have long spoken of “besetting sins” as those sins that cause us most trouble and recur most frequently—but Francis suggests that if we overreact to the besetting sin emotionally, our passion may blind us and we may not take into account other serious sins.

f. A splendid adage (and skillful wordplay) applicable to judging the sins of either oneself or others: “Have more compassion about it than passion against it.”

i PART III. CHAPTER 9.

On Gentleness Toward Ourselves

One of the best practices that we could do for meekness is that in which the subject is within ourselves—never being vexed against ourselves or our imperfections—for although reason requires that when we commit faults we be displeased and apologetic, we must nonetheless stop ourselves from having a bitter, gloomy, spiteful, and angry displeasure.a Many people make a great mistake who, having been angry, get angry with themselves for having been angry, or feel sorrow for having been sorrowful, or spite themselves for having been spiteful, because this way they keep their hearts soaked and drowned in anger,b and so it seems that the second anger removes the first, but what it does nevertheless is that it makes an opening and a passageway for a new anger at the first opportunity that presents itself. Furthermore, anger, resentment, and bitterness toward oneself tend toward pride and have their origin in self-esteem (which is troubled and concerned if we see ourselves as imperfect).c

We ought to have an aversion to our faults that is peaceful, sober, and firm, because just as a judge punishes the wicked much better by making his sentences according to reason and in the spirit of peace than when he acts with impetuosity and passion (especially since when judging with passion he does not punish faults as they actually are, but only as they appear to him), just so we correct ourselves better by peaceful and faithful remorse than by bitter, ardent, and angry repentance—especially because repentances made with impetuosity are not made based on the seriousness of the sins, but only based on our inclinations at the moment.d For example, one who loves chastity might be vexed with an unparalleled bitterness against the slightest fault he may have committed against chastity, but it will only be a big laugh if he were to have committed a gross slander. On the contrary, one who hates gossip blames himself that he has made a slight murmur against someone else, but takes no account of a gross sin against chastity. And so also with other sins—what has happened in these matters is that they made a judgment about their conscience not according to reason, but according to passion.e

Believe me, my child, as the admonitions of a father made sweetly and kindly have more power over a child for correction than anger and wrath, so when our heart has committed a sin, if we rebuke it with gentle and quiet remonstrances—having more compassion about it than passion against itf—encouraging it to make amendment, remorse conceived in this way will have more effect than spiteful, irate, stormy repentance.

For me—if I were to have, for example, a great commitment never to fall to the vice of vanity, and nonetheless I had fallen in a great failure, I would not reprove my heart in this way: “Aren’t you miserable and hateful, that after so many resolutions you let yourself be carried away by vanity? You ought to die for shame! You ought not even to lift your eyes to heaven, blind, impudent, disloyal traitor to your God!” and similar things. But I would rather wish to correct it reasonably and by the way of compassion: “Well now, my poor heart, here we are, fallen into the pit that we had so often resolved to escape! Ah, well, let us lift ourselves up and turn our backs on it forever; let us beg the mercy of God and hope that he will aid us to be stronger hereafter, and entrust ourselves to the path of humility. Courage! Do not let our guard down. With God’s help, we will do well.” And this reproof would build a solid and firm resolution not to fall into sin, taking proper means to that, and recalling the advice of my director.a

a. Anyone who judges Francis as generally too demanding and too harsh need only read this enchanting passage in which he stages two reactions to one’s own sins: the judgmental, punishing attitude, and the sympathetic, compassionate, sensitive attitude—while never ignoring or writing off the sin, like a good parent, he suggests an orientation to a future of correction rather than to a past of error.

b. Francis allows for a harsh judgment in those cases where the heart has become too hardened—but even then, he requires a resolution of the regret and anger in a recognition of one’s trust in God and God’s mercy.

c. Psalm 42:5b–6 [43:5–6]: “Why are you sad, O my soul? And why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God.”

d. A wonderful brief counsel: do not let your fall into sin take you by surprise! Sin, for Francis, is a simple fact of life—all lives—and we can all expect it at some time or another.

e. Sin, for Francis, is quite simple and entirely predictable: if we are frail, weak, and wretched, then sin is the unsurprising product of our lives: “the frailty of the frail, the weakness of the weak, and the misery of the wretched.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 10

f. Francis sets up an antagonism between care and diligence, on the one hand, and fear, worry, anxiety, and rushing on the other—especially as these describe one’s style in working with one’s own spirituality. He will touch on this opposition often hereafter.

g. One is reminded of Proverbs 21:5: “The plans of the diligent always lead to abundance, but everyone who is hasty is always in want.”

However, if someone does not think his heart could be moved enough by this gentle correction, he may use a reproach with a hard and strong rebuke in order to motivate the heart to a deep shame—provided that after severe reprimand and correction of his heart, he will bring an end to his regret and anger in a sweet and holy trust in God,b in imitation of that great penitent who saw his afflicted soul raised up in this way: “Why are you sad, O my soul, and why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I will still bless him as the salvation of my face and my true God.”c

So then, raise up your heart when it has fallen, all gently, humbling yourself deeply before God for reason of your misery, without surprise at your falld—since it is not something admirable but the frailty of the frail, the weakness of the weak, and the misery of the wretched.e Nevertheless, detest with all your might the offense God has received from you, and with great courage and confidence in his mercy, return to the path of the virtue that you had abandoned.

i PART III. CHAPTER 10.

That We Need to Watch Our Affairs with Care and Without Hurry or Worry

The care and diligence that we need for our own affairs are entirely different from anxiety, worry, and urgency. Angels have a care for our salvation and they provide for it with diligence, but they do not do that with trepidation, worry, or anxiety, because the care and diligence are part of their charity—and also the trepidation, worry, and anxiety would be wholly contrary to their happiness—since care and diligence may be accompanied by tranquility and peace of mind, but not by trepidation or worry, and much less by anxiety.f

So be careful and diligent in all matters that are under your control, my child, for God has entrusted them to you so that you might take great care—but if it is possible, do not tend to them with anxiety and worry, that is to say, do not take them in hand with uneasiness, trepidation, or intensity. Do not rush to the task, for any kind of haste disturbs reason and judgment and prevents us from doing well the thing to which we hurry.g

a. Luke 10:40–41: “But Martha was busy about much serving. She stood and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Speak to her, therefore, that she help me.’ And the Lord, answering, said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.’”

b. Francis makes the strong point that disapproval of sin is entirely appropriate, but that disapproval runs the danger of “overflowing its banks,” turning into rushed anxiety and becoming damaging and dangerous.

c. Ecclesiasticus 11:11: “There is an ungodly man who labors and makes haste and is so much the more in want.” Also, Proverbs 19:2: “Where there is no knowledge of the soul, there is no good; and he that is hasty, his feet shall stumble.” (In Francis’s day, it was believed that Solomon was the author of the Book of Proverbs.)

d. Great wisdom: if one surrenders to the nuisance of a collection of small irritations, they will overwhelm one and one will be lost in the confusion; if one remains centered and objectively rational, dealing with matters in order as they come, one will not lose perspective.

e. A quiet application of “God helps those who help themselves”—but this familiar idea is qualified with the admonition to entrust oneself to God so that whatever the upshot of any project is, one can believe confidently that it is God’s will and is best in the long run.

f. The admonition to keep one hand in God’s hand is something of a cliché, but Francis enhances it with the parenthetical addition: look back once in a while to make sure of God’s approval—that is, occasionally check yourself lest unknowingly you may have strayed from God’s will.

g. In a most attractive metaphor, Francis suggests that even in the midst of the commotion of business, one needs—like the heaven-scanning seamen—occasionally to keep one’s eye on God and God’s will so that God can work with, in, and for one.

When Our Lord rebuked Saint Martha, he said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and trouble yourself about many things.”a You see, if she had simply been careful, she would not have been troubled, but because she was also worried and uneasy, she rushed and upset herself, and that is what Our Lord reproved. The rivers that flow gently in the plain carry large boats and rich merchandise, and the rain that falls gently on the countryside fertilizes the grass and grain, but the torrents and rivers that run in great floods over the land ruin the neighboring lands and are useless for traffic, just as violent and turbulent rains ravage the fields and meadows.b

No work done with impetuosity and haste was ever done well. One must dispatch everything gently, as the old proverb says: “‘He who hurries runs the risk of stumbling and tangling up his feet,’ says Solomon.”c We always work fast enough when we work well. Bumblebees make much more noise and are much more rushed than honeybees, but they make only wax and no honey—so those who rush themselves make only a bitter worry and a noisy anxiety, and never do either much or do it well.

Flies do not bother us by what they do, but by their numbers, and so the great matters do not bother us as much as the trifling matters when there are many of them. Accept in peace the matters that come to you, and dispatch them in order, one after the other—for if you want to do everything at once or in disorder, you will make efforts that will crush you and cripple your spirit, and probably you will remain overwhelmed by the burden and be useless.d

And in all your affairs depend completely on the providence of God by which alone all your designs should succeed. Nevertheless, work quietly on your part to cooperate with that providence, and then you can be sure that, if you are entrusted to God, the outcome that will occur will always be the best for you—whether it seems to you good or bad based on your own judgment.e

Do as little children who with one hand hold on to their father and with the other pick strawberries or blackberries along the hedges. So do the same: collecting and handling the goods of this world with one hand, while always taking with the other the hand of the heavenly Father (and look back from time to time at him to see if he approves of your management and your projects).f

And, of course, above all things, beware of letting go of his hand and his protection, thinking to make more or profit more, for if he abandons you, you will not take a step without falling on your face. I mean, my child, that when you are among the ordinary business affairs and projects that do not require attention strongly or urgently, look more to God than to the affairs, and when the business affairs are of such importance that they require all your attention in order to be done well, from time to time look to God, as those who sail on the sea in order to go to the land they seek look more to the height of heaven than down to where they sail. Just so God will work with you, in you, and for you, and your work will be followed by solace.g

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 11

a. “I know of no other means to reach perfection than by love” (Thérèse of Lisieux [Taylor, Thomas N., tr.]; Story of a Soul; Cosimo; New York; 2007].) Also, “Love alone leads us into the transcendence that brings perfection” (von Balthasar, Hans Urs; Love Alone is Credible; Ignatius Press; San Francisco; 2004, 131).

b. “State of perfection” must be understood here as a technical theological term that might be better translated a “setting for perfection” or “status of perfection”—it does not mean “perfection attained,” but rather “in a situation in which perfection is readily available.”

c. An obvious reference to Aquinas: “Some are in the state of perfection, who are wholly lacking in charity and grace, for instance wicked bishops or monastics. Therefore it would seem that on the other hand some have the perfection of life, who nevertheless have not the state of perfection” (Thomas Aquinas; Summa Theologica 2 of 2, ques. 184, a. 4).

d. Another set of rhetorical parallels: meek, prompt, and cheerful obedience is lauded as long as there is no arguing, no delaying, and no grieving.

e. Philippians 2:8: “[Christ Jesus] humbled himself, becoming obedient up to death, even to the death of the cross.”

f. “… For he gave his life that he might not lose obedience…” (St. Bernard, Tract on the Morals and Duties of Bishops, 9 [c. 1126, written for Henry Sanglier, bishop of Sens]).

i PART III. CHAPTER 11.

Of Obedience

Love alone brings us to perfectiona—but obedience, chastity, and poverty are the three main ways of acquiring it. Obedience devotes our heart; chastity devotes our body; and poverty devotes our possessions to the love and service of God. These are the three branches of the spiritual cross—nevertheless, all three are based on the fourth, which is humility. I will say nothing of these three virtues as when they are solemn vows (because that regards none but the monastics), nor as when they are simple vows. Although a vow always bestows much of the graces and merits on all the virtues, yet in order to make us perfect it is not necessary that they be “vows,” provided that they are observed. For if they were vowed—and especially solemnly—they bring a person to the “state of perfection”b so that in order to attain perfection itself, it is enough that these vows be observed, there being a great difference between the “state of perfection” and perfection itself, since all bishops and monastics are in the “state of perfection” and nevertheless are not in perfection itself—as is too plainly seen.c So, my child, let us practice these virtues well—each according to his vocation—for although they do not put us in a formal “state of perfection,” they nevertheless may give us perfection itself. Also, we are all obliged to practice these three virtues, although not all will practice them in the same way.

There are two kinds of obedience: one is obligatory and the other voluntary. According to obligatory obedience, you ought humbly to obey your superiors in the Church, such as the pope and the bishop, the priest, and those who are commissioned by them. And you ought to obey your civil superiors, that is to say, your king and the magistrates he has established in your country. And you must also obey your domestic superiors, that is to say, your father, mother, your master, or mistress. Now this is called “obligatory obedience” because no one can waive the duty to obey these superiors whom God has set in authority to command and govern everyone in the area over which they have custody of us. Therefore, do what they command, and this is obligatory—but in order to be perfect, follow also their advice and their wishes and preferences, to the extent that charity and prudence will permit. Obey when they order you to do something pleasant, such as to eat or to take recreation, because although it seems that it is not great virtue to obey in this case, it would still be a great vice to disobey. Obey in things indifferent, such as to wear a particular dress, to go by one road or by another, to sing or to be silent, and that will be a very praiseworthy obedience. Obey in difficult things, harsh and hard, and that will be a perfect obedience. Finally, obey meekly without argument, promptly without delay, cheerfully without sorrow,d and especially loving obedience for the love of him who for our sake became obedient up to the death of the cross,e and who, as Saint Bernard said, chose to lose life rather than obedience.f

a. For a person with significant spiritual insights, Francis also has a very practical dimension in his advice. Here his recommendation for developing an ease and comfort with obedience to superiors is to practice obedience to one’s equals (and even to resist exercising authority over one’s “inferiors,” that is, servants, students, and so on)—there is much less at stake in these instances of obedience, and the practice can be helpful.

b. Francis confronts a common excuse: “If I were in a monastery, it would be much easier to be obedient.” He puts the excuse in the context of the action of God in our lives—those to whom we owe obedience have been placed over us by God, and we must obey. One is reminded of Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and be subject to them,” and 1 Peter 2:13–15: “Be subject, therefore, to every human creature for God’s sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or to governors as sent by himfor so is the will of God….”

c. We must affirm that this book is a historical document, and, like all such documents, it is often culturally specific: that is, it reflects the culture in which it was written. Several translators have softened or omitted these awkward passages, but that is being unfaithful to one’s source. I have included these passages, trusting the reader to prune them of historical anomalies. Here, of course, is the reference to some of the last vestiges of the arranged marriage customs in Europe.

d. Jerome Gratian was St. Teresa’s spiritual director (since 1575) and first Provincial of her Discalced Carmelites. Teresa believed she was led by God to make a personal vow of obedience to Gratian. After her death he suffered much criticism and even exile as he defended her work and the order she had founded.

e. A wife’s obedience to her husband is, in most modern cases, a historical social anomaly. The promise “to obey” was removed from the Episcopal marriage rite in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

f. The multiplication of “grace and goodness” seems like something of a quantification of a spiritual factor, but the psychological truth is that one actually can experience oneself doubly spiritually strengthened in such a circumstance.

g. Perhaps a reference to Proverbs 5:23: “He shall die, because he had no discipline, and in the greatness of his folly he shall be led astray.”

In order to learn comfortably to obey your superiors, condescend readily to the will of your equals, yielding to their opinions in whatever is not bad, without being argumentative or stubborn. Readily accommodate yourself to the wishes of your inferiors as far as reason permits, without exercising any authority over them as long as they are good.a

It is an error to believe that if one were a monk or nun one could obey easily, if one is found to be surly and difficult in obedience to those whom God has placed over us.b

We call “voluntary obedience” that to which we bind ourselves by our own choice, and not that which is imposed on us by others. One does not ordinarily choose one’s king or one’s bishop, one’s father or one’s mother, nor even, sometimes, one’s husband,c but one truly chooses one’s confessor and one’s spiritual director. Or it may be that in choosing him, one makes a vow to obey (as it is said did Mother Teresa beyond the solemn obedience vowed to the superior of her order, she obliged herself by a simple vow of obedience to Father Gratiand)—or that without a vow one dedicates oneself to obedience to anyone, that obedience is always called “voluntary” because of its foundation, which depends on our will and our choice.

It is necessary to obey all of the above, to whatever degree each may have charge over us—as regards policy and public matters, it is necessary to obey the kings; the prelates as regards ecclesiastical matters; the father, master, husbande as regards domestic affairs; and regarding the particular conduct of the soul, the specific spiritual director and confessor.

Set in order the actions of piety that you must observe in agreement with your spiritual father, because they will be better and will have a twofold grace and goodness—one, by themselves, since they are pious, and the other, by obedience that has been ordered and by which they are done.f Blessed are the obedient, for God will never allow them to go astray.g

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 12

a. A translator faces a challenge with the French word la chasteté. In the modern world, the word chastity tends to carry a negative connotation of Victorian prudishness that it did not have in seventeenth-century France. It literally means sexual abstinence outside of marriage, sexual restraint within marriage, and purity in thoughts, words, and actions. Some translators have avoided the problems by simply using the word purity, but French has a separate word for that—la pureté. Other translators have omitted this chapter entirely.

b. “As in the phrase ‘an honest woman’” (Ryan, John K. in his notes in Introduction).

c. As in the phrase “… she fought for her honor and her life….”

d. Francis confuses Pliny’s account of oysters with his account of “landfishes”—the latter leave the water and dig holes in riverbanks, where they live, existing only on rain water “from heaven” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 9.54–57).

e. Probably Francis refers here to sexual activities of married people other than intercourse that might lead to pregnancy.

f. The Catholic Church taught that the procreation of children was the only proper purpose of all sexual activity.

g. Undoubtedly, Francis is thinking of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:8: “But I say to the unmarried, and to the widows: it is good for them if they remain unmarried, even as I.”

h. “For [Alypius] was even then most pure in this matter, so that it was wonderful—and even more so, since in the beginning of his youth he had entered into that course of immorality, but had not stayed there; rather he had felt remorse and was revolted by it, living from that time on until now wholly in continence” (St. Augustine, Confessions 6.12).

i. Honey and sugar have been used as dressing for wounds for thousands of years. A 2007 double-blind research project in Malaysia demonstrated that they reduce bacterial contamination, promote wound healing, and reduce scarring.

i PART III. CHAPTER 12.

Of the Necessity of Chastitya

Chastity is the lily of the virtues and makes mortals almost equal to angels. Nothing is beautiful except by purity, and the purity of mortals is chastity. Chastity is called “honesty,”b and its profession is called “honor.”c It is called “integrity” and its opposite “defilement.” In short, it has a glory all its own of being the precious and spotless virtue of both soul and body.

It is never legitimate to draw lewd pleasure from our bodies in any way that is not lawful marriage, whose sanctity by just compensation can repair the damage that one receives in such improper gratification. And yet even in marriage one must observe honesty of intent—so that if there is any impropriety in the sensual pleasure taken, there is nothing but virtue in the will that takes it.

The chaste heart is like the mother-of-pearl, which cannot take even a drop of water except what comes from heaven,d because the heart can take no pleasure except that of marriage that has been ordained by heaven. Outside of marriage, it is not permissible for one even to think a sensual, voluntary, and intentional thought.

For the first degree of this virtue of chastity, my child, beware of admitting any kind of pleasure that is prohibited and forbidden (as are all those taken outside of marriage or even those within marriage when they are taken contrary to the rules of marriage).e

For the second, refrain as much as possible from the useless and superficial gratifications—even though lawful and permitted.

For the third, do not fasten your affections to the pleasures and delights that are commanded and ordained, for although one must experience the indispensable pleasures—that is to say, those regarding the end and purpose of Holy Matrimonyf—one must never fasten his heart and spirit on them.

For the rest, everyone greatly needs this virtue. Those who are in chaste widowhood must have a courageous chastity that not only despises present and future objects of pleasure but that resists the imagination that the legitimate pleasures received in marriage could occur in their minds, who because of that are more susceptible to indecent enticements.g On this subject, Saint Augustine admires the purity of his dear Alypius who had totally forgotten and despised the fleshly pleasures that he sometimes experienced in his youth.h And, truth be told, while fruits are quite whole they can be preserved—some in straw, others in sand, and others in their own leaves—but once bruised, they are almost impossible to keep except when preserved in honey and sugar, in conserves. Just so chastity that is not harmed or violated may be kept in various ways, but once broken, nothing can preserve it except extraordinary devotion that, as I have often said, is the true preserving honey and sugar of the spirit.i

a. Until recently this was standard Church teaching: that virginal chastity was morally superior to the married state. The principle was based on the idea that chaste celibacy was a better imitation of Jesus than marriage.

b. In his epistle “To a Mother and Daughter,” St. Jerome lists eight or nine singular temptations to a virgin, ending with the sentence: “Amid inducements to sensuality so noticeable as these, even iron wills may be overcome with desire; an appetite which is the more powerful in virgins because they suppose that to be most sweet of which they have no experience” (St. Jerome, Epistle 117, Ad Matrem et Filiam 6).

c. Francis introduces pre-knowledge and intention into the moral equation—one’s sin is worse if one knows it is sin and still values and practices it. At least the moth has cause to think the flame attractive and is ignorant of its true nature, but “young people” cannot plead ignorance.

d. Psalm 4:5a [4:4a]: “Be angry and sin not.”

e. Psalm 37:1a: “Do not be angry.”

f. A clue to some of what Francis sees as “unchastity” in marriage: debauchery, sexual abuse, and the exploitation of the marriage’s privileges.

g. While it is certain that Francis sees procreation to be “the legitimate purpose” of marriage, and given that that concept is dated, his primary point is still valid: that one or both partners driven by “hedonism and lust” rather than love can harm the spouse and the marriage.

h. “Wedlock is like a plank offered to a shipwrecked person and by its means you may remedy what previously you have done wrong” (St. Jerome, Epistle 117, Ad Matrem et Filiam 3).

Virgins need an extremely simple and delicate chastity in order to banish from their hearts all sorts of curious thoughts and to despise with absolute contempt any sort of impure pleasures, which, truth be told, do not even merit being desired by mortals, as they are more fitting for donkeys and pigs than for them. So these pure souls ought to be on guard and never doubt that chastity is incomparably better than whatever is incompatible with it,a for, as the great Saint Jerome says, the Enemy violently presses virgins to desire to try such pleasures, representing them as infinitely more pleasurable and delightful than they are in fact. This troubles them very strongly, as that Holy Father says, because they consider very sweet that which they do not know.b For as the little moth sees the flame, hovering curiously around it to see if it is as soft as it is beautiful, pressed by that fantasy does not stop until it is destroyed on the first try, so too young people often allow themselves to be seized by the false and foolish estimation they have of the pleasure of the voluptuous flames that after several curious thoughts they plunge into a last finale of ruin and loss. More foolish about that than the moths who at least have some cause to consider the fire to be delightful because it is so beautiful, these youths know that what they seek is completely immoral and they still continue to value this insane brutish gratification much too favorably.c

But while for those who are married chastity remains a true thing and yet the ordinary person cannot conceive that chastity could be necessary for them, because for them chastity does not consist in abstaining completely from carnal pleasures, but in self-restraint among the pleasures. However, as this commandment “Be angry, but do not sin”d is, in my opinion, more difficult than this one: “Do not be angry”e—and that it is easier to avoid anger altogether than to regulate it, so it is easier to refrain altogether from carnal pleasures than to maintain restraint in them. It is true that the holy privilege of marriage has a special power to extinguish the fire of lust, but the frailty of those who enjoy this benefit can pass easily from permission to debauchery and from use to abuse.f And just as we see many rich men steal, not because of poverty, but because of greed, so too we see many married people go to excess through hedonism and lust alone, notwithstanding the legitimate purpose to which they can and must confine themselves. Their lust is like a wildfire that runs about here and there without staying in any one place. It is always a dangerous thing to take strong medicines, because if one takes more than is necessary or is not well prepared, one receives a lot of harmful effects.g Marriage has been blessed and ordained in part as a remedy for lust, and it is without doubt a very good remedy,h but it is strong nonetheless and consequently very dangerous if it is not used cautiously.

I would add that a variety of human affairs, in addition to long illnesses, often separate husbands from their wives, so the couple needs two kinds of chastity: one for total abstinence when they are separated on such occasions as I have said, and the other for moderation when they are together in their ordinary daily sequence of living. Of course, Saint Catherine of Siena saw among the damned souls many tormented for violating the sanctity of marriage. This resulted, she said, not from the magnitude of the sin (since murder and blasphemy are enormous) but especially because those who commit the sin do not make it a matter of conscience and therefore continue in it for a long time.a

a. Saint Catherine: “I saw that there was a particularly severe punishment for those who have sinned in marriage, not using matrimony in the way they should, but concentrating on the pleasure of lust.… She replied that this sin did not lie so heavy on people’s conscience as other sins, and so they did not elicit the same contrition for it as for the rest” (Raymond of Capua, The Life of Catherine of Siena 2:6, 215).

b. Hebrews 12:14: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God.”

c. “All works lacking purity, continence, and chastity are imperfect” (St. Jerome, Against Jovianus 1).

d. “Now [Christ] here calls ‘pure,’either those who have gained all virtue, and are not conscious of any evil in themselves; or those who live in chastity” (St. John Chrysostom, Homilia XV, in Matthaeum 4).

e. Psalm 14:1–2a [15:1–2a]: “LORD, who will dwell in your tabernacle? Or who will rest on your holy hill? He who walks without stain.”

f. Psalm 23:3–4a [24:3–4a]: “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the LORD or who shall stand in his holy place? Those innocent of hands and pure of heart.”

g. Revelation 22:15: “Outside [the gates of the heavenly city] are dogs, and sorcerers, and the unchaste, and murderers, and servers of idols.”

h. Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 13

i. Ephesians 5:3: “But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becomes saints.”

j. Song of Songs 5:5: “I rose to open to my beloved: my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the choicest myrrh.”

k. 4:3a: “Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon, and your speech sweet.…”

l. 1:15: “Behold, you are fair, my love, behold you are fair; your eyes are like those of doves.”

m. 1:10: “Your cheeks are as beautiful as the turtledove’s, your neck as jewels.” (Francis was obviously writing from memory and forgot that there were no ear pendants.)

n. 7:4b: “Your nose is as the tower of Lebanon that looks toward Damascus.” (Again, Francis’s recall of the verse is slightly erroneous.)

You see that chastity is necessary for all kinds of people. “Follow peace with all,” says the Apostle, “and holiness without which no one will see God.”b By “holiness” he means “chastity,” as Saint Jeromec and Saint Chrysostomd noted. No, my child, “no one shall see God without chastity,”e no one shall dwell in his holy tabernacle who is not “pure of heart.”f And, as the Savior himself says, “Dogs and the unchaste will be banished,”g and “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.”h

i PART III. CHAPTER 13.

Advice for Preserving Chastity

Be very quick to turn away from all advances and from all enticements of lewdness, for this evil acts imperceptibly and by small beginnings makes progress to great mishaps. This is always easier to avoid than to cure.

Human bodies are like glasses that cannot be transported touching each other without the chance of breaking, and like fruits that—although whole and wellseasoned—are damaged if they rub against one another. And water itself, no matter how fresh when it is put in a vessel, if it has been touched by some land animal will not long retain its freshness. Never allow anyone to touch you improperly, my child, neither playfully nor affectionately. For although the actual venture of chastity may be preserved in such actions—they are rather trifling than malicious—even so the freshness and flower of chastity always receives some damage and loss. But to allow oneself to be touched immodestly is the utter ruin of chastity.

Chastity depends on the heart as its origin, but looks to the body as its matter—that is why it can be lost both by the external senses and by the thoughts and desires of the heart. It is immodesty to watch, hear, speak, smell, or touch anything immodest if the heart is entertained by it and enjoys it. Saint Paul says simply: “Let not fornication even be named among you.”i Bees not only do not want to touch carrion, but they flee from it and strongly despise any stench that comes from it. The sacred Bride in the Song of Songs has her “hands dripping with myrrh,”j a liquid that preserves from corruption, and her lips are bound with a scarlet ribbon,k a mark of the modesty of word; her eyes are the eyes of dovesl because of their clearness; her ears have pendants of gold,m a symbol of purity; her nose is like the cedars of Lebanon,n incorruptible wood. This must be the devout soul: chaste, clear, and pure in hands, lips, ears, eyes, and in the whole body.

a. “Some strong words of St. Basil, the bishop of Caesarea, are apropos. He said, ‘I do not know woman, but I am not a virgin.’Well did he understand that the incorruption of the flesh consists not so much in abstaining from woman, as it does in integrity of heart” (St. John Cassian, Institutes 6:19).

b. “… all the other furies of passions—irreverent both toward the bodies and toward the sexes—beyond the laws of nature, we expel not only from the threshold, but from all shelter of the Church, because they are not sins, but monstrosities” (Tertullian, On Modesty IV, 4).

c. “Varro informs us, too, as we have already stated, that the olive, if only licked by a she-goat, will be barren. When thus injured, some trees will die, while in others the fruit become deteriorated, the almond, for instance, the fruit of which changes from sweet to bitter” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 17.37).

d. For my translation “foul,” the French has puantes, meaning literally “stinking.” Francis does not restrain his disdain for those who contaminate chastity.

e. “The basilisk serpent also has the same power.… It kills bushes not only by its touch but also by its breath, scorches up grass and bursts rocks …” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 8.33). But Francis mixes the basilisk with the catoblepas: “… it only carries [its head] with the greatest difficulty, being always bent down toward the earth. Were it not for this, it would prove the ruin of the human race, for all who see its eyes, fall down dead on the spot” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 8.32).

f. Psalm 11:7a [12:6a]: “The words of the LORD are chaste words….”

g. Psalm 118:127 [119:127]: “… I have loved your commandments more than gold and topaz.”

h. Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturae 8.106.

i. “The Greeks call it ‘lygos,’ or ‘agnos,’ from the fact that the matrons of Athens, during the Thesmophoria, a period when the strictest chastity is observed, are in the habit of strewing their beds with the leaves of this tree.… They act also as an anaphrodisiac.…” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 24.59). It is still known today in the southern United States by its common name “lilac chastetree.” (In Latin agnos castus means “chaste tree.”)

For this purpose, I present to you the words that the ancient Father John Cassian reported as coming from the mouth of Saint Basil the Great, who, speaking of himself, said: “I have not known women, and yet I am not a virgin.”a Certainly, chastity can be lost in as many ways as there are impurities and vulgarities, which, depending on whether they are large or small, some weaken chastity, others damage it, and others destroy it completely. There are certain liberties and indiscreet passions, foolish and sensual, which themselves do not violate chastity, but nevertheless they weaken it, make it sluggish, and tarnish its beautiful purity. There are other intimacies and passions, not only indiscreet but vicious; not only foolish but immoral; not only sensual but carnal—and by them chastity is at the least seriously wounded and damaged. I say “at least” because from them chastity dies and perishes utterly when the folly and vulgarity give to the flesh the final result of voluptuous pleasure. So then chastity perishes more shamefully, wickedly, and sadly than when it is lost by actual fornication or even adultery or incest. These latter kinds of filthiness are no more than sins, but the former, as Tertullian says in his book On Chastity,b are monsters of iniquity and sin. But Cassian does not believe (nor do I) that Saint Basil had reference to this licentiousness when he accused himself of not being a virgin, because I think that he did not speak of anything except evil and voluptuous thoughts, which although they had not defiled his body nevertheless had contaminated his heart, the purity of which loving minds are extremely protective.

Do not associate with shameless people, especially if they are also mouthy—as they almost always are—for as the tongue of goats touching the sweet almond trees make them bitter,c just so fould hearts and souls do not speak to anyone—of the same or different sex—without causing them to fall to some extent from purity. They have venom in their eyes and breath, like the basilisks.e Instead, associate with chaste and virtuous people; think and often read sacred things; because “the word of God is chaste”f and make those who enjoy it chaste as well—which made David compare it to topaz,g a precious stone that has the power to absorb the heat of lust.h

Always stand close to Christ Crucified, both spiritually (by meditation) and actually (by Holy Communion). Just as those who sleep on the herb called agnos castus become chaste and modest,i so too if you rest your heart on Our Lord, who is the true chaste and spotless lamb, you will see that soon your soul and your heart will be cleansed from all soil and lust.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 14

a. Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

b. A confusing sentence. Francis means that mental and intellectual riches are to be respected, whereas riches with no rational or intelligent dimension are not valued.

c. The French word is paume, literally, “palm of the hand,” which makes little sense. One translator chose “apple” (the French is pomme, possibly a scribe’s error for paume). Another translator chose “ball” (based on the Pliny quotation below). I have tried to find a word meaning both “palm” and “ball” and decided that “fist” made the best sense.

d. “Their nests are truly wonderful; they are in the shape of a ball slightly elongated, have a very narrow mouth, and bear a strong resemblance to a large sponge. It is impossible to cut them asunder with iron, and they are only to be broken with a strong blow” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 10.47). [Pliny translator John Bostock adds a note that the bird in reality builds no nest at all but lays its eggs in holes on the waterside. The objects Pliny mistook for nests were probably sea anemones that look a bit like a nest.]

e. Francis plays linguistic games throughout this passage, using financial language to describe spiritual actions and dimensions, for instance, “… do not invest this heavenly spirit….”

f. The wordplay between effect and affection works in both French and English.

g. Francis betrays a slight inclination toward good-spirited casuistry: how to gain both earthly and heavenly advantages. It is certainly clear that Francis justifies the riches of the wealthy by stretching the dominical condemnation to say that having wealth is morally acceptable if one does not have an inordinate greed for it.

h. An interesting sidelight: Francis says that the greedy quite honestly do not consider themselves greedy!

i. The story of the burning bush is found in Exodus 3:2. An interesting rhetorical parallel here: Moses’s bush burns but does not consume; greed consumes but doesn’t burn!

i PART III. CHAPTER 14.

Of the Poverty of Spirit to Be Observed amid Riches

“Happy are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs,”a and, accordingly, unhappy are the rich in spirit for the misery of hell is for them. One is rich in spirit who has his riches inside his mind, or his mind within riches. One is poor in spirit who has no riches inside his mind, nor is his mind within riches.b The kingfishers make their nests like a fist,c and leave in it only a small opening in the side of the top. They put them on the edge of the sea, and they make the dwelling so firm and impenetrable that when the waves wash over them the water can never get in, and so always keeping the upper hand, they remain surrounded by the sea and on the sea, but masters of the sea.d Your heart, dear child, should be like that—open only to heaven and impervious to riches and decrepit things. If you have them, keep your heart free from affection for them, that it may always have the upper hand so that surrounded by riches your heart will be free from the riches and in control of the riches. No, do not invest this heavenly spirit in earthly goods—let it always remain above them, not sunk within them.e

There is a great difference between having poison and being poisoned. Pharmacists have almost every kind of poison in order to be used in diverse situations, but they are not poisoned on account of that, because they have no poison in their body, but in their shops. Just so, you can have riches without being poisoned by them—that is, if you have them in your house or your purse, and not in your heart. To be rich in effect and poor in affection,f that is the great delight of the Christian, for in this way he has the advantages of riches for the world and the merit of poverty for the next world.g

It’s sad, my child, but no one will ever confess to being greedy. Everyone denies that ignobleness and wickedness of heart. One excuses oneself over one’s pressing responsibility for children, on the prudence which requires that one set oneself up with financial means. He never has too much and he always finds some need to have more. And even the most greedy not only do not consider themselves to be so, but they do not even think in their conscience that they are.h No, greed is an enormous fever that is all the more undetectable when it is most violent and extreme. Moses saw the sacred fire that burned a bush and did not consume it, but on the contrary, the profane fire of greed consumes and devours the greedy person but does not in the least burn him.i Even in the midst of his most extreme fervor and heat, he boasts about the sweet freshness of the world and considers his insatiable craving for riches to be a very natural and pleasant thirst.

You do not tire of being truly greedy if you longingly, ardently, and anxiously long for goods that you do not have, even though you may say that you would not want to have them unfairly. Whoever ardently, longingly, and anxiously wants to drink, but does not want to drink anything but water, confirms that he has the fever.

a. It is peculiar that Francis should interject the justice of ownership (“justly”) into the discussion of greed. It seems the emphasis has shifted slightly from the sin of avarice toward the sin of covetousness.

b. The story is told in 3 Kings 21 [1 Kings 21], where King Ahab wants to buy Naboth’s vineyard. Naboth refuses to sell, and when Ahab pouts, sulks, and mopes about it, his wife, Jezebel, has Naboth killed so Ahab can have the vineyard. Francis uses the story to answer the uncertainty with which he begins this paragraph: to caution against wanting another’s property too passionately.

c. Another instance of Francis making the case for the wealthy—the gentry and the nobility—to continue justly to increase their wealth. Francis seems an early defender of capitalism.

d. Francis is direct and pitiless in his description of the dimensions of true repulsive avarice—much more judgmental than his justifications for riches in preceding paragraphs.

e. Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 15

f. “In his allegorical picture of the People of Athens, [Parrhasius] has displayed singular ingenuity in the treatment of his subject; for in representing it, he had to depict it as at once fickle, choleric, unjust, and versatile; while, again, he had equally to show its attributes of implacability and clemency, compassionateness and pride, loftiness and humility, fierceness and timidity—and all these at once” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia, 35.36). [Pliny also tells of a “realism” contest between Parrhasius and his fellow painter Zeuxis: Zeuxis painted a bunch of grapes so realistic that birds flew in to try to eat them. Then at Parrhasius’s studio, Zeuxis demanded that his rival remove the drapery from his painting so they could see it—and was defeated when he discovered that the drapery was the realistic painting.]

O my child, I do not know if it is a moral desire to wish to have by just means what another already possesses by just means—for it seems that by this desire we want to advantage ourselves by the disadvantage of the other. Doesn’t one who possesses a good thing justly have more reason to keep it justly than we do who desire to have it justly? And why, then, are we extending our desire for his commodity so far as to deprive him of it? At most, even if this desire is just, certainly it is nevertheless not charitable, for we would not want anyone else to desire—however justly—that which we wish to keep justly.a This was the sin of Ahab who wanted to have justly the vineyard of Naboth, who more justly wanted to keep it—Ahab desired it ardently, longingly, and anxiously, and thus he offended God.b

My dear child, wait to seek to have the goods of your neighbor until he begins to consider discarding it, for then your desire will be made not only just, but so charitable—for I am willing to grant that you may care to expand your means and resources, provided that it is not only done justly, but kindly and charitably.c

If you have strong attachment to the goods you possess so that you are extremely engrossed with them, setting your heart on them, attaching your thoughts to them, and dreading losing them with a sharp and anxious fear, believe me, you have already some sort of fever—for fever victims drink water that they are given with a determined eagerness, with a sort of concentration and delight that they who are healthy are not accustomed to have. It is not possible to please oneself greatly with one thing without having a lot of affection for it. If you happen to lose some good thing, and you feel that your heart is desolated and greatly afflicted, believe me, my child, you have too much affection for it. For nothing shows plainly the affection for the lost thing as much as the affliction at the loss.d

Therefore, do not seek with full and specific desire any good thing that you do not have. And do not set your heart strongly on what you do have. Do not despair over losses that come to you, and you will have some reason to believe that being rich in effect you are not so in affection, but you are poor in spirit and consequently blessed “for the kingdom of heaven is yours.”e

i PART III. CHAPTER 15.

How One Ought to Practice Poverty, Although Truly Rich

The artist Parrhasius painted the Athenian people by a very ingenious means, representing their divers and variable natures—angry, unjust, inconstant, courteous, gentle, merciful, haughty, proud, humble, brash, and timid—all of these together.f But myself, dear child, I wish to put in your heart both richness and poverty, both a great care and a great contempt for temporal things.

a. Francis expands on the idea that we are mere caretakers of our belongings that have been given to us by God—and, therefore, we have a responsibility to make our property “productive and fruitful.” This is basically the same principle of stewardship we see applied in our day by those who call for responsible management of ecosystems, the environment, and the health of the planet.

b. An interesting logic that both justifies and lauds the actual increase of one’s worldly goods as the fulfillment of God’s will in giving those goods into one’s care. [There is a reminder of the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14–30 and Lk. 19:12–27), in which the master goes away and entrusts his money to his servants, and on his return rewards the servants who return the money with interest.]

c. So far it almost seems as though Francis is making the case for and generously approving what is basically a market capitalist concept of the management of property and wealth. At this point, however, there seems to be a full turnabout and from here on Francis defends without qualification the concept of the Common Good and the responsibility of the well-to-do to support and assist the poor—with special high caution against confusing one’s self-interest with the will of God.

d. Francis uniquely describes the loss of almsgiving as “holy and rich”—it is a strong image of “glorious poverty” on the part of the almsgiver (which poverty will be rewarded richly by God).

e. Hosea 9:10b: “…[The Israelites] alienated themselves in confusion and became abominable, as those were that they loved.” This is a peculiar reverse of the biblical principle: in Hosea, the Israelites became as abominable as the things they love. Francis’s point is that if we love the poor, we will become like the poor. Francis could have added: “Be careful what you love, for you will become like that yourself.”

f. In his translation Ryan declares this “a Pythagorean maxim,” but I believe it is original with Francis, who uses it also in another writing of his: On the Preacher and Preaching.

g. 2 Corinthians 11:29a: “Who is weak and I am not weak?”

h. Deuteronomy 15:11: “There will not be poor in the land of your habitation: therefore I command you to open your hand to your needy and poor brother, that lives in the land.”

Have greater care to make your property productive and fruitful as the worldly ones do not. Tell me, are not the gardeners of great princes more careful and diligent in cultivating and beautifying the gardens that they are in charge of, than if they owned the property themselves? But why is that? Because, without doubt, they consider those gardens as the gardens of princes and of kings to whom they wish to make themselves acceptable by these services. My child, the possessions we have are not ours. God has given them to us to cultivate and wants that we render them fruitful and productive, and by taking that care we make our service acceptable to him.a

But it is necessary that this care be a greater and more dependable care than that which the worldly have for their property, for they are busily engaged only for love of themselves, whereas we ought to work for the love of God. Now, just as the love of self is restless, turbulent, and impetuous, just so the care that one has from it is full of trouble, grief, and anxiety—and as the love of God is sweet, peaceful, and tranquil, so also the care that proceeds from it—even for the world’s goods—is amiable, sweet, and gracious. Let us have this gracious care of preserving—and even increasing—our worldly property whenever fair opportunities present themselves and insofar as our situation requires it, for God wants us to do so for his love.b

But beware that self-love does not deceive you, for sometimes it counterfeits the love of God so well that one could say that that is what it is. Now, in order to prevent it from deceiving you and so that this care of temporal goods should not be converted into greed, in addition to what I have said in the previous chapter, we must practice real poverty in the midst of all the properties and wealth that God has given us.c

Always leave some part of your means to give to the poor with a good heart, for to give what one has is to make oneself poor, and the more you give, the poorer you are. It is true that God will reward you, not only in the other world, but in this one, too, for there is nothing that makes such temporal prosperity as almsgiving (but until God returns it to you, you will always be poorer for that). But, oh, how holy and rich is the loss brought on by almsgiving.d

Love the poor and poverty, because by that love you will become truly poor, for (as Scripture says) we become like things we love.e Love makes lovers equal.f “Who is weak, with whom I am not weak?”g Saint Paul says. He could as well say, “Who is poor, with whom I am not poor?” for love made him to be like those whom he loved. So, if you love the poor, you will be truly a participant in their poverty, and poor like them. If you love the poor, often go among them, take pleasure in seeing them at your home, visit in their homes, converse freely with them, be glad that they approach you at church, on the streets, and elsewhere. Be poor when speaking with them, talk to them as their companion, but be rich in hand by parting with your more abundant goods to them.h

a. John 13:16: “Truly, truly, I say to you: The servant is not greater than his lord; neither is the apostle greater than the one who sent him.”

b. Proverbs 16:19: “It is better to be humbled with the poor than to divide spoils with the proud.”

c. St. Louis IX of France (1214–1270) was perhaps the quintessential example of a Christian king—and he was recognized as such by most of his contemporaries. Unlike other royalty who did occasional acts of virtue for appearance’s sake, Louis’s piety and Christian practice were marked by utter sincerity and absolute selflessness.

d. Inexplicably, this parenthetical sentence is missing from several popular translations.

e. St. Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–1231) was married young to Ludwig IV of Thuringia. Their very happy marriage lasted for a mere six years, ending with his death en route to join the Sixth Crusade. She was twenty years old, and even though she was the mother of the heir, she was apparently driven from the castle by her brother-in-law. She became a Third Order Franciscan, took vows of celibacy, used her dowry to build a hospital, and gave away all her wealth to the poor. She spent the rest of her life in poverty, nursing the sick, and died at the age of twenty-four.

f. Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

g. Matthew 25:35: “For I was hungry and you gave me to eat, naked and you covered me….”

h. Matthew 25:34: “Then the king shall say to those who are on his right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’”

i. Pope Benedict XVI used Francis’s phrase in his homily at World Youth Day, April 9, 2006: “… [Zechariah] the Prophet says three things about the future king. In the first place he says that he will be a king of the poor, a poor man among the poor and for the poor.…”

j. The story of Jacob and Esau is found in Genesis 27, in which Jacob, in order to steal his brother’s blessing, covers his hands with lambskin to fool his blind father, Isaac, into blessing him, thinking he is his hairy brother, Esau. Francis graphically refers to this lambskin covering as ses gants (“his gloves”). It seems a very stretched metaphor to liken our proper relationship with our property and goods to Jacob’s lambskin gloves—that is, removable without losing “our wits nor our peace.”

Do you want to do still more, my child? Then do not just be as poor as the poor, but be poorer than the poor! How? “The servant is less than the master.”a So make yourself servant to the poor. I say, go to serve them in their beds with your own hands when they are ill; cook for them—and at your own expense; be their laundress and seamstress. O my child, this service is more glorious than serving royalty.b

I cannot adequately admire the zeal with which this advice was put into practice by Saint Louis, one of the greatest kings the sun has shown onc—but he was a great king with all sorts of grandeur. He very often served at the table for the poor whom he would feed (and almost daily he had three of the poor come to his own table).d And he often ate the leftovers of their food with an unparalleled love. When he visited the hospitals for the sick (which he did very often) he would usually serve those with the most odious diseases, such as lepers, the ulcerous, and others like them. And he did his service to them bareheaded and with knees on the ground, respecting in their person the Savior of the world and cherishing them with a love as tender as what a fond mother had for her child. Saint Elizabeth, daughter of the king of Hungary,e usually mingled with the poor and for recreation sometimes dressed as a poor woman among her ladies of the court, saying, “If I were poor I would dress like this.” O God, my dear child, that prince and that princess were poor amid their riches, and they were rich in their poverty.

“Blessed are those who are poor for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”f “I was hungry and you fed me; I was cold and you covered me.”g “Come, possess the kingdom that has been prepared for you since the creation of the world,”h will the King of the poori and King of kings say in his great Judgment.

There is no one who on some occasion has not been short of or lacking in conveniences. It sometimes happens that at our home we have a visitor whom we want and should treat well—but we have not the means at the moment. One might have his best clothes in one place—and he may need them in another where he could be required to appear. It may happen that all the wines in the cellar ferment and are turned bad—and there remain only bad and green wines. One may find himself in the countryside in some shack where everything is missing—and one has neither bed nor room, nor table, nor service. In the end, it is often easy to have need of something, however rich one may be, yet this is to be poor in effect regarding what we lack. My child, be glad of these encounters, accept them willingly with a good heart, put up with them happily.

When inconveniences arrive that impoverish you much or little—as do storms, fires, floods, droughts—ah, that is the proper time to practice poverty, accepting with meekness the loss of property and accommodating oneself patiently and steadily to such impoverishment. Esau came to his father with his hands all covered with hair, and Jacob did the same, but because the hair that was on the hands of Jacob did not belong to his skin but only to his gloves, one could take away his hair without injuring his skin;j on the contrary, the hair on Esau’s hands belonged to his skin, which was hairy by nature, which if someone were to pull out his hair it would have given him much pain; he would have cried out and been fierce in his defense. Thus, when our wealth grips our heart, if a storm, a thief, or a cheat takes some part of it, what complaints, what troubles, what impatience we have! But if our goods do not grip us but hold the care God wants us to have of them (and not our heart), if someone takes them from us, we do not lose our wits nor our peace. This is the difference in clothing between beasts and humans; for the garments of beasts adhere to their flesh, and those of humans are only put on so that they can be donned or removed when they wish.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 16

a. In the seventeenth century, hospitals were virtually always provided by religious orders and served by persons under religious vows of poverty.

b. St. Alexis Falconieri (1200–1310) joined the Laudesi, one of the groups of Italian flagellants who practiced intense bodily mortification. In 1233 he was said to have had a vision of the Blessed Virgin and as a result gathered six fellow Laudesi and formed the Order of Servites of Mary. Most of his life was spent begging for alms for the various houses of his order—which had ten thousand members by the time he died at the age of 110.

c. St. Paula (347–404) was a Roman widow in 382 when she met St. Jerome. She learned Hebrew from him and helped in his scriptural work. Three years later she left Rome and traveled to meet Jerome in Antioch. She made pilgrimage to all the famous locations in the Holy Land and then joined Jerome again in Bethlehem, where two monasteries—one for women and one for men—were established. Paula had given away all of her property and wealth and lived in abject poverty.

d. St. Paulinus of Nola (354–431) had been a Roman senator and provincial governor who in 394 took on a very strict monasticism. He had been married, but after the death of his first newborn child he and his wife decided to live celibate religious lives and moved from Italy to Nola in Spain. Paulinus was ordained (against his will) and finally became bishop of Nola. He gave much of his fortune to the poor and spent the rest on building and decorating churches and civic buildings. He led a strict ascetic life and was thought by many to be a saint even during his lifetime.

e. St. Angela Merici (1474–1540) was the founder of the Ursuline nuns. In her teens she had become a Third Order Franciscan and gathered a group of women around her dedicated to educating girls in the Christian faith. In 1535 she founded the Order to teach girls and care for the poor and served for five years as mother superior before her death. She is reputed to have said, “Consider that in fact, you have a greater need to serve the poor than they have of your service.” [Francis robustly supported the Ursulines in his diocese.]

f. As far as I have been able to determine, this excellent adage is original with Francis.

i PART III. CHAPTER 16.

How to Practice Richness of Spirit in the Midst of Real Poverty

But if you are poor in reality, my dearest child, pray God that you are still so in spirit. Make a virtue out of necessity, and use this precious stone of poverty for what it is worth. Its brilliance is not seen in this world, but if it were to be, it would be extremely beautiful and rich.

Have patience, for you are in good company: Our Lord, Our Lady, the Apostles, so many of the saints—both men and women—have been poor, and even though they could have been rich, they disdained to be so. How many persons are there who, great in the world, against great hostility, and with matchless care, sought holy poverty in the cloisters and the hospitals?a They took great pains to find poverty—witness Saint Alexis,b Saint Paula,c Saint Paulinus,d Saint Angela,e and many others—and here, my child, more gracious regarding you, poverty has come to present itself in your own home. You met it without seeking it and without sorrow. Embrace it, then, as the dear friend of Jesus Christ, who was born, lived, and died in poverty (who was his nurse all his life).

Your poverty, my child, has two great privileges by means of which you can gain much merit. The first is that poverty did not come upon you by your choice, but by the will of God alone, who made you poor without any agreement of your own will. Now, whatever we accept purely from the will of God is always very pleasing to him, provided that we accept it with a good heart and for the love of his holy will. Where there is less of our will, there is more of God’s.f The simple and pure acceptance of the will of God makes suffering exceptionally pure.

The second privilege of this poverty is that it is a truly pure poverty. A poverty praised, caressed, esteemed, aided, and assisted feels like wealth—at least it is not totally poor.a But a poverty that is despised, rejected, criticized, and neglected—that is truly poor.

a. It is difficult to understand Francis’s reference to this peculiar poverty that “feels like wealth.” Since he discusses the other kind of poverty (“… despised, rejected, criticized, neglected…”) as the poverty “of laypeople,” one is inclined to think that the “acceptable” poverty would be that of the monastics—but Francis seems to deflect that idea by declaring the significant value of monastic poverty in the next paragraph.

b. The journey to Egypt (almost certainly legendary) probably developed in order to fulfill the prophecy in Hosea 11:1b: “… I called my son out of Egypt.” Apocryphal writings had the child Jesus living in poverty and learning the dyer’s trade while in Egypt.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 17

c. Hosea 9:10b: “…[The Israelites] alienated themselves in confusion and became abominable, as those were that they loved.” Francis said clearly in Chapter 15: “We become like what we love.”

d. Francis uses the French word la communication several times in these paragraphs. Its literal meaning is the simple English cognate “communication,” but since for most twenty-first-century Americans communication tends now to involve cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, or some other social network, and the French carries the sense of intercourse, exchange, interaction, or sharing, I have used these varieties of meaning in my translation.

Now this, for the ordinary person, is the poverty of laypeople, for because they are not poor by choice, but by necessity, it is not held to matter much, and since it does not matter much their poverty is much more severely poor than that of the monastics (although that otherwise has a very great superiority and is also more worthwhile on account of the vow and the intention for which it was chosen).

Do not complain about your poverty, my dear child, because one complains only of things that displease one, and if poverty displeases you it is no longer poverty of spirit but rich in desire.

Do not despair at all at not being cared for as well as might be required, for in that consists the very excellence of poverty. Wanting to be poor and yet not accepting any inconvenience is great ambition, for it is to desire the honor of poverty but with the convenience of wealth.

Do not at all be ashamed of being poor or asking for alms in charity. Accept what you are given with humility and also accept a denial meekly. Remember often the journey Our Lady made into Egypt in order to carry her dear child there, and how much contempt, poverty, and misery he was asked to bear.b If you live like that, you will be rich in your poverty.

i PART III. CHAPTER 17.

