Virtues for everyone and practiced in different ways

Introduction to the Devout Life
Part III
Group members: Fernando, Tresphord, Matthew and Swuan

In Part III of the Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales deals with those virtues "most needed for [spiritual] progress." He also gives some advice on friendships.

Here, in synthesis, are the points that we found most striking in the part of the Devout Life.

• He makes all his thinking for everyone. The virtues are for everyone. He does not specify special virtues for priests, religious, bishops, but he does it with married people, widows and virgins.
• He is an expert on human nature with its virtues and faults. On being a spiritual director of all kinds of people, he takes a lot of examples from daily life. In fact they help him to write a book like this.
• The scheme used in his presentation is always the same. Namely, definition or description of virtue, its importance, how to achieve it, means to maintain positive attitudes that endanger and tips to overcome the temptation.
• Once again his language is simple. It uses many examples from nature (striking the repeated use of bees) and references to events or attitudes of some catholic saints.
• The virtues are for everyone but not all have to practice the same way.
• There is a hierarchy of virtues. The most important one is love, is a heavenly virtue. He does not deal directly in any chapter with it but all the other virtues are necessary to get love.
• He gives the main importance to the attitude we live the virtues with: love and humility.
• These virtues are general and universal: sweetness, warmth, honesty and humility. All others are able to get support for these.
• Divide the chapter into four parts: 1) The virtues necessary to advance, 2) some advices on friendship, 3)standards of education and advices to various groups of people.
• Holiness is connected with the lowly and loving daily practice of the duties of each one’s state.

Submitted by Fernando Domenech Lampaya