St. Francis de Sales · 1 of 194
Frontispiece
St. Francis de Sales
1567-1622
Bishop, Founder of the Visitation
and Doctor of the Church
Frontispiece
194 chapters
FrontispieceDedicationTranslator's IntroductionDedicatory PrayerPrefaceChapter I. That for the Beauty of Human Nature God has Given the Government of All the Faculties of the Soul to the WillChapter II. How the Will Variously Governs the Powers of the Soul.Chapter III. How the Will Governs the Sensual Appetite.Chapter IV. That Love Rules over All the Affections, and Passions, and Even Governs the Will, Although the Will Has Also a Dominion over It.Chapter V. Of the Affections of the Will.Chapter VI. How the Love of God Has Dominion over Other Loves.Chapter VII. Description of Love in General.Chapter VIII. What Kind of Affinity (Convenance) It Is Which Excites Love.Chapter IX. That Love Tends to Union.Chapter X. That the Union to Which Love Aspires Is Spiritual.Chapter XI. That There Are Two Portions in the Soul, and How.Chapter XII. That in These Two Portions of the Soul There Are Four Different Degrees of Reason.Chapter XIII. On the Difference of Loves.Chapter XIV. That Charity May Be Named Love.Chapter XV. Of The Affinity There Is between God and Man.Chapter XVI. That We Have a Natural Inclination to Love God above All ThingsChapter XVII. That We Have not Naturally the Power to Love God above All Things.Chapter XVIII. That the Natural Inclination Which We Have to Love God Is not Useless.Chapter I. That the Divine Perfections Are Only a Single But Infinite Perfection.Chapter II. That in God There Is But One Only Act, Which Is His Own Divinity.Chapter III. Of the Divine Providence in General.Chapter IV. Of the Supernatural Providence Which God Uses towards Reasonable Creatures.Chapter V. That Heavenly Providence Has Provided Men with a Most Abundant Redemption.Chapter VI. Of Certain Special Favours Exercised by the Divine Providence in the Redemption of Man.Chapter VII. How Admirable the Divine Providence Is in the Diversity of Graces Given to Men.Chapter VIII. How Much God Desires We Should Love Him.Chapter IX. How the Eternal Love of God Prevents Our Hearts with His Inspirations in Order That We May Love Him.Chapter X. How We Oftentimes Repulse the Inspiration and Refuse to Love God.Chapter XI. That It Is no Fault of the Divine Goodness if We Have not a Most Excellent Love.Chapter XII. That Divine Inspirations Leave Us in Full Liberty to Follow or Repulse ThemChapter XIII. Of the First Sentiments of Love Which Divine Inspirations Cause in the Soul before She Has Faith.Chapter XIV. Of the Sentiment of Divine Love Which Is Had by Faith.Chapter XV. Of the Great Sentiment of Love Which We Receive by Holy Hope.Chapter XVI. How Love Is Practised in Hope.Chapter XVII. That the Love Which Is in Hope Is Very Good, Though Imperfect.Chapter XVIII. That Love Is Exercised in Penitence, and First, That There Are Divers Sorts of Penitence.Chapter XIX. That Penitence Without Love Is Imperfect.Chapter XX. How the Mingling of Love and Sorrow Takes Place in Contrition.Chapter XXI. How Our Saviour's Loving Attractions Assist and Accompany Us to Faith and Charity.Chapter XXII. A Short Description of Charity.Chapter I. That Holy Love May Be Augmented Still More and More in Every One of Us.Chapter II. How Easy Our Saviour Has Made the Increase of Love.Chapter III. How a Soul in Charity Makes Progress in It.Chapter IV. Of Holy Perseverance in Sacred Love.Chapter V. That the Happiness of Dying in Heavenly Charity Is a Special Gift of God.Chapter VI. That We Cannot Attain to Perfect Union with God in This Mortal Life.Chapter VII. That the Charity of Saints in This Mortal Life Equals, Yea Sometimes Surpasses, That of the Blessed.Chapter VIII. Of the Incomparable Love Which the Mother of God, Our Blessed Lady, Had.Chapter IX. A Preparation for the Discourse on the Union of the Blessed with God.Chapter X. That the Preceding Desire Will Much Increase the Union of the Blessed with God.Chapter XI. Of the Union of the Blessed