About Friendship—and First About Bad and Frivolous Ones

Love holds the first rank among the passions of the soul. It is the king of all motions of the heart. It turns everything else toward itself and makes us to be like what we love.c Take great care, my child, that you have no evil loves, for in that way you could soon be entirely evil yourself. Now, friendship is the most dangerous love of all because the other loves can exist without interaction, but friendship is totally founded on that very thing. One can hardly have love with a person without sharing his traits.

All love is not friendship, first, because one can love without being loved, and that is love but not friendship; inasmuch as friendship is a mutual love, if it is not mutual, it is not friendship. Secondly, it is not enough that it be mutual, but the parties who love each other must know of their reciprocal affection, for if they do not know of it, they may have love but not friendship. Third, it is necessary, along with that, that there be between them some sort of interaction that is the foundation of friendship.d

According to different kinds of interactions, friendship is also diverse, and interactions are different depending on the variety of what is being shared. If what is shared is false and empty, the friendship will be false and empty; if what is shared is genuine, the friendship will be genuine; and the more exceptional the sharings may be, the more exceptional will be the friendship. For as the honey is most exceptional when it is gathered from the blossoms of the choicest flowers, just so love based on the choicest exchanges is the most exceptional. And, as there is honey in Heraclea in Pontus that is poisonous and makes those who eat it become insanea (because it is collected from aconite,b which is abundant in that region), so, too, friendship based on the exchange of false and vicious things is itself completely false and bad.

a. “Indeed, the food of bees is of the very greatest importance, as it is due to this that we meet even with poisonous honey. At Heraclia in Pontus, the honey is extremely harmful in certain years, though it is the same bees that make it at other times.… In the country of the Sanni, in the same part of Pontus, there is another kind of honey, which, from the madness it produces, has received the name of ‘maenomenon’ [Greek: “maddening”]. This evil effect is generally attributed to the flowers of the rhododendron, with which the woods there abound; and that people derive no profit whatever from its honey, because of these dangerous properties” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 21.44–45).

b. Aconite is a flowering plant—commonly known as wolfsbane or monkshood—that produces a virulent poison for which there is no antidote. (Aconite is used as a poison in novels by Oscar Wilde and James Joyce.)

c. “Sensory pleasures” is my translation of the French les plaisirs sensuels, which usually means “sensual pleasures” or “voluptuous pleasures”; however, Francis applies it to the experiences of the five senses with no sexual or carnal overtones, so I believe sensory expresses his intentions.

d. It is very odd that in several places in his writing about friendship, Francis uses the French word vertu. Normally, it means “virtue”—but it also has a much more rare meaning of “faculty” or “quality.” It is peculiar that Francis would choose to use a word so universally associated with goodness to portray negative dimensions, as in “frivolous and vain qualities” (commonly, “frivolous and vain virtues”).

e. The French word is charlatans and literally means “charlatans, mountebanks, or imposters.” I believe that Francis means to describe those who pretend to an expertise they do not have, so I have translated it as “false experts.”

f. One smiles at seeing the bishop, writing in his mid-to-late forties, complaining rather fiercely about “that younger generation”—how they are too young to demonstrate either virtue or judgment!

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 18

g. The French has ces amitiés folâtres, which carries the sense of “silly,” “gamboling,” “frolicking”—Francis means to demean these affairs soundly by trivalizing them.

h. The literal French here is certains avortons ou plutôt fantômes d’amitié—literally, “certain abortions or rather specters of friendship,” with the sense that these frivolous affairs are stillborn or merely ghostly—they have no basis in reality.

The sharing of carnal pleasures is a mutual inclination and an animal attraction that cannot bear the name of friendship between humans any more than those of donkeys and horses for similar effects. And if there were no other interaction than that in marriage, it would be no friendship at all. But because besides that there is in marriage an exchange of life, of work, of possessions, of affections, and of an indissoluble fidelity, therefore the friendship of marriage is a true and holy friendship.

Friendship based on the exchange of mere sensoryc pleasures is utterly scurrilous and unworthy of the name of friendship—as also is one that is based on frivolous and vain qualitiesd because those qualities also depend on the senses. I call “sensory pleasures” those that attach themselves immediately and primarily to the external senses, such as the pleasure of seeing beauty, of hearing a sweet voice, of touching, and the like. I call “frivolous” certain abilities and qualities that those weak of mind call talents and perfections. Listen to the talk of a majority of the girls and young people who do not hesitate to say that such-and-such a gentleman is very effective and has many perfections, for he dances well, plays well in all sorts of games, dresses well, sings well, flatters well, and looks good. And the false expertse think that the most accomplished among them are the greatest buffoons. But all these concern the senses, and so the friendships that come from them are called sensory, vain, and frivolous—and they deserve the name of “frolics” more than of “friendship.” These are usually the friendships of young people and are based on fancy moustaches, on hairstyle, on flirty winks, on flashy clothes, on arrogance, on prattling—friendships worthy of the age of those lovers, who still have not a single virtue that is any more than a sprout, nor any judgment that as yet has bloomed.f Such friendships as these are only transient and melt like snow in the sun.

i PART III. CHAPTER 18.

Of Flirtations

When such frolicsome friendshipsg are practiced between people of different sexes and without any intention of marriage, they are called “flirtations,” for they are no more than obvious miscarriagesh and only phantoms of friendship, and they deserve the name neither of friendship nor of love, because of their unsurpassed vanity and defects. Yet by means of these, the hearts of men and women are caught, taken over, and entangled one with another in vain and foolish affections, based on those frivolous exchanges and stunted pleasantries of which I will now speak. And such foolish loves are usually dissolved and destroyed in extremely nasty lewdness and sordidness—although that was not the primary intention of those who carry them out. Otherwise, they would not even be flirtations, but manifest filthiness.a Sometimes it happens that several years pass without anything directly contrary to bodily chastity happening between those who are suffering from this madness. They satisfy themselves only to indulge their hearts in wishes, desires, signs, flirtations, and other such nonsense and vanity, and this for the sake of various pretensions.

a. Francis can hardly find words that are coarse or crude or rude enough to express his disgust at and abhorrence of these frivolous and superficial affairs. He sees them as the worst contamination of the most beautiful human dynamic of true sacrificial love.

b. Francis’s criticism is against those who follow only (a) “their amorous tendency”; or (b) “what they relish and their natural impulse”; or (c) “vanity” and a “reward of glory” in deciding on a partner in love. It is worthy of notice that Francis criticizes not only the frivolous and superficial nature of these relationships themselves, but the utterly inadequate, inappropriate, and often malicious motivations and incentives behind them. He also differentiates between those who use others carelessly for their own pleasure and those who do not have malevolent intent, but act out of ignorance or selfishness.

c. The French has tendent leurs toiles—literally, “spread their webs” like spiders! Most translators avoid the specificity of this metaphor and have something like “lay their snares.”

d. Another criticism of these flighty affairs is that they siphon love away from those who properly deserve it: God and one’s spouse. It is interesting that Francis mentions both wife and husband as the possible victim—making clear that these affairs may involve either a married man or a married woman. Note that in the next paragraph he “corrects” St. Gregory for speaking only of vain women: “… but it is good for men as well.”

e. All translators simply translate the English cognates of fondement and raison. But to say that love affairs have neither “foundation nor reason” is meaningless and irrelevant to Francis’s argument. He speaks of the love stolen from a spouse to whom it is owed. Therefore, to say that the inconstant lover has neither “cause” nor “right” is much more appropriate.

Some have no other purpose than to satisfy their hearts by giving and receiving love, in this way following their amorous tendency, and these do not consider anything in the choice of their loves except what they relish and their natural impulse, so that in the meeting of an appealing person, without examining either the person’s character or conduct, they begin this interaction of flirtation and entangle themselves in sordid nets from which afterward they have trouble escaping.b Others indulge in this out of vanity, their opinion being that there is considerable glory in capturing and imprisoning others’ hearts in love. And these, by their choice for glory, set their traps and spread their websc in special, exalted, rare, and famous places. Others are also carried away by both their amorous inclination and their vanity, for although they do have a heart twisted by love, nonetheless they do not want to accept that without some reward of glory.

Such friendships are completely bad, foolish, and vain—bad, especially since they lead toward and finally end in the sin of the flesh, and they steal their love (and consequently their heart) from God and from their wife or husband to whom it is owed.d They are fools, because they have neither cause nor right;e they are ineffectual, because they produce neither benefit, nor honor, nor contentment. On the contrary, they waste time, obstruct honor, without giving any more pleasure than a wish to seek and to hope, knowing neither what they want nor what they search for. For it is always the opinion of these puny and feeble minds that there is something to expect from pledges made to them of reciprocal love—but they cannot say what it is. So their desire can never be fulfilled, but instead will be always weighing down their heart with endless distrust, jealousy, and anxiety.

Saint Gregory Nazianzen, writing against vain women, says wonders on this subject. Here is a little piece that is addressed mainly to women, but it is good for men as well: “Your natural beauty is enough for your husband, but if it is for several men—like a net spread for a flock of birds—what will happen then? The man will please you who is pleased by your beauty; you will exchange looks—wink for wink, glance for glance; pretty soon the smiles will follow and little words of love, dropped by stealth at the beginning, but soon it will become familiar and pass into noticeable coaxing. Take heed, my talking tongue, about saying what happens afterward! But if I were to say, nonetheless, only this truth: not a bit of all that you men and women say or do together in these foolish indulgences is free from severe stings. All the littera of love affairs depend on one another and they follow one another—neither more nor less than one iron drawn by the magnet draws several others one after the other.”b

a. The French has fatras, which translates as “jumble,” “litter,” “rubbish,” or “trash.” It is purposely a strong, condemnatory word. For Francis these love affairs (which were extremely common in seventeenth-century France) were offensive in the extreme.

b. “Your natural beauty is sufficient for your husband, but false if in fact it is offered to several men, like a net over a flock of fowls. He pleases you whom you please, and you will give glances back and forth. Next laughter and mutual conversation, secret at first, and afterward it approaches recklessness. Not mine now, what may follow here, is a tongue chattering, but I will say this truly: of all that you women say and do, joking with the young men, nothing is without stings. For all these things are tied up with each other, as the magnet draws the iron, it carries off very many thereafter” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Carmina 26, v. 89ff.).

c. “Pythagoras also mentions a plant called ‘Aproxis,’ the root of which takes fire at a distance, like naptha, of which we have made some mention when speaking of the marvelous productions of the earth” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 24.101).

d. See Ecclesiasticus 12:13: “Who will pity an enchanter struck by a serpent, or any that come near wild beasts? So it is with him that keeps company with a wicked man and is involved in his sins.” [Francis’s reference to “the Sage” probably refers to Solomon—noted for his wisdom—but Francis may be confused: the books Song of Songs and Wisdom of Solomon are attributed to Solomon, but Ecclesiasticus is attributed to Jesus, Son of Sirach.]

e. The “snake in one’s bosom” metaphor comes from a fable by Aesop in which a farmer rescues a viper from the cold, feeds it, and lovingly warms it next to his breast, but, once recovered, the serpent bites and kills him (Aesop’s Fables; Gibbs, Laura, tr.; Oxford University Press; Oxford; 2002), 77). It is also used by Petronius, Phaedrus, Cicero, Erasmus, Cervantes, Chaucer, and Shakespeare.

f. Francis speaks of “idle pledges”—presumably from one’s lover—as the collateral one gets for credit to gamble with one’s soul.

g. A rhetorical progression—a literary convention to lead the reader through a logical process to a dramatic conclusion.

h. Francis uses banking language to describe God’s total claim on us and our unwarranted withdrawal of our love from him to whom it belongs: “reserved,” “account,” “withdrawals,” and “inspection.”

Oh, he speaks well, that great bishop: What do you expect to do? To give love, no? But inevitably, no one willingly gives what one does not take. In this game whoever captures is captured. As soon as fire appears, the herb Aproxis both takes it in and produces more.c Our hearts are of the same sort: as soon as they see a soul enflamed by love for them, they are unchastely set ablaze for that soul. “I am willing to take what is good out of this love,” someone will say to me, “but not any further.” Alas! You fool yourself! This fire of love is more vigorous and invasive than it appears to you. You think that you receive only a spark, but you will be surprised to see that in a moment it will have seized your whole heart, burned to cinders all your resolutions, and turned your reputation to smoke.

The Sage has cried, “Who will pity a charmer bitten by the snake?”d And I cry after him, “O foolish and senseless people, do you think you can charm love so that you can manage it at your will? You want to play with it, but it will bite and sting you cruelly, and do you know what they will say then? Everyone will mock and laugh at you that you wanted to charm love, and that under a false assurance you had been willing to place in your own bosom a dangerous snake that had ruined you and destroyed both your soul and honor.”e

O God, what blindness is this: gambling like this on credit—against such idle pledgesf—the main part of your soul! Yes, my child, for God chooses a mortal only for his soul, and his soul only for his will, and his will only for love.g Alas, we do not have anywhere near as much love as we need—I mean, an infinite amount would be needed if we were to have enough to love God. Yet, miserable as we are, we pour it out and spend it on stupid, vain, and frivolous things as if we had love to spare. Ah, this great God has reserved for himself all the love of our souls (in gratitude for our creation, preservation, and redemption) and he will require a very strict account of these foolish withdrawals we makeh—if he makes an exact inspection of our idle words, what will he do about idle, impertinent, foolish, and pernicious friendships?

The walnut tree greatly harms the vineyards and fields in which it is planted because being so great, it draws the juices of the earth that cannot afterward suffice to nourish the rest of the plants. And its foliage is so dense that it makes a large and wide shadow and eventually draws passersby to it, who, in order to harvest the nuts, spoil and trample everything around.a These love affairs cause the same damage to the soul, for they possess it to such a degree and so strongly draw its life into themselves that it is no longer able to do any good work. The leaves (that is to say, the idle chatter, amusements, and philandering) are so frequent that they dissipate all leisure time and finally attract so many temptations, distractions, suspicions, and other consequences that the whole heart is crushed and ruined. In a word, these love affairs not only banish the love of heaven, but the fear of God. They weaken the mind and damage the reputation. In a word, they are the sport of the promenadesb but the torment of hearts.

a. Francis speaks of the black walnut (Jugland nigra) and claims that its danger is that it absorbs too much water. However, the tree is actually toxic: the roots, nut husks, and leaves secrete a substance into the soil called juglone that is a respiratory inhibitor to many plants, and they should not be planted in close proximity to a black walnut. The plant can even cause contact dermatitis in humans.

b. For “the sport of the promenades” Francis has le jouet des cours, literally, “the games of the courses.” All the translators I know have erroneously made it something like “the pastimes of court.” But cours means “path,” “track,” “public walkway,” and not “court.” Francis means to set up a pair in opposition to each other: public sport and private torment. And anyone who knows French cities knows that “strolling the promenade” is an almost universal practice.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 19

c. Prudence (the ability to make reasonable and cautious judgments), temperance (the practice of self-control and moderation), fortitude (the courage to endure difficult conditions), and justice (balance between the rights of oneself and the rights of others) are known as the four Cardinal Virtues. They were denominated first by Plato and since by Cicero, Solomon, and Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas. These have always been seen as “human virtues” (not based in any religion), and they indicate behavior for which anyone may be held morally responsible—a view enshrined, for instance, in the concept of “crimes against humanity,” crimes that are immoral for any human. See Wisdom 8:7b.

d. Psalm 132:1 [133:1]: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.”

e. Psalm 132:4 [133:4]: “For there the LORD has commanded blessing and life forevermore.”

f. The French has jayet—literally, “jet”—a kind of hard semiprecious lignite (coal) that can be carved and polished and is used in jewelry.

g. Francis makes the point that in moral and ethical matters one’s “duties of state” precede other moral considerations; that is, one’s situation in the world defines the moral dimensions of behavior as a parent to children or children to parents, as doctor to patient, or attorney to client. These arise from one’s “state” rather than from individual choices of the moment.

i PART III. CHAPTER 19.

Of True Friendships

O my child, love each person with a great charitable love but have no friendships except with those who can converse with you about virtuous things, and the more tasteful the virtues you speak of, the more perfect your friendship will be. If you converse about learning, your friendship is certainly praiseworthy, and even more so if you speak of virtues: prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice.c But if your mutual and reciprocal conversation is about charity, devotion, and Christian perfection, O Lord, how precious will your friendship be! It will be excellent because it comes from God, excellent because it leads to God, excellent because its bond is God, and excellent because it will last forever in God. Oh, how good it is to love on earth the way one loves in heaven, and to learn to cherish each other in this world as we will do eternally in the other.

I am not speaking here of the simple love of charity (for that ought to be conveyed to all people), but I speak of spiritual friendship by which two or three or more souls share their devotion, their spiritual desires, and create a single spirit among them. Such fortunate souls have a good right to sing: “Oh, see here how good and pleasant it is that brothers live together.”d Yes, for the wonderful balm distills the devotion of one of the hearts into the other by an unbroken sharing, so that it may be said that God has bestowed his blessing and life on that friendship forevermore.e

It is my opinion that all other friendships are nothing but shadows compared to this one, and their connections are just chains of glass or coal,f in comparison with that wonderful golden bond of holy devotion.

So make no friendships of the other kind—I refer to friendships you make yourself—for you must neither abandon nor despise those friendships which nature and previous duties oblige you to cultivate, such as parents, kinsfolk, benefactors, neighbors, and others.g I refer only to those that you actually choose yourself.

Perhaps many will say that one ought not to have any particular affection or friendship in that it could occupy your heart, distract your mind, and generate longings—but they are wrong in their advice, because they have seen in the writings of several saints and devout authors that particular friendships and extraordinary affections do the greatest harm to monastics, and they imagine that it is the same for the rest of the world, but there is much to say. Whereas in a well-governed monastery the common purpose of all makes for true devotion, it is not necessary to form such special relationships for fear that by seeking individually what ought to be common, one passes from particularities to partialities.a But as for those who are within the world and who embrace true virtue, it is necessary for them to ally themselves one with another by a holy and sacred friendship, for by means of that they embolden each other, assist each other, and guide each other to good works.b And like those who walk in the flat plain do not need to lend each other a hand, but those who are on a perilous and slippery road hold on to each other in order to walk more safely. Thus those who are in religious orders have no need for particular friendships, but those who are in the world have need to assist and succor each other among all the dangerous passages they must cross over. In the world all do not agree together on the same goal, nor does everyone have the same point of view. It is therefore doubtless necessary to draw apart and make friendships according to one’s own wishes, and this particularity causes the showing of partiality, but a holy partiality that makes no separation except that of good and bad, of sheep and goats, of bees and hornets—an inevitable separation.

a. Since one of the first goals of any monastic movement is the formation of a community around a set of rules, “particular friendships,” favoritism, discrimination, or partiality in relationships has always been discouraged in the monastic tradition. Francis perceptibly declares that such danger does not exist to the same degree in the rest of the world.

b. Francis makes the point that it is very difficult to live a Christian life in the world if one is alone: allies, friends, and a sympathetic community are extremely helpful, if not essential.

c. John 13:23: “Now [at the Last Supper] there was leaning on Jesus’s bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.” (Many believe that this disciple was St. John.)

d. John 11:15: “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus.”

e. In the apocryphal Gospel of Philip (written between ad 150 and 300), Mary Magdalene is described as “… a companion of the Son. The Lord loved her more than he loved all other disciples.…”

f. 1 Peter 5:13: “The church that is in Babylonsalutes you: and so does my son Mark.” According to Eusebius of Caesarea (Historia Ecclesiastica 2.9.1–4), Mark was converted by Peter and taken to Rome—and Mark’s Gospel was based on Peter’s sermons and recollections.

g. St. Petronilla was a first-century virgin martyr in Rome. According to a sixth-century legend she was St. Peter’s natural daughter (De Rossi, “Roma Sotterranea,” 1:180).

h. Second Letter of Paul to Timothy 1:2: “To Timothy, my dearly beloved son….”

i. By the word of several of the Church Fathers (Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, and Epiphanius) and the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla (c. 180). The virgin St. Thecla was converted by St. Paul and traveled with him on his missionary journeys.

j. The words “All things are in all things” are from a 1591 essay (De Immenso) by Giordano Bruno (1548–1600), a Dominican friar, an astronomer, a mathematician, and a philosopher who was burned at the stake as a pantheist heretic.

k. “We seemed to have one soul, borne in two bodies. And if we are not to believe those whose faith is ‘All things are in all,’ yet in our case it was worthy of belief, so did both of us live in and with each other. The sole work of both of us was the pursuit of virtue, and living for the future hopes, having retired from this life, before our departure hence” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 43, n. 20).

l. See Romans 1:31: “[The godless are] foolish, degenerate, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy.”

Of course one cannot deny that Our Lord loved Saint John,c Lazarus,d Martha, and Magdalenee with a sweeter and more special friendship, for Scripture testifies to that. It is known that Saint Peter cherished Saint Markf and Saint Petronilla,g as Saint Paul did his Timothyh and Saint Thecla.i Saint Gregory Nazianzen boasts a hundred time of the incomparable friendship that he had with the great Saint Basil, and he describes it in this way: “It seemed that in both of us there was only one soul borne about in two bodies. Although it is not necessary to believe those who say that all things are in all things,j still about us you can believe that we have been both in each of us, and one in the other. Both of us have only a single purpose: to cultivate virtue and to accommodate all our life’s plans to future hopes, leaving the mortal world before dying here.”k Saint Augustine testifies that Saint Ambrose loved Saint Monica uniquely for the rare virtues he saw in her, and that she likewise loved him as an angel of God.

But I am wrong to amuse you with something so obvious. Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine, Saint Gregory, Saint Bernard, and all the greatest servants of God have had very particular friendships, without concern for their perfection. Saint Paul, criticizing the disorder of the Gentiles, accuses them of having been people without affection,l that is to say, who had no friends. And Saint Thomas, like all the good philosophers, acknowledges that friendship is a virtue, but he speaks of the particular friendship, since, as he says, the perfect friendship cannot extend to many people.a So perfection does not consist in having no friendship, but in having those that are good, holy, and sacred.

a. “Wherefore, it follows that charity is a virtue, for, since charity attains God, it unites us to God….” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 2 of 2, ques. 23, §3 ad 1).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 20

b. See the notes on the honey of Heraclea in Chapter 17 on page 196.

i PART III. CHAPTER 20.

Of the Difference Between True and Vain Friendships

Here is the great warning, my child: the honey of Heraclea that is so poisonous resembles the other that is beneficial. There is great danger of taking one for the other or of taking them mixed, for the goodness of one cannot prevent the harm of the other.b You must be on your guard not to be mistaken in these friendships, especially when they are contracted between persons of different sex, under any pretext whatsoever, because Satan often puts those who love on the wrong scent. One begins with virtuous love, but if one is not extremely wise, frivolous love will intermingle, then sensual love, then carnal love. Yes, there is a danger even in spiritual love if one is not strongly on guard (although it is more difficult to be fooled because its purity and innocence makes the dirt that Satan wants to mix with it more obvious). That is why when he attempts it, he does it more slyly and tries to slip in the dirt almost imperceptibly. Consequently, when he seeks to interpose, he does it stealthily and strives to insinuate impurity almost imperceptibly.

You may differentiate between worldly love and holy, virtuous love just as you can differentiate between the poisonous honey of Heraclea and the others. As you know, the honey of Heraclea is sweeter to the tongue than ordinary honey—because of the aconite, which gives it an extra sweetness—and thus worldly friendship usually produces a great mass of honeyed words, a coaxing of little fond words, and praises drawn from beauty, gracefulness, and sensual qualities. But sacred friendship is a simple and straightforward language; it cannot praise anything except the virtue and grace of God, the only foundation on which it rests. When the honey of Heraclea is swallowed, it causes a dizziness, and false friendship provokes a dizziness of the mind that makes one stagger in chastity and devotion, carrying him on to affected, mincing, immoderate looks, to sensual caresses, to extravagant sighs, to little complaints of not being loved, to small but popular and attractive expressions, gallantry, requests for kisses, and other extreme familiarities and rude favors—all sure and unquestionable predictions of the impending destruction of decency. But holy friendship has eyes that are simple and modest, caresses pure and sincere, sighs for heaven alone, familiarities for the spirit, complaints only when God is not loved—all infallible marks of decency. That honey of Heraclea confuses the sight, and that worldly friendship confuses the judgment so that those who have it think it well done when doing evil and believe that their excuses, pretexts, and words are actual intelligence. They fear the light and love the shadows, but holy friendship has perceptive eyes and never hides away, but appears willingly before the righteous. Lastly, the honey of Heraclea leaves a great bitterness in the mouth; just so the false friendships change themselves and end in words and demands, carnal and stinking, or, in case of refusal, to injuries, slander, falsehoods, sorrow, confusion, and jealousies that often terminate in brutality and madness. But chaste friendship is always equally decent, gracious, and amiable, and never changes except into a more perfect and pure union of spirits—a living image of the blessed friendship that one exhibits in heaven.a

a. Francis presses his comparison of the poisonous Heraclean honey with worldly love and provides a checklist of symptoms of worldly love over against corresponding characteristics of virtuous love. Worldly love includes (a) a mass of gushy talk about material and earthly things; (b) a giddiness of mind—with a singular listing of symptoms; (c) a confusion of judgment; and (d) a change in manner to demands and attacks. His impressive, exhaustive (and accurate) listing of warning signs is obviously not theoretical, but reflects personal experience and/or extensive practice in spiritual direction.

b. “They say that the proud peacock when he opens his feathers—strutting his golden neck with wings spread—utters his cry to invite his females to adore him” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Carmina, 29, v. 79).

c. Francis is almost ruthless in his condemnation of this posing “popinjay.” It makes one guess that he has personally witnessed the psychological and spiritual damage such wheedlers can generate—not at all unusual in seventeenth-century French culture and society.

d. The ubiquitous, universal, all-pervading cry of the older generation against the younger.

e. See Luke 1:28–29: “And the angel came in and said to her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. When she had heard, she was troubled at his speech. And the angel said to her: Do not fear, Mary.…”

f. This seems to be a non sequitur, unrelated to the “behavior of youth” that was the subject of the preceding sentence, so I have presumed to start a new paragraph here. And this sentence itself is a very peculiar and convoluted argument: If pure Mary feared a male because he praised her exceedingly, ought not we fear a male who praises us exceedingly? The premise of this logic requires a very curious parallel between the Archangel Gabriel and some sweet-talking roué.

Saint Gregory Nazianzen says that the peacock makes his cry when he has opened his feathers and struts about and this greatly excites the females who listen to it with yearning.b When one sees a man strutting about, adorning himself, and coming like that wheedler, whispering and tempting in the ears of a woman or a girl, without any intention of a proper marriage, ah! without doubt that is to incite her to some fornication, and a woman of honor will close her ears to avoid hearing the cry of this peacock—the voice of the enchanter who wants subtly to charm her—which, if she listens, O God, what an evil omen it is of the loss of her heart.c

Young people who use demeanors, affectations, and caresses, or speak words that they would not like to have discovered by their fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, or confessors, demonstrate in that matter that they are dealing with something other than decency and conscience.d

Our Lady was disturbed when she saw an angel in human form,e because she was alone and because he gave her extreme, though heavenly, praise. O Savior of the world, if purity herself fears an angel in human form, why, therefore, should not our impurity fear a man, even if he has the shape of an angel, when he extols her with sensual and human praises?f

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 21

a. The French for “swarm” is une fourmilière, literally, “an anthill”—a colorful metaphor for the jumbled and tangled madness of unsanctified love affairs.

b. One is reminded that when St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690) created the first image of her vision of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she showed Christ’s heart aflame and wrapped around by a crown of thorns—an image she may have borrowed from Francis. Especially this might be so since Margaret Mary was a nun of a Visitation convent—the religious order founded by Francis de Sales—and would have known this passage well.

c. Song of Songs 2:15: “Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in bloom.” Francis uses this reference to point out that what may look small and easy to control can be hugely destructive, and one need take great care in thinking such small compromises are harmless.

d. A notable example of accomplished rhetoric: the personification of ear and heart—they “talk to each other”—to raise a warning that what one hears is bound to affect one’s inner feelings.

e. “Alcmaeon is incorrect in saying that goats breathe through the ears.” (Aristotle, Historia Animalia 1.11.492a.14 f.). But he may not have been so laughably wrong (nor Aristotle so invariably correct). Alcmaeon (535 bc) was a veterinary surgeon who taught himself by detailed dissection of animals. It seems that he was the discoverer of Eustachian tubes (which extend from the middle ear into the pharynx), and when he found those tubes in the ears of goats, he presumed they were passageways for air between throat and ear.

f. The word I translate as “rude” is agreste. Its literal meaning is “rustic” or “countrified”—showing Francis to be a bit of a minor snob.

g. The words I translate as “in his forest” appear in the early editions as dans son fort. Translators have struggled with the word fort because it is not a noun, but an adjective meaning “strong” or “copious” or “hard.” Some translators stretch the meaning to “in his fort,” another to “in his covert.” The only solution that makes sense is to assume the original word was not fort, but forêt with the ê omitted in error at publication. A deer in a “fort” makes no sense at all; a deer in a “forest” is precisely appropriate.

h. “Even the presence … of all these various races, will serve to cure injuries inflicted by the animals to which they correspondingly have an antipathy; just in the same way that wounds are aggravated by the approach of persons who have been stung by a serpent at some former time” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia, 28.6.31).

i PART III. CHAPTER 21.

Advice and Remedies Against Evil Friendships

But what remedies are there against this brood and swarma of insane loves, dalliances, and impurities? As soon as you have the first hint of their approach, turn quickly away, and, with an absolute abhorrence of these vain things, rush to the Savior’s cross and take his crown of thorns to wrap around your heart,b so that these little foxesc cannot get near.

Beware of coming to any manner of compromise with the Enemy. Do not say, “I will listen but I will not do anything that he tells me; I will lend an ear to him but I will refuse him my heart.” O my child, for God’s sake, be careful on such occasions. The heart and ears talk to each other, and just as it is impossible to prevent a flood that has plunged from the peak of a mountain, so is it difficult to prevent a love that has fallen on the ear from a sudden plunge into the heart.d According to Alcmaeon, goats breathe through their ears, not through their nose (although it is true that Aristotle denies it).e Yet, I do not know what is in it. But I do know well that our heart breathes through the ear, and that it breathes and exhales thoughts by way of the tongue, just so it also inhales by way of the ear through which it receives the thoughts of others. Thus let us guard our ears carefully from the air of foul words, for otherwise suddenly will our heart be tainted. Do not listen to any sort of propositions under any pretext whatsoever. In this case alone, there is no danger at all in being uncivil and rude.f

Remember that you have vowed your heart to God, and since your love was a sacrifice, it would be sacrilege to deprive God of a single bit of yourself. Rather, sacrifice to him again by a thousand resolutions and protestations, and keep yourself within their bounds, like a deer in his forest,g entreating God. He will rescue you, and his love will take you under his protection so that you can live for him alone.

If you are already caught in the nets of those insane loves, O God, how difficult it will be for you to disentangle yourself! Position yourself before his Divine Majesty, in his presence own up to the vastness of your misery, your weakness, and vanity, and then, with the greatest possible effort of your heart, show your loathing for any such loves already undertaken. Repudiate the vain profession you have made, renounce all the promises you have received, and by one massive and absolute act of will, end it in your heart and resolve never to return to those games and casual talk about love.

If you can shun the object of your misguided love, I recommend it wholly, for as those who have been bitten by snakes cannot easily be cured in the presence of those who have been wounded by the same bite,h so also the person who is stung by love can hardly be cured of that passion while near that other person who has received the same sting. Change of place is greatly helpful in easing the intense ardor and restlessness, be it from pain or from love. The boy whom Saint Ambrose speaks of in the second book of Penance, having made a long journey, returned, fully freed from the insane loves that he had exercised, and so much changed that when his foolish lover met him and said to him, “Do you not know me? I am still the same self,” he answered, “Yes, but I am not the same self.”a Absence had brought him that fortunate change. And Saint Augustine testifies that to alleviate the grief he had in the death of his friend, he took himself out of Tagaste, where his friend had died, and went to Carthage.b

a. “Let a man deny himself and everything will wither away, even as a certain young man of the fable, after an affair with a harlot, set out on a journey, and returned with the obliteration of that love affair. Afterward he met with his old lover who, thinking she was not recognized, ran to meet him saying, ‘I am I.’ He responded to her: ‘But I am not I’” (St. Ambrose, De Penitentia 2:10)

b. “… A few days after, when I was away, [my dear friend Nebridius] was attacked again by the fever, and so died.… I fled out of my country; so that my eyes would look for him less where they would not be able to find him. And thus from Thagaste, I came to Carthage” (St. Augustine, Confessions 4.8, 12).

c. Francis is so disgusted by these loose love affairs that he drops all subtlety. The words puant et fumeux mean literally “stinking and hazy,” and fumeux can be associated with manure.

d. Very brutal, extremely coarse, and utterly uncompromising words! Francis makes absolutely no provision for any kind of concession in denying and rejecting these affairs.

e. The great temptation for a Christian in escaping from immoral and demoralizing relationships is to think that one can just “tone down” the relationship, to retain the “good parts” of it and reject the decadent—but Francis has great wisdom in declaring that this is psychologically and spiritually extremely dangerous and usually impossible—that an utter and complete break is spiritually essential.

f. The French has mes pieds, meaning “my feet,” but manacles are usually placed on the ankles, so I have used that word.

g. See Part II, Chapter 12.

h. This is a bit of social casuistry. It is far more likely that one’s rejected lover will be hurt and resentful than that she or he would recognize the rejection as a blessing—unless, of course, the lover is a deeply committed Christian and would come to see the virtue of dissolving the affair.

i. Psalm 115:16b–17 [116:124b–15]: “You have broken my bonds. I will sacrifice to you the sacrifice of praise, and I will call upon the name of the Lord.”

But what is one to do who cannot go away? It is absolutely necessary to do away with all exceptional conversation, all secret talk, all pleasantries of glances, all smiles, and generally all sorts of exchanges and allurements that can feed the smelly and smoky fire.c At most, if forced to speak with the accomplice, let it be in order to declare by a bold, short, and severe protest that a permanent separation had been sworn. I cry aloud to anyone who has fallen into these traps of love affairs: “Cut them! Slice them! Break them!”d It should not be amusing to merely struggle against these insane friendships; it is necessary that they be ripped apart. It is not right just to loosen the links; it is necessary to break them or cut them entirely. Both the cords and the connections must be made worthless. It is necessary that a love that is so incompatible with the love of God is not in any way spared.e

But, you ask, after I have broken the chains of that sordid bondage, will I have some residue left there and the marks and scars of manacles on my ankles,f that is to say, on my affections? No, my child, if you have developed as much abhorrence of your evil as it deserves, you will not be disturbed by any emotion except that of an extreme horror of that sordid love and all that pertains to it, and you will remain free of all other feelings toward the person you have rejected except that of a pure charity for God’s sake. But if, because of the imperfection of your repentance, you still have some sinful inclinations, develop a mental solitude for your soul (according to what I have taught you aboveg) and return there as much as you can. And by a thousand repetitions of spiritual exclamations, renounce all your inclinations, and reject them with all your strength. Read holy books more than usual. Make your Confession more often than usual, and receive Communion. Confer humbly and simply about all the propositions and temptations that come to you in this matter with your director, if you can—or at least with some faithful and prudent soul. And do not doubt that God will free you from all passions, provided that you continue faithfully in these exercises.

“Ah,” you say to me, “but will it not be an ingratitude to break a friendship so ruthlessly?” Oh, how blessed is that ingratitude which makes us pleasing to God! No, my child, for God’s sake, it will not be ingratitude, but rather a great blessing that you will do for your lover, for in breaking your chains you will break his as well, since they were common to both of you,h and although for the moment he does not realize his good luck, he will recognize it soon after and with you will sing in thanksgiving, “O Lord, you have broken my chains. I will sacrifice to you the host of praise and invoke your Holy Name.”i

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 22

a. A rather surprising flight of literary romance, speaking of the mystical bonding of two lovers as a flowing interchange not only of affection, but of proclivities and intuitions.

b. This unusual dominical quotation is not found in Scripture (although probably originally related to the Parable of the Talents). However, it is reported to have been common in the early Church and was reported by Papias, Irenaeus, Origen, St. Clement of Alexandria (Stromata 1:28), St. Jerome, and others. This is from St. Jerome: “Know that I like to hear the words of the Savior saying, ‘Be approved money exchangers’ so that if any money is counterfeit, and does not have the figure of Caesar nor the seal of Public Coinage, it is to be condemned; but he who prefers the bright light of Christ in our heart may have a hidden purse” (Letter 119 to Minervius and Alexander).

c. Jeremiah 15:19b: “If you will be converted, I will convert you, and you shall stand before my face, and if you will separate the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth….”

d. The Tagus River in Portugal was famous for its gold-bearing sands. References to it were made in Catullus (29.19), Ovid (Amores 1.15.34), Juvenal (Satires 3.55), and others.

e. “So great was [Basil’s] virtue, and the distinction of his fame, that many of his lesser characteristics—even his physical defects—have been imitated by others with a view to notoriety. For instance his pallor, his beard, his gait, his thoughtful and generally meditative hesitation in speaking, which, in the ill-judged, inconsiderate imitation of many, took the form of melancholy” (St. Gregory Nazianzen Oration 43, 77).

f. The French is mille mauvaises petites humeurs. In my translation: “a thousand little bad moods.” However humeurs is difficult to translate because it is part of the medieval medical principle of health being a balance of humors (yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood), and its meaning is highly varied: “humor,” “temperament,” “disposition,” “turn of mind,” “mood,” “caprice,” “fancy,” or “inclination.” Ryan has “a thousand little unfortunate ways.” Another anonymous translator has “a thousand little bad habits.” Almost anything in this general direction can be justified by the text.

i PART III. CHAPTER 22.

Some Further Advice Concerning Friendships

Friendship requires great interaction between lovers—otherwise, it cannot be born or survive. That is because it often seems that with the interaction of friendship, several different exchanges pass and slip imperceptibly from heart to heart by a mutual blend and reciprocal flowing of affections, inclinations, and impressions. But more important, this happens when we greatly esteem the one we love, for then we open up so much of our heart to his friendship that along with that his inclinations and impressions enter freely into us—whether they be good or bad.a Of course, the bees that collect the honey of Heraclea seek only the honey, but with the honey they suck in unknowingly the poison qualities of the aconite from which they make their harvest. Now then, my child, it is necessary to practice in this regard the word that the Savior of our souls used to say, as the Ancients taught us: “Be good bankers and money-changers,”b that is to say, do not accept counterfeit money with the good, nor the worst gold with the finest. Separate the precious from the worthlessc—yes, because there is hardly anyone who does not have some imperfection. And for what reason should we indiscriminately accept the flaws and imperfections of the friend along with his friendship? I must certainly love him despite his faults, but it is not necessary to love nor to accept those faults, for friendship requires the sharing of the good and not of the evil. Hence, just as those who gather the gravel of the Tagus River, separating the gold they find to take away and leaving the sand on the shore,d similarly those who share in a good friendship ought to separate the sand of imperfections and not let them enter into their soul. Certainly, Saint Gregory Nazianzen testifies that many who loved and admired Saint Basil were brought to imitate him even in his external faults, “in his speaking slowly and with an abstract and thoughtful spirit, in the shape of his beard, and his peculiar gait.”e And we see husbands, wives, and children, with high regard for their friends, their fathers, their husbands, and their wives, acquiring from them in the association of the friendship they have together, either by condescension or by imitation, a thousand little bad tendencies.f However, this ought not to be at all, for each one has enough of his own bad inclinations without burdening himself with those of others. And not only does friendship not require this, but rather, it obliges us to help each other to free ourselves from all sorts of imperfections. It is necessary without doubt gently to support a friend in his imperfections, but not to add anything onto them, and much less to transfer them to ourselves.

But I am speaking only of “imperfections,” for when it comes to “sins,” one must neither accept them nor support them in a friend. It is a friendship either weak or wicked to see a friend perishing and not help him at all, to see him dying of an abscess and not daring to give him an incision with the razor of correction to save him. True and living friendship cannot survive among sins. It is said that the salamander extinguishes the fire in which she lies; and sin ruins the friendship in which it lodges.a If there is only a passing sin, the friendship can put it to sudden flight by correction,b but if it is persistent and remains, suddenly the friendship will perish, for it cannot stand except on true virtue. Then how much less should we sin for the sake of friendship? A friend is the enemy when he wants to lead us into sin, and deserves to lose the friendship if he wants to ruin and damn a friend—just so, that is one of the more certain marks of a false friendship that we see practiced by a malicious person, of whatever sort of sin it may be. If the one we love is malicious, without doubt our friendship is malicious, for since it cannot value true virtue, it is a force that should be considered a joke of a virtue and some carnal attribute.

a. “The following are some bodies that are of animals that do not take fire—a clear proof of the salamander, which, as they say, extinguishes fire when it is walked on by him” (Aristotle, Historia Anaimalis 5.19).

b. One is reminded of St. Gregory Nazianen’s words written to his beloved St. Basil: “But come to me and conspire with me in virtue” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Epistle 7). The Oxford English Dictionary quotes Thomas Starkey in 1538: “The civil life is a political order of men conspiring together in virtue and honesty.”

c. Ecclesiasticus 6:17: “He that fears God shall likewise have good friendship, because close behind him shall his friend be.” Francis calls Jesus ben Sirach, the author of Ecclesiasticus, “the Wise Man.”

d. James 4:4: “… Do you not know that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes and enemy of God.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 23

e. Francis’s memory seems to be a little fantastical, but the original is undoubtedly from Palladius (a Roman agricultural writer of the fourth century): “The Greeks say that almonds grow when they are written upon; if you take the kernel in its perfect shape from the shell, and if you write anything on it, and replace it in a coat of clay and in the feces of swine” (Palladius, Opus Agriculturae 2:16).

f. See 1 Peter 3:2–4: “[They may be won over] when they consider your chaste conduct in respect. Do not let your adorning be the outward braiding of hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel, but the hidden man of the heart…”

g. Joel 2:12: “Now therefore says the LORD, Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning.”

h. Proverbs 23:26: “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes keep my ways.”

i. Song of Songs 8:6: “Put me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps of it are fire and flames.”

j. I have chosen to leave the French for Vive Jésus! because there is no modern English equivalent in translation. Vive is usually translated as “Long live!” but that seems inappropriate.

k. Galatians 2:20a: “And I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me.…”

The society founded among the merchants for temporal profit is no more than an imitation of true friendship, for it operates not for the love of persons, but for the love of gain.

Finally, these two divine words are two great pillars to ensure the Christian life. The one from the Wise Man: “Whoever fears God will have a similarly good friendship.”c And the other is from Saint James: “Friendship of this world is the enemy of God.”d

i PART III. CHAPTER 23.

On the Practice of External Mortification

Those dealing with rustic and rural things will assure you that if one writes some word on a whole almond and then puts it back in its shell, folding it neatly and tightly and planting it, all the fruit the tree bears will be found to have the same word written and imprinted on it.e For my part, my child, I could never approve the method of those who in order to reform a person begin with the exterior things—with appearance, with clothes, with hair.f

It seems to me, on the contrary, that one must start with inside. “Be converted to me,” says God, “with your whole heart.”g “My child, give me your heart.”h For as the heart is the source of actions, they will be like it. The divine Spouse invites the soul: “Put me,” he says, “like a seal on your arm.”i Yes, truly, for anyone who has Jesus Christ in his heart will have him soon after in all his external actions.

That is why, dear child, I have wanted before anything to imprint and write on your heart that holy and sacred word: “Vive Jésus!”j—assured as I am that after that, your life (which comes from your heart like an almond from its kernel) will produce all the actions that are its fruits, written and imprinted with the same word of salvation, and that, if that dear Jesus dwells in your heart, he will live also in your conduct, and will appear in your eyes, in your mouth, in your hands, even in your hair, so you can speak these holy words in imitation of Saint Paul, “I live, yet not I, but Jesus Christ lives in me.”k In short, one who has won the heart of a person has won the whole person. But this same heart with which we wish to begin requires that it should be instructed, since it must form its manners and maintain its exterior, and, finally, that it will not seek holy devotion only, but also a great wisdom and discretion. For this I briefly give you some further advice.

a. It should be understood that “abstinence” means reducing the kinds of food eaten (for example, abstinence from flesh meat on Fridays) and “fasting” means reducing the amount of food eaten. (One might omit breakfast and luncheon and eat only one meal a day on holy days like Ash Wednesday or Good Friday, or one might undertake a permanent fast by eating only one or two meals a day.)

b. “I strongly disapprove—especially for those of younger years—of long and immoderate fasts in which week is added to week and even oil and apples are forbidden as food. I have learned by experience that the ass toiling along the highway makes for an inn when it is weary” (St. Jerome, Epistle 107 to Leta 10).

c. The discipline is a small whip made of knotted cords (sometimes with thorns or metal barbs tied into the knots) and used by an ascetic to flog his own body in the belief that self-castigation would reduce or drive away temptations of the flesh.

d. Hair shirts were undergarments woven of coarse cloth or rough animal hair that induced a permanent degree of discomfort, irritation, and pain. Hair shirts were usually worn for private penance or atonement for sin—although they were also thought to help thwart temptations of the flesh. In the Middle Ages, a hair shirt would also frequently become home to fleas and lice whose bites increased the discomfort and pain.

e. The beginnings of Clairvaux were very trying and very painful. Bernard became so ill that he could not stand alone on his swollen feet. A hole was made next to his stall in choir where he could vomit—as he did regularly. “His regime was so austere that Bernard’s health was impaired by it, and only the influence of his friend [Bishop] William of Champeaux, and the authority of the General Chapter could make him mitigate his austerities” (Bernard de Clairvaux, Vita Prima 1, 7:32, 8:39)

f. St. Thérèse of Lisieux was instrumental in questioning the propriety of the use of the discipline—like Francis, she claimed that it was more spiritually productive to accept the sufferings and vicissitudes of daily life sent by God than to “manufacture” one’s own pain. (“… The only mortification which came my way was the mortification of self-love, but it did me much more good than corporal penances would have done…” (Taylor, T.N. tr.; Story of a Soul; Cosimo, New York; 2007, ch. 7).

If you can bear fasting, you would do well to fast a few days in addition to the fasting that the Church commands us, for in addition to the usual effect of fasting—elevating the spirit, controlling the flesh, practicing virtue, and acquiring a greater reward in heaven—it is a great good to restrain gluttony and to keep our sensual appetite and body subject to the law of the spirit. Although one may not fast very much, nonetheless the Enemy has greater fear of us when he knows that we are adept at fasting. Wednesday, Fridays, and Saturdays are the days on which the ancient Christians practiced the most abstinence.a Therefore, take some of them for fasting as far as your devotion and the discretion of your spiritual director may advise you.

I gladly agree with what Saint Jerome said to the good lady Leta: “The long and immoderate fasts I dislike very much, especially for those of tender age. I have learned from experience that the little ass, being weary in the way, tries to move aside.”b That is to say, that young people brought to weakness by an excess of fasting easily turn to delicacies.

The deer runs badly in two instances: when they are too loaded with flesh and when they are too thin. We are greatly exposed to temptations when our body is too well fed and when it is too poorly fed, for the one makes us insolent in our ease, and the other makes us distracted in our affliction—and as we cannot bear the body when it is too stout, also we cannot bear it when it is too thin. The lack of that moderation in fasting, use of disciplines,c hair shirts,d and austerity makes one useless for the service of charity for the best of one’s several years, as it did the same to Saint Bernard, who repented of having used too great austerity.e The more some have mistreated themselves at the beginning, the more they are driven to deceive themselves at the end. Would they not have done better for themselves to have made the treatment smoother and proportionate to the duties and works to which their situation obliges them?f

Both fasting and labor exhaust and subdue the flesh. If the work you do is necessary for you or extremely useful for the glory of God, I would rather that you suffer the distress of work than that of fasting. That is the attitude of the Church that, for the useful work in the service of God and neighbor, discharges those who do that from the same commands of fasting. One person finds it difficult to fast; another to serve the sick, visit prisoners, confess, preach, aid the sorrowful, pray, and similar exercises whose distresses have more spiritual value than the former, for in addition to subduing the body to the same degree, they have much more desirable results. And thus generally, it is better to keep more bodily strengths than we need than to weaken it more than is necessary, for one can always discipline those strengths when one wishes, but one cannot always restore them when one wishes.

a. Luke 10:8: “And into whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.”

b. Ascetic theology has frequently held that the patient acceptance of an involuntary circumstantial inconvenience or deprivation may be of higher spiritual value than more dramatic voluntary ascetical practices.

c. An ascetical practice that can be undertaken in absolute privacy and secrecy is of significantly greater spiritual value than one demonstrated in public, since the latter runs the constant risk of becoming pretentious or sanctimoniously ostentatious.

d. “[Bernard] had so mastered the cravings of gluttony that he had largely lost even the ability to distinguish different tastes. If, for example, oil was mistakenly put before him instead of water, and he drank it, he was not aware of it until he wondered why his lips tasted oily” (de Voragine, Jacobus [Ryan, William G., tr.]; The Golden Legend; Princeton University Press; 1995, 101).

e. Francis is careful to hedge around these extreme ascetical practices with exceptions and cautions, making it clear that they are appropriate for very few people under very specific restrictions.

f. “God ordained that the night should be a time when the forces of evil have the ability to move about freely in the world. This is why the intention of night was that people should stay home, sleeping and resting until morning. When the morning comes, authority is taken away from these evil forces and people can once again go about their occupations until nightfall” (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto [1707–1746]; The Way of God; Feldheim Publishers; Nanuet, New York; 1998).

g. Zechariah 3:8b: “… for behold I will bring my servant the Orient,” and 6:12b: “… Behold a man, the Orient is his name….” And Malachi 4:2: “But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of Justice shall arise, and health in his wings…” [Note: The word “Orient” comes from the Latin oriens, meaning “rising.” Tradition has used such references to refer to Jesus, the Messiah, as in Luke 1:78: “Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high has visited us.” In other modern translations this reads “… the dawn from on high…”

h. Song of Songs 6:9: “Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun.…” Ancient Christian tradition has often applied metaphors for the Bride in the Song of Songs to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It seems to me that we ought to have a great reverence for the word that our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ said to his disciples: “Eat what is set before you.”a It is, I think, a much greater virtue to eat without choice what is presented to you and in the same order in which it is presented—whether it is to your taste or not—than always to choose the worst. For although the latter way of life seems the most austere, nevertheless, the other requires more resignation, because there one renounces not only one’s taste, but also one’s choice. And so, it is not merely a little austerity to adapt one’s taste to all food and to hold it in control in all likelihoods.b Additionally this sort of mortification is not visible, does not bother anyone, and is uniquely proper for social life.c To refuse one food in order to take another, to taste and scrape off everything, never to find anything well dressed nor good enough, to make a fuss over each morsel, that reveals a slothful heart, paying attention to dishes and bowls. I respect more that Saint Bernard drank oil by mistake for water or wine than if he had carefully drunk absinthe,d for that was a sign that he did not think of what he was drinking—and in that nonchalance about what one ought to eat or to drink lies the perfection of the practice of that sacred word: “Eat what is set before you.” Nonetheless, I would make an exception for foods that are harmful to health or that trouble one’s spirit, as do several hot, spicy, smoked, and stimulating foods, and some occasions in which nature needs to be restored and assisted in order to be able to sustain some work for the glory of God. A continuous and moderate sobriety is better than intense abstinence on various occasions, interspersed with great gorgings.

The discipline has a marvelous ability to awaken the appetite for devotion, when it is used moderately. The hair shirt greatly mortifies the body, but its use is not for the ordinary person, neither for married people, nor those of delicate constitutions, nor those who have to endure other major suffering. It is true that on significant days of penance one can use it with the advice of a prudent confessor.e

One must use the night for sleeping,f each according to his disposition, as far as is needed to ensure the good use of the day. And because of Holy Scripture (in a hundred ways), the example of saints, and natural reason we greatly recommend the mornings as the best and most fruitful parts of our days. Our Lord himself was called “The Rising Sun”g and Our Lady “The Break of Day.”h I think that it is a virtuous concern to take one’s sleep in the early evening, in order to be able to take one’s awakening and arising early. Of course, this time is the most free, the most peaceful, and the least troubled. The birds themselves rouse us to rise in it and to the praises of God—so rising early is helpful to health and holiness.

a. Francis retells the story of Balaam and his donkey from Numbers 22 and 23. Both Balaam the prophet and Balak the king of Moab were pagan residents of Palestine at the time of the arrival from Egypt of the conquering Israelites. Balak called on Balaam to prophesy the defeat of the Israelites. (Hence, Francis’s phrase, “… he did not have the right intention…”).

b. 2 Kings 12:16 [2 Samuel 12:16]: “And David pleaded with the LORD for the child, and David kept a fast, and going in by himself, lay upon the ground.”

c. One is reminded of St. Francis of Assisi, who, when he was scourging his own body, said to it: “Ah, Brother Ass, thus must thou be led, thus must thou submit to the lash” (Thomas of Celano; Placid, Herman, ed.; Second Life of Saint Francis of Assisi; Franciscan Herald Press; Chicago; 1963).

d. Joel 2:13: “Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of evil.”

e. The verbs in this sentence are about as extreme as possible: they are unqualifiedly brutal—but it must be noted that they are addressed not against the flesh, but against the straying heart. This sentence and the long metaphorical apostrophe preceding it both emphasize that the flesh is not to blame for its sins, but the heart and mind are responsible. This is part of Francis’s general advice against immoderate physical ascetics.

f. As in English, the French la démangeaison means both a literal “itching” and a metaphorical “yearning.”

