Today is the Feast of the Holy Family

The Memorare

A Visitation Nun from Waldron, UK Monastery

I love this picture!  So beautiful, it captures this Visitation nun's beauty, love of God, a life given for souls for the love of God!

Statue of St. Margaret Mary

Statue of St. Jane de Chantal

St. Margaret Mary - Old Prayer Card

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

St. Francis de Sales Quote

St. Jane on Christmas Meditation

If you would like to join us in your home with your own silent retreat, may St. Jane’s exhortation be a source of meditation for you.

Olympics Team - Visitation nuns of Waldron, UK

Olympics Team Visitation - bit of recreation fun!

The Visitation nuns of Waldron's website:  http://www.visitationmonastery.co.uk/index.html 

For St. Jane de Chantal's feast tomorrow, August 12th

Act of Abandonment to Divine Providence

(written by St. Jane Frances de Chantal)

0 sovereign goodness of the sovereign Providence of my God! I abandon myself forever to Thy arms. Whether gentle or severe, lead me henceforth whither Thou wilt; I will not regard the way through which Thou wilt have me pass, but keep my eyes fixed upon Thee, my God, who guidest me. My soul finds no rest without the arms and the bosom of this heavenly Providence, my true Mother, my strength and my rampart.

Therefore I resolve with Thy divine assistance, 0 my Savior, to follow Thy desires and Thy ordinances, without regarding or examining why Thou dost this rather than that; but I will blindly follow Thee according to Thy divine will, without seeking my own inclinations.

Hence I am determined to leave all to Thee, taking no part therein save by keeping myself in peace in Thy arms, desiring nothing except as Thou incitest me to desire, to will, to wish. I offer Thee this desire, 0 my God, beseeching Thee to bless it; I undertake all it includes, relying on Thy goodness, liberality, and mercy, with entire confidence in Thee, distrust of myself, and knowledge of my infinite misery and infirmity.

Amen!

Prayer to implore fidelity to Divine Grace

By St. Jane de Chantal

O great Saint Jane Frances! who, to follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, when thou wert called to the religious state, didst despise all the ties of nature and of blood; obtain for us also the grace to correspond faithfully with all divine impulses, and to sacrifice to God whatever is most dear and precious to us.  Amen.

Sr. Francoise Therese, St. Therese's blood sister

Read a wonderful bio on her here - http://martinsisters.org/sister_francoise_therese.html - with great pictures.

August 12th - feast of St. Jane de Chantal - her "Thoughts"

Thoughts of St. Jane de Chantal

Delight in prayer is no measure of our love of God. But if we bear difficulties patiently, resist the urgings of self-love resolutely; and fulfill our duties in life willingly, if we live trusting in Providence and desiring to be known only by God - then we will show that we truly love God! Such deeds are unmistakable signs of love. Let us always be faithful in doing God's will because all else is unworthy of the name of love.

May we love and serve the Lord reverently with a loving, filial fear of offending our heavenly Father and of displeasing Jesus, our Divine Beloved. As long as we are in this life, we would do well to follow the well-traveled ways to holiness. Fear of God is the first step on this path. We cannot maintain a truly productive desire of serving God unless we have a holy fear of displeasing Our Savior and of being negligent in responding to grace and inspirations.

May all our actions, words, thoughts, and spirit be centered in God, on God, and for God! Let us keep our passions well-disciplined and our spirit pure and faithful. Fidelity to our way of life will help us keep our thoughts centered on God. Then our words will be an inspiration to family, friends, and acquaintances.

Let us do everything in a spirit of peace and love! Attracted by the example and virtues of Jesus Christ our Lord who did the will of His Father, let us walk and even run in the way of God's divine will, not letting ourselves be pulled and pushed about like puppets. Unless we do everything lovingly from a sincere and simple desire for God's glory and the salvation of the world, we will never succeed in obeying this Divine Will. Instead, we will render fruitless the graces of our way of life.

To be faithful, we must live simply. Then being free from attachments, we are possessed by nothing. We live in such absolute openness to Divine Love that whatever pleases God becomes our heart's desire.

Our true self, the beloved of God, strips itself of all possessions and desires contrary to God's will. It no longer matters what we do provided we are pleasing to God. Even our likes and dislikes become unimportant. We control our desires for the attractions of this world lest we be seduced by them. We become graced persons as we turn towards and center ourselves in God.

Let us not strive for the rewards of heaven, valuable though they may be, but live so as to please the God of heaven. If God were not in heaven, all its beauty, riches, and sweetness would be dull rather than delightful. By faith, we know God already dwells within us. But in heaven we will see God face to face. May we so live that one day we will be in heaven praising and playing eternally before our Lord and Savior!

How could any dishonor we receive compare to the indignities heaped upon our gentle Savior! How do our sufferings compare to His? Consider the incomparable pain Jesus endured in Gethsemane when He submitted His will to that of His Father for our salvation! In our conversations, let us speak gratefully about our divine Lord, about His sufferings for us and for all humanity, about the virtues He taught us, and about the gift of His holy Mother. By such recollections we will be enlightened, encouraged and strengthened in our undertakings.

