Fenelon, Christian Counsel, On Diverse Matters Pertaining to the Inner Life (affiliate link). New York: M.W. Dodd, 1853. 2018 edition by Crossbreach Publications.
This book is different from what I normally read. Fenelon was a French Catholic archbishop, theologian, and poet who lived from 1651 until 1715. He is most famous for writing The Adventures of Telemachus (affiliate link). It is said that A.W. Tozer loved his copy of that book so much that it was the one volume in his personal library he refused to lend to anyone.
Some people find the writings of mystics difficult to read. Many mystics belonged to the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. While we might not always agree with their theological perspectives, they clearly sought a deep, experiential relationship with Christ. They spent time meditating on how to be rid of self and full of Christ. From this perspective, Fenelon makes some interesting observations. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but I welcome his invitation to think deeply.
The following are some comments that struck me as I read this book.
(I) “What men stand most in need of, is the knowledge of God.”
(II) “He desires to be nearer to me by his pure love than I am to myself.”
“All the good is of grace, all the evil is of self; when I do right, it is grace that does it; when I do wrong, it is because I resist grace.”
(III) “He who asks what he does not from the bottom of his heart desire, is mistaken in thinking that he prays.”
“What God gives is precisely what we should have desired to ask.”
“Meditation is not prayer, but it is the necessary foundation.”
(IV) “What a contrast! Nothingness strives to be something, and the Omnipotent becomes nothing!”
“. . . Nothing will make us so tender and indulgent to the faults of others as a view of our own.”
“Those who pass too rapidly from one truth to another feed their curiosity and restlessness; they even distract their intellect by too great a multiplicity of views.”
“The origin of our trouble is, that we love ourselves with a blind passion that amounts to idolatry.”
(XII) “You will never have wandering thoughts if you never will have them.”
“Let us pray that God would root out of our hearts everything of our own planting.”
“We cannot behold the holiness of God without feeling horror at the smallest of our transgressions.”
(XVI) “It often happens that what we offer to God, is not what he most desires to have of us.”
“God never makes us sensible of our weakness except to give us of his strength.”
“Discouragement is not a fruit of humility, but of pride; nothing can be worse.”
(XVIII) “We are not to meddle with things which God does not lay upon us.”
(XIX) “You have more need of mortification than of illumination.”
(XX) “We desire to enter into a state of pure faith and retain our own wisdom! To be a babe, and great in our own eyes! Ah! What a sad delusion!”
(XXI) “What matter whether this fragile vessel, this clay tabernacle, be broken and reduced to ashes, a little sooner or later?”
(XXII) “God never leaves the soul until he has rendered it supple and pliable, by twisting it all manner of ways.”
“The less timid the soul is in the sacrifice of itself, the greater liberties does it acquire!”
(XXIII) “Their whole desire then, is to know what is the will of God respecting them; and they fear nothing so much as not perceiving the whole of his requirements. So soon as they behold a new light in his law, they are transported with joy, like a miser at the finding of a treasure.”
“But how unhappy are those poor, weak souls, who are divided between God and the world!”
(XXV) “When we have once found God, we have nothing to seek among men.”
(XXVI) “Can the suffering that God destines to purify and make us worthy of himself, be called an evil?”
These are just some of the numerous quotes that caught my attention as I read this book. I chose to read it slowly and devotionally over time. Because it was written in a different era and context than my own, I wanted time to reflect on each statement. If you are looking for a book that will encourage you to think deeply, try this one. It has stood the test of time, and it continues to offer riches for those willing to dig for them.Rating: 3
