St. Francis de Sales' "Spiritual Directory" for a New Century:
Re-interpreting
the "Direction of Intention"
Fr. Anthony R.
Ceresko, osfs
I. The "Spiritual Directory": A Key to Francis'
"Method" for the Spiritual Life
The writings of St. Francis de Sales
in connection with the founding of the Visitation Order include a series of
"shorter works" (opuscules) gathered by St. Jane de Chantal
and the early Visitandines into what came to be called the "Custom
Book." Among the pieces preserved in this "Custom Book" were a
series of "Directories," including "The Spiritual Directory for
daily actions."1 St. Francis intended this "Spiritual
Directory" for use by all Visitandines; but "it was regarded as
especially helpful for formation in the novitiate."2
Such a "Spiritual Directory for
daily actions" had the purpose of maintaining a sense of God's presence
throughout the day, and infusing one's ordinary
activities with a spirit of prayer and communion with God. The
"articles" in this Spiritual Directory for the Visitation focus on
the various moments in the routine of each day - rising, meditation, meals, the
chanting of the Office, recreation, and so forth. Francis suggests pious thoughts
and appropriate quotes from the scriptures for each activity. He intersperses
these thoughts and scripture quotes with descriptions of the correct attitude
and spirit that one should bring to each activity.
A study of Francis' style of spiritual direction demonstrates that the
preparation of such a "Spiritual Directory for daily actions" fits
very well with his usual method and approach. When he was studying law at the
University of Padua, Francis prepared a short guidebook to regulate his own
spiritual life. This came to be known as the Rule of Padua. Fr. Edward
Carney, O.S.F.S., points out,
This youthful practice of writing and following amle influenced Francis
in his spiritual direction of other people in the years of his priesthood. For
example, on August 26 or 27, 1604, he gave to Madame de Chantal written
directions on how to pass the day well.3
Further letters to Madame de Chantal and to others who sought his
direction provide additional evidence of this practice of Francis in his
guidance of those who came to him for advice.
Francis wrote this "Spiritual Directory" that we find today as
part of the Visitation "Custom Book" toward the end of his life.
Although written specifically for the first Visitandines, this Spiritual
Directory represents a distillation into a brief and compact form the fruits of
Francis' many years of experience and wisdom in living the Christan life and in
guiding and directing others in that same endeavor. This "Spiritual
Directory" thus holds a unique place among Francis' writings. It provides
a privileged access to the style and method of this great spiritual master.
One branch in particular of the Salesian family has focused on this
"Spiritual Directory" as having special importance for their identity
and unique character. This branch includes the two Congregations founded by Fr.
Louis Brisson, Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis, and St. Léonie Aviat in Troyes,
France, during file latter part of the nineteenth century. These include the
Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales (1867) and Oblates (Fathers and
Brothers) of
St. Francis de Sales (1875).4
The Constitutions of the Oblates (Fathers and Brothers), for example,
states at the outset the crucial place that this "Spiritual
Directory" has for their life and identity:
The particular charism of the
Congregation is the spirit of St. Francis de Sales, and the privileged means of
acquiring this spirit is the Spiritual Directory for daily actions. The
faithful practice of the Directory has been prescribed for the Oblates
by Father Brisson as their specific means of retracing in themselves the image
of St. Francis de Sales, who was himself an image of Our Lord.5
II. The "Direction of Intention": The Heart of Francis' Spiritual
Directory
Fr. Brisson adapted the "Spiritual Directory" from the
Visitation "Custom Book" for use by the members of his two
Congregations. In this adapted form, the first portion of it ("Article
I") has the title, "Rising and Direction of Intention." It is
the socalled "Direction of Intention" in particular that I wish to
focus on. I would argue that it gives us unique insight into Francis' approach
to living our daily Christian life. Further, I intend to show how this
"Direction of Intention" has particular relevance for followers of
Francis' teachings on the spiritual life in our contemporary world.
The text of Francis' instruction concerning the "Direction of
Intention," as prepared for the Oblates by Fr. Brisson, reads as follows:
The Oblates who wish to thrive and
advance in the way of Our Lord should, at the beginning of their actions, both
exterior and interior, ask for his grace and offer to his divine goodness all
the good that they will do. In this way they will be prepared to bear with
peace and serenity all the pain and suffering they will encounter as coming
from the fatherly hand of our
good God and Savior. His most holy
intention is to have them merit by such means in order to reward them
afterwards out of the abundance of his love.