Spirits with God, in the Vision of the Divinity.Chapter XII. Of the Eternal Union of the Blessed Spirits with God, in the Vision of the Eternal Birth of the Son of God.Chapter XIII. Of the Union of the Blessed with God in the Vision of the Production of the Holy Ghost.Chapter XIV. That the Holy Light of Glory Will Serve for the Union of the Blessed Spirits with God.Chapter XV. That There Shall Be Different Degrees of the Union of the Blessed with God.Chapter I. That as Long as We Are in This Mortal Life We May Lose the Love of God.Chapter II. How the Soul Grows Cold in Holy Love.Chapter III. How We Forsake Divine Love for That of Creatures.Chapter IV. That Heavenly Love Is Lost in a Moment.Chapter V. That the Sole Cause of the Decay and Cooling of Charity Is in the Creature's Will.Chapter VI. That We Ought to Acknowledge All the Love We Bear to God to Be from God.Chapter VII. That We Must Avoid All Curiosity, and Humbly Acquiesce in God's Most Wise Providence.Chapter VIII. An Exhortation to the Amorous Submission Which We Owe to the Decrees of Divine Providence.Chapter IX. Of a Certain Remainder of Love That Oftentimes Rests in the Soul That Has Lost Holy Charity.Chapter X. How Dangerous This Imperfect Love Is.Chapter XI. A Means to Discern This Imperfect Love.Chapter I. Of the Sacred Complacency of Love; and First of What It Consists.Chapter II. How by Holy Complacency We Are Made as Little Infants at Our Saviour's Breasts.Chapter III. That Holy Complacency Gives Our Heart to God, and Makes Us Feel a Perpetual Desire in Fruition.Chapter IV. Of the Loving Condolence by Which the Complacency of Love Is Still Better Declared.Chapter V. Of the Condolence and Complacency of Love in the Passion of Our Lord.Chapter VI. Of the Love of Benevolence Which We Exercise towards Our Saviour by Way of Desire.Chapter VII. How the Desire to Exalt and Magnify God Separates Us from Inferior Pleasures, and Makes Us Attentive to the Divine Perfections.Chapter VIII. How Holy Benevolence Produces the Praise of the Divine Well-Beloved.Chapter IX. How Benevolence Makes Us Call All Creatures to the Praise of God.Chapter X. How the Desire to Praise God Makes Us Aspire to Heaven.Chapter XI. How We Practise the Love of Benevolence in the Praises Which Our Saviour and His Mother Give to God.Chapter XII. Of the Sovereign Praise Which God Gives unto Himself, and How We Exercise Benevolence in It.Chapter I. A Description of Mystical Theology, Which Is No Other Thing Than Prayer.Chapter II. Of Meditation the First Degree of Prayer or Mystical Theology.Chapter III. A Description of Contemplation, and of the First Difference That There Is between It and Meditation.Chapter IV. That Love in This Life Takes Its Origin but Not Its Excellence from the Knowledge of God.Chapter V. The Second Difference between Meditation and Contemplation.Chapter VI. That Contemplation Is Made Without Labour, Which Is the Third Difference between It and Meditation.Chapter VII. Of the Loving Recollection of the Soul in Contemplation.Chapter VIII. Of the Repose of a Soul Recollected in Her Well-Beloved.Chapter IX. How This Sacred Repose Is Practised.Chapter X. Of Various Degrees of This Repose, and How It Is to Be Preserved.Chapter XI. A Continuation of the Discourse Touching the Various Degrees of Holy Quiet, and of an Excellent Abnegation of Self Which Is Sometimes Practised Therein.Chapter XII. Of the Outflowing (escoulement) or Liquefaction of the Soul in GodChapter XIII. Of the Wound of Love.Chapter XIV. Of Some Other Means by Which Holy Love Wounds the Heart.Chapter XV. Of the Affectionate Languishing of the Heart Wounded with Love.Chapter I. How Love Effects the Union of the Soul with God in Prayer.Chapter II. Of the Various Degrees of the Holy Union Which Is Made in Prayer.Chapter III. Of the Sovereign Degree of Union by Suspension and Ravishment.Chapter IV. Of Rapture, and of the First Species of It.Chapter V. Of the Second Species of Rapture.Of the Signs of Good Rapture, and of the Third Species of the