Moses was told, "Act according to the model I have given you." Our Heavenly Father has given us Jesus Christ as a model. This divine Savior lived for thirty years, hidden, unknown, disguised under the anonymity of poverty; He was considered an ignorant nobody, the son of a carpenter. Actually Jesus was the Son of the Eternal Father and had as much knowledge and wisdom at the moment of his conception as He had had in heaven and as He has now. If we were to keep this in mind, how differently we would receive the contradictions, embarrassments, and even disgraces that come our way!

If we patiently accept through love all that God allows to happen, then we will begin to taste even here on earth something of the delights the saints experience in heaven. But for this we must serve God willingly and lovingly, seeking to obey the Divine Will rather than to follow our own inclinations and desires. For the perfection of love demands that we desire for ourselves only whatever God wills. Let us implore the good God unceasingly to grant us this grace!

As regards love of neighbor, may we give according to the measure with which our Divine Master has given to us. Then we truly will love each person as ourselves. This saying is true, "Do to your neighbor only what you would like done to you." Oh, how happy we would be if we were mindful of this in all our relationships with others.

Let us keep our hearts and spirits centered in God! We will experience the union with God which the Divine Savior begged from His Father. Before His passion, Jesus prayed that the apostles and all those who believed in Him would be one with Him. Just as the Father was in Him and He in the Father, so all would be united lovingly together in Him. Let us mediate peace within our families. We will grow in virtue. Every family living together in harmony will be richly blessed. May yours and ours be among them!

Let us rejoice when a friend or neighbor is praised! Indeed we could add to the praise by telling others our own experience of the person's goodness! But let us forgive and remain by telling others our own experiences of the person' silent about all else.

May we love as Jesus did with a love that is kind, universal, compassionate, courageous, and self-forgetful! Nothing could be more pleasing to our Divine Savior than this. St. Augustine says, "Love and do what you will." May our love for God animate our love for others! If we see Jesus in our neighbor, we will do only what we would like done to us. All perfection ties in this!

If we truly love our neighbors, we refrain from saying anything prejudicial to them. We support everyone as we would like to be supported. We try to give the example that we would like to receive from others. We excuse and forgive the blunders of others as we would like ours to be forgiven and excused. We rejoice in the happiness of others and are sorrowful in their pains, just as we would like them to respond to us in ours. We graciously help others in their needs both by prayer and actual service because in this way we truly show our good-will and love.

Francis de Sales in his incomparable love and goodness was careful to befriend everyone and never to give an occasion for someone to become an enemy. His tendency to please his neighbor and to offend no one was so great that he did whatever he could for each person. He acted thus with a generous heart and did even more than he should have, repeating often this maxim, "What hurts no one but benefits someone should be done willingly." This was his ordinary practice; we ought to imitate him.

Eagerness to "Live Jesus!" will enable us to exercise holy love in all things, great or small. When we assist neighbors in need, we are a loving support, a help and comfort to them. Since we try to see Jesus in everyone, we will serve each regardless of our personal ease and convenience.

O God! How rare is perfect and disinterested charity! It seems to me that this is so because people do not apply themselves to the practice of humility and gentleness. A materialistic spirit and self-interest spoil everything. God wants to eliminate such a spirit in us!

The principal foundation of the spiritual life is love and its most important fruit is union with God and neighbor. Hearts in conflict are closed to heavenly graces, but hearts united in love are open to receive all of God's gifts.

If we wish to remove all barriers to grace in preparation for receiving the great fruits of prayer, we must forgive everyone unreservedly. Let us keep our hearts at peace! Let us try to be gentle yet sincere with our family, friends and acquaintances!

May we live with holy and sincere joy in great gentleness and love for all we meet! To do so will be a source of spiritual blessing for us. For I never have perceived any interior perfection in those who did not love their neighbor.

We ought to cultivate a simple lifestyle, not so as to accumulate wealth for our own material conveniences, but so that we might be charitable to the needy. Let us give generously and boldly to the poor in the name of our Lord. The blessings of peace and joy will be our reward for such stewardship!

We want to glorify God in all things and to love our Beloved with a humble obedience and gentleness of heart. We will acquire this spirit by calmness in our actions and speech. Repetition of such acts will develop in us the habit of gentleness of heart.

If we wish to possess the virtue of neighborly love, we must accustom ourselves to accept people just as they are, regardless of their failings and actions, even those that offend us. Still, we reprove the faults of those under our charge, especially our own children, but in such a way that they know our love for them is constant and unconditional. For while we have no control over our feelings, we do over our actions. To act thus is to be like Jesus, our model!

Gentle love scatters abroad an aura of joy and peace. That is why we try to cherish and please our neighbor. To remain openhearted we must forgive ourselves when we fall and courageously make amends with loving patience. By persevering in such actions, we eventually will be given humble, gracious, and pliable hearts which will enable us to render great services to our Lord.

Loving affirmation consists in supporting our neighbors in whatever they say or do, even if we do not understand, even if their actions displease us. We are not astonished by their shortcomings and failings, nor do we harbor any ill feelings towards them. Rather, our attitudes must be transformed into tender and loving compassion for them. Francis de Sales says that love never searches for evil, and if she happens to stumble over it, even then she does not judge.

