St. Francis de Sales - Roses Among Thorns: Simple Advice for Renewing Your Spiritual Journey

St. Francis de Sales

Roses Among Thorns

Simple Advice for Renewing
Your Spiritual Journey

Edited and translated
by Christopher O. Blum

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS

Manchester, New Hampshire

This volume contains an original selection of passages from the letters of St. Francis de Sales, newly translated from volumes 12 through 15 of the Annecy edition of his Oeuvres compltes (J. Nierat and E. Vitte, publishers, 1902-1908).

Copyright 2014 Christopher O. Blum

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved

Cover design by Carolyn McKinney

Except where otherwise noted, biblical references in this book are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Francis, de Sales, Saint, 1567-1622.

[Works. Selections. English. 2014]

Roses among thorns : simple advice for renewing your spiritual journey / St. Francis de Sales ; edited and translated by Christopher O. Blum.

pages cm

This volume contains an original selection of passages from the letters of St. Francis de Sales, newly translated from volumes 12 through 15 of the Annecy edition of his Oeuvres completes (J. Nierat and E. Vitte, publishers, 1902-1908). E-Cip t.p. verso.

ISBN 978-1-62282-206-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ePub ISBN 978-1-622822-07-2 1. Spiritual life Catholic Church. I. Blum, Christopher Olaf, 1969- translator. II. Title.

BX2350.3.F72 2014

248.4'82--dc23

2014006111

Contents

Foreword

I have had a longtime admiration for St. Francis de Sales.

I became a Catholic in 1975, and shortly after my conversion, I was given a copy of St. Francis de Saless Introduction to the Devout Life . The wisdom of this saint formed my spirituality and my early practice of the Faith. I still return to St. Francis de Sales and recommend his writings regularly to those beginning the path of discipleship.

In 2008, thirty-three years after I became a Catholic, I was ordained a bishop, and I choose a phrase from St. Francis de Sales Cor ad cor loquitor (Heart speaks to heart) for my episcopal motto.

I was not the first to choose that motto. In fact, I chose it because my spiritual mentor, Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, chose it upon being appointed a cardinal. What he saw, and what I saw, in the words of St. Francis de Sales was an understanding that grace works through ordinary men and women disciples of Jesus Christ who reflect the truth, beauty, and goodness of Jesus Christ.

In some ways, the work of St. Francis de Sales precedes the Second Vatican Councils call to the universal vocation of holiness. At the beginning of Introduction to the Devout Life , de Sales remarks that it is an error, or rather a heresy, to say devotion is incompatible with the life of a soldier, a tradesman, a prince, or a married woman.... It has happened that many have lost perfection in the desert who had preserved it in the world.

Today, more than ever, Catholic men and women need clear instruction in the path of Christian discipleship. We have, unfortunately, lost many of the great practices of piety and devotion that form Catholic culture and Catholic conscience. There is beauty in mortification, in order, and in piety; and the work of St. Francis captures that beauty.

St. Francis de Sales gives direction in prayer, devotion, discernment, and mortification, in a way that can be understood and implemented in the midst of ordinary life. He understands clearly the movements of the soul, the affectations and temptations that draw us from Jesus Christ. He also understands the antidote. His work is a guidebook for anyone who seeks a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

Roses Among Thorns offers newly translated meditations from the works of St. Francis de Sales that Catholic men and women lay, clerical, or religious can reflect on prayerfully. This book can be used as a devotional or in spiritual direction or in the sacrament of penance.

St. Francis de Sales understood that Christ is revealed as one heart speaks to another. I pray that the heart of the great saint, reflected in these meditations, will reflect to you the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.

Most Rev. James D. Conley,
Bishop of Lincoln,
February 27, 2014

Seasons of Life

All of the seasons of life come together in the soul. Sometimes we feel winters sterility, distraction, distaste, and boredom, sometimes springs dew, with the fragrance of holy blossoms, and sometimes a burning desire to please our good God. What remains is autumn, and even then we may see no great harvest.

Yet it often happens that in threshing the wheat and pressing the grape we find a greater yield than we had expected. We want it always to be spring and summer, but there must be vicissitudes of the interior life as well as the exterior.

Only in heaven will everything be springtime in its beauty, autumn in its fruitfulness, and summer in its ardor. There will be no winter there; but here winter is necessary for the work of abnegation and for the thousand minor but beautiful virtues that we exercise in a fallow time.

Let us, then, continue to put one foot in front of the other. Provided our hearts be true, we will walk aright.

Jesus the Gardener

Do not be anxious. Rouse yourself to serve the Lord with steadfastness, attentiveness, and meekness. That is the true way to serve him. If you can refrain from trying to do all things, but instead attempt to do only some one thing, then you will do much. Practice the mortifications that most often present themselves to you, for that is the first duty to be done. After that you can take up the others. Lovingly kiss the crosses that our Lord himself lays upon your arms, without looking to see whether they are of precious or aromatic wood. They are more truly crosses when they are made of a wood that smells dirty and is considered useless.

Mary Magdalene tried to hold on to our Lord; she wanted him for herself. His appearance was not as she had wished it to be, which is why she looked at him without recognizing him. She wanted to see him arrayed in glory, not in the common clothes of a gardener. Yet in the end she knew that it was he when he said to her, Mary (John 20:14-16). You see, it is our Lord garbed as a gardener whom we meet day by day, here and there, in the ordinary mortifications that present themselves to us. We want more noble-seeming ones. But the ones that seem the most noble are not the best. Before we see him in his glory, he wants to plant many humble flowers in our garden, according to his plan. This is why he is dressed the way he is. Our task is to let our hearts be ever united to his, and our wills to his pleasure.

Roses Among Thorns

Let us make our way through the low valleys of the humble little virtues. There we will see roses among thorns: charity shining forth amid interior and exterior affliction, lilies of purity, and violets of mortification. We ought to love above all others these three small virtues: meekness of heart, poverty of spirit, and simplicity of life, together with those common labors of visiting the sick, serving the poor, and consoling the afflicted. Yet let it all be done freely and without anxiety. No, our arms are not strong enough for us to climb the cedars of Lebanon; let us be content with the hyssop that grows in the valleys.