My Mornings with St Frances de Sales

I am going to do something unusual. I am going to recommend a book that I am only halfway through. I enjoy this book so much, and don’t really envision those feeling changing at all as I continue to progress through the book. As people have been reading and talking about this book for nearly four hundred years I think I am safe in recommending it prematurely. Introduction to the Devout Life was written from a series of letters St Frances had sent to various laity under his spiritual direction. Most notably his cousin Madame Marie de Charmoisy. The book is very gently written and easy to understand. It was written for all Christians, especially those who still live in the world, and acts as a guide book to help us rightly order our minds and activities so we may attain heaven.

A few years ago as my husband was getting set to deploy, I was having a conversation with our priest. I was asking him for suggestions on something gentle and easy to read to encourage and help me in the difficult year I was facing. I wanted it to help me grow spritually, but also not take a lot of brain power to get through. I was facing a year solo, raising and schooling 4 kids, one of which was newly born, I wasn’t (and still am not) ready for Aquinas.. Without a moments hesitation he suggested Introduction to the Devout Life by St Frances de Sales. I promptly downloaded it to my kindle reader and began reading it shortly thereafter. As I began reading it, I was overwhelmed with how incredible it was. It was good, really good, like a gooey fudgy pan of brownies fresh from the oven good. I desperately wanted to keep reading, devouring it, but I also wanted to savor each morsel and let it soak in and transform me. In the everyday care of my busy family, and in my desire not to read the book too quickly it fell by the wayside, and was forgotten about.

Recently, St Frances de Sales kept coming into my day. He would be quoted here and there by very good friends. I would read random blog posts that would talk about his writings. He was trying to get my attention, and I just knew I had to get back into his book. I had to finish it. But I was still hesitant to read it too quickly. I still wanted to be able to absorb it as I was reading it. One morning I was opening my email and reading a tiny bit of the Catechism through flocknote when an idea struck me. What if I did the same thing for Intro to the Devout Life? What if I just read one chapter a day? This would encourage me to finish reading the book, but also give me the time I wanted to savor each small morsel.

I have been doing just that for the past few months now. Every morning, as I finish my coffee, before I officially start my day, I will open my book and read one more chapter from St Frances de Sales. The chapters are short, and so it only takes a few minutes, and then I have the rest of the day to reflect on what I have read. It is hard to limit myself to just one chapter, but I gain so much in just a few short pages, that I benefit from the extra time to reflect on what I just read. The writing is gentle and easy. He has a gift for metaphors which makes it very easy to hold an image in your mind as you go about your day. For example here is one quote from Section 3, Chapter 10 on attending to the cares of life with our too much anxiety:
“Imitate a little child, whom one sees holding tight with one hand to its father, while with the other it gathers strawberries or blackberries from the wayside hedge. Even so, while you gather and use this world's goods with one hand, always let the other be fast in your Heavenly Father's Hand, and look round from time to time to make sure that He is satisfied with what you are doing, at home or abroad. Beware of letting go, under the idea of making or receiving more--if He forsakes you, you will fall to the ground at the first step. When your ordinary work or business is not specially engrossing, let your heart be fixed more on God than on it; and if the work be such as to require your undivided attention, then pause from time to time and look to God, even as navigators who make for the haven they would attain, by looking up at the heavens rather than down upon the deeps on which they sail. So doing, God will work with you, in you, and for you, and your work will be blessed.”

So I encourage you. Whether you buy a hardcopy of the book, download it into an ereader, or read it over the internet, start to read this book. Take it a little bit at a time, one small chapter a day. Start your morning with St Frances de Sales as he teaches us how to turn every moment into a gift for our Savior.

Lent is for lovers

With all the secular focus on valentine's day going on in America right now most non-Catholic Christians are organizing their thoughts around the idea of love... what it means, what it is, what it isn't, and how to live a life filled with true love. For many people, it's a time to focus on marriage and family life. This is done as a contrast to the messages of sex and sensuality sent out by the secular world in an attempt to entice people to a deeper consumerism on February 14 and around it. Valentine's day is a money maker, but it is also a day most people perceive as a promise-- a vision of hope. After all, who doesn't want to be loved and love someone? It's what we are made for.

Every valentine's day I read pages and pages of status updates and tweets that vary in range from woefully depressed and borderline suicidal to ecstatic, all based on the person's emotional responses to the treatment they receive on Valentine's Day. No matter which way I look at it, it is always a big deal in the eyes of my peers, which is ironic since in our family we don't actually celebrate it! Most of these statuses and tweets demonstrate a general consumption with feelings... the carnal, human response to valentine's day is to respond with extraordinary joy if we are shown special attentions and with misery if we are ignored-- or worse, rejected.

