Love and belief are closely related, says St. Francis de Sales.

An insightful article by Senior Salesian Scholar Father Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS, Ph.D, entitled Love and Belief, St Francis de Sales and the New Evangelization, will stir your intellectual and devotional faculties.

He suggests, “To appreciate fully this relationship of belief or faith to love, we should ask ourselves not so much “What do you believe, or believe in?” but rather, “What do you set your heart on?”, “What or Whom do you love?” or more colloquially, “What makes you tick?” We do not set our hearts on“persons, causes, institutions or ‘gods’ because “we ought to.” We invest or devote ourselves because the other to which we commit has, for us, intrinsic excellence or worth and because it promises to confer value on us.”

Join us for a chat Sun. May 26th at 7:30 PM EST on this intriguing scholarship! Prepare by reading Love and Belief, St. Francis de Sales and the New Evangelization.

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Contact Sister Susan Marie at srsusanvhm@aol.com ]]> http://visitationspirit.org/2013/05/sunday-chat-may-26-love-and-belief-2/feed/ 0 http://visitationspirit.org/2013/05/year-of-faith-and-salesian-scholars/ http://visitationspirit.org/2013/05/year-of-faith-and-salesian-scholars/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 17:20:54 +0000 Sister Susan Marie http://visitationspirit.org/?p=8405

This insightful article by Senior Salesian Scholar Father Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS, PH.d, entitled Love and Belief, St Francis de Sales and the New Evangelization, will stir your intellectual and devotional faculties.

http://web1.desales.edu/assets/salesian/PDF/ATP-NewEvangelization.pdf

He suggests “To appreciate fully this relationship of belief or faith to love, we should ask ourselves not so much “What do you believe or believe in?” but rather, “What do you set your heart on?”, “What or Whom do you love?”or more colloquially, “What makes you tick?” We do not set our hearts on“persons, causes, institutions or ‘gods’ because “we ought to.” We invest or devote ourselves because the other to which we commit has, for us, intrinsic excellence or worth and because it promises to confer value on us.”

Join us for a chat Sun May 26th at 730PM est on this intriguing scholarship!

On June 6th, we will initiate our St. Jane de Chantal Gallery Community, initially a vocational ministry that will be located in one part of the Georgetown Visitation Monastery.

A Brooklyn Sister  joins a Georgetown Sister for this ministry.

As a result, the formation program in Brooklyn welcomes two new Sisters as Formation Directresses  to the novices and  Temporary Professed Sister in the Visitation Monastery there.

We post them here as we await our VIDEO on this exhibit which will be available on May 29, 2013, in English!

The Holy Spirit is very central in the Visitation scene. It is by the power of the Spirit that the action flows. When Mary said yes to the angel at the Annunciation, she was espoused to the Holy Spirit who filled her and empowered her to go in haste to her cousins. She was traveling in the spirit under his strength and power.

In the power of the Spirit she arrives in the town of Judah, enters the house and greets Elizabeth. This greeting was as a verbal laying on of hands onto Elizabeth, which seems to have released the Holy Spirit in her.

Elizabeth “heard” Mary’s greeting. She listened and that listening was the channel through which the Holy Spirit entered within her. Listening, a simple yet intense action is the receptivity we need to be grasped by the Spirit. It is a very Visitandine disposition to take.

Hearing Mary’s greeting, the receptive Elizabeth also served as a holy channel to John in her womb, becoming as it were an instrument for her son’s spiritual birth, as he subsequently stirred or leaped within her. We  are to be channels as well, to the new candidates who will come to discern with us. In a sense, each of us is an “Elizabeth” and Mary our Blessed Mother will minister to us, as we remain attentive to her.

The Gospel states quite distinctly that then Elizabeth “was filled” with the Holy Spirit. From that filling flowed out spiritual gifts in abundance. She becomes a witness, has a prophetic voice, receives charisms or spiritual gifts and begins to proclaim the truth about the present moment; deep, essential truths.

Elizabeth proclaims, loudly, “Blest are you among women and blest is the fruit of your womb”. The one right before her, in this present moment, her cousin, is identified, in a very deep way. Her initial truth is a statement about Mary’s identity. She is a blessed one. Elizabeth “sees” as it were Mary’s relationship with God, her state of soul, her blessedness. She also sees “Jesus” in Mary, recognizing the fruit of Mary’s relationship with God in her life.

“But who am I that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” The gift of humility is so clearly expressed here, this cornerstone virtue of a Visitandine as well. As we humbly present ourselves before the Lord  open to His will, we ask the Mother of Our Lord to come to us with her special grace at this time in the life of our Federation and Order.

Elizabeth’s proclamation also reveals the gift of knowledge given to her. She knows Mary’s condition, that she is expecting a Child, she knows that the unborn child is Lord, her Lord. We too can ask for the gift of knowledge; it is a gift given within the Gospel event of the Visitation and thus, in a sense, bequeathed to us.

We can ask for the gift and the power of the Holy Spirit within us to help us see and proclaim the truth of our circumstances, of our path, and of our relationship with the Lord. As long as we can also say “but who am I?”

“Blessed is she who trusted that the Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled.”

Trust.  We really need to trust and we need to model that deepening of trust,  among our Sisters. Each of us has received the individual promise of our God to our hearts and as an Order we have received promises from the Lord. We are called to trust that the promises God has made to us, over our 403 years of history, over our 200+ years of history in the US will be fulfilled. We have been blessed and we will be blessed.

