Selected Spiritual Writings

Introduced and edited by Joseph F Power

Deep within, every human being is searching: there is the search of those who, consciously or not seek God, and there is the search of those who, having “found” God in some degree of faith, seek for ways to deepen their contact with the divine in prayer and to live in relationship with God. This book is intended as a help in this second search for concrete ways to respond to God, the search for a “spirituality.”

Over the centuries Christian preachers and spiritual writers have proposed many ways to respond to the God revealed in Jesus and his gospel. Historically most of the classic Christian spiritualities are products of a life somewhat removed from ordinary life “in the world,” and the usual relationships of family, work and politics, and so tend to assume as much withdrawal or solitude as possible. This spirituality “of the desert” or monastic spiritually still speaks to many today; in fact in its various adaptations it continues to exert such a powerful influence that some think it is the only model: to respond more fully to God I must follow Jesus into the desert, spend hours in quiet prayer, do some kind of fasting, get away on a silent retreat as often as possible, and know that in all this I am embarking on a journey “alone with the alone.”

As powerfully attractive as the model is, the difficulties of living it in anything but a monastery or solitary setting are evident. How can one find that kind of solitude or that kind of time away when one is raising a family or pursuing a career in business, building, the arts or politics? And if one feels called to the latter in faith, as a matter of vocation, does it mean that one is not called to a deeper spirituality, or at least not now? or does it mean that God is indeed asking me to do the impossible in my present situation? Or is there another model?

Almost four hundred years ago Francis de Sales clearly and consciously through and taught that there are many other models of spirituality, other forms of “devotion” than the monastic or religious-life model. He sought to outline a way people could live God’s love fully, with the alacrity and intensity that he called “devotion” within families, in the workplace, even – to use modern equivalents of what he said – in the military or in government. He personally helped such people find ways of living this life through personal spiritual direction and letters, and eventually wrote a book for them, an Introduction to the Devout Life. He also published what has been called a sequel, a Treatise on the Love of God, elaborating the inner workings of that love for God as it grows in human hearts.

From several points of view, Francis de Sales occupied a space and time between two worlds, in each of which he was able to be at home, and both of which he was able to integrate within himself. Geographically he lived most of his life in his native Savoy, for centuries an independent duchy which spanned in the Alps and included parts of what is now France and Italy. After early education in Savoy, Francis went first to Paris to study the humanities and philosophy, and then to Padua to study law. He thus had many direct and extended experiences of the two cultures which converged in Savoy, as well as of the Church as it existed in either.

Historically Francis lived in a time of enormous cultural and religious transition, a transition from the last breath of the medieval worldview and the clear awakenings of the modern, more specifically in that period between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment that some call the Baroque. In terms of Church history he lived in the period of Roman Catholic revival which had begun in the sixteenth-century Italy and Spain, but which, in the heart of Europe where Francis lived, had been enormously affected by the Protestant Reformation. In fact Francis grew up in a staunchly Catholic family in the shadow of Calvin’s Geneva; though he eventually bore the title of Prince and Bishop of Geneva, he was able to visit the city only incognito and at some risk. By his loyalty to the “ancient Church,” its institutions and teachers, he had one foot in the medieval period. At the same time the other foot was clearly in the modern, as is evidenced by his writing an emerging modern French, by his intuitive psychological insight, and by his anticipation of modern spirituality, as will be seen shortly.

Socially Francis moved easily in many different worlds of his time, notably in two worlds which were increasingly differentiated in his day, the secular and the ecclesiastical. By virtue not only of his formal education but also of his sustained interest in literature, science, diplomacy and civility, Francis was humanist. At the same time he was, at first by desire and then in fact “of the Church,” an expression which in his day meant a cleric, but which can express a deeper belonging which stemmed from his baptism. “This country [Savoy] is my homeland according to my natural birth; according to my spiritual re-birth, my homeland is the Church.” That simply did he join the two in himself, differentiating but integrating the two world: human and Christian.

In other respects as well, Francis joined disparate worlds in himself, the active and contemplative, lay and religious, indeed the human and the divine, but, since these integrations pertain directly to his spirituality, they will be seen later, under that heading.

Against this very general geographical, historical, social and religious background, I propose to leave the telling of Francis’s life story to others and simply to highlight a few facets of it which help explain how he was prepared to live and write as he did.