Reading Spiritual Classics

The following comments come out of a group discussion on the essay "Reading Spiritual Classics" by Wendy M. Wright, published in her volume Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life and Treatise on the Love of God, rev. ed. (Stella Niagara: DeSales Resources, 2006), 17-28.

Question one: What did you, as a group, find most striking in this essay?

Responses:

• This essay is refreshing to read, perhaps because Wendy Wright writes from experience.
• In approaching Francis de Sales, we are all very much like freshmen: everything is new for us. Naturally we want to move toward a more critical consciousness, and the author puts us on our guard about becoming more critical than conscious.
• We reflected together that Francis de Sales is a diocesan bishop who lived in day-to-day contact with the common people. He spoke their language. We need to find a way to understand that language and the context in which he lived and worked.

Question two: What did you find personally most striking in Wendy Wright's essay?

• When dealing with classical, spiritual writing, it is important to let the author's words come to us gradually so that we pray over what we read and dwell with it. To use an anology, we need to let the material simmer gently.
• Wendy Wright offers many insights, and she is especially clear when she says that we need to change our attitude in approaching authors such as Francis de Sales. Our world and culture and values have changed over time, so it will often happen that we find his explanations out of step with our sensibilities. For instance, he speaks about "loving your abjections". What does this mean? He can't possibly mean that I love to be abused, does he? No. What he is saying is "accept your limits and handicaps, be patient with yourself and love yourself".
• Wendy uses an interesting image when she speaks about God's heartbeat. Spiritual writers want to help us approach God more closely, and if we keep this in mind, we can get beyond the cultural differences to find the deepest value in the encounter. We will discover ourselves in the communion of saints, straining to tack the fragile vessels of our lives in the direction of God as they did before us. We are certainly not alone. For the human heart, despite the centuries, has not changed; its fundamental rehythm is still the heartbeat of God. [Wright, 28]

Reflection of Rey de la Cruz:

In spite of the distance of time and space, we can connect with spiritual authors such as Francis de Sales, for we share the same Gospel Faith. It is in that connection that we are empowered to respond to God in a heart-to-heart way. We cannot reduce God to our world. But this is something about which Francis de Sales was very aware. He wrote over a period of time and revised his writing as his experiences changed. In a similar way, I may have read the writings of Francis de Sales when I was very young, and I certainly learned from that experience, yet now, twenty years later, I have grown in different ways. As I take up his writings today, I read it in a new way because I have different needs now than I had as a youngser. There is a dynamic of growth, therefore, in the author but also in the reader.