St. Francis de Sales on Courage (Part IV)

Summary

Catholic Saints Podcast – Augustine Institute

Episode: St. Francis de Sales on Courage (Part IV)
Date: January 30, 2026
Host: Dr. Ben Akers
Guest: Dr. Christopher Bloom

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Episode Overview

This episode, the final installment in a four-part series, delves into the theme of courage (also called bravery or fortitude) as understood by St. Francis de Sales in his classic spiritual work, Introduction to the Devout Life. As Lent approaches, Dr. Ben Akers and Dr. Christopher Bloom focus on how Christian courage is not just for martyrs or heroes, but is vital for daily perseverance and fidelity in the ordinary duties of life. The conversation weaves together practical insights from St. Francis de Sales, encouraging listeners to embrace courage in both small and significant ways on their spiritual journey.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Why Focus on Courage?

• Dr. Bloom emphasizes that courage is underappreciated in contemporary Christian life.
  • Courage is not just about big, heroic acts, but about determination to put into practice the lessons of a devout life.
  • “He wants to stir up in us a kind of determination to put these lessons into practice.” (C, 00:55)
• Dr. Akers connects the virtue of courage with the preparations for Lent.

2. Christians and the “Worldly”

• St. Francis warns against being swayed by criticism from the "worldly" — people who mock or discourage devout living.
  • Examples: Attending Mass more often, adopting new spiritual disciplines, or visible changes in behavior.
  • “The worldly here is in effect anyone who might criticize the Christian for his or her choices towards a more devout life.” (C, 02:31)
• Importance of Christian witness: Even small acts of faith can powerfully impact others (e.g., story of Edith Stein’s conversion through a simple witness in church) (C, 04:40).

Notable Quote:

“God can do amazing things with our acts of piety... These are not only good deeds...they’re going to strengthen our hearts, which is a fascinating concept.”
(C, 05:35)

3. Courage in Ordinary Life

• True courage, according to St. Francis de Sales, is lived through fidelity to one’s “providentially assigned state in life.”
  • Practical manifestations: Patience, perseverance, and constancy.
  • “It’s a brave thing to be patient with someone who’s annoying you or…to persevere in some long task.” (C, 06:19)
• Illustration of the difference between a comet and a planet: constancy over fleeting brilliance (B & C, 07:44–08:16).

4. When You Begin: Expect Discouragement

• Dr. Akers highlights the normalcy of initial discouragement and weariness when pursuing a devout life.
• St. Francis repeatedly encourages, "Begin again" — a foundational principle for overcoming setbacks.
  • “This is the first rule of the spiritual life. Begin again every day…after every confession, every Lent.” (C, 09:04)
• Reference to the phrase “nunc coepi” (“begin again”) as a spiritual motto (B, 10:26).

5. Strengthening the Will (the “Heart”)

• “Heart” is understood as the will — choosing to do the good discerned by the intellect.

  • The will grows stronger through repeated good choices, even when done reluctantly at first.
  • “Each one of those choices adds up to a state of our will. If our will is confirmed in choosing the good…then it’s strong.” (C, 10:49)

• Practical spiritual advice:

  • Start by working on one virtue (which counters a particular vice) rather than being overwhelmed.
  • Examples: Vanity vs humility, avarice vs generosity (B & C, 12:31–13:44).

Notable Quote:

“Pick a vice that you maybe struggle with and a virtue that you want to attain…then go after that hammer and tong.”
(B, 13:05)

• The key is steady, humble effort (“my heart is ready, O God”—Psalm 57) (B, 14:00).

6. Avoiding Self-Absorption and Anxiety

• St. Francis cautions against excessive self-reflection, which can breed anxiety and spiritual paralysis.
• Anxiety is termed “the source of all temptations.”
  • “Think of anxiety as being thrown on your heels…If you’re anxious and thrown on your heels, then these temptations that come might knock us over.” (C, 14:52)
• Proverbs and metaphors:
  • “The devil is ready to fish in troubled waters.” (B, 16:06)
  • Anxiety is not from the Lord; peace and confidence stem from trust in God’s greatness and providence (C, 16:37).