What can we call upon or claim? The gift of listening hearts, of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives,  the gifts of knowledge, discernment, humility,  trust, and  joy . The words the Lord has spoken to us or will speak, that they will be fulfilled, in His time.

This is our heritage, our Gospel-based treasure, that which we can call our own as Visitandines.

The road to this mystery of the Visitation was long and arduous for the Israelite people, but that road and that waiting with its multiple ups and downs also has something to say to us today as a Visitation Order .Actually we do not know where we stand in God’s plan; what stage we’re in; all that is beyond us as it was beyond St Francis and St Jane at the start of our Order. It’s likely that they envisioned few of the various manifestations of God that has occurred in our Order. Even in their immediate future they were moved in directions, as we all know, for which they never planned. I don’t imagine that we’re any different.

But we do have a road to follow. We have a faithfulness to keep.  Our interior stance, before our own mystery and before the unknown future, may very well be a  stance of waiting,. And while we do not fully know the designs of God for us we can respond to its hints by responding to this call and mission  with deep love and hope. We are being asked to let go and also to begin. When that happened to the people of Israel in their history, when they were reduced to a remnant with nothing to hold on to but God, He did bring them to a new place, or a new covenant, or a new understanding.

They also had a foundational hope, a promise, that which was made to Abraham. We need to reflect on our foundational promises. He is Lord of the Impossible. Our hope in him is in his fidelity.

And we can continue to deeply listen to one another and to the Spirit  as we use the gifts God has given each of us to guide our  communities in this special time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91G2jC0Cbs4

Visitation plays his trump heart!

From May 7 until the end of December, we invite you to discover the new thematic exhibition of the Visitation: At heart. This exhibition reveals surprising and original works from the Visitandine artistic heritage  between the seventeenth and twenty-first century. This retrospective shows the strength and beauty of the works from the Museum of the Visitation, born of love for the “Sacred Heart”.

At the end of the seventeenth century, Christ revealed his love for mankind to a young visionary of the  Visitation, Saint Marguerite. This message inspired religious creativity with original rich and varied gifts of pilgrims to Paray-le-Monial, from all over Europe, America, Asia and even Oceania.

The Heart,a symbol of life and love , is present in most of the works collected and presented for the first time. A refined setting and surprising scenes have several pieces of jewelry that can be admired from all angles. To enhance this sublime representation of the heart, which serves as a guideline for the entire exhibition, new pictorial creations accompany these works, built in flat color around this iconographic element.

 The main hall has been converted into composition windows, organizing the exhibition, evoking both the ecclesiastical architecture and allowing visitors to admire these gems from every angle. Chasubles embroidered with gold and silver banners from around the world, lace beautifully embellished with pictorial scenes are here.  The works are diverse, but their source is always the same: love;  this momentum towards a loving heart.

The first works, the rarest, were created  by the Visitation to support their personal prayers. They embroidered enluminent images, through sets of rolled papers,  ”paperole” , for the first oratory. “At heart” allows  you to discover these simple, colorful and lively decorations where many flowers bloom especially daisies. Joining them are surprising tables and bindings made with wood inlay and sometimes perforated.

This beautiful gallery gives visitors a chance to discover other representations of God’s love for man, far removed from the “stereotypical” images of the early twentieth century, found in the French churches.

The Museum of the Visitation continues the memorial work by offering the public another part of an exciting heritage that has already attracted thousands of visitors since 2007.

An exhibition not to be missed!

Learn more about the Sacred Heart:
The Sacred Heart is a devotion to the Heart of Jesus Christ, as a symbol of divine love by which the son of God assumed human nature and gave his life for men. It focuses on the concepts of love and worship dedicated to Christ.

Practical Information

Exposition at  Hotel Demoret
83, rue d’Allier
03000 Moulins, France

Open Tuesday to Saturday from 10h to 12h and 14h to 18h
and Sundays from 15h to 18h.

Admission free (donations welcome)

Source:

http://www.moulins-tourisme.com/fr/sortir/recettes/a-la-une.htm?bne_id=325

 Translated from the French by this blogger

Our Visitation Sisters from Georgetown had the great privilege of traveling on pilgrimage to Lourdes for healing.

While there, they visited the Visitation Monastery in Lourdes and met our French Sisters.

 The North American Salesian Network is an intentional network of collaboration by Salesian organizations

The initial aim of the network is the sharing of talent, resource materials and programs to enhance the training of our members and the accomplishment of our respective missions, ultimately spreading the Gospel in the Salesian tradition.  The initial commitment of organizational membership includes participation in an annual gathering, contributions to a collaborative website and sharing of information through social media or an e-newsletter.

The founding group has put together this Vision Statement:

We envision a collaborative effort among our Salesian associations and institutes to empower us in refreshing our North American culture with the spirit of St. Francis de Sales and our Founders.

We hope to facilitate the sharing of Salesian resources, educational services, technological expertise, vocational efforts and other key ministries that will enable us to touch hearts and “Live Jesus” across a wider expanse of people.

Together we enter into the mystery of Christ and help to bring all people to Christ with the strong gentleness and zeal of St. Francis de Sales.

April 2013

The Administrator, Mon. Picaud, sent a few pictures to us as a preview! These are chasubles with embroidered Sacred Heart images, presented in one of the main halls of the Museum.