Balaam, mounted on his donkey, went to find Balak, but because he did not have the right intention, the angel waited in the roadway with a sword in his hand to kill him.a The donkey, who saw the angel, stopped three different times, as though stubborn. However, Balaam beat her cruelly with his staff in order to move her forward, until at the third time she lay down under Balaam, and spoke to him by a great miracle, saying, “What have I done? Why have you beaten me three times?” And immediately afterward, Balaam’s eyes were opened and he saw the angel, who said to him, “Why do you beat the donkey? If she had not turned away from me, I would have killed you and spared her.” Then Balaam said to the angel, “Lord, I have sinned, for I did not know that you had put yourself before me in the roadway.” See, my child: it was Balaam who was the cause of evil, but he hit and beat the poor donkey who could not help it.

It is often so in our affairs: for a woman sees her husband or her child fall ill, and suddenly she takes up fasting, or the hair cloth, or the discipline, as did David in a similar occasion.b Alas, dear friend, you beat the poor donkey,c you afflict your body, and it can be neither your evil, nor that God has unsheathed his sword against you. Correct your heart that idolizes your husband and that allows a thousand faults to the child and destines him to pride, vanity, and ambition. Another man sees that he often falls heavily to the sin of lust. The inner reproach comes upon his conscience with sword in hand, to pierce him with holy fear, and suddenly his heart returns to him. “Ah! Treacherous flesh!” he says, “Ah, disloyal body! You have betrayed me.” And see, out of control, he strikes great blows on that flesh—blows of immoderate fasting, of excessive disciplines, and of unbearable hair shirts. O poor donkey! If your flesh could speak like Balaam’s donkey, she would say to you, “Why do you strike me, wretched one? It is against you, O my soul, that God arms his vengeance. It is you who are the criminal! Why are you leading me into bad company? Why do you use my eyes, my hands, my lips in lasciviousness? Why do you trouble me with evil imaginations? Form good thoughts, and I will not have any evil impulses. Stay with modest people, and I will not be shaken with my lust. Alas! It is you who throw me into the fire, and you who do not want me to burn! It is you who blow the smoke into my eyes, and you who do not want them to be inflamed!”d And God without doubt says to you in this case: “Beat, break, chop, and crush your hearts because it is mainly against them that my anger is roused.”e Certainly to cure the itching,f it is not so much a need to wash and bathe as to purify the blood and refresh the liver—just so, to heal us of our vices, although it may be good to mortify the flesh, it is especially necessary fully to purify our affections and refresh our hearts. But in every instance and in every place we must not undertake these corporal austerities without the advice of our spiritual director.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 24

a. The French title is Des conversations et de la solitude. The French word conversations does mean “conversations,” but it also encompasses and includes other social exchanges and interchanges among people. “Society” is an effort to find such a sweepingly inclusive word.

b. The French in this sentence is very confusing, and translation is something of a guess. The translation of quand on y est is usually “when one is there,” but the single-letter French word y has an obscure and rare meaning of “at home” that I have chosen to use.

c. “Let your consideration begin with yourself, lest, while you neglect yourself, you waste your energies on other things” (St. Bernard, De Consideration 1, 3).

d. “Not in the work only, but also in the hive where their wax helps the bees, and they contribute much to the heating of the swarm” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 11.11). [The naturalist Jean Cuvier (1769–1832) pointed out that Pliny was wrong in saying that the drones helped the bees make honey—they help make only the wax.]

i PART III. CHAPTER 24.

Of Society and Solitudea

To seek human interactions or to shun them: both are blameworthy severities in polite devotion about which I have been speaking to you. To avoid such interactions shows disdain and contempt of our neighbor, and to pursue them amounts to sloth and uselessness. We must love our neighbor as ourselves—and to show that one loves him, one must not shun him; and to show that one loves oneself, one ought to stay by oneself when one is at home (but only when one is alone).b “Think first of yourself,” says Saint Bernard, “and then of others.”c So if nothing presses you to go to gatherings or to entertain in your home, rest within your own heart and entertain yourself with your heart; but if you happen to be in a gathering, or any appropriate occasion calls upon you to be there, go as though from God, my child, and see your neighbor as having a good heart and look favorably on him.

We call evil those associations that are made for some evil intention or when those that come together in them are vicious, indiscreet, and dissolute; and as far as they are concerned, one must avoid them as the bees avoid a swarm of wasps and hornets.d For as those who have been bitten by rabid dogs have dangerous perspiration, breath, and saliva (especially for children and people of fragile constitution), just so the vicious and dissolute people cannot be visited without risk and peril (especially for those whose devotion is still tender and fragile).

There are some social exchanges useless for any purpose except recreation alone that are held in order to divert us from our serious occupations, and to these we must not become too addicted—although one can give them the leisure time intended for recreation.

Other social gatherings are for respectful reasons, such as mutual visits and certain meetings that are held to pay respect to one’s neighbor. Regarding these, one ought not to be gullible in participating in them (although one must not be impolite in deriding them), but to fulfill the duty one cannot escape with modesty, avoiding both rudeness and levity.

There do remain useful social gatherings, like those of devout and virtuous persons. O my child, this will always be a great good for you to meet often with these people. Vines that are planted among the olive trees bear grapes that are mellow and have the taste of olives—so the soul that finds itself often among people of virtue cannot but share in their characters. The drones cannot make honey alone, but with the other bees, they help to make it—so it is a great advantage for us to practice devotion by conversing with devout souls.

In all companies sincerity, simplicity, calmness, and modesty are always preferred. There are people who neither have any kind of discussion nor make any gesture except with so much artifice that everyone is bored. And as one who would never walk without counting his steps nor speak without singing, it would be troubling for the rest of humanity—just so, those who affect an artificial manner and who do nothing without a cadence are extremely annoying to the company. And in this sort of person there is always some sort of impudence. Ordinarily a moderate happiness ought to prevail in our gatherings. Saint Romualda and Saint Antonyb are highly praised for despite all their austerities, they had the face and words adorned with joy, cheerfulness, and courtesy. Rejoice with the joyous,c I say to you once again with the Apostle: “Always be joyful, but in Our Lord, and let your modesty appear to everyone.”d In order to rejoice in Our Savior, it is necessary that the subject of your joy be not only permissible, but honorable—that is, because there are things that are permissible but yet are not honorable. And in order that your modesty may appear, beware of insolence that without doubt is always blameworthy. To make someone miserable, to defame another, to offend a third, to do harm to a retarded person, these are insulting and disrespectful fun and games.e

a. St. Romuald (c. 950–1027) at the age of twenty entered a monastery, but soon, desiring a stricter way of life, he withdrew to be a hermit on an obscure island, where he lived by a rule that included the following: “Empty yourself completely and sit waiting.”

b. St. Antony (251–356), known as Antony the Great, was the most prominent leader of the eremitic Desert Fathers in Egypt. His biography was written by St. Athanasius, and he became famous worldwide. He is one of the first hermits to choose to live in solitude in the desert proper. His concepts of the eremitic life were expanded in the writings of St. John Cassian and had a significant impact on all of Western monasticism.

c. Romans 12:15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.”

d. See Philippians 4:4–5: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is near.”

e. These “fun and games” are French idioms and could also be translated literally, that is, “to make one fall, to blacken the other, to prick the third, to hurt a fool.”

f. St. Mary the Egyptian (c. 344–c. 421) was a prostitute in Alexandria in Egypt. She joined a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to find customers among the pilgrims, but when she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, she was stopped by an invisible force. After repenting, she returned to the church and took vows as a solitary, living in the wilderness of Palestine.

g. St. Paul of Thebes (d. c. 341) was the first Christian hermit. During the persecution of Christians around 250, he fled to the Theban desert and lived there as a hermit for the rest of his life. Legend has it that St. Antony visited and, finding Paul dead, he wrapped him in his own tunic and then watched as two desert lions appeared and together dug his grave.

h. St. Arsenius the Great (350–c. 445) was a deacon and tutor to the Roman emperor’s sons for eleven years. Then he left the palace and joined the desert monks in Egypt. When his student Arcadius became emperor, he begged Arsenius to return to court, but he refused, and lived for fifty-five years as a solitary hermit until his death. An adage of his became popular: “Many times did I speak, and then felt sorry, but I never once regretted my silence.”

i. “I walk alone toward the evening sun. The place where I walk further is on the bank of the sea. For when alone it is always a pleasure to dissolve the labors and to relax” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 26:8).

But always, in addition to the inner solitude to which you can remove yourself even from among the larger crowds (as I have said above), you ought to love real and present solitude—not to go to the deserts like Saint Mary the Egyptian,f Saint Paul,g Saint Antony, Arsenius,h and the other hermit fathers—but to be rather in your room, in your garden, and elsewhere where you can more easily turn your spirit into your heart, and refresh your soul by good reflection and holy thoughts, or a little good reading, such as the great Bishop Nazianzen who, speaking of himself, said: “I walked alone by myself,” he said, “under the setting sun, and spent time on the shore of the sea, for it has been my custom to use that recreation for refreshing myself and shaking off a few of my ordinary troubles.”i Then he tells of the good ideas he had (as I have said elsewhere).

And also after the example of Saint Ambrose, of whom Saint Augustine said that often, having come into Ambrose’s own house (for he refused entry to no one), he saw him reading, and after having waited for some time, in fear of disturbing him, Augustine went away without saying a word, thinking that the little time remaining to this great pastor to reinvigorate and rest his mind after the hassle of so many duties ought not to be taken away.a Also, after the Apostle had one day told Our Lord how they had preached and done many things, “Come,” he said to them, “in solitude, and there you will rest a little.”b

a. “Often when we had come in (for no man was forbidden to enter, nor was it his custom that anyone who came had be announced to him), we saw him reading to himself, and never anything else; and having long sat silent (for who dared to intrude on one so intent?) we were happy to depart, thinking that in the little interval he had obtained, free from the noise of business, for the refreshing of his mind, we were reluctant to disturb him” (St. Augustine, Confessions 6.3).

b. Mark 6:30–31a: “And the apostles, coming together to Jesus, related to him all the things they had done and taught. And he said to them, ‘Come apart onto a desert place, and rest a little.’”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 25

c. 1 Timothy 2:9: “In like manner women also in decent apparel, adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with plaited hair or gold or pearls or costly attire.” Also see 1 Peter 3:3: “… whose adorning, let it not be the outward plaiting of the hair. Or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel.”

d. Isaiah 52:11b: “Be clean, you that carry the vessels of the LORD.” St. Paul reprised this in 2 Corinthians 6:17: “Therefore go out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing.” It seems that Francis must be including clergy in his thinking as “those who approach his altars.”

e. 1 Timothy 5:3, 5: “Honor widows who are widows indeed. She that is a widow indeed, and alone, let her trust in God, and continue in supplications and prayers night and day.” Since the earliest days of the Church, widows who chose to remain unmarried were supported by the Church and expected to live lives of prayer and entreaty—virtually the life of nuns. And St. Paul is very opposed to widows remarrying. [This is related both to the early Christian preference of a person having only one spouse for life (even if widowed—see 1 Timothy 3:3: “A bishop must be the husband of one wife.”) and early Christians’ belief in an imminent Second Coming—see 1 Corinthians 7:26–27: “I think therefore that it is good for the present crisis, for a person to remain as he is.”

f. A wonderful adage: “If you have nothing for sale, don’t advertise!”

i PART III. CHAPTER 25.

On Propriety in Dress

Saint Paul wishes that devout women—and it must also be said of men—be dressed “in decent apparel, adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety.”c However, the propriety of clothes and other ornaments depends on the material, the shape, and the cleanliness. As for the cleanliness, it must almost always be uniform in all our clothes, on which, for as long as possible, we must not allow any kind of soil or stain. The external cleanliness represents in some fashion the inner modesty. God himself requires bodily modesty in those who approach his altars and who have the principle custody of devotion.d

As for the material and shape of clothes, propriety is determined by many circumstances of the time, the age, the quality, the companions, and the occasions. One usually dresses oneself better on holidays depending on the solemnity of the day that is celebrated. In a time of penance, as in Lent, one dismisses ornaments altogether. At marriages, one wears wedding garments; at funeral gatherings, robes of mourning. In the company of princes, one goes as high as state dress (which must be dropped when among the household). A married woman can and should adorn herself when with her husband and when he wants it. If she does the same when away from him, someone will ask whose eyes she wishes to favor with that particular care. One permits more ornaments for young girls, because they can lawfully wish to attract many men—although it must be in order for them to gain one of them by a holy marriage. It is not any more wicked for widows who intend to marry—provided that they do not seem at all frivolous, especially having already been mothers of families and having passed through the grief of widowhood, one assumes their mind to be mature and tempered. But as to the true widowse—who are so not only in body but also in heart—no ornament is adequate for them except humility, modesty, and devotion; for if they want to give love to men, they are not true widows, and if they do not want to give it, why would they be wearing the trappings? Whoever does not wish to receive guests ought to remove the sign from his house.f Someone always makes fun of old people who try to make themselves attractive—that is a folly that is not acceptable except for the young.

Be neat, my child, so that there is nothing hanging loose on you or arranged badly. That shows disrespect for those with whom one assembles, to go among them in distasteful apparel. But beware of all affectation, vanity, idiosyncrasy, and frivolity. Stay always as much as you can on the side of simplicity and modesty—that is without doubt the greatest ornament of beauty and the best defense for unattractiveness. Saint Peter warns mainly young women not to wear their hair so much curled and frizzed in rings and plaited.a Men who are so weak as to amuse themselves with these fripperies are everywhere decried as effeminate, and the vain women are taken to pass for mindless when it comes to chastity—at least if they do have chastity, it is not visible among their many trifles and gewgaws. They say that they do not think evil in those things, but I reply as I have said elsewhere,b that the devil is always thinking about those things. For myself, I would like my devout men and my devout women always to be the best dressed of the party, but less pompous and affected, and, as the proverb says, adorned with grace, dignity, and decency. Saint Louis says in a word that one must dress according to one’s station, so that the wise and good cannot say: “You are doing too much,” nor the young people: “you are doing too little.”c

a. 1 Peter 3:3: “Let not the adorning be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel.”

b. See Part II, Chapter 27.

c. “For the wise man says: one ought to dress oneself in the clothes and coat of arms in such a way that an honest man of this century would not say that one has done too much, nor the young people of this century that one has done too little” (Joinville [1224-1317], The Life of Saint Louis 1:6).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 26

d. Matthew 12:37: “For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.”

e. Psalm 36:30 [37:32]: “The mouth of the just shall meditate on wisdom, and this shall speak of judgment.”

f. “[St. Francis of Assisi] used to say the Psalms with such attention of mind and of spirit as if he saw God present before his eyes, and when the Lord’s Name occurred there, he seemed to lick his lips with the savor of its sweetness” (St. Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi 10, §7). This is an unusual claim since, of course, the name of Jesus does not occur in the Old Testament Psalms and the putative Hebrew name of Godself (that is, yahweh) did not appear in the Latin Vulgate. Dominus (“LORD”) had been substituted wherever the Hebrew name appeared, so one wonders what “name” elicited such reaction from St. Francis.

g. Francis de Sales, the Prince-Bishop of Geneva himself, here issues a subtle gibe at the bombast of preachers in seventeenth-century France.

h. Song of Songs 4:11: “Your lips, my bride, are like a dripping honeycomb; milk and honey are beneath your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the scent of frankincense.”

i. One is reminded of the image from Deuteronomy 32:2: “Let my teaching gather like the rain.”

j. The word “angel” is from the Greek angelos, meaning “messenger.” Hence, the “angelic duty” Francis gives to his protégé is to carry God’s message to humans. It is interesting to see that he cautions against doing this “as a correction”—that is, not conveying the idea of divine judgment, but of divine love and compassion.

But in case the young do not want to be content with decency, it will be necessary to settle for the advice of the wise.

i PART III. CHAPTER 26.

Of Conversation and, First, How We Must Speak of God

Physicians obtain a great knowledge of the health or illness of a person by inspection of the tongue, just as our words are the true indicators of the condition of our souls. “By your words,” says the Lord, “you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.”d We readily move our hand to the pain we feel, and our tongue to the love we have.

So if you are in love with God, my child, you will speak often of God, in the familiar chatting that you do with your family, friends, and neighbors. Yes, the mouth of the just shall meditate on wisdom, and his tongue will speak of judgment.e And as the bees extract nothing but honey with their tiny mouths, just so your tongue should always be sweetened with its God, and there will be no greater sweetness than what is felt flowing out between your lips in praises and blessings of his Name. As it is said of Saint Francis that he never uttered the holy name of the Lord without sucking and licking his lips so as to draw from them the greatest sweetness in the world.f

But always speak of God as God—that is to say, reverently and devoutly, never saying it arrogantly or like a preacher,g but with the spirit of sweetness, charity, and humility, distilling as much as you can (as is said of the Bride in the Song of Songs)h of the delicious honey of devotion and of things divine, drop by drop, into the ear of one and sometimes of another, praying God in the secret place of your soul that it may please him to pass this holy dew deep into the heart of those who hear you.i Especially we must do this angelic dutyj meekly and gently, not as a correction, but as an inspiration, for it is a wonder how this sweetness and amiable way of suggesting some good thing may be a powerful attraction to win over hearts.

a. An almost brutal judgment against empty clerical and/or monastic vanity that pays attention to the elegance or style of the words without “attention and devotion.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 27

b. James 3:2: “For in many things we all offend. If any man does not offend in word, he is a perfect man. He is also able to lead his whole body with a bridle.”

c. See Matthew 12:34: “O generation of vipers, how can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart.”

d. Angelica is an herb of the Apiaceae family. Some species are grown as flavoring agents or for their medicinal properties. The roots and seeds are sometimes used to flavor gin. Legend has it that it was revealed in a dream by an angel as a cure for the plague (hence, the name). It is also said to bloom on May 8, a feast day known as “The Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel.”

e. Ephesians 5:3: “But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becomes saints.”

f. 1 Corinthians 15:33: “Be not seduced. Evil communications corrupt good manners.” Actually, this is an adage that St. Paul borrowed from the Greek comedy writer Menander (342–291 bc), who included it in his play about a beautiful Greek courtesan named “Thais.”

g. The French is à couvert, meaning “hidden” or “undercover.”

So never speak of God or of devotion in a thoughtless or routine way, but always with attention and devotion. I say this in order to free you from a remarkable vanity that is found in many who profess devotion, which is all about saying holy and fervent words by way of entertainment, and without thinking anything, and after having spoken, it is their opinion that they are what they have spoken, but the words reflect something that does not exist.a

i PART III. CHAPTER 27.

Of Modesty in Words and the Respect Due to Others

“If someone does not sin at all in word,” says Saint James, “he is a perfect human.”b Beware most cautiously of uttering any immodest words, for even though you may not speak them with wicked intent, those who hear them may receive them in a different way. The immodest word falling into a weak heart extends and spreads like a drop of oil on cloth, and sometimes it seizes on the heart in such a way that it fills it with a thousand lustful thoughts and temptations. For as poison to the body may enter through the mouth, similarly poison to the heart may enter through the ear, and the tongue that produces it is a murderer—although the venom that it spits out may not have its effect because it may find the hearts of the listeners provided with some antidote; nevertheless, it is not for the lack of malice that it has not killed them. And let no one tell me that he does not think this is so, for Our Lord who knew the thoughts has said that “the mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart.”c And although we may not think evil, the Evil One nonetheless thinks a lot, and always secretly uses those evil words to pierce someone’s heart. It is said that those who eat the herb called Angelicad always have sweet and pleasant breath—and those who have modesty and chastity at heart (which are the angelic virtues) always have their words chaste, pure, and modest. As for the foolish and indecent, the Apostle does not even want them named,e assuring us that nothing corrupts good manners like evil company.f

If these indecent words are spoken under a disguise,g with affectation and subtlety, they are far more poisonous—for just as the sharper a crossbow bolt, the more easily it enters into our bodies, so too the more pointed an evil word, the more it will penetrate our hearts. And those who think they are gallant men to speak such words in conversation, do not even know what conversations are made for, because they ought to be like swarms of bees who make honey out of sweet and virtuous discourse, rather than like a troop of wasps who get together in order to suck some rotten filth. If some fool were to speak lascivious words to you, show him that your ears are offended by either turning yourself away or by some other means according as your judgment will suggest.

a. “Then to make game or fun of a person is to scorn him completely and to think him so despicable that his misfortune does not trouble us at all, but is kept as an object of derision. In this way derision is a mortal sin, and more serious than reviling … because the reviler would seem to take another’s another’s evil seriously; whereas the derider does so in fun, and so would seem to despise and dishonor the other man more. Therefore, in this sense, derision is a grievous sin, and all the more grievous to the degree that a greater respect is due to the person derided” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 2 of 2. 75. 2)

b. “Since then deriding or reviling essentially indicates a dishonoring, if the intention of the one who speaks is to dishonor the other. This is strictly and essentially to express deriding or reviling: and this is a mortal sin no less than theft or robbery, since a man loves his honor no less than his possessions” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 2 of 2. 72. 2).

c. “When we were privately at his court, [Louis] sat at the foot of his bed, and when the Preachers and the Franciscans who were there spoke to him of a book that he had heard of gladly, he told them: ‘Do not read to me—for is it not as good to read after eating as it is to offer ad libitum, that is to say, that everyone says what he wants’” (Joinville, The Life of Saint Louis 2:135, 668).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 28

d. The French is téméraires which means “rash,” “reckless,” “daring,” or “foolhardy.” One translator uses “hasty.”

e. Luke 6:37: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven.”

f. 1 Corinthians 4:5: “Therefore do not judge before the time; until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then every man shall have praise from God.”

g. An insightful conceit: human beings ought not to judge because they were not designed to be judges by their Creator! Judgment was reserved for himself by God.

h. Francis recognizes the very core of moral theology: the intention of the actor is the primary element in determining the morality of the act. And that that intention is hidden from the rest of the world—“the secret of darkness,” as Francis elegantly puts it—and therefore can never be known for certain by anyone else. One cannot know the morality of another’s acts without knowing that person’s intention.

This is one of the worst situations that a spirit can encounter: that is, to be one who ridicules another. God utterly abhors that vice and in the past has given it extraordinary punishments. Nothing is so opposed to charity and even more so to devotion than the scorning and condemnation of a neighbor, and derision and mockery are never found without scorn. That is why it is a very great sin, so that the Scholars have cause to say that mockery is the most evil kind of offense that one can commit against a neighbor by words, because the other offenses can be committed while still having some respect for the one who is offended, but this one is made with scorn and contempt.a

But as for the word-games that we play with one another with unpretentious fun and joviality, they obviously have the virtue called eutrapelia by the Greeks, which we can call “pleasant conversation.” And by their means one can take an honest and friendly enjoyment in the silly occasions that human imperfections furnish us with. But it is necessary to be on guard to avoid passing from that honest mirth into mockery.b Mockery provokes laughter by scorn and contempt for one’s neighbor, but mirth and drollery provoke laugher by simple liberty, confidence in each other, and friendly rights, joined with the cleverness of some word or other. Saint Louis, when the monks wanted to speak of exalted subjects, said, “It is not time for debates but to amuse ourselves with some jokes and quips. Let each one say whatever he feels like—but honorably.”c This he said to relax the nobility who were around him to accept his Majesty’s expressions of affection. But, my child, let us pass the time in recreation in such a way that we may keep ourselves for the blessed eternity by devotion.

i PART III. CHAPTER 28.

Of Recklessd Judgments

“Do not judge and you will not be judged,” says the Savior of our souls. “Condemn not and you will not be condemned.”e “No,” says the Apostle, “do not judge before the time, till the Lord come, who will reveal the secret of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts.”f Oh, how displeasing to God are rash judgments! The judgments of the children of men are reckless because they are not meant to be judges of each other, and in judging they usurp the office of Our Lord.g They are reckless because the principal evil of sin depends on the intention and guidance of the heart—which is the secret of darkness for us.h They are reckless because each one has enough to do in judging himself without undertaking to judge his neighbor. This is something equally necessary in order not to be judged: that is, one must both avoid judging others and also judge oneself, for as Our Lord forbids us to do the one and the Apostle commands us to do the other, saying, “If we judge ourselves, we will not be judged.” “Do not judge and you will not be judged.” But, O God, we all do the opposite: for what is forbidden us we continue to do—judging our neighbor on every occasion; and what is commanded of us—that is, that we judge ourselves—we never do.

a. Amos 5:7: “You that turn judgment into wormwood, and forsake justice in the land.…”

b. Francis’s mention of the bitterness of heart being “natural” is another reference to the medical system of humorism that held sway in seventeenth-century Europe. In that understanding, a person who was bad-tempered, bitter, and unpleasant would have been believed to be suffering from an imbalance of humors: that is, a surplus of yellow bile. Francis makes clear the moral implications of this: it is not a sin (because it is “natural”) but it is an imperfection that is difficult to overcome.

c. The first cause of reckless judgment was a natural one—but now Francis points out another cause: pride. This does have strong moral implications, and Francis also demonstrates his usual psychological perception in recognizing that in this case one enhances one’s own self-esteem by belittling or demeaning others.

d. Luke 18:11: “The Pharisee standing, prayed this way with himself: ‘O God, I give you thanks that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican.…”

e. The third type of the recklessly judgmental person quietly rejoices privately in seeing weaknesses or inadequacies in others, specifically where one perceives oneself to be strong and accomplished. In this case, the spiritual damage is done to the judge, not to the judged.

f. The fourth motive for reckless judgment is a very subtle psychological one: one exults at the discovery of someone else (or, better, many others) who demonstrates one’s own failings, thereby justifying oneself.

g. The fifth recklessly judgmental activity comes from one’s armchair psychoanalysis of another’s weaknesses or needs—a very common and powerful way to avoid emotional involvement and mentally to retain a position of presumed superiority.

h. Reckless judgment is based, in the sixth place, on one’s emotional certainty of one’s own universal rightness—and, therefore, judgment against anyone who disagrees. And, somewhat unusually, Francis includes jealousy under this heading.

i. “The ophiusa [“serpent-plant”] that is found in Elephantine, an island of Ethiopia, is a plant of a livid color, and repulsive to the sight. Taken by a person in a drinkit arouses such a horror of serpents, that his imagination shows to be constantly threatening him, that eventually he commits suicide; so persons guilty of sacrilege are forced to drink a mixture of it” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 24.140, 102).

Accordingly, the causes of these reckless judgments must be remedied. There are sour hearts, bitter and harsh by their very nature, that make everything they encounter just as sour and bitter, and “turning judgment into wormwood,” as the Prophet says,a by never judging his neighbor except with all rigor and harshness. These people have a great need to fall into the hands of a good spiritual physician; because this bitterness of heart of theirs is natural, it is difficult to overcome, and although in itself it is not sin—but only an imperfection—nevertheless it is dangerous because it introduces reckless judgment and slander and makes those hold sway in the soul.b Some judge recklessly not through harshness, but through pride.c Their opinion is that by the degree they diminish the honor of others, they will enhance their own. Arrogant and presumptuous minds admire themselves and place themselves so high in their own esteem that they see all the rest as petty and lowly—“I am not like the rest of men,” said the fool Pharisee.d

Some who do not have evident pride, in this way alone find some small satisfaction in considering the evil of others, savoring and enjoying more sweetly the opposite of the good qualities with which they consider themselves gifted. And this complacency is so secret and imperceptible that unless one has a good view of it one cannot discover it, and even those who are infected with it do not know unless one shows it to them.e Others, in order to flatter themselves and to excuse themselves to themselves and to soften the remorse of their consciences, willingly judge that others are guilty of the same vice to which they themselves are addicted, or some other one just as great, thinking that the multitude of the guilty makes their own sin less blameworthy.f Many engage in reckless judgment only for the pleasure they find in applying philosophy and analyzing manners as an exercise of the mind—and, if unfortunately they sometimes discover the truth in their judgments, the audacity and appetite to continue grows in them so that it is hard for them to turn away.g Others judge on the basis of passion and think that what they like is always good and what they hate is always evil, except in one case—wonderful and nonetheless true—in which the excess of love leads to misjudgment of the person one loves—indeed monstrous, but also proceeding from an impure, imperfect, troubled, and ailing love—that is, jealousy through which, as everyone knows, a simple glance, the slightest smile on another, may convict the beloved of treachery and adultery.h Finally fear, ambition, and such other weaknesses of mind often contribute significantly to the production of suspicion and reckless judgments.

But, what remedies? Those who drink the juice of the herb ophiusa of Ethiopia imagine that they see snakes and horrible thingsi—so too those who have swallowed pride, envy, ambition, and hatred see nothing in others except what they find bad and blameworthy. The former, in order to be healed, must drink palm wine, and I say the same to the latter: drink as much as you can of the sacred wine of charity. It will free you from those bad moods that cause you to make those tortuous judgments. Charity dreads meeting evil in others, so she never goes out looking for it, and when she encounters it, she turns her face away and pretends not to see it, and so she closes her eyes before it appears, at the first sound she notices, and then she believes with a holy simplicity that this is not evil itself, but only a shadow or ghost of evil—unless by chance she recognizes that it is evil itself; then she turns entirely away immediately and tries to forget the appearance. Love is the great remedy for all evils, but especially this one. All things appear yellow to the eyes of those with jaundice, and it is said that to cure this evil, it is necessary for them to wear celandine under the soles of their feet.a Certainly this sin of reckless judgments is a spiritual jaundice that makes everything look evil in the eyes of those who are infected. But those who wish to be healed must apply remedies—neither to the eyes nor to the understanding, but to the affections that are the feet of the soul. If your affections are gentle, your judgment will be gentle; if they are charitable, your judgment will be the same. I offer you three admirable examples.

a. Celandine is an herb in the poppy family and is still used today by herbalists in the treatment of jaundice. It is spoken of by the Italian physician and botanist Pietro Andrea Mallioli (1500–1577) in his Commentarii (2.176), as part of Paracelsus’s “doctrine of signatures,” that is, use of a yellow flower to treat the yellowing of jaundice.

b. The story is found in Genesis 26:7–9. When Isaac entered the Philistine land of Gerar (of which Abimelech was king), he decided to pass off his attractive wife, Rebecca, as his sister, fearing that the Philistines would kill him to get to her if it were known they were married. By chance, Abimelech saw Isaac and Rebecca making love and concluded that they were married. It is curious that Francis uses the nonjudgmental virtue of a Philistine as a model.

c. Another perceptive poetic adage so common in Francis’s work. For him, this is part of Francis’s expansion of the dominical counsel: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

d. Matthew 1:19: “Whereupon Joseph [Mary’s] husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately.”

e. Luke 23:34a: “And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I think Francis is unique in this intriguing belief that the crucified Christ “not being able to excuse” the sins of his crucifiers, declared their ignorance as the ground for forgiveness. He means to say that the cruel and brutal acts of his killers could not be entirely overlooked (because of their evident evil nature) but that even in the face of such viciousness, Jesus was able to find a mitigation in their ignorance—even in the very face of torture, he searched for some redemptive aspect in his killers.

Isaac said that Rebecca was his sister. Abimelech saw that Isaac was playing with her, that is to say, he was caressing her tenderly, and Abimelech immediately concluded that she was Isaac’s wife.b A malicious eye would have judged her to be his mistress, or, if she was his sister, that it had been incest. But Abimelech followed the most charitable opinion that he could hold, given such a fact. It is necessary always to do the same, my child, judging in favor of one’s neighbor as much as we can. If an action of a neighbor could have a hundred aspects, we must always look at that one that is the most beautiful.c Saint Joseph saw clearly that Our Lady was great with child, but because the other side of her he saw was all holy, all pure, all angelic, he could not believe that she was pregnant against his respects, so that he resolved to leave her, entrusting the judgment to God. Although the argument was very strong for him to consider a bad opinion of this virgin, he would never judge her for it. But why? Because the Spirit of God said that he was a just man.d When a just man can no longer excuse either the fact or the intention of someone whom in fact he knows to be a good person, nevertheless he does not wish to judge, but puts it out of his mind and leaves the judgment to God. But the crucified Savior, not being able to excuse all the sins of those who crucified him, at least lessened the malice of it by alleging their ignorance.e When we cannot excuse another’s sin, at least let us recognize it as deserving of compassion: attributing it to the most unobjectionable cause that it may have—like ignorance or weakness. But may one never judge one’s neighbor, then? Certainly not! Not ever! It is God, my child, who judges criminals in courts of justice. True, he uses the voice of the magistrates in order to make it intelligible to our ears. They are his intermediaries and interpreters, and they ought to declare nothing except what they have learned from him, since they are his oracles. If they do otherwise, they are following their own passions, so it is truly they personally who judge and who will accordingly be judged, because it is forbidden for men, in their nature as men, to judge others.a

a. A very broad and rare idea: that the magistrates execute God’s judgment even in the civil courts—an expansion of the counsel in Hebrews 13:17: “Obey those who have command over you, and be subject to them. For they watch for your souls, as it were, to render an account; that they may do this with joy, and not with grief. For that would not be expedient for you.” Francis adds a caution to the magistrates: that they not make “personal” judgments lest they thus become susceptible to being judged themselves.

b. John 3:18: “He who believes in [the Son] is not judged. But he that does not believe, is already judged: because he does not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

c. The French is quelque œil malin, literally, “some evil eye.”

d. Genesis 29:10–11: “And when Jacob saw [Rachel], and knew she was his cousin and her flock were the sheep of his uncle Laban, he removed the stone which sealed the well, and having watered the flock, he kissed her, and wept [for joy].” Jacob had traveled far to seek a wife from his own tribe, and when he saw Rachel, he realized he had found the family.

e. Genesis 24:22: “And after that the camels had drunk, the man [Eliezer] took out golden earrings weighing two shekels: and bracelets weighing ten shekels [and gave them to Rebecca].” Eliezer was Abraham’s steward whom he sent to find a wife for his son Isaac from among the members of his own tribe. Eliezer asked God to send a sign when he had found the right woman: that she would offer to water his camels. This Rebecca did, and Eliezer knew he had found the right woman and presented her with precious jewelry (which Francis suggests could have been seen as an improper gift for Rebecca to accept from a stranger).

f. It is interesting that Francis does not claim that there are no “obscure matters” or “hazy actions” among one’s neighbors—only that one’s conscience should require that one not set out to try to discover those things.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 29

g. Reminiscent of Mark 7:21: “For within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, a malicious eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.”

h. Isaiah 6:6–7: In Isaiah’s vision of heaven, “One of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal which he had taken with tongs off the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, ‘Behold this has touched your lips and your iniquities are taken away and your sin will be cleansed.’”

i. The French has la bonne renommée, literally, “the good name.” I have chosen to translate that as “reputation” or, when required by the context, “good reputation.”

To see or know a thing, that is not to judge, for judgment—as least according to the words of Scripture—presupposes some difficulty, small or great, real or apparent, that must be decided. That is why it is said that “those who do not believe are already judged” because there is no doubt of their condemnation.b So it is not wrong, then, to doubt one’s neighbor (because it is not forbidden to doubt as it is to judge), but it is not, however, permitted either to doubt or to suspect any further than reason or logic compel us to do. Otherwise the doubts and suspicions are reckless. If some malicious eyec had seen Jacob when he kissed Rachel at the well,d or saw Rebecca accept the bracelets and earrings from Eliezer (a man unknown in that country),e he would without doubt think badly of those as examples of chastity, but without reason and foundation—for when an action is indifferent in itself, it is a reckless suspicion to draw an evil conclusion from it unless many incidents give strength to the argument. It is a reckless judgment to draw a conclusion about an action in order to blame the person—but of that I will speak more clearly later.

Finally, those who care about their conscience are not prone to reckless judgment, for like the bees, who seeing the fog or the cloudy weather retire to their hives to take care of their honey, so too the thoughts of good souls do not go in search of obscure matters among the hazy actions of the neighbors.f In order thus to avoid falling in with that, they draw themselves privately into their own hearts in order to deal with good intentions for their own amendment.

There is no use for a good soul to amuse itself by the inspection of the lives of others. (I exempt those who have charge of others in the family or in the country, for a good part of their duties consists in guarding and watching over others. So, then, let them do their duty with love, but beyond that let them keep to themselves in that regard.)

i PART III. CHAPTER 29.

On Slander

From reckless judgment proceeds anxiety, contempt of one’s neighbor, pride, self-complacency, and a hundred other very harmful effectsg among which slander takes the first place, as the true pestilence of society. Oh, that I could have coals from the holy altar touch the lips of human beings so that their iniquity would be removed and their sin cleansed, in imitation of the Seraph who purified the mouth of Isaiah.h He could obliterate the slander of the world, thereby removing a major part of its sins and the iniquity.

Whoever unjustly steals the reputationi of his neighbor, in addition to the sin that he commits, is obliged to make reparation—although differently depending on the different kinds of scandals—for he cannot enter into heaven with anyone else’s goods, and among external goods, one’s good name is the most precious. Slander is a kind of murder, because we have three lives: the spiritual (depending on God’s grace); the corporeal (depending on the soul); and the social (depending on one’s reputation). Sin deprives us of the first; death deprives us of the second; and scandal deprives us of the third. But the slanderer with one stroke of his tongue usually commits three murders: he kills his soul, and the soul of the one who listens (a spiritual homicide), and he takes away the social life of the one he has slandered. For as Saint Bernard said, both the one who slanders and the one who listens to the slander have the devil about them, but the one has him in the tongue, and the other in his ear.a David says of slanderers: “They have sharpened their tongues like a snake.”b Now the serpent has a forked tongue with two points, as Aristotle says,c and such is the slanderer who in one stroke stings and poisons both the ear of the listener and the reputation of the one of whom she is speaking.

a. “They bear on their tongues the virus of death for their fellows, and gladly welcome the death that enters by their own ears. When with prattling mouths and itching ears we busy ourselves in administering the poisoned cup of slander to each other, we fulfill the prophet’s words: [Jeremiah 9:21] ‘Death has climbed in at our windows’” (St. Bernard, On the Song of Songs, sermon 24, 3).

b. Psalm 139:4a [140:3a]: “They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent.”

c. “And both serpents and saurians have this altogether exceptional property in the tongue, that it is forked at the outer extremity, and this property is the more marked in the serpent, for the tips of his tongue are as thin as hairs” (Aristotle, Historia Animalis 2.17.24).

d. “The great remedy for [hemlock], provided it has not reached the vitals, is wine, that naturally has a propensity to warm; but if it is taken in wine, it is irremediably fatal” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 25.95).

e. Psalm 139:4b [140:3b]: “… the venom of asps is under their lips.” Notice that Francis has used both halves of this Psalm in this chapter.

So I entreat you, my dear child, never to speak evil of anyone, either directly or indirectly. Beware of imputing false crimes and sins to your neighbor, neither discovering those that are secret, nor exaggerating those that are obvious, nor interpreting evil in his good works, nor denying the good that you know to be in him, nor hiding it maliciously, nor diminishing it with words, for in all these ways you greatly offend God, but also by falsely accusing and denying the truth do harm to your neighbor. Indeed, it is a double sin: both to lie and to harm your neighbor at the same time.

Those who in order to slander make honorable introductions or who speak pretty little words and chitchat are the most subtle and poisonous slanderers of all. “I protest,” they say, “that I love him and in the rest that he is a gentleman, but, nevertheless, it is necessary to speak the truth: he was wrong to commit such a treachery.” Or “She is a very virtuous woman, but she was taken by surprise…” and similar little compositions. Do you not see the artifice? The one who wishes to shoot at archery draws the arrow as close to himself as possible, but that is only to shoot more powerfully; it seems that they draw their slander into themselves, but that is only to let it fly more strongly so that it penetrates further into the heart of the listeners. Slander uttered in the form of a jest is even more cruel than all, for as the hemlock is not of itself a strong fast poison but slow enough so that one can easily remedy it, however when taken with wine, it is irreversible;d so also slander, that by itself might pass lightly in one ear and out the other, as they say, sticks firmly in the minds of the listeners when it is expressed in a subtle and cheerful word. “They have,” says David, “the venom of asps on their lips.”e The asp makes her sting almost imperceptibly, and her venom at first makes a pleasant itching sensation through which the heart and the entrails expand and receive the poison, against which afterward there is no antidote.

Do not say, “This man is a drunk,” although you may have seen him drunk; nor, “That is adultery,” for having seen him in that sin; nor “That is incest,” for having found him in that adversity,a because a single act does not give a name to the thing. The sun once stood still for the sake of a victory for Joshua,b and the sun darkened for the Savior’s death,c yet no one will say that the sun is either stationary or unseen. Noah was drunk once,d and Lot another time, and Lot also committed the great sin of inceste—yet neither one was a drunkard, nor was the latter incestuous. Neither was Saint Peter bloodthirsty for having once shed blood,f nor a blasphemer for having blasphemed once.g In order to take the name of a vice or of a virtue, one must have progressed in it habitually. So it is a deception to say that a man is bad-tempered or a thief for having seen him become angry or to steal one time.

a. Every other translation I know has omitted this line about incest, and several have also omitted the line about adultery. But it seems to me that this is a historical document, and it must be read with sensitivity to the fact that it reflects cultural differences.

b. Joshua 10:13: “And the sun and the moon stood still, till [Joshua’s] people revenged themselves on their enemies. Is this not written in the book of the just? So the sun stood still in the midst of the sky, and did not hurry to set the space of one day.”

c. Luke 23:44–46: “And it was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the middle. And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’And having said this, he gave up the ghost.”

d. Genesis 9:20–21: “Noah planted a vineyard, and, drinking the wine, he was made drunk.”

e. See Genesis 19:30–38. In the story Lot’s two daughters contrive to make him drink wine, and when he is drunk, they have sexual intercourse with him.

f. John 18:10: “Then, Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.”

g. Matthew 26:73–74: “They said to Peter, ‘Surely you also are one of them….’ Then Peter began to curse and swear that he knew not the man.”

h. Luke 7:39: “And the Pharisee, who had invited [Jesus], seeing [the woman washing, drying, and kissing Jesus’s feet], spoke within himself, saying: This man, if he were a prophet, would know surely who and what manner of woman this is that touches him, that she is a sinner.” This is somewhat confusing because (a) Luke does not name the Pharisee in this passage (although in parallel passages in both Matthew and Mark, “Simon the Leper” appears); and (b) for centuries this nameless woman who ministered to Jesus at this supper was identified as Mary Magdalene. Modern scholarship has debunked that identification and differentiated between the two women.

i. Luke 18:9b–14: “[Jesus] spoke this parable: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray: one was a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: “O God, I give you thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, like this publican. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I own.” And the publican, standing far off, would not so much as lift up his eyes toward heaven; but struck his breast, saying: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other: because every one that exalts himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.’”

Even if a man were to have been vicious for a long time, one tempts fortune with a lie when one calls him vicious. Simon the Leper called Magdalene a sinnerh because she had once been—but he lied because she was no longer, but a very holy penitent. And besides that, Our Lord had taken her cause under protection. The foolish Pharisee took the publican as a great sinner, or perhaps as unjust, an adulterer, an extortioner, but he was greatly mistaken, for in that very hour the publican was justified.i Alas, since the goodness of God is so great that one single moment is enough both to obtain and receive his grace, what assurance can we have that a man who was a sinner yesterday is still one today? The day that is past ought not to judge the present day, nor the present day judge the past day. Only the Last Day judges all. Consequently, we can never say that a man is wicked without the danger of lying; what we can say (in case we must say something) is that he did such-and-such an evil act, he has lived badly at such-and-such a time, or that he does evil now. But one cannot draw any conclusion from yesterday for today, nor from today to yesterday, let alone tomorrow.

Now, although it is necessary to be extremely tactful regarding speaking ill of a neighbor, so it is necessary to guard against an extreme into which some fall, who, in order to avoid slander, praise and speak well of vice. If it is found that a person is truly malicious, do not say in her defense that she is independent and sincere. Do not say that a manifestly vain person is noble and suitable; and never call dangerous intimacies merely simple or naive; do not adorn disobedience with the name of zeal, or arrogance with the name of candor, or lasciviousness with the name of friendship.a No, dear child, one must not countenance, flatter, or support the other vices in hopes of avoiding the vice of slander, so it is essential clearly and frankly to speak evil of evil things and blame what is blameworthyb—that way we glorify God, providing that we observe the following conditions.

a. Francis is unique in his extremely strong emphasis on avoiding the judgment of others, but he is neither blind nor foolish, and here he raises a qualifying caution, reminding his readers that there are sins of others that should not be overlooked or ignored. He speaks of the sins of maliciousness, vanity, dangerous intimacies, disobedience, and arrogance. The primary distinction Francis makes between sins that are to be judged and sins that may be overlooked has to do with the public nature and/or the certain knowledge of the sin.

b. The French of this adage is even simpler: dire mal du mal et blâmer les chose blâmables.

c. Francis’s caution here is against useless, pointless, and damaging gossip. If no one would benefit from a bit of criticism (that is, neither the hearer nor the criticized person) one should simply avoid speaking it. But the opposite is also true: if someone could benefit from my criticism, I am obligated to speak—as in the example of the young girls being exposed to dissolute and lascivious comments.

d. Francis claims that duties of state may define one’s criticism, that is, as a leader one has greater responsibility for commenting than if one is more lowly and insignificant.

e. Francis describes an ascending significance of questionable “familiarity” and its implications for a critic (and note this importance to Francis with his vocative interjection of “O God”): (1) slight evidence: say nothing; (2) simple indiscretion: call it for what it is; (3) if there is no obvious evidence of evil intent, say that out loud.

f. See Psalm 51:2 [52:2]: “All the day long your tongue has plotted injustice, like a sharp razor; you have committed deceit.”

g. Criticism of vice is not personal criticism of the sinner himself or herself who ought to be spared in any way possible. A preacher, for instance, can preach a cautionary sermon against a particular sin without reference to the specific person who may have been known to have committed it.

h. The great temptation one must guard against is to enjoy the exposing of another’s sins.

i. The reader is reminded that Francis was bishop of the diocese of Geneva, and because John Calvin had expelled all Catholics from Geneva, Francis had to set up his episcopal see in Annecy. He lived daily in the gritty no-man’s-land between Catholicism and the growing Protestantism. His broad-mindedness concerning sin stops short of the sins of heresy and schism, which he encountered daily—and justified his pointing out such “wolves” among the flock. See Matthew 7:5.

In order to criticize another’s vices commendably, it is essential that the criticism be beneficial either to the person to whom one speaks or the one about whom one speaks.c Someone could speak among young girls of private indiscretions of such-and-such that are obviously dangerous or about dissolute conduct on the part of such-and-such a person in words or expressions that are obviously lascivious. If I do not boldly condemn that evil and wish to excuse it, those tender souls who listen may take the opportunity to yield to something in imitation. Their benefit requires that I rebuke those things frankly on the spot (unless I can wait to do this good duty more appropriately and with less prejudice to those spoken of on some other occasion).

Besides this, it still appertains to me to speak on the subject, as when I am among the leaders of the company, for if I do not speak, it may seem that I approve of the vice, but if I am among the least I need not undertake to criticize.d But above all, it is essential that I am precisely fair in my words, so that I do not speak a single word too much.

For example, if I criticize the familiarity of this young man and that young woman, because the familiarity is too indiscreet and dangerous, O God, my child, I must keep the balance fair so as not to enlarge the thing, not even by a single thread. Should there be only slight evidence, I will say nothing about it; should there be only a simple indiscretion, I will not say it was anything more; should there be neither indiscretion nor true evidence of evil except only that from which a malicious mind could take as a pretext for slander, I will say nothing at all, or I could express that fact alone.e

My tongue, when I am speaking of my neighbor, will be in my mouth like a scalpel in the hand of a surgeonf who wishes to decide between nerves and tendons—it is necessary that the cut that I make will be just, that I speak neither more nor less than what is true. And, finally, it is especially important to observe, in blaming the vice, to spare as much as one can the person in whom it lies.g

It is true that of infamous, public, and obvious sinners, one can speak more freely, provided that it is with the spirit of charity and compassion and not at all with arrogance and presumption, nor in order to take pleasure in the evil of others (for that latter is to make one’s heart vile and debased).h I make exception from among all of these for the declared enemies of God and of his Church; for those, it is necessary to disparage them as much as we can, since they are the heads of the sects of the heretics and schismatics. It is charity to cry out against the wolf when he is among the sheep, to show where he may be.i

a. Aside from Francis’s inborn inclination to support the societal status quo, one is curious about what criticism of princes or nations he might have in mind—especially since he himself held the formal civil position of “prince” as well as “bishop.”

b. Francis’s enlightened pastoral concerns demonstrate themselves in the options he lists: (1) doubt gossip; (2) pardon the intentions of the accused; (3) disregard the slander; (4) remind all listeners that “there but for the grace of God, go we all”; (5) call the slanderer back to himself by caringly pointing out what he has done; and (6) make a positive statement about the accused.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 30

c. Psalm 30:6 [31:5]: “Into your hands I commend my spirit: for you have redeemed me, O LORD, the God of truth.”

d. Wisdom 1:5: “For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the false and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he shall not dwell where iniquity appears.”

e. Proverbs 10:9a: “He who walks simply, walks confidently.…”

f. “For I wondered that others, subject to death, lived, but he whom I loved, as if he should never die, was dead; and I wondered yet more that I myself, who was to him a second self, could live, with him being dead.… I felt that my soul and his soul were one soul in two bodies: and so my life was a horror to me, because I did not wish to live a half-life. And so as it happened, I became afraid to die, lest he whom I had loved much should die completely” (St. Augustine, Confessions 4.6).

g. “This seems to me, as it were, more like a trifling pronouncement than a serious confession, although this absurdity maybe moderated to some extent by the word perhaps which I added…” (St. Augustine, Book of Retractions 2.32.2).

h. Psalm 38:2 [39:1]: “I said: I will take heed to my ways so that I do not sin with my tongue.”

i. Psalm 140:3 [141:3]: “Set a guard, O LORD, before my mouth: and a door around my lips.”

Each one takes upon oneself liberty for him to judge and criticize princes, and to slander entire nations, according to the diversity of conditions one has in their realm. My child, do not make this mistake, for besides being an offense against God, you could raise up a thousand kinds of quarrels.a

When you hear gossip, characterize the accusation as doubtful—if you can do that justly. If you cannot, then pardon the intention of the accused person. And if that cannot be, show compassion for him, disregard the slander, remembering yourself and reminding the company that they who do not fall into faults owe it all to the grace of God. Remind the slanderer of himself in some kindly manner and mention some other good quality of the offended person, if you know him.b

i PART III. CHAPTER 30.

Some Other Advice on Speaking

Let your speech be gentle, honest, sincere, frank, and true. Beware of dishonesty, artifices, and pretenses. Although it is not always a good thing to speak all kinds of truths, so, too, it is never acceptable to violate the truth. Accustom yourself never to lie knowingly, either by way of excuse or otherwise, remembering that God is the God of truth.c If you speak lies inadvertently, and you can correct them on the spot by some explanation or reparation, do so. A sincere apology has more grace and ability to excuse someone than lying does.

Although sometimes you can discreetly and carefully cover over the truth by some artifice of words, still it must not be done excepting something of importance when the glory and service of God clearly require it. In other instances out there, artifices are dangerous, for as says the Holy Word,d the Holy Spirit does not dwell in a false and deceitful spirit. There is no artfulness as good and as desirable as simplicity. Worldly wariness and carnal deception belong to the children of this age, but the children of God walk without evasion and have a heart that does not wander. “He who walks simply,” says the Wise Man, “walks with confidence.”e Lying, duplicity, and dissimulation always betray a feeble and vile spirit.

Saint Augustine said in the fourth book of his Confessions that his soul and that of his friend were like one soul, and that that life was a horror to him after the death of his friend, because he did not wish to live a half-life, and yet for the same reason he had feared the coming of death, lest his friend die altogether.f These words seemed to him afterward too artificial and affected, so that he revoked them in his Book of Retractions and called them absurd.g You see, dear child, how much this holy beautiful soul is sensitive to the style of the words. Certainly, the greatest ornaments of the Christian life are fidelity, sincerity, and sincerity of language. “I said, I will guard my ways so as not to sin with my tongue.”h Ah! “LORD, put a guard on my mouth and a door which closes my lips,”i said David.

a. “In order to avoid discord, never contradict anyone except in case of sin or some danger to a neighbor; and when necessary to contradict others, do it with tact and not with temper” (Joinville, The Life of Saint Louis 1, 3).

b. Francis refers to Pythagoras (Symbol 9), Horace (Ode 2, 1.2.5), and Juvenal (Satire 1, v. 160) among others.

c. “The king began to say to us: ‘Speak up,’ he said, ‘because your companions fear that you can slander them. If you speak, while eating, of something that ought to please us, speak up, or otherwise, shut up’” (Joinville, The Life of Saint Louis 1:5).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 31

d. “It is said that the blessed John, while he was gently stroking a partridge with his hands, suddenly saw a philosopher approaching him in the garb of a hunter, who was astonished that a man of so great fame and reputation should debase himself to such a lowly and trivial pastime, and he said: ‘Can you be that John, whose great and famous reputation attracted me also with the greatest desire to know you? Why then do you occupy yourself with such meager pastimes?’To whom the blessed John: ‘What is it,’ said he, ‘that you are carrying in your hand?’ The other replied: ‘A bow.’ ‘And why,’ said he, ‘do you not always carry it everywhere bent?’To whom the other replied: ‘It would not do, for the power of its stiffness would be narrowed by its being continually bent, and it would be lessened and destroyed, and when the time came for it to send stouter arrows after some beast, its stiffness would be lost by the excessive and continuous strain, and it would be impossible for the more powerful arrows to be shot.’ ‘And, my lad,’ said the blessed John, ‘do not let this slight and short relaxation of my mind disturb you, as unless it sometimes relieved and relaxed the rigor of its purpose by some recreation, the spirit would lose its spring owing to the unbroken strain and would be unable, when need required, to follow what was right’” (St. John Cassian, Collationes partum 24:21).

e. “Hand-ball” (in French, ballon—literally, “balloon” or “football” as well as “hand-ball”).