Notable Exchange:

B: "Anxiety, he says, is a source of all temptations. What does he mean by that? That was a striking phrase."
C: "Think of anxiety as being thrown on your heels...you're stuck...that's how anxiety works upon us...these temptations...might knock us over."
(B & C, 14:51–15:36)

7. Building Trust and Finding Peace

• Faith gives a vision: God is bigger than our problems.
  • Reference to J.B. Phillips’ book title, Your God Is Too Small.
  • “This is what you need is just remember, oh, yeah, God’s big. God’s bigger than this. Whatever this is, God’s bigger than it…” (C, 16:37)
• Jesus’ instructions against anxiety in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6 and 7) (B, 16:20–17:50).
• Lent seen as an annual opportunity to "begin again," focusing on growth in virtue and configuring our lives to Christ (B, 18:05).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Christian Courage:
  “It’s in those ordinary duties that you find courage or the opportunities to exercise courage.”
  (C, 06:19)

• On Constancy:
  “He had a great illustration…this firm resolution…as being part of courage. The difference between a planet and a comet...the comet’s light is passing while the planet is persevering and unfailingly shining."
  (B, 07:48)

• On the Spiritual Life:
  “Begin again every day, every season in life, after every confession, every Lent...”
  (C, 09:04)

• On Anxiety and Temptation:
  “Anxiety causes distress…you put yourself, as you say, on your heels, and I'm going to make a bad decision.”
  (B, 15:36)

• On God's Sovereignty:
  “God stands beyond the world...is completely unmovable, and there’s no obstacle that he can’t overcome.”
  (C, 17:20)

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Section/Timestamp Guide

| Topic | Host/Guest | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------------------|------------|-----------| | Introduction & Overview of Courage | B & C | 00:22 | | Courage: Not Just for Heroes, but Everyday Virtue | C | 00:55 | | Facing Worldly Criticism | C | 02:31 | | Witness & Subtle Evangelization (Edith Stein anecdote) | C | 04:40 | | Ordinary Duties as Courageous Acts | C | 06:19 | | Planet vs. Comet Metaphor for Steadfastness | B & C | 07:44 | | Perseverance and Discouragement | C | 09:04 | | “Begin Again” – Motto for the Spiritual Life | B | 10:26 | | Strengthening the Will ("the Heart") | C | 10:49 | | Choosing One Virtue to Cultivate | B | 13:05 | | Avoiding Anxiety and Its Spiritual Dangers | C & B | 14:34 | | Anxiety as the Gateway to Temptation | C | 14:52 | | Devil “Fish in Troubled Waters” Proverb | B | 16:06 | | Faith in God’s Providence | C | 16:37 | | Lent as Time to Begin Again | B | 18:05 |

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Closing Thoughts

Dr. Akers and Dr. Bloom conclude by reaffirming the relevance of courage for every Christian — not as a singular, dramatic moment but as daily faithfulness in one’s vocation. Lent is highlighted as a prime spiritual reset, a time to "begin again" in earnestness and courage, seeking to configure life ever more closely to Christ.

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Transcript

[A]

You're listening to a podcast on Catholic saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live and share their faith.

[B]

Hello, welcome to Form. Now, my name is Dr. Ben Akers. I'm the executive director of formed. And joining me today for a conversation is Dr. Christopher Bloom, who is a translator of St. Francis of Sales. And this is part four of a four part series talking about four characteristics that are essential to the Christian life. We're pregaming Lent, in a sense, we're preparing for Lent. And so we've been looking at different virtues from this great work of St. Francis de Sales, the Introduction to the Devout Life. Today we're going to be talking about bravery and fortitude. Why did you pick this virtue?

[C]

Well, I think it's sort of undersold today, you might say, you know, it's one of the surprising features of the Introduction to Devout Life that as the book reaches its crescendo, as it were, I mean, as it's sort of, you've been working through the basics, how to pray, humility, so that we're standing right towards God, the evangelical councils and how to live them as a layperson in the world. The surprising thing is that we come to an end by being encouraged by this great saint. He wants to stir up in us a kind of determination to put these lessons into practice. And I think that today, maybe we're just not as aware as we should be, that we need to be encouraged, that we need to have fortitude in all of its different manifestations.

[B]

I agree. When you read these things, I'm inspired and I'm also convicted and challenged and I want to put it into practice. But he does talk about the importance of courage in implementing these things. Let's go through the text. This is if you'd like to join along. Dr. Bloom put together a PDF. It's about eight pages long, very readable and on this theme. So we're going to be using this as our basis. If you're watching online, you're going to have to go to your computer to download this PDF. But it's free, it's accessible to you. If you're on your phone, you're probably not going to be able to see it. That's a Vimeo platform issue that we're trying to work out. But you can go to your computer and download the PDF and read along with us. The first section that you have for us here is we must not trifle with the worldly. What does he mean by this?

