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Consoling Thoughts On Trials of An Interior Life
In Consoling Thoughts on Trials of an Interior Life St. Francis de Sales, beloved Doctor of the Church, gives us treasured insight from the master of spiritual direction. How can the soul persevere in piety in the midst of affliction? How should we conduct ourselves when suffering interior trials? How can we profit from our own faults? St. Francis de Sales explains all this and more.
In this masterful collection, St. Francis speaks to every soul on the riches to be gained from suffering trials and temptations, the advantages we can draw from our own defects, and how to choose and carry the best crosses. Also included are uplifting passages on suffering sadness, or what we would now call depression.
Readers of Consoling Thoughts on Trials of an Interior Life will experience firsthand why St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) is known to history as the Gentle Saint. St. Francis was Bishop of Geneva and a tireless preacher, who yet made time to correspond with numerous souls who wrote him for his insight and guidance. His Consoling Thoughts are compiled from these letters as well as from his other spiritual works.
In this masterful collection, St. Francis speaks to every soul on the riches to be gained from suffering trials and temptations, the advantages we can draw from our own defects, and how to choose and carry the best crosses. Also included are uplifting passages on suffering sadness, or what we would now call depression.
Readers of Consoling Thoughts on Trials of an Interior Life will experience firsthand why St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) is known to history as the Gentle Saint. St. Francis was Bishop of Geneva and a tireless preacher, who yet made time to correspond with numerous souls who wrote him for his insight and guidance. His Consoling Thoughts are compiled from these letters as well as from his other spiritual works.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 24, 2013
52 people are currently reading
157 people want to read
About the author
Francis de Sales
725 books237 followersFrancis de Sales, C.O., T.O.M., A.O.F.M. Cap. (French: François de Sales; Italian: Francesco di Sales) was a Bishop of Geneva and is honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. His father sent him to a good school when he was young, and he received spiritual formation from the Jesuits. After a disturbing spiritual fear of being condemned, he eventually resolved his problem and decided to dedicate his life to God in 1587. He became a doctor of law at the age of 24 at the Jesuit College of Clermont, Paris, and was ordained a priest by Bishop Claude de Granier and stationed in Geneva in 1593. He became bishop of Geneva in 1602.
Francis de Sales is the author of various collections of sermons on Mary, Lent, prayer and Christmastide. He was known as a spiritually understanding man as well as a friend of the poor. Though known for his great intellect and theological wisdom, he spoke with simplicity and earnestness, so that all could understand. An Introduction to the Devout Life, his best-loved work, is based on notes he wrote for a cousin for marriage, stressing that sanctity is possible in everyday life. He was canonized by Pope Alexander VII in 1665. His feast is celebrated on January 24.
Francis de Sales is the author of various collections of sermons on Mary, Lent, prayer and Christmastide. He was known as a spiritually understanding man as well as a friend of the poor. Though known for his great intellect and theological wisdom, he spoke with simplicity and earnestness, so that all could understand. An Introduction to the Devout Life, his best-loved work, is based on notes he wrote for a cousin for marriage, stressing that sanctity is possible in everyday life. He was canonized by Pope Alexander VII in 1665. His feast is celebrated on January 24.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 22, 2024
Lire St Francis de Sales est comme recevoir un baume sur le cœur
November 6, 2025
A quick read worth reading over and over again. Kernels of beautiful spiritual insights into prayers and our path to holiness to God is always present to us if we seek to reach out to Him.
April 27, 2023
This is one of the most helpful books I have ever read. He lays out truth in a kind, simple and clear manner. Then he provides simple remedies and actions to accomplish what you now know must be done to truly obtain peace. I thank God for the practical help and guidance of His saints. I would be tempted to give up if not for them.
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August 23, 2023Changed how I see suffering and trials. Anyone who is feeling spiritual dryness or needing a little pick-me-up in your intierior life, this is the book for you. I love the loving but firm words of encouragement that St. Francis gives in this book.
December 17, 2024
This is a good book for scrupulous people or just depressed people. I found it helpful and “consoling”. St. Francis De Sales helped me find out what I was really lacking in my spiritual life while also distracting me from my scrupulosity.
August 5, 2025
This is one of the few books I returned to a third time and may again.
“God contributes nothing to our disobedience but leaves our will “in the hands of its own” free will and permits it to choose evil; when we obey, God contributes His assistance, His inspiration, and His grace.”
“What becomes of the light of the stars when the sun appears on the horizon? Such light does not actually perish, but it is ravished and absorbed into the sun’s supreme light with which it is happily intermingled and joined. What becomes of man’s will when it is entirely abandoned to the divine good pleasure? It does not wholly perish, yet it is so engulfed in and intermingled with God’s will that it no longer shows forth and has no further desire apart from God’s will.”
“All of the great saints - Job, David, and the rest - began every prayer with the confession of their own misery and unworthiness. And so it is a very good thing to acknowledge ourselves to be poor, vile, abject, and unworthy to appear in the presence of God.”
“To summarize, self-renunciation is the virtue of virtues”
“Abandon yourself to God's will even in prayer”
“we are absolute nothingness”
MAXIMS FOR PERSEVERANCE IN PIETY IN THE MIDST OF AFFLICTIONS
“And what have you to fear, being the child of such a Father, without whose Providence not a hair of your head can fall? It is wonderful that,1 being the children of such a Father, we have, or could have, any other anxiety than to love and serve Him.”
