Christians speak of “the presence of God,” describing it in terms of joy, contentment, and peace even in the midst of life’s violent storms. But are there any steps we can take to increase our awareness of God’s nearness? One popular seventeenth-century preacher, Francis of Sales (1567-1622), said yes.
Francis came from a noble family in the castle of Sales, fifty miles southwest of Geneva, Switzerland. At 24, he had his doctorate in law, was admitted to the senate of Savoy, and could have looked forward to a career in government. Francis, however, chose the church. In December 1593, he was ordained a priest.
He volunteered for ministry near Geneva, where the Reformation controversy was raging. He had hopes of winning the “heretic Protestants” by Christian love. After four largely unsuccessful years, he was ready to return to Savoy. In 1598, his superiors chose him as bishop’s coadjutor, and in 1602, they appointed him Bishop of Geneva.
His book, The Devout Life, covers a wide range of spiritual problems, and for this reason many consider it one of the best introductions to the devotional life. In this condensed excerpt, taken from All the Saints Adore Thee by Bruce Shelley, Francis gives clear, practical instruction for greater awareness of God’s presence.
To assist you to place yourself in the presence of God, I propose four principal means which you will be able to use.
The first consists in a lively and attentive apprehension of God’s absolute presence. That is, that God is in all things and in every place. There is not a place in the world in which he is not most truly present. Just as birds, wherever they fly, always meet with the air, so we, wherever we go, or wherever we are, always find God present.
Everyone knows this truth, but everyone does not fully reflect upon it. Blind men, who do not see a prince who is present among them, behave with respect when they are told of his presence. However, because they do not see him, they easily forget that he is present, and having forgotten it, they still more easily lose their respect for him.
Alas, we do not see God, who is present with us. Although faith assures us of his presence, yet because we do not behold him with our eyes, we too often forget him and behave as though he were very far away from us. Although we all know that he is present in all things, because we do not reflect upon it, we act as if we did not know it. That is why before prayer we must always excite in our souls a lively thought and apprehension of the presence of God.
The second means to place yourself in his sacred presence is to reflect that God is not only in the place in which you are, but that he is, in a most particular manner, in your heart and in the very center of your spirit. This he enlivens and animates by his divine presence, being there as the heart of your heart and as the spirit of your spirit. As St. Paul says, it is in God “we live, and move, and are.” Therefore, in consideration of this truth, excite in your heart a profound reverence towards God, who is there so intimately present.
A third means is to consider our Savior in his humanity looking down from heaven on all mankind, but especially on Christians, who are his children, and more particularly on such as are at prayer, whose actions and behavior he observes. This is by no means a mere imagination, but a very truth.
A fourth method consists in making use of the imagination, by representing to ourselves our Savior in his sacred humanity, as if he were near us, as we sometimes imagine a friend to be present, saying, “I imagine that I see him who has done this or that,” or “It seems to me that I see him,” or something similar.
Hence, you will employ one of these four means of placing yourself in the presence of God before prayer. Do not use them all at once, but one at a time, and that briefly and simply.
Copyright © 1991 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
