Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis, VHM was Superior of the Visitation Monastery in Troyes, France in the 1800’s and encourager of Blessed Louis Brisson to found the Oblates of St Francis de Sales.
She gave many deep talks to her Visitandine community. On one occasion she spoke of FAITH:
“The spirit of faith is to act without seeing, without light, without knowledge, stripped of all feeling, with the single intention of obeying God, serving Him and rendering Him our duty; service thus accomplished is in the spirit of Faith and it is good.
If afterwards there comes a light, a knowledge which shows what we must do and which influence our action, we no longer act in the spirit of Faith but in the spirit of understanding..
But, if with this light, with this knowledge, we do not leave our first principle, we remain still in the spirit of Faith in our action; then we are making progress.
We have the blessing of receiving from the spirit of Faith the profit which it brings, and by it we are enables to give in God more strength, more extent to the sight and the knowledge which we have received; and we attract to ourselves new lights.
To live thus according to Faith, without any support from our own spirit, is to live according to the Divine Will; it is to give to the Lord all that it is possible for us to offer.”
Source: LET US BE SERVANTS OF THE LORD, March 10, 1849, Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis, VHM
Reflection:
How does Mother Chappuis’s understanding of Faith compare with your own?