They should not neglect this practice in matters which are small and
seemingly insignificant, nor even if they are engaged in those things which are
agreeable and in complete conformity with their own will and needs, such as
drinking, eating, resting, recreating and similar actions. By following the
advice of the Apostle, everything they do will be done in God's name to please
him alone.6
One can sense immediately the importance of this passage and the
reasonfor its presence almost at the very beginning of the "Spiritual
Directory." The Direction of Intention does not concern any action in
particular. Rather, it provides the attitude and approach that one should bring
toward every action, even "matters which are small and seemingly
insignificant." Fr. Roger Balducelli comments:
While the Directory as a whole gives directions concerning various
exercises to be done, the direction of intention prescribes the pre-intending
of all our actions and exercises in relation to God. Thus it is not, in itself,
an exercise in the customary sense, but a stylization of the process, the
process through which deeds are done.7
Consequently, Fr. Balducelli points out that the English term
"Direction of Intention" does not adequately describe this
"preintending of all our actions and exercises in relation to God."
Rather, “The Right Intending of Deeds" represents the more accurate name:
Older French titles betray... the correct perception of the content.
Article I of the Revised Text is entitled "... and the Righiness of the
Intention." "Rightness" ("droicture") is accurate, for
what the Directory prescribes is a "rightness" that should be
impressed on intentions...8
III. Francis' Strategy in the "Direction of Intention" (or
"Right Intending of Deeds")
When he prefaced his "Spiritual Directory for daily actions" with
this opening section on "The Right Intending of Deeds," Francis had
in mind the entire variety of actions that engage our time and attention in the
course of every day. These include even the most ordinary and mundane
activities "such as drinking, eating, resting, recreating and similar
actions." By consciously intending each action "for God's
glory," "... everything they do will be done in God's name and to
please him alone."
In other words, Francis explains the purpose of this
"intending" as a way for the individual to live the "devout
life" and reach heaven: "His (God's) most holy intention is to have
them merit by such means in order to reward them afterwards out of the
abundance of his love." Francis focuses almost entirely on the individual
and his or her growth in holiness, their advancement in prayer and in Living a
virtuous life. The person's attention is constantly directed to God's presence
in the midst of their daily round of activities.
But Francis does not seem to place much emphasis on the nature of the
actions themselves, their broader impact on others and on the wider world, and
their potential in helping to create a more just and peaceful human community.
As I have written in an earlier article:
The overriding emphasis in Francis' writings seems to be on personal
conversion or change. There appears to be very little which might address the
larger questions of social justice and file challenge to followers of Jesus
today to work for the structural changes essential to bring about a genuine
transformation of society.9
IV. A Modern Spirituality of Daily Human Activity
The Second Vatican Council marked a sea change in our appreciation of
the wider web of interconnectedness that entangles each of our actions as human
beings living in the modern "global village." Even the most ordinary
actions, such as drinking a cup of coffee or turning a light switch on or off,
links us with an entire, even world wide, network of social, political, and
economic factors. Each action in some way possesses the possibility of moving
this world and our human community toward a better, more lifeenhancing
direction or ever deeper into chaos and death. Modem thinkers and theologians
such as Karl Rahner and Tellhard de Chardin have seized on the significance of
this wider scope of our actions as individual human beings. They have also
pointed out the theological implications. Over and above our "personal
advancement in holiness," each of our actions also involves us in God's
creative and salvific purpose for humankind and for the universe.
In his essay on "Christian Living
Formerly and Today," for instance, Karl Rahner outlines the kind of piety
appropriate for post-Vatican U Catholics:
Vatican II exhorts Christians to consider their task in the world of
today, to cooperate with all in the construction of a greater freer world, one
more worthy of mankind, to take responsibility and not merely to ask how man
should act in a given case in order to avoid offending God, but to ask what man
can do in order to make life worth living.10
Rahner highlights the social and political
dimensions of this new way of understanding our daily activities in the context
of our Christian vocation:
The Christian cannot simply dismiss
politics as a 'dirty business', and expect God to give this 'dirty business' to
others to carry out and not to him, so that he himself can pursue his own quiet
devotions in the comfort of the petit-bourgeois.11
Teilhard de
Chardin expresses a similar understanding of this wider, all encompassing
concept of the Christian vocation in more poetic language. He describes
"the relationship between natural and supernatural actions in the
world" as follows:
Any increase that I can confer upon
myself or upon things is translaUd into some increase in my power to love and
some progress in Christ's blessed hold upon the universe. Our work appears to
us in the main as a way of earning our daily bread. But its essential virtue is
of a higher order: through it again we augment in some sense, in relation to
ourselves, the divine
end of that union, Our Lord Jesus
Christ.12
In its Pastoral Constitution on
"The Church in the Modem World," the Second Vatican Council echoes
these sentiments of de Chardin. The Council Fathers recognize the wider web of
interconnectedness of which even the most ordinary of our daily actions form a
part:
Believers are agreed that individual
and collective human activity, the massive endeavour of humanity throughout
history to improve the conditions of life, corresponds in principle to God's
design. Created in God's image, humankind was commissioned to subdue the earth
and all it contains, to rule the world in justice and holiness, and,
recognizing God as the creator of all things, to refer itself and the totality
of things to God so that, with everything subject to God, the divine name would
be admired through all the earth.
