{"id":25709,"date":"2010-08-12T07:16:26","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T11:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/08\/saint-jane-frances-de-chantal-1\/"},"modified":"2016-08-12T08:49:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T12:49:03","slug":"saint-jane-frances-de-chantal-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/08\/saint-jane-frances-de-chantal-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Jane Frances de Chantal"},"content":{"rendered":"

I figured some\u00a0wisdom from today’s saint is worth reading, even though it is not that<\/u> extraordinary but its simplicity speaks volumes. Saint Jane Frances with Saint\u00a0Francis de Sales founded the Order of the Visitation of Mary and so this letter\u00a0of 1616 was written by her to one her spiritual daughters who must have been facing some criticism or some type of hassle from some in the monastery about\u00a0her prayer life. Mother Jane Frances simply tells her correspondent not reveal\u00a0all of the details of her prayer life not because she was advocating be obscure\u00a0but there are times one ought to be discrete. What is a good reminder with\u00a0Jane’s letter is the reminder that we all should pay close attention in keeping\u00a0the Divine Presence in front of us. So often we are distracted by other things\u00a0that we fail in keeping God prominently in front of our eyes. Msgr. Giussani\u00a0reminds us of this necessity and Fr. Carr\u00f3n hasn’t tired in reminding us of\u00a0this daily witness to Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second point addressed in the letter provided below by Mother Jane Frances\u00a0is her correspondent’s lack of confidence in her vocation. It could be that the\u00a0young sister was feeling “dry in her prayer and her vocation,” having a lack of\u00a0confidence that what she is doing is not as she expected. This real isn’t it? I\u00a0can verify that many times I go in life without courage. This is also true was said of Blessed Mother Teresa who for 50 years experienced dryness in her prayer. But her faithfulness to time in prayer showed the depth of her love for Christ. From the opposite point of view, Jane uses Old\u00a0Testament typology to illustrate how God has been faithful to His people not for one day but for all time. I believe that Divine Providence\u00a0doesn’t give us anything in our life without the grace to “succeed” and everything we\u00a0experience is given to us by God for our education. I find Saint Jane Frances\u00a0de Chantal’s spiritual advice to be practical and human. Perhaps you might also.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"St<\/a><\/p>\n

Saint Jane Frances writes: “When you\u00a0are asked what point of prayer you take, and the like, answer boldly as to what\u00a0you have done or thought formerly in this way: “I have had such thoughts\u00a0in prayer or done such things while walking about, or when in bed”; but do\u00a0not say: “Today, or at such an hour, I have done such a thing.” It is\u00a0not necessary to be so explicit, but simply say, “I have done or seen such\u00a0a thing,” and have no scruple in calling all your good aspirations and\u00a0thoughts prayer, for they are prayer, and so, for the matter of that, are all\u00a0our actions when done to please God. It is enough to salute your good Angel\u00a0morning and evening. Attention to the presence of God and of Our Lady includes\u00a0all, for the blessed Spirits are engulphed in the abyss of the Divinity, and it\u00a0is more perfect to walk simply. When a novice says to you, “What are you\u00a0thinking of?” answer frankly, “I am thinking of God,” without\u00a0saying (if it is not so), I was thinking of the Passion, and the like, for no\u00a0doubt to mention a particular subject (if we were not thinking of it) would be\u00a0an untruth. Say simply, “I was thinking of Our Lord,” and you might,\u00a0for example, add, “My God, how happy we should be if we could always have\u00a0the Holy Passion or the Nativity before our eyes.” This gives edification\u00a0enough. I see nothing else to say.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh! but yes; just a word for my Little One.\u00a0I beg of you, my dearest Sister, not to trouble about what you feel or do not\u00a0feel, this I say once for all. Serve Our Lord as it pleases Him, and while He\u00a0keeps you in the desert serve Him there with good courage. He made His dear\u00a0Israelites spend forty years there, accomplishing a journey that they could\u00a0have made in forty days. Take courage then, and be satisfied with saying, and\u00a0being able to say, though without relish, “I wish to live wholly for God\u00a0and never to offend Him”; and when you stumble, as is sure to happen (be it a\u00a0hundred times a day), rise up again by an act of confidence. Do likewise towards your neighbor, be content with having the desire to love him, or\u00a0desiring to desire it, and to procure for him all possible good, and,\u00a0opportunity given, minister gently to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

In short take bravely the road in which God leads you it is a safe one, although you may not have all the light and satisfaction you would like; but it is quite time to abandon to Our Lord all these plans and desires, and to walk blindly, as divine Providence wills, believing that it will lead you aright.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I figured some\u00a0wisdom from today’s saint is worth reading, even though it is not that extraordinary but its simplicity speaks volumes. Saint Jane Frances with Saint\u00a0Francis de Sales founded the Order of the Visitation of Mary and so this letter\u00a0of 1616 was written by her to one her spiritual daughters who must have been facing … Continue reading Saint Jane Frances de Chantal<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[32190],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25709"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33817,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25709\/revisions\/33817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}