Interiority

  Corrigan Francois

(The Spirituality of St. Francis de Sales: A Way of Life.  Interiority)

For Francis de Sales, to begin with interiority is both a principle of the Christian life and, at the same time, an apostolic method.   He gives expression to this principle in a chapter in the Introduction to the Devout Life which, curiously, treats of the “exercises of exterior mortification”.

(Read further in Corrigan Francois, The Spirituality of St. Francis de Sales: A Way of Life, Translated by Joseph D. Bowler OSFS and Lewis S. Fiorelli OSFS, Bangalore, India: SFS Publications, 1992)

Reason must reign within Interiority

  Corrigan Francois

(The Spirituality of St. Francis de Sales: A Way of Life.  Reason must reign within Interiority)

First of all, interiority.  That is a fundamental mental principle with Francis de Sales.  But he is not looking for the interiority associated exclusively with intimacy; that can become nothing more than pure introspection; it can remain on the level of religious sentiment or romantic feeling.

(Read further in Corrigan Francois, The Spirituality of St. Francis de Sales: A Way of Life.)

  "Since the heart is the source of all our actions, as the heart is, so are they"

(Letters of Spiritual Direction, Theme V)

The Salesian stress on interiority, that is, on beginning from the inner, hidden life, and working outward in whatever setting or circumstances, finds eloquent expression in de Sales’ language of the heart.  To live Jesus meant to engrave that name on the human heart.

(Read further in Letters of Spiritual Direction, Theme V)

Back to top