Affections and Resolutions: the third part of the Meditation

October 6, 2021 • 2 min

From Introduction to the Devout Life, page 54
By St. Francis de Sales

CHAPTER VI.

Affections and Resolutions: the third part of the Meditation.

Meditation produces pious emotions in the will, or affective part of our soul, such as the love of God and our neighbour; a desire of heavenly and eternal glory; zeal for the salvation of souls; imitation of the life of our Lord; compassion, admiration, joy; fear of God’s displeasure; of judgment and of hell; hatred of sin; confidence in the goodness and mercy of God; and sincere sorrow for the sins of our past life.

In these affections your spirit should extend itself as much as possible, and if you desire to aid yourself with books of devotion, read the preface to the first volume of the Meditations of Dom Andrew Capiglia, where he shows the manner of exercising yourself in this practice, as Father Arias does more at large in the second part of his treatise on prayer.

Yet you must not dwell, Philothea, upon these general affections, without resolving to reduce them to specific and particular resolutions.

For example: the first word our Lord spoke on the cross will doubtless excite in your soul a desire to pardon and to love your enemies; but this will be to little purpose if you do not add to it a particular resolution, saying: “Well, then, I will not hereafter be offended at what this or that particular person may say of me, nor resent any affront he may put on me; but, on the contrary, I will embrace every opportunity to gain his heart, and appease him.”

By this means you will correct your faults in a short time; whereas, by affections only, your amendment will be but slow, and attended with greater difficulty.