The Effects of this Profession of Renewed Loyalty toward God
2 min • Digitized on October 9, 2021
From Introduction to the Devout Life, page 40
By St. Francis de Sales
CHAPTER XXI.
Conclusions drawn from the foregoing Protestation.
Having finished this protestation, be attentive; and open the ears of your heart to hear in spirit the words of absolution, which your Saviour Himself, sitting on the throne of his mercy, will pronounce in heaven before all the angels and saints, at the same time that the priest, in his name, absolves you upon earth. So that all the troops of the blessed souls, rejoicing at your happiness, will sing a spiritual hymn, with exceeding great joy, and give the kiss of peace and fellowship to your soul, now sanctified and re-established in grace.
Behold, Philothea, this admirable contract, by which you make a happy treaty with the majesty of God, since, in giving yourself to Him, you gain both Him and yourself for ever. It remains only to take up a pen and sign your name with a joyful heart to this protestation, and then go to the altar, where God, on the other side, will sign and seal your absolution, and the promise He will make you of the kingdom of heaven, putting Himself, by means of his adorable sacrament, as a sacred seal upon your renewed heart.
Thus I hope, Philothea, that your soul will be purged from sin, and from all sinful affections.
Yet, because these affections return easily to the soul through our frailty and concupiscence, which may indeed be mortified, but which can never die while we live here on earth, I will give you some instructions which, being well practised, shall preserve you from mortal sin, and from all inclinations thereto, so that it shall never take root in your heart. And as the same instructions serve also towards a greater degree of purification, before I deliver them I will say something more of that more perfect purity to which I desire to conduct vou.