Spirituality of SFS: A Way of Life

For Francis de Sales, to begin with interiority is both a principle of the Christian life and, at the same time, an apostolic method. He gives expression to this principle in a chapter in the Introduction to the Devout Life which, curiously, treats of the “exercises of exterior mortification”. There he distances himself from those spiritual guides who begin with a person’s exterior life or who suggest a rule of life before their directees understand the why and wherefore of it. For Francis, the only valid way of proceeding is to begin with the heart.

As for myself, I have never been able to approve of the method of those who, to reform someone, begin with the exterior, with appearance, dress, hair. On the contrary, I feel one needs to begin with the interior. God says: Turn to me with all your heart (Joel 2:22); My child, give me your heart (Prov. 23:26). Since the heart is the source of one’s actions, they are as it is. The heavenly bridegroom tells his beloved: Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm (Cant. 8:6). Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapter 23

A rule of life concerning externals is indeed necessary, but only secondarily, after the heart has been won over. One must first address the heart.

Why is this so?

For at least five or six reasons, implied or directly expressed by Francis here and there in his Collected Works.

The principal reason is that the heart is the “seat and source of love” (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 1, Chapter 10). It is generally said that love resides or lodges in the heart, that is, deep in the will, and that it rises from this will, from the human heart, a from a source. Thus, if the heart is directed toward the good, then the love which resides there will be good as well.

Francis gives pithy expression to all this when he writes that “the individual is as worthy as his or her heart is” (Annecy Edition, IX, 250). The human person is, in fact, as worthy as his or her love is, and that love is as worthy as the heart is.

The second reason is that the heart is the place of encounter with God. This theme runs throughout the Bible, especially when it speaks of God’s covenant with His people and with particular individuals from among this people. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is a celebrated example of this theme: This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel … I will place my Law within them, and write it upon their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. This same theme is expressed in Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman (Jn. 4:1-24). He explains to her that one can adore the Father outside of Jerusalem or other than on the mountain. Everyone can encounter God within the heart because God is spirit or, as Francis expresses it, God is the God of the human heart. Thus, this encounter is possible, no matter where or when, within the deepest regions of each person.

That the heart is the first place of one’s conversion is the third reason for beginning within. Mark’s gospel opens with Jesus’ appeal to “be converted”; to change our hearts and our lives and to believe in the Good News (Mk 1:15).

In fact, it is by the heart that one adheres to God and to his Kingdom. The believer is the person who allows his or her heart to be gradually transformed into God’s will for him or her; to will what He wills and to love what He loves.

Francis gives expression to this in a prayer which concludes Chapter 15 of Book 1 of the Treatise on the Love of God:

There is some supreme good on which I depend, some infinite Workman who has imprinted within me this infinite desire to know and this insatiable desire to be. Because of this I must strive, I must reach out to him, so that I might be united and joined to his goodness. I belong to it; I exist for it.

A fourth reason is that the heart is the center for decisions which totally engage one’s life. Our choices are acts of the will. They include major decisions such as choice of marriage or celibacy, religious life, diaconate, priesthood and so on. But they also embrace everyday decisions. With greater or lesser importance, these decisions all engage us, commit us.

Because of this, Francis is convinced that one must win over the heart. Whoever “has won someone’s heart has won over the whole person.”

He expresses this in another prayer, found in Chapter 7 of Book 8 of the Treatise. This prayer is rooted in the Lord’s promise to Isaiah to give his people “a new name”, one written on their hearts; this name is “My will in them” (Is. 62:2). Addressing this prayer to Christ Jesus, Francis says that “it is written of you, O Saviour of my soul, that you always did the ‘will’ of your eternal Father. From your very conception, the first expression of your human will was to lovingly embrace this ‘law’ of the divine will, placing it in the very center of your heart (Ps. 39:8-9), there to reign and rule eternally. Ah, who will give my soul the grace to have absolutely no will other than that of its God!”

That the heart is the source of actions is the fifth reason. Anyone can attest to this truth. Jesus helped his disciples to recall this truth during a meal which they had without first washing their hands (Mk 7:1-23). “Evil thoughts come from within, from the heart…” Good thoughts have their source there as well. Thus, it is the heart, not the food, which must be pure. The goodness or the evil of one’s actions depends on the heart.

