Francis de Sales’s Introduction to the Devout Life is a practical guide to Christian devotion for people whose work and relationships keep them in ordinary social life. Its five parts lead readers from a desire for a devout life toward a confirmed resolution, then to prayer and the sacraments, through the practice of virtue and the handling of temptation, and back to exercises that renew spiritual resolve.
Counsel ranges from mental prayer, morning and evening prayer, confession, and Communion to conduct at work, in friendship, and within marriage. De Sales distinguishes temptation from consent, and treats anxiety, sorrow, and spiritual dryness as states to meet with guidance and steady practice. On dryness in meditation, he counsels persistence when consolation is absent. The book’s concern is how devotion takes shape through ordinary duties, relationships, and daily choices.
The work belongs to Catholic devotional writing around the turn of the seventeenth century. Its author’s preface is dated at Annecy in 1608, though the complete book’s precise composition date and place are not established. Its attention to town, court, and household life places its counsel within Catholic spiritual direction for lay Christians.
This edition reproduces the 1876 Rivingtons English translation.
- Pages
- 356
- Trim size
- 5.5 × 8.5
- Publisher
- Ciborium Press
- ISBN
- 9781996921203
