Hi, I'm Father Jacob Bertrand Jansik.

And I'm Father Gregory Pine.

And you're listening to the Catholic Classics podcast where we seek to grow our prayer lives by learning from the Church's

greatest Saints and teachers. Spiritual reading can be challenging for many

Catholics, so this podcast is here to help. Each season will read through a

great work, unpack its timeless wisdom, and encourage you with practical tips for the pursuit of holiness.

The Catholic Classics podcast is brought to you by Ascension.

This season, we are reading Ascension's edition of Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis DeSales.

To get your copy of the book and download the reading plan for this season, visit Ascension Press

dot com slash Catholic Classics or text intro to 33 777.

Be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast app.

In this bonus episode we'll be reading the introduction to part two instructions for elevating the soul to God through prayer and the sacraments found in pages 105 through 107 of ascension's addition of Introduction to the Devout Life.

This introduction will give you an overview of what we will be covering in the following episodes

for this part of the book. Commentary on Part 2.

So far we have established the getting around to it part of our understanding of the spiritual life. We know that it is for us to

respond rather than initiate, but how should we respond? Where do we start and how do we do

it right? In part one, St Francis sought to motivate our devotion through a general confession and a series of meditations.

Here, in part two, he sets forth what he calls the soul's two great means for uniting herself to his divine

majesty with ever increasing devotion, the sacraments and mental prayer.

In this part, St Francis devotes considerable attention to mental prayer.

He explains that prayer places our mind in the brilliant radiance of the divine light and warms

our will with the heat of heavenly love.

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