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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Discourse 6

 

The soul having surmounted all the obstacles, has no more need of remedies, but dwells absorbed in and united with God by a perfect devotion.

 

        

Finally, the soul has attained so great a perfection of devotion that no pleasure of the world arouses it, no phantasm diverts it, no praise distracts it, no travail terrifies it, no human respect restrains it.  Rather, in view of all the world, she freely caresses her Bridegroom and dances before the Ark[1], not concerning herself that the wisdom of the world, after having said to her: who is this who ascends from the desert, affluent in delights? follows her still in order to find fault with her for that which she adhered to supported on her Beloved.  On the contrary, she always speaks with her Bridegroom about the great sign of love which he would give her there where he had been the most offended, and about his resolve to die for us after Adam and Eve had disobeyed him: I have awakened you under the apple tree: there, your mother had been corrupted; there, she who has engendered you has been violated (8:5).

        

The soul will no longer find any difficulty in works, for nothing is difficult to the love which she has engraved profoundly on her heart and even in her exterior actions: Place me as a stamp on your heart and as a seal on your arms.  And this so well that love combats death: Love is strong as death.  Hell cannot vanquish it: Jealousy is tough as hell.  Flames and fires are frozen in comparison with her love: Its lamps are lamps of flames and of fires.  The sea would not be able to extinguish them: all the waters would not be able to extinguish charity, nor would all the rivers drown it.  Nothing is comparable to it: if a man would wish to give all the substance of his house for dilection, he would esteem it no more than as nothing (8:6,7).

        

With regard to the praises which are given to it, the soul does not concern herself with them because she says to herself: What are those imperfect souls who, not having any good of their own, wish to embellish themselves with external fineries?  My little sisters (meaning the imperfect souls) are those who must think that way, for they do not have breasts of themselves, no virtues and merits of their own: Our little sister does not have breasts; what will we do to our little sister on the day when it will be necessary to speak to her? In them, one can supply the defect with the queer praises just as if one would cover with silver a cracked and corrupted wall, and with cedar a door that would be rotten: If it is a wall, let us build over its ramparts with silver, if it is a door, let us reinforce it with planks of cedar.  But, blessed me, says the soul, I concern myself very little with pleasing men,[2]  my Bridegroom having made me like such a wall and like such a tower that I am very pleasing and agreeable: I am a wall, and my breasts (are) like a tower, for which I am made finding  repose and peace in his presence (8:8-10).

        

Then follow sensible and temporal things, against which the soul, perfected in mental prayer, has assumed such a habit that, holding them as vile things and of little value in comparison with her rich object, she esteems them only in as much as they can modestly serve her need.  For the rest, no care of herself can divert her:  little, says the soul, is necessary to the one who wishes to live in the peace of Our Lord and with modesty.  A thousand pieces of silver or some other great price is a thing of quite little value: the man who has the peace in himself has a vineyard in which are some poplars; he has leased it to some keepers, and they render to him for the fruits of it a thousand pieces of silver. As for me, says the soul, I have no concern for such things: My vineyard is before me as much as a thousand pacifists.  On the contrary, I wish still to give two hundred in order to give alms to these poor ones, who by their prayers keep our goods for us: and two hundred to those who keep the fruits of it (8:11, 12).  For the rest, being abstracted from all sensible things, I wish only that not one of them could distract me or trouble me.

        

And finally, if we would pass to worldly pleasures: I know, says the soul, that my Bridegroom does not wish to put up with any rivals, and that with the consolations which he gives me, he does not wish that I mingle these consolations with those that others than he would give me.  Thus he commands me that, awakening and resigning myself totally to him with a clear and open protestation, I renounce all other bridegrooms: You who dwell in the gardens, your friends listen to you; make me hear your voice.  And consequently, behold me prompt to obey him.  No longer the world nor its pleasures, no longer any mortal thing; O God, my God, you alone are my Beloved, you alone are all my good, it is you alone whom I seek: Flee (meaning come, but hasten lightly), my Beloved, and be similar to a roe or to a fawn of a stag on the mounts of good scents (8:13,14).  In this last protestation and perfect resignation of the soul to God consists the end of mental prayer and the highest degree of spirituality, which is this great union of the soul with God by devotion.

        

And to conclude, nothing remains for us to do except to pray Our Lord that he deign, by his mercy, to draw us to himself by these degrees of mental prayer, so that being already untied with him in this world of grace, we may be so even more by devotion, so that, after our death we may be able to be so eternally by glory.  And in all these unions, let him kiss us, this divine Bridegroom, with a kiss of his sacred mouth (1:1).  Amen.[3]

 

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[1]  Cf. 2 Kings 6:14-16.

[2]  Cf. Gal. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:4

[3]  Appended to the Annecy text is the following “Approbation of Doctors:”  “We, the undersigned, Doctors in Theology on the faculty of Paris, hose and society of the Sorbonne, certify to having read and examined a little Book entitled: The Mystical Exposition of the Canticle of Canticles, composed by the Blessed Francis de Sales, Bishop and Prince of Geneva, in which we have found nothing which is contrary to the Catholic Faith.  Thus we have judged it worthy of being given to the public, for the consolation and profit of spiritual souls and those enlightened in the interior life.  In faith of which we have signed in Paris, this 24th day of October, 1642 (signed by L. Bougrain and I. Hobier).”

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