It was an opinion of the king Saint Louis not to contradict anyone unless there was a sin or a great damage in agreeing.a That was to avoid disputes and quarrels. But when it is important to contradict someone and to oppose one’s opinion against that of another, it is necessary to use great gentleness and dexterity, without wishing to violate the spirit of others, for it gains one nothing to take things harshly. To speak little (as recommended by the ancient sagesb) does not mean that we should say few words, but we should not speak very much that is useless, for in the matter of speaking, one does not regard the quantity, but the quality. And it seems to me that one must avoid the two extremes: for to be too severe and reserved, refusing to contribute to the familiar exchange that makes conversations, it looks like there is either breach of trust or some sort of disdain. And also to babble and cajole all the time without giving either time or chance to others to speak at will is thoughtless and inconsiderate.

Saint Louis did not find it good when in company that one should speak either in secret or in privacy, and particularly at table, so that one may not give suspicion that one is speaking ill of others. “Those,” he said, “who are at table in good company, who have something joyous and pleasant to say, ought to say it for the whole world to hear. If it is something of importance, one ought to pass over it in silence without speaking of it.”c

i PART III. CHAPTER 31.

Of Pastimes and Recreations and, First, What Are Lawful and Laudable

It is sometimes still a necessity to relax our mind and our body by some kind of recreation. Saint John the Evangelist, as Cassian says, was once found by a hunter holding on his fist a partridge, which he was stroking by way of diversion. The hunter asked him why a man of his quality would spend time on something so common and trivial. And John said, “Why do you not carry your bow always bent?” “For fear,” said the hunter, “that if it were always bent, it could lose its power to spring back when it was in use.” “Do not marvel then,” replied the apostle, “if I demit myself some little bit of rigor and attention of my mind in order to take a little recreation, finally to apply myself afterward more keenly to contemplation.”d It is a vice, without doubt, to be so rigorous, austere, and uncivilized that one is unwilling to take for himself or permit any others any kind of recreation.

Taking the air, walking, discussing happy and amiable quotes, playing the lute or another instrument, singing to music, going on the chase—these are recreations so respectable that in order to enjoy them one need nothing more than common prudence that places everything in its proper order, time, place, and quantity.

Games in which winning would set the prize and the reward would be in the skill and activity of the body or the mind—such as games of tennis, hand-ball,e pall-mall,a tilting at the ring,b chess, tables,c these are recreations good and lawful in themselves. It is only necessary to watch out for excess—either in the time that one spends or in the stakes one plays for—because if one spends too much time it is no longer recreation but an occupation, and one that refreshes neither the mind nor the body—to the contrary, one that benumbs and crushes them. Having played five or six hours of chess, at the end one is all exhausted and weary of mind; to play tennis for too long a time is not refreshing the body but tormenting it. Also if the stakes—that is to say, what one plays for—are too great, the emotions of the players get out of control. And besides that it is an unfair thing to gamble a great stake on skills and activities that are so unimportant and so useless, as are the skills involved in games of chance.d

a. “Pall-mall” (in French, paillemaille—literally, “a bone in the straw”) was an early lawn game similar to croquet.

b. “Tilting at the ring” was a horse-riding contest in which a post with a crosspiece was erected, and a ring suspended from it. A rider tried to pierce the ring with a lance while riding at full tilt.

c. “Tables” (in French, les tables) was a board game similar to backgammon. Its predecessor was the fifth-century Byzantine game tabula.

d. Consistently, Francis defends recreations and games that develop the mind and body or require mental or physical activity and condemns those based on chance.

e. Francis articulates the Golden Mean: even something as good and refreshing as recreation can become a dangerous and harmful obsession and cease to be helpful.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 32

f. Curious: the game of “tables” (Francis approves) is played with dice! Obviously here he refers to dice games for money.

g. Often, objection was not to dance per se but to certain social dances. This was shown in Jean Boiseul’s 1606 French treatise, Traité contre les danses, where he claimed that seventeenth-century social dances, including the courante, branle, and galliard, were immoral.

h. The French is bandé—literally, “bandaged,” “bent,” “stretched,” or “belted”—and carries the sense of being “put out of use.”

i. One of the problems with gambling that Francis points out is that it becomes compulsive and excludes virtually all other human activity or thought—so absorbing that it precludes talking, laughing, or even coughing.

But above all, take care, my child, not to attach your affection to all of that, for however respectable a recreation may be, it is immoral to put all one’s heart and one’s affection into it. I am not saying that is wrong to take pleasure in playing while one plays—for otherwise one could not engage in recreation—but I do say that it is necessary not to put all one’s affection there so that one constantly craves amusement and is too enthusiastic about it.e

i PART III. CHAPTER 32.

Of Prohibited Games

The games of dice, cards, and similar—where the winning depends mainly on chance—are not only dangerous recreations (like dancing) but they are simply and naturally bad and blameworthy.f That is why they are forbidden by both civil and ecclesiastical laws.g “But how great is the harm?” you will say. The winning in those games is not according to reason, but according to chance, and that may fall to someone who by ability and diligence deserves nothing. Reason is offended by that. “But that was what the players agreed on,” you will say. That is fine when showing that whoever wins does no harm to others, but it does not follow that the agreement itself is reasonable—or the game either—for winning that ought to be the reward for diligence is made the reward for chance, which deserves no significance at all since it does not depend on us.

Besides that, these games are called recreation and are made for that, and still they are nothing but outrageous occupations. For is this not an occupation that keeps the mind shackledh and wholly occupied by a perpetual concentration and agitated by endless anxiety, apprehensions, and urgency? Is there any absorption more sad, more somber, and melancholy than that of the gamblers? That is why it is forbidden to talk during the game, or to laugh, or to cough, or any other that annoys them.i

Finally, there is no enjoyment at all in the game except winning, and is not that joy unjust which can exist only through a companion’s loss and grief? That kind of celebration is certainly abominable. For these three reasons these games are forbidden. The great king Saint Louis, knowing that his brother the Count of Anjou and Sir Walter de Nemours were playing, rose from his bed (for he was ill) and went staggering into their room, and there took the boards, the dice, and part of the money, and threw them out the window into the sea, so strong was his anger at them.a The holy and chaste maiden Sara, speaking to God of her innocence: “You know,” she said, “that I have never conversed with the gamblers.”b

a. “[At sea, returning from the Crusade,] one day [King Louis] asked what the Count of Anjou was doing and they said to him that he was playing at backgammon with my lord Walter of Nemours. And he went thither, tottering from the weakness of his malady, and took the dice, the money, and game board and threw them all overboard” (Joinville, The Life of Saint Louis 2:79). It is interesting also that when King Louis had returned home to France, he forbade the manufacture of dice within his realm.

b. Tobias 3:16–17 [Tobit 3:14–15]. Francis has equated the Latin for “players” with “gamblers” when it could as well have applied to “actors.” The substance of this quotation exists only in the Latin Vulgate and in no English version: “[Sara, the daughter of Raguel said,] ‘You know, O LORD, that I never coveted a husband and have kept my soul clean from all lust. Never have I joined myself with the players, nor made myself partaker of those who walk in shallowness.’”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 33

c. Intimate one-on-one dancing was not the practice in seventeenth-century Europe, where all dancing was group dancing, including the courante, the gavotte, the gigue, the minuet, and the passepieds. Consequently, there were more occasions for vanity of dress, of affectation, of dexterity in dance steps, and of general appearance than in modern dancing.

d. For a reason I have not been able to ascertain, some translations have “mushrooms” here instead of pumpkins—when the French in all versions is clearly potirons, which means “pumpkins” (literally, “joke-pots”).

e. Uncooked or undercooked pumpkin is still a common source of the bacteria that causes botulism—a serious form of blood-poisoning that, if not treated immediately, can be fatal.

f. Francis uses a wordplay with “well done”—meaning both “cooked sufficiently” and “accomplished properly.”

g. “In general, these [mushrooms] are of a deadly nature, and they should on the whole be rejected; for if by chance they should happen to grow near a hob-nail, a piece of rusty iron, or a fragment of rotten cloth, they will immediately absorb all these foreign emanations and tastes, and convert them into poison.… There are other circumstances, too, which make them deadly; if they grow near the hole of a serpent, for instance, or if they should happen to have been breathed upon by one when just beginning to open; being all the more disposed to imbibe the venom from their natural attraction to poisonous substances” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 22.46).

i PART III. CHAPTER 33.

Of Dances and Other Lawful but Dangerous Pastimes

Dances and balls are morally indifferent in their nature, but, according to the usual way in which they are carried on, they strongly lean and are tilted to the side of evil and consequently full of danger and risk. One does them at night, and among the shadows and darkness it is easy to let many dark and vicious mishaps slip in since the situation itself is strongly susceptible to evil.

One who spends many late nights there afterward loses the mornings of the following days and consequently misses the ways to serve God in them. In a word, it is always foolishness to exchange day for night, light for darkness, or good works for mere frolics. At the ball each one shows enough vanity to vie with each other—and the vanity is a great inclination to evil affections and dangerous and blameworthy loves that are easily engendered in dances.c

I would speak to you about dances, my child, as the physicians speak of pumpkins and mushrooms: the best are not worth much of anything, they say. And I say to you that the best dances are hardly any good. If, nevertheless, one must eat pumpkins,d take care that they are well done,e and if by some chance (from which you cannot excuse yourself) it might be necessary to go to a dance, take care that your dancing is well done. But how must that be well done? With modesty, dignity, and a good intention.f Eat little and seldom, say the physicians about mushrooms, for, well prepared though they be, it is the quantity that makes them poison. Just so, dance little and seldom, my child, for otherwise you put yourself in danger of your becoming fond of it.

Mushrooms, according to Pliny, being spongy and porous as they are, easily attract any infection that is around them so that being near snakes they absorb their venom.g Balls, dances, and such shadowy gatherings usually attract vices and sins that prevail in such places, for example, quarrels, envy, mockery, wanton loves; and just as these activities open the pores of the bodies of those who practice them, so, too, they open the pores of the heart by which means, should some snake come to breathe in the ears some lascivious word, some flirtation, some coaxing,a or should some basiliskb come to cast lewd glances, glances of love, hearts are very easy to let themselves be seized and poisoned.

a. A subtle reference to the serpent in the Garden of Eden “breathing in the ear” (Genesis 3:1–5)

b. The basilisk is a legendary serpent reputed to be hatched by a rooster from the egg of a serpent or toad. The beast was said to cause death to any animal or person with a single glance. Francis adapts the legend by having the basilisk cast “lewd glances, glances of love” rather than glances of death.

c. Oddly, modern science has shown that wine taken after eating Coprine (“inky cap”) mushrooms will cause serious toxic poisoning. The mushrooms are not poisonous in themselves without the addition of alcohol.

d. Francis has declared that dancing is morally indifferent, but then goes to great extremes to dissuade his protégé from dancing. Had he seen modern one-on-one, intimate dancing, he would have loudly cried, “Lust!” As it is, it seems that his greatest moral concerns for dancers are vanity and pride of appearance, the lack of compassion for others who are suffering, the wasting of time that could otherwise be spent in devotion, and the irrational absurdity and pointlessness of dancing. Although Francis’s criticisms may seem trivial, one can find a broad field of possibilities among modern frivolities that could well merit the same criticisms.

e. The French has les gémissements de vos proches serviront de violon—literally, “The moaning of your loved ones will serve as the violin.”

f. Here Francis refers to the classical Dance of Death (or Danse macabre) that appeared in both theatrical and graphic form after the fourteenth century. It usually showed skeletons or badly decayed dead bodies dancing with living persons and was meant as a memoria mortis to call people to repentance in preparation for death.

O my child, these idle recreations are usually very dangerous. They dissipate the spirit of devotion, weaken its powers, cool the fervor of charity, and awaken in the soul a thousand kinds of wicked affections. That is why they must be indulged in with a very great caution.

But above all, it is said that after mushrooms, one must drink costly winec—and I say that after dancing, one must use some holy and good considerations to prevent the perilous effects that the vain pleasure that one has taken could leave in our minds. But what considerations?d

1. At the same time you were at the ball, many souls burned in the fire of hell for sins committed in dancing or caused by dancing.

2. Many religious and devout people were at that same hour before God, singing his praises and gazing on his beauty. How their time was more happily employed than yours!

3. While you were dancing many souls have died in great anguish; thousands of thousands of men and women have suffered from great pain in their beds, in hospitals, and in the streets, from swollen joints, kidney stones, burning fevers. Alas! They have had no rest! Will you have no compassion on them? And do you think that one day you may groan as they do, while others dance as you have done?

4. Our Lord, Our Lady, the angels, and saints have seen you at the ball. Ah! What great pity they have for you, seeing your heart filled by such silliness and caring for such nonsense!

5. Alas! While you were there, time has passed, death has approached. See how death mocks you and calls you to its dance, in which the groaning of your loved ones will provide the music,e and where you will not make more than one passage from life to death. That dance is the true pastime of mortals, since it passes there in a moment from time to the eternal pleasures or pains.f

I have mentioned to you these small things to consider, but God will suggest many others to the same effect if you fear him.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 34

a. Francis narrows the morally acceptable field for playing and dancing: (1) it must be for the purpose of relaxation and rejuvenation instead of for pleasure; (2) it must be brief and not exhausting (the French word is étourdira, meaning literally “dazed” or “dizzy” or “benumbed”); and (3) it must be undertaken infrequently.

b. Francis uses the French word la condescendance that is universally translated as “condescension,” but the French does not carry the negative and arrogant sense that is present in English, so I have used “acquiescence,” “giving way,” and “compromise” to convey the true sense.

c. The French has comme surgeon de la charité—“like a sucker of charity,” but “sucker” here is an agricultural term, meaning “a small branch.”

d. “In the stream that runs from the marsh of Reate there is a rock, which continues to increase in size…” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 2.106).

e. Song of Songs 4:9: “You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have wounded my heart with one of your eyes, and with one hair of your neck.” [Note: This is from the Latin Vulgate (which Francis would have used). The usual modern English translation is “… with a glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.”]

f. The eye is more “noble” because it is of a more complicated and intricate structure and an equally complex function. The hair is simple, small, trouble-free, and has no intricacy.

g. Here Francis provides an extravagant hermeneutic of that text and an imaginative conceit.

h. See Matthew 10:38–39: “He that does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life, shall find it.” Francis used to say that “Paradise is a mountain which one scales more easily with broken legs than with whole ones” (Cera, Ray, and Ballor, Milton; The Writings of Saint Gaspar, Letter 13; St. Gaspar House; Newark, CA; 1811).

i. See Matthew 19:29: “And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.”

i PART III. CHAPTER 34.

When One Can Play or Dance

For playing and dance to be licit, it must be for regeneration, and not for emotional attachment—for a short time and not until we let ourselves get exhausted—and that rarely—for if it becomes a habit, it is changed from a recreation to a profession.a But on what occasion can one play or dance? The right occasions for dancing and innocent game-playing are more frequent; those for prohibited games are more rare, since also such games are more disruptive and dangerous. But, in a word, dance and play according to the conditions I have mentioned. When in order to acquiesceb and comply with a respectable company in which you find yourself, prudence and discretion will advise you, for giving way—like a small branch from the plant of lovec—makes neutral things good and dangerous things allowable. It even removes malice from those things that are only somewhat evil. That is why games of chance that would otherwise be blameworthy are not so if occasionally honorable compromise takes us there.

I have been comforted to read in the life of Saint Charles Borromeo that he compromised with the Swiss in certain matters in which elsewhere he has been very severe; so also that when blessed Ignatius of Loyola was invited to play, he accepted. As for Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, she played and danced sometimes at social affairs without harm to her devotion, which was as entrenched in her soul as the rocks around the lake of Rieta that grow when beaten by the waves,d just as her devotion grew amid the pomps and vanities to which she was exposed. It is the great fires that are fanned by the wind, but the little ones are blown out if not protected.

i PART III. CHAPTER 35.

How One Must Be Faithful on Great and Small Occasions

The sacred Bridegroom in the Song of Songs says that his bride robbed him of his heart by one of her eyes and one of her hairs.e In the end, of all the outward parts of the human body there is none more noble—be it in craft or activity—than the eye, nor none more worthless than the hair.f That is why the divine Bridegroom wants to make it known that it is not only the great works of devout persons that are agreeable, but also the less and the lower; and that in order to serve his taste, it is necessary to have great care to serve both things great and high and things small and lowly as equally as one can, and by one or the other, to steal his heart through love.g

Get ready, my child, to suffer many great afflictions for Our Lord—even to martyrdom.h Resolve to give all that is most precious to you, if he is pleased to take it: father, mother, brother, husband, children, your own eyes, and your life, because for all of this you ought to prepare your heart.i

a. Another fine adage for Francis—based, of course, on Matthew 10:42: “And whoever shall give for drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”

b. Francis’s phrase “the sea of all happiness” was taken up eagerly—after his death—by English Puritans and appeared in several writings including John Norton’s 1654 The Orthodox Evangelist and in Thomas Watson’s 1692 A Body of Divinity. One is also reminded of the description of Atlantis in Plato’s Critias: “The whole of the land lies like a promontory jutting out from the rest of the continent far into the sea and all the cup of the sea; round about it is, as it happens, of a great depth,” and the adage: “A cup of the sea is the sea.”

c. “When I study this maiden’s deeds and teachings, and see how commendably she lived and how happily she died, I feel that I should stand in silent awe of so many and such astosnishing graces of the Most High: so fragile a maiden, so young in years, so humble in origin, and yet, without any human teacher or guide, reaching so high a pitch of perfect virtue, and such crystal clarity of authentic doctrine” (Raymond of Capua, The Life of Catherine of Siena, First Prologue).

d. The French word is forte, usually meaning “strong,” but it also carries the meanings of “energetic,” “clever,” and “difficult,” which I believe are more accurate here.

e. Proverbs 31:10, 19: “Who shall find a valiant woman? At a distance, and from the farthest coasts is her price.… she has put out her hand to strong things, and her fingers have taken hold of the spindle.”

f. The seventeenth century saw the gradual introduction of the spinning wheel into Europe (although it had been known in the East since the eleventh century). Francis’s use of both the word “spinning” (filer) and “spindle” (le fuseau) suggests that he envisioned a spinning wheel, but his use of the word “distaff” (la quenouille) later in the paragraph may suggest otherwise.

But as long as Divine Providence does not send you such great and sore afflictions, since he does not require your eyes, give him your hair at least—I mean to say, tolerate calmly all the small insults, the little inconveniences, the inconsiderable losses that are your daily lot, for by means of these small opportunities, engaged in with pure and tender love and affection, you will win his heart entirely and make it all yours. These small, daily charities—this headache, that toothache, this cold, that peculiarity of husband or wife, this broken glass, that derision or this pout, that loss of gloves, of a ring, of a handkerchief, this small inconvenience one incurs by going to bed early and rising in the morning for prayer, for Holy Communion, that little bashfulness one can have about doing certain acts of devotion publicly—in short, all the little sufferings, accepted and embraced with love, are highly pleasing to the Divine Goodness, who for a single glass of watera has promised the sea of all happiness to his followers.b And because these occasions present themselves at every moment, it is a great way to lay up many spiritual riches if one invests them well.

When I saw in the life of Saint Catherine of Sienac so many spiritual delights and ecstasies, so many words of wisdom and even sermons made by her, I have no doubt at all that with that eye of contemplation she had ravished the heart of her Heavenly Bridegroom, but I was also comforted when I saw her in her father’s kitchen, humbly turning the spit, stoking the fire, preparing the meat, kneading the bread, and doing all the lowly duties of the house, with a cheerfulness full of love and of deep fondness toward her God. Nor do I esteem any less the small and humble meditations she made among the unpleasant and miserable duties than the ecstasies and raptures she had so often. Perhaps they were granted to her in recompense for that humility and mortification. Yet such was her meditation: she imagined that cooking for her father she was cooking for Our Lord, like Saint Martha. Her mother took the place of Our Lady, and her brothers the place of the Apostles, working herself up in this way to serve in spirit the whole heavenly court, and doing those low services with a great calm, because she knew the will of God to be so. I have presented this example, my child, so that you may know how important it is to direct all our actions—however mean they may be—to the service of his Divine Majesty.

Therefore, I advise you as much as you can to imitate that energeticd woman whom the great Solomon praises so highly,e who, as he says, puts her hand to clever, generous, and exalted things, and yet does not leave off spinning and winding the spindle.f Put your hand to difficult things, engage yourself with prayer and meditation, with the use of the Sacraments, with giving the love of God to souls, with spreading good inspirations into hearts, and, finally, doing great and important works (depending on your vocation). But also do not forget your spindle and distaff, that is to say, practice those small and humble virtues that are like flowers growing at the foot of the cross—service to the poor, visiting the sick, caring for the family, with all the tasks involved in that, and the productive diligence that will not leave you idle. And amidst all of these things interject some considerations similar to those I have related about Saint Catherine.

a. Matthew 25:21: “His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place you over many things: enter into the joy of your lord.’”

b. Colossians 3:17: “All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him,” and “If you eat, if you drink, if you marry, if you travel, do all in the Name of God, that is, calling him to aid you: in everything first praying to him, and then conduct your affairs” (St. John Chrysostom, Homily 9, On the Holy Name).

c. 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 36

d. “Man is said to be the image of God because of his rational nature; he is the most perfectly like God according to that in which he can best imitate God in his rational nature” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, ques. 93.4).

e. Song of Songs 2:15: “Catch for us the little foxes that destroy the vines: for our vineyard has flourished.”

f. The French is sur lequel nous ayons une fois mis la dent—literally, “over whom we have one time put the tooth”—a colloquialism for “holding a grudge.”

Grand opportunities to serve God rarely present themselves, but the little ones are common; however “being faithful in small things,” said the Savior himself, “one will be set over much.”a So do all things in the name of God, and all things will be well done.b “Whether you eat, whether you drink,”c whether you take recreation, whether you turn the spit, provided that you know how to manage your affairs well, you will profit greatly in God’s eyes, doing all things because God wants you to do them.

i PART III. CHAPTER 36.

That It Is Necessary to Have a Just and Reasonable Mind

We are humans because of reason,d and yet it is rare to find humans who are truly reasonable, especially since self-esteem usually detracts us from reason and directs us imperceptibly to a thousand kinds of small but dangerous injustices and iniquities, like the little foxes who, as it is said in the Song of Songs, demolish the vines.e For because they are small, one does not take guard against them, and because they are many, they leave behind much damage. Are not these following things that I am going to say to you iniquities and irrationalities?

We blame our neighbor for a little thing, and we excuse ourselves for many. We want to buy cheaply and sell at a high price. We want justice to be done in another’s house, but mercy and the bending of the rules in ours. We want our words to be taken in a good sense, but we are touchy and sensitive about the words of others. We want our neighbor to sell his goods to us by paying him; isn’t it more just that he keeps them and leaves us our money? We consider him wrong when he does not wish to adapt to our wishes; does he not have more reason to be angry that we want to bother him?

If we like a certain practice, we despise all the rest and oppose everything that is not to our taste. If there is any one of our inferiors who is not good-looking or with whom we once had a grudge,f whatever he does, we find something wrong in it—we do not cease plaguing him and are always demeaning him. On the contrary, if someone is agreeable to us and has a sensual charm, there is nothing we will not excuse. There are some virtuous children whose fathers and mothers can hardly bear to look at them because of some physical imperfection; but there are mean children who are the favorites because of some bodily grace.

All in all, we prefer the rich to the poor, even though they may not be either in better condition or as virtuous; we prefer them well dressed. We absolutely demand our just rights and that others be considerate in obtaining theirs. We protect our social rank fastidiously, and we want others to be humble and submissive. We complain readily about our neighbor, and we do not wish for anyone to complain about us. Whatever we do for others seems always very great to us; what they do for us seems to us to be nothing. In a word, we are like the partridges of Paphlagonia who have two hearts,a for we have a sweet, gracious, and courteous heart toward ourselves and a hard, severe, and rigorous heart toward our neighbor. We have two scales: one to weigh our goods with the greatest advantage, the other for weighing those of our neighbor with the worst detriment.b But, as Holy Scripture says, “The deceitful lips have spoken in one heart and one heart.”c That is to say, they have two hearts, and two weights—one strong to receive and the other weak for delivery—which is an abominable thing before God.d

a. “In Paphlagonia the partridge has a double heart” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 11.70).

b. Deuteronomy 25:13,15,16: “You shall not have different weights in your bag—a greater and a less.… You shall have a just and true weight.… For the LORD your God abhors the one who does these things and he hates all injustice.”

c. Psalm 11:3 [12:2]: “They have spoken vain things, every one to his neighbor: with deceitful lips, and with a double heart have they spoken.” [Note: the Latin has in corde et corde locuti sunt—literally, “in heart and heart have they spoken.”]

d. Proverbs 20:23: “Two different weights are an abomination before the LORD: a dishonest balance is not good.” [Note: the Latin has abominatio est apud Deum pondus et pondus—literally, “a weight and a weight is an abomination before the Lord.”]

e. This sentence is extremely confusing grammatically and very difficult to translate accurately and adequately. In short, Francis has listed a catalog of some fifteen small injustices that are common to most of us, and he points out that they are not so serious as to require making amends to those we have belittled or demeaned or humiliated, but they serve as warning signals to us that these behaviors need correction because they are offensive to both charity and reason.

f. Francis’s own expression of the universal Golden Rule!

g. “Among other sayings of [Trajan’s], the following remarkable one is mentioned. When his friends found fault with him, for being too courteous to everybody, he replied, that ‘he was such an emperor to his subjects, as he had wished, were he a subject, that emperors would be to him.” (Eutropius, Breviarium Historiae Romanae 8.5).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 37

h. Here Francis takes the usual psycho-theological principle—that evil persons have evil desires—and reverses it to suggest (less convincingly) that evil desires make persons evil.

i. Note that in his catalog of things to be avoided he includes those that are (1) permissible but risky (dancing and games); (2) pridefully hazardous (honors and offices); and (3) commonly considered desirable (visions and ecstasies). The last were also roundly disparaged in the popular thirteenth-century Ancren Riwle (a code of rules for the conduct of anchoresses) and the European reforming movements.

My child, be equal and fair in your actions: always put yourself in the place of your neighbor and put him in yours, and in that way you will judge well. Think of yourself as the seller when you are buying, and as the purchaser when you are selling, and you will sell and buy justly. All these injustices seem small because they do not require restitution—especially if we remain within the strict terms regarding what is favorable to us,e but they do not free us from the obligation to amend ourselves, because they are great defects of reason and of charity, and in the end they are only cheating, for one doesn’t lose a thing by living generously, nobly, and courteously, and with a regal, just, and reasonable heart. Remember, then, my child, to examine your heart often to see if it relates to your neighbor as you would like his to relate to you if you were in his place, for that is the touchstone of true reason.f The emperor Trajan was criticized by his confidants that, in their opinion, he had made the imperial majesty too approachable. “Yes indeed!” he said. “Should I not be the kind of emperor to the citizens that I would wish an emperor to be to me if I were a citizen myself?”g

i PART III. CHAPTER 37.

Of Desires

Everyone knows that it is necessary to guard against the desires for vicious things because it is the desire for evil that makes us evil.h But I tell you again, my child: do not desire any of the things that are dangerous to the soul, such as the dances, the games, and such other pastimes; neither desire honors and offices, nor visions and ecstasies, for there is a very great danger of vanity and delusions in such things.i Do not long for things far off—that is to say, things that cannot happen for a long time—as do many who thereby exhaust and distract their hearts uselessly and put themselves in danger of great restlessness. If a young man strongly desires to be provided with some office before his proper time has come, I ask you, how does that desire serve him?a If a married woman wants to be a nun, so what?b If I desire to buy my neighbor’s goods before he is ready to sell them, do I not waste my time in that anticipation? If I were sick in bed, and I wanted to preach or say Holy Mass, visit others who are sick, and do the activities of those who are healthy, are not those pointless desires, since at that time it is not in my power to do them? And meanwhile those useless desires fill the place of others that I ought to have—to be more patient, more resigned, more mortified, more obedient, and more docile in my suffering—which is what God wants me to practice for the time being. But we usually emulate the desires of pregnant women, who want fresh cherries in autumn and fresh grapes in springtime.c

a. What is meant here is that where there is a normal developmental process by which one moves from one grade of office to another and then to another, the desire to move faster does not help in any way. An office boy’s obsession with becoming the office manager overnight is a waste of time.

b. The French has à quel propos?—literally, “to what purpose?” I think the sense of futility is captured in the English, “So what?”

c. Francis makes a humorous simile comparing our pointless desires to the tremendous appetites of pregnant women for specific peculiar (and frequently inaccessible) foods—in his day cherries would be picked in early summer and grapes in the fall.

d. The constant craving for some other job or position or skill or relationship vitiates and harms the accomplishments of one’s present obligations. Francis does not mean to suggest that one may not have ambitions and aspirations, but that they must not be allowed to impede upon one’s current responsibilities.

e. The Carthusian order is perhaps the most strict and demanding of all religious orders: the monks live as solitary recluses in individual two-room hermitages, coming together only for Mass, for a silent Sunday meal, and for a weekly walk with the other Brothers—the only time they may break their silence.

f. Francis demonstrates serious sensitivity to the inclinations of a pious youth who longs to be far too holy—usually leading only to depression and disillusion.

g. His comment about “monsters from Africa” reveals something about the sociological and geographical insights of the times—unknown Africa was a place that was feared.

I do not in any way approve of a person who is committed to some duty or vocation distracting himself by desiring any other kind of life than that which is appropriate to his duty nor activities incompatible with his present situation, for that distracts the heart and weakens the obligatory pursuits.d If I desire the solitude of the Carthusians,e I waste my time, and that desire takes the place of what I ought to have in order to do well in my present situation. No, likewise I would not want that anyone should even wish to have a better intellect or better courage, for those desires are frivolous and take the place of those that each one ought to have—to cultivate what he has, as it is. Nor would I want one to desire means to serve God that one does not have, but rather that one faithfully use what he has. Now this is to be understood only of desires that distract the heart, for regarding simple wishes, they do no harm provided they are not too frequent.

Do not desire crossesf—except to the degree that you have been well able to bear those which have already been given you, for it is a delusion to desire martyrdom and not have the courage to sustain an injury. The Enemy often gives us grand desires for distant objects and for what will never happen, in the end to divert our mind from present objects from which—however minor they may be—we could make a great profit. We may fight monsters from Africag in our imagination, and, in the meantime, allow ourselves—for lack of attention—to be killed, in effect, by tiny snakes that lie in our path. Do not desire temptations because that would be reckless, but rather accustom your heart to anticipate them courageously, and to defend yourself when they arrive.

The variety of foods (mainly if the amount is great) overloads the stomach and, if the stomach is weak, they damage it. Do not fill your soul, therefore, with so many desires: neither worldly—for those may utterly damage it—nor even spiritual—for they can encumber you. When our soul is purified, being relieved of bad dispositions, she has an extremely great appetite for spiritual things, and like one famished she begins to desire a thousand kinds of practices of piety, of mortification, of penance, of humility, of charity, and of prayer. That is a good sign, my child—to have a good appetite—but consider whether you can easily digest all that you would like to consume! So make a choice (with the advice of your spiritual father) among so many desires of those that can be practiced and fulfilled at present. Those you may as well do. And that done, God will send you others, which also in their turn you can put into practice, and so you will not waste time in useless desires. I am not saying that we should abandon all kinds of good desires, but I do say that it is necessary to show some order, and those that cannot be done at present should be locked away in some corner of the heart until their time comes, and meanwhile you can put into effect those that are ripe and in season.a What I am saying is not only for spiritual people but for the worldly as well—otherwise we would not be able to live without anxiety and confusion.

a. Francis sneaks in an agricultural metaphor likening orderly piety to fruit: “ripe and in season.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 38

b. Ephesians 5:31–32: “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cling faithfully to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the church.” [Note: The word “sacrament” in this verse is a bone of contention among translators. The original Greek word is mysterion. Catholics translate it as “sacrament” and others as “mystery.”]

c. Hebrews 13:4: “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. For God will judge fornicators and adulterers.”

d. Probably a reference to the parable of the wise and foolish virgins waiting for the bridegroom in Matthew 25—virgins obviously humbly respecting marriage.

e. The choice of words is interesting in that the Catholic Church requires four elements to make a sacrament valid: (1) the proper form; (2) the proper matter; (3) the proper minister; and (4) the proper intention. Oddly, the “proper ministers” in Holy Matrimony are, in fact, the couple themselves who “serve” each other the Sacrament in making love.

f. Much Christian teaching holds that the end of the world will come when the number of the elect is complete, and the train of human generations is ended. “But generation will cease when the number of the elect is complete” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 3, ques. 91, ans. 2).

g. The reference is to Jesus’s presence at the wedding in Cana where he turned water into wine (Jn. 2).

h. The love between Venus and Adonis was a Greek myth found in a poem by Ovid and painted at least seven times by Titian and once by Rubens in the sixteenth century.

i. Genesis 30:37–39: Jacob made a deal with his father-in-law, Laban. He would shepherd Laban’s flocks and take for payment all speckled and spotted goats, and all black sheep. He then plotted by enchantment using peeled rods to make more speckled and spotted goats and black sheep, increasing his own flock until he was a rich man. It is an odd metaphor for a Christian marriage—so odd that this paragraph is omitted altogether by some translators.

j. Francis seems to be criticizing unrestrained festivities surrounding a marriage.

i PART III. CHAPTER 38.

Advice for Married People

“Marriage is a great sacrament, I say, in Jesus Christ and his Church.”b It is honorable to all, in all,c and through all, that is to say, in all its parts—“to all” for even virgins ought to honor it with humility;d “in all” for it is equally holy among the poor as among the rich; “through all” since its source, its intention, its service, its form, and its matter are all holy.e It is the nursery of Christianity that fills the earth with the faithful in order to attain to the number of the elect in heaven.f So the preservation of marriage is extremely important to the state, for it is the root and the source of all the commonwealth’s streams.

Would to God that his beloved Son were to be invited to all weddings as he was to that of Cana,g for the wine of consolation and blessing would then never be lacking. The reason that there is ordinarily only a little wine at the beginning of a marriage is because, instead of Our Lord, Adonis was invited, and Venus instead of Our Lady.h Whoever wants to have beautiful and speckled flocks like Jacob must, like him, present to the sheep beautiful branches of various colors when they meet to breed.i And whoever wants to have a happy success in marriage ought in his wedding to reflect the sanctity and dignity of the sacrament, but, instead of that, a thousand mayhems of distractions, feastings, and speeches happen.j It is no wonder that the results are such a mess.

Above all, I would urge all married people to the mutual love that the Holy Spirit commends to them in the Scripture. O married people, it means nothing to say, “Love one another with a natural love”—even pairs of doves do that well; nor to say, “Love with a human love,” for even pagans are well-practiced in that love; but with the great Apostle I say to you, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves his Church;a wives, love your husbands as the Church loves her Savior.”b It was God who brought Eve to our first father, Adam, and gave her to him as a wife. It is also God, my friends,c whose invisible hand has tied the knot in the sacred bond of your marriage and who has given you to each other. Why then do you not cherish each other with love all holy, all sacred, all divine?

a. Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and delivered himself up for it.”

b. An enlightened Francis adds the same advice to wives as to husbands—instead of following Scripture in calling for wives to submit to their husbands as in Ephesians 5:22.

c. For the first time, Francis directly addresses a wider audience than just his protégé.

d. Esther 8:8: “… seal the letters with my ring. For this was the practice, that no man dared contradict letters which were sent in the king’s name, and were sealed with his ring.”

e. The single ring ceremony was important because (1) it provided the bride with one thing of financial value (since all her other possessions were under control of her husband); and (2) it symbolized “earnest money.” In the marriage ceremony, the eleventh-century Sarum Missal included the words: “With this rynge y thee wedde, and thys gold and selvir thee geve, and with all my worldy catel I thee endowe,” and the 1549 Book of Common Prayer continued it: “With this ring I thee wed and this gold and silver I give thee”—at which point the groom was supposed to hand a leather purse filled with gold and silver coins to the bride (Kunz, George Frederick; Rings for the Finger; J. B. Lippincott; Philadelphia; 1917, 204).

f. A very peculiar sentence: literally, “… the production and lawful sustenance of children.” It is strangely mechanistic (the children are “produced,” not “born” or “birthed” or “brought to life”) and oddly legalistic (the children’s nourishment is called “legitimate” or “legal,” which I have rendered as “fair”).

g. Another peculiarly mechanistic description. Apparently Francis believes that the child’s body is produced first by the parents, and, after that, God “infuses” the child’s body with a soul—not unlike using a spiritual hypodermic.

h. Francis’s comments on the nature of women and their social dependence on men reflect, of course, the prejudices of his age and culture. In fact, Francis demonstrates far more enlightenment than most of his contemporaries by always balancing the biblical and cultural demeaning of wives with his strong emphasis on the serious and heavy demands on husbands.

i. Genesis 2:23: “And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.”

The first effect of this love is the indissoluble union of your hearts. If one glues two pieces of pine together, so long as the glue is good, the union will be so strong that one could break the wood in any other places than where they are joined. But God joins husband and wife with his own blood—that is why this union is so strong that it would be easier to separate the soul from the body than the husband from the wife. But this union does not include primarily the body, but also heart, affection, and love. This is the secret of the ceremony that is done at a wedding: the Church, by the hand of the priest, blesses a ring and, giving it first to the man, signifies that in this sacrament, she puts a seal and sign on his heartd so that neither the name nor the love of any other woman can enter there as long as she lives to whom it will have been given. Then the husband puts the ring on the hand of that same bride, so that on her part she knows that her heart must not receive the affection of any other man, as long as he whom the Lord here has given her lives on earth.e

The third fruit of marriage is the procreation and fair nurture of children.f This is a great honor to you who are married that God—wishing to multiply the souls that will be able to bless and praise him for all eternity—makes you cooperators in so worthy a task by the production of bodies into which he can introduce souls, like drops of heaven, as he creates them by imparting them into the body.g

Therefore, husbands, preserve a tender, constant, and cordial love with your wives, for the woman was taken from the first man’s side nearest the heart, so that she would be loved by him cordially and tenderly. Your wives’ foolishness and weakness—whether of body or of spirit—must not provoke any sort of disdain, but rather a sweet and loving compassion, in that God made women thus so that you might receive more honor and respect because they rely on you, and that you should be companions to them while you remain the heads of their families and their leaders.h And you, wives, love the husbands God has given you tenderly and warmly, but with a respectful love and full of esteem, for truly God has created for men a sex more vigorous and powerful and has intended that the woman be reliant on the man—bone of his bone and flesh of his fleshi—and that she be a product of his side, taken from under his arm, to show that she should be under the hand and guidance of her husband. And the same Holy Scripture that sparingly recommends that deference makes it a pleasure not only that you be willing to accommodate yourself to it with love, but also commanding your husbands to exercise it with great fondness, tenderness, and sweetness. “Husbands,” says Saint Peter, “carry yourselves discreetly with your wives, as with a fragile vessel, manifesting their honor.”a

a. 1 Peter 3:7: “Similarly, you men, dwelling with women according to knowledge, give honor to the female as to the more fragile vessel, and as to the coheirs of the grace of life and lest your prayers be hindered.” The Latin of “according to knowledge” (secundum scientia) could conceivably be translated as “following intercourse” since “knowledge” in biblical Greek can mean “carnal knowledge.” The words “lest your prayers be hindered” seem to suggest that the author believed that dishonor to women hindered one’s prayers.

b. “How then do you demand chastity [of your wife], while you do not observe it yourself? How can you demand what you do not give?” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 37, §6).

c. 1 Thessalonians 4:3–4: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication so that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.”

d. The French for “philandering” is la dissolution, which carries the sense of “licentiousness,” “alluring behavior,” or “coarse flirting.”

e. A confusing parenthesis: in his metaphor Francis means that if a wooing philanderer can effectively demean a woman’s husband, half of his plan is completed—the second half is to persuade her to accept the new lover.

f. “Our ladies quite glory in having these [pearls] suspended from their fingers, or two or three of them dangling from their ears for after inventing these earrings, they have given them the name of ‘crotalia,’ or castanet pendants, as though quite delighted even with the rattling of the pearls as they knock against each other” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 9.56).

g. Genesis 24:22: [Abraham had sent his servant to Nahor to find a wife for his son Isaac. The sign that he had found her would be that she would offer to water his camels. Rebecca did just that.] “And after the camels had drunk, the man took out golden earrings, weighing two shekels; and as many bracelets, of ten shekels weight.”

h. “The oriental pearls of the Gospel” is a peculiar phrase, probably referring to the “pearl of great price” as a metaphor for the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13:45–46). “Oriental pearls” applies only to pearls from the Persian Gulf, from one kind of oyster called the “wing shell.”

But while I urge you to advance more and more that mutual love you owe each other, you must beware that it does not change into any kind of jealousy, for it often happens that just as the worm is born in the most delicate and ripe apple, so jealousy is born in the most ardent and pressing love of the couple, which nevertheless spoils and corrupts the substance, for little by little it generates quarrels, dissensions, and divorce. Indeed, jealousy never happens where the friendship is based on true virtue. That is why jealousy is an unmistakable mark of a love in some degree sensual and coarse, and one that addresses itself instead to a love where it meets a defective virtue, changeable, and prone to distrust. So it is a silly boast on the part of friendship to try to exalt itself by jealousy, for jealousy may truly be a sign of the largeness and magnitude of the friendship, but not of its goodness, purity, or perfection—seeing that the perfection of friendship implies confidence in the virtue of the one loved, and jealousy implies ambiguity.

If you wish, husbands, that your wives be faithful to you, let them see the lesson from your own example. “With what face,” says Saint Gregory Nazianzen, “do you require chastity of your wives if you live your own life in fornication? How can you demand of them what you do not give them?”b Do you want them to be chaste? Then you behave chastely toward them, and, as St. Paul says, “That every one know his own vessel in sanctification.”c But if, on the contrary, you teach them dishonesty, it is no wonder that you are disgraced by their fall. But you, O women, whose honor is inseparably conjoined with modesty and purity, jealously protect this your glory and do not allow any kind of dissolution to tarnish the innocence of your good repute. Beware of all sorts of attacks—however small they may be. Never allow any philanderingd anywhere near you. You ought to suspect anyone who comes to flatter your beauty and your grace, for whoever praises a commodity that he cannot buy is usually greatly tempted to steal it. And if someone adds to your disdain for your husband, it ought to offend you exceedingly, for the thing is clear—that not only does he wish to corrupt you, but he considers you already half disgraced (for when one is disgusted with the first merchant, a bargain is already half made with the second).e Ladies—both ancient and modern—are accustomed to hang pearls in numbers from their ears for the pleasure they have, says Pliny, of hearing them rattle as they touch each other.f But as for me, since I know that the great friend of God, Isaac, sent earrings for the first pledge of his love for the chaste Rebecca,g I think this mystical ornament signifies that the first part of a wife a husband ought to have (and that his wife ought faithfully to keep for him) is her ear, so that no language or noise can enter there other than the gentle and amiable clatter of chaste and modest words, which are the oriental pearls of the Gospel.h For it must be remembered that the soul is poisoned through the ear as the body is through the mouth.

a. Genesis 26:8–9: “… Abimelech, king of the Palestinians, looking through a window, saw [Isaac] making merry with Rebecca, his wife. And calling for him, he said: ‘It is obvious she is your wife: why did your pretend she was your sister?’”

b. “From the womb of my mother, who greatly hoped in you, I was sealed with the mark of his cross and salted with his salt” (St. Augustine, Confessions 1.11.17). The reference is undoubtedly to the blessed salt that is placed on the tongue of one who is about to be baptized.

c. 1 Kings 1:1–28 [1 Samuel]: “And [Hannah] made a vow, saying: O LORD of hosts, if you are mindful of me, and see the affliction of your handmaid and not forget your handmaid and will give to your servant a manchild, I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life.”

d. See Angelus Walz, Saint Thomas Aquinas: A Biographical Sketch (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1951), 1–7.

e. Andrew Corsini of Fiesole (1302–1373). “His mother told him that she and her husband had devoted him, while in the womb, to the service of God under the protection of the blessed Virgin; and that as a result of his being born not for them nor for the world but for God, a very different kind of life was expected of him” (Butler, Alban; The Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints [1756–1759]; Duffy; Dublin: 1984, 35).

f. “He always recalled how she would sometimes tell him that she would rather he were dead than guilty of committing a mortal sin” (Joinville, The Life of Saint Louis 2:16).

g. Exodus 1:21: “And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses.”

h. Proverbs 17:6: “Children’s children are the crown of old men.…”

Love and fidelity, combined together, always engender familiarity and confidence. That is why holy men and women have used a lot of reciprocal caresses in their marriage, caresses truly loving but chaste, tender but sincere. So Isaac and Rebecca—the most chaste married couple of ancient times—were seen through the window caressing one another in such a manner that—although there was nothing immodest—convinced Abimelech that they must be husband and wife.a The great Saint Louis, equally severe to his own body and tender in his love for his wife, was all but blamed for being profuse in those caresses—though in truth he deserved praise for knowing to put his martial and courageous spirit aside in those modest duties that are requisite for preserving conjugal love—for although such minute demonstrations of pure and frank affection do not bind their hearts, nevertheless they bring them together and serve as an agreeable setting for common relationships.

When Saint Monica was pregnant with the great Saint Augustine, she dedicated him by many offerings to the Christian religion and the service of God’s glory, as he himself testifies, saying that he had already tasted “the salt of God in the womb of his mother.”b That is a great lesson for Christian women: to offer to the Divine Majesty the fruit of their wombs, even before they come into being, for God, who accepts these offerings of humble and willing hearts, ordinarily in those times promotes the good feelings of the mothers: witness Samuel,c Saint Thomas Aquinas,d Saint Andrew of Fiesole,e and others. The mother of Saint Bernard—worthy mother of such a son—taking her children in her arms as soon as they were born, offered them to Jesus Christ and therefore loved them with respect as sacred, and as God having assigned them. And she managed that so successfully that eventually all seven became saints.

And when children have been born into the world and begin to use reason, the fathers and mothers must have great care that the fear of God is imprinted on their hearts. The good Queen Blanche did that duty earnestly regarding her son, the king Saint Louis, for she often said: “I would rather too, my dear boy, to see you die before my eyes than to see you commit a single mortal sin.”f That would remain so engraved on the soul of that saint that he himself said that there was no day in his life on which he did not remember them, taking trouble so that he could preserve this divine teaching. Of course, races and families are called “houses” in our language, and the Hebrews themselves called the generation of children “house building,” for it is in that sense that it is said that God built houses for the midwives of Egypt.g Now, that is to show that it is not making a good home to cram a lot of worldly goods into it, but to bring up children in the fear of God and in virtue—and how we must spare no trouble or labor in this, since children are the crown of the father and mother.h

So, Saint Monica fought so fervently and constantly the evil inclinations of Saint Augustine, whom she had followed by sea and by land, making him more successfully the child of her tears by the conversion of his soul than he had been child of her blood by the generation of his body.a

a. “[Bishop Ambrose] said, ‘Go thy way and God bless you, for it is not possible that the son of these tears should perish’” (St. Augustine, Confessions 3.21).

b. Titus 2:5: “[Teach the young women] to be discreet, chaste, sober, having a care of the house so that the word of God is not blasphemed.”

c. Proverbs 31:10: “Who shall find a valiant woman? Far away, and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her.”

d. This curious parenthesis is revealing: the Latin Vulgate has deprecatusque est Dominum pro uxore sua that means literally “entreated the Lord for his wife,” but the ancient Hebrew of that verse uses the word nokach that literally means “over against.” Francis references the original Hebrew rather than merely settling for the Latin Vulgate, so he was apparently among the rare clergy who learned Hebrew in order to read the Old Testament in its original language.

e. Genesis 25:21: “And Isaac entreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and [the LORD] heard him, and made Rebecca to conceive.”

f. 1 Corinthians 7:14: “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife: and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean: but now they are holy.”

g. A rather delightful notice: Apparently spouses may be angry, but only one at a time. And that anger is not to occur suddenly or abruptly—apparently there ought to be some warning if one is going to become angry. While these may sound frivolous, they are based on solid psychological grounds: if both parties in a dispute are angry, there is less hope of peaceful resolution, and if the anger is sudden and explosive, it will almost always elicit a response in kind.

h. “‘Bees are sensitive creatures. They’re easily irritated,’” says [hymenopterist Lasclo] Pentek.… “‘They hate noise and vibration’” (Washington City Paper, June 15, 2007).

i. “Yesterday we kept high festival on the famous Day of the Epiphany; for it was proper that rejoicings should be celebrated for our Salvation, far more than for weddings and birthdays, and namedays, and house-warmings, and registrations of children, and anniversaries, and all the other festivities that people observe for their earthly friends” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 40, On the Holy Lights 1).

Saint Paul leaves to wives the care of the household as their portion.b For this reason many have the truthful opinion that their devotion is more useful to the family than that of the husband. On this account, Solomon, in his proverbs, makes the happiness of the entire household depend on the care and industry of that valiant woman whom he describes.c

It is said in Genesis that Isaac, seeing that his wife Rebecca was barren, prayed to the Lord for her (or, according to the Hebrew, he prayed to the Lord over against her, because he prayed on one side of the oratory and she on the otherd). And likewise the prayer of the husband made in that fashion was granted.e This is the most successful union of husband and wife: one that is lived in holy devotion, to which they must inspire one another, vying for it. Some fruits (such as quince) because of the bitterness of their juice are not agreeable except in preserves; there are others that for their tenderness and delicacy cannot last if they are not also preserved (such as cherries and apricots). Just so, women should hope that their husbands are preserved in the sugar of devotion, for the man without devotion is a stern, harsh, and rude beast. And husbands should hope that their wives are devout, for without devotion, a wife is extremely frail and prone to falling or the tarnishing of virtue. Saint Paul says that “the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife by the believing husband”f—because in that close alliance of marriage, one can easily draw the other toward virtue. But what a blessing it is when the husband and wife, both being believers, sanctify each other in the true fear of the Lord.

Moreover, the mutual forbearance of each other ought to be so great that they are never both angry at the same time, nor abruptly, so that dissension or argument is not seen between them.g Honeybees cannot remain in a place where there are resonances, loud noises, and resounding voices;h indeed, nor can the Holy Spirit remain in a house in which there are arguments, recriminations, and altercations.

Saint Gregory Nazianzen testifies that in his time married people made a festival on the anniversary day of their marriage.i Of course, I approve of this custom being introduced, provided that it would not be with the organization of worldly and sensual recreations, but that the husbands and wives make their confessions and receive Holy Communion on that day, commending to God more fervently than usual the progress of their marriage, renewing the good purposes to sanctify it more and more by a reciprocal friendship and fidelity, and taking a new breath in Our Lord for the support of the responsibilities of their vocation.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 39

a. This chapter is somewhat problematic since it represents an approach to marriage that is specific to a particular culture, a particular religious tradition, and a particular age. The chapter is completely omitted (without comment) in many English translations, abbreviated in others, and provided fully only in few. It not only ought to be included as this is a historical document, but it represents Francis’s own sincere convictions and reveals something of the tensions of his religious world—especially in his own resistance to the Calvinists who controlled his own see city of Geneva.

b. Hebrews 13:4: “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled.”

c. 1 Corinthians 7:3: “Let the husband pay back the debt to his wife: and the wife also similarly to the husband.”

d. 1 Corinthians 7:5: “Do not defraud one another, except, perhaps, by agreement, for a time, so that you may give yourselves to prayer: and return together again, lest Satan tempt you for your lack of control.”

e. One of Francis’s major pedagogical methods involves the use of metaphors. Sometimes (as in articles 4, 5, and 6) that requires a considerable stretch of credibility, but even then, the metaphors are keen enough to make a memorable point.

f. Francis’s moral judgment in this instance was overthrown many years later when Pope Innocent XI condemned the following proposition: “To eat and to drink until satiety for pleasure alone, is not a sin as long as it does not harm health, because one’s natural appetite may lawfully enjoy one’s acts.” This proposal, said the clergy of France in the synod of 1700, is rash, dangerous, scandalous, erroneous, and should be relegated to the school of Epicurus (François de Sales; Oeuvres Complètes; L’Abbé J.P. Migne, ed.; Imprimerie Catholique; Petit-Montrouge, France; 1840-5; v. 3; p. 696.)

i PART III. CHAPTER 39.

The Sanctity of the Marriage Beda

The marriage bed must be kept undefiled, as the Apostle saysb—that is to say, free from impurities and other profane contamination. So Holy Marriage was first instituted in the earthly Paradise where never till that hour had there been any disruption of lust or any thing immodest.

There is some resemblance between shameful sexual pleasures and those of eating, since both involve the flesh—but the former, because of their brutish vehemence, are the only ones called “carnal.” So I will explain what I cannot say about the former by what I say of the latter.

1. Eating is ordained to maintain human beings—but just as to eat simply in order to nourish and maintain humans is a good, holy, and dutiful thing, so too, what is required for marriage—for the procreation of children and the increasing of the human race—is a good thing and very holy, for it is the principal purpose of marriage.

