Salesian Literature

Part III: The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles

::   Foreword   ::   Preface   ::   Discourse 1   ::   Discourse 2   ::   Discourse 3   ::   Discourse 4   ::   Discourse 5   ::   Discourse 6

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Part III: Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles

Foreword

(The Publisher to the Reader)

 

My dear reader, I am aware that in order for you to esteem this tiny work which I present to you it suffices to know that its Author is the blessed Francis de Sales – a spirit so holy, so well-informed and so seraphic could speak only the most worthily and most holily about such material.  And I do not think I would be acting contrary to his intentions by publishing it.  For even though he had held it secret for a long time, this being one of the first works of his pen, it is nevertheless quite believable that if death had not prevented the design which he had of offering other works to the public, not less useful than those which appears now for all with such fruit and approbation, his incomparable charity would have led him to present it to you himself, though no doubt with more style and perfection.

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Nevertheless, here it is just as it has come from his hand and just as it has been found after his death, though some persons, by having rendered themselves the guardians of it either for their particular consolation or for some other good consideration, would not have judged it a propos to publish it, sooner.  We have edited the Latin text in the margins, in order to give it more elucidation by the reference of one to the other.[1]

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Souls knowledgeable and well-informed in the interior life will find here satisfaction, so I hope.  But I beg you, dear Reader, if you desire to draw profit from it, read it with a spirit as holy as the sanctity of its subject requires.

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[1] Since the Latin text of the Canticle of Canticles had not been placed there by the Saint, we have decided it wise to omit it.

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