Francis de Sales' Yearly Examination of Soul

Taken from Francis de Sales Introduction to the Devout Life, the following ponders our relationship with God and neighbor.  Don't be put off by his old-fashioned manner--he has some perennial wisdom to offer.  I find his questions very helpful, especially when they probe how it feels to follow God.  De Sales is concerned not only with actions, but with our desires.  It is good to do good, but it is better to want to do that good and do it with ease.  Difficulty in virtue is not a good thing.  I recommend answering these questions in a spiritual diary and dating them, to be reviewed in the same examination within a year’s time.

A. Examination of Our State of Soul in Relation to God
1. What is the aspect of your heart with respect to mortal sin?
• Are you firmly resolved never to commit it, come what may?
• And have you kept that resolution from the time you first made it? (**for those who have made this examination before.) Here lies the foundation of the spiritual life.
2. What is your position with respect to the Commandments of God?
• Are they acceptable, light and easy to you?
3. How do you stand as regards venial sins? No one can help committing some such occasionally; but are there any to which you have any special tendency, or worse still, any actual liking and clinging?
4. With respect to spiritual exercises--do you like and value them? or do they weary and vex you? Which of the following do you like the most and dislike the most?
• hearing or reading God's Word
• meditating upon it
• calling upon God / making shorts acts of love during the day
• Confession
• preparing for Communion and receiving Holy Communion?
• Refraining from sin, sacrificing your desires, etc.
• Why do you feel as you do? Examine the cause, especially where your dislike comes from.
5. With respect to God Himself--does your heart delight in thinking of God? "I remembered Thine everlasting judgments, O Lord, and received comfort," says David. 1
• Do you feel a certain readiness to love Him, and a definite inclination to enjoy His Love?
• Do you take pleasure in dwelling upon the Immensity, the Goodness, the Tenderness of God?
• When you are immersed in work and pastimes, does the thought of God come to you as a welcome thing?
• Do you accept it gladly, and yield yourself up to it, and your heart turn with a sort of yearning to Him? There are souls that do so. Or do you feel irritable about “dragging God in”?
6. If a wife has been long separated from her husband, so soon as she sees him returning, and hears his voice, however busy she may be, her heart knows no restraint, but turns at once to think upon him she loves. So it is with souls which really love God, however engrossed they may be; when the thought of Him is brought before them, they forget all else for joy at feeling His Dear Presence near, and this is a very good sign.
7. With respect to Jesus Christ as God and Man--how does your heart draw to Him?
8. With respect to Our Lady, the Saints, and your Guardian Angel--do you love them well?
• Do you rejoice in the sense of their guardianship?
• Do you take pleasure in their lives, their pictures, their memories?
9. As to your tongue--how do you speak of God?
• Do you take pleasure in speaking His Praise, and singing His Glory in psalms and hymns?
10. As to actions--have you God's visible glory at heart, and do you delight in doing whatever you can to honor Him? Those who love God will love to adorn and beautify His House.
• Are you conscious of having ever given up anything you liked, or of renouncing anything for God's Sake? for it is a good sign when we deprive ourselves of something we care for on behalf of those we love.
• What have you ever given up for the Love of God?

B. Examination of your Condition as regards yourself.
1. How do you love yourself? Are you eager for your soul to attain heaven or to attain worldly success? If the love you bear yourself has a heavenward tendency, you will long, or, at all events be ready to die whenever it may please our Lord.
2. Is your love of yourself well regulated? for nothing is more ruinous than an inordinate love of self. A well-regulated love implies greater care for the soul than for the body; more eagerness in seeking after holiness than anything else; a greater value for heavenly glory than for any mean earthly honor. A well regulated heart much oftener asks itself, "What will the angels say if I follow this or that line of conduct?" than what will men say.
3. What manner of love do you bear to your own desires, whims, and wants? Isn’t it true that you like to cater to your weaknesses?
4. What do you imagine yourself worth in God's Sight? Nothing, doubtless. There is no great humility in the fly which confesses it is nothing, as compared with a mountain; or a drop of water, which knows itself to be nothing compared with the sea; or a cornflower or spark, as compared with the sun. But humility consists in not loving ourselves above other men, and in not seeking to be loved and admired above others.
• How is it with you in this respect?
5. In speech--do you never boast in any way? Do you never indulge in self-flattery when speaking of yourself?
6. In deed--do you indulge in anything prejudicial to your health,--not caring for our bodies by staying up too late, gluttony, avoiding healthy food / eating too much bad food because of the taste?

C. Examination of the Soul's Condition as regards our Neighbor.
1. How do you love your neighbor?
• Do you love him cordially, and for God's Sake?
• In order to answer this fairly, you must call to mind all the disagreeable, annoying people. In such cases we really practice the Love of God with respect to our neighbors, and still more towards them that do us wrong, either by word or deed. Examine your thoughts, words, and deeds towards those others, especially enemies, and whether it costs you a great effort to love them.
• Are you quick to speak ill of your neighbors, especially those who do not love you?
• Do you act unkindly in any way, directly or indirectly, towards them? A very little honest examination will enable you to find this out.

D. A briefer outlined Examination of the Soul.
I have dwelt thus at length on these points, on a due examination of which all true knowledge of our spiritual progress rests; as to an examination of sins, that rather pertains to the confessions of those who are not eager to advance. But it is well to take ourselves to task soberly concerning these different matters, investigating how we have been going on since we made good resolutions concerning them, and what notable faults we have committed.

But the summary of all is to examine our passions; and if you are worried by so detailed an investigation as that already suggested, you may make a briefer inquiry as to what you have been, and how you have acted, in some such manner as this:--

EXAMINATION
A. In your love of God, your neighbor, and yourself.
B. In hatred for the sin which is in yourself, for the sin which you find in others, since you ought to desire the extirpation of both; in your desires concerning riches, pleasure, and honor.
C. In fear of the perils of sin, and of the loss of this world's goods; we fear the one too much and the other too little.
D. In hope, fixed overmuch it may be on things of this world and the creature; too little on God and things eternal.
E. In sadness, whether it be excessive concerning unimportant matters.
F. In gladness, whether it be excessive concerning unworthy objects.
G. In short, examine what attachments hinder your spiritual life, what passions engross it, and what chiefly attracts you. It is by testing the passions of the soul, one by one, that we ascertain our spiritual condition, just as one who plays the lute tries every string, touching those which are discordant, either raising or lowering them. Thus having tried our soul as to love, hate, desire, fear, hope, sadness and joy, if we find our strings out of tune for the melody we wish to raise, which is God's Glory, we must tune them afresh with the help of His Grace, and the counsel of our spiritual director.

E. After the Examination.
When you have quietly gone through each point of this examination, thank God for any improvement, however slight, as you may have found in yourself, confessing that it is the work of His Mercy Alone in you. (**for those who have made the examination before). Then, do the following:
1. Humble yourself deeply before God, confessing that if your progress has been but small, it is your own fault, for not having corresponded faithfully, bravely and continually to the inspirations and lights which He has given you in prayer or otherwise.
2. Promise to praise Him for ever for the graces He has granted to you, and because He has led you against your will to make even this small progress.
3. Ask forgiveness for the disloyalty and faithlessness with which you have answered Him.
4. Offer your whole heart to Him that He Alone may rule therein. Entreat Him to keep you faithful to Himself.
5. Ponder over the examples of the Saints, the Blessed Virgin, your guardian Angel and patron Saint, St. Joseph, etc.