Same.Chapter VII. How Love Is the Life of the Soul, and Continuation of the Discourse on the Ecstatic Life.Chapter VIII. An Admirable Exhortation of S. Paul to the Ecstatic and Superhuman Life.Chapter IX. Of the Supreme Effect of Affective Love, Which Is the Death of the Lovers; and First, of Such As Died in Love.Chapter X. Of Those Who Died by and for Divine Love.Chapter XI. How Some of the Heavenly Lovers Died Also of Love.Chapter XII. Marvellous History of the Death of a Gentleman Who Died of Love on Mount Olivet.Chapter XIII. That the Most Sacred Virgin Mother of God Died of Love for Her Son.Chapter XIV. That the Glorious Virgin Died by and Extremely Sweet and Tranquil Death.Chapter I. Of the Love of Conformity Proceeding from Sacred Complacency.Of the Conformity of Submission Which Proceeds from the Love of Benevolence.Chapter III. How We Are to Conform Ourselves to That Divine Will Which Is Called the Signified Will.Chapter IV. Of the Conformity of Our Will to the Will Which God Has to Save Us.Chapter V. Of the Conformity of Our Will to That Will of God's Which Is Signified to Us by His Commandments.Chapter VI. Of the Conformity of Our Will to That Will of God Which Is Signified unto Us by His Counsels.VII. That the Love of God's Will Signified in the Commandments Moves Us to the Love of the Counsels.Chapter VIII. That the Contempt of the Evangelical Counsels Is a Great Sin.Chapter IX. A Continuation of the Preceding Discourse. How Every One, While Bound to Love, Is Not Bound to Practise, All the Evangelical Counsels, and Yet How Every One Should Practise What He Is Able.Chapter X. How We Are to Conform Ourselves to God's Will Signfied unto Us by Inspirations, and First, of the Variety of the Means by Which God Inspires Us.Chapter XI. Of the Union of Our Will with God's in the Inspirations Which Are Given for the Extraordinary Practice of Virtues; and of Perseverance in One's Vocation, the First Mark of Inspiration.Chapter XII. Of the Union of Man's Will with God's in Those Inspirations Which Are Contrary to Ordinary Laws; and of Peace and Tranquility of Heart, Second Mark of Inspiration.Chapter XIII. Third Mark of Inspiration, Which Is Holy Obedience to the Church and Superiors.Chapter XIV. A Short Method to Know God's Will.Chapter I. Of the Union of Our Will to That Divine Will Which Is Called the Will of Good-Pleasure.Chapter II. That the Union of Our Will with the Good-Pleasure of God Takes Place Principally in Tribulations.Chapter III. Of the Union of Our Will to the Divine Good-Pleasure in Spiritual Afflictions, by Resignation.Chapter IV. Of the Union of Our Will to the Good-Pleasure of God by Indifference.Chapter V. That Holy Indifference Extends to All Things.Chapter VI. Of the Practice of Loving Indifference, in Things Belonging to the Service of God.Chapter VII. Of the Indifference Which We Are to Have As to Our Advancement in Virtues.Chapter VIII. How We Are to Unite Our Will with God's in the Permission of Sins.Chapter IX. How the Purity of Indifference is to Be Practised in the Actions of Sacred Love.Chapter X. Means to Discover When We Change in the Matter of This Holy Love.Chapter XI. Of the Perplexity of a Heart Which Loves Without Knowing Whether It Pleases the Beloved.Chapter XII. How the Soul amidst These Interior Anguishes Knows Not the Love She Bears to God: and of the Most Lovefull Death of the Will.Chapter XIII. How the Will Being Dead to Itself Lives Entirely in God's Will.Chapter XIV. An Explanation of What Has Been Said Touching the Decease of Our Will.Chapter XV. Of the Most Excellent Exercise We Can Make in the Interior and Exterior Troubles of This Life, After Attaining the Indifference and Death of the Will.Chapter XVI. Of the Perfect Stripping of the Soul Which Is United to God's Will.Chapter I. Of the Sweetness of the Commandment Which God Has Given Us of Loving Him Above All Things.Chapter II. That This Divine Commandment of Love Tends to Heaven, Yet Is Given to the Faithful in This World.Chapter III. How, While the Whole