Introduction

Hello, and a very warm welcome to the fourth episode of the Catholic English Podcast, where you can learn English with the saints. I’m your host, Henry, and I’m very happy to be here with you again.

Thank you for listening. Thank you to all my listeners who have returned after listening to the first episodes, and thank you and welcome to my new listeners. I hope that you find the podcast helpful for your English, and maybe for other aspects¹ (or parts) of your life too.

The main purpose of these podcasts is to help people to learn English. We learn best when we are motivated, when we want to learn. For this, we need to have interesting material. Not lists of words or grammar rules, but something real and meaningful, something that we enjoy listening to and thinking about.

I was speaking to one of my local priests this week, and he still remembers listening to the BBC Religion service when he was learning English 20 years ago. He still remembers words and phrases from an episode about St Paul, and the pleasure and satisfaction learning through this method gave him. I have similar good memories from listening to Polish language podcasts.

I have a special thank you today to Marysia, who sent me a message last week. She wrote (in Polish):

“Hi. I listened to the whole episode about St Ignatius of Loyola and I understood everything! I’m very pleased, because I worried that I wouldn’t understand anything.”

I’m very pleased to hear that, especially as Marysia is a busy mother of three and not an English speaker or a student (although she was a successful student too). This is good evidence for me that the method works. I knew this already, but it’s the first message like this that I’ve received from a listener.

If you’re interested in this material, in the saints, in the Catholic Tradition, then you should be able to understand this podcast too, like Marysia. Even if you only understand 10% at the beginning, you have the text available for free on the website www.catholicenglish.org and you can listen and read at the same time, look up words and phrases or translate them using the power of modern technology, and listen again. This is the quickest and most effective way of learning English in my view. Soon you will understand 80% of the podcast, and then you can move on.

In a few months, if you listen and read and devote some time daily to learning English, you really will notice some good progress. There’s lots more information about this method of learning English in episode 1 of this podcast. I do encourage you to visit the website, comment on the posts and podcasts, or send me a message through the contact form.

OK. I think that’s enough of an introduction for today. Let’s make a start towards our main theme, St Francis of Sales.

Saint after saint

First St Paul imitated Jesus, and encouraged us in his letters to imitate him (to copy him, to try to live like him, act like him, love like him.) The saints have all, in their different ways, successfully imitated Jesus and Paul and the other saints that have lived and left their stories since then. The stories of each of the saints provides us with more examples, more inspiration, more help to see how we can live our lives better.

I started my series of saints with Ignatius of Loyola because of his conversion, his writing about our bodily experiences of joy and sadness, consolation and desolation, and because of his early zeal (enthusiasm) for talking with people about Christ. Apart from these practical and important points, he’s not the most inspiring figure (person) in the Tradition for me personally.

Of course we can’t rank the saints, put them in order, with the most inspirational at the top of the list. However, for me, St Francis of Sales has a special place in my heart. I live in a Salesian parish. That means that my local church is Salesian (or Sales-ian – the suffix or ending -ian means ‘coming from’ or ‘having the character of.’ For example egyptian, egypt-ian, means coming from Egypt, or having the character of Egypt. For example, ‘That picture looks egyptian.’ ‘Yes it does, but actually my sister painted it!’)

In fact, my parish’s Salesian character comes via another saint, John Bosco (1815-1888) who was himself inspired by Francis of Sales. Bosco founded a religious order, and called them the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB).

While I was preparing for my baptism I searched for information about what it meant that I lived in a Salesian parish, I discovered Francis of Sales, and I was inspired to take him as my patron during my confirmation. (As an adult I was baptised, confirmed and experienced my first communion all on the same day. For notes on the English names of the sacraments and the terminology around them, see my blog post on the subject: The Holy Sacraments.)

I continue to be inspired by St Francis of Sales to this day, for many reasons, and I’m very happy to be able to make this podcast about him and his influence, his impact, on future generations.

