Part 1, Chapter 23
Happy FEAST Day, St. Francis De Sales!!!! Ask the gentle Bishop and Saint to intercede for us today. So here is a quick prayer that could be said every day before reading the book:
Oh good St. Francis De Sales, intercede before our Loving Father that when I read this book, I may be filled with wisdom in living the Devout Life. May I read these words, understand these words, and may I put them into practice in my life. Amen
I know many people that are taking blood thinners because of a concern that their blood might form clots. One of the common blood thinners is Coumadin. Coumadin is helpful in low doses, but can be fatal in huge doses. It is even used to kill rats. In small doses (I am not a doctor so don’t ask me what is a proper dose) Coumadin can be helpful, but too much of a good thing can be really dangerous. Taking any medicine or anything into our bodies affects them. They have both good and negative effects. Even too much water can be fatal, but I know that doesn’t happen too much. People who take Coumadin are constantly visiting the doctor to have blood drawn so that they can make sure they don’t have too much or too little of the Coumadin in their blood stream. Doctors want to be very careful with it.
Some things in life are basically neutral in that they won’t necessarily kill us. Watching a baseball game, seeing a movie, playing cards “are not in themselves evil, but rather indifferent matters, capable of being used for good or ill” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 34). If we are too focused on them, if they cause us to be uncharitable, if we spend hours upon hours on them, than we may have a problem. “The harm lies, not in doing them, but in the degree to which you care for them” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 34). So we can have our spiritual Coumadin in the fact that we are using too much because we have a major focus on things that are neutral in themselves. “The human heart that is burdened with useless, superfluous, dangerous clingings becomes incapacitated for that earnest following after God that is the true life of devotion” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 34-35).
This is where having a spiritual director or confessor (our spiritual doctor) can help. The spiritual director can make sure to help us monitor our intake of things and help to make sure that we are not too focused on things that won’t help us grow in our love of God.