From the Series, “Formation Q&A of St. Jane”
St. Jane de Chantal was a wise Foundress who understood the delicate process of spiritual development throughout the novitiate years. Often the Novice Directress asked her guidance as she sought to be faithful to her important monastic ministry of instilling the Visitandine way of life into her postulants and novices.
One time a Novice Directress asked Mother Jane:
What does it mean that I should manage the hearts of the novices differently, according to the diversity of their abilities and nature of their minds?
Mother Jane de Chantal replied:
The Directress ought to have 
great discretion and discernment, to know those who must be guided by gentleness, those who ought to be urged on and waited for long and patiently, others who must be held back, and so on.
The Directress should try to become acquainted with the attraction of grace in souls, and to what they are drawn, that she may second them, help and guide them according to the good pleasure of God. It is of great importance to help them advance and to keep them in peace.
For this reason, before giving the exercises to the postulants, strict enquiry must be made of them to what they are drawn; and sometimes they must be sent before God, with no other subject than to give themselves to Him, and to ask for the light of His grace; and after their prayer, they must observe to what they have felt attracted, that they may give an account of this, and their subjects of prayer be given them according to their attraction.
St. Jane certainly did not envision a mass-production factory to turn out Visitandine nuns!
With a similar delicacy as that master of spiritual direction, St. Francis de Sales, her co-founder, employed, St. Jane yielded the formation of souls first to God and the person herself, with wise support from the Formation Directress.
This formation style is our legacy and remains the Visitandine way today. Visitandine formation is geared to each candidate in particular, while following the customs, traditions and spirit of the Order within the novitiate and community setting.
Read all articles in “Formation Q&A of St. Jane.”
(Source: Answers of Our Holy Mother St. Jane Frances Fremiot, page 264)