While I was researching this podcast I was surprised to discover that the young Francis, aged about 12, went to a Jesuit school in Paris, so an important part of his formation was influenced by Ignatian spirituality [there’s that suffix again, -ian, Ignat-ian, denoting, meaning ‘from Ignatius.’]

Their dates were: St Ignatius 1491 to 1556, St Francis of Sales 1567-1622. So Francis was born 11 years after Ignatius died.

In the next podcast, we’ll jump forward in time a bit, even as far as the 20^th Century…

Francis of Sales

There is a kind of reversal, or switching, (like turning over a coin) that can be seen between St Ignatius and St Francis of Sales:

• Ignatius started ‘in the world,’ a soldier, was converted, eventually became a priest and founded a religious order.
• Francis always wanted to be a priest, became a bishop, but he is best remembered for his writings supporting ordinary people to practice devotion to God.

What was different about Francis was his faith that you didn’t need to be ‘a religious’ (a priest or a member of a religious order, a monk or a nun) to practice devotion to God. In fact you could practice devotion, travel on the way to salvation, even as a soldier or a member of a royal court, some of the paths in life traditionally seen as furthest away from the religious life.

As a layman myself this is very important for me (layman, laywoman or layperson meaning a member of the church but not ‘a religious,’ not a member of the clergy; the collective noun for all the laymen and women is ‘the laity.’)

I haven’t done detailed research (because this is just an English lesson after all) but it seems from what I have read that Francis’ work with the laity may have started when he met Jane de Chantal. Jane was a recent widow, with four young children, then living in a quite difficult family situation with her father-in-law (the father of her late husband; her ‘late’ husband, because he had died).

Francis became her spiritual director, and they had many meetings and exchanged many letters. At the same time Francis was supporting other women, women who wanted to be good Catholics, but either didn’t know how or were in difficult situations.

After some years, he collected his correspondence (his letters) into a book, often called Philothea (Latin for ‘lover of God’) but generally translated in English under the title Introduction to the Devout Life (abbreviated in this podcast as IDL). This is a beautiful book. I’ve already read it a couple of times and I’m sure I’ll read it several more times in my life.

Reading books like this, or reading the bible, is a little bit like learning English. You can’t catch all the depths of meaning in one go. You have to read and listen slowly, to the same thing many times, for it to become part of you, and every repetition gives new treasures to ponder, to meditate on, and to keep close to our hearts.

In the preface of her book on the Sacred Heart, Wendy M. Wright writes:

“At the core of religion it is beauty who beckons. She is the face of that never-sated restlessness that goads us on to God.”

‘Who beckons’ means, who calls. ‘Never-sated’ is an old way of saying never satisfied. ‘To goad’ is to push, to annoy, to encourage (usually not in a positive way.)

I quote Wendy M. Wright here because I am indebted to her (I owe a debt of thanks or gratitude, I’m very grateful to her) for her series of lectures that I found on Audible, St. Francis de Sales and the Salesians: A Spirituality for the Modern World and her book Heart Speaks to Heart: The Salesian Tradition (Traditions of Christian Spirituality) (note these are affiliate links).

Wendy Wright points out that Francis was taught rhetoric when he was at school. People often know that a ‘rhetorical question’ is a question where you don’t want an answer, or where you’re going to give the answer, but these days we don’t always know what rhetoric is.

Rhetoric is the art of using language to persuade people. Francis was a natural at it. He loved beautiful language and he knew that people are much more attracted to beautiful words than hard moralistic or legalistic words (words which say ‘you must do this, this is the law.’)

In Francis’ vision and writing we are like bees, flying from flower to flower in God’s garden, collecting the honey of his wisdom, tasting the sweetness of his love, and feeling the warmth of his mercy like the sun on our backs.

Of course this doesn’t mean that life is all roses (as the English saying goes, meaning life is all easy.) There are plenty (lots) of thorns between the flowers, but we need to find a balance in our speaking about religion, and if we start off by scaring each other, we might not continue very far along the road to salvation.

