Authenticity.
Some thoughts for the feast of St.Francis De Sales.
At various times throughout my life I have been exceedingly diligent in practicing prayer; praying the Liturgy of the Hours, devoting x amount of time to Lectio Divina, practicing mental prayer, “getting in” my hours of adoration, praying the daily Rosary, and so on. Not unlike a child who uses “Sacrifice Beads” I was content, and maybe a bit proud, that “I got everything in” for the day. On occasion, after making ‘my quota’, I often indulged myself that evening - not necessarily sinfully, but I certainly had a good time. (Didn’t we D.!)
We can fool ourselves by an observant lifestyle, with all the outward appearances of holiness, yet within, we unwittingly remain open to innumerable opportunities for vice. Oftentimes, we are not even aware of our own propensity for sin. Because we are self-satisfied with our religious observance? Maybe.
Which is often why God allows some people to fall repeatedly into serious sin. He loves humility, and no matter how difficult the truth is, he desires we come to know it. Some people think orthodoxy and fidelity to a regular routine of devotion ensures that a person is infallibly on the right track for holiness. That should be the case - yet sometimes it isn’t always the irrefutable sign. Prayer and fidelity is much more a matter of the heart, and most definitely the will. Sometimes, we may pray like angels, and perform good works like the saints, but our hearts can remain detached from God.
St. Francis on prayer:
First, let us remark in passing that, although we condemn certain heretics of our time who hold that prayer is useless, we nevertheless do not hold with other heretics that it alone suffices for our justification. We say simply that it is so useful and necessary that without it we could not come to any good, seeing that by means of prayer we are shown how to perform all our actions well. I have therefore consented to the desire which urges me to speak of prayer, even though it is not my intention to explain every aspect of it because we learn it more by experience than by being taught.
Moreover, it matters little to know the kind of prayer. Actually, I would prefer that you never ask the name or the kind of prayer you are
experiencing because, as St. Antony says, that prayer is imperfect in which one is aware that one is praying. Also, prayer which one makes without knowing how one is doing it, and without reflecting on what one is asking for, shows clearly that such a soul is very much occupied with God and that, consequently, this prayer is excellent. - Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent
