St. Francis de Sales, the Founder of the Visitation Order, had very definite ideas about the way God works with women to draw them into religious life, and he shared his profound thoughts with the first community of Visitation Nuns in Annecy, France.
If you have ever pondered whether you might have a vocation to the Visitation Order, this short series may help you to discern more clearly. Let the wisdom of St. Francis de Sales guide you!
St Francis de Sales remarks, “Now, in this great variety of vocations, it is naturally a very difficult thing to recognize those which are true. The first requisite is to know whether the person is truly called. How then with this diversity of vocations and the many different motives for entering Religion, can we distinguish the good from the bad? This is certainly a matter of great importance and of extreme difficulty. We are not entirely without means of testing the reality of a vocation. I consider this to be the best of all.
If a person shows a firm and persevering determination to serve God in the manner and place to which His Divine Majesty calls her, she gives the best proof we can have that she has a true vocation.
Observe however that when I say a firm and persevering will to serve God, I do not say that from the very beginning she will behave in her vocation with such firmness and constancy that she will feel no repugnance or difficulty in the discharge of the duties required by this vocation.
It is not by these different emotions and feelings then that we must judge of the firmness and constancy. We must consider whether amid all these varied emotions, the will remains firm and unchangeably resolved to cling to its good purpose. Thus you see that in order to have signs of a good vocation, it is not necessary to possess visible constancy, but it must reign effectively in the higher will.”
Source: Spiritual Conferences, of St Francis de Sales, Conference XVII
Reflection: Does this remark beg the question? How do you know if you have a vocation in the first place? St. Francis will discourse on this in the next post.