12: “Spiritual Retreat” Taking time to simply turn inward can be transformative, especially if we, as teachers, help students to make this a habit. (photo P. Smith)                 This is one of the longer “articles” included in De Sales’ book. Indeed, he does call spiritual retreat “one of the most certain means to spiritual advancement.” If we are serious about pursuing the devout life, we must be engaged in the practice of retreat. At first, we may think he is referring to a multi-day retreat to a cabin somewhere to practice spiritual exercises, but De Sales is actually referring to an inward retreat. He tells us that when we learn to go into our hearts to consider the presence and the Love of Jesus, we can dive more deeply into the devout life.   He tells us   “to retire at various times into the solitude of your own heart”. That means that retreat can occur anywhere at any time, and “our...

11: “The Evening Exercise and Examination of Conscience” The practice of examining our conscience and our conduct often leads us to better notice the beauty around us and, more importantly, the presence of Jesus and His Love in all things. (photo P. Smith)                 For De Sales, the evening reflection is in two parts. First, before dinner, he recommends a “light devotional” where you take time for “simple consideration” and “interior glance”. How easily we can instill this habit in our students, most effectively by modeling and coaching a brief moment of silent stillness before the meal blessing. He also tells us to take the time before bed for an examen. His four steps include 1)Thanksgiving 2)Examination of conduct 3) Asking pardon for sins and 4)Asking for God’s Grace. This can be a simple prayer that we do every day in our classes. Perhaps we can make our lunch prayer a simple sixty-second ...

10: “The Morning Exercise” Just as the sun rises regularly like a celestial habit, our own prayer and meditation should mirror that routine. It is almost as if God reveals to us through Creation that we, too, should routinely come to Him in prayer. (photo P. Smith)                 Prayer is often referred to as “habit of the mind” or “habit of the soul”. But it should really be thought of as “habit of the whole person”. That is, the entire body, soul, and mind… the entire life of a person participates in prayer. De Sales gives us steps for the Morning Exercise, a meditation to begin our daily physical, mental, and spiritual experience on earth. Adore God, Remember that Life is a Gift, Anticipate how You will Serve God that day, and be Humble in Your Recognition that You Need God. Make it a routine so you do not have to think about it. We should certainly do this with our students , as well. Take time ...

9: “The Dryness Sometimes Experienced in Meditation” Small children may not comprehend the importance of the Cross, but the practice and habit of venerating the Cross can and does serve them well right now and later in life. (photo P. Smith).                 No one ever has perfect prayer every time. De Sales knows this, so he reminds us that if we experience “dryness” in our meditation or if we just don’t “feel it”, then we need to be patient. We need to be humble. It is foolish to think that this kind of prayer will always be elevating.   But it is precisely by developing a habit of “exterior devotion” that we can sort of kick ourselves into gear. If we stop practicing meditation because it doesn’t work for us sometimes, then it certainly never will work for us again. As teachers, we can keep this in mind when we start to wonder if the prayers we lead our students in are actually effective. Of ...

8: “Certain Useful Instructions on the Subject of Meditation” We stop, not only when we are tired, but when we can appreciate and contemplate the Grace of God around us...the Beauty of His Creation, in this case. We need stillness. (photo P. Smith)                 Whatever resolutions we make during our meditation or reflection we have, we must continue to be mindful. We cannot make promises in the midst of an encounter with Jesus and then forget those promises as we leave that meditation. Instead, as De Sales states, we need to be continuously mindful of those resolutions. In fact, if we do not practice them, then our meditations can be “vain and dangerous”. When we finish our meditations, we should take time in silence and savor the experience and what God has revealed to us. For us teachers, we need to model and teach the importance of silence. After prayer or after Mass or after any kind of medita...

7: “Conclusion and Spiritual Bouquet” The conclusion to a meditation should always be done in humility...in awe of the one Whom you have encountered. (photo. P. Smith)                 These meditations must conclude with “the greatest possible humility”, and De Sales offers us three acts with which we must end and extend our meditation. If the meditation or encounter with Jesus was like a Beautiful garden through which we just walked, we should recall that one never leaves a Beautiful garden without carrying with them a few flowers to share with the world outside. As we leave our meditations, our three acts are thanksgiving, offering, and supplication. That is, we should be ever-thankful for His Grace, we should offer Praise, and we should implore His Mercy. The meditations we do are not simply so we can grow in the devout life; they are for the world to benefit from our transformation. As teachers...