This also applies to everyday
activities. Men and women who are providing for themselves and their families,
and are thus performing an appropriate service in society, can rightly regard
themselves as furthering the creator's work by their labour, as being concerned
for the wellbeing of their fellows and as making a personal contribution to the
achievement of the divine plan in history ...
The Christian message is seen, then, not as discouraging them from
building the word, or as leading them to neglect the wellbeing of their
fellows, but as strictly obliging them to this
as their duty.13
Thus the artist who sculpts a beautiful statue, the teacher who helps
the child learn to read, the engineer who builds a sturdier and safer bridge,
the scientist who discovers a better cure for some feared illness, all play a
part in moving the world toward the blessed end for which God created it. All
the more ought believers to keep before their eyes the focus and goal of their
daily actions. All of our deeds, in one way or another, can contribute to or
hinder the accomplishment of the creator's will for the world, the coming to be
of the New Jerusalem envisioned by the prophet of the Apocalypse:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more ... And I heard a loud voice from the throne proclaiming,
"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their
God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their
eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be
no more,
for the first things have passed
away."14
The Modern Concern for Justice and Liberation
A deep confidence in the potential for human creativity and genius to
foster progress and to create a better world inspired the optimism and hope
that characterizes the writings of de Chardin and the Fathers of the Second
Vatican Council. That optimism and hope enabled them to catch a glimpse of the
way that life in this world can and should be lived. Their vision of what is
possible for our human community fired the imagination and enthusiasm of
Catholics and people of good will everywhere.
In more recent times, however, liberation theologians and others have
tempered this optimism and hope. They have made us aware of the many injustices
that plague our world today and the widespread poverty that results in
suffering and death for so many inhabitants of our earth. These injustices
result from the oppressive and exploitative character of the structures of
power: the imbalances built into our economic system, for example, and the
exclusion of so many from the processes of decision-making about things that
affect their daily lives and futures.15
The elimination of poverty and an end to these injustices can. only come
through changes in the economic, political, and social arrangements in our
society. All of us in one way or another are caught up in the webs created by
these power structures. Thus we have come to learn that the kingdom of God
proclaimed by Jesus calls for not only a personal metanoia, a change of
heart by each individual. The coming to be of that kingdom demands also changes
in these unjust structures and arrangements that encourage and even reward
greed, exploitation, and oppression. The Indian biblical theologian, George
Soares-Prabhu, has provided a clear description of the two-fold nature of our
task as followers of Jesus today:
The Kingdom [of God] thus calls for a change of hearts and a change of
structures. A change of hearts without a change of structures... will leave
present oppression unchanged. A change of structures without a change of hearts
will lead to new oppression, as the 'liberated' oppressed are driven by the as
yet unexorcised demons of selfishness and greed that possess them to become
oppressors in their ram. Only the two together can shape the world in which
there will be neither oppressor nor oppressed, because men have learnt to live
together without exploiting one another in fellowship and freedom.16
A Two-Fold Focus for the "Right Intending" of Our Deeds
In the past, disciples of St.
Francis de Sales have stressed the possibilities for the Direction of Intention
as a means of personal transformation and advancement in the ways of God.
Through file "fight intending" of our actions, "God becomes
established in (our) inner space as a constant, unbroken and all-encompassing
presence."17 However, as I have pointed out in the previous
section, we need to expand the understanding of our daily activities and take
into account their impact on the wider world in which we live. Each of our
actions has some effect, for good or ill, on other people, the physical world,
and the wider web of institutions and arrangements in which we have a role as
members of the human community and as inhabitants of the physical universe.