[C]

In this section well, it's interesting, you know, I think so the worldly here is in effect anyone who might criticize the Christian for his or her choices towards a more devout life. Right. So the decision to go to mass more often, the decision to wake up a little earlier, maybe, maybe it's a question of how one dresses, maybe it's a question of not eating meat on Fridays, whatever. Right. Something that someone else might notice and then poke at. Right.

[B]

Well, implicit in this is that people notice the witness of others lives.

[C]

That's right.

[B]

And so the importance of Christian witness and you start to change your life. As you mentioned, get up early or I can't join you for lunch today, I'm going to go to mass down the street at the local church. And he says that those who are worldly automatically poke. They just kind of instinctively poke.

[C]

They're going to go right there.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

They're going to say, well, this must be holier than thou behavior. This has to be hypocrisy because I knew this person when, you know, this sort of thing. Of course this can cut really close to the bone inside one's own family with siblings or something like this.

[B]

Right. Especially yes, we've talked before off camera, but about birth order and family practices and family culture where I knew you when you did this. There's no way that you could possibly change.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And then Francis de Sales says, no, you want to change in the Christian life, that this is your more conforming to Christ and people will notice and they're going to accuse you and they're going to challenge you and they are not your friends, people that act like this.

[C]

Well, that's right. And I think also implicit in here is a little bit of a tug at each of us. Are we tempted to criticize others in this way? You know, how do we do when we look in this mirror? Right. And, and that's really important because we don't want to be guilty of pulling people down. We want to be encouraging people in their pious resolutions.

[B]

So it's true some people might feel that we're judging them. They might think that we're judging them even though we're acting differently. We're not even calling them to act differently. We're just living differently ourselves and they're feeling judged by seeing us live.

[C]

That's right. Yeah. But let's also keep in mind here that God can do amazing things with our, with our acts of piety. So you mentioned, you know, not not taking a lunch hour and instead going off to Mass. Well, this this is precisely what some person was doing in Frankfurt, Germany. We have no idea who this person was when. And in fact, it wasn't even going to Mass. It was a person who was just going in to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, like at a coffee break or something. And the young Edith Stein, who was still Jewish at the time, although she had fallen away from her Jewish identity, right. She saw this person going to a Catholic Church and thought, there's something going on in that building that I need to know about. And she went in there and saw a person praying before the Blessed Sacrament. And this was crucial for her conversion.

[B]

That's beautiful, because we get to heaven, God willing, that we get to see all these different choices that we've made, hopefully for good also, but how they've played out and how they've affected other people's lives.

[C]

And this is the message about courage in here, is that we're going to gain in it precisely by those little choices, those little moments when we embrace humility or embrace patience or meekness, the virtues that he's been singling out throughout the book. These are not only good deeds that are going to help our relationships and put us in good stead with respect to God, but they're going to strengthen our hearts, which is a fascinating concept.

[B]

I like the idea of what he presents here is courage. When I hear courage and I hear bravery, I think of a sword and going into battle and, you know, doing great things and being a martyr. But that's not what he's. He doesn't mention any of that in. In this text.

[C]

No, no. For. For De Sales, throughout the devout life and really everywhere in here, spiritual writing, the. The standard or measure or ruler for us is always the state in life to which God has called us, right? So our providentially assigned state in life right now, for some people who are in their youth, maybe that state in life isn't quite clear yet. They're discerning vocation, something like this, right? But for most of us who are at or past the middle point in life, you know, we're well aware of what our ordinary duties are, right? And Francis de Sales's constant teaching is that it's. It's in those ordinary duties that you find courage or the. The opportunities to exercise courage. And he's helpful in that. He points out the connection between virtues like patience, perseverance and constancy with courage. These are all, in fact, manifestations of courage. It's a brave thing to be patient with someone who's annoying you or it's a brave thing to persevere in some long task, grading a stack of papers, perhaps in my case, that you'd rather not do. Right. Or you'd rather just say, take a nap or. Again, it's a brave thing to remain constant to something important instead of being distracted by the shiny object.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And I think this applies to all of us in our daily lives.

[B]

Speaking of this shiny object, he had a great illustration in there. In talking about what you're talking about, this firm resolution, this patience, patient endurance as being part of courage. The difference between a planet and a comet, where they both shine brightly, they both attract our attention, and they both let off light. But the comet's light is passing.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

While the planet is persevering and unfailingly shining. So want to be planned.

[C]

Less bright, but less bright.