I love Francis’ language, and I want to quote him today as much as I can. Really I could go on for hours, but I’ll try to make this podcast a little shorter than the last one.

I want to start by looking at what Francis meant by devotion, but first we need to understand this English word. Devotion is a noun, a thing, and we can ‘have a devotion to’ someone or something, which means we have great care or love for that person or thing. There is also the verb ‘to devote to.’ For example we can devote some time to helping our grandparents, or learning English. If we say, ‘he was devoted to his wife’ that means he loved his wife very much. There are also devotions in church, for example praying the rosary, having a devotion to a particular saint, or to the Sacred Heart. Finally, there is the adjective ‘devout.’ A devout person is someone who loves God. A devout life is the life of such a person.

Francis had a slightly different conception (idea) from our modern image of devotion as a set of practices. He says:

‘devotion is simply a spiritual activity and liveliness by means of which Divine Love works in us, and causes us to work briskly and lovingly; and just as charity leads us to a general practice of all God’s commandments, so devotion leads us to practise them readily and diligently.’ (IDL, Part 1 Chapter 1)

Liveliness means energy and enthusiasm. Briskly means quickly, energetically. Readily means promptly and without complaint. Diligently means to the best of our ability, as well as we can.

So devotion for Francis is an activity, almost an active-ness², and a sort of aliveness and responsiveness. It’s not just a set of things we do, but our lively living constantly with God as our guide and support. This is clarified a little further on when he says:

‘so the converted sinner journeys along as far as God commands him but slowly and wearily, until he attains a true spirit of devotion, and then, like a sound man, he not only gets along, but he runs and he leaps in the way of God’s commands, and hastens gladly along the paths of heavenly counsels and inspirations.’ (IDL, Part 1 Chapter 1)

There’s a lot to understand here, so let’s look at it slowly. The ‘converted sinner’ is each of us, or any ordinary person, trying to live by the Word of God. He journeys along ‘as far as God commands him’ or ‘doing what God commands him.’ We can kick a ball ‘as far as’ we can, using all our strength and skill, meaning the longest distance we can. But we can also say ‘as far as I know’ meaning ‘I think this is true, but I’m not sure.’

However, ‘he journeys along … but slowly and wearily.’ Wearily means without energy, feeling tired. ‘But’ in this old sense, means ‘only’ or ‘just’ – he only just manages to travel along through his tiredness. It’s not easy at this stage to feel motivated by God’s commands – they’re tiring, wearying.

‘Until he attains (gets) a true spirit of devotion, and then, like a sound man, he not only gets along, but he runs and leaps in the way of God’s commands.’ If something is ‘sound’ in this sense, ‘like a sound man’ it means good, solid, strong, fit, healthy. He not only gets along, manages with his tiredness, but he runs and leaps (jumps), his tiredness, his weariness, has been converted into joy, into energy. Winter has turned into Spring. The apple trees are blossoming, the grass is turning green, the birds are singing, and we are caught up in the joy and beauty of God. We ‘hasten gladly (rush, do something quickly, happily) along the paths of heavenly counsels (advice) and inspirations.’

Of course this is from the very beginning of the book. He has another 250 or so pages to convince us that this is possible, and show us how we can make it possible.

Francis admits straight away:

‘It is [true] … that the world runs down true devotion … [and says] that religion makes [people] dismal [sad and boring] and unpleasant.’ (IDL Part 1 Chapter 2)

The world ‘runs down’ religion, means that it speaks badly, negatively of it. Nothing’s changed. Ever since the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, despite being first hand witnesses of the power and miracles of God, most of the people complained about being in the desert and not having access to the ‘rich food’ they had in Egypt (cf. Numbers 11:4-6).

