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The foundation stone upon which the devout life
is constructed is
the primacy of love in the Christian life.
The devout life
By Sean Kinsella
He [St. Francis de Sales] was very careful to keep himself recollected in God in the midst of all . . . occupations; indeed he used to say that we ought to deal with the affairs of earth with our eyes fixed on heaven; that all that is done for love’s sake is love; that neither toil nor death itself are anything but love, when it is for the love of God that we accept them.1
—St. Jane Frances de Chantal
In his Introduction to the Devout Life St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) developed an understanding of the meaning and practice of Christian devotion which was open to everyone and restricted to none and through which each person would be able to “keep himself recollected in God in the midst of all.” The practice of devotion, which de Sales defined as “nothing else but that spiritual alertness and vivacity which enables us to co-operate with charity promptly and wholeheartedly,”2 was not a practice restricted to a select few, to the cloistered religious alone, but was the vocation of every Christian who wished to grow in the love of God.
The Introduction to the Devout Life is addressed by de Sales to Philothea, who is not a particular person, but is a representative figure for everyone who wishes to live the devout life because the name “Philothea” signifies the person who loves, or wishes to love, God. This person, this lover of God, is not required to flee the world or avoid the daily life of being a mother, or a husband, or an artist, in order to love God. The love of God, the living of the devout life, is the perfection of everything we do and is suited to each person according to their state in life. De Sales insists that the devout life is possible for each person and writes that it “is not only erroneous, but a heresy, to hold that life in the army, the workshop, the court, or the home is incompatible with devotion.”3 De Sales is addressing an attitude on the part of some who felt that the religious alone could be devout which led many to despair of the living out of their faith. That faith, that devotion, that perfection of love is in the world, de Sales writes; it is possible right here, right now, right where you are: “wherever we find ourselves we not only may, but should, seek perfection.”4 The perfection of love is the meaning of the devout life:
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Real living devotion, Philothea, presupposes the love of God; is in fact that very love, though it has many aspects. In so far as this love adorns the soul and makes us pleasing to God it is called grace; in so far as it empowers us to do good, it is called charity; when it is so perfect that it moves us, not merely to do good, but to do good carefully, frequently and readily, then it is called devotion.5
The importance of prayer in the Introduction to the Devout Lifecannot be underestimated. While the work itself is divided into five parts, prayer is the theme which connects them to each other. Prayer is what brings us to the devout life; it is the means by which the devout life is expressed; it maintains that life through virtue and the avoidance of vice; and it continually brings to the devout life refreshment and renewal. While love is the foundation of the Introduction to the Devout Life, prayer is its blueprint:
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Since prayer opens our mind to the brightness of divine light and our will to the warmth of heavenly love, nothing so purges our mind of ignorance and our will of evil desires; its sacred waters freshen the soul, wash away our imperfections, revive the flowers of our good desires and quench the thirst of our heart’s passion.7
One of the most significant aspects of a developed prayer life is the importance of self-surrender, self-abandonment, to the will of God. Prayer, again, demonstrates a dual character in this: prayer is the means by which this self-surrender is realized and it is also the expression of this selflessness in the love of God. When St. Jane Frances de Chantal said that she most firmly believed that the life of de Sales was “one continual prayer” it was because, as de Sales had told her, “the Divine Will was the sovereign law of his heart” and that “the best prayer we could possibly make was the absolute acquiescence in the Will of Our Lord.”11 The remarkable and moving result of this self-surrender in love, to love, for the sake of love, is that the conformity of our individual will to the will of God liberates us from every falsehood and every servile fear:
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Perhaps the most favorite of Francis de Sales’ mottoes was: “Do all by love and nothing by constraint.” Indeed, it was the mainspring of his rule for directing others. I have heard him say many times that it is a tyranny abhorrent to both God and man to force the human will. He would not tolerate that absolutism which insists on obedience, willing or unwilling. “Those who love to be feared fear to be loved,” he said, “and they themselves are more afraid than anyone, for whereas other men fear only them, they fear everyone.”12
Devotion concerns the whole person, body, mind, and soul; it is grounded in mental prayer, and not in the elaborate monastic model of liturgical prayer; and it is a universal calling: “At the creation God commanded the plants to bear fruit each according to its kind and he likewise commands Christians, the living branches of the vine, to bear fruit by practicing devotion according to their state in life.”14
The Introduction to the Devout Lifeof St. Francis de Sales is an excellent work for making clear the ways and means by which the one who is moved by love, who is moved to love, may seek out God through prayer even while in the world and occupied with the necessary cares of everyday life. Indeed, as de Sales writes, prayer “is not so difficult, for it can be fitted into your daily occupations and work, without in any way hindering them.”15 Prayer is the intimate exchange of love between ourselves and God and through prayer, the living of the devout life, the life of love becomes the perfection of “everything we do . . . not only is it unharmful to any state of life, it adorns and beautifies it. It makes the care of a family peaceful, the love of a husband and wife more sincere . . . and every task more pleasant and a joy.”16
- J.S., trans., St. Jane Frances de Chantal’s Depositions in the Cause of the Beatification and Canonization of St. Francis de Sales (London: Burns & Oates, 1908), No. 37, p. 176. Hereafter, Depositions.
- Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, I.1. Hereafter, Introduction. All citations from this work contained in this essay will be from the translation of Michael Day (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1961) unless otherwise noted.
- Introduction, I.3.
- Ibid.
- Introduction, I.1.
- Depositions, No. 33, p. 154.
- Introduction, II.1.
- Introduction, preface.
- Introduction, II.1.
- Introduction, II.14.
- Depositions, No. 33, pp. 153-154.
- Jean Pierre Camus, The Spirit of St. François de Sales, trans. C.F. Kelley (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1952), VII.3, pg. 63. St. Francis de Sales distinguished between a servile fear, which was the fear of punishment alone, and a holy fear, timor Domini sanctus, permanens in saeculum saeculi [“The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring forever and ever,” Psalm 18:10], which de Sales greatly valued. As Camus wrote, “François always gave high praise to that holy fear which originates in love, as it was entirely filial and full of reverence; and he was fond of repeating: ‘We must fear God through love, and not love him through fear’” (The Spirit of St. François de Sales, I.16, pp. 11-12).
- Quoted in Michael Muller, St. Francis de Sales (London: Sheed and Ward, 1936), p. 213. One is reminded on this point of the observation of Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching that “Mastering others requires force; mastering the self needs strength” (Chapter 33; in the translation of Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English (New York: Vintage, 1989), p. 35).
- Introduction, I.3.
- Introduction, II.13.
- Introduction, I.3.
Mr. Sean Kinsella received his B.A. in history from Cornell University in 1990 and his M.A. in Franciscan Studies from the Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University, in 1992. Presently he is a Ph.D. candidate in historical theology at the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto. His article in HPR appeared in July 1996.
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