[B]

Right. But it's stable, or it's not stable, but it's present in the sky.

[C]

Pretty stable.

[B]

Yeah. One of the things. So he talks about that from moving. So we're on page three. If you'd like to join along with us in the reading where he talks about the planet versus the comet. We move into the second section. He talks about our need for courage. And he goes through. Which I thought was very helpful. What happens when you first start to pray? Or what happens when you first start to change your life? So we have the firm resolution. I want to do it. I'm convicted. I don't care what other people think. I'm going to do it. And the very first thing he mentions is discouragement, weariness. It's like going to a foreign land, and you just feel just out of sorts a little bit. And he said, that's normal.

[C]

That is normal. In his letters of spiritual direction. He was in the country, and many of the people he worked with didn't live in the same town. So often his spiritual direction was through letters, which is a great gift, as it turns out, to the church because we can read them. And he liked to use the phrase, begin again. This is the first rule of the spiritual life. Begin again every day, every season in life, after every confession, every Lent. You know, there's all of these opportunities to begin again. We're never finished, right. We're always of the dust of the earth. Right now, the Lord wants us to grow in virtue. He wants us to be confirmed with the character of a Christian with a. An interior life that is Christlike. He wants that. And with his grace, we can attain a great measure of that. But we'll always be sinners, right?

[B]

So we see the mountain of Christian perfection ahead of us. To not be overwhelmed with the heights and knowing that there's snow at the top. And we're going to have to put our ice shoes on to make it to the top, but to not be discouraged, but to still always attempt to start again, to begin again. Phil Rivers, who used to be the quarterback at San Diego Chargers, used to wear a hat. Games that nunc chepi, the Latin for begin again.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So silent or witness there for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

Okay, so we're looking at. Now we're going to move to this next section, which I really like, which is part four of the introduction to Devout Life and section 10. So this is on page five, if you'd like to read along with us, where he talks about the importance of strengthening one's heart. What does he mean by this?

[C]

So heart, of course, is a metaphor for the will, right? With our intellect, we apprise situations and make a judgment about what is good or what is the right course of action. And then it's our will that chooses to do that, right? Course of action. And this is an interesting feature of human life, right? We know that there are times when we know what to do and we fail to do it. Either we fail to do it as couch potatoes, right? We just lie down and take a nap, or we fail to do it because we choose some other good. And sometimes, of course, that's very wrong. And that's what we call mortal sin, right? Sometimes it's venial sin, sometimes it's just an imperfection, but that each one of those choices adds up to a state of our will, right? And if our. If our will is confirmed in choosing the good, choosing the right path, then it's strong. And if it's weak, that means that sometimes we do what we should and sometimes we don't, right? So then this becomes the struggle of life, right? This is really the task is to strengthen one's heart, strengthen one's will. And what's beautiful here is that the way we do it is first by, as it were, teaching ourselves interiorly about what is good by reminding ourselves, right? By always speaking truthfully about what's good, rather than pretending, you know, or saying things that are false. And then finally, by doing good things. And as he says here, do as many lowly, humble deeds as lie in your power, even if you perform them unwillingly at first. For by this means, you will form a habit of humility, right? So these are simple matters, right? Just cleaning up after yourself.

[B]

What I liked about this section, when he tells us to, at the beginning of the Christian life, where we're beginning again, you know, if we've fallen, we want to start over again, is he's like, okay, just start with this one. Pick one virtue that you want to grow in. Because if you overwhelming, like, I need to do faith, hope and charity, I need to grow in chastity and purity. And you kind of this endless list of things. I don't know where to start. I want to start. I don't know where to start. He says, pick a vice that you maybe struggle with and a virtue that you want to attain, which is the opposite of the vice that you might struggle with. And then go after that hammer and tong.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

So. And he gives some examples, if you'd like to read along. Vanity, avarice, flirting, kind of a light kind of interaction with people, a lack of seriousness in relationships.

[C]

Yes. No. I remember at a certain point in my life, before I passed middle age and found a hard time sleeping, right? But when I was younger and slept really well, right? It was very meaningful to me. The teaching of St. Jose Maria Escriva, that when the alarm clock rings is the heroic moment, right? There's a little bit of. Is a chance, little chance every morning to exercise courage by not hitting snooze, right?

[B]

And if you sleep with your phone as your alarm, it's so easy just to hit it in 7, 8 minutes. An hour goes by.

[C]

So to your point, right? Pick something, right, that you need to work on, and then, you know, a few months later, you'll be working on something else, you know?