He is determined however to convince us. He continues:

‘Devotion is the real spiritual sweetness which … cures the poor of sadness, and the rich of presumption; it keeps the oppressed from feeling desolate, and the prosperous from insolence; it averts sadness from the lonely, and dissipation from social life; it is as warmth in winter and refreshing dew in summer; it knows how to abound and how to suffer want; how to profit alike by honour and contempt; it accepts gladness and sadness with an even mind.’ (IDL Part 1 Chapter 2)

Presumption means assuming too much, for example assuming ‘I’m OK because I’m rich.’ The oppressed are people who are burdened, weighed down by worries or demands, or forced to do things against their will. The prosperous are those who have more than they need, and insolence is rudeness or dis-respect. Avert comes from ‘turn away from,’ dissipation is what the prodigal son did in the parable (Luke 15:11-32). Dew is when millions of tiny water drops appear on grass, flowers, etc. close to the ground on summer mornings, in Europe at least – beautiful to walk on barefoot if you’re up early in the morning and have access to a garden. To abound is to have plenty, to suffer want is to suffer from a lack of something, to be hungry or homeless for example. To profit alike is to profit equally, to learn and grow as a person equally, whether people praise and honour you, or ignore or hate you.

Finally, devotion accepts gladness (like happiness, or better joyfulness) and sadness with an even mind.

Let me read out the quote again, using all those explanations:

‘Devotion is the real spiritual sweetness which … cures the poor of sadness, and the rich of assuming they’re OK; it keeps the burdened from feeling hopeless, and those who have plenty from rudeness to others; it turns sadness away from the lonely, and helps your soul to survive the dangers of social life; it is like warmth in winter and refreshing dew in summer; it knows how to have plenty and how to have little; how to benefit alike from people’s good opinions or bad opinions of you; it accepts gladness and sadness with an even mind.’

It’s not so beautiful in this form, but we can appreciate the beauty again in the future once our English has got better and we can read the book for ourselves.

Note that there is already an important development between this quote and the earlier quote. First of all, devotion was described as the thing that would stop you feeling weary, and make you full of joy in your life (‘run and leap.’) It sounded almost too good to be true. The second quote modifies this, and says that devotion helps you in all your needs, whatever they are, whether you have too much or too little, and eventually it helps you to find an even mind. I will certainly be talking in other contexts in future podcasts about this even mind, but let’s move on…

‘Everybody fulfils his special calling better when subject to the influence of devotion:- family duties are lighter, married love truer, service … more faithful, every kind of occupation more acceptable and better performed where [devotion] is the guide.’
(IDL Part 1 Chapter 3)

This is what I mean in my introductions, where I say that I hope these podcasts will be helpful for you in learning English, and perhaps in other aspects of your life too. Francis is asserting powerfully, yet gently, that devotion to God is going to make us better people in every aspect of our lives.

Just like learning a language, this takes time. You have to work at it. Much later in the book he says:

‘Give an hour every day to meditation.’

Fantastic! I should have quoted that in the first episode of the podcast, where I said that we need to give an hour every day to our faith. Thank you St Francis, please pray for us that we might make this a reality in our lives.

Another gift from Francis, just a little earlier (these quotes are from IDL Part 2, Chapter 1):

‘Children learn to speak by hearing their mother talk, and stammering forth their childish sounds in imitation; and so if we [keep close] to the Saviour in meditation, listening to His words, watching His actions and intentions, we shall learn in time, through His Grace, to speak, act and will like Himself.’

Apart from these tips, what is Francis’ advice on how to find our way into the devout life, how to cross the boundary between feeling weighed down by rules and commitments, and feeling lifted up and enlivened (full of life) by grace?

The first thing is, you need to know that this is a possibility, that you can aim for it and achieve it in your life. We don’t always hear this, but at least you’ve heard it now.

