Relationships can be vehicles to devotion

Francis de Sales & Jane de Chantal
Letters of Spiritual Direction - Introduction

Discussion Group:
Brian Rebholtz
Tresphord Chisanga
Sung Han Lee

What’s New

I did not realize that St. Francis de Sales’ Christian humanism influenced his own teaching on Christian perfection. For St. Francis Christian perfection was indeed possible, but unlike later holiness movements, he insisted that men and women cultivate indifference as to their own spiritual progress. For St. Francis, pursuing perfection actually removes the promise offered by spiritual perfection.

St. Jane de Chantal’s vision of herself as an uncarved block is fascinating. This suggests a deep relationality in Jane’s piety, even though she was committed to prayer without words and images.

What’s Challenging

The emphasis on liberty can be difficult to apply in the present. The insights of M. Montessori suggest that it is actually in earliest childhood that the capacities for spiritual and personal agency are firmly developed, and for those children who are abused, neglected and abandoned during those years, the development of capacities to know and think and love can be severely afflicted. To what extent does Christian humanism take into account that all people are NOT given equal opportunity to grow and flourish in this world?

What’s Confirming

St. Francis’ understanding that God refashions the human heart in the midst of the world as well as in the serenity of the cloister is always deeply refreshing for me. I am challenged and inspired by the notion that Christians can imagine relationships as the vehicles of devotion rather than obstacles to devotion (as St. Teresa of Avila would have it).

Likewise, I resonate deeply with the idea that devotion is nothing less than “making Jesus live.” In other words, true devotion is life lived within the radiant experience of a personal relationship with God that flows out into the world and onto others.

Submitted by Brian Rebholtz
Photo by Joe Boenzi:  Tresphord Chisanga in class (22 October 2009)