2. To eat not to preserve life but to maintain the mutual association and consideration we owe each other—that is something extremely just and virtuous. And similarly, the reciprocal and lawful satisfaction of the parties in Holy Marriage is called by Saint Paul “debt,”c but a debt so great that he does not wish either of the parties to be able to waive it without the free and voluntary consent of the otherd—not even for devotional practices (which made me say what I put in the chapter on Holy Communion in that regard). So how much less, then, can one exempt oneself from the debt because of some whimsical pretense of virtue or out of anger or scorn?

3. As those who eat because of the duty of mutual association ought to eat freely and not as if compelled to do so, and should try to show an appetite;e and so the nuptial duty ought to be always rendered faithfully, freely, and all the same as if it were done in hope of having children (although on some occasions there may not be any such hope).

4. To eat for neither of these two primary reasons but merely to satisfy one’s appetite may be something tolerable, but not praiseworthy—for the mere pleasure of sensual appetite cannot be a motivation sufficient to make an action laudable; it is sufficient only so it is tolerable.f

5. To eat not only because of a simple appetite but for excess and disorder is something more or less offensive, depending on whether the excess is great or small.

6. However, overindulgence in food does not consist only in too great a quantity, but also in the fashion and manner of eating. It is a great case, dear child, that honey (which is the proper and wholesome food for bees) may sometimes make bees sick—such as when they eat too much in the springtime,a because that gives them the dysenteryb and sometimes that makes them die helplessly, such as when they are covered with honey on the front of their head and on their wings.c

a. “[In the springtime] bees, sick after cold and abstinence, will pick spurge and elm-blossoms, and be injured unless helped by medicine. Pity them.… Abundance often injures them.… Therefore if the combs drip with excess of honey, keep them three days at home” (Palladius on Husbandry 1472; Herrtage, Sydney J.H., ed.; Early English Text Society; London; 1873).

b. The French is le flux de ventre, literally, “the flow of the stomach”—usually simply called “the flux” in English.

c. Attributed to St. Jerome (unverified): “Anyone who has too passionate a love for his wife is an adulterer!”

d. Francis reflects the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that condemns any instance of sexual intercourse in which the potential conception of a child is precluded, that is, any method of preventing pregnancy.

e. Theologically, it is the willingness for procreation to take place that determines the morality of the act—even if there are obvious natural impediments to conception.

f. The cultural practice of levirate marriage is described in Deuteronomy 25:5, in which a man is required to marry his dead brother’s childless widow so the resulting child could be heir of the dead brother.

g. “A certain Cynic philosopher who has taught that no stimulation of the flesh and release of semen resulting from rubbing and touching of any kind is to be avoided at the proper time and several sages of the world who have agreed with this filthy and shameful heresy” (St. Jerome, Commentary on Ephesians 5:3).

h. Philippians 3:18b–19: “They are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction: whose God is their belly: and whose glory is in their shame: who mind earthly things.”

i. “These [elephants] are sensible to feelings of modesty; they never couple but in secret: the male after it has attained its fifth year, the female after the age of ten. It is said that their intercourse takes place only every second year, and for five days only, and no more; on the sixth day they plunge into a river, before doing which they will not rejoin the herd” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 8.5.13)

In truth, nuptial intercourse that is so holy, so just, so commendable, so useful to the nation, is nevertheless in certain cases dangerous to those who practice it, because sometimes it makes their souls seriously ill with venial sin (as in cases of plain excess), and sometimes it makes them die of mortal sin (as happens when the established order for the procreation of children is violated and perverted)—in that case, depending on how far one strays from that established order, the sins are more or less outrageous, but always mortal.d For also since the procreation of children is the first and primary purpose of marriage, one can never lawfully depart from the order that requires (although for some other mischance procreation may not occur, such as happens when infertility or pregnancy already prevents it). For in those occasions bodily intercourse does not cease to be righteous and holy, provided the rules of generation are followed.e No such incident can ever be against the law that the primary purpose of marriage has imposed. Of course, the infamous and execrable act that Onan committed in his marriage was hateful before God, as says the sacred text of the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis.f And although some heretics of our age—a hundred times more blameworthy than the Cynics of whom Saint Jerome speaks in the Epistle to the Ephesiansg—have maintained that it was the perverse intention of this evil that displeased God, Scripture says otherwise, and provides in particular that the very thing he did was despicable and abominable before God.

7. It is the true mark of an ugly, vile, abject, and wicked mind to think of meat and victuals before the meal, and even more when after eating one delights oneself with the pleasure one had taken in eating, dwelling on it in words and thoughts, and wallowing in his mind in the memory of the pleasure which he had in swallowing those morsels—like those who before dinner have their mind in the oven, and after dinner in the dishes served—people worthy to be scullions in the kitchen—who, as Saint Paul says, makes a god of their belly.h People of honor do not think of food until they are seated, and after the meal they rinse their hands and mouth so as not to have any longer either the taste or the odor of what they have eaten. The elephant is not only a huge beast, but the most worthy living on the earth and one that has the most sense. I give you an example of his chastity.i He never changes his mate, and loves tenderly the one he has chosen, with whom, nevertheless, he does not couple except every three years, and that for five days only and so secretly that he is never seen in the act. But he is clearly seen on the sixth day when before everything he goes straight to some river in which he washes all his whole body, unwilling any return to the herd before he is thus purified. Are not these beautiful and modest habits of such an animal, in which he invites the married couple not to remain engaged with affection for sensualities and voluptuous pleasures that they have practiced according to their vocation, but when they are finished to wash their heart and affection and purify themselves as soon as possible, in order afterward with freedom of mind to practice the other more pure and higher actions.

a. 1 Corinthians 7:29: “This therefore I say, brothers: The time is short. It remains so that those who have wives may be just as if they did not have them.”

b. “One who has a wife, but is as if he has none, knows how to satisfy the needs of his body without being forced to attach unconditionally to the world” (St. Gregory I, XL Homiliarum in Evangelia 2, hom. 36).

c. See 1 Corinthians 7:31: “And let those who use this world be as if they did not use it. For the beauty of this world passes away.”

d. “Accordingly, every human perversity (also called vice) consists in the desire to use what ought to be enjoyed and to enjoy what ought to be used” (St. Augustine, De LXXXIII Quaestionibus 30).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 40

e. 1 Timothy 5:3, 5: “Honor widows that are truly widows.… And she that is a true widow, and destitute, let her trust in God and continue in supplications and prayers night and day.”

f. It must be understood that being a “true widow” meant that the woman (1) had no surviving parents, children, or grandchildren for whom she bore responsibility; and (2) had no intentions of remarrying. In fact, this was the earliest Christian form of what later came to be the more formal monastic life under vows. Widows were cared for and supported by the Church if they were “true widows.” The tone of the passage from 1 Timothy suggests that even as early as that, chastity/virginity was favored over marriage, and apparently there were widows who were living lives that appeared to be less than chaste and needed correction.

In this advice is found the perfect practice of the admirable doctrine that Saint Paul gives to the Corinthians: “The time is short,” he says, “it remains that those who have wives should be as having none.”a For according to Saint Gregory, that man has a wife as if he had none who takes bodily consolations with her in such a way as not to be diverted from spiritual claims.b And what is said of the husband is understood equally of the wife. “Let those who use this world,” says the same Apostle, “be as if not using it.”c Let all, therefore, use the world, each one according to his vocation, but so that in no way engaging his affections, one is also free and ready to serve God, as if one was not using it. “This is the great misfortune of man,” says Saint Augustine, “to want to enjoy the things he must only use, and to want to use those which he ought only to enjoy.”d We may enjoy spiritual things and only use material ones, which when the use is turned into pleasure our reasonable soul is also turned into a brutal and bestial soul.

I think I have said all that I wanted to say, and made it clear without saying what I do not want to say.

i PART III. CHAPTER 40.

Advice for Widows

Saint Paul instructed all prelates, in the person of Timothy, saying: “Honor widows who are really widows.”e But to be truly a widow,f these things are required:

1. That the widow be a widow not only in body, but also in heart—that is to say, resolved with an inviolable resolution to preserve herself in the state of a chaste widowhood. For widows who are not that, but are waiting for the occasion to remarry, are separated from men only regarding the voluptuousness of their bodies, but they are already conjoined with them regarding the whims of their heart. If the true widow, in order to be confirmed in the state of widowhood, wishes to offer to God her body and her chastity in a vow, she will add a great adornment to her widowhood and gives great assurance to her resolution. For seeing that after the vow it is no longer in her power to abandon her chastity without losing paradise, she will be so protective of her resolution that she will not permit even the most simple thoughts of marriage to rest in her heart for a single moment—so that sacred vow will put a strong barrier between her soul and all manner of ideas contrary to her resolution.a

a. It is a standard premise in ascetical theology that the formal profession of a vow makes the fulfillment of the vow easier, that is, the spiritual dynamics involved in a formal commitment (a vow) serve to strengthen the resolve to resist temptation. Among monastics there is an adage: “To take a vow helps to keep a vow.”

b. “In widowed and virginal continence, the excellence of a greater gift is searched for: and, when this has been sought, and chosen, and by debt of vow offered, from this time not only to enter upon marriage, but to wish to marry is matter of condemnation” (St. Augustine, Of Good Widowhood 12).

c. “It is a good thing and primary in value, if a woman can hold the grace of virginity. If she cannot do this, but she happens to lose her husband, let her carry on as a widow. In fact, she should have this idea in mind not only after the death of her husband, but even while he is still living” (Origen, Homily 17 on Luke).

d. Francis’s contrived (and somewhat confused) metaphor: taking vows will result in the fruits of good works, but spiritually God is the tree that produces such fruits.

e. “… so that each might serve [Christ] and enjoy him, whom to serve is to reign” (Peter Lombard [1100–1160], Second Book of Sentences, pt. 2, ch. 4).

f. Romans 4:2: “If Abraham were justified by works, he has something about which to glory, but not before God.”

g. 1 Timothy 5:6: “For she who lives in pleasures is dead, though living.”

h. There existed in seventeenth-century France Masonic-like secret societies exclusively for women called “Adoptive Lodges” (in this case, one named “The Lodge of Adonis”). Like all secular secret societies, these were repudiated and scorned by the Catholic Church (Mackey, Albert Gallatin; An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Societies…; Masonic History Co.; London; 1921).

i. The breeding plumes of the white heron were widely used from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries to decorate women’s hats. The plumes grew to be in such demand that they came to cost twice their weight in gold.

j. Francis gives a sly thrust—suggesting that the semitransparent black mourning veil might be chosen by widows who were looking for a new husband, as a way to show off their pale complexion.

Indeed, Saint Augustine strongly advises that vow for a Christian widowb and the ancient and learned Origen goes even further, for he exhorts married women to vow and dedicate themselves to a chaste widowhood in case their husbands pass away before them, so that amid the sensual pleasures they can have in their marriage they can nevertheless enjoy the merit of a chaste widowhood by means of that projected promise.c A vow makes the good works that follow it more acceptable to God, strengthens our courage to do them, and gives to God alone not only the works (which are like the fruits of our good will) but dedicates that same will to him who is like the tree of our actions.d By simple chastity, we lend our bodies to God while nevertheless retaining the freedom to submit again to sensual pleasures; but by the vow of chastity we make an absolute and irrevocable gift without any power for us to retract it, making ourselves slaves of him—a bondage that is better than any royalty.e But as much as I greatly approve the advice of these two great personages, I also would like the souls who are so happy as to wish to follow them, to do so carefully, reverently, and firmly, having carefully examined their endurance, invoked heavenly inspiration, and taken the advice of some wise and devout director—for only so will everything be more fruitful.

2. Besides that, it is necessary that this renunciation of a second marriage must be done purely and simply (with more innocence) to turn all her affections to God, and join all parts of her heart with that of his Divine Majesty. For if the desire to leave her children wealthy or some other sort of worldly intention were to sustain the widow in widowhood, she may perhaps have praise for it, but certainly not before God,f since in the eyes of God nothing can have true praise except what is done for God.

3. Moreover, the widow—to be truly a widow—must be separate and voluntarily destitute of worldly pleasures. “The widow who lives in delight,” says Saint Paul, “is dead while living.”g Wanting to be a widow and still to be pleased by flirtation, flattering, and coaxing, to wish to be at balls, dances, and banquets, to wish to be perfumed, costumed, and adorned is to be a widow living regarding the body, but dead regarding the soul. What does it matter, I pray you, whether the token of the Lodge of Adonish and profane love be made of white feathers perched like plumes,i or of black crêpe spread like a net around one’s face? Black is often used this way with the advantage of vanity over the white, in order to enhance the complexion.j The widow who, having tried out the fashion by which women can please men, sends out some of the most dangerous allurements in their minds. So the widow who lives in those excessive delights is dead while living and cannot properly be considered an image of widowhood.

a. Song of Songs 2:12: “The flowers have appeared in the land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.”

b. Ruth 1:19–21: “So [Naomi and Ruth] went together, and came to Bethlehem. And when they had entered the city, the report was quickly spread: and the women said: ‘This is that Naomi.’ But she said to them: ‘Do not call me Naomi (that is, beautiful) but call me Mara (that is, bitter), for the Almighty has filled me up with bitterness. I went out full and the LORD hath brought me back empty. Why then do you call me Naomi, whom the LORD has humbled and the Almighty has afflicted?’”

c. A perceptive insight on Francis’s part: that the true quality of a woman’s married life is revealed by her behavior when she is widowed.

d. 1 Timothy 5:8: “But if anyone does not take care of his own and especially of those of his house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.”

e. Francis challenges a widow to avoid legal arguments and suits (presumably concerning her husband’s legacy and/or property) in favor of a tranquil life.

f. With a perception obviously born of experience, Francis cautions that involvement in disputes and suits often puts one in the position of needing favors from others—which, in turn, can lead to moral compromise in order to obtain those favors.

“The time of pruning the vines has come, the voice of the dove has been heard in our land,” says the Song of Songs.a The pruning of worldly trappings is required for anyone who wishes to live devoutly, but it is absolutely necessary for the true widow who, like a chaste dove, comes freshly from crying, moaning, and lamenting the loss of her husband. When Naomi returned from Moab to Bethlehem, the women of the town who had known her early in her marriage said to one another, “Is this not Naomi?” but she replied, “Do not call me ‘Naomi,’ I pray you, because ‘Naomi’ means ‘graceful’ and ‘beautiful’—but call me ‘Mara’ for the LORD has filled my soul with bitterness.”b She said that because her husband was dead. Just so, the devout widow would never wish to be called or considered either beautiful or graceful, contenting herself to be what God wishes her to be—that is to say, humble and abject in his eyes.

Lamps whose oil is aromatic cast out a sweeter smell when their flames are extinguished; just so widows whose love in their marriage has been pure spread a finer perfume of the virtue of chastity when their light—that is to say, their husband—is extinguished by death. To love one’s husband when he is alive is a fairly trivial thing for women; but to love him so much that after his death one does not want any other, that is a kind of love that belongs to true widows. To trust in God, while a husband is serving as support, is not a very rare thing; but to trust in God when one is deprived of that support, that is something worthy of high praise. That is why it is in widows that one can more easily recognize the perfection of virtues one had in marriage.c

The widow who has children who need her attention and guidance (and especially in those matters that regard their soul and the setting up of their life) neither can nor ought in any way to abandon them, for the apostle Saint Paul says clearly that they are obliged to care for them “to give back to their father and mother,” even though, “if someone who does not care for his own and primarily those of his family, he is worse than an infidel.”d But if the children are in a state in which they have no need to be guided, then the widow must gather all her affections and thoughts in order to apply them more purely to her own progress in the love of God.

As long as some absolute necessity does not oblige a true widow in conscience to engage in external problems—such as lawsuits—I advise her to avoid them all, and to follow a method of conducting her affairs that will be more peaceful and tranquil—although it may not seem to be most profitable. For it would be necessary for the profit of such troubles to be very great in order to be comparable to the benefit of a holy tranquility.e And all that besides the fact that lawsuits and such quarrels distract the mind and often open the door to the enemies of chastity, while to please those whose favor is needed, one must put oneself in positions that are indevout and displeasing to God.f

Prayer should be the constant practice of the widow, for since she ought not to have love except for God, she ought also to have scarcely any words except for God. And like iron that is unable to follow the attraction of a magnet due to the presence of a diamond leaps to that same magnet when the diamond is removed,a just so the heart of a widow who cannot simply leap wholly to God nor follow the charms of his divine love during the life of her husband ought suddenly, after his passing, run ardently toward the fragrance of the celestial perfumes, as saying in imitation of the sacred Spouse: “O Lord, now that I am all my own, receive me as all yours.b Draw me after you; let us run to the fragrance of your ointments.”c

a. “The diamond is a stone possessed by many among us, especially by jewelers and lapidaries, and the stone is so hard that it can be fashioned neither by iron nor fire, nor, they say, by anything at all except goat’s blood. Let me further say what I have read about the magnet. When a diamond is laid near it, it does not lift iron; or if it has already lifted it, as soon as the diamond approaches, it drops it. These stones come from India” (St. Augustine, City of God, bk. 21, 4).

b. Francis may be thinking of Paul’s words recommending that Philemon free his slave Onesimus (in Philemon 15: “For perhaps he therefore departed for a season from you, that you might receive him again forever”).

c. Song of Songs 1:3a: “Draw me: we will run after you to the fragrance of your ointments.”

d. “For how glorious is the Church, and how great the multitude of her virtues, like a mixture of flowers! The Lord has a garden here: not only the roses of the martyrs, but also the lilies of virgins, and ivy of the married, and the violets of widows. Beloved, let no sort of mortal despair of his or her vocation, for Christ suffered for all” (St. Augustine, Sermo 304).

e. 1 Corinthians 7:40: “But more blessed shall she be if she remains so [unmarried], according to my counsel. And I think that I also have the spirit of God.”

f. St. Jerome wrote his Epistle 54 to Furia. The letter is a list of thirteen extensive recommendations and cautions for widows. His closing line is particularly Jerome-esque: “Think every day that you must die, and you will then never think of marrying again.”

g. As is so often the case, in his enthusiasm Francis presses his points extremely strongly, and then finds that he needs to add a cautionary note to remove some of the sting. Here he notes the importance of following one’s own particular vocation, and not demanding that others follow the same road.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 41

h. Francis has no tolerance for a young woman to have expended energy on any kind of love affairs—however innocent they may be—before marriage. We are reminded that Francis’s culture of the time witnessed much extramarital philandering, flirting, and games of allurement.

The exercise of the virtues proper to the holy widow are perfect modesty, the renunciation of honors, ranks, councils, titles, and such kinds of vanities, service of the poor and the sick, consolation of the afflicted, the introduction of girls to the devout life, and making themselves a perfect exemplar of all the virtues to the young women. Cleanliness and plainness are the two adornments of their clothing; humility and charity, the two adornments of their actions; modesty and purity, the adornments of their eyes; and Jesus Christ crucified, the unique love of their heart.

In short, in the Church the true widow is a little March violetd that spreads an incomparable sweetness by the fragrance of her devotion, and keeps herself almost always hidden under the broad leaves of her humility, and by her subdued colors testifies to her mortification. She lives in cool and uncultivated places, unwilling to be pressed into the conversation of the worldly, the better to preserve the coolness of her heart against all the heats that the desire for goods, for honors, or even for loves could bring upon her. “She will be blessed,” says the Apostle, “if she continues in this manner.”e

I have many other things to say about this subject, but I have said everything when I say that the widow, concerned for the honor of her situation, should read attentively the noble epistles of the great Saint Jerome written to Furia and Salvia,f and to all those other ladies who were so fortunate as to be spiritual daughters of so great a father—for there is nothing to add to what he says, other than this warning: the true widow should never blame or censure those who pass on to a second or even a third or fourth marriage, for in some cases God thus provides for his greater glory. And she must always have before her eyes that teaching of the Ancients that neither widowhood nor virginity has any place in heaven except that which is assigned to them by humility.g

i PART III. CHAPTER 41.

A Word to Maidens

O virgins, if you intend a worldly marriage, then loyally keep your first love for your first husband. I think that it is a great fraud to present to him, instead of a full and sincere heart, a heart all used up, tainted, and tired of love.h But if your happiness calls you to chaste and virginal spiritual marriages and if you wish to preserve your virginity forever, O God, preserve your love as tenderly as you possibly can for that divine Spouse who, being purity itself,a loves nothing more than purityb and to whom the firstfruits of all things are duec—but principally of the harvest of love. The epistles of Saint Jerome will furnish you with all the advice you need;d and since your situation obliges you to obedience, choose a guide under whose direction you can, in a more holy way, dedicate your heart and your body to his Divine Majesty.

a. This simple statement—“being purity itself”—is a significant testimony of mystical theology. It declares that purity is not merely an attribute or aspect of God, but is God’s very essence itself. The mystical principle Francis expresses is that God has no traits independent of his essence—God is not merely “loving,” God is actual love itself; God is not merely “good,” God is actual goodness itself.

b. “No wonder if what is so like God is lovely to him; for he is the loveliest thing and all unbroken, and always was and is more pure than anything, and loves purity more than anything” (From Holy Maidenhood [twelfth century], in Savage, Anne, and Watson, Nicholas, trs.; Anchoritic Spirituality…; Paulist Press; Mahwah, NJ; 1991, 228.).

c. Proverbs 3:9: “Honor the LORD with your substance, and give him of the first of all your fruits.”

d. St. Jerome is perhaps virginity’s greatest champion among early Christian writers. It is said jokingly that he approved of marriage only because it could produce children who could then become virgins.

PART

FOUR

CONTAINING NECESSARY

ADVICE CONCERNING

MORE ORDINARY

TEMPTATIONS

PART IV.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 1

a. “Anytime we are engaged in a work for God, we are likely to encounter the poison-tipped arrows of ridicule. A barrage of truth mingled with lies, innuendo, malicious gossip and implied threats is the normal experience of leaders.… So expect to have your faults thrown in your face, your folly mocked and your real progress belittled” (John White [1540–1593], early English colonist of Roanoke, Virginia, from a letter of 1593. Quoted in Excellence in Leadership; InterVarsity Press; Downer’s Grove, IL; 1986, 70).

b. Francis shows a particular sensitivity in noting that both friends and enemies will attack one who wishes to live devoutly—with the subtle differences that enemies will attack maliciously and friends will offer ruinous warnings (charitably, they claim).

c. John 15:19: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

d. The French for “supposed illness and pessimism” is de l’humeur hypocondriaque, et de la jaunisse—literally, “from the hypochondriacal humor and from jaundice.”

e. We see Francis’s skilled rhetoric: he uses reason, experience, and emotion in promoting his cause.

f. The grammar of this sentence is complicated, and most translators have “We can never please the world unless we lose ourselves together with the world.” But the words avec lui that end the sentence can mean “with it” (that is, the world) or “with him” (that is, God).

g. In a sense, Francis throws up his hands here: “It is impossible even to have a discussion with the worldly, because they are simply too idiotic.” “Contests” is the French contentions, which means “contentions,” “debates,” “strifes,” or “prolonged efforts.”

h. Luke 7:33–34: “For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine. And you say: He has a devil. The Son of man comes eating and drinking. And you say: Behold a man that is a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners.” It is curious that Francis ends the quotation with “he is a Samaritan,” which does not correspond to the scriptural passage. This is probably evidence that Francis wrote from memory rather than from the scriptural text itself.

i. 1 Corinthians 13:4–5: “Charity is patient, is kind: charity does not envy, does not deal perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, does not seek what are hers, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil.…”

i PART IV. CHAPTER 1.

That We Must Disregard the Words of This World’s Children

As soon as the worldly perceive that you wish to follow the devout life, they will let fly against you a thousand arrows of ridicule and slander.a The most malicious among them will attribute your change to hypocrisy, bigotry, and deception. They will say that the world has frowned upon you, and that because of that rejection you have taken refuge in God. Your friends will be eager to raise a world of objections—very careful and charitable in their opinion—“You will fall,” they will say, “into some melancholy mood; you will lose your position in the world; you will be unbearable; you will grow old before your time; your domestic affairs will suffer; you must live in the world like one in the world; one can find his salvation just as well without so much commotion.”b And a thousand similar trifles.

My child, all this is a foolish and vain babbling. These people care neither for your health nor for your concerns. “If you were of the world,” says the Savior, “the world would love what is its own, but because you are not of the world, therefore it will hate you.”c We have seen gentlemen and ladies pass entire nights—even many nights in a row—playing chess and cards. Is there any consideration more gloomy, more depressing, and more dismal than that? Nevertheless, the worldly do not say a word, and friends do not bother themselves about them. But for an hour’s meditation, or for rising a little earlier than usual to prepare for Communion, everyone runs after the doctor to cure us of our supposed illness and pessimism!d Someone spends thirty nights dancing, and no one complains afterward; but for the single vigil kept on Christmas Eve, everyone has coughs and stomachaches on the following day. Who does not see that the world is an unrighteous judge—gracious and favorable to her children, but harsh and strict with the children of God?e

We could not understand how to be well with the world without dishonoring ourselves with him.f Contests with that world are impossible because it is too bizarre.g “John came,” says the Lord, “neither eating nor drinking, and you said that he was possessed by a devil; the Son of Man come eating and drinking, and you say that he is a Samaritan.”h It is true, my child: if we were to relax by lowering ourselves to laugh, to play, to dance with the world, it would be scandalized; if we do not do those things, we are accused of hypocrisy and gloom; if we are present, it will be interpreted as some scheme of ours; if we absent ourselves, that will be for the baseness of heart. Our joyfulness will be called debauchery and our mortifications sullenness. And seeing us in this way with an evil eye, we can never be pleasing to the world. It magnifies our imperfections and proclaims that they are sins; our venial sins it makes mortal, and our sins of weakness it turns into sins of malice. Rather, as Saint Paul says, “Charity is kind”i—on the contrary, the world is malicious; “charity thinks no evil”—on the contrary, the world thinks endlessly evil; and when it cannot blame our actions, it will condemn our intentions. Let the sheep have horns or let them have none, let them be white or let them be black, the wolf will not hesitate to eat them if he can.

a. “Spiders, too, are especially hostile to bees; when they have gone so far as to build their webs within the hive, the death of the whole swarm is the result” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 11.21). Also see part 1, chapter 22 above.

b. A hoot-owl in French is un chat-huant, literally, “a hooting-cat.” Curiously, some have translated it simply “a cat.”

c. “The antipathy shewn to Owls by every species of day bird is extreme. They are followed and pursued on all occasions; and although few of the day birds ever prove dangerous enemies, their conduct towards the Owls is evidently productive of great annoyance to them” (Audubon, John James; Birds of America; London; 1840.)

d. “A comet is not a star, but a light and tumultuous fire” (Albertus Magnus [c. 1206–1280], Meteorology, bk. 1, §3).

e. Exodus 1:15–17: “And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews commanding them: When you are midwives to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery is come: if it be a male, kill it: if a female, keep it alive. But the midwives feared God, and did not do according to the commandment of the king of Egypt, but saved the males.” This metaphor is awkward. I think Francis means that just as the midwives were not moved by the commands of Pharaoh, so we should not be moved by opprobrium and calumny.

f. Galatians 6:14: “But far be it from me that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.”

g. “… and if you were to climb [some high mountain] to see, you shall soon recognize that all the world is mad…” (Burton, Robert; The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621). Francis’s adage has been used thousands of times as a motto for family crests, as book inscriptions and epigraphs, as an axiom engraved on ecclesiastical buildings, and such like.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 2

h. The French translated as “the feather-brains and wits” is les fols et moqueurs and usually would translate as “the fools and mockers,” but both words can also convey the more obscure meanings I have used.

Whatever we do, the world will always wage war against us. If we are a long time in the Confessional, it will inquire how it is that we have so much to say; if we are brief, it will say that we haven’t confessed everything. It will spy out all our movements, and for one single small word of anger, it will protest that we are unbearable. The care of our affairs will seem like avarice to it, and our meekness silliness. But regarding the children of the world, their anger is generosity, their avarice is economy, their improprieties are honorable chats. The spiders always spoil the work of the bees.a

Let us leave behind the blind world, my child, which can cry out as it wishes—like a hoot-owlb disturbing the birds of the daylight.c Let us be firm in our purposes, invariable in our resolutions. Perseverance will do well to show if it is earnest and all to the good that we are sacrifices to God and ordained for the devout life. Comets and planets are almost equally bright in appearance, but the comets disappear in a short time, being only a kind of passing flashes,d but the planets have a perpetual brilliance. In the same manner, hypocrisy and true virtue have many a resemblance on the outside, but one can easily distinguish one from the other because hypocrisy has no duration and dissipates itself like rising smoke, but true virtue is always firm and constant. To receive opprobrium and calumny is for us a great convenience to assure a good beginning of our devotion; for by this means we avoid the peril of vanity and pride. We are like the midwives of Egypt whom the Pharaoh ordered to kill the male children of Israel the same day they were born.e We are crucified to the world, and the world ought to be crucified to us.f It takes us for fools, let us take it for mad.g

i PART IV. CHAPTER 2.

That One Must Have Good Courage

The light, though beautiful and desirable to our eyes, nevertheless dazzles them after they have been in long darkness, and before one becomes familiar with the inhabitants of another country—no matter how courteous and gracious they may be—one finds oneself at least dazed. It may well happen, my dear child, that from this change of life many upheavals will occur in our inner self, and that the great and broad farewell you have spoken to the follies and stupidities of the world will give you some pain of sorrow and discouragement. If that happens, have a little patience, I pray you, for it will be nothing. It is only a bit of a shock that novelty brings, but after that, you will receive a thousand consolations. You may possibly be annoyed at first about leaving the glory that the feather-brains and witsh bestowed on you in your vanity, but, O God, would you willingly as well lose the eternal glory that God will truly give you? The vain amusements and pastimes that you have used in past years will again present themselves to your heart as enticements to make you return to their side, but would you have the courage to renounce eternal happiness for such deceitful frivolities? Believe me, if you persevere, you will soon receive sweet cordialsa so delicious and pleasant that you will acknowledge that what the world has is mere bile compared with this honey, and that one day of devotion is better than a thousand years of worldly life.b

a. The word refers specifically to strong, sweet, aromatic dessert liqueurs—as opposed to the subsequent reference to the bitter taste of bile. All other translations have “consolations.”

b. Psalm 83:11 [84:9]: “For one day in your courts is better than over a thousand elsewhere. I have chosen to be lowly in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners.”

c. The phrase “the mountain of Christian perfection” may refer to Psalm 23:3 [24:3]: “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the LORD: or who shall stand in his holy place?” It has been used by Christian writers from Gregory of Nyssa through François Fénelon, Teresa of Ávila, and John of the Cross, to John Wesley.

d. The French has que leurs mères ont préparé—“which their mothers have prepared”—but, of course, the mother of all honeybees in a hive is the queen bee, and she definitely does not prepare honey.

e. Psalm 54:7 [55:7]: “And I said: Who will give me the wings of a dove, so that I may fly and be at rest?”

But you see that the mountain of Christian perfectionc is extremely high: “Ah, my God,” you say, “how can I climb it?” Courage, child—when the little honeybees begin to take shape, they are called larvae, and then they cannot yet fly over the flowers nor over the mountains nor over the nearby hills to gather honey. But little by little, nourishing themselves from the honey that their eldersd have prepared, these little larvae grow wings and strengthen themselves, so that afterward they may fly to search the whole landscape. It is true: we are still little honeybees in devotion. We cannot rise according to our design—that is nothing less than reaching the summit of Christian perfection—but if we begin to take form by our desires and resolutions, the wings will begin to emerge. It is hoped that one day we shall become spiritual bees and we shall fly. And meanwhile, we live on the honey from the many lessons that the devout ancients have left us, and we pray God that he will give us feathers like those of a dove,e so that we cannot only fly in the time of our present life but also we may rest in the eternity of the future.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 3.

Of Temptations and the Difference Between Experiencing
Them and Consenting to Them

Imagine, my child, a very young princess beloved by her spouse, and some evil person, in order to debauch and corrupt her marriage bed, sends to her some wretched messenger of love, so as to negotiate his evil design with her. First, this messenger proposes to this princess the intention of his master; second, the princess agrees or disagrees with the proposal and the message; in third place, either she consents or she refuses. Thus Satan, the world, and the flesh, seeing a soul wedded to the Son of God, sends to her temptations and suggestions like these: (1) sin is proposed to her; (2) about that, she is either pleased or displeased; (3) finally she consents or she refuses—which are, in fact, the three degrees for descending into iniquity: the temptation, the delight, and the consent. And although these three actions are not known to be as obvious in all other sorts of sins, they are palpably obvious in great and enormous sins.

If the temptation to any sin whatsoever were to last even throughout our life, it could not render us displeasing to the Divine Majesty, provided that it does not please us and that we do not consent to it—the reason is because in the temptation we do not act, but we suffer, and since we have taken no pleasure, we also cannot incur any kind of guilt.a Saint Paul suffered the temptations of the flesh for a long time, and yet for that was he made displeasing to God? On the contrary: God was glorified on account of them.b The Blessed Angela of Foligno felt such cruel carnal temptations that she makes us pity her when she recounts them.c Also, so great were the temptations that Saint Francisd and Saint Benedicte suffered, that one threw himself into thorns and the other into the snow in order to mitigate them. And yet they lost nothing of the grace of God for all that—indeed, they were very much increased in it.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 3

a. This is a primary and elemental principle of moral theology that is widely misunderstood by a huge majority of ordinary Christians: that is, the distinction between temptation and sin—the difference between being tempted to act immorally and the decision actually to act immorally. In our Puritan-tinged Christianity, we are often inclined to assume guilt and to blame ourselves if we find ourselves simply wanting to act in a sinful way, but there is nothing in any way immoral or culpable about the desire. Immorality enters only when (1) one purposely and intentionally entertains and delights in the thought (rather than rejecting it); or (2) one acts on the impulse and commits adultery.

b. 2 Corinthians 12:7–9: “And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, in order to cuff me. For which thing, thrice I prayed the Lord that it might depart from me. And he said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for you: for virtue is made perfect in weakness.’Therefore I will gladly glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

c. “Notwithstanding the power of the visions and experiences of God’s love that she was receiving, doubts and uncertainties, periods of aridity, hostility from the Franciscans and her associates in the Third Order, temptations from the devil, and periodic death wishes plagued Angela, causing intermittent periods of agony in the midst of intense joy” (Angela of Foligno; Complete Works; Lachance, Paul, tr. and ed.; Paulist Press; Mahwah, NJ; 1993, 21).

d. “When, early in his new life, [Francis of Assisi] was violently tempted, he threw himself naked into a ditch full of snow. Again when tempted like Benedict he plunged into a briar patch and rolled about until he was torn and bleeding” (Sabatier, Paul [Houghton, Louise Seymour, tr.]; Life of St. Francis of Assisi; Hodder & Stoughton; London; 1919)

e. “Then followed a violent temptation of the flesh, such as [Benedict] had never before experienced. The evil spirit brought before his imagination a woman whom he had formerly seen, and inflamed his heart with such vehement desire at the memory of her that he had very great difficulty in repressing it.… Suddenly, however, with the help of divine grace, he found the strength he needed. Seeing near at hand a thick growth of briars and nettles, he stripped off his habit and cast himself into the midst of them and plunged and tossed about until his whole body was lacerated. Thus, through those bodily wounds, he cured the wounds of his soul” (St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues 2:2).

You must be very courageous then, my child, in the midst of temptations, and do not ever take it that you are overcome as long as they displease you, for observing well that difference between feeling and consenting—that is, that they can be felt as long as they displease us, but one cannot consent unless they do please us, so being pleased usually serves as a step leading to consent. So let the enemies of our salvation present us with as much as they want of lures and enticements; let them stand forever at the door of our heart in order to gain entrance; let them make to us as many proposals as they wish, but as long as we have resolved never to be pleased with them, it is not possible that we could offend God—no more than the prince (spouse of the princess whom I have referred to before) could be offended by the message that was sent to her, as long as she had no sort of pleasure from it. There is, nevertheless, that difference between the soul and that princess in this subject, in that the princess, having heard the immodest proposition, can if it pleases her drive away the messenger and hear no more of it, but it is not always possible for the soul to avoid feeling the temptation, though it is always in her power not to consent to it. That is why although the temptation be hard and persevere for a long time, it cannot harm us, as long as it is displeasing to us.

a. Aristotle (in Nicomachean Ethics), Plato (in Timaeus), and St. Thomas Aquinas (in Summa Theologica) differentiate between parts of the soul: (1) the rational soul and (2) the “sensing soul” (appetite and spirit). Aquinas adds the “vegetative soul” that governs the body’s functions.

b. Galatians 5:17: “For the flesh lusts against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh: For these are contrary one to another: so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

c. Romans 7:23: “But I see another law in my limbs, fighting against the law of my mind and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my limbs.”

d. In seventeenth-century Europe, homes were generally heated by fireplaces. In the homes of the well-to-do, braziers might be found in large rooms to assist in heating. They were often fueled with dried grape vines that gave off a sweet aroma when burned.

e. An extravagant and deeply mystical tautology: “Charity [that is, love] is our spiritual life.”

f. This concept—that there is a little bit of divinity in each of us—is a conceit common to mystical writers: Julian of Norwich calls it “a godly will that has never consented to sin”; Meister Eckhart calls it a “spark of divinity”; and even Philo refers to a “divine shard.” These all testify against the common doctrine of total depravity (that is, the belief that there is absolutely no good of any kind in human nature)—a core teaching of Francis’s nemesis in Geneva, John Calvin.

g. Francis demonstrates a will-based morality (rather than a more law-based morality) that determines right or wrong depending on the intention of the will of the actor. In this passage he depicts a dramatic scene with tempting enjoyments surrounding it, but the will nonetheless maintaining in its integrity.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 4

h. A French wordplay: “to hear” is entendre and “to extend oneself” is s’étendre.

But as to the enjoyment that can follow the temptation, just as we have two parts in our soul, the one inferior and the other superior, and the inferior does not always follow the superior and so makes its case apart, so it happens not infrequently that the inferior part takes pleasure in the temptation—without the consent and thus against the will of the superior part.a This is the quarrel and the battle that the apostle Saint Paul describes when he says that “the flesh lusts against the spirit”;b that there is “a law of the members and a law of the mind”;c and similar things.

Have you ever seen, my child, a great brazierd full of fire covered with ashes? When one comes ten or twelve hours afterward in order to find fire, one can find only a little in the midst of the hearth, and even that is hard to find—nevertheless it is there, since one find it, and with that one can relight all the other coals that were already dead. It is the same with charity (which is our spiritual life)e among the great and violent temptations, for temptation casts its delights into the inferior part, covering all the soul, it seems, with ashes and reduces God’s love to a tiny ember, for it no longer appears anywhere except in the middle of our heart, in the depths of the spirit.f Yet it seems that it is not there, and it is hard to find. Nevertheless, it is truly there, notwithstanding all the trouble in our soul and in our body, since we retain the resolution never to consent to sin nor to temptation. And the enjoyment that pleases our outer self displeases our inner self, so that although it surrounds our will, yet it is not within it.g By this one sees that such pleasure is involuntary, and as such cannot be sin.

i PART IV, CHAPTER 4.

Two Fitting Examples of the Subject

It is so important for you to hear this that I will let nothing stand in the way of extending myself to explain it.h

The young man of whom Saint Jerome speaks, who lay skillfully bound with silk scarves on a soft bed, provoked by all sorts of indecent touchings and enticements by a shameless woman who was lying with him with the purpose of shaking his resolution, ought he not to feel peculiar sensations? Ought not his senses be seized with delight and his imagination be occupied with the presence of such voluptuous matters? No doubt! Yet among so many conflicts, in the midst of so terrible a storm of temptations, and surrounded by so many pleasures, he testified that his heart was not at all defeated and that his will did not consent to any of it. Since his mind saw all that rebelled against him, and since he had no part of his body at his command except his tongue, he bit it off with his teeth and spat it in the face of that ugly soul who tormented him more cruelly with pleasure than the executioners have ever been able to do with torment. For the tyrant who had despaired of conquering him by torture had thought he could overcome him with pleasures.a

a. “That other [man] that was young [the tyrant] made him to be in a right soft bed between two sheets, among flowers and delectable roses and herbs sweet smelling, and he was bound in it so that he could not move. Afterward, he made a harlot, a bawd, come to him alone to touch his limbs and his body, to move him to lechery. Finally, when the sensualness of his flesh overcame him, and since he could not defend himself with his limbs, he bit off a piece of his tongue and spit it in her face that had enticed him to lechery by touching and by kissings, and so he overcame the fleshly temptation, and the bawd also, and deserved to have laud and victory” (de Voragine, Jacobus; “The Life of Saint Paul the First Hermit,” in The Golden Legend; vol. 2).

b. This entire story appears in Raymond of Capua’s Life of Catherine of Siena (pt. 1, ch. 11, 101–2) and concludes with the following words spoken by the Lord: “When the struggle had reached the point I had fixed beforehand, I sent forth my light, and the Powers of Darkness turned tail and fled. They cannot face the Light.… It was when you did in fact offer yourself without reserve to undergo [the sufferings] that in a flash I revealed my presence and came to your rescue. For what I take pleasure in is not sufferings in themselves, but the generosity that accepts them for love of me.”

c. In this account, St. Catherine complains to the Lord that he was not with her when she suffered temptations, and the Lord shows her that he was indeed present—but in a kind of presence she did not expect. Her problem was one that is well-nigh universal among Christians: the plea for God to manifest himself on our own terms rather than submitting ourselves in trust to God’s wisdom and presence on his terms—and often in ways we do not feel or see or sense. Most of us have difficulty accepting the simple fact that God cannot be absent from us—even when we reject him or fail to recognize him. God’s absence from us would mean that our very existence would be snuffed out. As long as we exist, God is present to us, and is doing God’s work with and for us, however little we perceive it.

d. Francis faces into the paradox of the Christian moral struggle: that one seldom has any overt guarantee or proof of God’s presence and God’s help, but one must behave as though one actually had that certainty. This is a functional definition of faith: acting in the absence of certainty. It is also important to recognize that this action can become habitual after long and frequent practice—that the “act of faith” can become almost normative for one who has repeated it frequently. One might even say that the definition of a saint is one for whom faith has become an overpowering habit in the very face of temptation, suffering, or uncertainty.

The story of Saint Catherine of Siena in a similar subject is wholly admirable.b Here is the summary: the evil spirit had permission from God to attack the modesty of that holy virgin with the greatest fury possible, provided, however, that he was not allowed to touch her at all. So he made all kinds of lewd suggestions to her heart. And in order to move her more, coming with his companions in the form of men and women, he committed thousands and thousands of kinds of sensualities and lasciviousness before her, adding filthiest words and invitations. And even though all these things were external, it was by means of the senses that they penetrated before long into the virgin’s heart, that, as she herself confessed, was completely filled up with them, finally remaining to her nothing other than her pure superior will, which had not been shaken by that storm of vileness and carnal pleasure. That temptation lasted a long time, until one day Our Lord appeared to her and she said, “Where were you, my dear Lord, when my heart was full of so much darkness and filth?” To which he replied, “I was within your heart, my child.” “And how,” she replied, “could you have dwelled in my heart where there were so many vile things? Do you, then, live in such filthy places?” And Our Lord said to her, “Tell me: these filthy thoughts of your heart, did they give you pleasure or sorrow? Bitterness or enjoyment?” And she said, “Extreme bitterness and sorrow.” And he replied, “Who was it, then, that put this great bitterness and sorrow in your heart if not I, who dwelled hidden in the center of your soul? Believe me, my child, that if I had not been present, those thoughts that surrounded your will and could not be expunged would without doubt have overcome and would have entered into it, being received with pleasure by your free will, and in that way would have brought death to your soul. But because I was within, I put that displeasure and that resistance into your heart by which it so effectively refused what it could of the temptation. But not being able to do as much as it wished, it felt a very great hatred against them and against yourself—and thus these troubles were a great merit and a greater increase of your virtue and your strength.”c

You see, my child, that as that fire was covered with ashes, temptation and delight had similarly entered within your heart and had surrounded your will, which alone, assisted by its Savior, resisted with bitterness, displeasure, and detestation the evil that was suggested to you, constantly refusing its consent to the sin that surrounded it. O God, what distress does a soul have that loves God—not knowing even if he is in it or not, or if the divine love (for which she battles) is entirely extinguished in her, or not! But that is the delicate flower of the perfection of heavenly love that makes the lover suffer and do battle for love without knowing if he actually possesses the love for which and by which he battles.d

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 5

a. Francis reminds his protégé that major temptations are a sign of God’s special favor and intention to raise the sufferer on high. It is a manifestation of the principle of Christian martyrdom: that those who follow Christ will suffer—enunciated by Jesus in Luke 17:33: “Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall bring it back to life.”

b. The devil is very wise. He seldom suggests that one should commit out-and-out sin. In fact, Satan’s approach is usually to say: “Don’t be sinful and bad! Be a good Christian! Be good! … but not too good.” It is the compromise on the minor and seemingly unimportant matters that gives evil a toehold in one’s soul. Satisfaction at overcoming a major temptation may blind one to the smaller temptations. [Note: There is a serious translation problem in this sentence. The phrase in French is une continuelle fidélité à l’endroit de sa Majesté (ordinarily translated “a continual fidelity to the place of his Majesty”—and that makes no sense). But fidélité has an obscure and rare meaning of “remembrance” or “reminder” and endroit also carries the sense of “position” or “role”—hence my translation.

c. The French has quelque eau précieuse—literally, “some precious water”—a phrase that has confounded all English translators. What it refers to is “mineral water” with its vaunted healing qualities and its reputation as a stimulant. Only thirty-four miles from Francis’s home in Annecy, on the shores of Lake Geneva in the city of Thonon-les-Bains, there is a spa that still advertises the local mineral water as “recommended for its virtues by St. Francis de Sales in his writings.” The phrase “precious water” has also frequently been used to refer to the water that flowed from the pierced side of the crucified Christ.

d. The French has quelque épithème—literally, “some epithem” (which obscure English word the Oxford English Dictionary defines as “any moist or soft external application”).

e. A strong rhetorical parallel between the beating of the heart and the repudiation of temptation.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 5.

Encouragement for the Tempted Soul

My child, these major assaults and extraordinary temptations are never permitted by God except against souls that he wishes to raise up to his pure and tremendous love, but it does not follow, however, that after that they are assured of coming there, for it has happened many times that those who have been steadfast in such violent attacks, by not following the divine favor faithfully afterward, are found to be defeated in very small temptations. I am telling you this so that if ever you should happen to be assailed by such a major temptation, you may know that God is bestowing on you an extraordinary favor, by which he declares that he wants to raise you up before his face.a And yet you must always be humble and timid, not assuring yourself that you can overcome small temptations after having overcome major ones, except by a constant reminder of the role of his Majesty.b

Whatever temptations may happen to you and whatever gratification may ensue, as long as you shall refuse to consent—not only to the temptation but to the gratification as well—do not trouble yourself at all, for God is not in any way offended.

When someone has fainted and shows no sign of life at all, one puts one’s hand over his heart, and if one senses there the slightest movement, one judges that he is alive, and that by means of some mineral waterc and some poultice,d one can cause him to recover his consciousness and strength. Just so it happens sometimes that by the violence of the temptations, it seems that our soul has fallen into a collapse, and that, like fainting, she has no longer either spiritual life or movement. But if we want to know what is in that, we put our hand over our heart—let us see if the heart and the will are doing their duty in refusing to consent and to give way to the temptation and gratification. For as long as the movement of refusal is within our heart,e we are assured that charity—the life of the soul—is in us and that Jesus Christ our Savior is in our soul—although hidden and concealed—so that, by means of the continual exercise of prayer, of the sacraments, and of confidence in God, our strength will return to us and we will live a whole and enjoyable life.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 6.

How Temptation and Pleasure May Become Sin

That princess of whom we spoke [above in Chapter 3] was not responsible for the immodest proposition that was put to her, since, as we have assumed, it happened to her against her will. But if, instead, she had by any means given opportunity for the proposition—being willing to grant love to that one who flirted with her—undoubtedly she would be guilty of the proposition itself, and however respectable she made it look, she could not escape deserving blame and punishment. So it happens sometimes that the temptation alone can bring us into sin, because we are the cause of it.a For example, I know that when gaming I willingly cross the line into anger and blasphemy, and that the game sets me up for that temptation, and so I am responsible for all the temptations that happen to me in the games. Similarly, if I know that some company brings me to temptation and downfall, and I go there voluntarily, I am undoubtedly guilty of all the temptations I receive.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 6

a. Francis is of the school of moral theology that believes that it is the action of the human free will that determines the morality or immorality of any act rather than the law, the social culture, or the circumstances. One cannot sin without willingly entertaining or embracing temptation, or in any way encouraging it.

b. The French word is délectation, which is usually translated as “pleasure” or “delight” or even the peculiar “delectation,” but my choice of “gratification” is meant to emphasize that the pleasure comes from another source and that it has the subtle sense of “satisfaction” and “fulfillment.” Francis’s concern is that one not willingly accept satisfaction from a temptation.

c. The primary sin is the attachment of the heart to the sinful proposition—the entertainment of the proposal in one’s mind, the spiritual “tasting” of it, spiritually rolling it around on one’s tongue, and enjoying it without ever engaging in the proposed sinful act itself. But for Francis this “consent of the heart” is the greater sin because it is a necessary antecedent if one is going to consent to the physical sin itself. Without the precedent sin of the mind/heart, the sin of the body would not occur.

d. Part of a Christian’s responsibility in the moral avoidance of sin is to recognize and avoid “occasions of sin”—that is, circumstances, places, or persons that have the potential of offering temptations. It is a parallel to an alcoholic’s situation, in which there is wisdom in an alcoholic’s avoidance of taverns, bars, and parties where alcohol will be freely consumed—an avoidance of the occasion or potential for sin. In the next sentence Francis goes so far as to suggest that if one does not avoid such situations, there is “always some kind of sin.”

e. The enjoyment of the philandering and flirtation game itself is sinful, but Francis gives two examples of a subtle qualification to that rule: if one is having delight only in the technical aspects of the flirting action—appreciative of the philanderer’s skill on the lute, or the intricate details of the plan for revenge—one can remain free of sinful gratification or intentional enjoyment of the sinful proposal itself.

f. The French has chatouillement, which is literally a “tickling” or “titillation” or “flattering.” Francis seems to use the word for its very diminutive lightheartedness.

When the gratificationb that comes from the temptations can be avoided, it is always sinful to accept it—depending on whether the pleasure one takes from it and the consent that one gives to it is great or small, long or brief. The young princess (of whom we have spoken) would always be to blame if she not only listened to the impure and immodest proposal that had been made to her, but after having heard it, took pleasure in it and fed her heart with satisfaction with such an object—for although she may not wish to consent to the actual commission of what had been proposed to her, she nevertheless consented to spiritually fix her heart on it by the satisfaction that she took, for it is always an immodest thing to attach the heart or the body to anything immodest. So the sin consists so much in the consent of the heart that without it even the engagement of the body cannot be sin.c

So when you are tempted by any sin, consider whether you have willingly given the occasion of being tempted, and whether the temptation itself puts you in a state of sin because of the danger you could have avoided.d And that means if you had conveniently avoided the occasion, and if you had anticipated (or should have anticipated) the approach of the temptation, it could not have been attributed to you as sin.

When the gratification that follows the temptation could have been avoided, and yet it is not avoided, there is always some kind of sin, depending on whether one has more or less fixed on it, and depending on the investment in the pleasure that we have taken. A woman who has not given occasion to a flirtation, but nevertheless takes pleasure in it, is at fault if the pleasure that she takes there has no other cause except the flirtation.e For example, if the gallant who wants to give her love plays exquisitely well on the lute and it is that from which she takes pleasure (and not from the quest that is made for her love but from the harmony and sweetness of the sound of the lute), there would be no sin at all—as long as she does not continue in that pleasure for too long a time for fear of passing from that to the gratification of the quest. Well then, if someone proposes to me some clever strategy and ploy to get back at my enemy, and I do not take pleasure in nor give any consent to the revenge that is proposed to me, but only to the subtlety of the invention of the plan, without doubt I have not sinned at all, though it would not be expedient for me to enjoy that pleasure overly much for fear that little by little it could lead me to take some delight in the revenge itself.

When one is occasionally surprised by some ticklingf of delight that follows the temptation immediately—before one has truly guarded oneself—that cannot be anything more than a very light venial sin, which could become greater if, after one has perceived the evil where it is, one were to dwell by negligence for some time on dallying with the gratification—whether one ought to accept it or refuse it—and even greater sin if in perceiving it, one dwells on it for some time by blatant negligence, without in any way proposing to reject it. But if voluntarily and deliberately we are determined to please ourselves with such gratifications, that determination itself is a great sin if the object from which we take pleasure is significantly wrong.a This is a great vice for a woman to wish to dwell upon wicked passions, though she never actually wishes to indulge in them.

a. In the moral network of intention, will, and action, the very decision to enjoy an immodest proposal is sinful in itself; that is, the decision to enjoy the temptation is a sinful decision, then the ensuing enjoyment of the temptation is further sin, and mentally consenting to the immodest proposition is further sin, and finally acting on the proposition is the final sin. It is important for a Christian to understand and recognize the notable moral implications that may precede an immoral action itself.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 7

b. “He wills then that we follow the behavior of a child, for when a child is distressed or afraid, it runs hastily to the mother for help with all its might” (Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 61).

c. Luke 22:40: “And when [Jesus] came to the place, he said to them: ‘Pray, lest you enter into temptation.’”

d. Probably related to Matthew 16:24: “Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.’”

e. “You shall see Jesus crucified and crucifying my sin, as a Lamb offered and as a Priest offering” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, On the Theophany of Christ 38:16).

f. To “look at” a temptation is to give it some consideration, to examine it, to observe its potential—and that opens one to its attractions and its appeal. Years ago I had a well-trained dog, and I could put a bit of meat on the floor and say “No,” and he wouldn’t eat it—but he would not look at it either. He stared only at my face until I gave him the “Okay,” and he went for the meat. To keep a temptation before one’s eyes is to empower it.

g. Constantly thinking about and rejecting the thought of a temptation over and over again may merely give it more power because one cannot keep one’s mind off it; better far to fill one’s mind with virtuous thoughts and undertakings and simply crowd out the temptation from one’s consciousness.

h. It is always psychologically easier to reject a temptation successfully if one is sharing one’s efforts with someone else. For instance, if one is trying to stop smoking or trying to lose weight, letting others know about it makes it less likely one will fail.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 7.