6: “Affections and Resolutions, The Third Part of Meditation” Students extend and refine what they have learned in the classroom by exploring and testing the word around them. Meditation, by itself, is incomplete without the intellect to reflect. (photo P. Smith)                  De Sales writes, “Meditation produces devout movements in the will….”. His form of meditation is an encounter with Jesus Christ and this encounter inspires and transforms us. But, again, we cannot simply meditate and expect our deepening of the devout life to magically occur. We need to spend time in reflection, considering the way His presence is affecting us. De Sales reminds us that “our mind should open up s much as possible”, both during the meditation and following the meditation. As teachers, we know this to be True with anything we want to learn or to know. We challenge students to not only learn and recall infor...

5: “Considerations, the Second Part of Meditation” Flannery O'Connor's Andalusia Farms. Perhaps, like O'Connor, we should all find a place where we can let our imagination explore the presence of Jesus. More importantly, we should take the time to really reflect on how His presence transforms us. (photo. P. Smith)                  De Sales is careful to remind us that it is not enough to just imagine these scenes from Scripture; we need to use our intellect to examine how we are responding to what we have imagined. That is, we cannot just go outside and imagine we are on a mountain with Jesus; we should take the time to reflect on how that imaginative experience affected our minds, our bodies, and our emotions.   There always needs to be a period of reflection following meditation where our intellect applies vocabulary to our experience. Otherwise, that form of prayer can be empty and lack a...

4: “The Subject of the Mystery, The Third Point of Preparation” Statuary like this scene from the Gospel are opportunities for us to imagine being in the presence of Jesus. Without the statues, we can still use our imagination to place ourselves in the Gospel. (photo. P. Smith)                 De Sales admits that meditation can be a difficult mode of prayer. Indeed, he uses terms like “composition of place” and “interior lesson” to discuss the what it means to meditate. De Sales suggests that we start with a relatively easy meditation. He suggests we begin with a physical image of Jesus, as opposed to an ethereal or transcendent Truth of God. We should use our imagination to place ourselves in a Biblical scene and meditate on what we see, hear, smell, etc…. We can do this with our students. We can invite them to go outside and literally use their imagination to place themselves at the Sermon on the...

3: The Invocation, the Second Point of Preparation” Ideally, our priests should be models of the devout life. Often, they need the rest of the Church to help them to encounter God. (photo P. Smith)                 While the last chapter of De Sales’ book focuses on mindfully considering the presence of God and knowing that God is working through all things, this chapter discusses the need to ask God for His assistance in actually saying those prayers we need in order to grow in the devout life. He tells us to prostrate our soul and implore “his grace in order to serve and adore him properly”. This sort of prayer can be difficult, but luckily God gives us each other, the Saints, and the Angels to help us. De Sales tells us to invoke each other and, especially, the Saints and our Guardian Angels in the pursuit of deep, mental prayer before God. As teachers, we walk with our students in this pursuit. We ...

2: “A Short Method of Meditation, and First of the Presence of God, Which is the First Point of the Preparation” Just as Jesus, the child, brought people to the Father, so too can our students bring us to Him. (photo. P. Smith)                 De Sales tells his audience that many in his time do not know how to “pray mentally”. The same is True in the modern world. This applies, perhaps more so, to us, right now. In order to pray mentally, De Sales teaches that we need to, first, place ourselves in the presence of God and, second, invoke His presence. Indeed, God can work through all things to encounter us, so we remain aware of this Truth. As teachers, there are two things that we always need to remember. First, God can encounter us thorugh our students; they are Graces to us and we should treat them, as such. Second, our students can encounter God through us, so we should be diligent in our relation...

The Second Part of the Introduction Various Instructions for Elevating the Soul to God by Prayer and the Sacraments 1: “The Necessity of Prayer” We must be deliberate in our action and intention to get the right photograph. It takes waking up before dawn and planning to get the right shot. Prayer is similar. (photo. P. Smith)                  “[P]rayer places our intellect in the brilliance of God’s light…” Prayer is an intellectual assent to Wisdom and Grace of God. It is a choice we make to put ourselves in His presence and to let Him guide us to right thought, action, word, etc… to the point that all we do is good…all we do is virtue. De Sales tells us to practice mental prayer. That is, do not simply go though the motions of prayer; rather, be mindful…be deliberate. As teachers we certainly should be setting aside specific time for prayer in the presence of the Lord, as, again, we cannot ...