St. Francis de Sales on Holy Leisure

We are pleased to share an excerpt from Deacon Matthew Newsome’s book “The Devout Life: A Modern Guide to Practical Holiness with St. Francis de Sales” by Sophia Institute Press.

St. Francis de Sales on Holy Leisure

“If you do all in the name of God, you will do all well,” St. Francis de Sales writes in his Introduction to the Devout Life, “whether you eat or whether you drink, whether you sleep or repose from labor, whether you are engaged in honorable or menial offices.” God knows how many hairs are on our heads and has numbered all of our days; therefore there is no human activity that is unimportant to Him, even our leisurely pastimes.

We may think our leisure activities unimportant, but it is good and necessary to relax both our bodies and our minds from time to time. St. Francis points out that if an archer were to keep his bow always strung, the bow would lose its spring and wouldn’t function as well when needed. Our modern society places a heavy emphasis on work and productivity. Too many Americans keep their bow strung all the time, as it were, and fall victim to burnout. There is value and dignity in human labor. This is taught by the Magisterium of our Church, especially in the encyclicals Rerum Novarum (1891) and Laborem Exercens (1981), written a century apart by Pope Leo XIII and Pope St. John Paul II. It is also taught by Scripture: “If anyone [is] unwilling to work, neither should that one eat” (2 Thess. 3:10). 

Yet Scripture and Tradition also teach that work (or at least the drudgery of work) is a consequence of the Fall. In the beginning, man’s task was to “cultivate and care for” the garden (Gen. 2:15), which naturally involved some effort and attentiveness. But after man’s rebellion, his work became burdensome. “Cursed is the ground because of you!” God told Adam. “In toil you shall eat its yield. . . . By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread” (Gen. 3:17, 19). But we were not made for eternal toil, which is why God tempers our work with a sabbath. The third commandment is to “remember the sabbath day – keep it holy” (Exod. 20:8), recalling the seventh day of creation, when God rested, and anticipating the eternal rest of Heaven.

God’s rest is not idleness. He looked at everything He had made and found it good (Gen. 1:31). Rest and leisure create space in our lives for contemplation. When Moses asked Pharaoh to give the people of Israel time off from their labor to worship God in the wilderness, Pharaoh responded by giving them more work to do. “Increase the work for the men, so that they attend to it and not to deceitful words” (Exod. 5:9). If he could keep them busy enough, Pharaoh surmised, they wouldn’t have time to think about their God. Taking time for leisure keeps us from making a false god of our work. The trick is to avoid making a false god of our leisure. It was King David’s idleness that led him to lust after Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:1-4).

In our leisure activities, as in all things, St. Francis advises moderation and discretion. Just as we shouldn’t work so much as to allow no time for leisure, we shouldn’t relax so much that we neglect our necessary work. A healthy schedule finds a proper balance between work, prayer, study, and leisure.

It should go without saying that we should not engage in sinful pastimes. But things such as “air and exercise, cheerful games, music, field-sports, and the like,” St. Francis writes, “are such innocent amusements that they only require to be used with ordinary discretion, which confines all things to their fitting time, place, and degree.” Whatever our preferred pastimes may be, St. Francis cautions against spending too much time on them, attaching too much importance to them, or allowing ourselves to become too absorbed in them. Essentially, we must not value them beyond their true worth. “However allowable such things are,” he says, “they become evils as soon as they absorb the heart.”

We can see this in the way some foster a near religious devotion to sports. Although St. Francis says games that exercise the body and mind are praiseworthy, when parents allow their children to neglect their religious obligations to attend soccer practice, their priorities have become misplaced. How many people couldn’t name the Twelve Apostles but can easily name every player on their favorite team? How many think nothing of missing Mass on occasion but would never dream of missing a game?

Even praiseworthy pastimes can become dangers to our souls if we give them more importance than they are due. We can see this easily in some people’s obsession with sports, but it’s possible to develop an unhealthy obsession with any pastime or hobby, be it reading novels, gardening, playing games, listening to music, or anything else. If we give our pastimes so much time and attention that we neglect our necessary obligations, they have become unhealthy.

We do well to remember that even in our leisure we are called to love and serve God. So let our leisure be wholesome, healthy, and pleasing to Him.

Deacon Matthew Newsome serves as the Catholic Campus Minister of Western Carolina University in the Diocese of Charlotte. He is the author of The Devout Life: A Modern Guide to Practical Holiness with St. Francis de Sales (2023), available from Sophia Institute Press. 

Author Bio – Deacon Matthew Newsome

Deacon Matthew Newsome is an adult convert to the Catholic faith. He holds an MA in Theology from Holy Apostles College. He serves as a campus minister at Western Carolina University and in the Office of Catechetical Formation for the Diocese of Charlotte. He writes regularly for the Catholic News Herald and blogs online at TestEverythingBlog.com. He and his wife Joannie have seven children. When not writing or engaging with his students, Deacon Matt spends his time painting, hiking, and tending to a small flock of heritage sheep.