Treatise on the Love of God St. Francis De Sales
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Treatise on the Love of God St. Francis de Sales Dedicatory Prayer O Holy Mother of God, Queen and vessel of election, you are the most beloved of all creatures. The heavenly Father found pleasure in you from all eternity and destined your heart for perfect love, so you might have a unique motherly love for His Son. O Jesus, to whom could I better dedicate these words on your love? O Mother, at your right hand is Joseph, whom your Son called “Father”. He was united to you in virginal marriage that he might help you. O, St. Joseph, how often you carried Jesus in your arms. Your soul melted away when he whispered that you were his friend and his well-beloved father. Dedicated to Them O Mary and Joseph, a couple without equal! In you, I place my hopes that this book will inflame the children of light with ineffable love. O well-beloved mother, Mary, and well-beloved spouse, Joseph, to you I dedicate this little work of love. I ask you to animate my heart and the hearts of all the readers so we can live once more amid the fires of love that Our Lord enkindled by his death on the cross. Preface The lips of the Church are scarlet and drip with honey so all would know that her teachings are made of sacred love. The scarlet is the blood of the spouse. The honey shows the sweetness of the spouse. At Pentecost, the spouse sent fiery tongues upon the disciples to show that preaching should inflame hearts. All Teachings Belong to Love When the sun shines upon doves, their feathers manifest many different colors which please the eye, so may this book show forth many truths. So, the Church has a variety of teachings from the Church’s pastors. Among these many colors, the fine gold of charity covers all this teaching, raising it above all other learning. All in the Church belongs to love. All light comes from the sun, but sometimes we say the sun is not shining. So, all Christian teaching is about love. However, we limit the title of Divine Love to those teachings which deal with the origin, nature, and works of love. Some ancient Fathers wrote about divine love. St. Paul was taught about love from his heavenly visions. Those scholastics who wrote about love excelled in devotion. This would be St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure and Blessed Denis the Carthusian. John Gersen (University of Paris) was praised for describing the fifty qualities of love in the Song of Songs. He was both learned and devout. These books flow more from love’s devotion than from learned wisdom. The Holy Spirit has inspired passions of heavenly love in St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Angela of Foligno, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Mechtilde and St. Robert Bellarmine S.J. 1 I especially mention St. Teresa of Avila, who writes accurately of Love’s sacred movements. Her eloquence is marked with humility and her wit with simplicity. She has made learned men appear ignorant because they cannot understand when she writes about the practice of love. God confounds the strong through the weak (1Cor.1:27) This book falls short of these other excellent works but I place it in the hands of Mary and Joseph. My goal is to present simply the history of the birth, progress, decay, workings, qualities, advantages and excellences of divine love. Unfortunately, I will diverge from the topic. Writing amidst my daily tasks, I am like nature, which tries to produce grapes, but also produces leaves and branches that need to be pruned. Some Points Explained Readers often criticize writers by hasty and harsh judgments. Therefore, I want to explain some points so you can understand my goals. 1. Some readers will think that I go too deeply into the topic. However, the root is as important as the branch and the leaves. Certainly, for advanced souls, I could have omitted the first four books (out of twelve). Yet, they, too, will profit and other readers will need these four books. 2. Sometimes I quote scripture differently than the Vulgate, but I use these other versions only when they confirm the Vulgate. 3. Also, I quote the Psalms in the translation of Phillip des Portes, although sometimes departing from his translation. 4. Although I learned everything from other authors, I often don’t remember the source, so I seldom give a citation. 5. I have not always clearly shown how the chapters are linked, but the reader can see their connection. 6. The chapters are short because a person is willing to go a short distance to see something beautiful. Readers, knowing that a chapter is short, will more willingly read it. 7. I addressed my first book (Introduction to a Devout Life) to a fictitious woman named Philothea. I was surprised that this kept some men from reading it. Did not St. John write his second letter to Electa? Did not the ancient Fathers write thousands of letters to women? Philothea really meant the soul, and men have souls. In this book, I write to Theotimus, which means “the human spirit” as it desires to make progress in holy love. 8. I write this book for devout souls so they can make progress. Therefore, I must explain deep truths, often generally unknown. Precious pearls lay on the ocean floor and only a few divers willingly go there. The reader must have courage to go to the ocean’s floor to penetrate my words. 9. I touch on theological questions from my experiences in preaching, not from what I learned in class. 10. I write to advanced souls. In this town (Annency) a group of devout women have left the world to serve God. In preaching to them, I often speak about devotion, going far beyond what I wrote in my first book, “Introduction to a Devout Life.” Much of this book, I owe to that group. For years I have thought of writing on holy love and have done my best. If this book falls short, may God still bless your reading. I dedicate this treatise to Mary (the Mother of delightful love) and Joseph (the Father of cordial love). 2 I submit all my writings to the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, the pillar and ground of truth. No one can have God as His Father who will not have the Church for his mother. June 29, 1616 (Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul) A PREPARATION TO UNDERSTAND THE TREATISE 1.1 THE WILL ORDERS ALL FACULTIES God made the will to govern all the faculties so human nature would have beauty. Beauty comes when diverse things are ordered and in harmony. When troops are arranged in order, there is the beauty of an army. When distant voices are united, there is harmony. BEAUTY AND GOODNESS St. Thomas says that beauty and goodness are not the same thing, but they agree. Good pleases both the desires and the will. Beauty pleases the understanding. When we enjoy good, it gives pleasure. When we know beauty, it gives pleasure. We attribute beauty to the eye and to the ear (two senses of knowledge). We do not say there are beautiful smells or tastes. To be seen, beauty requires splendor and brightness. In obscurity and darkness, no beauty is known. St. Denis said, “God is the author of beautiful harmony. His one ray of beauty spreads out, like light, to make all things beautiful.” Theotimus, beauty has no effect if there is no light. GRACE OF HARMONY Living things must also have good grace, with a harmony of movements and actions. In God, we acknowledge a oneness of essence (a harmony), in the distinction of persons (a movement). Also the simple divine act, which is God Himself, totally unchangeable, is harmonious. God made all things beautiful and good. He made a subordination of one thing to another and of all things to Himself. He forms persons into families, families into towns, and towns into a government under one king. Just as society is organized, so God has placed the will in command of all the feelings, faculties and habits of the human person. Pharaoh placed Joseph in charge of Egypt. Just so, the will exercises dominion in many ways. 1.2 HOW THE WILL GOVERNS THE SOUL’S POWERS A father guides his wife and children by his orders, (although they might not obey). He guides his servants by force and he manages his animals by bridles. The will controls the exterior faculties as a master governs servant. These faculties must obey. For example, we can open or shut our eyes. However, the senses are different. The will does not totally control them. 3 VARIOUS COMMANDS A doctor treating an infant gives directions to the mother, not to the baby. Because we cannot command the stomach not to digest, we must command the hand not to give the stomach too much food. We cannot command the eyes not to see. So, we command the head to turn away. The intellect knows and the memory remembers. However, the will controls both. It determines what the intellect reads and what the memory is fed. Yet, the will does not have total control, because sometimes these faculties do not obey. Paul wrote, “I do not do the good I desire, but the evil which I hate.” (Rom 7:15) We often think of the evil we hate and not the good we love. 1.2 HOW THE WILL GOVERNS THE SENSUAL APPETITE The will has power over the memory, understanding and imagination, but these do not always obey.