Remedies for Great Temptations

As soon as you feel in yourself any temptations, do as the little children when they see a wolf or a bear in the country—for at once they run into the arms of their father and their mother,b or at least, they call for help and rescue. So, likewise, you should have recourse to God, calling for his mercy and his help—that is the remedy that Our Lord taught: “Pray, that you may not enter into temptation.”c

If nonetheless you see that the temptation is persisting or that it is growing, spiritually embrace the Holy Crossd—as if you saw Jesus Christ crucified before your very eyes.e Reaffirm that you will not consent in any way to the temptation and beg for help against it, and continue to affirm always that you do not wish in any way to consent, for as long as the temptation lasts.

But in making these affirmations and these refusals to consent, do not look at all upon the temptation, but look only at Our Lord—for if you look at the temptation, especially when it is strong, it could undermine your courage.f

Divert your mind to some good and praiseworthy pursuits, for those pursuits, entering within your heart and taking space, will cast out the temptations and harmful suggestions.g

The great remedy against all temptations—great or small—is to deploy one’s heart, and communicate the ideas, resentments, and affections that you have to your director, for notice that the first condition evil makes with the soul it wishes to seduce is its silence—just as those do who want to seduce women and girls, who from the beginning forbid them from communicating their propositions in any way to their fathers or to their husbands. To the contrary, God, in his inspirations, requires above all things that we report these matters our superiors and guides.h

If, after all that, the temptation is obstinate in harassing and persecuting us, we have nothing to do except to be obstinate on our part in affirming that we do not wish in any way to consent—for, as girls cannot be married as long as they say “No,” just so, the soul, though troubled, cannot ever be injured as long as she says “No.”

a. Matthew 4:10: “Then Jesus sys to him: ‘Begone, Satan: for it is written: You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.’”

b. The French is barguigner—literally, “being irresolute” or “wavering” or “dawdling.” Curiously, the phrase “without distracting herself by shillyshallying” is simply omitted in most English translations.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 8

c. Remember that Francis is writing to a protégé who is extremely serious about entering into a clear and specific program to overcome sin and to live a wholly virtuous life. This is no half-hearted attempt to be “nice” or to get along with a moral mediocrity. Consequently Francis asks a lot that can seem to be nitpicking or hyper-pious to a modern Christian who may not share the enthusiasm for thorough virtue. Here Francis enunciates a sensitive and widely taught aspect of practical moral theology: exert effort to expunge the minor sins, and you will find it noticeably easier to resist the greater sins—a “habit of resistance” is built up that trains the will to recognize and reject moral compromise almost without active intention. It has been described as an “addiction to virtue.” In moral theology there is a distinction between “acts of virtue” (in which one makes a specific decision to act in a virtuous way) and “virtuous acts” (in which one’s decision for virtue never arises—because virtue has become so thoroughly habitual one need not think about it).

d. In this sentence and catalog of minor temptations Francis does not mean to criticize “the devout and determined,” but rather to comfort his protégé with the assurance that the best and holiest suffer from the same minor temptations she fears—and assurance that she is not evil or unholy because she experiences these temptations.

Do not negotiate with your Enemy, and do not respond with one single word except that which Our Lord responded to him, with which he confounded him: “Begone, Satan! You should worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.”a Just as the pure wife ought not to answer a single word, nor even look at the face of the wretched suitor who proposes any immodesty, but leaving him altogether, and in the same moment she should return her heart to her spouse and renew the fidelity that she had sworn to him, without distracting herself by shilly-shallying.b So the devout soul, seeing herself assailed by some temptation, ought not lose time in arguing or responding, but with all simplicity return herself to the side of Jesus Christ her Spouse, and affirm to him again her fidelity and her desire to be entirely his forever.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 8.

That One Ought to Resist Minor Temptations

Although it is necessary to fight the great temptations with an invincible courage, and such a victory that we bring in will be most valuable to us, so it is, nevertheless, that the exploit is made much more profitable by combating the small temptations—for, as the great ones surpass in quality, so the small ones surpass so immeasurably in number that victory over them can compare to that of the larger ones. Wolves and bears are without doubt more dangerous than flies, but also they do not bother us with as much persistence and irritation; neither do they try our patience so much.c It is fairly easy to restrain oneself from murder, but it is a difficult thing to avoid the petty aggravations for which occasions present themselves all the time. It is quite an easy thing for a man or a woman to refrain from adultery, but it is not so easy a thing to refrain from subtle glances, from giving or receiving fondnesses, from obtaining gifts and small favors, from speaking and listening to words of flattery. It is quite easy not to inflict a rival upon one’s husband or a rival upon one’s wife as far as the body is concerned, but it is quite easy to inflict one as far as the heart is concerned. It is quite easy not to defile the bed of marriage, but quite difficult not to affect the love of marriage; it is quite easy not to steal the property of others, but difficult not to covet or long for it; it is quite easy not to speak false testimony in court, but difficult not to lie in conversation; it is quite easy not to get drunk, but difficult to remain sober; it is quite easy not to desire the death of another, but difficult not to wish for his discomfort; it is quite easy not to slander him, but difficult not to despise him.

In short, these minor temptations of temper, of suspicion, of jealousy, of envy, of flirtations, of levity, of vanities, of duplicities, of affectations, of clever tricks, of immodest thoughts, these are the persistent practices of the very ones who are most devout and determined.d So, my dear child, it is with great care and diligence that we must prepare ourselves for this battle—and be assured that every victory we bring in against these small enemies will, like precious stones, be set in the crown of glorya that God prepares for us in his paradise. That is why I say that while attending to the good and valiantly fighting the great temptations if they come, it is also necessary for us to defend against these small and weak attacks rightly and with dignity.b

a. Proverbs 4:9: “[Wisdom] shall give to your head an increase of graces, and will protect you with a glorious crown.”

b. Francis does not foresee a bloody, tangled battle against these smaller temptations: they are to be opposed bien et dignement—“rightly and with dignity.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 9

c. Once again Francis demonstrates his belief that it is in the human will that morality is determined—as long as one wills or chooses to serve God, the minor temptations are nothing more than annoying. It is valuable to notice that Francis does not condemn for simply “breaking a law” or even “committing a sin” but looks rather to what that soul intended and what that soul willed and chose to do when determining culpability.

d. A brilliant insight! The best remedy against these pestering sins is intentionally to undertake their opposite virtues: for example, if one is assailed with the temptation to suspicion, one will counter it by an expression of trust.

e. It should be noted that what Francis avoids is a “battle royal” between virtue and minor sin. He says in effect, “Just do the simple virtuous act and then consciously take your place at Christ’s side.” The words “his role” are an awkward translation of son endroit—literally, “his place” or “his part” or “his side.” I think Francis means “the part that he played,” hence, “his role.”

f. With a winsome and almost naive simplicity, Francis honors “the love of God” as the supreme remedy for sin and vice, and he pictures it metaphorically in a vision of the virtuous coming together in a gathering spot at Christ’s side whenever the hint of sin appears—suggesting something like a “safe house” for the virtuous.

g. This is an awkward French word, s’accoisera, literally meaning “will become intimately acquainted.” I have chosen “to unite” to express this sense of intimate belonging.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 9.

How to Remedy Minor Temptations

Now then, about these little temptations of vanity, suspicion, grief, jealousy, envy, love affairs, and similar cheating—they are like flies and gnats: they come to hover before our eyes, and sometimes sting us on the cheek, sometimes on the nose. But since it is impossible to be entirely free of these temptations’ persistence, the best resistance that one can make against them is not to torment oneself. For all that, though it may be annoying, these temptations cannot cause harm as long as one is firmly determined in the desire to serve God.c

Therefore despise these petty attacks and do not even deign to think about what they mean, but let them buzz about your ears as much as they want and to flit here and there around you—as did the flies—and when they may come to sting you and you see that somehow they come to light on your heart, do nothing except simply brush them away, not at all fighting against them, nor disputing with them, but taking the actions contrary to the temptations—whatever they may be—and especially actions concerning the love of God.d For, if you believe me, you will not persist in opposing the temptation that you feel with the opposite virtue—because that would almost be wanting to dispute with it—but after having taken an action of that virtue directly contrary to the temptation (if you have had the opportunity to recognize the quality of the temptation), you will make a simple return of your heart to the side of Jesus Christ crucified, and by an action of love for his role, you will kiss his sacred feet.e

This is the best way to defeat the Enemy—however small or great the temptations—for the love of God contains within itself all the perfections of all the virtues, and—more excellent than even those virtues—it is also the one most sovereign remedy against all vices. And your spirit, being accustomed in all temptations to resort to this gathering place at Christ’s side,f will not be obliged even to look at or examine what temptations it has, but simply feeling disturbed, it will uniteg itself to this great remedy, which is also so terrifying to the evil Spirit that when he sees that his temptations arouse us to that divine love, he stops tempting us.

And that’s that! With regard to the minor and frequent temptations, anyone who would trifle with the details will languish and achieve nothing.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 10

a. In classical moral theology there is the recognition that usually each person has an insistent and besetting sin that is a greater and more frequent challenge than any of one’s other sins, and in Francis’s words, it “dominates your soul.” Francis’s antidote is basically twofold: (1) think rationally of the undesirable dimensions of the sin; and (2) speak openly and often against the sin. Both of these remedies are based in powerful psychological realities: the application of rational thought to a passion-based problem is the essence of the popular rational-emotive therapy, and making strong public condemnations of one’s sin adds a degree of shame to the practice of what one has condemned (and such public testimony may even have enough psychological potency to make the sin more distasteful to oneself).

b. 1 Corinthians 6:12: “All things are lawful to me: but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful to me: but I will be reduced under the power of no one.”

c. “Before the will consents to the appetite, she rules over it, but having once given consent, she becomes its slave” (de Sales, Francis [Mackey Benedict, tr.]; Treatise on the Love of God; Newman Book Shop; 1942, Ch. 3).

d. “If you do not wish to tithe to the Church, then go to the bridge and throw at least ten percent of your income into the river. If you cannot do that, your money has made you a slave” (The Rev. Edward Caldwell Lewis, unpublished sermon, 1951).

e. It is true that in at least the majority of cases, sin involves the degradation or perversion of what was meant to be noble, fine, and good.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 11

f. After long analysis of this chapter I think Francis’s l’inquiétude (“anxiety”) is most likely both what we call “depression” and what we call “panic disorder.” The primary symptom seems to be the inability to see one’s way out of the depression/anxiety syndrome—“an inordinate desire to be delivered from the evil one feels, or to acquire the good one hopes for.” The sense of “no way out” is characteristic of both syndromes.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 10.

How It Is Necessary to Fortify the Heart Against Temptations

Consider from time to time what passions most dominate your soul, and having discovered them, adopt a way of life that will be completely contrary to them, in thought, word, and deed.a For example, if you feel inclined to the passion of vanity, think often of the misery of this human life—how much vanities will be troublesome to the conscience on the day of death—how they are unworthy of a generous heart—how they are playthings and games of small children—and similar things. Speak often against vanity, and although it may seem to be repugnant, do not cease to scorn it thoroughly, for by such means you may link yourself with the good repute of the opposing party—for by the strength to speak against something we may move ourselves to hate even that which we began by liking. Do as many lowly, humble deeds as lie in your power, even if you perform them unwillingly at first; for by this means you will form a habit of humility, and you will weaken your vanity, so that when temptation arises, you will be less predisposed to yield, and stronger to resist.

If you are inclined to greed, think often of the folly of this sin that makes us slaves of that which was only created to serve usb—that in death also it must be totally abandoned and left in the hands of those who may squander it or to whom it will become ruin and damnation—and similar thoughts.c Speak strongly against greed, praise highly the contempt of the world. Compel yourself frequently to give alms and donations and let pass some occasions of collecting profits.d

If you are prone to want to give or receive unfitting affection, think often how dangerous this pursuit is, both for yourself and for the others—how unworthy and profane a thing it is to use as a mere pastime the most noble affection that is in our soule—how deserving of blame is such an extreme instability of mind. Speak often in favor of purity and simplicity of heart, and also as far as possible make your actions conform to that, avoiding all affectations and flirtations.

In sum, during times of peace—that is to say, when the temptations of sin to which you are subject do not press upon you—perform strongly actions of the opposite virtue, and if the opportunities do not present themselves, go seek them out—for by this means you will strengthen your heart against future temptations.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 11.

Of Anxiety

Anxietyf is not a simple temptation itself, but a source from which and by which many temptations come. Therefore, I will say something about it. Melancholy is nothing but the sorrow of spirit that we have about the evil that is in us against our will, be it exterior (like poverty, illness, contempt) or be it interior (like ignorance, aridity, repulsion, or temptation). So, when the soul feels she has some difficulty she does not wish to have, the melancholy turns up. And all at once, she wishes to be rid of it and have the means to rout it out, and until then she has good reason, for naturally each one desires the good and flees that which he thinks is evil.

a. The French word l’âme (“soul”) is, of course, a feminine noun, but most translators choose to use a neuter pronoun (“it”) in referring to the soul. I have chosen to follow the French and use the feminine (“she” or “her”).

b. Francis sees this as a self-perpetuating spiral: sadness produces anxiety that increases sadness that produces more anxiety, and so on. It can only be broken by the intervention of reason and grace and seeking release from the demon of anxiety by a divinely inspired “gentleness, humility, and calm.”

c. Francis describes anxiety as “the greatest evil that can happen to a soul—except for sin,” which seems at first hyperbolic, but, in fact, anxiety serves to eradicate almost all spiritual life and growth because it absorbs one’s consciousness almost wholly, making it impossible to keep spiritual means, methods, and goals in mind. Anxiety also has the unfortunate aspect of being almost entirely self-centered. The anxious or depressed person can envision no possible remedy or solution for her or his state and so lives a life that is self-absorbed and without hope.

d. What Francis proposes is simply a cool head, and slow, careful steps forward to avoid the trap of a frantic flailing and floundering that serves only to exacerbate the problem.

e. Francis calls not for a cavalier or casual response—since that would be virtually impossible for a person deeply into anxiety—but for a response that is not frenzied and frenetic. A calm response may not solve the problem, but it will not make it worse (as would a frantic episode).

f. Psalm 118:109 [119:109]: “My soul is always in my hands: and I have not forgotten your law.”

g. Again we are reminded that Francis places the moral center in the human will—and loss of control of the heart and the emotions means that they are no longer governed by that will and are therefore susceptible to sinful incursions. For Francis, anything that impedes the free function of the will is an impediment to dependable morality.

If the soula seeks the means to be delivered from its evil by the love of God, she will search with patience, gentleness, humility, and calm—expecting her deliverance more from the goodness and providence of God than from her own labor, industry, or diligence. If she seeks her deliverance because of love of self, she will be ardent and exhaust herself in the quest for such means—as if it really depended more on herself than on God. (I do not say that she actually thinks that, but I say that she acts as though she thought it.)

Then if she does not immediately find what she wants, she comes into great anxiety and impatience that does not remove the evil, but, on the contrary, worsens it, and the soul enters into an excessive anguish and distress with such a failure of courage and strength that it seems to her that her trouble has no remedy. So you see that the sadness—which in the beginning is justified—creates anxiety, and the anxiety, by the addition of sadness afterward, leads to what is extremely dangerous.b

Anxiety is the greatest evil that can happen to a soul—except for sin—for just as seditions and internal troubles can entirely destroy a nation and prevent it from being able to resist the foreign attacker, just so when our heart is troubled and anxious in itself, it loses the strength to maintain the virtues that it had acquired, and bit by bit the means to resist the temptations of the Enemy, who then makes every kind of effort to fish (as they say) in troubled waters.c

Anxiety comes from an inordinate desire to be delivered from the evil one feels, or to acquire the good one hopes for, and yet there is nothing that more increases the evil and removes the good further away than anxiety and impatience.d Birds stay caught in the nets and traps because, finding themselves ensnared, they struggle and flap about in order to escape, which makes them entangle themselves even further. So whenever you may be pressed by the desire to be delivered from some evil or to attain some good, before all things, put your spirit in repose and calmness, settle your judgment and your will, and then slowly and gently pursue the matter of your desire, taking in order the means that may be suitable. And when I say “gently,” I do not mean “casually” but without impatience, disorder, or anxiety.e Otherwise, instead of having the effect you desire, you could spoil everything and make greater trouble for yourself.

“My soul is always in my hands, O LORD, and I have not forgotten your law,” said David.f More than once during the day, and at least in the evening and the morning, examine whether you have “Your soul in your hands” or whether some passion or anxiety has robbed you of it. Consider whether you have your heart under your command, or whether it has escaped from your hands in order to engage in some inordinate affection of love, of hate, envy, greed, fear, tedium, or joy.g If your soul has gone astray, first of all, look for her and bring her all beautifully into the presence of God, restoring your affections and desires to the obedience and guidance of his divine will. For, as those who are afraid of losing something precious to them hold it tightly in their hand, just so, in imitation of that great king,a we must always say, “O my God, my soul is in danger, and that is why I carry it always in my hands, and in that way, I have not forgotten your holy law.”

a. “That great king” is King David—and then Francis proceeds to exegete and expand the previously quoted psalm verse.

b. A passage that could have been written by a Buddhist! The source of moral danger for Francis is human desire, and it must always be restrained and, if need be, redirected. Francis’s remedy for anxiety is simply to refuse to act on one’s immediate desire in the midst of the anxiety attack. And if for some reason one must act, every effort must be made to moderate the desire.

c. This is a principle used by all successful therapy (for example, Alcoholics Anonymous)—that fighting desire alone almost guarantees defeat. Francis recommends sharing one’s anxiety with one’s spiritual director—or at least with a devout friend—which provides an opportunity for ventilation and, as is always true, one’s psychological demon is made much less frightening and much less dangerous if one has named the demon and spoken of it to another.

d. “If you have any discomfort of heart, tell it soon to your confessor, or to some good man who is not full of empty words, and then you can bear it more lightly” (Joinville, The Life of Saint Louis, 2:145).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 12

e. 2 Corinthians 7:10: “For the sorrow that is according to God is devoted to penance, steadfast to salvation: but the sorrow of the world is devoted to death.” (My translation from the Latin Vulgate here varies somewhat from the usual translations of this passage.)

f. Ecclesiasticus 30:25: “For sadness has killed many, and there is no profit in it.”

g. “They say there is a fish called the sea-toad, surnamed the sea-devil, which stirring and spreading the mud troubles the water round about it so as to hide itself therein as in an ambush, from whence, as soon as it perceives poor little fishes, it darts upon them, kills and devours them: whence perhaps has come the common expression—fishing in troubled waters. Now it is the same with the devil of hell as with the devil of the sea; for he makes his ambush in sadness, and then, having troubled the soul with a multitude of sad thoughts cast hither and thither in the understanding, he makes a charge upon the affections, bearing them down with distrust, jealousies, aversions, envies, superfluous apprehensions of past sins, adding withal a number of vain, sour, and melancholy subtleties of the imagination, that all reasons and consolations may be rejected” (Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, ch. 21).

Do not permit your desires—however small and of little importance they may be—to disquiet you, lest after the little ones, the great and more important ones may find your heart fit to be involved in more trouble and disorder. When you may feel anxiety arising, commend yourself to God and resolve to do nothing about what your desire wants of you, until the anxiety has totally passed—unless it is something that cannot be put off, and then it is necessary, with a gentle and quiet effort, to restrain the current of your desire, tempering and moderating it as much as you can, and then do the thing not according to your desire, but according to reason.b

If you can reveal your anxiety to him who leads your soul, or at least to some confidant and devout friend, do not doubt that you will soon find relief—for the sharing of the heart’s grief has the same effect on the soul that the letting of blood has on the body of one who is in constant fever—it is the remedy of remedies.c And so the king Saint Louis also gave notice to his son: “If you have any discomfort in your heart, tell it immediately to your confessor or to any good person, and then you should be able to bear the evil lightly because of the relief it will give you.”d

i PART IV. CHAPTER 12.

Of Sadness

“The sadness that is according to God,” says Saint Paul, “works repentance to salvation, and the sadness of the world works death.”e Sadness, then, can be both good and bad depending on the various effects it has on us. It is true that it does more bad than good, for it does only two good effects, namely, mercy and repentance, but there are six bad effects, namely, anxiety, sloth, anger, jealousy, envy, and impatience—which caused the Sage to say: “Sadness kills many, and there is no profit from it,”f because for the two good streams that flow from sadness, there are six that are very bad.

The Enemy uses sadness to place his temptations among good people—for, just as he tries to make the wicked rejoice in their sin, so too it is his task to make the good people grieve over their good works. And as he cannot procure the wicked without making them find it agreeable, so too he cannot divert the good people except by making them find it disagreeable. The Evil One delights in sadness and melancholy because he is sad and melancholy and will be so eternally—so he wants everyone to be like him.g

a. James 5:13: “Is any of you sad? Let him pray: Is he cheerful in mind? Let him sing.”

b. These phrases are examples of the exclamatory prayers Francis promotes in several places throughout this book. They are an advantage in that they take little or no time, require no books or papers, and demand no lengthy memorization, but they do serve to turn one’s attention to God. They have often colloquially been called “arrow prayers.”

c. 1 Samuel 16:23: “Therefore whenever the spirit of God seized Saul, David took his harp and struck it with his hand, and Saul was refreshed, and was better, for the evil spirit departed from him.” [Note: This is an unusual reference in that nothing in the biblical verse refers to the “chanting of psalms.” However, in Francis’s day it was believed that David had composed all the psalms, and Francis assumes here that when David played the harp for the spirit-possessed Saul, he also chanted the psalms.]

d. In Francis’s day, medical knowledge was based on the theory of cardinal humors: that there were four primary bodily fluids and each produced a temperament type—blood (sanguine), phlegm (phlegmatic), yellow bile (choleric), and black bile (melancholic). Illness was blamed on an imbalance of the humors. “The cold and dry disposition” refers to the symptoms of a superfluity of black bile (melancholia).

e. Song of Songs 2:16: “My beloved to me, and I to him who feeds among the lilies.”

f. See Song of Songs 1:12: “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, between my breasts.”

g. Psalm 119:82 [118:82]: “My eyes have been consumed in your word, saying: ‘When will you comfort me.’”

h. The meaning of this exclamation is unclear. The French has been variously translated as either “O, Jesus, be me Jesus,” or “O, Jesus, make me Jesus,” or “O, Jesus, be Jesus to me,” or “O, Jesus, prove to be Jesus for me.” Or “Jesus, be Jesus in me.” The phrase to some degree echoes Galatians 2:20: “And I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me.”

i. Romans 8:35a: “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ?”

j. “Thus, every soul that receives the bread which comes down from heaven is a house of bread, the bread of Christ, being nourished and having its heart strengthened by the support of the heavenly bread which dwells within it” (St. Ambrose, Letter to Horontianus, c. 387).

This malevolent sadness disturbs the soul, plunges it into anxiety, gives it unwarranted fears, makes prayer disgusting, bewilders and overwhelms the brain, deprives the soul of prudence, resolution, judgment, and courage, and destroys its strength. In short, it is like a severe winter that mows down all the beauty of the earth and benumbs all the animals, for it removes all the sweetness of the soul and makes it almost crippled and powerless in all its faculties.

If it ever happens, my child, that you were to suffer from this evil sadness, use the following remedies: “Is anyone sad?” says Saint James. “He ought to pray.”a Prayer is a sovereign remedy, for it lifts the spirit to God, who is our only joy and consolation. But in praying, make use of both feelings and words—be they internal or external—that pay attention to the trust and love of God—such as “O God of mercy!” “My most good God!” “My genial Savior!” “God of my heart!” “My joy, my hope, my dear Spouse!” “Beloved of my soul,” and the like.b

Strongly oppose the inclinations to sadness, and although it seems that everything you do in those times is done coldly, sadly, and shamefully, do not leave off doing it, for the Enemy who seeks to enfeeble us in our good works by sadness, seeing that we do not leave off doing them and that being done with resistance to him they are done even better, stops distressing us any further.

Sing spiritual hymns, for the Evil One has often stopped his work because of them—witness the spirit that besieged or possessed Saul, whose violence was withdrawn by the chanting of psalms.c

It is good to exert oneself with external works and to vary them as much as possible in order to divert the soul from the sad matter, to purify and warm the spirits—sadness being a passion of the cold and dry disposition.d

Perform external activities with fervor—even though without the inclination—embracing the image of the crucifix, clasping it to your breast, kissing his feet and hands, lifting your eyes and your hands to heaven, raising your voice to God in words of love and trust—words like these: “My Beloved to me and I to him.”e “My Beloved is a bundle of myrrh to me: he shall dwell between my breasts.”f “My eyes strain after you, O my God, saying: ‘When will you console me?’”g “O Jesus, be a Jesus to me.”h“Live, Jesus, and my soul shall live.” “Who will separate me from the Love of God?”i and the like.

Moderate use of the discipline is good against sadness because that voluntary external affliction can gain inner consolation, and the soul, feeling pain from the outside, is distracted from those that are within. Frequenting Holy Communion is best of all, for that heavenly Bread strengthens the heartj and delights the mind.

Humbly and faithfully reveal to your director and confessor all the pains, feelings, and proposals that come from your sadness. Seek out conversations with spiritual persons, and visit them as much as you can during those times. And finally, consign yourself into God’s hands, making yourself ready to suffer that vexing sadness patiently as just punishment for your vain joys. And have no doubt that God, after you have proven yourself, will deliver you out of this evil.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 13

a. The idea that “the human is a microcosm of the universe” is present in almost every religion. Its earliest origins are probably in Egypt, but Pythagoras may be the first to express it in the Western tradition. It was also discussed by Nicholas of Cusa, Giordano Bruno, and Sir Thomas Browne. There are many who find its echo in Luke 17:21b: “For lo, the kingdom of God is within you.”

b. The reference, of course, is to Polaris, the “Pole Star” (or the “North Star”). It has been used by mariners to determine latitude for centuries. Before 1761 (and the invention of the chronometer) it was the principal fixed point for marine navigation.

c. Romans 14:8: “For whether we live, we live to the Lord: or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

d. Romans 8:35, 38–39: “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword? For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

e. “The bees that are employed in carrying watch out for a favorable breeze, and if a storm should happen to spring up, they hover in the air with little stones, by way of ballast; some writers, indeed, say that they place them upon their shoulders” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 11.10). The reference is probably to the European red mason bee (Osmia rufa) that lives a solitary life and lays its eggs in a deep hole that it then covers with clay. It can be seen in the air carrying small bits of clay that can easily be mistaken for small stones.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 13.

Of Spiritual and Overt Consolations, and How One Must Behave in Them

God continues the existence of this great world in a perpetual process of change in which the day always turns into night, the springtime into summer, the summer into autumn, autumn into winter, and winter into spring, and no one day perfectly resembles another—some seem cloudy, others rainy, some dry, others windy—a variety that gives a great beauty to the universe. It is the same with humans who are, according to the words of the Ancients, “an abstract of the world,”a for they never remain in the same condition, and their lives flow on the earth like water, floating and undulating in a perpetual variety of movements, which sometimes raise him up in hope, sometimes bring him down in fear, sometimes bend him to the right by consolation, sometimes to the left by affliction, and never a single one of his days—nor even of one of his hours—is entirely like another.

There is a great warning in this: that we must try to keep a steady and unchangeable constancy of heart amidst such a great variation of events, and although everything changes and varies widely around us, we must remain constantly immoveable, forever looking to, striving for, and laying claim to our God. Although the ship may take whatever course one wishes, whether it sails to the east, to the south or north, and whatever wind it is that carries it, yet its marine compass pays no attention to anything except its bright star and the pole.b Let everything be turned upside down—and I do not say only around us, but I say inside as well—that is to say, that our soul may be sad, happy, in sweetness, in bitterness, in peace, in disorder, in clarity, in tenderness, in temptations, at rest, in pleasure, in disgust, in dryness, in tenderness—that the sun may burn it or the dew refresh it. Ah! So it is necessary that forever and always the point of our heart, our spirit, our higher will (that is our compass) must constantly pay attention and be inclined toward the love of God, her Creator, her Savior, her sole and sovereign Good. “Whether we live or we die,” says the Apostle, “if we are of Godc who shall separate us from the love and charity of God?”d No, nothing can ever separate us from that love: not tribulation, nor anguish, nor death, nor life, not the present pain, nor the fear of future troubles, not the artifices of evil spirits, nor the heights of consolations, nor the depths of afflictions, nor the tenderness, nor the dryness must ever separate us from that holy love, which is founded on Jesus Christ.

That resolution, so absolutely never to abandon God nor leave his sweet love, can serve as a counterweight for our souls to keep them in holy parity with the inequality of various motions that the condition of this life brings to her. For as the little bees, seeing unexpected wind in the field, carry small stonese in order to balance in the air and not be so easily blown about by the storm, so too our soul, having vigorously embraced the precious love of her God by resolution, remains constant among the inconstancy and changes of consolations and afflictions, whether spiritual and temporal, both external and internal.

a. 1 Kings 24:4–5, 8–13, 17a [1 Samuel 24]: “And a cave was in that place, which Saul entered, so that he might ease his bowels. But David and his men were hiding in the interior part of the cave. Then David rose up, and he quietly cut off the edge of Saul’s cloak.… And David restrained his men with his words, and he would not permit them to rise up against Saul. And so Saul, going out of the cave, continued to undertake his journey. Then David also rose up after him. And departing from the cave, he cried out behind the back of Saul, saying: ‘My lord, the king!’And Saul looked behind him. And David, bowing himself face down to the ground, reverenced. And he said to Saul: ‘Why do you listen to the words of men who say: “David seeks evil against you?” Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord has delivered you into my hand, in the cave. And I thought that I might kill you. But my eye has spared you. For I said: I will not extend my hand against my lord, for he is the Christ of the LORD. Moreover, see and know, O my father, the edge of your cloak in my hand. For though I cut off the top of your cloak, I was not willing to extend my hand against you. Turn your soul and see that there is no evil in my hand, nor any iniquity or sin against you. Yet you lie in wait for my life, so that you may take it away. May the LORD judge between me and you. And may the LORD vindicate me from you. But my hand will not be against you.’And when David had completed speaking words in this way to Saul, Saul said, ‘Could this be your voice, my son David?’”

b. 1 Kings 24:18–23 [1 Samuel 24] “And Saul lifted up his voice, and he wept. And he said to David: ‘You are more just than I am. For you have distributed good to me, but I have repaid evil to you. And you have revealed this day the good that you have done for me: how the Lord delivered me into your hand, but you did not kill me. For who, when he will have found his enemy, will release him along a good path? So may the LORD repay you for this good turn, because you have acted on my behalf this day. And now I know certainly that you shall be king, and you shall have the kingdom of Israel in your hand. Swear to me in the LORD that you will not take away my offspring after me, nor take away my name from the house of my father.’And David swore to Saul. Therefore, Saul went away to his own house. And David and his men ascended to places that were more secure.”

c. The reference is to the medical treatment called “bleeding” or “bloodletting” that involved piercing a vein with a sharp double-edged scalpel (often foldable like a pocket knife) called a “lancet,” and then draining sixteen to thirty ounces of what was believed to be “stagnated” blood into a bowl. This was believed to improve the balance of the humors in the body (see note d above in Chapter 12).

But besides this general teaching, we need some particular information:

1. Consequently I should say that devotion does not consist of gentleness, sweetness, consolation, and tenderness felt by the heart that moves us to tears and sighs, and gives us a certain pleasant and delicious satisfaction in a few pleasant spiritual exercises. No, my dear child, devotion and such as this are not the same thing—for there are many souls who have these feelings of tenderness and consolation who nevertheless cannot fail to be very vicious and therefore have no real love of God, much less any true devotion. When Saul was seeking the death of poor David, who had fled before him to the wilderness of Engedi, he entered alone into a cave in which David and his men were hiding. David, who on this occasion could have killed him a thousand times, gave him his life and did not want even to frighten him. Thus having let him go at his ease, David called after him in order to prove his innocence and to let him know that he had been at David’s mercy.a And after this what did Saul do but testify that his heart was softened toward David? He called him his child; he began to weep aloud, praised him, admitted his goodness, prayed to God for him, thus presaging his future greatness and commending to him the descendants that he would leave afterward to him.b What greater gentleness and tenderness of heart could he have shown? And for all of that, nevertheless, he had not changed his mind, nor left off continuing his persecution of David just as cruelly as before. Just so, one finds some people who consider the goodness of God and the Passion of Our Savior, feeling great tenderness of heart, who are moved to signs, tears, prayers, and acts of grace so strongly felt that one could say that they have a heart seized with a truly great devotion. But when it come to trial, we find that as the passing rains of a very hot summer, which let fall great drops on the earth, do not penetrate it and serve nothing except the production of mushrooms, so too the tears and tenderness, falling on a vicious heart, do not penetrate at all and are entirely useless to it. Because for all that, these wretched people would not leave a single penny of ill-gotten wealth they possess and would not have taken the slightest inconvenience in the world for the service of the Savior over whom they have wept. So that the pious motions that they have experienced are only some spiritual mushrooms—that not only are not true devotion, but are often great ruses of the Enemy who, by entertaining the souls with these tiny consolations, keeps them content and satisfied with that, so that they do not seek any further true and solid devotion that consists in a constant resolute, prompt, and active will to do what one knows to be pleasing to God.

A child will weep tenderly if he sees his mother pricked by the lancet for bleeding,c but if at the same time his mother, for whom he was weeping, asked for an apple or a bag of candy that he holds in his hand, he would not wish to let it go. Such for the most part are our tender devotions: when seeing the stab of the lance that pierced the heart of Jesus Christ crucified, we weep tenderly. Alas, my child, this weeping over that sorrowful death and passion of our Father and Redeemer is well done, but why then do we not give him any of the good apple that we have in our hands and that he asks of us so urgently, namely, our heart—the only apple of love that our dear Savior requires of us?a Why do we not sign over to him all the little affections, pleasures, and indulgences that he wants to pluck out of our hands and cannot because they are our candy that we care more for than we care for his heavenly grace? Ah! These are the friendships of little children that are tender, but feeble, imaginary, and useless. Devotion, therefore, does not lie in these tender and sensitive affections that sometimes proceed from nature—and so soft, so susceptible to any impression one might wish to give it—and sometimes that come from the Enemy who, in order to entertain us with them, excites our imagination to the full experience of such effects.

a. Francis’s use of the metaphor of the “only apple of love” is peculiar and a probable wordplay—first, because the “apple” in the Garden of Eden was the forbidden fruit, and, second, because since sixteenth-century France, the tomato was called “the love apple” because of its supposed aphrodisiacal properties. Francis may be intentionally slurring that legend by speaking of the “only apple of love.”

b. Psalm 118:103 [119:103]: “How sweet are your words to my palate! More than honey to my mouth.”

c. Song of Songs 1:1: “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth: for your breasts are better than wine.”

d. Lamentations 3:19: “Remember my poverty, and transgression, the wormwood, and the gall.”

e. “Entire nations, too, have been the discoverers of certain plants. The Scythians were the first to discover the plant known as ‘scythice’ [modern licorice], which grows in the vicinity of the Palus Maeotis. Among its other properties, this plant is remarkably sweet, and extremely useful for the affliction known as asthma. It also has another great advantage—so long as someone keeps it in his mouth, he will never experience hunger or thirst” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 25.43).

f. A confusing phrase in French: et y amuser leurs affections. Literally, “and to entertain their affections there,” which makes little sense. But “attachment” is an obscure translation for affection, and amuser can properly be translated as “enjoy.”

g. The French has des grains sucrés—literally, “of the sweet kernels (or grains).” They were sweet bits made of sugared grains—not unlike our sugar-coated breakfast cereals—used as candy especially for children. (I have used simply “candy” in further appearances of the words.)

h. “Another story, to the effect that under the heat of the noonday sun, the entire peninsula [of Arabia] exhales a certain indescribable perfume composed of numerous aromas; that the breezes, as they blow from it, are steeped with these aromas, and, indeed, they were the first to announce the vicinity of Arabia to the fleets of Alexander the Great, while still far out at sea” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 12.42).

2. These tender and loving sweet words are, nonetheless, sometimes very good and useful, for they arouse the appetite of the soul, confirm the spirit, and add a holy cheerfulness and joy to the readiness of devotion, that make our actions beautiful and pleasing, even in the exterior. It is this taste that one has of divine things for which David has written: “O LORD, how sweet are your words to my taste! They are sweeter than honey to my mouth.”b And certainly the smallest consolation of devotion that we receive is better in every way than the most excellent recreations of the world. The breasts and the milk—that is to say, the favors—of the Divine Spouse are better for the soul than the most precious winec of pleasures of the earth. Those who have tasted hold all the rest of the other consolations as gall and wormwood.d And as those who have the Scythian herbe in their mouth experience so extreme a sweetness that they feel neither hunger nor thirst, just so those to whom God has given the manna of sweetness and inner consolations cannot desire nor accept the consolations of the world in order even to take a taste of them or enjoy an attachment to them.f These are small foretastes of immortal sweetness that God gives to souls who seek him. These are sweet grainsg that he gives to little children in order to attract them. These are liqueurs that he presents to them for comfort. And these are also sometimes an escrow deposit on eternal rewards. It is said that Alexander the Great, sailing on the high seas, first discovered Arabia Felix by the sensation that he had of sweet aromas that the wind brought to himh—and more than that, this gave him and all his companions courage. Thus we often receive these fragrances and aromas on this sea of mortal life that undoubtedly offer to us the delights of that heavenly country to which we tend and aspire.

3. But, you might say to me, since there are sensible consolations that are good and from God and that nevertheless are useless, dangerous, or harmful, or that come either from nature, or even from the Enemy, how can I discern one from the other and know the bad or useless ones from the good ones? It is a general doctrine, my very dear child, regarding feelings and passions of our souls, that we ought to know them by their fruits.a Our hearts are trees, the affections and passions are their branches, and their works or actions are the fruits. The heart is good that has good affections, and the affections and passions are good that produce in us good effects and holy actions.b If the delights, tenderness, and consolations make us more humble, patient, tractable, charitable, and compassionate toward our neighbor, more fervent in mortifying our lusts and evil inclinations, more constant in our exercises, more manageable and flexible to those whom we are bound to obey, more simple in our life, without doubt, my child, they are of God; but if those delights have no sweetness except for ourselves—if they make us nosey, sour, fussy, impatient, obstinate, proud, arrogant, severe toward our neighbor, and all that while we consider ourselves already little saints and we do not wish to be subject either to direction or to correction, undoubtedly these are false and pernicious consolations. “A good tree produces only good fruit.”c

a. Matthew 7:16: “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?”

b. Matthew 12:35: “A good man out of a good treasure brings forth good things: and an evil man out of an evil treasure brings forth evil things.”

c. Matthew 7:17: “So every good tree brings forth good fruit, and the evil tree brings forth evil fruit.”

d. Lamentations 3:25: “The LORD is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.”

e. Reminiscent of the yiddish line: Az oif dem hartsen iz bitter, helft nit in moil kain tsuker—“If the heart is bitter, sugar in the mouth won’t make life sweeter.”

f. The French word is maternelle and means “maternal” or “motherly.” Francis joins the dozens of Christian writers (notably Julian of Norwich) who describe the feminine or maternal nature of God’s relation to us. Most translators try to avoid the direct implications of this by using “parental” or “as loving as a mother” or “like a loving mother.”

4. When we have these delights and consolations: (a) We must humble ourselves exceedingly before God—and guard ourselves well to keep from saying because of these delights, “Oh! How good I am!” No, my child, these are goods that do not make us better, for, as I have said, devotion does not consist in these. Let us say rather, “Oh! How good God is to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.”d One who has sugar in his mouth cannot say that his mouth is sweet, but only that the sugar is sweet;e just so, although that spiritual delight is very good, and God who gives it is very good, it does not follow that the one who receives it is good. (b) Know that we are still small children who have need of milk and that sweet bits have been given us because we still have a tender and delicate spirit; we need bribes and allurements to entice us to the love of God. (c) But after that, speaking generally and for ordinary people, humbly receive the graces and favors and esteem them greatly, not so much because of what they are in themselves, but because it is the hand of God that puts them into our hearts—as a mother would do who, to please her child, herself puts candies into his mouth, one after the other—for if the child has come to the age of understanding, he sets a greater value on the delight of the coddling and caresses that his mother gives him than the delight of the candy itself. And so, my child, it is a lot to have those delights, but it is the delight of all delights to know that God, by his loving and motherlyf hand, puts them into our mouth, into our heart, into our soul, into our mind. (d) Having received them humbly, use them carefully, according to the intention of him who gives them to us. Why do we think that God gives us these delights? To make us kind to everyone and loving to him. The mother gives a piece of candy to the child so that he will kiss her; let us so kiss that Savior who gives us so much sweetness.a Now, to kiss the Savior is to obey him, to keep his commandments, to do his will, to follow his desires—in short, to embrace him tenderly with obedience and fidelity.b When we have received some spiritual consolation, we should on that day make ourselves more diligent in doing good and to humble ourselves. (e) It is necessary, in addition to all this, from time to time to renounce such delights, tenderness, and consolations, pulling our heart away from them, and affirming that although we humbly accept them and love them because God sends them to us and they arouse us to his love, they are not, nonetheless, what we seek, but God and his holy love—not the consolation, but the Consoler; not the delight, but the delightful Savior; not the tenderness, but the One who is the sweetness of heaven and of earth.c And in this situation we ought to marshal ourselves to dwell firmly in the holy love of God (even though in our life we may never have any other consolation) and to wish to say the same on Mount Calvary as on Mount Tabor: “O Lord, it is good for me to be with you” whether you may be on the cross or in glory.d (f) Finally, I warn you that if some notable abundance of such consolations, tenderness, tears, or delights, or something extraordinary like that happens to you, confer faithfully with your spiritual director to learn how to moderate and behave yourself regarding them, for it is written: “Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need.”e

a. Curiously, the Latin Vulgate Psalm 2:11–12a has “Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling. Embrace discipline”; but virtually all other versions have: “Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in trembling. Kiss the Son.” And it seems likely that Francis had some access to these.

b. Francis provides a textbook example of allegorical interpretation: to “kiss the Savior” is not to be taken literally, but the phrase is meant to imply obeying him, keeping his commandments, doing his will, following his desires.

c. Note again the rhetorical skills of the author with the triple comparative: “not this, but that.”

d. Francis invents a parallel between Mount Calvary (the locus of the Crucifixion) and Mount Tabor (the locus of the Transfiguration), and relocates and paraphrases the words that were spoken at the latter place to the former place, which words were: “And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here” (Mt. 17:4).

e. Proverbs 25:16: “You have found honey: eat what is sufficient for you, lest being glutted you vomit it up.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 14

f. See Psalm 62:2–3 [63:1–2]: “O God, you are my strength, and the light of dawn. My soul has thirsted for you; my flesh has desired you, in a dry and consuming land that is without water so in a holy place I have gazed on you so that I may see your power and your glory.”

g. Psalm 41:2–4a [42:1–3a]: “As the deer pants for the fountains of water, so my soul has panted for you, O God. My soul has thirsted for the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before his face? My tears have been my bread day and night.”

h. Psalm 41:4b [42:3b]: “….While it is said to me the whole day: ‘Where is your God?’”

i. St. Bonaventure (1221–1274) wrote a famous treatise, “The Mind’s Road to God.”

j. The old wives’ tale that eating sugar causes pinworms in a child—however untrue—persists even today. However, it is true that an infected child will often have a craving for sugar.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 14.

Of Spiritual Dryness and Barrenness

You will do, then, my dearest child, what I have just said when you have consolations, but that good, pleasant weather will not last always, so it will sometimes happen that you will be so lonely and destitute of the sense of devotion that it will seem that your soul is a desert land, fruitless, barren, in which there is neither trail nor path to find God, nor any water of grace that could flow because of the droughts that seem to reduce it totally to wasteland.f Alas! How worthy of compassion is the soul in this state—especially when that evil is vehement, for then, in imitation of David, it feeds on tears day and night,g while by a thousand suggestions the Enemy, in order to drive her to despair, laughs at her and says to her, “Ah! Poor little thing, where is your God?h By what road can you find him?i Who can ever restore for you the joy of his holy grace?”

What will you do then in those times, my child? Take notice from where the evil comes—for we are often ourselves the cause of our dryness and barrenness.

1. As a mother refuses sugar to a child who is prone to worms,j so God takes away consolations when we get from them an empty complacency and are prone to the worms of arrogance: “It is good for me, O my God, that you have humbled me, for before I was humbled, I offended you.”a

a. Psalm 118:71, 67 [119:71, 67]: “It is good for me that you have humbled me, so that I may learn your justifications,” and “Before I was humbled I offended; therefore I have kept your word.”

b. Exodus 16:21: “Now every one of [the Israelites] gathered [manna] in the morning, only as much as was enough to eat: for after the sun grew hot, it melted.”

c. Song of Songs 5:2: “I sleep, and my heart watches: the voice of my beloved knocking: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the night.”

d. Song of Songs 5:7: “I opened the bolt of my door to my beloved: but he had turned aside, and was gone. My soul melted when he spoke: I sought him, and did not find him: I called, and he did not answer me.”

e. “The Lord grants a taste of eternal life to special friends in order to detach them completely from life’s fleeting consolations. This is symbolized by the children of Israel who did not receive manna from heaven until the flour of Egypt was depleted” (Francisco de Osuna [1497–1541], The Third Spiritual Alphabet [Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press; 1981], 93). [Note: It is interesting that this proposition—that the Israelites could not receive the manna from heaven until they had used up the Egyptian flour they had carried with them—does not appear explicitly in Exodus, but emerges in medieval mystics such as de Osuna, de Cisneros, and de Sales.

f. “[Bees] have a great repugnance to bad smells, and they fly away from them—a loathing which extends even to artificial perfumes. Hence it is that they will attack persons who smell of ointments” (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 11.19).

g. The French is la dragée—literally, “sugar plum” or “bon-bon.”

h. The adage “Full pigeons find cherries bitter” is widely attributed to John Woodroephe, in his Spared Houres (1623), but Francis’s use of it precedes Woodroephe by several years.

i. A line from the Magnificat spoken by Our Lady in Luke 1:53: “He has filled the hungry with good things: and the rich he has sent away empty.”

j. Matthew 25:29: “For to all who have shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him who does not have, even what he seems to have shall be taken away.” [Note: Francis’s addition of the phrase “but has lost it by his own fault” seems to soften the judgment.]

2. When we fail to gather the sweets and delights of the love of God at the right time, he removes them from us in punishment for our laziness. The Israelite who did not gather manna in the early morning could not do it after sunrise because by then it was found to be melted.b

3. Sometimes we lie in a bed of sensual satisfaction and perishable consolations (as did the Holy Spouse in the Song of Songs)c and the Spouse of our souls knocks at the door of our hearts. He encourages us to return to our spiritual exercises, but we bargain with him because we do not want to give up those vain amusements and to break ourselves away from these false gratifications. That is why he goes out and leaves us to stagnate—then when we want to seek him, we have a lot of trouble finding him.d Also we have well deserved it because we have been so unfaithful and disloyal to our love as to refuse his exercise in order to follow that of worldly things. Ah! Consequently you have the flour of Egypt, so you will not have any manna from heaven.e Bees hate all artificial odors,f and the sweetness of the Holy Spirit is inconsistent with the deceitful delicacies of the world.

4. Duplicity and craftiness used in Confession and in spiritual communications that one has with his director may produce dryness and barrenness, for since you lie to the Holy Spirit, it is no wonder that he should refuse his consolation to you. If you do not wish to be as sincere and honest as a little child, you will not have the rewardsg of little children.

5. You got yourself filled with worldly satisfactions; it is no wonder that thus the spiritual delights are disgusting to you. “Doves who are stuffed with food,” says the ancient proverb, “find cherries bitter.”h “The hungry he has well-filled,” says Our Lady, “and the rich he has left empty.”i Those who are rich in the worldly pleasures are not qualified for the spiritual.

6. Have you been careful to preserve the fruits of the consolations you have received? If you have, you will receive new ones, “for to him who has, one will give him more, and from him who does not have what was given to him, but has lost it by his own fault, one will take away from him even that which he has”j—that is to say, the one will be deprived of graces that were prepared for him. It is true, the rain gives life to the plants that have their foliage, but from those that have none, it will take away life—even what life they may have—for they will decay altogether.

For many causes, we lose the devotional consolations and fall into dryness and sterility of spirit. Therefore, let us examine our conscience to see if we notice any similar defects in ourselves. Take note, my child, that one should not do that examination with anxiety and too much prying. If after we have faithfully considered our conduct in this regard, if we find the cause of evil in ourselves, we ought to thank God, for an evil is half-cured when one has discovered its cause. If, on the other hand, you do not see anything in particular that seems to you to have caused that dryness, do not entertain a more scrupulous search, but with all simplicity—without more examination of anything in particular—do what I will tell you:

a. Psalm 50:14 [51:13]: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and confirm in me the spirit of power.”

b. Matthew 26:39a: “My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me.”

c. Song of Songs 4:16: “Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, blow through my garden, and let the aromas of it flow.”

d. Proverbs 20:27: “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD that searches all the hidden things of the inmost parts.”

e. Naaman was a leper who came from Syria to the prophet Elisha for a cure. Elisha sent word to him to wash seven times in the Jordan River, but Naaman had expected some complicated and intricate magic and refused angrily. However, his servants prevailed upon him. See 4 Kings 5:14 [2 Kings 5:14].

f. Luke 22:42: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me: but yet not my will, but yours be done.”

g. After Abraham had agreed to sacrifice his son Isaac as God had demanded, an angel called out and stopped him, providing him with a ram as substitute sacrifice. “And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying: ‘By my own self have I sworn,’says the LORD, ‘that because you have done this thing, and have not spared thy only begotten son for my sake, I will bless you, and I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand by the seashore; your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou have obeyed my voice’” (Genesis 22:15–18).

h. Job 1:21 “And [Job] said: I came naked out of my mother’s womb, and I shall return there naked: the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away: as it has pleased the LORD, so is it done: the name of the LORD be blessed.”

1. Humble yourself greatly before God in the recognition of your nothingness and misery. “Alas! What am I when I am left to myself? Nothing else, O Lord, except a dry land whose cracks and crevasses on every side testify to the need it has for the rain of heaven—and yet the wind dissipates it and reduces it to dust.”

2. Call on God and beg for his joy: “Give me, O Lord, the joy of your salvation.”a “My Father, if it is possible, take away this cup from me.”b “Get out of here, O unfruitful wind that dries up my soul—and come, O gracious wind of the consolations, and blow in my garden, and may its good affections spread abroad the odor of sweetness.”c

3. Go to your confessor; open your heart completely to him; let him see well all the many recesses of your soul.d Take the advice that he will give you, with great simplicity and humility, for God who endlessly loves obedience often make profitable the advice that one receives from another—especially from the directors of souls—when elsewhere there might be no great likelihood of success. Thus to Naaman God made profitable the waters of the Jordan that Elisha, for apparently no human reason, ordered him to use.e

4. But, after all that, nothing is so useful, nothing so successful in such dryness and barrenness than not at all to love and attach oneself to the desire to be delivered. I am not saying that one ought not to express simple wishes for deliverance, but I am saying that one ought not to love it, so that one can give oneself up to the pure mercy of the special providence of God, so that as he wishes, he may use us to serve him among the thorns and amidst the deserts. Let us say to God in those times: “O Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me.” But add with great courage, “However, not my will but yours be done.”f And let us stop at that with as much calm as we can—for God, seeing in us this holy acceptance, will comfort us with many graces and favors, as when he saw Abraham prepared to give up his son Isaac, he was content to see willingness in that pure resignation, consoling him by a very pleasing vision and by very sweet blessings.g So, in all kinds of afflictions—both bodily and spiritually—and in distractions or removals of evident devotion that happen to us, we must say from our whole heart and with profound obedience: “The LORD has given me consolations; the LORD has taken them away; blessed be his holy name.”h For persevering in this humility, he will repay us with his wonderful favors as he did Job, who constantly used similar words in all his desolations.

a. Francis’s sense is that since at times all we have is dryness and barrenness, then that is all we can offer to God—and God is pleased with it if our heart is committed to trying to love in the midst of the desolation.

b. For honeybees there tend to be two reproductive cycles: the major one in the spring (when the queen lays up to three thousand eggs per day) and a second in the autumn. The spring-born bees work very hard and will live approximately six to seven weeks; the autumn-born for four to six months. Neither, pace Francis, is significantly affected by the weather.

c. For “imbibing” the French word is sucer—literally, “sucking.” It is meant as a parallel to the bees “sucking” the nectar from flowers.

d. Francis again demonstrates that what makes an act moral or pleasing to God is the action of the human will unrelated to (or even contrary to) any accompanying emotions. For Francis it is a simple matter: to choose (by will) some action when all one’s desires seem opposed to that choice is a greater act of fidelity than merely following one’s inclinations.

e. “It is a good thing and highly acceptable to God, my son, if you pray, keep vigils, and do other good works when the ardor of divine grace is with you, but it is entirely most pleasing and acceptable to God that, when divine grace is lacking or has been withdrawn from you, you do not pray less, keep vigils less often, or perform fewer good works. Act when you are without grace just as you do when you have grace” (Arnaldus; Angelae Fulginatis Vita et Opusculo; 62, addressed to her spiritual son).