Secondly, you need a guide. Francis will do very well, but there are many others. To quote a slightly older contemporary of his, St Philip Neri CO (1515-1595) (sometimes called the second apostle to Rome, after St Peter):

‘It is very useful to read the works of authors whose names begin with S, such as Saint Augustine, Saint Bernard, etc.’ The Maxims and Sayings of St Philip Neri

Thirdly, we must begin by purifying (making pure) the soul. This purification, for most of us, ‘is only accomplished by slow degrees, step by step, gradually and painfully.’ (IDL, Part 1 Chapter 5)

These days we’re always looking for quick fixes, a pill that will take the pain away at once, something to make us happy now, a course that will teach us a foreign language in three months, but Francis reminds us that

‘the cure which is gradually effected is always the surest [most reliable]; and spiritual maladies [illnesses], like those of the body, are wont to come on horseback and express, while they depart slowly and on foot. So that we must needs be [need to be] brave and patient, my daughter, in this undertaking.’ (IDL Part 1 Chapter 5 – my emphasis)

You know, if you hurt your back (or get hit by a cannonball), it happens suddenly and it can take weeks or months to recover. These things ‘are wont to come,’ i.e. usually come, have a habit of coming, quickly. I love this image, of our problems racing to us on horseback, but walking away slowly.

Francis was a fan of The Spiritual Warfare, by Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli, a beautiful book which I may talk about more in the future. But he reminds us here that

‘it is our privilege in this war that we are certain to [win] as long as we are willing to fight’ (IDL Part 1 Chapter 5)

We have to be aware that this is a battle that continues every day in our hearts, just as it has been continuing for thousands of years. Even the greatest saints and prophets had to fight, to be brave and patient, and to continually ask for help:

‘David continually asks the Lord to strengthen his heart against cowardice and discouragement.’ (IDL Part 1 Chapter 5)

Cowardice is the opposite of bravery, and discouragement is the feeling that you want to give up, to stop fighting.

But don’t stop fighting. Francis says how sad it is to see ‘souls’ trying a little to lead a devout life, but then giving up because they don’t see progress. But he also cautions, warns, against the danger of thinking we have made good progress after just a few weeks. This is again, sorry to keep repeating this point, like learning a language: in the first few weeks we can make progress, but then everything slows down, gets harder, and we’re tempted to give up.

Don’t give up. The most important battles are won simply by keeping on going, by not giving up, day after day, week after week, month after month. The enemy keeps on trying to discourage us, to divide us, to accuse us. He has a loud voice, and he speaks at different times through many different people who we meet in our lives. God’s voice is much quieter and he always speaks last, but his words are always full of love and encouragement.

In the next chapters Francis tells us how we can carry out this purification. First we have to purify ourselves of all mortal sins: use the sacrament of penance; find a good confessor; find a good helpful book to guide you through the process, study it carefully and make notes; if you are at this stage in life, Francis recommends ‘a general confession of your whole life;’ he warns that it is easy to go to confession, but there is a risk that if we don’t work at it, if we’re not determined to change, we may easily fall back to our previous way of life. But he counsels (advises):

‘a general confession forces us to a clearer self knowledge, kindles a wholesome shame for our past life, and rouses gratitude for God’s mercy, which has so long waited patiently for us’ (IDL Part 1 Chapter 6)

When we light a fire, we first have to kindle it, where it begins very small and gently, and then has the chance to grow. Wholesome means healthy. To rouse means to wake up. He continues:

‘it comforts the heart, refreshes the spirit, excites [wakes up, encourages] good resolutions, affords [gives] opportunities to our spiritual Father for giving the most suitable advice, and opens our hearts so as to make future confessions more effectual [effective]. (IDL Part 1 Chapter 6)

So the general confession is the first stage of purification. The second stage is ‘purification from all sinful attractions.’ He warns us not to be like those people who give up sin, but still wish they might enjoy a little sin here or there, still dream of committing some small sin, think of how nice it would be, and what a relief from this dull and heavy life.

My mother, may she rest in peace, offers a good contemporary example. As far as I know she tried to give up smoking cigarettes for over 30 years. She tried everything to break her addiction: books, nicotine chewing gum, hypnotism, but nothing worked. She hated the cigarettes, the smell, the expense, the failure to give up. I don’t think she ever tried praying for help, maybe one day in desperation she did? Anyway, after 30 years of failed efforts, one day she simply stopped, and that was it. However there was another change: she started dreaming of smoking. If someone walked past her in the street smoking a cigarette, she’d breathe in the smoke around her and savour it, like we savour fine food. She knew she didn’t want to smoke any more, and she was happy that she wasn’t, but oh how she suddenly loved the idea of smoking, the smell of smoke – the very things she’d hated for years before.

