August 12th is the Feast of the Foundress of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, St. Jane de Chantal.
To prepare our hearts for this Feast, we are beginning a series of reflections from Saint Jane’s Conferences.
How can we progress in the spiritual life?
St. Jane guides us with her words of wisdom:
DAY 9- RECOLLECTION
“Recollection is a pure gift of God. Still it depends in some sort on our care and fidelity to acquire it; and it requires careful labor. Quicken faith that God is everywhere present and that nothing happens in the world but by the ordering of His Divine Providence, which governs the whole world according to His Good Pleasure.”
DAY 8-PRAYER
“Prayer is the channel which unites the heart with that of God. Prayer draws waters from heaven, which descend and rise from us to Gosd and friom God to us. It is the first act of our faith. It is the way by which we ask God and Jesus Christ, Who is our only Deliverer, to save us.”
DAY 7- MEEKNESS
“Meekness of heart means having a heart which is angered by nothing, and offended by nothing that is done to it, which bears with everything, which endures everything, which is compassionate and full of love for our neighbor, which has no bitterness of heart. No, I am not speaking of the heart of flesh, but of the heart of the will and higher part of our soul.”
Source: Conferences of St. Jane de Chantal, Conference XXVIII
DAY 6-SIMPLICITY
“There is nothing that makes us more like God than simplicity; those who really possess it are perfect. It is only necessary to will what is right and do it: all lies in that.”
Source: Conferences of St. Jane, Conference XXVII
DAY 5-PENANCE
“The best penance that religious souls can possibly do is to break and renounce their will.”
DAY 4-PATIENCE
“The best and greatest practice of patience which we can possibly make in the spiritual life, is to bear with ourselves in our weaknesses and powerlessness of will to do what is right, in which the poor soul finds itself at times.”
DAY 3-WALKING IN THE DARK
“The true manner of serving God is by walking in a way that we know not; and when it appears that everything is turned upside down in the soul, provided it remains faithful amid all that to the practice of virtue, it is not to trouble itself about knowing its way, nor even to think about it; but walk on simply in this renouncing of self and perfect abandonment to God. How happy you are in suffering if you suffer with love!”
DAY2-PASSPORT to Eternal Life
“The lesson we must lean in this life, is to do, to love, and to suffer. This is our passport from this life to the next.”
DAY 1- VIRTUE
” Solid virtue consists in attaching ourselves only to God, in wishing for God only, in seeking God only, and in depending only on Him, in serving Him constantly and perseveringly in whatever state He places us, whether we are in prosperity or adversity, in consolation or affliction, in health or in sickness, in dryness or in sweetness. The failing to relish, to take pleasure in the good actions we do takes away neither the power of doing them nor the merit of them.
On the contrary, they are more agreeable to God when there is in them less of ours, because we are acting more purely for Him; for God conceals His treasures in the abyss of tribulations.
Be of good courage, for it is the property of solid virtue, to be acquired and practiced with many difficulties; trust me, dryness and weariness are excellent means, in the spiritual life, for making the pure love of God grow in us, and He intends by all our troubles to raise our soul above itself.”
Source: Conferences of St. Jane de Chantal, Conference XXVI
REFLECTION: How do I view virtue and the effort to grow in virtue? How do St. Jane’s words enlighten me?