By Kathryn Krueger
Salesian Spirituality: Table of Contents
- What is Salesian spirituality?
- History of Salesian Spirituality + Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary
- Writings of St. Francis
- Universal Holiness and the Sacread Heart of Jesus
- Six Themes of Salesian Spirituality
- Salesian Prayers
- More Resources
St. Francis de Sales died more than 400 years ago, yet his impact spans the world in the 21st century.
He is the patron of numerous religious orders and the namesake for dozens of schools, churches and other organizations around the globe.
But perhaps his greatest impact today is felt through Salesian spirituality, which continues to shape the faith lives of many, bringing them closer to God through “little virtues.”
Learn all about Salesian spirituality below.
What is Salesian spirituality?
In a nutshell, Salesian Spirituality is living with the continual awareness of being in God’s presence, following His will in the ordinary circumstances of your life, and living the gospel values through the little virtues.
St. Francis de Sales was a masterful spiritual director who wanted to help people of all walks of life learn to love God and to allow Jesus to be seen through them. He counseled St. Jane de Chantal, who was a new widow, to lean into raising her children while developing her desire to someday be a religious sister.
He helped numerous people learn to not be fastidious in a prayer routine but rather to accept with gentleness and humility that they needed to care for the people in their lives, to be kind and generous to those who irritated them, and to courageously ask and do what God asked of them in their lives.
To be sustained these actions, of course, require a deep prayer life, but it is a flexibility of heart and presence that St. Francis encouraged when a prayer routine needed to be adapted, similar to how Jesus adapted to the needy crowds when He would try to step away for prayer time.
History of Salesian Spirituality and the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary
St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal met in Dijon France in 1604, by 1610 they co-founded the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. St. Francis de Sales wrote Introduction to the Devout Life in 1609 and Treatise on the Love of God in 1616.
While he passed away in 1622, St. Jane went on to found over 80 monasteries by the time she passed away in 1641. Their holy friendship paved the way for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our Church, when it was particularly needed in post-reformation Europe, that we now refer to as Salesian Spirituality.
Since then St. Francis was named a Doctor of the Church, often called the Doctor of Divine Love. The Visitation Order received the gift of the promulgation of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through His appearances to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673-1675.
And in 1875, Mother Marie de Sales Chappuis convinced Blessed Father Louis Brisson to found the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. Salesian Spirituality has continued to grow through these orders and the founding of other orders, such as the Salesians of Don Bosco (1859), the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales (1875), the Salesian Sisters (1872), and others.
The Writings, Practical Guidance, and Spiritual Guidance of St. Francis
Eventually, St. Francis turned his letters of spiritual direction into the book Introduction to the Devout Life which was very successful as tapping a desire of many lay people to learn how to live a devout life. He went on to write and publish Treatise on the Love of God as a deeper dive into the potential levels that a soul can ascend in its relationship with God.
He was a big proponent of offering the beginning of each day to God, gathering the anticipated and the unanticipated events of the day and offering to lean into whatever happened that day to God’s glory and asking for God’s help.
RELATED: Ignatian Spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises
Then at the end of the day, St. Francis encouraged a daily examen to take a proverbial walk through the events of the day, reflecting on the places a person was aligned with God and the places the person was not, then finally offering thanksgiving and petition for God’s help in the future. Then St. Francis advocated a good night’s sleep, restful in God’s loving arms. He told his directees not to be dragged down by anxiety.
Universal Holiness and the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Salesian spirituality’s universal call to holiness and reliance on the loving heart of God was born amidst the challenging circumstances of post-reformation France and Savoy. St. Jane’s own brother was kidnapped by Calvinists who threatened her Catholic, magistrate father to change his religious views.
St. Francis had a faith crisis in his college years in Paris, as he listened to Calvinist teaching about predestination. St. Francis was fearful that he might not be able to spend eternity with God, but he offered a prayer of submission, saying that he would love God in the present moment, and would leave the future to God.
He said a Memorare in front of a statue of Our Lady of Good Deliverance. His fears were eased and he was forever changed to be gentle with all souls seeking God and to be convinced of the all-loving heart of Jesus.
In fact, St. Francis would write to St. Jane about exchanging her heart with Jesus. The image of offering one’s own heart over to Christ and allowing His infinite love to flow through a person was a recurring analogy in St. Francis and St. Jane’s teaching.
In the next generation, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation sister, received the apparition of Jesus, showing more tangibly the image of His Sacred Heart and asked her to share the message of His overwhelming love with the world.
Salesian Spirituality takes its image and its direction from the Heart of Jesus. The exchange of hearts with Our Beloved Jesus is what gives us the grace and strength to love others in our midst and in our world.
This is a spirituality that has inspired saints from St. Vincent de Paul to St. Thérèse of Liseaux. Some people are called to lives of contemplation and prayer in a monastery and others are called to active lives of service in the world. God works with every soul in every circumstance. God deeply loves each person and calls each of us to Himself. When we say yes to that call, He can send us on a mission to share His love in a profound way.