Such is the psychology of our human souls, and the saints knew these things well, and they knew how to give good advice to us. ‘Be sure, my daughter’ Francis writes:

‘if you seek to lead a devout life, you must not simply forsake [leave, give up] sin; but you must further cleanse [purify] your heart from all affections [attractions, likes] pertaining [relating] to sin; for [because], to say nothing of the danger of a relapse [falling back into the old habit], these wretched [poor, sick] affections will perpetually enfeeble [forever weaken] your mind, and clog it [like a hair brush gets clogged with hairs over time, so you have to clean it], so that you will be unable to be diligent, ready and frequent in good works, wherein nevertheless lies the very essence of all true devotion.’ (IDL Part 1 Chapter 7)

Let’s read that again:

‘if you want to live a devout life, you mustn’t simply give up sin; but … you must also purify your heart from all attraction to sin; because these sick affections will keep on weakening your mind so that you won’t be able to be the active, reliable person which all true devotion makes us.’ (IDL Part 1 Chapter 7)

The question of what sin is would be the subject of a whole podcast, since the saints and theologians have made so many different attempts to define it. Later (IDL Part 1 Chapter 23) Francis warns his readers, us, about the dangers of sports, parties, going to the theatre, etc. It’s useful for us to bring this idea in now, because it’s another way of talking about these sick affections that weaken our minds, bodies and souls, and prevent us from being the people we could be.

This could all feel quite challenging, but don’t worry. I must also remind you here that one of the key points in Salesian spirituality, as Wendy M Wright reminds us, is Jesus’ saying recorded in the Gospel of Matthew:

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’
(Matthew 11:28-30)

Weary means tired. A burden is something heavy, difficult to carry. We often carry emotional burdens, or burdens of responsibility. A yoke was the thing attached to the neck and chest of an ox or a horse that was connected to a plough or a cart or other farm tool. Here’s a picture:

How does this image, of Jesus’ yoke being easy, and his burden light, fit with the idea that sports and theatre (and we could add films and books and many other things to this list) are dangerous?

Isn’t this part of the problem with Christianity? On the one hand we’re told that God is love, that he has given us freedom, and he is all merciful; and on the other hand that we should fear him, that he doesn’t want us to have any fun, and that everything in the world is evil – only if we get to heaven will we ever experience the good.

Of course we don’t speak this way, but these caricatures, these cartoon images, these exaggerated pictures, have a big impact on how we think and how we live. I mentioned in the last podcast, about St Ignatius, that the challenges to the religion of the Truth and of the one true God have always existed in the world – only now in the modern and postmodern age they’ve become far more complex and invisible.

Understanding this is a bit like understanding when and how to use the past perfect continuous tense in English: we might be able to grasp it, to get a hold on it, to understand it, intellectually (using the power of our minds); but in order to be able to really truly understand it, it needs to become a part of us, we need to know it without thinking about it. It needs to become part of the foundation of how we think. More importantly, it’s not the confusion that we need to understand, but the Truth, which casts light on the darkness of confusion. How do we do this? By reading and meditating on the bible and on the works and the lives of the saints, and by doing this religiously in other words again and again, an hour a day whenever possible, for the rest of our lives.

No teacher can teach this material – we have to learn it for ourselves. We have to be attentive, to see the links and patterns, to make decisions and to take action – and I might add, to learn from our mistakes.

Let’s return to our question: How does this image, of Jesus’ yoke being easy, and his burden light, fit with the idea that sports and theatre are dangerous? Let us try to leave aside, to give up, the thought that this is an out-of-date idea, that we are now more aware, and we know better. Let us try to open our hearts and minds to the chance that St Francis of Sales might have something important to share with us here, that we, that anyone, can benefit from. How does he explain himself?