5. Finally, my child, amidst all our dryness and barrenness, let us not lose courage, but waiting in patience the restoration of consolations, always follow our course, not leaving out anything as regards our exercise of devotion—indeed, if it is possible, multiplying our good works! And since we are not able to offer liquid refreshments to our dear Spouse, let us offer to him what is dry, for to him that is all one, provided that the heart that offers them to him is absolutely determined in its craving to love.a When the springtime is beautiful, the bees make more honey and less offspring, because the favor of beautiful weather engages them to make their collection from the flowers so that that they forget the production of their offspring. But when the springtime is harsh and cloudy, they make more offspring and less honey, for they cannot go out to gather the honey so they occupy themselves in populating and multiplying their race.b It happens many times, my child, that the soul, seeing the beautiful springtime of spiritual consolations, engages herself in gathering and imbibingc them that in the abundance of these sweet delights she makes many fewer good works, and, on the contrary, amidst harshness and spiritual barrenness, the more she sees herself deprived of pleasant feelings of devotion, the more she increases substantial works and abounds in the inner generation of true virtues—patience, humility, self-abasement, resignation, and the repudiation of self-esteem.

So it is a great error among many—especially women—to believe that the service that we do for God without enjoyment, tenderness of heart, or feeling is less agreeable to his Divine Majesty. On the contrary, our actions are like roses, that when they are fresh have more charm, but when dry they have more strength and fragrance. Likewise, although works that are performed with tenderness of heart are more pleasant for us—for us, I say, who regard nothing but our own pleasure—if they are being done in dryness and barrenness, they are of more fragrance and worth before God. Yes, my dear child, in times of dryness our will leads us to the service of God by main force, and consequently it is necessary that it be more vigorous and steadfast than in times of tenderness.d It is not so great a thing to serve a king during the ease of peaceful times and amid the delights of the court, but to serve him in the hardships of war, among the troubles and harassments, that is a true mark of constancy and fidelity.

Blessed Angela of Foligno says that the prayer most pleasing to God is that which is done by force and constrainte—that is to say, that we apply ourselves to prayer that is not at all because of any taste we have for it, nor because of our own inclination, but purely to please God, to which our will carries us in spite of our inclination, breaking through and smashing the droughts and loathings that oppose it. I say the same about all kinds of good works, for the more obstacles we have to doing them—be the obstacles external or internal—the more the works are honored and prized in God’s eyes. The less our own selfish interest in the pursuit of virtue, the more the purity of the divine love shines there.a The child easily kisses his mother who gives him sugar, but it is a sign that he loves her greatly if he kisses her after she has given him bitter absinthe or the acrid juice of aloes.b

a. Francis sees a direct corollary: to the degree one’s self-interest is involved in devout pursuits determines how pleasing they may be to God—the less self-interest, the more shining of divine love.

b. The two medicines are l’absinthe and le chicotin in French. The former, of course, is a liqueur, the latter the juice of aloes, often called “gall.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 15

c. Although Francis appears about to quote St. Bernard, the actual quotation does not begin until the following paragraph.

d. The “true Sun” is God. Francis may well have thought of the words from the familiar hymn of St. Ambrose, “Splendor Paterniae Gloria.” The fifth to eighth lines read:

And you, True Sun, let fall
Your bright unending splendor;
And the radiance of the Holy Spirit
Pour forth into our senses.

e. “Geoffroy had already followed the Man of God [St. Bernard] into the order when he felt himself shaken by a violent temptation. One of the Brothers, having seen it at the time, said to him, ‘What then, why that totally distressed countenance, and that cloud of sadness that covers it with so dark a shadow?’ ‘Alas,’ responded Geoffroy, ‘I see that there is not a single moment of joy for me from now on.’The friar, strongly affected by that language, shared it with the Servant of God [St. Bernard] who, seeing along the road a pious sanctuary, entered and began to pray. The other stood at the door waiting, and as for Geoffroy, overwhelmed with sadness and worry, he sat on a stone and fell asleep. When the two emerged—one from his sleep and the other from his prayer—Geoffroy appeared to his companions as joyful and happy who had seemed so sad before. The friar of whom we spoke earlier came to remind him, in the form of a friendly reproach, of the words of sadness that he had uttered. Geoffroy said to him, ‘In the last hour, it is true, I said that I had not a moment of joy, but now I can say that I will not know even one of sadness’” (Vita Prima S. Bernardi 4:iii, 16).

Francis uses his own slight adaptation of this story to make the point that even very holy people are faced with the loss of delight, the absence of rewards, and the encounter with sadness, dryness, and emptiness. The original story was told, rather, to emphasize the power of St. Bernard’s prayers in lifting the weight of melancholy from his friar-brother.

i PART IV. CHAPTER 15.

Confirmation and Clarification of What Has Been Called a Notable Example

But to make all this statement more obvious, I want to add here an excellent piece from the life of Saint Bernard as I found it in a learned and judicious writer. He said thus:c

It is an ordinary thing in almost all those who begin serving God and who are not yet tested by the withdrawal of grace nor by spiritual vicissitudes that when they begin to lose the pleasure of emotional devotion and that pleasant light that invites them to hasten on the path to God, they quickly lose their breath and fall into discouragement and sadness of heart. Intelligent people give this explanation: that rational human nature cannot long endure famine without some pleasure—either heavenly or earthly. And so, as souls raised above themselves by the enjoyment of higher pleasures have easily abandoned observable matters, so when by divine disposition their spiritual joy is taken away, and they thus find themselves also deprived of bodily consolations, and not being accustomed to wait in patience for the return of the true Sun,d it seems to them that they are neither in heaven nor on earth, and that they remain buried in a perpetual night, so that—like little infants who are weaned from the breast—they languish and fret and become vexatious and disturbing, mainly to themselves.

“This happened on a journey at issue to one of the band named Geoffroy de Peronne, recently dedicated to the service of God.e This one—suddenly rendered dry, destitute of consolation, and filled with inner darkness—began to remember his worldly friends, his parents, his belongings that he had had to leave, and because of that he was assailed by such a severe temptation that, being unable to conceal it in his demeanor, one of his confidants noticed, and having approached him adeptly with sweet words, said to him in secret: ‘What does this mean, Geoffroy? How is it that, contrary to your usual conduct, you are so worried and distressed?’ So Geoffroy, with a deep sigh, responded: ‘Ah, my Brother, never again in my life shall I be joyful.’ The other, moved with pity by such words, with fraternal zeal went quickly to report all this to their common father, Saint Bernard, who, seeing the danger, went into a neighboring church to pray for him. And Geoffroy, meanwhile, overcome by sadness, rested his head on a stone and fell asleep. But after some time, both arose—one from prayer, having obtained what he asked for, and the other from sleep with a face so cheerful and serene that his dear friend, marveling at so great and sudden a change, could not contain himself and reproached him in a friendly way with the words he had said not long before. So Geoffroy replied, ‘If I told you before that I would never be happy, now I assure you that I will never be sad.’” Such was the result of the temptation of that devout person, but notice in this story, my dear child: (1) That God usually gives a foretaste of heavenly delights to those who enter his service in order to remove the earthly pleasures and encourage the pursuit of divine love—as a mother who, in order to attract and entice her little baby to her breast, puts honey on the tip of her nipple. (2) That, nevertheless, it is also true that God sometimes—according to his wise disposition—takes away from us the milk and honey of consolation, so that being weaned in this way, we learn to eat the dry and more substantial bread of a vigorous devotion, proven by the test of repugnance and temptations. (3) That sometimes great storms arise amidst the dryness and barrenness, and then one must fight constantly against such temptations, for they are not from God, but it is necessary to suffer patiently the drynesses themselves, since God has ordained them for our practice.a (4) That we must never lose courage amidst the inner vexations, nor say like Geoffroy, “I shall never be joyful.” For during the night we must wait for the light,b and, conversely, in the most beautiful spiritual times that we could ever have, we must not say, “I will never be sorrowful.” No, for as the Sage says: “In happy days, it is necessary to remember the evil.”c It is necessary to hope in the midst of trouble and to fear in the midst of prosperity—and in both situations, it is necessary always to be humble. (5) That it is a sovereign remedy to reveal one’s trouble to some spiritual friend who can relieve us.d

a. Francis differentiates clearly between the long, arid periods in which there are no emotional rewards for devotion but that should be endured since they are “from God,” on the one hand, and the violent tempests of temptations to lust, greed, anger, and the like on the other, which should be combated since they are not from God.

b. See Isaiah 59:9b: “We looked for light, and behold, darkness: brightness, and we have walked in darkness.” This simple adage—“in the night we must wait for the light”—sums up Francis’s advice in this entire chapter, and it is based on the belief that fidelity in difficult times will eventually bring relief.

c. Ecclesiasticus 11:27: “In the day of good things do not forget the evil things: and in the day of evil things do not forget the good things.” Francis expands on it: he commends hope when in trouble and fear when in prosperity.

d. Francis emphasizes once again the dangers inherent in attempting a course of spiritual growth and development without a second party being privy to one’s work. One’s ego will always tend to blind one’s mind to reality and to work against one’s valid spiritual development.

Finally, to conclude this warning that is so indispensable, I note that, as in all things so in these, our good God and our Enemy have exactly opposite intentions—for God wants us to be led by these things to a great purity of heart, to broad renunciation of our own interest in regard to his service, and a perfect self-denial. But the Evil One uses these troubles to discourage us, to make us return to the side of sensual pleasures, and in the end to make us vexatious to ourselves and to others, and finally to discredit and disparage holy devotion. But if you will follow the teachings that I have given you, you will greatly increase your perfection in the practice that you perform among these inner afflictions, about which I do not wish to finish before I have said to you this word more:

Sometimes disgust, sterility, and dryness come from an indisposition of the body—as when by an excess of vigils, fasting, and labor one is overwhelmed by fatigue, drowsiness, sluggishness, and other such infirmities that, though they depend on the body, do not avoid disturbing the spirit on account of the close connection between them. However, on such occasions, it is necessary always to remind oneself to do several acts of virtue, with the highest part of our spirit and our superior will, for even though all of our soul seems to sleep and be overwhelmed with drowsiness and fatigue, so it is that the actions of our spirit do not fail to be very agreeable to God. And we can say in those times, like the sacred Spouse: “I sleep, but my heart awakens,”a and as I have said above, if there may be less enjoyment in working this way, yet there is more merit and virtue. But the remedy in this case is to reinvigorate the body by some kind of proper relief and recreation. Just so St. Francis ordered his friars to be so moderate in their labor that they do not weigh down their spiritual fervor.b

a. Song of Songs 5:2a: “I sleep, and my heart watches.”

b. “Let those friars, to whom the Lord gives the grace to work, work faithfully and devotedly, so that, having expelled idleness, the enemy of the soul, they do not extinguish the spirit of holy prayer and devotion” (The Rule of the Friars Minor, “The Second Rule,” 1223, ch. 5).

c. John Ryan attributes this account to Book I, Conf. vii of De Conformitate Vitae Sancti Francisci ad Vitam Domini Jesu (“On the Conformity of the Life of Saint Francis to the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ”), a text written between 1385 and 1390 by the learned Friar Bartholomew of Pisa, but I have been unable to verify the citation.

And, speaking of that glorious Father, he was once attacked and stirred by so profound a melancholy of spirit that he could not help but show it in his behavior—for if he wished to converse with his friars, he could not; if he separated himself, it was worse; abstinence and mortification of the flesh weighed him down; and prayer did not lighten it at all. He was two years in this state, so it seemed he was totally abandoned by God. But finally, after having humbly suffered this rough tempest, the Savior restored him to a happy tranquility in a moment.c

That is to say, that the greatest servants of God are subject to these shocks, and that the least such servants ought not to be surprised if a few happen to them.

PART

FIVE

CONTAINING PRACTICES

AND ADVICE TO

RENEW THE SOUL

AND STRENGTHEN IT

IN DEVOTION

PART V

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 1

a. One is reminded of Isaiah 40:31: “But they that hope in the LORD shall change their strength; they shall take wings as eagles; they shall run and not be distressed, they shall walk and not falter.”

b. See Luke 11:24–26: “When the unclean spirit leaves a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, and not finding it, he says: I will return into my house that I left. And when he comes, he finds it swept and made clean. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they go in and dwell there. And the latest condition of that man is worse than the first.”

c. Francis’s primary (and significant) point here is that the development of a mature devout life is not a once-only event. One does not reach the level of serious and sincere devotion and then merely rest on one’s laurels. The revitalizing of one’s spiritual life is an essential part of its development.

d. The French is cher cœur—literally, “dear heart”—but cher carries both the sense of “beloved” and of “expensive” (or “precious” or “valued”). It is unusual to speak of one’s own “dear heart”—far more common to use it to address one’s beloved.

e. The French oindre—literally, “to anoint”—is unusual. The ordinary French word for “to oil” (as a machine) is huiler or lubrifier. Francis uses the word that normally refers to the sacred anointing in the sacraments of Holy Baptism, Holy Unction, and Holy Orders.

f. “It is a season of new birth; let us be born again. It is a time of reformation; let us receive again the sinless first Adam. Let us not continue as we are, but let us become what we once had been. The Light shines in darkness, in this life and in the flesh, and is hounded by the darkness, but is not overtaken by it—I mean the harmful power leaping up in its shamelessness against the visible Adam, but coming upon God and being defeated—so that we, putting away the darkness, may draw near to the Light, and may then become perfect Light, the children of perfect Light” (St. Gregory Nazianen, Oratio 39.2).

g. See Part II, Chapter 10.

i PART V. CHAPTER 1.

That It Is Necessary Each Year to Renew the Good Resolutions by These Practices

The first point of these exercises is seriously to recognize their importance. Our human nature degenerates easily from its good affections because of the fragility and evil inclinations of our flesh that weighs down the soul and always draws against it unless she frequently raises herself on high by a vigorous force of resolution—just as birds quickly fall to earth if they do not repeat the beats and strokes of their wings in order to keep themselves in flight.a In order to do that, dear child, you need to reiterate and repeat the good resolutions that you have made to serve God, lest by not doing so, you should fall back into your former state—or even into a much worse state.b For spiritual failures have this peculiarity: that they always hurl us down lower than the state from which we had begun our climb to devotion.c

There is no clock—no matter how good it may be—that does not need rewinding and resetting twice a day—in the morning and in the evening. And then, besides that, it is necessary that at least once a year, one take it to pieces to remove the rust it has acquired, to restore the bent pieces, and to repair those that are worn. Thus, one who has a true concern for his precious heartd must rewind it for God in the evening and morning by means of the practices set out above. And besides that, he must several times reflect on his condition, in order to straighten and adjust it; and finally at least once a year he must take it apart and examine in detail all the pieces—that is to say, all the affections and passions of it—in order to repair all the defects that may be there. And as the watchmaker anointse the wheels, the springs, and all the works of a clock with some delicate oil so that the movements work more smoothly and that it is less prone to rusting, so too the devout person, after the practice of dismantling his heart, in order to renew it well must anoint it with the sacraments of Confession and of the Eucharist. This exercise will restore your strength that has been battered by time, warm your heart, revive your good resolutions, and cause the virtues of your spirit to bloom again.

The early Christians practiced it carefully on the anniversary of the Baptism of Our Lord by which, as Saint Gregory, bishop of Nazianzus says, they renewed those professions and promises made in that Sacrament of Baptism.f Let us likewise, my dear child, most willingly dispose and carefully occupy ourselves in replicating that.

Having thus chosen the proper time (in the opinion of your spiritual father) and being a little more withdrawn into solitude—both spiritual and real—than usual, make one or two or three meditations on the following points, according to the method I gave you in the Second Part.g

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 2

a. See Part I, Chapter 20.

b. A quick summary of the resolutions to be reaffirmed: (1) renunciation of mortal sin; (2) dedication of one’s whole self to God; and (3) fall into sin will be quickly remedied. These sound like moral clichés, but they are the building blocks for any intentional moral growth. Notice these crucial and realistic dimensions: (1) there is little or no attention paid to minor, venial sins—which are easily expunged by repentance; (2) there are no dimensions of human life—no matter how lowly or simple—withheld from God; and (3) there is the realistic anticipation that even a saintly person may commit sinful acts, but what matters is not being willing to accept such sins into one’s ordinary life, but to reject them immediately lest they can become habitual or besetting.

c. Psalm 26:8a [27:11a]: “My heart has spoken to you”; and Psalm 44:1a [45:1a]: “My heart has uttered a good word…”; and Psalm 118:16 [119:16]: “I will think of your righteousness: I will not forget your words.”

d. “Breath” is used in the Bible as a symbol of life and vitality. The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words for “breath” also mean “spirit.” In this passage Francis has the company of heaven pouring out their “spirit” of pleasure and approval on the words of his protégé’s resolutions, giving their blessings to her efforts and intentions.

e. Hosea 11:4a: “I will draw them with the bands of a man, with the cords of love.”

f. Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of affliction, in order to give you a goal and endurance.”

g. There is a mystical dimension to this sentence, and because of that it is almost universally mistranslated: God thought (or “reflected”) thoughts of peace upon (or into) the subject’s heart—and meditated on the subject’s behalf meditations of love. In both cases, while the subject sleeps, it is God who is praying in the subject’s heart! It is God who is doing the subject’s meditating. The subject is the vehicle by which God acts.

h. Notice that once again Francis has the mystical insight to recognize that God drew his protégé to her resolutions—that God initiated the relationship of commitment.

i PART V. CHAPTER 2.

Considerations of the Advantage That God Gives Us by Calling Us to His Service as Set Forth in the Assertion Abovea

1. Consider the points of the formal reaffirmation of your resolutions: first, it is having given up, rejected, detested, and renounced forever all mortal sin; second, it is having dedicated your soul, your heart, your body, and everything that depends on them to the love and service of God; third, it is that if it happens that you were to fall into some sinful action, you would raise yourself quickly, with the help of God’s grace.b Are these not beautiful resolutions—just and noble and generous? Think in your soul how holy, reasonable, and desirable this reaffirmation is.

2. Consider to whom you made this affirmation—for it is to God! If proper words given to humans obligate us strictly, how much more those which we have given to God! “Ah, Lord,” says David, “it is to you that my heart speaks; my heart has uttered this good word. No, I shall never forget it.”c

3. Consider in whose presence you made this resolution, for that was in the sight of all the heavenly court. Yes, the Blessed Virgin, Saint Joseph, your guardian angel, Saint Louis, all that blessed company watched you and breathed upon your words breaths of joy and approval.d And with eyes filled with inexpressible love, they saw your heart prostrate at the feet of the Savior and consecrating itself to his service. There was a special joy over that within the heavenly Jerusalem. And now there will be a remembrance of that if you renew your resolutions with a good heart.

4. Consider by what means you made your resolutions. Ah, how gracious and sweet God was to you at that time! But tell the truth, were you not drawn by the sweet attractions of the Holy Spirit? The cords with which God drew your little barque to this blessed haven, were they not of love and charity?e To what extent did he entice you with his divine sweetness—by the sacraments, by reading, by prayer? Ah, my dear child, you were asleep, and God was watching over you, and he reflected thoughts of peacef into your heart—he meditated for you meditations of love.g

5. Consider at what time God drew you to these great resolutions, for that was in the flower of your youth.h Ah! What joy to learn so early what the rest of us cannot know until too late! Saint Augustine, having been called at the age of thirty, exclaimed: “O Ancient Beauty, how have I come to know you so late? Alas! I saw you and I did not pay heed to you.”a And you can well say, “O Ancient Sweetness, why have I not enjoyed you sooner?”b Alas! Even then you did not deserve yet. And thus, recognize what grace God had given to you, when he enticed you in your youth, and say with David, “O my God, you have taught me and touched me from my youth, and forever will I proclaim your mercy.”c What if this had happened in your old age, alas, my child, what a grace it would have been after having misspent preceding years that God would have called you before death, and have stopped the course of your misery to the current time, in which, if it had continued, you would have been miserable for eternity.d

a. Francis’s quotation from Augustine is obviously given from memory and varies slightly from Augustine’s original: “Too late have I loved you, O Beauty ancient yet ever new! Too late have I loved you! And lo, you were within and I was outside, and I searched for you out there; I was crippled, plunging amid those beautiful forms that you had made. So you were with me, but I was not with you” (St. Augustine, Confessions 10.17).

b. A difficult idea. The French has pourquoi ne t’ai-je plutôt savourée—literally, “why have I not relished you sooner.” I think Francis means to suggest that his protégé had been drawn to commitment to God at an early age, but had not appreciated it until later.

c. Psalm 70:17 [71:17]: “You have taught me, O God, from my youth: and I have always to this day made known your wonders.”

d. It is strange that Francis should introduce this nonfactual foray into the subjunctive “What if…”—unless he wants to convince his protégé that she was very fortunate to have found God in her youth.

e. The “weights of the sanctuary” refers to the weight of the Israelite shekel that was maintained by the standard weights kept in the Temple. Amos (8:5) complains of merchants who “increase the shekel and convey cheated balances.” In the Priestly Code the “shekel of the sanctuary” is established as the standard (Lev. 27:25). Francis means by the statement that his protégé ought to measure her growth in “real” terms.

f. Psalm 117:16–17 [118:16–17]: “The right hand of the LORD has made strength: the right hand of the LORD is exalted.… I shall not die, but live: and shall relate the works of the LORD.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 3

g. We may need to be reminded that here Francis is speaking about the annual renewal and revitalization of one’s resolutions to live the devout life described in the preceding chapters.

6. Consider the effects of this vocation. You will find in yourself, I think, some good changes, comparing what you are with what you were. Do you not take any happiness from knowing how to speak to God in prayer, from having an inclination for wanting to love him, from having stilled and pacified many passions that used to worry you, from having avoided many sins and entanglements of conscience, and, finally, from having received Communion so much more often than you had done, thereby linking yourself to this sovereign Source of eternal graces? Ah, how great are these graces! It is necessary, my child, to weigh them in the weights of the sanctuary.e It is the right hand of God that has done all these things. “The good hand of God,” says David, “has made strength. His right hand has raised me.… Ah, I shall not die, but live, and declare with heart and mouth and deeds the marvels of his goodness.”f

After all these considerations—which, as you see, provide lots of good affections—it is necessary to conclude simply by an act of thanksgiving and a heartfelt prayer that you may profit well from them, retiring with humility and great confidence in God, holding off on making the effort of the resolutions until after the second point of this exercise.

i PART V. CHAPTER 3.

Examination of Our Soul on Its Progress in the Devout Life

The second point of the exerciseg is a bit long, and to practice it, I should say that it is not necessary that you do it all in one stretch, but at different times. Such as taking that which regards your behavior toward God for one action, that which regards yourself for another, that which concerns your neighbor for another, and the consideration of the passions for the fourth. It is also neither necessary nor fitting that you do this on your knees (except for the beginning and the end, which concern the affections). The other points of the assessment you can do profitably in walking and even more profitably in bed (if by chance you remain alert and without drowsiness), but in order to do that, one must have read the resolutions carefully much earlier. Nonetheless, it is necessary to do the whole second point in three days and two nights at most, spending as much time on it every day and every night—I mean, as much time as is possible for you—for if this exercise is not done except in times at great distance from each other it will lose its strength and will give too indefinite impressions. After each point of the assessment, you should notice in what you find that you have failed, and in what you have some defect, and what are the principal disorders you have experienced, so that you can explain them when you go to obtain advice, resolution, and reinforcement of spirit.

a. “Aspirations” are brief exclamatory prayers, such as “Blessed be God!”; “Lord, be my guide!”; “Jesus, I love you above all things!”; “O Lord, have mercy on me!”; and such like.

b. This is a spiritual practice in which one empties one’s mind of all other thoughts and images, and mentally imagines oneself in God’s presence, perhaps accompanied by exclamatory prayers such as “I am with you, Lord,” or “I rest in your everlasting arms,” or simply repeating the name “Jesus.”

c. “Lord Jesus, let me know myself and know you, and desire nothing except you. Let me hate myself and love you. Let me do everything for the sake of you. Let me humble myself and exalt you. Let me think of nothing except you. Let me die to myself and live in you. Let me accept whatever happens as from you. Let me banish self and follow you, and always desire to follow you” (St. Augustine, Soliloquy 1).

d. “One day, when he was concentrating on his prayer at a friary, a guest came to visit him. He waited for St. Francis [of Assisi] to finish his prayer, but St. Francis continued to pray well into the night. A worker at the monastery became curious about what St. Francis was praying, so he listened and heard St. Francis’s repeated prayer: ‘Oh, my Lord God! Who are you, and who am I’” (Speculum Vitae Beati Francisci et Sociorum eius [Venice, 1504]).

e. This readiness for disappointment is a wise preparation, since without it, one can be broken by disenchantment and frustration with the process and diverted from future efforts toward true devotion.

f. And thus begins the review/examination/assessment of one’s devotion that the last chapters have discussed.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 4

g. It is as though this entire chapter—in style, language, and subject matter—were written by a hand other than Francis’s. The French is idiomatic and coarse, the content inconsistent, incomplete, and insensitive. It seems these may have been reminder notes written to himself rather than serious recommendations to another. The language is so colloquial that accurate translation is a very serious challenge.

h. This line in French is Quel est votre cœur contre le péché mortel?—literally, “What is your heart against mortal sin?” Each of the numbered sections begins with Quel est votre cœur…?

i. Isaiah 7:14b–15: “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.”

And on some of the days that you do this exercise and the others, it is not necessary to make a complete retreat from all company; even so there should be at least a little respite—especially toward the evening—so you can get to bed at an earlier hour and get the rest for body and spirit that is necessary for the reflections. And during the day it is necessary to make frequent aspirations to God,a to Our Lady, to the angels, to the whole of heavenly Jerusalem. It is absolutely necessary that all things be done with a loving heart for God and for the wholeness of your soul.

So, for a good beginning of this assessment: (1) Place yourself in the presence of God;b (2) Call upon the Holy Spirit, asking him for light and clarity, so that you can know yourself well (with Saint Augustine who cried out before God in a spirit of humility, “O Lord, that I may know you and I may know myself.”c And Saint Francis who asked God, saying, “Who are you and who am I?”d). Resolve that you will not take note of your progress in order to delight in yourself, but in order to delight in God, nor in order to glorify yourself, but to glorify God and give him thanks. (3) Resolve that if, as you suspect, you discover that you have made little progress, or even have fallen back, you will not by any means be dejected or cooled down by any sort of discouragement or laxity of heart but, on the contrary, to want to encourage and rouse yourself more, to humble yourself and overcome the defects, aided by the grace of God.e

That done, consider sweetly and quietly how up to the present hour you have behaved yourself toward God, toward your neighbor, and toward yourself.f

i PART V. CHAPTER 4.

Examination of the State of the Soul’s Relation to Godg

1. What is your attitude concerning mortal sin?h Do you have a strong resolution about never committing it on account of something that could happen? And that resolution, has it lasted from your declaration until the present? In that resolution consists the foundation of spiritual life.

2. What is your attitude regarding the commandments of God? Do you find them good, sweet, pleasant? Ah, my child, he who has taste is in a good state and whose stomach is healthy loves good food and rejects the bad.i

a. Here Francis speaks again of “besetting sins”—those that are one’s particular thorns and burdens. However small these venial sins are, if one relishes them, they become very dangerous.

b. Francis provides a long list of “spiritual exercises” as part of what is classically called “self-examen.” This entire chapter deals not with whether one’s behavior is in question, but the quality of one’s inner intentions, attitudes, and inclinations—which presses the question of morality ever more deeply.

c. Psalm 76:4 [77:3]: “Remembering God, I was upset, and spoke within myself, and my spirit always faints.” The Douai-Rheims (1610) translation of this Latin Vulgate into English is: “I remembered God, and was delighted, and was exercised, and my spirit swooned away” (sic!). This translation is very far from the original Latin: Recordans Dei conturbabar loquebar in memet ipso et deficiebat spiritus meus semper. However, there was a translation of the Bible done at Louvain in 1550 by Nicholas de Leuze and François de Larben, and although it was not broadly accepted, Francis may have used it. It was the only Roman Catholic French translation available during Francis’s lifetime.

d. Something is odd with this insertion of a moral exemplum in the midst of the catalog of self-examen questions. It seems as though Francis considered that his protégé might not believe that one could actually experience God warmly while involved in business and activity, and so he provides this illustration—but it is highly incongruous in the present chapter.

e. In this section Francis uses autour de—“around”—four times: bees “around” honey; wasps “around” decay; good souls “around” Jesus; and the wicked “around” the vanities. The French carries the sense of “revolving about some center.”

f. Francis believed that one’s life circumstances, one’s education, and one’s natural abilities would affect the way one could speak of God. Here he is asking in effect, “Do you speak of God to the best of your ability?”

g. It must be remembered that in Francis’s day hymns were not commonly sung at Mass (as they are today), but either at the Daily Offices or in the home.

3. What is your attitude concerning venial sins? One cannot keep oneself protected against falling here and there, but are there any to which you have particular inclinations?a And, what is worse, are there any for which you have an attachment and a fancy?

4. What is your attitude concerning spiritual exercises? Do you like them? Do you esteem them? Do any displease you? Are you disgusted by any? To which do you feel less or more inclined—to hear the word of God, to read it, to talk about it, to meditate, to yearn for God, to make a Confession, to receive spiritual advice, to prepare for Communion, to receive Communion, to restrain your affections? What is there among those that is repugnant to your heart? And if you find something for which your heart has less inclination, consider from where the dislike comes—what is its cause.b

5. What is your attitude concerning God himself? Does your heart delight in remembering God? Does that leave any pleasant sweetness? Ah! David said, “I remembered God and I was delighted.”c Do you feel in your heart a certain readiness to love him and a special relish in tasting that love? Does your heart enjoy any thoughts of the immensity of God, of his goodness, his sweetness? If it happens that you remember God amidst the activities of the world and its vanities, does that involve making any place for him? Does it seize your heart at all? Does it seem to you that your heart turns itself toward him and in some way goes forward to him? Truly there are souls like that.d

If the husband of a woman returns from far away, as soon as that woman knows of his return and hears his voice, although she may be burdened with business and held back from him by some strong necessity amidst the public, still her heart does not hold back, but abandons all other thoughts in order to think of her returning husband. It is the same with souls who love God well. Although they may be busy, when the remembrance of God comes to them, they lose almost any ability to deal with all the rest for the joy that they have to see that dear memory return, and that is an extremely good sign.

6. What is your attitude concerning Jesus Christ, God and man? Do you enjoy being around him? The bees find pleasure around their honey, and the wasps around their decaying things, and just so good souls find their happiness around Jesus Christ and have an extreme tenderness of love toward him. But the wicked please themselves around the vanities.e

7. What is your attitude concerning Our Lady, the saints, and your guardian angel? Do you love them strongly? Do you have a special confidence in their benevolence? Do their images, their lives, their reputations please you?

8. As for your language, how do you speak of God? Do you take pleasure in speaking well according to your situation and ability?f Do you love to sing hymns?g

a. “The external glory of God” is an unusual phrase—obviously referring here to helping to beautify the church building—either by donating statues, paintings, and the like, or by some kind of “church work”—perhaps cleaning, repairing, provision of flowers, and so on. We should remember that in Francis’s day no one but an ordained person or a nun was allowed to do what we might call “altar work” today.

b. In this sentence, Francis speaks not of religion, but of ordinary life: where it is a sign of love to give up something for one’s beloved.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 5

c. A rather curious conclusion: if one’s self-love is “for the sake of heaven” one should wish (or at least be willing) to die!

d. Francis proposes three criteria for one’s “orderly” self-love: the soul given primacy over the body, acquisition of virtue primary, and “heavenly” reputation valued (French: l’honneur). The adjective “decayed” in French is caduc—literally, “decrepit,” “broken-down,” “crazy,” or “lapsed.”

e. In this case, the French cœur (usually translated “heart”) is translated by “spirit”—one of its many alternate meanings—because “heart” could be understood too physiologically in this context, and “heart ailments” could sound like coronary disease—not the author’s intention.

f. All other English translators that I know have this as something like “help it and obtain help for it.” But they miss the French rhetorical figure of speech: that faire secourir means “to rescue.”

g. Notice that in many cases in these numbered sections the questions are posed as negatives (using the French adverb point) and are thus self-accusatory, that is, “Do you not do such-and-such?” or “Isn’t it true that you do so-and-so?”

9. As for work, consider if you have at heart the external glory of God and doing something in his honor—for those who love God, along with God they love the adornment of his house.a

10. Could you find that you have given up some attachment or renounced anything for God? For it is a good sign of love to deprive yourself of something on behalf of the person whom you love.b What, then, have you given up for the love of God?

i PART V. CHAPTER 5.

Examination of Our State Regarding Ourselves

1. How do you go about loving yourself? Do you not love yourself too much for the sake of this world? If so, you would desire to dwell here forever, and you would take extreme care to establish yourself in this earth. But if you love yourself for the sake of heaven, you would desire—or at least consent—to leave here at whatever hour pleases Our Lord.c

2. Do you hold your self-love in good order? For there is a disordered self-love that can ruin us. But the well-ordered love requires that we should love the soul more than the body, that we should take more care in acquiring virtues than any other thing, that we should value heavenly reputation more than low and decayed reputation.d The well-ordered heart often says to itself, “What would the angels say if I were to think of such a thing?” rather than “What will men say?”

3. What love do you have for your own spirit?e Are you not annoyed at having to care for its ailments? Alas! You owe it this care of succoring it and rescuing itf when the passions torment it, and putting everything else aside for that.

4. How do you regard yourself before God? Doubtless as nothing! However, it is no great humility in a fly that regards itself as nothing compared with a mountain, nor in a drop of water that values itself as nothing in comparison to the sea, nor in a spark or flare of fire valuing itself as nothing compared to the sun. But humility lies in not overvaluing ourselves above others and not wishing to be overvalued by others—with what are you compared in this regard?

5. As for language, do you not vaunt yourself in one way or another?g Do you not flatter yourself when you speak of yourself?

6. As for deeds, do you not take pleasure contrary to your health? I mean to say—vain, useless indulgence, too-late evenings without a reason, and the like.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 6

a. Notice that the accusatory “you” begins to change to the inclusive “our” until by the middle of the next chapter, the first person plural is general.

b. Francis makes a distinction between the quality of one’s relationship within one’s family (which is a moral “given”) and one’s relationship with potentially offensive, unpleasant, or even malevolent outsiders.

c. The French word raisonnable can mean “reasonable,” “just,” “proper,” or “sensible.” In any case it seems something of a condescending counsel: “If you think about it, it should be obvious.”

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 7

d. From here on we recognize the earlier Francis: gentle, moderate, and caring. I have allowed this strange French double negative to stand (that is, “Do not take pains without much deliberation”) because it demonstrates Francis’s care that his protégé not be too hard on herself.

e. Francis himself recognizes that the previous paragraphs have been coarse, harsh, and judgmental.

f. Now follows a splendid list of what some have humorously called “suggested sins”—that is, broad areas of potential sin one ought to examine in the process of a self-examen. This time Francis uses the first person plural and presents the areas of concern as suggestions for self-appraisal rather than of accusation and blame.

g. A beautiful little adage offered as an aside.

i PART V. CHAPTER 6.

Examination of the State of Our Soul Regarding Our Neighbora

It is necessary for the husband and wife to love each other well with a tender, calm, firm, and constant love, and this is so primarily because God ordained it and wishes it. I say the same for children and near relatives, and also of friends, each according to his position.b

But generally speaking, what is your attitude to your neighbor? Do you love him cordially and for the sake of the love of God? In order to perceive this well, you should picture to yourself certain boring and disagreeable people, for that is where one exercises the love of God toward one’s neighbor—and much more toward those who do us wrong, either by deed or by words. Examine well if your heart is clear regarding them, and whether you have any great impediment to loving them.

Are you not too ready to talk about your neighbor in a bad sense? Especially about those who do not like you? Do you not harm your neighbor either directly or indirectly? Provided that you are sensible for a moment, you will easily recognize it.c

i PART V. CHAPTER 7.

Examination of the Affections of Our Soul

I have in this way laid out at length these points in the examination of which lies the knowledge of the spiritual advancement one can make, but as for the ordinary examination of sins, that is for the Confessions of those who do not at all intend to advance themselves.

Still it is necessary not to take great pains with oneself over each of these articles without all patient deliberation, considering in what state our spirit has been regarding things from our resolution, and what notable faults we may have committed there.d

But to put it briefly, it is necessary to reduce this examination into an investigation of our passions—and if we are troubled by considering the list as strongly as it has been said,e we can thus examine ourselves—what we have been and how we have behaved ourselves:f

In our love toward God, toward our neighbor, toward ourselves.

In our hatred toward the sin that we find in ourselves, and toward the sin we find in others (for we must wish for the extermination of both one and the other).

In our desires regarding property, pleasures, honors.

In the fear of the dangers of sin and the loss of worldly goods—one fears the one too little and the other too much.g

a. The French word is l’espérance, which can be translated as “hope” or “trust” or “expectation.”

b. It is unexpected to find sadness ranked among sins—but Francis qualifies it as a sadness inappropriately great over foolish and empty losses.

c. It is also unexpected to find joy listed among sins—but Francis qualifies it as joy over things that are indignes—literally, “undeserving,” “worthless,” or “vile.”

d. The sentence is Quelles affections enfin tiennent notre cœur empêché—literally, “What affections finally hold in our heart obstructed?”

e. Francis at his literary and sensitive best: the untuned lute is a graceful metaphor for the obstructed and aimless spirit, which can be carefully adjusted, bit by bit, here and there, until it is in harmony and can sound the glory of God.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 8

f. That is, where you fall regarding the various points of assessment, that is, what your “score” is.

g. Francis has not been exhaustive in describing such “inspirations, insights, and impulses” that come from God in prayer. The French I have translated as “insights” is clartés—literally “lights,” “brightnesses,” “splendors,” or “clarities.”

h. Curiously, Francis asks his protégé to promise God that she “will always praise him” rather than bidding her actually to do the praising in the present.

i. Notice that the error has been in the protégé’s response to God.

j. Since invoking the saints can be offensive to those in the Protestant tradition, in at least one version this line has been translated: “Ponder over the examples of the saints.”

In hopea—too much, perhaps—on the world and on created things, and too little on God and eternal things.

In sadness—if it is too excessive over vain things.b

In joy—if it is excessive and over unworthy things.c

Finally, what affections rein in and obstruct our spirit?d What passions possess it? In what has it mainly gone astray? For by examining the passions one after the other, one can judge the state of one’s soul—especially since, like the player of a lute plucking all the strings, those that he finds dissonant he tunes—either tightening or loosening—just so after having tested the love, the hatred, the desire, the fear, the hope, the sadness, and the joy of our soul, if we find them badly tuned according to the melody we want to play—that is, the glory of God—we can tune them, by means of his grace and with the advice of our spiritual father.e

i PART V. CHAPTER 8.

The Affections Must Be Engaged After Such Assessment

After having calmly considered each point in the assessment, and having seen where you are,f you should then proceed to the affections in this way.

Thank God for whatever small bit of improvement you have found in your life since your resolution, and acknowledge that it has been mercy alone that has done this in you and for you.

Humble yourself deeply before God, acknowledging that if you have not advanced very far, it has been by your failure since you have not faithfully, courageously, and consistently observed the inspirations, insights, and impulses that he has given you in prayer and elsewhere.g

Promise him that you will always praise him for the graces bestowed on you so that you could abandon your own inclinations in order to make this small improvement.h

Ask forgiveness for the infidelity and disloyalty with which you have responded to him.i

Offer to him your heart so that he can make himself master of all.

Beg him to make you wholly faithful.

Call upon the saints,j the Holy Virgin, your guardian angel, your patron Saint Joseph, and others.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 9

a. I have variously translated the French word l’examen as “examination,” “review,” or “assessment” depending on its context.

b. “Acts of affections” translates the French les affections. As used in this case, the word “affections” is a technical term used in spiritual direction to refer to verbal expressions of love and affection for God (often with strong emotional overtones).

c. Placing oneself “in the presence of God” means simply that one clears one’s mind of other matters and actively acknowledges God’s presence.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 10

d. The gentle and inspiring Francis compensates for the coarse judgments in previous chapters by this paean in praise of the human soul.

e. The French text here is awkward and exact translation a challenge. This phrase may be translated “and not able to hate him [God] within herself,” but it makes little sense to say the soul of Francis’s protégé is prevented from hating God, since such a circumstance could not reasonably come about.

f. Genesis 8:9–10: “[Noah] sent out also a dove in order to see if the waters had already ceased over the face of the earth, but when she did not find where her foot could rest, she returned to him into the ark: for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he extended his hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark.”

g. The French is Quelle beauté de nature y a-t-il en notre cœur. Most translators have “What natural beauty there is in our heart,” but I think Francis uses the word “nature” in the philosophical sense of “underlying reality”—thus the beauty of heart is there by its very divinely created human nature.

h. The French has contre son gré—literally, “against his [or its] will.” Most translators use “its will,” referring to the heart. I have used “his will,” referring to God.

i. Luke 15:16–17: “And he longed to have filled his stomach with the husks the pigs ate: and no man gave to him. And turning to himself, he said: How many paid servants of my father have abundant bread, and I here perish with this hunger!”

i PART V. CHAPTER 9.

Considerations Suitable for the Renewal of Good Resolutions

After you have completed this assessment,a and have conferred with some worthy director about the defects and the remedies for those, then you should take the following considerations, making one daily in the manner of a meditation, spending the time of your prayer on it, and always with the same method for the preparation and the acts of affectionb that you have used in the meditations from the first part of this book—above all things, placing yourself in the presence of God,c imploring his grace in order to establish yourself well in his holy love and service.

i PART V. CHAPTER 10.

First Consideration: Of the Excellence of Our Souls

Consider the nobility and distinction of your soul that has such an understanding that she not only knows all this visible world, but knows also that there are angels and a paradise; knows that there is a most sovereign God, truly good and beyond description; knows that there is an eternity; and further knows what is proper in order to live well in this visible world so as to join with the angels in paradise and so as to enjoy God forever.d

And even more—your soul has a wholly noble will with which it is able to love God and not able to hate within herself.e See your heart, how generous it is, and just as nothing that is corrupt can divert the bees so that they come to rest only on the flowers, just so your heart cannot be at rest except in God alone, and no created thing can satisfy it. Boldly think back to the most valued and extreme pastimes that once occupied your heart, and see in truth that they were full of anxiety, unrest, bitter thoughts, and unwelcome worries, in the midst of which your poor heart was miserable.

Alas, when our heart turns to created things, it goes there with eagerness, thinking it will be able to satisfy its desires, but as soon as it encounters them, it sees that it has to be done all over again and that nothing can content it. God willing that our heart should not find any place on which it can rest—no more than the dove sent out of the ark by Noahf—so that at last it may return to its God from whom it had come. Ah, what beauty there is in our heart by nature!g And therefore why do we hold it against hish will to serve created things?

O my beautiful soul, do you mean to say that you can hear and long for God? In that case, why amuse yourself with anything less? You can lay a claim to eternity, so why do you amuse yourself with passing moments? This was one of the regrets of the Prodigal Son, that having been able to live delightfully at the table of his father, he ate miserably among the beasts.i O my soul, you are fit for God; woe to you if you content yourself with less than God! Raise up your soul with this thought! Remind her that she is eternal and worthy of eternity! Fill her with courage on account of this!

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 11

a. This catalog of contrast between virtues and vices is a translator’s challenge: for example, the French compares la patience (“patience”) with la vengeance (“revenge”), whereas a better opposite translation of la patience would be “tolerance.” Thus, in some of these instances I have used accurate, but uncommon, translations.

b. John 4:10, 15: “Jesus said to [the Samaritan woman]: ‘If you knew the gift of God and who he is that says to you, “Give me drink,” you might have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.’”

c. “I used to pray very much to our Lord for that living water; and I always had a picture of it, representing our Lord at the well, with this inscription, Domine, da mihi aquam” (The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus 30:24).

d. “On one occasion [Catherine’s] heart was kindled by so burning a flame of love, that she could not endure it, and turning to a picture of the Samaritan woman at the well, she cried out: ‘O Lord, I pray thee, give me a drop of that water which thou givest to the Samaritan,’ and instantly a drop of that divine water was given to her, which refreshed her more than human tongue can describe” (Life and Doctrine of St. Catherine of Genoa 38).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 12

e. The French word is les résolutions—literally, “resolutions.” However, the meaning of the word has softened somewhat—it has served as a technical term in traditional spiritual direction and the modern word “commitments” is closer to its original use and intention.

f. The French has la profession de la foi—literally, “the profession of the faith—” but that use of the word “profession” has become less and less common. I have translated it as “beliefs.”

g. The French has la protestation de la dévotion—literally, “the protestation of devotion,” but “protestation” now commonly means “opposition.” I have translated it as “devout practices.”

h. St. Agatha is said to have stopped the eruption of Mount Etna and nursed its survivors. She was martyred in 250. It is said that St. Irene was martyred for nursing the wounded St. Sebastian (third century). St. Caecilia, her husband, Valerian, and his brother Tiburtius were all martyred (c. 223) for burying the bodies of martyred Christians—a practice forbidden by the Roman authorities.

i PART V. CHAPTER 11.

Second Consideration: On the Excellence of the Virtues

Think about the fact that only the virtues and devotion can make your soul content in this world. See how beautiful they are! Compare the virtues and those vices that are their opposites:a What sweetness is there in tolerance compared to revenge? In restraint compared to anger and fretfulness? In humility compared to arrogance and ambition? In generosity compared to avarice? In contentment compared to envy? In sobriety compared to debauchery? The virtues have something admirable in that they delight the soul with a gentleness and sweetness unparalleled after one has practiced them, whereas the vices leave her extremely worn out and abused. Well then, why not attempt to acquire such sweetness?

Concerning vices, whoever has a few of them is not content, and whoever has many of them is discontented, but concerning virtues, whoever has a few of them already has some contentment, and there is always more in advancing. O devout life, how beautiful, sweet, pleasant, and lovely you are! You lighten tribulations and sweeten consolations; without you good is evil and pleasures are full of anxiety, troubles, and deceit. Ah! Whoever knows you can well say with the Samaritan, “Lord, give me this water!”b—a robust craving engaged in also by Mother Teresac and by Saint Catherine of Genoad (although regarding different matters).

i PART V. CHAPTER 12.

Third Consideration: On the Example of the Saints

Consider the example of the saints of all kinds: what is it that they have not done to love God and be his devotees? Look at the martyrs, invincible in their commitmentse—what torments have they not suffered in order to keep them? But above all, these beautiful and well-to-do women—whiter than lilies in purity, redder than the rose in charity: one of them at twelve, others at thirteen, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five years of age—have suffered a thousand kinds of martyrdom rather than renounce their commitment, not only in regard to their beliefs,f but in affirmation of their devout practices.g Some died rather than forsake virginity, others rather than to cease serving the afflicted, consoling the tormented, and burying the departed.h O God, what constancy has been shown by that fragile sex in such circumstances!

a. The term “Confessors” is a technical term applying originally to those saints who had borne witness to Christianity, had been persecuted and tortured for it, but had not been killed. In later use it came to be applied to anyone (particularly a bishop) who lived a pious life and died in peace.

b. “[My mother Monica was] brought up modestly and soberly (and made subject more by you [Lord] to her parents, than by her parents to you); as soon as she was of the age for marriage, being bestowed upon a husband, she served him as her lord; and did her best to win him unto you, preaching you unto him by her conversation; by which you adorned her, making her reverently amiable, and admirable unto her husband” (St. Augustine, Confessions 9.9).

c. St. Jerome wrote a very long letter about St. Paula, saying: “Who could discover a greater marvel than Paula? Just as among many jewels the most precious shines most brightly, and as the sun with its beams hides and extinguishes the weaker fires of the stars; so by her lowliness she surpassed all others in virtue and influence and, while she was least among all, was greater than all” (St. Jerome, Epistle 108 to Eustochium).

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 13

d. The French has cet amour vous regardait—literally, “That love was regarding you.” I think Francis meant it to refer to the Jeremiah quote in the next paragraph, so I have made it “beholding you.”

e. Once again Francis credits God and Christ with what seem to be our own accomplishments: Jesus obtained our own “good commitments and affirmations” from the Father for our heart.

f. Francis calls our commitment literally “the daughter of such a mother as the Passion.” Because of the confusing grammar I have translated that as merely “the fruit of the Passion.”

g. Oddly, while in this chapter Francis is speaking to his protégé as “you,” in this one place, he refers to “our commitments.”

h. Isaiah 49:1b: “The LORD has called me from the womb, from the belly of my mother he has recalled my name.”

i. Another example of the late medieval spiritual metaphor declaring Jesus to be our mother.

Consider so many holy Confessors.a With what strength did they despise the world! How invincible they rendered themselves in their commitments. Nothing could make them slacken. They embraced them without reserve and maintained them without exception. My God, what is it that Saint Augustine said about his mother, Monica? With what firmness she had continued her efforts to serve God in her marriage and in her widowhood!b And Saint Jerome about his beloved daughter Paula? How many misfortunes, amidst how many varieties of accidents!c But what might we not do with such excellent patrons? They were what we are; they did what they did for the same God, on account of the same virtues. Why then should we not do likewise—in our own situation and according to our own calling—for our own precious commitment and our own sacred professions of faith?

i PART V. CHAPTER 13.

Fourth Consideration: Of the Love Jesus Christ Has for Us

Consider the love with which Jesus Christ Our Lord suffered so much in this world, and particularly in the Garden of Olives and on the Mount of Calvary. That love was beholding you,d and by all those pains and travails he obtained from God the Father those good commitments and affirmations for your heart, and by the same means he also obtained all that is needed for you to maintain, nourish, strengthen, and complete these commitments.e O commitment, how precious you are, being the fruit of the Passionf of my Savior! Oh! how my soul should cherish you, since you have been so dear to my Jesus! Alas! O Savior of my soul, you died so I could acquire my commitments! Well then, give me the grace that I may die rather than lose them.

You see, my child, it is certain that the heart of our dear Jesus saw yours from the Tree of the Cross and loved it, and by that love he obtained for it all the good things that you will ever have, and among them our commitments.g Yes, dear child, we can all say with Jeremiah, “LORD, before I was, you beheld me and called me by my name.”h In that way truly his divine Goodness prepared in his love and mercy all the general and particular means of our salvation, and therefore our commitments. Yes, without doubt, like a pregnant woman prepares the cradle, linens, and swaddling clothes, and even a nurse for the child that she hopes to bear, even though it is not yet in the world—just so, Our Lord, his goodness being heavy and pregnant with you, intending to bear you to salvation and make you his child, prepared on the Tree of the Cross all that was needed for you—your spiritual cradle, your linens and swaddling clothes, your nurse and all that was for your happiness: these are all the means, all the attractions, all the graces by which he leads your soul and seeks to draw it to perfection.i

a. Galatians 2:20b: “I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself for me.”

b. Francis is enchanted by the idea that God relates to each individual so deeply and personally that it seems all his attention is there and he must have nothing left for the rest of the world.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 14

c. Like so many other spiritual masters, Francis believes in the preexistence of a human being in the mind of God.

d. The sheer enchantment of this question/answer: God began loving you when he began to be God! (And the further theological implication: you existed as an individual person to be loved for as long as God himself existed—your own spiritual history is as long as God’s!)

e. Jeremiah 31:3: “The LORD has appeared from afar to me. I have loved you with a perpetual love, therefore I have drawn you in, having pity on you.”

Ah! My God! How deeply we ought to imprint this in our memory. Is it possible that I have been loved and loved so sweetly by my Savior that he could think of me in particular, even in all those little incidents by which he draws me to himself? And how much, then, ought we to love, cherish, and employ all of these for our benefit! How sweet this is! This loving heart of my God has thought of you, my child—loved you, and given you a thousand means of salvation, so many that there would seem to be no other soul in the world about whom he had thought. So the sun shines on one place on earth not lighting it less than if it shown nowhere else except there alone. For all is the same for Our Lord, thinking and caring for all his dear children, in a way that he thinks of each one of us as though he did not think of all the rest. “He loved me,” says Saint Paul, “and has given himself for me.”a As if he said, “for me alone”—just as though he had not done anything for the rest. This, my child, should be engraved on your soul in order to cherish and nourish your commitment that has been so precious to the heart of the Savior.b

i PART V. CHAPTER 14.

Fifth Consideration: God’s Eternal Love Toward Us

Consider the eternal love that God has brought you—for even before Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered as man on the cross for you, his divine Majesty had already foreseen you in his sovereign goodness and loved you extremely.c But when did he begin to love you? He began when he began to be God.d And when did he begin to be God? Never, for it has always been without beginning and without end. And also he has always loved you from eternity. That is why he prepared the graces and favors that he has done for you. He says by the prophet: “I have loved you (he is speaking to you, as well as anyone else) with an everlasting love, and therefore I have drawn you, having pity on you.”e So, among other things, he has taken care to lead you to make your commitments to serve him.