What the world doesn't tell you is that Valentine's Day is a relatively unnoticed feast day in the Catholic Church celebrating a saint who suffered a bloody martyrdom for the glory of Jesus Christ. Unless Catholics have a particular devotion to St Valentine, you won't see us doing anything particularly special that day besides mention him in our morning and evening prayers. If we do, it's usually because we are grasping at ways to sanctify the secular mania we see around us-- looking for ways to make holiness out of those pink candy hearts and chocolate covered strawberries, to find meaning in the messages of the promises of sex and love that pass before us this time of year.

Looking at the martyrdom of St. Valentine, though, usually gets missed-- and yet there is so much there to glean. Because what the church is REALLY telling us at this time is not to write gushing love letters to each other and spend lavish amounts on each other's vain imaginings, but to look deep, deep inside at our OWN selfishness and pride.... the things which prevent us from being better expressions of love in the world. It's lent.

Lent comes every year in the forty days before we celebrate Easter. Although it begins at slightly different times in the eastern churches and in the west, and is observed in slightly different ways, one thing is certain: our lives will be consumed, for the next forty days, not with ourselves but with

prayer, fasting, and almsgiving

These are the basic tenets of our faith, and we are told in scripture that when we practice them we are "blessed" and will find "lasting joy."
And yet for most practicing Catholics, lent is the most challenging time of year. We willfully take on practices which are uncomfortable for us. There have been years where I committed to befriending people I couldn't stand, or staying away from foods that I absolutely loved. There have been years where I stopped expressing myself in areas I had become used to letting myself go completely, or when I decided to begin a prayer, fasting, or almsgiving regimen that physically cost me. (in sleep, or money, or pride.... things I hold dear.)

There are various lenten traditions, but the general rule is to pray more, to fast and abstain, especially on wednesday and friday, to make stations of the cross (expect blogs about them soon!) and to give more money than is comfortable for the duration of the forty days. Most people begin a strict regimen or rule of life to help them on their journey.

We do these things in the hope that we can begin to master ourselves and let the Holy Spirit take the reigns. They make the difference between us and the rest of the world--- they make us holy.
Like Saint Valentine, we are called to give ALL for the cause of Christ, but very few answer that call.

For those who do-- the joy and blessedness of Easter when it arrives, beginning with one single flame of hope in the cold, damp darkness of the empty church-- is absolutely tangible.
Today, as many of us take the first step of the difficult lenten journey by coming forward to receive ashes on our foreheads with the words "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return," echoing through the stillness in our hearts, may we all find the strength to reject the wasted lusts and saccharine sentiments of the secular world and press forward into the glory of the paschal mystery where we will find the meaning of True Love.

Preparing for Lent

One of my favorite seasons of the Liturgical year is upon us, friends - Lent. I feel like I get myself more centered on Christ during this time of year than any other. It is a time of repentance and sacrifice that is followed by the joy of the celebration of Christ’s victory over death during Easter.

Last week, my bible study group had a special Lenten Preparation service. Our pastor came and spoke to us about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, praying the Rosary, and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We then had an opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation and to spend some time in adoration. I have to tell you, I felt so amazing afterward. The grace of his mercy and forgiveness just flowed out of me.

Like many others, I find going to Confession uncomfortable, even painful at times. But when it is over, a huge weight is lifted off of my shoulders. It seems a lot like exercise. I don’t ever want to go to the gym, but once I do and actually exercise I wonder why I don’t do it more. If you haven’t received the Sacrament of Reconciliation in awhile, I would encourage you to go especially during this time of the year.

In the few days before Ash Wednesday, we typically talk about “What are you giving up” for Lent this year. My husband and I had a talk with our small children ages 3 and 5 on Sunday about what we could do for our family Lenten observances. One thing we are going to do is to make a LentenCharity Chain. Each time he or I catch one of them being extra kind and caring with their siblings or with us, they will receive a paper strip to add to our chain. Hopefully, by Easter it will be very long and a visual symbol of their charity to each other.

As for myself, I am giving up breakfast cereal. That may sound weird to some of you, but cereal is a representation of my laziness. I actually prefer to eat eggs, oatmeal, or protein smoothies, but out of laziness I revert to the less healthy option of breakfast cereal. 

How are you and your family preparing to observe Lent this year?