Thus the "right intending" of each action must also take into account
this external dimension. "Bringing God into the picture" is not
enough if we limit it simply to fostering the awareness of God's presence in
our "inner space." We should examine each action's
"rightness" and potential for advancing "Christ's blessed hold
upon the universe" in the wider external world as well.
One can see how such a program for
pursuing Christian perfection would lead us constantly to examine and evaluate
the various aspects of their lives-- family, work, leisure activities, and our
commitments in the political, economic, and social spheres. Through a
"right intending" of our deeds, God becomes not only the constant
companion in our everyday actions. God and God's plan for our world and our
human community becomes more explicitly the end and goal of everything in which
we are engaged. Our personal transformation in terms of a closer union with God
in prayer and in awareness of God's presence in each action is joined to the
potential of these deeds to achieve a transformation of human society and the
creation of a more just and peaceful human community. In the words of de
Chardin, "God is inexhaustibly
attained in the totality of
our actions."18
Conclusion
Someone who reads the writings of St.
Francis de Sales without a knowledge of his life and activities could
misinterpret them as fostering an individualistic and privatized kind of piety.
But one must see Francis' works on the spiritual life against the background of
his deep involvement in the issues and events of his day. He was fully engaged
as a public figure: bishop, author, founder, reformer, diplomat -- and saint.19
Seen in this light, one can appreciate much more the genius of his approach to
the spiritual life: its concreteness, practicality, simplicity, and
attractiveness. It is well suited to infuse a spirit of prayer and commitment
to Gospel values into the "busy-ness" of daily life filled with the
distractions that so easily fragment our attention and obscure our sense of
direction and purpose.
But Francis was a man of his day. He was certainly not a
"liberation theologian" in the modem sense of the term, nor did he
raise questions about the social order of his day. Nonetheless, as
"classic texts" on the spiritual life, his writings possess a
"surplus of meaning.”20 In other words, when readers in later
limes and cultural situations come to Francis' writings with different
backgrounds and different questions, these writings are able to speak to them
in new ways and yield new meanings and insights. Such meanings and insights may
go beyond the original intention of the author or the understanding of his
audience. But the text itself is open to such reinterpretation and broadening
of its meaning. In words of John Chethimattam, "... the classical
religious texts are said to have always an excess meaning, that is, they mean
more than they actually meant."21 As long as these new readings
do not betray or distort Francis' thought, they represent a legitimate
development and extension of his insights and ideas.
This explains something of what I
have been doing in re-reading this classic text of Francis' Spiritual
Directory and in particular the passage on the "right intending"
of one's deeds. I have shown how the genius of Francis and the potentially
transforming character of his spirituality manifest themselves here at the heart
of his approach to daily Christian life. This focus on the "right
intending" of our daily actions is open to a widening of its scope beyond
simply the internal attitudes that can transform us into new creatures. We can
also "rightly intend" these actions, aware of their potential to
transform our society and world as well. In this way we can bring together and
integrate the two dimensions of our life as human beings, the internal and the
external, into a single, Kingdom-oriented effort: the internal awareness of
God's constant presence with us and the external aiming of our efforts toward
creating a more just and peaceful human community.
Let me conclude by
proposing a reworking of the formula for the "Direction of Intention"
that takes into account this new way of understanding it:
My God, give me your grace. I offer you all the good that I shall do in
this action and all the pain and suffering to be found in it. Stay close to me
and help me to see how what I am doing can advance "Christ's blessed hold
upon the universe." Amen.22
Annotations
1 "Directoire
des choses spirituelles" in Saint Francis de Sales, Oeuvres de saint
François de Sales, Evêque de Genève et Docteur de l'Eglise. Edition
complete (Annecy: Religieuses de la Visitation, 1893-1963), vol. 25 (
Opuscules, Cinquième Série - La Visitation), p. 137-175.
A popular
edition for lay people has been published by Lewis S. Fiorelli, O.S.F.S.,
Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales: Reflections for the Laity
(Boston, Massachusetts: St. Paul Editions, 1985).
2 Edward J.
Carney, O.S.F.S., "The Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales: A
Question of Authorship," The Communicator (Newsletter of the Institute of Salesian Studies),
vol. 1, No. 3 (Hyattsville, Maryland, 1971), p. 5, ft. 26.
3 Ibid., p. 1.
4 A popular
biography of Fr. Brisson by Katherine Burton (So Much, So Soon: Father
Brisson, Founder of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales [New York:
Benzinger Brothers, 1952]) gives a brief description of his life and the events
that led to his founding of these two religious orders in collaboration with
St. Léonie Aviat and the Visitation nun, Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis.
