Meditations from The Introduction to the Devout Life
The first step in living a life of devotion - that is, doing what is right, and doing the right thing diligently, frequently and readily - requires a change of heart. Pursuing a practical path to holiness begins with a personal decision: to turn away from darkness and to live in the light.
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales wrote: "I speak here of a general renewal of the heart and complete conversion of your soul to God by undertaking a devout life, it seems to me that…you should faithfully practice the following meditations. By the help of God's grace they will be very helpful in rooting out of your heart both sin and the chief affections for it. I have composed them for this purpose…"
We have updated some of the language of these meditations while being faithful to their spirit and purpose. Francis de Sales suggested doing one meditation per day. Depending upon your situatiuon, circumstances or needs, perhaps you might wish to do one per week…one per month…however you feel drawn to use these meditations to weed out sin from your heart and to make more room in your heart for the love of God and neighbor.
Links to these ten meditations (in PDF format) are provided below. You will need Acrobat Reader (a free download at www.adobe.com) in order to open and print them.
Download all of the meditations in a .zip file.
Or individually as PDFs below.