WE SHOULD DRAW PROFIT FROM OUR FAULTS
“to have such a profound humility and simplicity as will make us confide entirely in God and rise again when we fall, to endure patiently ourselves and our abjections, and to endure tranquilly our neighbors and their imperfections.”
“Though I should fall twenty times, or a hundred times, a day, I will arise at every fall, and pursue my course. What does it amount to, after all, that you should have met with some accidents on the way, provided you safely reach the journey’s end? God will not reproach you after your recovery.
“Let us, then, like the good thief, unite our sinner’s cross with the cross of Him who has saved us; and by this loving and devout union of our sufferings with the sufferings and cross of Jesus Christ.
“Have courage: provided that your heart is faithful to Him, He will not load you above your strength, and He will support your burden with you, when He sees that with a good affection you bow down your shoulders beneath the weight He lays upon you.
“let all creatures make war upon me, I confide in God; and to be in peace, it suffices me to know that I am with Him and He is with me.”
“Many are called, but few are chosen.”
“. . .comparison with the rest of the world and with infidel nations, the number of Christians was very small, but that of this small number there would be very few lost, according to this remarkable sentence: “There is no damnation for those who are in Jesus Christ” (Rom. 8:1).
“Those who have an excessive and inordinate fear of being damned show plainly that they have great need of humility and submission.
“Is it not a greater service to place souls in Heaven, than to bury bodies in the earth?
“Since the earth, and all that it contains, must be consumed by fire, which will precede the coming of the great Judge . . .
“Confidence in the divine mercy, and in the merits of Jesus Christ, is the only security for all.
“Let us hold, as a certain truth, that the more fully we thus abandon ourselves, the more just shall we be, and the more agreeable our sacrifices to God.”
“God contributes nothing to our disobedience but leaves our will “in the hands of its own” free will and permits it to choose evil; when we obey, God contributes His assistance, His inspiration, and His grace.”
“What becomes of the light of the stars when the sun appears on the horizon? Such light does not actually perish, but it is ravished and absorbed into the sun’s supreme light with which it is happily intermingled and joined. What becomes of man’s will when it is entirely abandoned to the divine good pleasure? It does not wholly perish, yet it is so engulfed in and intermingled with God’s will that it no longer shows forth and has no further desire apart from God’s will.”
“All of the great saints - Job, David, and the rest - began every prayer with the confession of their own misery and unworthiness. And so it is a very good thing to acknowledge ourselves to be poor, vile, abject, and unworthy to appear in the presence of God.”
“To summarize, self-renunciation is the virtue of virtues”
“Abandon yourself to God's will even in prayer”
“we are absolute nothingness”
MAXIMS FOR PERSEVERANCE IN PIETY IN THE MIDST OF AFFLICTIONS
“And what have you to fear, being the child of such a Father, without whose Providence not a hair of your head can fall? It is wonderful that,1 being the children of such a Father, we have, or could have, any other anxiety than to love and serve Him.”
WE SHOULD DRAW PROFIT FROM OUR FAULTS
“to have such a profound humility and simplicity as will make us confide entirely in God and rise again when we fall, to endure patiently ourselves and our abjections, and to endure tranquilly our neighbors and their imperfections.”
“Though I should fall twenty times, or a hundred times, a day, I will arise at every fall, and pursue my course. What does it amount to, after all, that you should have met with some accidents on the way, provided you safely reach the journey’s end? God will not reproach you after your recovery.
“Let us, then, like the good thief, unite our sinner’s cross with the cross of Him who has saved us; and by this loving and devout union of our sufferings with the sufferings and cross of Jesus Christ.
“Have courage: provided that your heart is faithful to Him, He will not load you above your strength, and He will support your burden with you, when He sees that with a good affection you bow down your shoulders beneath the weight He lays upon you.
“let all creatures make war upon me, I confide in God; and to be in peace, it suffices me to know that I am with Him and He is with me.”
“Many are called, but few are chosen.”
“. . .comparison with the rest of the world and with infidel nations, the number of Christians was very small, but that of this small number there would be very few lost, according to this remarkable sentence: “There is no damnation for those who are in Jesus Christ” (Rom. 8:1).
“Those who have an excessive and inordinate fear of being damned show plainly that they have great need of humility and submission.
“Is it not a greater service to place souls in Heaven, than to bury bodies in the earth?
“Since the earth, and all that it contains, must be consumed by fire, which will precede the coming of the great Judge . . .
“Confidence in the divine mercy, and in the merits of Jesus Christ, is the only security for all.
“Let us hold, as a certain truth, that the more fully we thus abandon ourselves, the more just shall we be, and the more agreeable our sacrifices to God.”
April 2, 2015
St. Francis de Sales offers such clear and practical advice and this is a wonderfully tailored compilation. But because it is a compilation of bits of advice on these topics, it doesn't always read like a unified direction. The author combed through St. Francis's letters and books for specific content, but instead of listing them as separate points he wove them together into longer essays. I still enjoyed the book but recommend being aware of that if you decide to pick it up.
November 26, 2022
St. Francis de Sales (new best friend) helped my spiritual life multiple times. Ora pro nobis!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews