Hi, I'm Father Jacob Bertrand Jansick.

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're reading Ascension's edition of

Introduction to the Devout Life by St Francis de Sales. To get your copy of the book

and download the reading plan for this season visit Ascension Press.com slash Catholic Classics or text intro to

33 777. Be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast app. This is day seven. Today we'll be reading from Part 2, instructions for elevating the soul to God through prayer and the sacraments,

chapters 1 through 3, pages 109 through 118 in the Ascension edition of the book. Before we get into the reading, a quick look

at what we're covering today. In the first part of the book, St Francis gave advice for beginning the devout life, moving from desire to action.

He finished the section by moving us or inspiring us, encouraging us to make a general confession to put those desires into practice.

Now as we get into part two, St Francis leads us more deeply into the

devout life through two particular means or tools of this spiritual life,

prayer and the sacraments.

In these first three chapters of this part, St Francis begins to introduce us to prayer, to meditation, and often for us the desire for prayer is present, but we're left wondering how to begin, how to start.

And for this, St Francis comes to the rescue.

So let's begin with a prayer,

and then we can turn to the reading for today.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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