| Holy Liberty and Freedom Should Reign in Us |
At our Living Jesus Chat Room this Sunday we will be talking about part of a letter written by Francis de Sales to St. Jane de Chantal, written from Annecy on June 8, 1606, taken from Selected Letters of St. Francis de Sales.To prepare for our chat, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  “For freedom Christ has set us free….” (Galatians 5:1)Photo by Luke Stackpoole on UnsplashI have been thinking about what you wrote and told me: Monsieur N. advised you not to use your imagination or your understanding or long prayers, and that Mere Marie de la Trinite had said the same thing to you about the use of the imagination. If you used it vehemently and dwelt on it very emphatically, then you no doubt needed that correction; but if you imagined something briefly and simply, only to make your spirit attentive and lead its powers towards meditation, I do not think you need as yet give it up altogether. You must neither linger over it nor yet despise it completely. Neither must you go into excessive detail, as for instance thinking about the color of our Lady’s hair, the form of her face and so on; but simply in rough outline, seeing her sigh after her Son, and situations of that kind, and that briefly.I say the same thing about not using the understanding. If without forcing it, your will keeps pace with your affections, there is no need to linger over considerations; but because this does not generally happen to the rest of us who are imperfect, we have to resort to considerations for yet a little while.From all this I gather that you should abstain from long periods of prayer (for I do not call a half or three quarters hours’ prayer long), from the use of your imagination in a forced, particularized and long-drawn-out manner; your use of it should be simple and very brief, only serving as a mere bridge from distraction to recollection. And all the same, apply your understanding to your prayer, for it serves to move the affections, the affections move us to resolutions, resolutions to practice, and practice leads us to accomplish the will of God into which our soul should melt and be dissolved. This is what I think of the matter. If I told you anything contrary to this, or if you understood it differently, you must of course revise your practice.I approve of your abstinences on Fridays, but without a vow or too much constraint. I approve even more that you should work with your hands, as for instance spinning and so on, at times when you have nothing more important to keep you busy, and that your handiwork should be destined either for the altar or for the poor; but not that you should do it so rigorously that if you happened to make something for yourself or your own people, you should tie yourself to giving the poor the value of it; for the most important thing is that a holy liberty and freedom should reign in us and that we should have no other law or constraint except that of love; and if love tells us to do some work for our own people, we may not punish it as though it had done something bad and force it to make amends as you suggest.For whatever love invites us to do, be it for the poor or for the rich, it does all things well and is equally agreeable to our Saviour. I think that if you really understand my meaning, you will see that what I say is true, and that I am fighting for a good cause in defending a holy and charitable liberty; you know that I honor it to an extraordinarily high degree, as long as it is genuine, and far removed from dissolute license which is only a mask of liberty. And then I really laughed, and a good, hearty laugh it was too, when I read that you planned to give me some serge for my use and then expected me to give whatever it was worth to the poor; all the same, I don’t mean to make fun of this suggestion because I see that it wells up from a good and clear desire although the waters of the resulting brook are slightly troubled. 0 may God make me such that everything serving for my use may be restored to his service, and that my life may be so much his, that everything serving to maintain it, may be said to serve his Divine Majesty.I laughed, my dear daughter, but my laughter was mixed with a vivid realization of the difference that exists between what I am and what some people think I am. But let it be! May your intention stand you in good account before God! I am happy to accept a length of cloth from you; but who is going to price it correctly for me? For if I were going to give the poor the price which I put on it, I assure you I should not have that sum at my disposal. Never will a garment have kept me so warm as this; for its warmth will go straight to my heart, and I shall not think it is purple, but rather crimson and scarlet, because, so it seems to me, it will be dyed the colour of charity. Well and good then, for this once; for let me tell you that I do not have clothes made every year but only when I need them; and for the other years we shall find some way of using your work according to your wish. Reflections: Why would St. Jane have been warned against an excessive use of her imagination? What is harmful about it? And why did St. Francis temper it with suggesting something brief; what is helpful about it?What does it mean for our will to keep pace with our affections? What is the relationship between our understanding and our affections?What is true liberty/freedom? How do we know when we are acting in the law of love?What does it mean “for freedom Christ has set us free”?Were you surprised to read that St. Francis laughed? What is the importance of laughter in our life? And can it be unhealthy at times? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time U.S. |