The Conclusion of each Meditation, and the Spiritual Nosegay
2 min • Digitized on October 7, 2021
From Introduction to the Devout Life, page 55
By St. Francis de Sales
CHAPTER VII.
The conclusion, and the Spiritual Nosegay.
Last of all, we must conclude our meditation by three acts, which require the utmost humility.
The first consists in giving thanks to God for the good affections and resolutions wherewith He has inspired us, and for his goodness and mercy, manifested to us in the mystery of the meditation.
The second is, to unite our affections and resolutions to his goodness and mercy, and make an offering of them in union with the death, blood, and virtues of his Son.
The third should be an humble petition, whereby we implore God to communicate to us the graces and virtues of his Son, and grant his blessing on our affections and resolutions, in order that we may faithfully put them in practice.
We then pray for the Church, our pastors, relatives, friends, and others; imploring, to that end, the intercession of our Blessed Lady and of the angels and saints; and lastly, as I have already observed, we conclude with saying Our Father, Hail Mary, &c., which are the common and necessary prayers of all the faithful.
From all this, as I have already advised, gather a little nosegay of devotion; for as those who walk in a beautiful garden do not willingly depart from it without gathering a few flowers to smell during the whole day, even so ought we, when our spirit has entertained itself by meditating on some mystery, to select one, two, or three of those points which we most relish, and which are most proper for our advancement, in order to think frequently on them, and to smell them, as it were, spiritually during the course of the day. This is to be done in the same place where we have been meditating, or whilst walking in solitude for some time after.