INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOUT LIFE

PART II: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21

PART II, Chapter 6: The Third Part Of Meditation: Good Movements Of The Will Leading To Deliberate Decisions (1)

Meditations[2] produce good movements in the will[3], such as the love of God and of our neighbour; the desire of Heaven and eternal glory; zeal for the salvation of others; imitation of the life of our Lord; compassion, admiration, joy; fear of God’s displeasure, of judgment, and of hell’ hatred of sin; confidence in the goodness and mercy of God, shame for the sins of our past life. Our spirit should give vent whole-heartedly to these good movements of the will[4].

But Philothea, do not linger too long with these general good movements of the will. You have to change them into deliberate decisions, precise and particular, for your correction and improvement.

For example, the first words spoken by our Lord on the Cross will surely arouse in you a good movement of the will to imitate him. That is, you will desire to forgive your enemies and to love them. But I want to make it clear that this will be of little value unless you make a particular deliberate decision like the following: “I will not take offence anymore by such or such annoying words which such and such a person – my neighbour or my servant – may say about me”; or “I will not be displeased any more by this or that insult from this or that person”; and “On the contrary, I will say and do such or such a thing in order to win the person over and make him friendly”; and so on with regard to other matters.

In this way, Philothea, you will correct your faults in a short time. Bt only with the good movements of the will, you will do so after a long time and with difficulty.

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[1] The latter part of the title is literally “Affections and Resolutions”. Our translation of these words by “Good movements of the Will and Deliberate Decisions” gives the sense in which St. Francis uses them, as can be gathered even from this chapter. The words “affections and resolutions” are religious technical terms whose precise sense has become obscured. Moreover, the usual understanding of “affections” is emotions of love, compassion or similar feelings; and that of “resolutions” is general desires to do or not to do something [Translators].

[2] See paragraph 1 of Chapter 5 for the exact meaning of “meditation”.

[3] “Good movements in the will”. Here St. Francis expressly uses the phrase. We have used the phrase in place of “affections” in this Chapter, and whenever he uses it in connection with Prayer, for reasons given in the footnote regarding the title of this chapter. Moreover, St. Francis adds here that the will is “the affective part of our soul”. He explains elsewhere that our will is that part of our spirit which is the seat of rational emotions (See The Love of God)

[4] Here St. Francis advises the reading of the Preface of the First Volume of Meditations by Andrew Capilia (1530-1610), Spanish Jesuit who became a Carthusian, and The Treatise on Prayer by Francis Arias (1533-1605), Spanish Jesuit.

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