[these things] are not in themselves evil, but rather indifferent matters, capable of being used for good or ill;
but nevertheless they are dangerous, and it is still more dangerous to take great delight in them. (IDL Part 1 Chapter 23)

A stone is indifferent to cold or heat – it doesn’t care. A matter in this case is a business, a question, or an issue – a situation that needs some attention. Nevertheless means anyway, despite this – despite the fact that they’re indifferent, they’re dangerous anyway.

And what is dangerous? Taking great delight in them. For example getting very excited about an event that’s going to happen, talking excitedly about it with your friends, attaching importance to it, thinking about what you’re going to wear, who you’re going to go with, hoping that it’s going to be amazing, but maybe worrying that there could be a disaster if something goes wrong.

The harm lies, not in doing them, but in the degree to which you care for them.

The less you care about these things, the safer it is for you. Remember we’re talking about entertainments here, not people. If you don’t care about going to the theatre you’re not risking the emotional ups and downs which caring too much might lead to. You can keep a steady heart and mind.

The other thing we’re not talking about here, apart from people as I just mentioned, is work. We must care about people, and about our work, although of course here too we should avoid getting caught up in emotional attachments, conflicts, competition. Francis continues:

It is a pity to sow the seed of vain and foolish tastes in the soil of your heart, taking up the place of better things, and hindering [putting barriers in the way of] the soul from cultivating good dispositions.

If we sow or plant a seed in the ground, in the earth, we are cultivating the ground. One theory is that this cultivating of the ground was the beginning of culture. If we are cultured people we are polite and knowledgable. If we practise religious devotion we can cultivate good attitudes or dispositions towards the circumstances we encounter or experience in life.

If, on the other hand, we let ourselves place other aspects of our life above our religious devotion, we’re taking a risk. This is part of the first commandment given to Moses: ‘you shall have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3). Four thousand years ago the potential gods were different, and looked more like gods; today they’ve disguised themselves as writers, actors and politicians – whoever we model ourselves after, whoever we aspire to be like, whoever or whatever we think can provide the answers to our problems.

Most of us, and especially most of the people in the world, don’t see this risk because they haven’t come close enough to God to be able to see it. Find a proper devotion and after some time you’ll begin to see, but try to avoid distractions.

Prayer

After the purification, the basic approach or way to a devout life is by prayer, or meditation as Francis often calls it. Part 2 of the IDL is devoted to ‘sundry counsels,’ or various advice, about prayer and the use of the sacraments.

Francis starts with these beautiful words:

Prayer opens the understanding to the brightness of Divine Light, and the will to the warmth of Heavenly Love – nothing can so effectually [effectively] purify the mind from its many ignorances, or the will from its perverse affections. It is as a healing water which causes the roots of our good desires to send forth fresh shoots, which washes away the soul’s imperfections, and allays the thirst of passion. (IDL Part 2 Chapter 1)

How to read the first part of this? Prayer opens 1) the understanding, and 2) the will. Francis (or his translator) could have written (to help non-native speakers): ‘Prayer opens the understanding to … and prayer opens the will to …’ but in English we don’t have to repeat the verb for the sentence to be understandable. If you wonder what ‘and the will to Heavenly Love’ means, you’ll see there’s no verb. It doesn’t mean anything without a verb, so you have to go back in the sentence to find the verb – you go back and back, and there it is: opens, ‘Prayer opens… the heart to Heavenly Love.’ Now you can see the meaning.

‘Ignorances’ isn’t in modern dictionaries. Ignorance is a (complete) lack of knowledge about something, and it’s uncountable (like water or rice) so we don’t add an s at the end to make the plural. We’d be tempted to write ‘nothing can so effectually purify the mind from its ignorance,’ but if we give a little ‘poetic licence,’ which means we allow ourselves or Francis to stretch the rules of grammar in order to write something more beautifully, more poetically, it makes sense as it is. We are ignorant of many things, including the right thing to say to someone whose husband has just died, how to advise our teenage children, what to do about conflict at work, whether to invest in a newer car. Prayer can help us find more purity, more clarity, for questions like these.