[B]

So I was struck by the. He doesn't quote this particular psalm, but I know it's in his mind of Psalm 57. My heart is ready. Oh, God, my heart is ready. That just every day I want to be ready. This is the virtue I want to grow in today. And this is. These are the things I'm going to do to help grow in that virtue.

[C]

Yeah, that's right. But let's. Let's keep in mind here that we're not supposed to be constantly looking in the mirror, right? We want to be looking at Christ. And this leads us to that, this last point here about anxiety, right? If we're, if we're constantly looking at ourselves, we're just going to make ourselves stirred up, right? Yeah.

[B]

Right. Because we'll know how much imperfection is in our life and how much we don't measure up to Christ. Anxiety, he says, is a source of all temptations. What does he mean by that? That was a striking phrase.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Well, I think, you know, think of anxiety as being thrown on your heels. Right. If you're playing soccer and you're thrown on your heels, the other team's just going to run around you. Right. You can't. You literally can't get off the blocks. Right. You're stuck. And I think that's sort of how anxiety works upon us. Temptations will arise. Right. This is just part of life. This is one of the reasons why we need courage, is that there are many good things. And our task is to choose the one good thing that is right at that moment. So if we're anxious and thrown on our heels, then these temptations that come might knock us over. And I think that's the dynamic there.

[B]

I think he explains it beautifully in the way that we experience it, where he says that we're impatient. Anxiety causes distress. As I was reading it, I could recall moments in my life where this is exactly what happens. This is the order by which this happens in my life. And then you put yourself, as you say, on your heels, and I'm going to make a bad decision.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm going to turn to things that are not of God, which is sin.

[C]

Right, Exactly.

[B]

One of the things that. This is on page seven, the top of page seven. It was an interesting proverb. I thought it must have been an old French proverb of the devil's ready to fish in troubled waters.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

That anxiety is of the devil. Anxiety is not of the Lord. The Lord has so many words and phrases and teachings. One of the longest teachings he has in the part of the Sermon on the Mount is about not to be troubled, to not to be anxious. So he tells me not to do it, but how do I not do it?

[C]

Yeah. Well, I think I'm reminded of the old evangelical book published in the mid 20th century by J.B. phillips. Your God is too small. Right. Now, this is, alas, not a book that I ever managed to read, but the title kind of says it all. You know, this is what you need is just remember, oh, yeah, God's big. God's bigger than this. Whatever this is, God's bigger than it because God's got it all. And this is really the key here, that faith is meant to give us a vision of the world. Right. And what's at the heart of that vision of the world, that God stands beyond the world, holds it in his hand, is completely unmovable, and there's no obstacle that he can't overcome.

[B]

That's beautiful. We all want that peace and the Lord wants us to have that peace. Where the the psalm says deep calls upon deep. That this the storms can be raging on top of the ocean, but you just go several yards down and it's as if there's no storm up above. They have that storms come in our life as Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven, that it just depends on where you've built your house, if it on sand or the rock. Because the winds come, the storms buffet the winds buffet the house. It just depends on where your house is built. Yeah.

[C]

And we need to build on the Eternal One because we're not meant for this world. We're on pilgrimage here and Lent is our great reminder that we're on pilgrimage here. And it's the greatest chance we have each year to strengthen our hearts as we think about our ultimate destiny.

[B]

It's a beautiful thing that the Church gives us this season of Lent so that we can begin again. It's a chance to reconform ourselves, to configure our lives to the life of Christ and and to grow in virtue. So I encourage you to prepare well for Lent. If you're watching this outside the season of Lent, you know, please join along and reading the text from Introduction to the Devout life that Dr. Bloom presented to us. If you like the book, it's on Catholic market. We also have a free ebook if you'd like to read ebooks that's on just below this description of this show together. And thank you Chris for joining me and preparing these texts and thinking about these virtues. We talked about obedience and devotion, attentiveness and prayer to the importance of sincerity, which is just almost another word for humility. And then today talking about the importance of courage. So thank you for joining me and thank you for joining us and thank you for your support of the Augusta Institute through the Mission Circle. Your monthly donations help us to have conversations like this. So thank you and God bless.

[A]

You can watch these interviews in video format by visiting form.org formed is an online Catholic streaming service created by the Augustan Institute and Ignatius Press with award winning studies and parish programs, inspiring audio content, movies, ebooks and family friendly kids programming to support the mission of the Augustan institute. Please visit missioncircle.org.