Regarding spiritual exercises, St. Francis de Sales recommended that each person should choose some particular practice which he should use in preference to others. It may be the Presence of God, or purity of intention, or resignation to God’s will, or abandonment to Divine Providence, or self-renunciation.
St. Francis did not like the idea of skipping from one book to another, practising first one religious method and then another, restlessly trying out different spiritual systems. Simplicity and unity are to be aimed at in all things rather than multiplicity. Quality is more important than quantity. St. Francis said, “The longer a bee lingers on a flower, the more honey he will gather.”
He added: “Those who at a banquet insist upon tasting every dish, spoil their digestion and disturb their sleep. It is the same with a soul which insists in trying every method and spiritual system. Its moral digestion is too weak for so much variety and it never attains that peace and quiet which Mary possessed and which Christ called ‘the best part.’”
The saint said that a single ejaculatory or aspirational prayer repeated a hundred times was far more worthwhile than a hundred different prayers each said once. St. Francis de Sales mentioned the examples of some saints … St. Francis of Assisi, who used to say constantly for days and weeks, “My God and my All”; and St. Bruno, “O Goodness of God”; and St. Teresa, “All that is not God is nothing.”
St. Francis teaches that we should imitate sculptors and painters who make their works by means of many strokes of the chisel or pencil. We must repeat over and over again the same affection and resolution if we would form a deep impression in our hearts.
Our mental prayer and meditation are rendered more fruitful by the practices of recollection and mortification throughout the day. The exercise of mental prayer and the practice of recollection and aspiration are like inhale and exhale our breath in natural life. St. Francis also considered that mortification without prayer is like a body without a soul; and prayer without mortification like a soul without a body. He said that in order to raise the soul by prayer, we must lower the body by mortification. St. Francis’ maxim on this subject was that: “We ought to live in this world as if our soul were in heaven and our body in the tomb.”
The meditation on the Passion and Death of Christ is the sweetest and the strongest. St. Francis said, “Jesus Crucified is the Lion of the tribe of Judah – He is the answer to Samson’s riddle, for in His wounds is found the honeycomb of the strongest charity, and from this strength proceeds the sweetness of our greatest consolation. And certainly since our Lord’s dying for us, as all Scripture testifies, is the climax of his love, it ought also to be the strongest of all our motives for loving Him.”
Regarding forming resolutions during mental prayer, St. Francis said, “People are willing to wait half a year for their seed to bring forth corn and they wait years for apples to bear. Mental prayer should never be given up … and resolutions, which are the very fruit of prayer, must never be neglected. Even though they may not be practised immediately, even though we may fail when their time for execution is at hand, they will still be taking root in the heart and their fruit may issue later when we have forgotten them.”
Regarding spiritual reading, St. Francis once again emphasised simplicity and unity rather than multiplicity. He said that those who skip lightly over many spiritual books profit little. He thought it wise for everybody to choose a good book … small and easily carried if possible … and to read it much and practise its teachings. St. Francis’ favourite “dear book” was the Spiritual Combat, which he carried for more than 18 years in his pocket and read daily. Bishop Camus said that the more he read the Spiritual Combat the more he could trace in it the groundwork of all of St. Francis’ teachings.
祈禱期於簡單和單一
有關靈修的練習，聖方濟各、沙雷氏建議每人都要選一些自已特別喜歡的特定的方法。它可能是要常想天主的臨在，或純正的意向，或順從天主的旨意，或跟隨上主的上智安排，或自我的棄絕。
聖方濟各不喜歡從一本書跳到另一本書去，實習第一個靈修的方法後又轉到另一個方法。不停地尋打不同的靈修系統。簡單和單一是一切事項中所要做到的，而不是多樣性。質量比數量更為重要。聖方濟各說：『蜜蜂逗留在花間的時間愈長，採得的花蜜愈多。』
他補充說：『那些在宴席中堅持要嘗盡所有的食物的人會損害他們的消化能力並干擾他們的睡眠。靈魂也是一樣，若他堅持要嘗試每一方法和靈修系統。他倫理的消化能力是太弱並不足以容納那麼多的品種，他將永不到達平安和寧靜，那些瑪利亞所擁有的，基督譽之為「最好的部份。」』
這聖人說，一個單一熱心的短誦或短禱重複一百次遠比一百篇不同的祈禱更為有益。聖方濟各、亞西西他恆常地每天每星期禱告說『我的天主，我的所有』；聖魯諾：『噢，天主的美善』；聖女德蘭：『不是天主的，什麼也不是。』
聖方濟各教導我們去學習雕塑家和畫家，他們用雕刻刀，用畫筆以很多的筆觸，刀刻去完成他們的作品。如果我們要在我們心中刻畫是一深的印象，我們要決心重複又重複地發熱情和定志向。
我們的心禱和默想會因我們一天中收歛心神和克己而更收成果。心禱，收斂心神和短禱就如自然生命呼吸中的呼氣和吸氣。聖方濟各也認為沒有祈禱的克己是像沒有靈魂的肉身，沒有克己的祈禱是像沒有肉身的靈魂。他說要能以祈禱提升靈魂，我們要以克己降低我們的肉身。聖方濟各在這方面的格言是：『我們應活於這世上一如我們靈魂在天堂和肉身在墳墓中。』
默想基督的苦難和聖死是最甜美和強烈的。聖方濟各說：『耶穌死在十字架上是猶大族的獅子—祂是三松謎語的答案，因為在祂的傷口，找到祂最強慈愛的蜂巢，由這力量進而成為我們最大慰籍的甜美。肯定的是，因為我主為我們而死，一如聖經所明證，這死亡是祂憐愛的巔峰，它應是我們愛祂的所有動機中最強烈的一個。』
在默想中有關定志向的一方面，聖方濟各說：『人們願意等待半年去見玉米由種子成長，等待多年去見蘋果收成。心禱要永不放棄…和定志向，這是祈禱的必有成果，應該永不忽略。雖然他們不一定立時可見，雖然當他實行的時候我們都可能己失落了，他們仍會根種於我們心中，他們的果實在我們忘記的時候會能有收成。』
有關靈修的閱讀，聖方濟各再一次強調簡單和單一比多樣化好。他說那些輕易跳過很多靈修書本的得益小。他想每人選一本好書—-小的，如可能的話容易攜帶的—–多加閱讀，並實行它的教導。聖方濟各最喜歡的書是『精神鬥爭』Spiritual Combat，這書他攜在口袋裡多於18年，他每天閱讀。加繆主教說，他多一點閱讀這Spiritual Combat，他能多一點在書內跟進聖方濟各教訓的根基。
