Book Review: Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

      Let me just say this…for anyone in discernment or looking to enhance their spiritual life, this is the book to get.  Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales reads like a step by step handbook for those looking to live a devout life, according to God’s will and plan.

      St. Francis de Sales was a man of deep, devout faith who is best known for his writings on spiritual direction and spiritual formation, specifically Introduction to the Devout Life and the Treatise of the Love of God.  If you do not have a spiritual director, get one.  If you’re not engaging in spiritual reading, it’s time to start, and this is the book to start with.

      Introduction to the Devout Life is a book comprised of five parts, with short chapters.  The book is broken down as follows:

      Part 1: Counsels and Exercises for the Guidance of the Soul from Its First Desire After a Devout Life unto a Full Resolution of Pursuing the Same

      Part 2: Counsels as to Uplifting the Soul to God in Prayer and the Use of the Sacraments

      Part 3: Counsels Concerning the Practice of Virtue

      Part 4: Counsels Concerning Some Ordinary Temptations

      Part 5: Counsels and Practices for Renewing and Confirming the Soul in Devotion

      Part 3, “Counsels Concerning the Practice of Virtue,” is the part I connected with the most.  It offers consolations on patience and humility, both virtues of great importance, and of which I fall short on numerous occasions.  There is a line in Part three that really resonated with me:

“An active effort to acquire virtue is the first step towards goodness; but an active effort to acquire honor is the first step towards contempt and shame.”

      Chapter 5 of Part three is titled, “Inner Humility.” This is something I strive very hard to establish and maintain in my daily life.

“…when God wills to grant us a favor, it is mere pride to reject it, that God’s gifts must needs be accepted, and that true humility lies in obedience and

the most literal compliance with his will!”

      This book offers advice on establishing real friendships, maintaining purity, modesty in dress (something lacking in society today, especially in the Sunday church crowd), hints on meditation, and so much more.  One must not fall into ignorance to believe that living a devout life is only meant for those living chaste, single lives.  That would be an erroneous assumption.  This book offers practices towards establishing a devout life within the married life.

      There is so much goodness in this book that I wish I had been introduced to it much sooner in my life.  As someone in religious discernment currently, this book is an essential tool towards establishing, maintaining, and renewing a devout, spiritual life.  This is truly and quite literally becoming a handbook for me and my spiritual and religious journey.  This may just be the tool I been longing for in my life.  Time will tell if my life receives any true benefit from it, but I am sure my life can only benefit from such a book, rather than not benefit.

      To Francis de Sales, I say this: Thank you for your wisdom and insights found within this book.  May it definitely introduce me, and anyone else, to a devout life.