As summer arrives, we wish to live a few weeks at a more
relaxed pace. We sometimes stop at the side of the road to contemplate for a few moments a
landscape bathed in light. In thus admiring creation, we enter, consciously or not,
in the very movement of God. On the evening of each day of creation, God stops and
contemplates his work: “God saw all that he had made; and behold: it was very good”
(Gen. 1, 31).
Saint Francis de Sales, too, speaks of contemplation. He knows how to observe nature and find
in it images that illustrate his homilies. But when Francis evokes contemplation,
it is above all to qualify a form of prayer. Prayer allows us to admire Christ. In
proposing a way of prayer with meditations, he recommends: “Admire the goodness of God”
(Introduction to the Devout Life, I.11). By founding the Order of the Visitation, he intends to recall
the importance of contemplative life in the life of the Church: the sisters dedicate their lives to
contemplate the beauty of the One who loves them.
In the Treatise on the Love of God, he develops over several chapters the place of
contemplation in Christian prayer.
Treatise on the Love of God, VI.6 “Contemplation is painless”
Written in contemporary French by Didier-Marie Proton – Cerf 2011
Contemplation always has this happy peculiarity
that it is practiced with pleasure. It assumes, in fact, that we
has found God and his love, that we enjoy it, and that we
delight: I have found the beloved of my soul. I grabbed it and didn’t
will not let go (Song of 3,4) (…).
All our spiritual exercises aim at contemplation, and he
are usually necessary: to listen to the Word of
God ; exchanging holy words; read books of spirituality;
pray, meditate, sing hymns; maintain good
thoughts. Those who practice these exercises are for this
called “contemplatives”, and the life they lead “the life
contemplative”.
We look at the truth, beauty, and goodness of God, with
loving attention, and this further increases our
love towards the infinite tenderness of Our Lord.
The soul thus collected within itself, in God, or before God, is so gently
captivated by the goodness of her Beloved that it seems to her that the attention she gives him is exercised
alone, she is so simple, easy, delicate. Thus flow certain rivers, slowly,
regularly, nothing agitates their surface; they would seem almost motionless to those who
watch from the shore; and those who sail on them do not feel any movement (…).
Lovers are often content to be with the person they love. They don’t talk to him
not. They look at it, without reflecting either on it or on its perfections. They savor this presence.
They do not ask for anything more or better, it is enough for them simply by appeasement and rest.
they find there (…): My Beloved is mine and I am his (Ct 2,16). So show me, oh
the Friend of my soul where you rest (Ct 1,7). You see, Theotimus, how the holy Shulamite is
happy to know that her Beloved is with her, whether on her bosom, in her garden, or
somewhere else. All he has to do is join him where he is. So she is completely peaceful, tranquil, at rest.
This rest sometimes becomes so deep that the soul and its powers remain asleep.
They no longer make any movement, any action. Only the will remains awake, but
only to receive the happy impression that the presence of the Beloved gives him. What
is even more admirable, it is that the will receives this impression without feeling that it receives it,
she enjoys it imperceptibly, because she does not think of herself at all, but of Him whose
presence gives him such pleasure.
When he speaks of contemplation, François de Sales
quotes extensively from the Song of Songs. This
collection of poems, which found its place in the Bible,
sings of the love of a man and a woman, their beauty,
the joy it brings, but also the torment when
the absence of the other is felt. beyond love
human, we can see in this book a celebration of
the love of God for his people, and for each
we. The language of love permeates everything
the bishop of Geneva says of contemplation
Treatise on the Love of God, VI.8
“How the soul collects itself and rests in its Beloved”
Written in contemporary French by Didier-Marie Proton – Cerf 2011
In his eyes, it simply boils down to “loving attention” (TAD VI.3). He joins in
this a long spiritual and mystical tradition for which contemplation is an intimate
adherence of heart and mind to God, deeply linked to the experience of his presence. We
we are then “occupied by love to see his beauty and unite ourselves to his goodness” (TAD VI.6).
Like all lovetrue, contemplation leads to a decentering of oneself to leave
room for another. When I contemplate a work of art or a landscape, I do not analyze it, I do not
not comment on all its details; I let myself be grasped by it as a whole. He seizes my being,
my heart, more than I understand by reason.
Thus, Francis de Sales can affirm that, in contemplation, the will “does not think
at all to himself, but to Him whose presence gives him such pleasure”.
We look at the truth, the
beauty, and the bounty of God, with
loving attention,
and it increases further
our love for infinity
tenderness of our Lord
Therefore, contemplation brings peace and rest. There is a simplicity in it that
does not require a great expenditure of energy and which results in a deep joy: joy of
freely feel the presence and love of God, a joy that gives rise to gratitude and
leads us to love more intensely. “Lovers are often content to be with the
someone they love… They savor this presence. They don’t ask for anything more or better,
she is enough for them”
Source: https://www.diocese-annecy.fr/haute-savoie/sur-les-pas-de-francois-de-sales/esprit-de-cordee-sur-les-pas-de-saint-francois-de-sales/plume-juin.pdf