The Spiritual Maxims of St. Francis de Sales

[Denise]

On How to die well

We must leisurely say good-bye to the world, and little by little withdraw our affections from creatures.

We must live a dying life, and we must die a living death in the life of our Lord.

In what measure God draws to Himself, one by one, the treasures which our heart has here below. He draws with them our heart itself.

[Denise]

Go, dear friend, go into that eternal existence, at the time fixed by the King of eternity; we shall go thither after you.

Happy are they who, being always on their guard against death, find themselves always ready to die.

We are dying little by little; so we are to make our imperfections die with us day by day.

[Denise]

Unhappy is death without the love of Christ; unhappy is the love without the death of Christ.

You will not be separated or divided, for all will go away and all will stay.

Our age is not so delightsome that those who quit it should be much lamented.

[Denise]

How can he will to die for God, who will not live according to God?

The consolations of this life appear in a moment, and another moment carries them off.

If Purgatory is a species of hell as regards suffering, it is even more a species of paradise as regards heavenly love and sweetness.

[Denise]

BE ON YOUR GUARD

The life is a continual warfare and there is no one who can say, I am not attacked.

We are rarely in this mortal life without many temptations.

THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT

Our victory does not lie in our not feeling imperfections, but in not consenting to them.

It is a good sign when the devil makes so much noise and tempest round about the will; it is a sign that he is not within.

All the temptations of hell cannot stain a soul which does not love them.

[Denise]

To have bad inclinations does not depend on ourselves, while to have bad affections does.

Let the enemy rage at the gate, let him knock, let him push, let him cry, let him howl, let him do worse; we know for certain that he cannot enter save by the door of our consent.

When we are assailed by some vice, we must, as far as possible, embrace the practice of the contrary virtue.

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[Denise]

Virtue does not require that we should be deprived of the occasion of falling into the imperfection which is its opposite.

While the temptation displeases you there is nothing to fear; for why does it displease you, save because you do not will it.

You must not reply nor appear to hear what the enemy says; let him clamor as much as he likes at your door; you must not say as much as, Who goes there?

[Denise]

Our Lord permits us to fail in little occasions, that we may humble ourselves and know that if we have overcome certain great temptations it is not by our own strength.

Disquietude is not a mere temptation, but a source from which and through which many temptations come.

Have we to avoid evil?----we must do so peacefully.

[Denise]

We are greatly exposed to temptations when our body is too much pampered, and when it is too much weakened.

There is nothing so like two drops of water---yet the one may be from roses, the other from hemlock; one cures, the other kills.

[Denise]

On Fear

We must fear God through love, not love Him through fear.

Love virtue rather than fear sin.

We must not fear fear.

[Denise]

Have no fear; He who has given you the will, He will give you also the accomplishing.

There is a great difference between the buzzing of a bee and its sting.

Let the waves growl and roar all round about your back, but fear not, for God is there.

[Denise]

Our enemy is a great clatterer, do not trouble yourself at all about him; he cannot hurt you.

Why do you put yourself in trouble? God is good; He sees very well what you are.

Let the wind blow, and think not that the rustling of the leaves is the clash of arms.

[Denise]

It is not good to walk on tiptoe, either in mind or in body, for if we stumble, the fall is all the worse.

Those who love to be feared, fear to be loved.

Let the world turn upside down, let everything be in darkness, in smoke, in uproar---God is with us.

[Denise]

The good angels are around you like a company of sentinels on guard.

It will be quite enough to receive the evils which come upon us from time to time, without anticipating them by the imagination.

[Denise]

On Presumption

Since you are not yet your own wings for flight, do not flutter and do not make eager attempts to fly.

We usually know what we ought to do but we rarely know what we should do; it is always a sign of presumption to imagine ourselves able to handle hot coals without burning ourselves.

Our Lord does not wish us to carry His cross except by one end.