May our hearts be enlarged with compassionate loving support of our neighbor! Let us always be ready to serve, assist, console, support, and comfort others as much as possible in a spirit of joy and cordiality. An open heart is a heart disposed to help the neighbor at all times Such a heart loves the will of God above all things.

Cordial love of the neighbor does not consist in feelings. This love flows not from a heart of flesh but from the heart of our will. We must stop twisting and turning about to discover what we like or dislike. Whether we experience aversion or inclination for something really does not matter, provided only that in our wills, we remain firm and unswerving in pure love. Then we will give God proofs of love amidst the strongest distastes and aversions as well as during consolations and sensible love. Only if we proceed in this way will we improve!

"The person who does not sin in speech is perfect,' says Scripture. People offend their neighbors or rather God in their neighbors, at one time by speaking ill of them, at another by remaining silent. Someone speaks well of a person whom I do not like very much. This so displeases me that I remain silent or answer coldly. This response offends God because my lack of esteem and coldness may lessen perhaps the good opinion of the speaker for the person.

If our neighbors, even though strangers, were reduced to such poverty that they required our assistance, we would be obliged to give them what they needed. And if our supplies were sufficient only for our own family, we would cut back on all frills and be content with what was absolutely necessary for life so as to be able more easily to help our neighbors.

May we love everyone, even our dearest friends, only in God, for God, and according to God! To love people in God is the best way of preventing their human imperfections from tarnishing a friendship, even a spiritual one. Love is more perfect if we see and love God in our neighbor because in this way God will be loved above all else, and our neighbor as much as the love of God demands. We have nothing to fear in a love so selfless! How excellent it is to love our neighbor in God! We must guard against the guiles of self-love tempting us away from this total focus on Divine Love! For in loving God in our neighbor, we can never make a mistake!

August 12th Feast of St. Jane de Chantal

On August 12th, the Visitation Order celebrates the feast of their co-founder, St. Jane de Chantal.

Novena to St. Jane de Chantal

O glorious saint, blessed Jane Frances, by fervent

prayer, attention to the Divine Presence, and purity

of intention, you attained on earth an intimate union

with God. Be now our advocate, our mother, our

guide in the path of virtue and perfection. Plead

our cause near Jesus, Mary and Joseph, to whom

you were so tenderly devoted, and whose holy

virtues you deem most necessary for us; an ardent

love of Jesus in the most holy Sacrament, a tender

and filial confidence in His Blessed Mother, and

like you, a constant remembrance of His Sacred

Passion and death. Obtain also, we pray, that our

particular intentions in this novena may be granted.

V. Pray for us, O holy St. Jane Frances,

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises

of Christ.

Let us pray.

O almighty and merciful God, who granted to

blessed St. Jane Frances, so inflamed with love of

thee, a wonderful degree of fortitude through all the

paths of life, and through her, were pleased to adorn

thy church with a new religious Order, grant by her

merits and prayers that we, who sensible of our

weakness confide in thy strength, may overcome

all adversity with the help of thy heavenly grace,

through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

St. Jane Frances Fremyot de Chantal was born of a prominent family at Dijon, France, on January 23, 1572. She married Christopher de Rabutin, Baron de Chantal, in 1592 at the age of twenty. They had six children (of whom four survived into adulthood) and enjoyed a happy marriage. When her husband was killed by a family friend in a hunting accident in 1601, she became desolate and sought spiritual guidance in her grief.

In the wake of her husband's death, Jane Frances and her children went to live with her father-in-law, a thoroughly unpleasant and difficult man who, among other things, kept a mistress. As if her widow's grief and raising young children alone wasn't enough of a burden, Jane de Chantal eventually found herself trying to manage the financial affairs of her father-in-law's estate. Through it all her faith in God and love for others deepened.

In 1604, she met St. Francis de Sales in her home town of Dijon, France, where the young bishop was preaching a Lenten mission. Francis de Sales was deeply impacted by Jane Frances' passion for God and the things of God. Their friendship (which is admired as a model of spiritual friendship) was to endure until his death in 1622.

With the support of Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal founded the Congregation of the Visitation of Holy Mary (also known as the Visitation Order) at Annecy in 1610 with three other women who joined her: Jacqueline Favre, Charlotte de Bréchard, and Anne Coste. They were to be daughters of prayer who lived the life of the gentle, humble Jesus through the practice of the little virtues. Those already out of the novitiate visited the poor and others in need, although this outreach to the larger community was not the focus of their day-to-day life together. Within eight years the community observed papal enclosure.

The unique thing about the Visitation (compared with other religious communities of women at the time) was that it admitted women who were widowed, older, of delicate health and handicapped. This community lived a balanced life of prayer and activity.

Even by today's standards, Jane de Chantal was a capable administrator in her own right as evidenced by the fact that over eighty Visitation communities had been established by the time of her death at Moulins on December 13, 1641. Jane Frances was buried at Annecy near the body of Francis de Sales.

Praying in the Spirit of Jane de Chantal

What is your will for me, O God?
I await your plan.
I want to live only for you
and be guided by you always.
Grant that your holy will be done in me.