In fact, “since the heart is the source of our actions, as it is, so they are” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapter 23).

Finally, Francis de Sales begins with the heart because the human hear is universal in both time and space. To be sure, people and their reactions are affected by place the environment (we will return to this point later on). But when it concerns the fundamental questions of life such as love and death, there is no such thing as a response which is white or black or yellow; African, American, Asian, European or Oceanic; ancient or modern. There is simply a “human” response. This is so because all human beings have in common what is expressed by the “heart.” This has neither colour, nor country, nor time. If, for instance, a three thousand year old play treats of basic human issues, it can easily be produced today. For the same reason, philosophers from other epochs and countries can always be read by anyone in any age.

Thus, Francis’ personal letters to his cousin, Madame de Charmoisy, resulted in a book at the request of a religious who thought “that many could profit from them”. In the Preface to the resulting Introduction to the Devout Life the author explains it this way: “I address my words to Philothea because I want to make available for many people what was originally written for one person. Thus, I have chosen a name which is common to all those who desire to be devout. Philothea simply means a lover of God.”

In the preface to the Treatise on the Love of God, Francis returns to the linkage between the “particular” and the “universal.” To those who had told him that when he addressed his earlier work to Philothea he prevented men from reading it, he responded with humour:

I leave it up to you, my dear reader, to decide whether devotion is equally for men and women… besides that, I call Philothea any soul which aspires to devotion. And men have souls as well as women.

As a change, he addresses Theotimus (the God-fearing person) in the Treatise and, with the same humour, writes: “If by chance there are some women… who don’t want to read the advice given to a man, I beg them to believe that the Theotimus to whom I speak here is any human spirit which desire to make progress in holy love, and this spirit belongs equally to both women and men.”

“One must begin with the Interior.” This teaching of Francis de Sales is one with the teaching of the Bible and with God’s own pedagogy with his people and with the entire human family. One need only take note of those passages where the “heart” is mentioned to see the importance of beginning with interiority.

Francis is one with St. Paul and with many others for whom the interior has priority over the exterior. The human person is valued more highly by what he or she is than by their appearance or by what they accomplish. “Our inner being is renewed each day even though our body is being destroyed at the same time… We do not fix our gaze on what is seen but on what is unseen. What is seen is transitory; what is unseen lasts forever” (2 Cor. 4:16-18).

This focus on the heart, in fact, permits us to attain a far deeper appreciation of a being’s true reality. If this focus is guided by a certain sympathy, it enables us to know and understand the truth which lies beyond mere appearance.

This teaching is applied by Francis in the arena of the judgments we make of others. He asks us to shun rash judgments and he explains himself in this way: “Human judgements are rash because people are not one another’s judges. When they do judge others, they usurp the Lord’s prerogative. He alone can judge. Such judgements are rash because the principal malice of sin depends on the ‘heart’s counsel’ which is ‘shrouded in darkness’ from us. They are rash too because people have plenty to do in being their own judge without undertaking their neighbour’s judgement as well” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapter 28).

When he speaks of prayer, he recommends “mental prayer which is from the heart,” that is, prayer of the spirit and of the heart, an interior prayer which consists in permitting God’s light to illuminate our intellect and God’s love to fill our heart. Such an approach to prayer effectively gives priority to the interior over the exterior.

Even in the midst of everyday activities, this interiority is given expression by means of brief spiritual alertness to God and by short and prayerful approaches of the heart toward God. Always remember “to retreat into the solitude of your own heart from time to time, even while engaged in conversation or other activities. The many people surrounding you will not be able to disturb such spiritual solitude. After all, they may be around your body but they are not around your heart – provided your heart remains alone in God’s presence” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2, Chapter 12).

“Often make spiritual aspirations to God by short but ardent movements of your heart. Marvel at his beauty, call upon his aid […] question him […] give him your hand just like a little child does to his father so that he might lead you.” This exercise is easy to do “because it can be blended with our other activities and affairs and in the midst of them” (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2, Chapter 13).