For other posts in this series about St. Francis de Sales's most well-known work, follow this link to the index, also available in the right sidebar. I outlined the structure of part five here.
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I'm blogging my way through Part Five, the annual review and renewal of devotion, which Francis suggests beginning each year at the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord -- since that's a week away I'm going to try to finish by then. In the last post we looked at the five daily meditations Francis prescribes following the examination of conscience. Today we look at the sixth meditation, which ends with an exhortation to go to confession.
I find this a little bit unusual. Most of the time, the E. O. C. is supposed to be done right before going to confession, right? Here, confession is prescribed at the end of 7-9 days' worth of spiritual exercises, with the E. O. C. at the beginning. Interesting. I'd just like to point out that that practically makes it into a novena.
Well! Let's dive into the "general considerations in conclusion." Francis begins by putting the words in our mouths.
'My resolutions are the beautiful tree of life planted by God himself in my heart and watered by my Savior's precious blood to make it bear fruit. I would rather undergo a thousand deaths than allow any storm to uproot this tree. No vanities, pleasures, riches, nor afflictions shall divert me from my purpose.
'You have planted and preserved this beautiful tree in your fatherly heart, my God, from all eternity, ready for my garden; and how many others have not been so favoured! How shall I ever humble myself enough before your mercy?
'How beautiful and sacred are my resolutions; if I keep them they will keep me; as long as they live in my soul I too will live; may they live forever, then, as they have lived eternally in the mercy of my God, and may I never abandon them.'
"As long as they live in my soul I too will live." Francis sounds confident that the intention to pursue the devout life, resolved as part of his "program" for the devout life, is itself identified with the state of grace, at least in one who has participated in his spiritual exercises. It is hard to argue with this logic, when you consider what these resolutions are.
The resolutions to pursue the devout life -- which resolutions, Francis wants us to pray will never leave us -- are not to be confused with the intent to pursue specific means of fulfilling the resolutions, though -- these will change according to time, season, and situation.
Now Francis moves on from dictating the words of prayer, to instructing us in how to form our own intentions and words:
After these considerations, decide on the particular means necessary to fulfil your resolutions, protesting that you desire to make faithful use of them; such means for example as
- prayer
- the frequentation of the sacraments
- good works
- the amendment of the faults you have discovered
- the avoidance of the occasion of sin
- the practice of your confessor's advice
- and so on.
Can I point out that, obviously, everyone is called to make at least some use of all the above-listed means of receiving grace? But Francis wants us, I think, to identify "particular means" to focus on -- the one or several means that will be most helpful to our particular resolutions. I'm seeing here (in the word "particular") an exhortation to concentrate your will and effort on one or a few places. If prayer is what's needed most, identify a time, place, and method; if more frequent reception of a sacrament, plan where and how and when; if amendment of faults, identify a plan of attack; and so on. In the meantime, the other means of receiving grace retreat into the background, always a support but not taxing us with a feeling of obligation or of having to "work" at them.
After deciding on the particular means:
Then, summoning up all your strength and fervour, make countless promises of fidelity to your resolution, dedicating, consecrating, and sacrificing your whole being to God, protesting that you will never retract your offering, but leave yourself forever at the service of his holy will.
Ask God to regenerate your whole life and bless and strengthen your renewed resolve; invoke our Lady, your guardian angel, St. Louis [the patron of France, where Francis was writing], and other saints.
Then go to confession:
In these dispositions go to your confessor, accuse yourself of the principal faults committed since your general confession, and, having received absolution, read and sign your protestation in his presence.
A note on "read and sign your protestation." In Part 1, chapters 20 and 21 -- that is, at the starting-point of the devout life -- Francis supplies the text of a solemn resolution (you could of course compose your own) which he implies you should write out and carry with you into the confessional, then sign just before receiving Communion. Let's look at that bit from 1-21:
What a wonderful contract you make with God, Philothea, for in giving yourself to him you receive in return eternal life and God himself! All that remains is for you to take pen in hand and with a sincere heart sign your resolution; then approach the altar, where God in his turn will sign and seal your absolution and his promise of paradise by setting himself, in Communion, as a seal upon your purified heart...
I take it that when Francis says "read and sign your protestation" he has in mind a repeat of the same "signing" that was performed when, after his prescription, you did "sign your resolution" just before approaching the altar.
As before, this exercise ends with communion:
Finally go to Holy Communion and unite yourself, thus renewed in spirit, to your Saviour, the source of all your life.
In the next chapter, chapter 16, Francis offers some advice for the remainder of that same day as well as on the following days.
On the day you renew your resolution, and on the days following, make constant use of aspirations... saying, for example
- "I am no longer my own; whether I live or die I belong to my Saviour."
- "I have nothing of my own, I belong to Jesus and all I have is his."
- "The world remains the same, as I have remained till now; but I will remain the same no longer; my heart is changed and the world which so often deceived me will be deceived in me; not noticing my gradual change, it will think of me as Esau when in reality I will have become Jacob."
(This last bit reminds me of the beginning of Part 4, "Worldly Wisdom," one of my favorite chapters in the book, about the world's folly and criticism of the devout.)
So there you go, finish up your renewal with several days' worth of frequent aspirations -- remember, these are the short ejaculatory prayers that can be said quickly and quietly as often as you remember, or that you can remind yourself to pray each time the clock chimes or something like that, to draw your heart toward God. (More on how to pray aspirations is in part 2, chapter 13.)
Then Francis concludes with a familiar recommendation for a gentle transition from prayer to ordinary duties, one that functions both as a recommendation for each of the day's transitions and as a more general recommendation to pass from the time set aside for annual renewal, to the rest of the year's efforts to grow in holiness:
These sentiments should rest quietly in your heart and you should pass from your considerations and meditation to your ordinary affairs and occupations gently, without straining either mind or body, lest you spill the precious balm of your resolutions before it has penetrated into the very depth of your soul.
That concludes the consideration of the Annual Review -- and with a week to go before the feast of the Lord's Baptism.
There are a few more sections in the book which cover some more general topics, and be assured I'll get to them soon -- but perhaps not before January 9th. More on that in a bit.
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