Heart Is Employed in Sacred Love, Yet One May Love God in Various Ways, and Also Many Other Things Together with Him.Chapter IV. Of Two Degrees of Perfection with Which This Commandment May Be Kept in This Mortal Life.Chapter V. Of Two Other Degrees of Greater Perfection, by Which We May Love God Above All Things.Chapter VI. That the Love of God Above All Things Is Common to All Lovers.Chapter VII. Explanation of the Preceding Chapter.Chapter VIII. A Memorable History to Make Clearly Understood in What the Force and Excellence of Holy Love Consist.A Confirmation of What Has Been Said by a Noteworthy Comparison.That We Are to Love the Divine Goodness Sovereignly Above Ourselves.Chapter XI. How Holy Charity Produces the Love of Our Neighbour.How Love Produces Zeal.Chapter XIII. How God Is Jealous of Us.Of the Zeal or Jealousy Which We Have for Our Lord.Chapter XV. Advice for the Direction of Holy Zeal.Chapter XVI. That the Example of Certain Saints Who Seem to Have Exercised Their Zeal with Anger, Makes Nothing against the Doctrine of the Preceding Chapter.Chapter XVII. How Our Lord Practised All the Most Excellent Acts of Love.Chapter I. How Agreeable All Virtues Are to God.Chapter II. That Divine Love Makes the Virtues Immeasurably More Agreeable to God than They Are of Their Own Nature.Chapter III. That There Are Some Virtues Which Divine Love Raises to a Higher Degree of Excellence than Others.IV. That Divine Love More Excellently Sanctifies the Virtues When They Are Practised by Its Order and Commandment.Chapter V. How Love Spreads Its Excellence Over the Other Virtues, Perfecting Their Particular Excellence.Chapter VI. Of the Excellent Value Which Sacred Love Gives to the Actions Which Issue from Itself and to Those Which Proceed from the Other Virtues.Chapter VII. That Perfect Virtues Are Never One without the Other.Chapter VIII. How Charity Comprehends All the Virtues.Chapter IX. That the Virtues Have Their Perfection from Divine Love.Chapter X. A Digression upon the Imperfection of the Virtues of the Pagans.Chapter XI. How Human Actions Are Without Worth When They Are Done without Divine Love.Chapter XII. How Holy Love Returning into the Soul, Brings Back to Life All the Works Which Sin Had Destroyed.Chapter XIII. How We Are to Reduce All the Exercise of Virtues, and All Our Actions to Holy Love.Chapter XIV. The Practice of What Has Been Said in the Preceding Chapter.Chapter XV. How Charity Contains in It the Gifts of the Holy Ghost.Chapter XVI. Of the Loving Fear of Spouses; a Continuation of the Same Subject.Chapter XVII. How Servile Fear Remains Together with Holy Love.Chapter XVIII. How Love Makes Use of Natural, Servile and Mercenary Fear.Chapter XIX. How Sacred Love Contains the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost, together with the Eight Beatitudes of the Gospel.Chapter XX. How Divine Love Makes Use of All the Passions and Affections of the Soul, and Reduces Them to Its Obedience.XXI. That Sadness Is Almost Always Useless, Yea Contrary to the Service of Holy Love.Chapter I. That Our Progress in Holy Love Does Not Depend on Our Natural Temperament.Chapter II. That We Are to Have a Continual Desire to Love.Chapter III. That to Have the Desire of Sacred Love We Are to Cut Off All Other Desires.Chapter IV. That Our Lawful Occupations Do Not Hinder Us from Practicising Divine Love.Chapter V. A Very Sweet Example on This Subject.Chapter VI. That We Are to Employ in the Practice of Divine Love All the Occasions That Present Themselves.Chapter VII. That We Must Take Pains to Do Our Actions Very Perfectly.Chapter VIII. A General Means for Applying Our Works to God's Service.Chapter IX. Of Certain Other Means by Which We May Apply Our Works More Particularly to the Love of God.Chapter X. An Exhortation to the Sacrifice Which We Are to Make to God of Our Free-Will.Chapter XI. The Motives We Have of Holy Love.Chapter XII. A Most Useful Method of Employing These Motives.Chapter XIII. That Mount Calvary Is the Academy of Love.Other Books