What about the ‘perverse’ affections of the will? I’ve already noted the meaning of affections, and before we think about what ‘perverse’ means, I think it’s worth looking at some related words. For example:

• reverse – the other side (of a piece of paper, of a coin, etc.)
• reverse – to go backwards (to reverse a car or a decision)
• converse – the other side of a theorem (if 2+2=4, the converse could be that 4-2=2)
• adverse – negative, not good (due to the adverse weather, the trip was cancelled)

The reason for these definitions is because the word perverse these days often makes people think of abnormal sexual activities, but really it means doing something that is against your own interest. The examples from the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries include:

• She finds a perverse pleasure in upsetting her parents.
• Do you really mean that or are you just being deliberately perverse?
• For some perverse reason he is refusing to see a doctor.

So what are the perverse affections of the will? Wanting to eat things even when we know we don’t want to. Wanting to buy things even though we know we don’t really want to and we shouldn’t. Repeating habitual behaviour even though we know from experience that it’s not good for us.

And what’s the cure for these perverse affections of the will? Prayer, or meditation.

Prayer is as a healing water, prayer is like a healing water, which feeds and freshens our good desires, which washes away our imperfections, purifies us, cleanses us, and allays the thirst of passion, takes away the thirst of passion, gives us relief from these thirsts.

I have a lot more to say about prayer and meditation, but for now we’re coming to the end of this episode of the podcast so we’ll have to wait for another time. It is certainly true that Francis has a lot of good advice in this area, advice which I definitely need, and which I promise I will share with you.

Since these podcasts are primarily English lessons, and time is limited, I can’t cover everything, and I’m not trying to. I want to share some beautiful ideas with you, from some beautiful souls, the saints. I also want to encourage and enable you to go further. To explore these writings either in your own language, or even in English. Really they deserve to be read again and again in our lives.

Before we go

Before we do finish, however, there is at least one more thing that I must share.

Francis says that after every meditation, after every time spent reading from a spiritual book, and he would add, if he was alive today, after every podcast, that you should pick a spiritual bouquet.

A bouquet is a handful of flowers. When we read the words of the saints, or the bible, it’s like exploring a wonderful, colourful, scented garden. In this garden, some of the flowers are going to particularly touch our hearts, and it’s important that we pick a few and keep them with us so that we don’t forget, so that they can continue to have their effect on us.

It’s good if after an English lesson we can pick a handful of words or phrases that we heard, and keep them close to our hearts. Then we make progress in our English.

If we’re listening to the words of a saint, these words will almost always have a beneficial effect on us even if we don’t know it, but if we pick a few words and try to remember them, they will help us too on our path to sainthood.

I urge you to pick a few words from this podcast, and I pray that they might be helpful for you and for all the people in your life.

Conclusion

Thus we slowly reach the end of today’s podcast. I hope that you’ve found it useful.

It would be great if you could comment, either under the text that is available for free on the website www.catholicenglish.org, or by sending me a message using the contact form.

If you’re listening via Spotify or another podcast service, you can leave a comment there.

If you know anyone who might find this podcast useful, please share. And for notifications you can subscribe to my newsletter. Subscribers only receive notifications about new podcasts, and I don’t share contact details with any other people or organisations.

This episode has come a bit later than planned because of Christmas commitments. The next episode will be about Saint Francesca Xavier Cabrini, or Mother Cabrini, a truly inspirational figure like all the saints. I’ll try to prepare it in a couple of weeks.

Goodbye for now, and God bless.

---

Footnotes

1 An aspect is a point of view, or a way of looking at something, similar to a perspective. For example you can look at something from a different aspect, or a different perspective. We often talk about different aspects of our lives, for example as a father, an employee, a member of a community, etc.

2 Active-ness isn’t a word in the English dictionary, but it would mean the state of being active.