August 12th Chat on St Jane de Chantal- her life, her struggles, her wisdom. Come celebrate her Feast Day and learn more of this Holy Foundress
Ja: I am discerning a vocation to the Visitation and Carmel and trying to see which God wants is hard! I love to read, I have finally found this book “Answers of Our Holy Mother Jane Frances Fremont, Baroness de Chantal, Foundress and First Superior of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, on the Rules, Constitutions, and Book of Customs of the Institute”! I have been looking for I also have the “Spiritual Conferences” by St. Francis de Sales and the book, “St. Jane’s Exhortations, Conferences and Instructions” given to her sisters.
Aug 12 2012, 7:21 PM
Sister How did you find Answers? We have copies but I did not know they were outside Monasteries
JA: How do these books from St. Jane influence, aid your lives? I imagine they are studied in the novitiate and onwards?
Sister : Oh yes. We start with St Jane’s bio of course
Then we move to her Conferences and Exhortations The Conferences really help us to live our interior lives
Ja: These books are incredible. I think if everyone read them they’d become Visitation sisters and Salesian priests!
Sister : The Answers have been treated as more historical as many customs have changed
Sister : Yes- and combined with all our unknown mystics- what a wealth!
JA: these books I found on ebay, Amazon and other online books sites that have rare and out-of-print books and also the Desales Resources & Ministries that is online.
R (guest): I feel a tug to both Carmel and Visitation.. did you know that St Therese’s sister became a Visitation?
Aug 12 2012, 7:25 PM
Ja: I did figure some customs change over the years. Yes, St. Francis is so marvelous and I have all his books and he so loving and gentle.
Sister : St Jane and a Carmelite prioress made an agreement that the 2 Orders would stay spiritually close
R(guest): nice!
Rachel (guest): I didn’t know that
Sister : We were supposed to offer our Communion intentions once a month on a Sat for each other
Ja: Yes, , after a Poor Clare attempt and several at the Visitation. She gives one hope! But then she had St. Therese begging God to hlep her and give her a vocation if she currently didn’t have one!
J:..can you remind me…when did your order begin…the Visitation?
J: they year I mean
Sister: 1610
Sister : St Jane is the foundress of the Visitation. She was married, had 4 children, her husband was killed hunting and eventually she met St Francis and founded the Visitation
Aug 12 2012, 7:42 PM
Rl (guest): How old were her children when she founded Visitation?
Sister : The oldest was 15, the youngest about 10
Rl (guest): wow, they were young
Sister : One was married at 11!
Sister : One went into the convent with her
Sister Her son went off to school
Sister : One died just before she founded the community
Aug 12 2012, 7:43 PM
Sister : She had lots of grief
Aug 12 2012, 7:43 PM
Ja: I like how she stepped over her misbehaving and dramatic son when she left!
R (guest): I was reading her collection of thoughts you had posted and obviously she was not heartless
Aug 12 2012, 7:45 PM
Rl (guest): “Be extremely compassionate, loving, and patient with each person, especially with those who are troubled.”
Ja: No she wasn’t and in the several bios on her I read and all, he was just being troublesome.
Sister : you can read her letters and see howe compassionate she was
JA: what special events do you have on St. Jane’s feast day in your communities?
SM: Mass readings are for the feast, tables are specially decorated, and we each get a written “legacy” from our Foundresss.
JA:What is a “legacy”?
SM:It’s a virtue/challenge of Holy Mother’s for each of her daughters.
Aug 12 2012, 7:57 PM
Sister : In our Monastery it is a quote from St Jane bequeathing us some virtue, or perhaps a spiritual practice, for the year
Ja: That is such a beautiful and beneficial practice!
Ra(guest): I agree
A: What is an example of a spiritual practice?
Sister: For ex; practicing humble gratitude, which is what I received
A: Does Saint Jane have a good definition of humility. I sometimes struggle grasping what it means exactly.
Ra (guest): I think humility is the hardest virtue.. and takes a lot of Grace to achieve
SM: Humility is just the willingness to defer to God in everything.
Ja: I pray St. Jane’s “Act of Abandonment to Divine Providence” everyday – a beautiful prayer. Is this prayed in your communities together or just privately if a sister wants?
Sister : St JAne said the summit of perfect humility consists in absolute and entire dependence upon the will of God
C: How do you discern if you feel very strongly one way, yet the people you go to for advice feel the exact opposite way about the issue?
Sister : The will of God is not always easy to determine but putting yourself into His hands and asking that His Will be done in you is one way to start
Aug 12 2012, 8:04 PM
SM: I would persevere in prayer until it was clear what I needed to do – however I felt personally about it.
Ra (guest): that is a wonderful prayer, I had to look it up!
Sister : We do not do the Act of abandonment together
SM Each sister will have her special prayer that she favors for her personal devotions.
Sister : St Jane admired St Augustines humility
Car: I know the secular definition of humility, but what is the deep humility she refers to?
Sister : Total dependence on God’s will
SM: Trying to totally align myself with Him
Aug 12 2012, 8:18 PM
A: I think obedience is a key word for humility.
Car: That we are nothing without Him?
SM: WWJD
Sister : Just “catching yourself” NOT doing well with criticism is a sign of growth in humility
Ra (guest): If you really really want deep humility how do you get it, is it a gift from God? A Grace?
Ra(guest): or is it something you have to do to make it happen?
SM: It’s what you don’t do.
Ja: How is humility taught in the novitiate, if it is?
Sister : In the “old days” there were more formal exterior ways of pointing out one’s faults
SM: Like it’s taught in a family – focus on others’ needs first
Sister : In my novitiate it was during private conferences with the novice directress that we talked about it
G: Does St Jane also talk about detachment fro m created things?
SM: To be humble is to be detached – from things, from people, from my own will.
Aug 12 2012, 8:27 PM
Sister:The main thing about the Salesian spirit in all these areas is to maintain a cheerful optimistic spirit and a liberty of spirit
Carr: She speaks of a “martyrdom of Love”, as opposed to martyrdom of life.
Sister : Martyrdom of love- very key- it is the piercing to the marrow of our soul
G: I don’t know what Ithink about too much detachment from other people because we are part of a Body of Christ. Doesn’t that mean we should draw closer.
Sister: God first, and don’t cling. Charity is other centered-thus detachment from clinging, manipulating
Aug 12 2012, 8:31 PM
SM: We draw closer to other people by thinking first of their needs, not our own.