O God, what commitments are these that God has thought of, meditated on, and planned from all eternity! How dear and precious should they be to us! What ought we not suffer rather than leave behind even a single strand? No, rather let all the world perish—the more so since all the world together is not worth one soul, and one soul is worth nothing without our commitments.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 15

a. This is an obvious reference to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:9.

b. The preceding three paragraphs are the “general affections” noted in the title of the chapter—they are ecstatic expressions of joy and delight concerning the commitments/resolutions made in the preceding chapters. Now the language changes from apostrophes addressed to the “commitments” to advice to Francis’s protégé.

c. The reference to the “second point” refers to Part V, Chapters 3–7 above.

d. After all the words of happiness in praise of the commitments/resolutions one has made, Francis now summarizes the means by which one can be strengthened to maintain those good intentions: frequent prayer, frequent Confession and Communion, good works, correction of faults, avoidance of evil, and openness to counsel from good people.

e. The French verb is immoler—literally, “to immolate”—that is, “to kill and burn up on an altar as a sacrifice.”

f. It is interesting to see various translator’s biases and efforts at modernization in this sentence. One translator has the simplified “Invoke the Blessed Virgin and your patron saint.” Another has “Pray to Our Lady.” Two others omit the line altogether.

g. “In that emotion of heart” simply means “While you are still on this spiritual high.”

h. The reference to “the first time” is to Part I, Chapter 21.

i. The French phrase is … et la signez—literally, “… and sign it.” This is the first (and only) reference to any kind of physical document recording a formal pledge to keep one’s spiritual resolutions and commitments. I know of no other evidence of such a thing except in the documents one signs in professing vows in a monastery or friary.

i PART V. CHAPTER 15.

General Affections on the Preceding Considerations and the Conclusion of the Exercise

O precious commitments! You are the beautiful tree of life that God has planted by his own hand in the middle of my hearta that my Savior wishes to water with his blood to make it fruitful. Rather a thousand deaths than to allow any wind to uproot you. No, neither vanity nor delights nor riches nor tribulations will ever wrest me from my purpose.

Good heavens, Lord! You yourself have planted and in your fatherly care have eternally preserved this beautiful tree for my garden. But alas! How many souls there are who have not had any favors like this! And how can I ever humble myself enough beneath your mercy?

O glorious and holy commitments: if I keep you, you will keep me; if you live in my soul, my soul shall live in you. So live forever, O commitments, which are eternal.b

After these expressions of affection, it is necessary that you specify the means necessary to maintain these precious commitments, and that you affirm that you wish faithfully to offer—frequency of prayer, of the sacraments, of good works, the amendment of your faults discovered in the second point,c the avoidance of evil situations, the following of advice that you will be given in this regard.d

When all this is done, as if recovering your breath and strength, affirm a thousand times that you will continue in your commitments, and as if you were holding your heart, your soul, and your will in your hands, dedicate it, consecrate it, sacrifice it, and offer it whollye to God, affirming that you will never take it back again, but will leave it in the hand of his divine Majesty in order to follow his commands in all things and in all places. Pray God that he will make you wholly new, that he will bless and strengthen the renewal of your affirmation. Call upon the Virgin, your guardian angel, Saint Louis, and other saints.f

Go in that emotion of heartg to the feet of your spiritual father. Accuse yourself of the principal faults that you may have noticed you have committed since your General Confession, and receive absolution in the same way you did the first time.h Pronounce and sign your affirmation in his presence,i and finally go to unite your renewed heart to its Source and Savior, in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 16

a. The phrase “I am no longer my own” occurs in a 1616 French play, Les Napolitaines by François Amboise.

b. Romans 14:8: “For whether we live, we live to the Lord: or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

c. This is an unusual collection of topological identities in which the writer not only compares himself as a metaphor for Jesus, but identifies himself as Jesus, and his character traits as those of Jesus. This kind of language can only be found in three groups of people: schizophrenics, poets, and mystics—and Francis qualifies as poet and mystic! It is the ultimate mystical experience to discover one’s utter identity and absolute union with Christ. One is reminded of John 6:56: “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me: and I in him.”

d. The reference, of course, is to the story in Genesis 27 in which Jacob steals his brother Esau’s paternal blessing from his blind father, Isaac, by impersonating Esau.

e. With the words la liqueur Francis refers to the medicinal qualities of absinthe, which go back as far as early Egypt and to Lucretius (99–55 bc), who, in his De Rerum Natura, touts it as medicine for children. It was used as an elixir in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France and Switzerland.

COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 17

f. Evidence that Francis’s teaching on devotional practices is not without opponents.

g. An interesting claim, perhaps based on the words of the Psalter—believed in the seventeenth century to have been composed by David himself—“Seven times a day I have praised you, for your righteous judgments” (Ps. 118:164 [119:164]).

h. All these claims of sanctity are attested to as personally witnessed in Jean de Joinville’s Life of Saint Louis (c. 1309).

i PART V. CHAPTER 16.

Of Sentiments That We Should Preserve After This Exercise

On that day when you will make this renewal and those following, you ought very often to repeat with heart and voice the ardent words of Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, Saint Catherine of Genoa, and others: “No, I am no longer my own;a whether I live or whether I die, I am my Savior’s.”b I no longer have anything of me or mine. My “me,” it is Jesus—my “mine,” it is to be his! O world, you are always yourself, and I have always been myself, but henceforth I will no longer be myself.c No, we will no longer be ourselves, for we will have a changed heart, and the world that has so often deceived us will be deceived by us—for, not perceiving our change except little by little, it will think that we are still Esau, but we will find ourselves to be Jacob.d

It is necessary that these exercises must come to rest finally in our heart, and that when removing ourselves from reflection and meditation, we must proceed gently among our ordinary affairs and our associations, lest the liqueure of our resolutions be suddenly spilled, for it must dissolve and penetrate through all parts of the soul, without straining either mind or body.

i PART V. CHAPTER 17.

Answer to Two Objections That May Be Made to This Book

The world will tell you, my child, that these exercises and these counsels are so numerous that whoever wishes to observe them must give up everything else.f Alas, dear child, if we were to do nothing else, we would be doing more than enough, since we would be doing what we ought to do in this world. But do you not see the trick? If we had to do all these exercises every day, in truth, they would occupy us completely—but it is not required that they be done except in their time and place, each according to the occasion. How many civil laws are there in the Statutes and in the Code that must be observed? But that means according to the occasion, and it is not breaking them if one doesn’t practice all of them every day. Incidentally, David—a king occupied with very difficult matters—practiced more exercises than I have appointed for you.g Saint Louis—a king admirable in both war and peace, and who with unequaled care administered justice and managed his affairs—heard two Masses every day, said Vespers and Compline with his chaplain, made his meditation, visited the hospitals, made his Confession every Friday, and used the discipline, very often listened to sermons, often held spiritual conferences, and with all that, not one single opportunity for public good was lost that he didn’t manage and execute diligently. And his court was more splendid and more flourishing than it had ever been since the time of his predecessors.h Do these exercises as boldly as I have appointed them for you, and God will give you enough time and strength to do all the rest of your affairs. Yes, even if he had to make the sun stand still as he did in the time of Joshua!a We always have enough when God works with us.

a. Joshua 10:12–13: “Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the sight of the children of Israel, and he said before them: ‘Do not move, O sun, toward Gibeon, nor you, O moon, toward the valley of Aijalon.’ And the sun and the moon stood still, till the people revenged themselves of their enemies.… So the sun stood still in the middle of the heavens, and did not hasten to go down for the space of one day.”

b. Another critic of Francis has apparently judged his spiritual methodology to be only for the rare person (like Francis’s protégé) who has “the gift of mental prayer.” Francis admits that she does have that gift, but protests that almost everyone has at least some inclination and/or ability to do mental prayer as long as there is a qualified director and a strong desire to work at it. It should be noted that Francis never claims his devotional methods are easy, nor that they should only be practiced by “professional” religious people.

c. Psalm 118:93 [119:93]: “In eternity I will not forget your precepts: for by them you have brought me back to life.”

d. It is interesting that here at the very end, Francis counsels his reader(s) to be open about their commitment to the devout life—to “come out of the closet,” as it were. He sees this as valuable for several reasons: (1) it is pleasing to God for his followers to make such a witness; (2) it blocks the arguments that the worldly might make against the devout; and (3) it compels us to practice what we have just preached and behave as devoutly as we have claimed.

The world will say that I assume almost throughout that my protégé has the gift of mental prayer that, nevertheless, everyone does not have—so that this Introduction will not serve for all. That is true without doubt. I have assumed that, and it is surely true that everyone does not have the gift of mental prayer, but it is also true that almost everyone may have a little—even the most unpolished person—provided that they have good directors and that they are willing to work to acquire it, as far as the matter deserves it.b And if one finds that he does not have the gift to any great degree (which I do not think can happen except very rarely), the wise spiritual father will easily compensate for the defect by close attention to teaching them to obtain, to read, or to hear read the same considerations that are put in the meditations.

i PART V. CHAPTER 18.

Three Final and Primary Counsels for This Book

On the first days of the month renew the affirmation that is in the First Part (after the meditation). And at all times, affirm that you are determined to observe it, saying with David, “No, never eternally will I forget your justifications, O my God, for in them you have revivified me.”c And when you feel any derangement in your soul, take your affirmation in hand, and, prostrating in the spirit of humility, recite it with all your heart, and you will find a great relief.

Make open profession of wanting to be devout—and I do not say to be devout, but I say to wanting to be—and do not be ashamed of the ordinary and necessary practices that lead us to the love of God. Boldly acknowledge that you are trying to meditate, that you would rather die than commit mortal sin, that you long to receive the sacraments and to follow the advice of your director (although it is not often necessary to name him, for various reasons). For this candid declaration that one wishes to serve God and that one has consecrated oneself to his love by a special affection is most pleasant to his divine Majesty, who has no wish for anyone to be ashamed, neither of him nor of his Cross. And besides, it blocks many arguments that the world likes to make in opposition, and obliges us in honor to follow what we profess.d The philosophers proclaimed themselves to be philosophers so that they would be allowed live philosophically. And we must make ourselves known as desirous of devotion so that we would be allowed to live devoutly. What if someone tells you that you can live devoutly without practicing these counsels and exercises? Do not deny it, but amicably respond that your weakness is so great that it requires more help and relief than is necessary for others.a

a. With a depth of psychological wisdom Francis counsels that if someone claims to be able to be devout without all the exercises and practices he has proposed, one ought not to argue in favor of these methods, but simply claim personal weakness that requires such means.

b. It is an ancient practice to locate affections and emotions as spiritual secretions of certain organs of the body. We still think of the heart as the seat of love and the head as the seat of understanding. We tend to forget that (1) the kidneys (reins) were believed to be the seat of conviction (see Ps. 25:2 [26:2]: “Prove me, O LORD, and try me; burn my reins and my heart”); (2) the spleen was the seat of passion or anger; (3) the liver was the seat of melancholy; and (4) the bowels were the seat of mercy and compassion. (See Col. 3:12: “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benevolence, humility, modesty, patience.”) The Hebrew word rachamim means both “bowels” and “pity.”

c. “The trumpet sounds the sunset call. Let everyone prepare himself, for the judgment is near” (Nicetas David Paphlago, Tetrasticha Sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni; Zanetus; Venice; 1563, 229).

d. The words of Augusta, St. Symphorien’s mother, to her son are found in Louis Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, 1:52. (Ryan cites Caesar Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, as annum 273.)

e. St. Francis’s Italian words:

Tanto è il bene ch’ io aspetto
Ch’ogni pena m’è diletto.

In my translation:

So much is good that I expect, Every pain here is my delight.

    (The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, Appendix: First Consideration on the Stigmata.)

f. I have chosen to leave the French for Vive Jésus! because there is no modern English equivalent in translation. Vive is usually translated as “Long live…!” but that seems inappropriate when applied to Jesus.

Finally, my beloved child, I beseech you by all that is holy in heaven and on earth, by the Baptism you have received, by the breasts that Jesus Christ sucked, by the loving heart with which he loved you, and by the bowels of mercyb in which you hope, continue and persevere in this blessed enterprise of the devout life. Our days slip away; death is at the door. “The trumpet,” says Saint Gregory Nazianzen, “sounds retreat. Let each one prepare himself, for the judgment is near.”c When Saint Symphorien’s mother, seeing that he was being led to martyrdom, cried after him, “My son, my son, put your thoughts on eternal life. Look to heaven and gaze upon the One who reigns there. The approaching end will quickly conclude this brief race of life.”d My child, I would say the same to you: look at heaven, and do not lose it for the earth’s sake. Look at hell, and do not throw yourself there for the present moment’s sake. Look at Jesus Christ, and do not deny him for the world’s sake. And when the sorrow of the devout life seems hard, sing with Saint Francis:

Because of the good things I anticipate,
The troubles are mere pastimes to me.e

Vive Jésus!f to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever, and to the end of the ages. Amen.

NOTES FOR THE

TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION

Complete citations to works are found in the Bibliography.

1     François de Sales, Lord of Nouvelles, married Françoise de Sionnaz (who was thirty years his junior), who brought to him the Seigniory of Boisy as her dowry, with the stipulation that he add “de Boisy” to his seigniorial title. So he became François de Sales de Boisy. Françoise had been affianced at the age of seven and married at the age of twelve or thirteen (Henry-Coüoannier, 12).

2     Some mistakenly identify his birthplace as “the Château de Thorens,” but this château was bought and rebuilt by Francis’s father at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The de Sales family moved there after Francis had left home. It is located only a few hundred yards away from the old Château de Sales that was destroyed in 1630 when Louis XIII invaded the Savoy. In 1672, three nephews of Bishop Louis de Sales built a chapel on the ruins of the Château de Sales in the precise location of the room where Francis was born.

3     Annecy was twenty-five miles from Swiss Geneva, ninety miles from French Lyon, and two hundred miles from Italian Milan. In 1860 the whole Savoy was politically annexed to France—as it is today.

4     It is likely that, being premature, he was baptized privately at birth, but the formal ceremonies were held on August 28, 1567. His godfather was Dom François de la Fléchère, a Benedictine monk, and his grandmother, Madame Bonaventure de Chevron, served as his godmother. (It does seem likely that his names—François Bonaventure—may well have come one each from his godparents.)

5     In 1566 what we now know as “the Shroud of Turin” spent a year in Annecy in the Church of Notre Dame de Liesse. Francis’s mother told him that the year before his birth, she had visited the Holy Shroud and prayed for a son who would be a priest. Note: Some writers claim the family had twelve, rather than thirteen, children (Stacpoole-Kenny, 7–8).

6     The Abbé Déage was what was called “a domestic preceptor”—a combination tutor and chaperone. He remained a companion to Francis from his childhood until the abbé’s death in 1610. When Francis became a bishop, he made Déage an honorary canon. In later years the abbé became a somewhat bothersome old codger, but Francis maintained his affection for the old man.

7     Some biographers say that he was seven years old when sent to La Roche.

8     At the time in Europe, virtually all boys’ schools were called “colleges.” La Roche was about eight miles from the Château de Sales.

9     The college was founded by Eustace Chappuis in 1549. It was the preferred school for “sons of the nobility and high magistrature” (Ravier, 21).

10     Now Saint Maurice’s Church.

11     Some experts place this event when Francis was nine. The tonsure was the shaving of a small spot on the top of the head. It was a formal symbol of a person who had given his (always male!) life to the Church—either as a priest or a monk or, like Francis, as one intending to be ordained or professed. His father permitted the tonsure because he didn’t take it seriously.

12     The College of Clermont was the foremost Jesuit college in France founded by Guillaume Deprat, bishop of Clermont, in 1560 and later became famous as the Lyceé Louis-le-Grand (Sanders, 6). During Francis’s time there, his spiritual director was the Jesuit Father Jean Fourier (who would later play an important role in the publication of Introduction to the Devout Life).

13     Farmer, 165.

14     The Memorare was a prayer attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux: “Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly to you, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother; to you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.”

15     Recorded by Abbé Déage in the deposition of Dom Quoes in Trochu (131).

16     Henry-Coüannier, 11–14.

17     Ibid., 44.

18     The Holy House of Loreto was a small house that legend says was the building in which the Virgin Mary received the Annunciation by the archangel Gabriel. In the fable, the house had been carried to Italy by angels in the thirteenth century, and a basilica built around it.

19     Following the ancient pattern Francis’s father designated his firstborn, Francis, to be his heir; his second son, Gallois, for the Church; and hoped the third-born Louis would be a Knight of Malta (Henry-Coüannier, 50).

20     A provost is the chief clerical dignitary and chair of the Cathedral Chapter (the ruling board of trustees of the cathedral)—in this case, the cathedral of the diocese of Geneva that was in exile in Annecy.

21     The vicar general was a priest who was direct assistant to the bishop of the diocese, often acting as the representative and in the name of the bishop.

22     Minor orders in the sixteenth century included the positions of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte.

23     Ravier, 64 (English edition).

24     I was visiting Lucerne in 1973 and heard a disturbance in the street. I went out to find a long procession of people carrying a huge sign: Jesus, yah! Jesuites, nein! (“Jesus, yes! Jesuits, no!”). I found that in the 1848 Swiss Constitution, Article 51 had forbidden Jesuits from living in Switzerland! During my visit, there was a (successful) referendum to remove that article, and I had witnessed political action opposing such removal. Geneva’s anti-Catholic bias was long-lived.

25     Francis’s father was so opposed to this dangerous assignment that he refused both financial support and his blessing (Stacpoole-Kenny, 30).

26     One night Francis escaped the wolves only by spending the night in a tree. Although nearly frozen to death, he was rescued in the morning by some Calvinist peasants (Vann and Plassmann). When he was refused refuge in Noyer, he spent the night inside an outdoor oven (Le Figaro, July 11, 1903).

27     It was thus that St. Francis de Sales became the patron saint of journalists and writers.

28     Henry-Coüannier, 105.

29     Forty Hours Devotion is a practice of unbroken prayer made before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar. Frequently this is done in several parishes—as it ends in one, it begins in the next. It was particularly commended by Pope Clement VIII in 1592, so it was still a fairly innovative pious practice when Francis sponsored it.

30     It is reported by some that Francis converted 40,000 people there. Another reports that he converted all 72,000 residents in the Chablais, but the fact is that after he had left, the duke enforced Catholicism and drove all Protestants into exile with only three days’ warning. Francis was very troubled by this and tried to maintain some friendly contact with the exiles.

31     “It is estimated that about seventy-two thousand people were received by Francis de Sales and his fellow-missionaries into the Church” (Stacpoole-Kenny, 73).

32     Farmer, 168.

33     A bishop coadjutor is an assistant bishop who automatically succeeds to the post of diocesan bishop when his predecessor has died or retired.

34     Henry-Coüannier, 109, 119.

35     Francis held both the ecclesiastical title of bishop of Geneva and the secular title of prince of Geneva—the latter because the Holy Roman Emperor did not accept the Calvinists who controlled Geneva and recognized Francis formally as prince. In 1614 Francis—as prince—was invited by the Emperor Matthias I to attend the Diet at Ratisbon, but Francis declined, claiming that his poverty would not allow the trip (Stacpoole-Kenny, 216).

36     Francis’s work with Madame de Chantal and the founding of the Visitation Sisters is an important—or even the foremost—episode of his life, but it is not relevant to the origin and development of the Introduction to the Devout Life, so I have given it very little attention here.

37     Stacpoole-Kenny, 148.

38     In fact, Louise’s husband, Claude de Charmoisy, was Francis de Sales’s first cousin once removed (Claude was the son of Francis’s cousin).

39     King James was so enchanted by the book that he carried it with him everywhere, and he was known to remark that “he could not understand why some of his Bishops could not write as erudite, exquisite, and practical a book as the Bishop of Geneva” (Stacpoole-Kenny, 168). James’s son, Charles I, however, directed the book to “be publicly burnt as Popish” (T. Dundas Pillans, Gladstone, Ireland, Rome: A Word of Warning to Electors [London: Fowler, 1891], 162).

40     Francis’s original name for the community was “Daughters of the Visitation.” He obviously avoided the formal word Order because that would require enclosure and cloistering.

41     Francis was responsible for the founding of thirteen houses of the Visitandine Sisters in his lifetime. The order still exists and thrives today with some three thousand members worldwide.

42     Henry-Coüannier, 299.

43     Ibid., 300.

44     Ibid., 355.

45     Ibid., 369–70.

46     King Henry IV had been assassinated in 1610.

47     Cantharides are made by drying and powdering cantharides beetles, producing a salve that when applied to the skin burns very painfully and causes blisters.

48     Henry-Coüannier, 391.

49     Stacpoole-Kenny, 315.

50     Herbert Winklehner, osfs, Frau von Charmoisy—die “Ur”—Philothea, in Salesianische Zweimonatsschrift “Licht,” July/August 2009, “1622 wird er Franz von Sales in seinen letzten Stunden beistehen.”

51     Stacpoole-Kenny, 330.

52     Francis’s heart was preserved in the Church of the Visitation in Lyons in a golden shrine given by King Louis XIII until the French Revolution, when for safety it was taken to the Church of the Visitation in Treviso, Italy (near Venice), where it is venerated today. (The Archive of the Regional Inventory of Burgundy erroneously claims the heart reliquary is in Massangis, France.) “The separate burial of the heart from the body was a common practice, particularly in relation to the funeral of kings, warriors, and the famous” (Bertram S. Puckle, Funeral Customs: Their Origins and Developments [London: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., 1926], ch. 8).

53     Ross, 70.

54     “Doctor of the Church” is an honorific title conferred by papal proclamation on thirty-five saints who distinguished themselves through the orthodoxy of their theological teaching and the sanctity of their lives. The honor was bestowed on Francis by Pius IX.

55     From the Apostolic Letter of Pope Pius IX: Dives in misericordia Deus, November 16, 1877.

56     Pope Pius XI: Rerum Omnium Perturbationem, January 26, 1923.

57     The atoll was named San Francisco on very early Portuguese charts, but on January 28, 1730, Chevalier Alphonse de Pontevez—commanding the French frigate Le Lys—became the first person to set foot on the island, and its name was changed to French: François de Sales. It is less than half a square mile in size and is said to be the most beautiful of all the Seychelles.

58     She is so little known that some commentators erroneously record her name as “Marie.”

59     Quoted by Herbert P. Winklehner in “Wife of Chamoisy” in the Silesian magazine Light, July/August 2009 (my translation).

60     Jacques Delorme, 104.

61     Jean-Françoise was “baptized by Pere Jean-Baptiste Gard for fear of death” (Mémoires et Documents Publiés par La Société Savoisienne d’Histoire et d’Archéologie, 2nd series, bk. 13 [Chambéry: Menard, 1899]).

62     This is a relationship that would not be encouraged today: a relation by blood is too close for a confessor and/or director to treat with enough objectivity and detachment. It is generally held today that a priest would only hear the confession of a family member in extreme emergency.

63     “It was for her [his mother] he wrote most of the instructions contained in ‘Introduction à la Vie Devote’” (Stacpoole-Kenny, 118).

64     Ibid., 165–66.

65     Many writers list 1608 as the publication date, but that was the date the privilege du roi (the king’s permission to publish) was issued. The book itself was not published until 1609.

66     Allan Ross, tr. (Kessinger, 1997), xi.

67     Joseph E. Chorpenning, osfs, “The Story Behind the Story of the Introduction to the Devout Life,” in ICSS Newsletter, no. 23, March 2009, 2.

68     “It [the Introduction] reflected the Erasmian humanism that focused upon finding the love of God and Christ in daily activities. The Treatise was intended for those living in an advanced state of Christian perfection; it focused on charity as the form of all virtues. In all of his pastoral as well as published work, Francis tried to counter what he considered the pessimistic theology of Calvinism, with its emphasis upon human sinfulness and predestination, and emphasized in Molinistic fashion the freedom of the human will and the natural desire and yearning for God that was harmonized with divine grace” (Patrick Careyn, in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Theologians, ed. Patrick W. Carey and Joseph T. Lienhard, [Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000).

69     Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints with Reflections for Every Day of the Year (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1894), 52.

70     It is obvious that Francis built on the structured model of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola.

71     Lavelle, 94.

72     Chorpenning, 6.

73     “One reads of an overzealous French cleric publicly tearing the book in pieces because he disapproved of the Bishop de Sales declaring dancing to be ‘an action indifferent in itself’ and attendance at balls sometimes permissible” (Brégy, p. 72).

74     Ravier, 181.

75     Ibid.

76     Aquinas in Summa Theologica 2 of 2, 164:4; Bonaventure in De Triplici Via; de Cisneros in Exercitatorum Spirituale; Ignatius in the Fourth Week of his Spiritual Exercises; John of the Cross in The Ascent of Mount Carmel.

ADMIRERS AND CRITICS OF

FRANCIS DE SALES

(arranged generally by date of birth)

Queen Marie de’ Medici (1575–1642) and King James I of England (1566–1625) “Marie de Médici presented a copy of it [The Introduction] in a sumptuous binding studded with diamonds, to James I, King of England, who found it so much to his liking that he carried it on his person for six entire weeks” (Ravier, 169).

Archbishop William Laud (1573–1645) and King Charles I (1600–1649) “It may be recalled here that the fortune of the Introduction to the Devout Life was such that King Charles I was led to order the destruction in public of 1200 copies of an English translation which had received the imprimatur of the chaplain Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud in 1637 in hopes of silencing, or at least tempering, the charges of Popery leveled against his person.” Laud had had to defend his approval and imprimatur of The Introduction during his trial in 1644 (Roger, 156).

Augustine Baker (1575–1641)
“Then for souls that tend to perfection in an active life, books most proper are the works of Rodriguez of Perfection; the Duke of Gandia, of Good Works; Mons. de Sales, Ludovicus de Puente & c.” (Baker, Augustine; Holy Wisdom: or Directions for the Prayer of Contemplation; Kessinger Publishing Reprint; Whitefish, MT; 2004, 87).

St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660)
From Vincent’s letter to Pope Alexander VII:
“If I were alone, Most Holy Father, in thus thinking about him, I might believe I was deceiving myself but, as the whole world shares these sentiments, what else is needed, Most Holy Father, but a word from Your Holiness to consummate such a holy enterprise, by resolving to inscribe his name in the catalogue of the saints, and setting him up for the veneration of the whole world! All the priests of our Congregation and myself prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, now most humbly beg you to do so. May God Almighty deign to grant you many long years for the welfare of His Church!” (Vincent de Paul, Letter to Alexander VII, June 6, 1659).

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“[Pascal] lovingly refers to St. Francis de Sales whose sweet reasonableness invariably restored the Christian norm in the face of extremism” (Ernest Mortimer in a review in Theology Today of Guitton, Jean Marie Pierre; Blaise Pascal: The Life and Work of a Realist;Taylor & Francis; Oxford; 1962).

Madame Guyon (1648–1717):
“[At the age of twelve] I read the works of St. Francis de Sales and the life of Madame de Chantal. There I first learned what mental prayer was, and I besought my confessor to teach me that kind of prayer. As he did not, I used my own endeavors to practice it, though without success, as I then thought, because I could not exercise the imagination, I persuaded myself, that that prayer could not be made without forming to one’s self certain ideas and reasoning much” (Guyon, Jean Marie [Allen, Thomas Taylor, tr.]; Autobiography of Madame Guyon; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.; London, 1898, Ch. 4).

Jean-Pierre Caussade (1675–1751)
“Fr. Caussade’s spiritual teaching was derived from two extremely pure sources, St. Francis de Sales and St. John of the Cross.… Fr. Caussade refers to the Salesian teaching of self-abandonment and simplicity” (Publisher’s Comments; de Caussade, Jean-Pierre [Thorid, Algar, tr.;Joyce, John, ed.]; Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence; Image/Doubleday; Garden City, NY; 1993).

William Law (1686–1761)
“In finding inspiration to write A Serious Call, Law was indebted to such spiritual masters as St. Thomas à Kempis (1379–1471), author of The Imitation of Christ; St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622), author of Introduction to the Devout Life; and Jeremy Taylor (1613–67), who wrote Holy Living and Holy Dying” (Law, William; A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life; Vintage/Random House; New York; 2008—from the preface by William Sloane Coffin).

John Wesley (1703–1791)
“John Wesley therefore inherited [from his father, Samuel Wesley] an active interest in Counter-Reformation spirituality, and a willingness to find even in popery examples of heroic virtue and true devotion. He was also familiar with the Introduction to a Devout Life in Nicholson’s [expurgated 1701] edition, with its preliminary discourse on Catholic devotional writing” (Walsh, John; et al; Revival and Religion since 1700: Essays for John Walsh; Continuum; New York; 1993, 50.)

“I agree not only that many of these [Roman Catholics] were good men (as Thomas à Kempis, Francis Sales, and the Marquis de Renty) but that many of them are so at this day” (Wesley, John; “A Disavowal of Persecuting Papists,” March 18, 1782).

John Henry Newman (1801–1850)
“The pall over [Newman’s] coffin bore the motto that Newman (1801–1850) adopted for use as a cardinal, Cor ad cor loquitur (“Heart speaks to heart”), which William Barry, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), traces to Francis de Sales and sees as revealing the secret of Newman’s ‘eloquence, unaffected, graceful, tender, and penetrating’” (Barry, William, “John Henry Newman,” in Catholic Encyclopedia; Robert Appleton Co.; New York; 1913).

Pope Pius XI (1857–1939)
“Whoever attentively reviews the life of St. Francis will discover that, from his earliest years, he was a model of sanctity. He was not a gloomy, austere saint but was most amiable and friendly with all, so much so that it can be said of him most truthfully, ‘her conversation (wisdom) hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness’ (Wisdom, viii, 16). Endowed with every virtue, he excelled in meekness of heart, a virtue so peculiar to himself that it might be considered his most characteristic trait. His meekness, however, differed altogether from that artificial gentility which consists in the mere possession of polished manners and in the display of a purely conventional affability. It differed, too, both from the apathy which cannot be moved by any force and from the timidity which does not dare to become indignant, even when indignation is required of one. This virtue, which grew in the heart of St. Francis as a delightful effect of his love of God and was nourished by the spirit of compassion and tenderness, so tempered with sweetness the natural gravity of his demeanor and softened both his voice and manners that he won the affectionate regard of everyone whom he encountered” (Pius XI, Rerum Omnium Perturba, January 26, 1923).

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)
“Lewis once spoke of the ‘dewy freshness’ of de Sales’ writing, and there can be little doubt that his water fell on Lewis as a slow summer rain on parched ground. If you read de Sales, and then Lewis, you will see the strong influence in style and substance. You find de Sales explicitly mentioned by Lewis in multiple works, such as Letters to Malcolm, Letters to an American Lady and God in the Dock” (White, James Emery; A Traveler’s Guide to the Kingdom: Journeying Through the Christian Life; InterVarsity Press; Westmont, IL, 2012, 21).

Pope Paul VI (1897–1978)
“An acute perception of mind, a solid and clear reasoning, a penetrating judgment, an almost incredible good will and kindness, a gentle and loveable suavity of speech and expression, a calm ardor of an ever active spirit, a rare simplicity of manners, a serene and tranquil peace, an ever firm and secure moderation nevertheless not separated from strength—gentleness emanates from his strength—by which he was accustomed to love affectionately, and also to take a firm stand in order to achieve what he wished, a lofty elevation of mind and a love for beauty, wishing to show others the most beneficial goods both spiritual and cultural, an immense love of souls and a love of God, radiant as the sun, which surpassed all his other virtues, all of this elevated and increased by the superabundance of divine graces; such are, along with others like them, the characteristics with which the portrait of St. Francis de Sales is sketched” (Paul VI, Sabaudiae Gemma, January 29, 1967; Neil Kilty, osfs, tr.).

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005)
“Since he [Francis de Sales] was passionately in love with God and man, his attitude to people was fundamentally optimistic and he never failed to invite them—to use his own words—to flourish where they were sown. Still today (and I am very glad of it) the works of Francis de Sales are part of our classical literature; it is the sign that his teaching as a priest and bishop finds an echo in the human heart and has an affinity with the deepest human aspirations. I invite pastors and faithful to learn from his example and his writings” (Letter of Pope John Paul II, on the Fourth Centenary of St. Francis’s Episcopal Ordination, November 23, 2002).

Pope Benedict XVI (1927–)
“‘God is God of the human heart’ (The Treatise of the Love of God, 1:15). These apparently simple words give us an impression of the spirituality of a great teacher of whom I would like to speak to you today: St. Francis de Sales, a Bishop and Doctor of the Church…. He embodies the different meanings of the word ‘humanity’ which this term can assume today, as it could in the past: culture and courtesy, freedom and tenderness, nobility and solidarity. His appearance reflected something of the majesty of the landscape in which he lived and preserved its simplicity and naturalness. Moreover, the words of the past and the images he used resonate unexpectedly in the ears of men and women today, as a native and familiar language…. The Christian humanism of Saint Francis de Sales has lost none of its relevance today. May this great Saint and Doctor of the Church guide us in the pursuit of holiness and help us to find our fulfillment in the joy and freedom born of the love of God” (Benedict XVI, General Audience, Paul VI Audience Hall, March 2, 2011).

Belmont Abbey (1859–)
“Belmont [Abbey] sought to revive Augustine Baker’s lessons on the contemplative life and combine them with Francis de Sales’s pastoral guidance for busy parish priests. Cuthbert Hedley … was the main inspiration behind this attempt to combine English Benedictine monastic and missionary spirituality” (G. Scott, “The English Benedictine Mission and Missions,” in D. Farmer (ed.), Benedict’s Disciples; Gracewing Publishers; London, 1995).

Roman Breviary
“The writings of Francis de Sales, filled with celestial doctrine, are a bright light in the Church, pointing out to souls an easy and safe way to arrive at the perfection of a Christian life” (Breviarium Romanum, 29 January, lect. 6).

TIMELINE OF FRANCIS DE SALES’S LIFE

1558

Death of Queen Mary/Elizabeth I crowned queen of England

1559

Death of King Henry II of France

1561

Birth of Francis Bacon (d. 1626)

1563

Council of Trent concluded (had begun in 1545)

1564

Death of Protestant Reformer John Calvin

1564

Death of Michelangelo

1564

Birth of Galileo (Heresy trial 1633; d. 1642)

1564

Birth of William Shakespeare

1566

Pope Pius V enthroned

1567

Birth of Francis de Sales

1571

Birth of astronomer Johannes Kepler

1571

Defeat of the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto

1572

Death of Pope Pius V and enthronement of Gregory XIII

1572

Death of Scottish Presbyterian John Knox

1572

St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre—thousands of French Protestants killed

1575

Foundation of the University of Leyden

1577

Comet of 1577, fully described by Tycho Brahe

1582

Pope Gregory XIII institutes the Gregorian Calendar

1584

Death of Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia

1585

Foundation of the Roanoke Colony in Virginia

1585

Death of Pope Gregory XIII and enthronement of Sixtus V

1585

Death of English composer Thomas Tallis

1587

Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

1588

English philosopher Thomas Hobbes born (d. 1679)

1588

Spanish Armada defeated by the weather and the English fleet

1589

Lorenzo Scupoli publishes Il Combattimento Spirituale (The Spiritual Combat)

1589

Death of Queen Catherine de’ Medici of France

1589

Henry of Navarre (1553–1610) becomes King Henry IV of France

1590

Death of Pope Sixtus V and enthronement of Gregory XIV

1591

Death of St. John of the Cross

1591

Death of Pope Gregory XIV and enthronement of Innocent IX

1592

Death of Pope Innocent IX and enthronement of Clement VIII

1592

Francis de Sales graduates from the University of Padua

1592

Death of French essayist Michel de Montaigne

1594

Death of Italian composer Giovanni da Palestrina

1594

Death of Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator

1594–8

De Sales’s missionary work among Calvinists in the Chablais

1594–5

First productions of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet

1595–6

First production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice

1596

Death of Sir Francis Drake (b. 1540)

1596

French philosopher René Descartes born (d. 1650)

1598

Edict of Nantes: Protestants in France are allowed to practice their religion in peace

1598

Death of King Philip II of Spain

1599

First production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, As You Like It, and Julius Caesar

1599

Death of English poet Edmund Spenser

1599

Birth of Oliver Cromwell (d. 1658)

1599

Shakespeare’s Globe Theater opened in Southwark

1600

First production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

1600

Giordano Bruno burned at the stake in Rome

1601

First production of Shakespeare’s King Lear

1602

De Sales consecrated prince-bishop of Geneva

1603

Elizabeth I, Queen of England, dies, succeeded by James I

1604

First production of Shakespeare’s Othello and Measure for Measure

1605

Death of Clement VIII and enthronement of Paul V

1605

Guy Fawkes’s Gunpowder Plot discovered

1606

Australia discovered by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon

1607

Foundation of Colony of Virginia by the English

1608

Birth of English poet John Milton (d. 1674)

1608

Foundation of Quebec by the French Samuel de Champlain

1609

First Exploration of New Amsterdam by Henry Hudson

1609

First edition of Introduction to the Devout Life published

1610

Death of Italian painter Caravaggio

1610

Death of King Henry IV of France

1610

Death of Lorenzo Scupoli (b. c. 1530)

1610

Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary founded in Annecy

1610

Henry IV, king of France, is murdered, then succeeded by his son, Louis XIII (d. 1643), and Cardinal Richelieu ruled France de facto

1611

King James Bible is published in England

1611

First production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest

1612

Founding of New Amsterdam by the Dutch (later, New York)

1614

Death of Spanish painter El Greco

1616

Death of William Shakespeare

1616

Death of Spanish writer Miquel de Cervantes

1618

Beginning of the Thirty Years’ War

1618

Death of Sir Walter Raleigh

1619

Last autograph edition of Introduction to the Devout Life

1619

First African slaves appear in Virginia

1620

Ferdinand II becomes Holy Roman Emperor

1620

Francis Bacon publishes his New Organum

1621

Death of Pope Paul V and enthronement of Gregory XV

1621

First Thanksgiving feast of Plymouth pilgrims in Massachusetts

1622

Death of Francis de Sale

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRINCIPAL WORKS OF FRANCIS DE SALES

Open Letter to Protestants (“The Controversies”)
Defense of the Standard of the Cross
Introduction to the Devout Life—Philothea
Treatise on the Love of God
The Analects
Spiritual Conferences 1 and 2
Short Treatise on Communion
Making a Good Confession
Love of Neighbor 1 and 2
Meditations on the Joyful Mysteries
Meditations of Sorrowful Mysteries
Treatise on Preaching
Advice to Superiors
Sermon on the Lord’s Prayer
Sermon on the Pot Calling the Kettle
Sermon on the Transfiguration
Letters to St. Jane de Chantal
Meditation on the Passion
Sermon for Saint Blaise
Sermon for Christmas
Sermon for February 13, 1594, Sexagesima
Sermon commentary on John 20:11–18, dated July 26, 1618
Sermon for Good Friday, April 17, 1620
Sermon for the Annunciation, March 25, 1621
Sermon July 2, 1621
Sermon November 1, 1621
Sermon for Ash Wednesday, February 9, 1622
Sermon for the first Sunday of Lent, February 13, 1622
Sermon for February 20, 1622

EDITIONS OF INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOUT LIFE EDITED AND REVISED BY FRANCIS DE SALES PERSONALLY

1608: Privilege du roy issued but no evidence of a printing. Many writers erroneously list 1608 as first date of publication.

1609: Introduction à La Vie Devote, Par François de Sales, Evesque et prelat de Geneve. A Lyon, Chez Pierre Rigaud, en rue Marciere au coing de ruë Ferrandiere, à l’Horologe, MDVIX. Avec approbation des Docteurs, & Privilege du Roy.

1610, 1611, 1613, 1615, 1616: Defective Second Edition (three chapters omitted in error): … en laquelle le tout a este revue, corrigé et augmenté par l’Auteur; Pierre Rigaud; Paris.

1619: Introduction à la Vie Devote par François de Sales, Evesque de Geneve, Dernier Edition, revue, corrigée et augmentér par l’Autheur, durant ses Predications à Paris. A Paris, chez Joseph Cottereau, ruë Sainct Jacques à la Prudence, M.DC.XIX.Avec Approbation des Docteurs.

BOOKS AND ARTICLES ABOUT FRANCIS DE SALES AND/OR THE INTRODUCTION

(arranged alphabetically by author)

Bady, René; François de Sales; Desclée de Brouwer; Paris; 1979.

Barger, John L.; Thy Will Be Done!; Sophia Institute Press; Manchester, NH; 1995.

Bordeaux, Henri; Portraits de femmes et d’enfants; Librairie Plon-Nourrit & Co; Paris; 1909.

Bordeaux, Henry; Saint Francis de Sales: Theologian of Love; Longmans, Green; London; 1929 (Reprint Flammarion; 1933 and Lulu; 2007).

Brégy, Katherine; The Story of Saint Francis de Sales: Patron of Catholic Writers; Bruce Publishing Co.; Milwaukee, WI; 1958.

Burton, Harold; The Life of St. Francis de Sales;Burns, Oates & Washbourne; London; n.d.

Camus, Jean Pierre (J. S., tr.); The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales; Burns & Oates; London; 1911 (Reprint: The Echo Library; Teddington, Middlesex, UK; 2007).

Camus, Jean Pierre; The Beauties of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Prince of Geneva; Geikie Press; 2010.

Chantal, Jeanne-Françoise de (Stopp, Elizabeth, tr.); St. Francis de Sales: A Testimony by St. Chantal; Faber; London; 1967.

Charmot, François; Ignatius Loyola and Francis de Sales: Two Masters, One Spirituality; B. Herder Book Co.; St. Louis, MO; 1966.

Chorpenning, Joseph F., osfs; “The Story Behind the Story of the Introduction to the Devout Life”; ICSS Newsletter; No. 23, March 2009.

Clooney, Francis Xavier; Beyond Compare: St. Francis de Sales and Sri Vedanta Desika on Loving Surrender to God; Georgetown University Press; Washington, DC; 2008.

Conn, Joan Wolski; “A Developmental View of Salesian Spirituality” in Review for Religious 52/1 (Jan–Feb 1993).

Coster, D.; Francis de Sales; Bert Post; Noorden, Holland; 2000.

Coüannier, Maurice Henry (Morrow, Veronica, tr.); St. Francis de Sales and His Friendships; Monastery of the Visitation; Paris; 1921 (Reprints Alba House; Staten Island, NY; 1954, 1973, 1979).

Crossin, John W.; Salesian Spirituality and Adult Developmental Psychology; Catholic University of America; Washington, DC; 1982.

Dailey, Thomas F.; Praying with St. Francis de Sales; Saint Mary’s Press; Winona, MN; 1997 (Reprint: Salesian Center for Faith and Culture; 2010).

de Chantal, Jeanne; Stopp, Elizabeth, tr. and ed.; St. Francis de Sales: A Testimony by St Chantal; Institute of Salesian Studies; Hyattesville, MD; 1967.

de la Bedoyere, Michel; François de Sales; Collins; NY; 1960.

de Sales, Charles Auguste; De Vita et Rebus Gestis Servi Dei … Francisci Saleiis. (In Latin: Lugduni; Paris; 1634; in modern French as Histoire du Bienheureux François de Sales; 1857; in English as History of Blessed Francis de Sales; 1879. The author was Francis’s nephew.)

du Tour, Henri Cauchon de Maupas; La Vie du Vénérable servitur de Dieu, François de Sales; chez Jacques Langlois et Emmanuel Langlois; Paris; 1657, 1663. Later edition: la Veuve de Sebastien Huré et Frederic Leonard; Paris; 1869. (De Maupas was the postulator for Francis’s canonizaion process.)

Delorme, Jacques; Saint François de Sales peint par les dames de la Visitation ses contemporaines; Pélagaud et Lesne; Lyon; 1840.

Dodin, Andre; Francis de Sales, Vincent de Paul: The Two Friends; Eye Books; London; 1990.

Eubank, Linda Sue; St. François de Sales, Introduction a la Vie Dévote and Francisco de Quevedo Y Villegas…; University of North Carolina; Chapel Hill, NC; 1969.

Farmer, David Hugh; Butler’s Lives of the Saints: January; Liturgical Press; Collegeville, MN; 1998.

Fiorelli, Lewis S.; Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales; St. Paul Editions; Bel Air, CA; 1985.

Francis, Angelier; St. Francis de Sales or Mr. Bee; Pygmalion Books; Hamilton, MT; 1997.

Gilles, Jeanguenin; Saint Francis de Sales: His Fight with the Devil; Editions de l’Emmanuel; Paris; 2009.

Hamon, Andre Jean Marie, et al.; Vie de Saint François de Sales: Évêque et Prince de Genève, Docteur de l’Église; Lecoffre et Cie.; Paris; 1930.

Hardon, John A., sj; “The History of Religious Life: Great Saints and Their Spiritual Contribution: St. Frances de Sales and St. Jan Frances de Chantal”; lecture delivered at Institute on Religious Life; Chicago; 1998.

Henry-Coüannier, Maurice; Saint François de Sales et ses amitiés; Monastère de la Visitation; Paris; 1921.

Heppe, Heinrich; Théodore de Bèze 1519–1605; Friderichs, R.L.; Elbeffeld, Germany; 1861.

Holder, Arthur; Christian Spirituality: The Classics;Taylor & Francis; Oxford; 2009.

Huvelin, Abbé Henri (Leonard, Joseph, tr.); Some Spiritual Guides of the Seventeenth Century; Burns, Oates & Washbourne; London; 1927.

Hyacinthe, Bulliez; Saint Francis de Sales: The Love in His Heart; Association of the Friends of the Old Annecy; Annecy; 2002.

International Commission for Salesian Studies of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales; ICSS Newsletter, biennial 1977–2009.

Kelley, C. F. and Maritain, Jacques; The Spirit of Love: Based on the Teachings of St. Francis de Sales; Longmans; London; 1952 (Reprint: Literary Licensing, LLC; London; 2011).

Kempe, Rev. J. E.; Companions for the Devout Life; John Murray; London; 1875.

Kolencherry, Antony; The Spirituality of St. Francis de Sales: Its Sources and Influences; SFS Publications; Bangalore, India; 1985.

Koster, Dirk; Francis de Sales; Bert Post; Noorden, Holland; 2000.

Kozlowski, Joseph; Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Director: St. Francis de Sales, St. Teresa of Avila, Thomas a Kempis and St. John of the Cross; Queenship Publishing; Goleta, CA; 1997.

Lajeunie, Jean Étienne; Saint François de Sales: l’Homme, la Pensée, l’Action; G. Victor; Paris 1966 [English translation: O’Sullivan, Rony; SFS Publications; Bangalore, India; 1986–87].

Lavelle, Louis; The Meaning of Holiness; Pantheon Books; NY; 1954.

Langelaan, James S.; The Philosophy and Theology of Love: According to St. Francis de Sales; E. Mellen Press; Lewiston NY; 1994.

Lavell, Louis; The Meaning of Holiness; Pantheon Books; NY; 1954.

Lear, H.L. Sidney; St. Francis de Sales: Bishop and Prince of Geneva; Longmans, Green; London; 1871, 1888, 1898.

Lynn, Mary Loyola, and Flynn, Mary Grace, eds.; Index to the Writings of Saint Francis de Sales;Visitation Monastery; Wilmington, DE; 1968.

Marceau, William; Optimism in the Works of St. Francis de Sales; E. Mellen Press; Lewiston, NY; 1989.

Marceau, William; The Eucharist in Théodore Bèze and St. Francis de Sales; E. Mellen Press; Lewiston, NY; 1993.

Margerie, A. D. (Maitland, Margaret, and Tyrell, G., trs.); Saint Francis de Sales; Duckworth & Co.; London; 1900 (Reprint: Kessinger; Whitefish, MT; 2006).

McDonnell, Eunan, sdb; The Concept of Freedom in the Writings of St. Francis de Sales; Peter Lang; Bern, Switzerland; 2009.

McDonnell, Eunan; God Desires You: St. Francis de Sales on Living the Gospel; Columba Press; Dublin; 2001 (Reprint: DeSales Resource Center; Stella Niagara, NY; 2008).

Mellinghoff-Bourgerie, Viviane; François de Sales—Un homme de lettres spirituelles; Librairie Droz; Geneva; 1999.

Mookenthottam, Antony; Saint Francis de Sales: A Formative Biography; S.F.S. Publications; Bangalore; 2003.

Morel, Claude, et al.; Fifteen Days of Prayer with Francis de Sales; Liturgical Press; Collegeville, MN; 2000; and de Brouwer; Paris; 2005.

Mulholland, Clara, ed.; Mystical Flora of St. Francis de Sales;M.H.Gill & Son; Dublin; 1877 (Revised edition: Gracewing Publishing; Leominster, Herefordshire, UK; 2004).

Murphy, Ruth; Saint François de Sales et la civilité chrétienne;A.G. Nizet; Paris; 1964.

Nazareth, Armind, msfs; “Vive Jesus”: Historical Background of the Introduction to the Devout Life; Indian Journal of Spirituality; v. 13, no. 2 (April–June 2005), 178–83.

Palmer, Christopher Harold; The Prince Bishop: A Life of St. Francis de Sales; Arthur Stockwell, Ltd; Ilfracombe, Devon, UK; 1974.

Parish, Richard; Catholic Particularity in Seventeenth-Century French Writing; Oxford University Press; Oxford; 2011.

Perrin, David B.; Studying Christian Spirituality; Routledge; New York; 2007.

Pius XI, Pope (“Catholic Times” translation); Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Pius XI on the third centenary of the death of St Francis de Sales; Catholic Church; 1923.

Pochat, Genevieve; Francis de Sales and Poverty; SOS Books; Los Angeles, CA; 1988.

Pocetto, Alexander T., osfs; A Lenten Journey with Jesus Christ and St. Francis de Sales; Christus Publishing; Wellesley, MA; 2011.

Pocetto, Alexander T., osfs; Ecclesial Dimensions of Salesian Thought; Institute of Salesian Studies; Berkeley, CA; 1993.

Pocetto, Alexander T., osfs; “Francis de Sales, The Galileo Affair, and the Autonomy of Modern Science”; in Stopp, Elizabeth; Studies in Salesian Spirituality; http://web1.desales.edu/default.aspx?pageid=9002 (Accessed 06/11/12).

Pourrat, Pierre (Mitchell, W. H., tr.); Christian Spirituality, v. 3.; Burns Oates & Washbourne; London; 1927.

Ravier, Andre; A Sage and a Saint: Francis de Sales; New City Press; Hyde Park, NY; 1995 (François de Sales, Un Sage et un Saint; Nouvelle Cité; Paris; 2003).

Ravier, Andre; Praying in Annecy with Francis de Sales; Descée de Brouwer; Paris; 1993. Rivet, Mother Mary Majella; The Influence of the Spanish Mystics on the Works of Saint Francis de Sales;AMS Press; Washington, DC; 1941.

Ross, Allan; The Philothea of the Devout Life; Burns, Oates & Washbourne; London; 1927.

Sanders, Ella Katherine; St. François de Sales; SPCK; London; 1928.

Sempe, Louis (Nuns of the Visitation, trs.); Saint Francis de Sales (Reprint: Kessinger, 2011).

Sempé, P., sj; Saint François de Sales, l’homme, le saint, l’érudit, l’écrivain, le théologien, le directeur; Toulouse; 1922.

Sese, Bernard; The Little Life of Francis de Sales; Desclée de Brouwer; Paris; 2005.

Smith, L. Cuthbert; A Diary of Meditations; Literary Licensing, LLC; Whitefish, MT; 2011.

Stacpoole-Kenny, Louise M.; St. Francis de Sales: A Biography of the Gentle Saint; R&T Washbourne; London; 1909 (Reprint TAN Books 2002).

Steuart, Robert; Diversity in Holiness;Ayer Publishing; Williamsville, NY; 1977.

Stopp, Elizabeth; A Man to Heal Differences: Essays and Talks on St. Francis de Sales; St. Joseph University Press; Philadelphia, PA; 1997.

Streebing, Br. Cecilian; Devout Humanism as a Style: St. François De Sales’ Introduction à la Vie Dévote; Catholic University of America Press; Washington, DC; 1954, 1955 (Reprint: AMS Press Inc.; New York; 1991).

Strowski, Fortunat; Saint François de Sales: Introduction à l’histoire du sentiment religieux en France au dix-septième; Paris; 1898 (Reprint: BiblioBazaar; 2009).

Thompson, Blanche Jennings; St. Francis de Sales; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; New York; 1865.

Thurston, Herbert, sj, and Attwater, Donald; Butler’s Lives of the Saints (January); Burns and Oates; London; 1998.

Tissot, Jacques; The Art of Using His Faults: From St. Francis de Sales; Le Laurier; Paris; 2002.

Trochu, Francis; Saint François de Sales: Évêque et Prince de Genève, Fondateur de la Visitation Sainte Marie, Docteur de L’Église; 2 vols.; Emmanuel Vitte; Lyon & Paris; 1946.

Vann, Joseph, and Plassmann, Thomas Bernard; Lives of Saints with Excerpts from their Writings; John J. Crawley & Co.; New York; 1954.

Vüy, Jules, Jean François Marie; La Philothée de Saint François de Sales: Vie de Mme de Charmoisy; Société Generale de Librairie Catholique; Paris; 1879 (Reprinted in 2009 by BiblioLife and in 2010 By Kessinger Publishing).

Woodgate, Mildred Violet; Saint Francis de Sales; Newman Press; Westminster, MD; 1961.

Wright, Wendy; Heart Speaks to Heart: The Salesian Tradition; Orbis Books; Maryknoll, NY; 2004.

Wright, Wendy; “Jane de Chantal’s Testimony for the Canonization of Francis de Sales”; in Chorpenning, J. (ed.); Human Encounter in the Salesian Tradition…; International Commission for Salesian Studies; Rome; 2007.

Wright, Wendy; A Retreat with Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal, and Aelred of Rievaulx; St. Anthony Messenger Press; Colorado Springs, CO; 1996.

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