Image-enriched insights

Introduction to the Devout Life
Reflection on Part 2 : Chapter 1 – 21
Group : Fernando, Tresphord, Matthew, Suwan

St.Francis De Sales gives importance to the prayer for the Christian life as spiritual food for soul. With prayer of the mind and of the heart we emerge our total selves into God’s love. Both mental prayer and vocal prayer should be done firstly in the morning, not more than an hour, and not in a hurry to finish the process.

He creates the easy steps of meditation or mental prayer.

1. Place ourselves before God’s presence by rousing ourselves or centering God in our mind, or thinking of Christ as our Savior, or imagining Christ’s humanity as a historical scene.
2. Reflect towards God and the things of God by imagination or presentation of perceptible senses.
3. Make deliberate decisions as the result of reflection to better our Christian lives for the day.
4. Conclude with thanksgiving, oblation, petition from God, our Lady, angels and all the saints.

He makes the holiness simple to the Christian to practice. Holiness means to be close to God as much as possible. He proposes the daily living method from rising to night bed for the Christian holiness.

In the morning : (Short meditation)

• Begin with thanking God for the peaceful night and praising Him for the coming beautiful day.
• Make a deliberate decision to use the day well for this purpose.
• Look ahead what will happen during today life both good and bad, and prepare the means to apply the deliberate decision.
• Offer all today activities to God.
• Ask for help from God, our Lady, angels, and saints.

During the day :

• Make awareness of God’s presence as often as possible by mind and heart.
• Frequently recall the ejaculatory prayers.

In the evening :

• Recall the points of the morning meditation.
• Make an examination of conscience
• Thank God, ask his pardon, and decide to improve better life for the next day
• Ask our Lady, angels, and saints for a peaceful sleep with God’s blessing.

Francis de Sales enriches his insights with the imagery from daily life and biblical ones (David). He endows to us the simple and confidential language as a father rather than a scholar.

It is also important to acknowledge that Francis de Sales points to the sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance as means to Christian perfection.

Frequently receiving the Communion and having the regular confession brings God present and makes perfect in Christian life. Moreover he advises us to read the word of God and the stories of the saints in order to receive God’s inspirations. By means of prayer and sacraments as he suggests in simple way, step by step and elucidating, we are able to transcend our hearts and minds to God’s love.

Suwan.