St. Francis de Sales Books: Introduction to the Devout Life & Of the Love of God

Dedicatory
Prayer

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OSweet Jesus, my Lord, my Saviour, and my God, behold me
here prostrate before thy majesty, devoting and consecrating this book to thy
glory; give life to its words by thy blessing, that those souls for which I
have written it, may receive from it the sacred inspirations which I desire for
them. And particularly that of imploring for me thy immense mercy; to the end
that, whilst showing others the way of devotion in this world, I may not myself
be eternally rejected and confounded in the other; but that, with them, I may
for ever sing, as a canticle of triumph, the words which, with my whole heart I
pronounce, in testimony of my fidelity amidst the dangers of this mortal life: Live Jesus, live Jesus; yea, Lord Jesus, live and reign in our hearts for ever and ever. Amen.

Preface

of

St. Francis de Sales

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Dear reader, I pray you to read this
Preface for your satisfaction and for mine.

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The bouquet-maker,
Glycera, was so skilful in diversifying the arrangement and mixture of the
flowers which she used, that with the same flowers she made a great variety of
bouquets; so much so that the painter, Pansias, failed when he endeavoured to
copy so great a diversity, for he could not change his painting so many ways as
Glycera did her bouquets. Thus the Holy Ghost disposes and arranges with such
variety the instructions regarding devotion which He gives by the tongues and
pens of his servants, that, although the doctrine is always one and the same,
the discourses which are held on it are, nevertheless, very different,
according to the various methods in which they are composed. I certainly
cannot, neither do I wish, nor ought I to write in this Introduction but what
has been written by our predecessors on this subject. They are the same flowers
which I present to you, my reader; but the bouquet which I have formed from
them will be different from theirs, on account of the difference of the method
of making it.