Six Themes of Salesian Spirituality
The Visitation Salesian Network of the schools originally formed by the Order of The Visitation of Holy Mary recognizes six major themes of Salesian Spirituality. These themes demonstrate the particularly interior spiritual life that we are invited to in a personal relationship with God that then extends in external fruitfulness. The image demonstrates how the majority of the spiritual life is a heart-to-heart exchange with God. The natural fruits of living the ‘little virtues’ become an external sign of living the Gospel values that become new seeds implanted in the hearts of other people.
God is Love
God’s plan of the Incarnation brought Mary to respond in immediate service to her cousin Elizabeth in the encounter of the Visitation (Luke 1:39-56). After their exchange, Mary proclaims the Magnifcat, extolling God’s loving generosity both in the scope of salvation history to all people and in the intimate relationship with her as an individual. The very basis of Salesian spirituality is a belief and trust in an all loving God. He loves us each as our unique selves, He fastened his image into each of us, and He calls us into imitating Him by complete self -gift to the other, obedience to him, outpouring of help and support to others, and ultimate unity with Him and with each other through our relationships.
Following God’s Will
We don’t know what Mary expected for her life, but it probably wasn’t for an angel to tell her she would be God’s son’s mother. The angel also mentioned Elizabeth’s pregnancy, and Mary took that as a life circumstance she was called to support and honor, so she went off in haste, living in the present and doing God’s will. Salesian spirituality is open to listening to the voice of God and calls us to humbly respond. St. Francis de Sales gives particular attention to listening to God’s will both through His “signified will” and the “will of God’s good pleasure.” The signified will of God comes to us through the Bible, the teachings of the Church, encyclicals, and other general principles that are important rules of life. The Will of God’s Good pleasure comes to us through the circumstances of our lives. For example, if we carry a particular sickness or have a particular family obligation, that informs what we can and cannot do in our lives. Listening to these two aspects of how God reveals His will to us is an essential part of discernment and obedience.
Universal Call to Holiness
Mary was an unwed teenage mother and Elizabeth was a barren old lady, both of whom would have been looked down upon in their society. But we see that God used those people to share his grace most abundantly with the world. Everyone is called to live a holy life. God wants us to join him in heaven, so we are all called to be saints. That means holiness can and should be developed and lived in any walk of life.
Living in God’s Presence
Elizabeth immediately responded with joy when she felt her son respond to Jesus’ presence. Elizabeth was attuned to God’s working in her life and was able to respond immediately and with tremendous joy. As God is our best friend and lives within us as well as all around us, we are always in God’s presence. Keeping that awareness in mind allows us to more easily withdraw to conversations with God in our heart and to maintain a spirit of continual prayer, even within a busy lifestyle.
Live Jesus
Mary literally brings Jesus to Elizabeth. We are meant to be carriers of Christ’s life to a world in need of His loving presence. The Sisters of the Visitation’s motto is “Live Jesus!” Ultimately, we are meant to allow God’s life to be so thoroughly in us that Jesus lives through our thoughts and actions. Others should see Christ alive in our world because of how we live in accordance with God’s will for us.
Little Virtues
Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months. In this time, Mary would have helped Elizabeth get ready for the birth of her son, probably doing most of the chores around the house while Elizabeth was in her third trimester of pregnancy. In these quiet, little ways, Mary and Elizabeth would have shared a holy friendship and prepared for their motherhoods. We develop the habit of great virtue by taking the moments presented to us to grow in “little virtues.” Most of us won’t be called to heroic acts of virtue but we are all called in the everyday moments to act with humility, patience, gentleness, kindness, thoughtful concern for others, joyful optimism, examples of little virtues. In fact, a lifetime of virtue in all of the quiet moments amounts to a heroic gift of self.
Salesian Prayers
Below are a handful of common Salesian prayers:
Live Jesus
Live, Jesus, Live … so live in me
That all I do be done by thee.
And grant that all I think and say
May be thy thoughts and words today.
Direction of Intention (St. Francis de Sales)
Oh my God, I give you this day.
I offer you now all of the good which I shall do.
I promise to accept for love of you all of the difficulty which I shall meet.
Help me to conduct myself during this day in a manner most pleasing to you.
Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (St. Margaret Mary Alacoque)
O Heart of Love, I put all my trust in you.
For I fear all things from my own weakness,
but I hope for all things from your goodness.
Carrying Christ (by Ruth Mary Fox)
Into the hillside country
Mary went, carrying Christ,
And all along the road
The Christ she carried
Generously Bestowed His grace
On those she met.
I pray that I may carry Christ,
For it may be
That some would never know of Him
Except through me.
Prayer to St. Joseph from St. Francis de Sales
Glorious St. Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary,
we beseech you through the Heart of Jesus Christ,
grant to us your fatherly protection.
O you whose power reaches all our necessities
and who knows how to make possible the most impossible things,
open your fatherly eyes to the needs of your children.
In the confusion and pain which press upon us,
we have recourse to you with confidence.
Deign to take beneath your charitable guidance this important and difficult affair,
the cause of our worries, and make that its happy outcome serve for the glory of God
and the good of his devoted servants.
More Resources
Learn more about Visitation Order and Georgetown Visitation.
Kathryn Krueger is the Director of the St. Jane de Chantal Salesian Center and Co-host of the podcast Nurturing the Mind and Heart.