5 The
Constitutions, The General Statutes, and The Spiritual Director)., of the
Oblates of St. Francis de Sales (Wilmington, Delaware: De Sales Publishing,
1991), Constitution #14, p. 21.
6 Ibid., p.
192-3. The translation follows almost word for word the original French text;
the only change is the replacement of "the Sisters (les Seurs)" by
"the Oblates" at the beginning. "The Apostle" mentioned is
St. Paul; see 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3: 17.
Various
"formulas" for making this "direction of intention" are
suggested on p. 252. The shortest one reads: "My God, give me your grace.
I offer you all the good I shall do in this action and all the pain and
suffering to be found in it. Amen."
7 Roger
Balducelli, O.S.F.S., A Commentary on the Directory of St. Francis de Sales,
Chapter V "On Intention," p. 66 (private printing; Chapter V is dated
March 25, 1973).
8 Ibid., p. 66.
He continues, "Likewise, the phrase 'dresser son intention' that appears
in other French editions is quite correct. 'Dresser' means in this context 'to
tend to, to fashion, to process.' And this is precisely what the precept
describes" (p. 66-7).
9 Anthony R.
Ceresko, OS.ES., "A Hermeneutical Strategy for a Liberationist
Interpretation of St. Francis de Sales," Vidyajoti Journal of
Theological Reflection 63/1 (January 1999), p. 37-46, see p. 37. Reprinted
in Room for All: Insights for the Millennium (edited by John
Sankarathil, Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2000), p. 164-76, see p.
164.
10 Karl Rahner,
Theological Investigations, Volume VII: Further Theology of the Spiritual
Life I (translated by David Bourke; London/New York: Darton, Longman and
Todd/Herder and Herder, 1971), p. 18.
11 Ibid., p. 19.
12 Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu: An Essay on the Interior Life
(New York: Harper and Row, 1960), p. 32.
13 From paragraph
34 ("The Value of Human Activity") of "The Pastoral Constitution
on the Church in the Modem World (Gaudium et Spes)," Decrees of the
Ecumenical Councils, Volume Two, Trent to Vatican II (Edited by
Norman P. Tanner; London/Washington, D.C.: Sheed and Ward/Georgetown University
Press, 1990), p. 1089-90.
14 Revelation
21:1-4 (New Revised Standard Version). See also the "utopian"
visions described in Isaiah I 1:1-9 and 25: 6-10a.
15 See, for
example, Felix Wilfred, "Church's Commitment to the Poor in the Age of
Globalization," Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 62/2
(February 1998), p. 79-95. More recently, Wilfred ("The Agenda of the
Victims: The Poor Explore the Hopes for a New Century," Jeevadhara: A
Journal of Christiat: Interpretation, vol. 30, no. 175 [January 2000], p.
7-28) has noted, "How much we have really become human is the disturbing
question of the victims at the dawn of the new century. The century that has
elapsed could boast of many achievements of human ingenuity. All these may give
the false image of a humanity in continuous progress. We come to the sober
realization of where we are when we look at the misery and destitution that
characterize the life of the majority of the people on the globe. Year after
year, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) comes out with disconcerting
facts about the scandalous inequality that characterize our world and our
societies. As long as this situation continues, no one can really talk of real
progress" (p. 15). Wilfred cites in his footnote the Huntan Development
Report, 1999, 1998, Oxford University Press, Delhi; Human Development
Report 1997. Oxford University Press, New York.
16 George M.
Soares-Prabhu, S.J., The Kingdom of God, Jesus' Vision of a New Society
(Bangalore: National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre, 1981), p.
29.
17 Balducelli,
A Commentary on the Directory, p. 69.
18 The Divine
Milieu, p. 32.
19 See E.J.
Lajeunie, O.P., Saint Francis de Sales: The Man, The Thinker, His Influence,
(2 vols.; translated by Rory O'Sullivan, O.S.F.S.; Bangalore: S.F.S. Publications,
1986).
20 Ceresko,
"A Hermeneutical Strategy," p. 38-40. See also Paul Ricoeur,
Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning (Fort Worth,
Texas: Texas Christian University, 1976).
21 John B.
Chethimattam, "Religion the Cutting Edge of Culture," Jeevadhara:
A Journal of Christian Interpretation, vol. XXXI, Nos. 184 & 185 (July
& September 200 I), p. 349-65, see p. 363.
22 See above,
footnote 6.