St. Francis de Sales: On Prayer

(Above, St. Francis de Sales giving the rule and constitutions to St. Jane de Chantal - the other founding mothers are in the background.)

 As spiritual directors, both Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal encouraged their directees to become aware of God’s movements within them and to respond fully to the spirit of God that speaks and lives uniquely within each one of us. For them, “indifference” extended even to prayer, accepting both desert and Tabor experiences in prayer as gifts from God. Francis wrote to Madame de Granieu in 1618. I quote: ”Your kind of prayer is very good, indeed much better than if you made many reflections and used many words, for these are only meant to arouse our affections; if God is pleased to give us affections without the reflections and words, this is a great grace. The secret of secrets in prayer is to follow our attraction in simplicity of heart.”

Later in the same letter is an example of the liberty of spirit he offered to his directees. “Although you ought to prepare a point for meditation, if God drew you to a particular affection as soon as you came into His presence, then you were not to hold on to the point, but follow the affection; the more simple and peaceful it is, the better, for then it will bind your soul more closely to its object… Don’t waste time during prayer trying to understand what you are doing or how you are praying; for the best prayer is that which keeps us so occupied with God that we don’t think about ourselves or about what we are doing. In short, we must go to prayer simply, in good faith and artlessly, wanting to be close to God so as to love Him, to unite ourselves to Him. True love has scarcely any method.”

In this letter Francis makes three recommendations for prayer: First, we need to prepare a point for meditation. By “point for meditation” Francis meant reading a Scripture passage in the hope that reflection upon it during prayer would arouse affections for God within us. These affections are the essence of prayer. Here we use our intellect to help us make contact with God. Second, sometimes God takes the initiative and invades our hearts. He skips over the reflection stage and stills our souls in awe before Him. Or God may flood our beings immediately with affections of love, yearning, sorrow for sin, etc. Since being with God in silence or dialogue is the heart of prayer, we then omit the points. Here heart knowledge is our contact with God. Third, our prayer focuses on God, not on our relationship to God nor on what we are doing as we pray. We are content to remain simply before God in an attitude of surrender. The above is called methodless prayer and is the hallmark of Salesian spirituality. It is a simple waiting before God in loving attention. This prayer of waiting may be filled with consolations or dryness. Dryness was Jane’s portion for decades, and it sanctified her. For to be as content in desolation and dryness as in consolation and sweetness is the height of disinterested love.