Devotion is for everyone

Introduction to the Devout Life
Part I, Chapters 1-9
Group 1
(Tien, Steve, John, Cecilia, Rey)
22 September 2006

1) Images: Francis de Sales used a lot of images in his text perhaps for readers to remember. He connects images from Scriptures to his messages too.

2) Devotion is for everyone thus it is a call to holiness: in this way, it is applicable to our time today not only within the Catholic Church but also other Churches are catching on as well.

3) Working gradually to the center: Francis de Sales sets up his preliminary work for the soul going from outside (explaning devotion, charity, sybolism) and works its way into the interior (meditation, purification....)

4) Difficulty in finding a good guide: this was true of Francis's time as well as our time. obedience to the spiritual guide poses as a challenge for sometimes we like to do penance rather than obey our spiritual guide especially when the guide lacks prudent.

5) Spiritual guidance and the ministry of priests and laity. Francis did not say a guide is a priest (perhaps common assumption at the time), but when he talked about purification and about sins, he ventures into the sacramental realm of the ordained ministers. We have now-a-days many spiritual guides who are not priests. What would Francis say about that?

6) Issues of politics and how to practice devotion in one's life. Political life can be corrupted, and to mantain one's holiness of life within the system is a challenge. Should a person leave politics or shoud one stay within it to help improve it? what if one is blind by the corrupted system?

tien