July’s Mystic of the Month comes with a unique twist: we feature a venerated Benedictine Monk who had a special relationship with a Visitation Monastery.
The monk: Dom Prosper Gueranger
The Monastery: Visitation of Le Mans
The story: It was 1822 and the Visitation Sisters had settled in to a new Monastery in Le Mans.Priests and faithful would gather there with pleasure. And among them, there could soon be noticed a young seminarian who loved to kneel and say long prayers in the chapel. He would play a significant role in the history of the community, and, unbeknownst to him, God prepared him by bringing him to pray in union with the nuns.
He liked to stop in the chapels of convents of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, where later he usually will celebrate his Mass, and especially at the Visitation nuns because they are dedicated to the contemplative life, because they bravely confessed the faith during the persecution, and more perhaps, because of the choice graces which the Sacred Heart has favored them, for he was very devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Holy Thursday March 27, 1823, praying in the chapel, he suddenly felt a unique feeling, and he reveals that he devoted himself that day, forever, to the Sacred Heart. This consecration had a profound influence in his life. It is the source of the cult that he now vowed to the Lord as a symbol of his Heart, and that will result later by various liturgical prescriptions that he will introduce in the uses and the piety of the monks of Solesmes. And it is also possible that, without knowing it, the prayers of the Visitation had to be an influence in this outpouring of grace which renewed the heart of the young seminarian: the first step towards a supernatural friendship that in a few years, would unite two communities of the Visitation and Solesmes.
January 29, 1832, the nuns had invited him to preach the panegyric of St. Francis de Sales, the founder. A flattering choice for him, but a litmus test: But for a preacher who had once preached to major Parisian audiences, there was nothing there too formidable. The success was complete. “I pronounced, later told the abbot of Solesmes, a speech that pleased the religious and opened for me with them, relationships that have strengthened still further and produced the happiest results. ”
And now, the history of the Le Mans Visitation will be intertwined with that of the monastery of Solesmes.
The Visitation followed with interest, indeed full of dedication, all the steps taken for the purchase of the priory of Solesmes, and the recruitment of the first novices.
Naturally, it is above all through prayer they hoped, rightly, to give to the Father Guéranger the greatest service. They offered, we read in their Annals, many communions and multiplied novenas for his great intentions. They were addressed more readily to Our Lady of Victory, which they had for nearly two centuries a miraculous statue, which had already earned them graces, and which would soon become the object of special devotion of Dom Guéranger.
“I was praying in the chapel of the Visitation. I was asked internally to devote the work of restoration of the Benedictines in France to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by whom I myself was anointed in the chapel of the monastery on Holy Thursday in 1823. I vowed to ask the Bishop the favor of an exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in honor of the Sacred Heart on the first Friday of each month, when we were established, and to erect an altar of the Sacred Heart in the church, if, after three years from the date of installation, we were able to continue the work! … ”
The vow was accepted, and during the novena, two generous benefactors gave 6,000 francs necessary to rent the priory. The lease was signed on December 14 at home: the next day was the octave of the Immaculate Conception and the last day of the novena. It was at the end of 1832, it had conquered the biggest obstacles.
Visitation was not the last to come to the aid of the future Abbot. Among the gifts she gave Solesmes, there was a chasuble with church linen, white ornament, a large silver ciborium, a red ornament, an altar missal.
As a token of gratitude for the powerful aid of fraternal prayer of the Visitation, he added that resolution: ***” We will pray for your home every day, and will continue as long as it pleases God to let our altar stand. We rely on your memory before God, and I repeat to you with all my heart, I promise never to go to Le Mans without going to see you, “. – He will keep his word.
The Visitation added to these general provisions two special clauses:” We promise you, our very reverend fathers, that our community will make every year a general communion,on the day of St. Scholastica [patron of the city of Le Mans] for all your holy Congregation. And when we receive the news of your death, we will take care to ask the Lord to give you a full remission of your sins and put you in possession of the rest of his saints. “And the charter ends with an application of reciprocity:” Kindly make us participants of the merits of your good works and remember us in your holy prayers. ”
Thus was established a spiritual contact, probably invisible, but real, and at all times between the two communities in this world and the next.As well, they considered the Visitation Abbot of Solesmes as their spiritual father.
One of the Visitandines, especially, had conquered the heart of the Abbot of Solesmes. Her name in religion was Sister Marie-Dosithée. Professed 12 March 1860, she had shown in the beginning of her religious life some rigor, which was hardly consistent with the spirit of St. Francis de Sales, or Dom Guéranger himself. However, in a few years, her transformation was complete: her soul thrived in inner freedom and peace demonstrating her total surrender to God’s love. Sister Marie-Dosithée indeed was appointed supervisor at the boarding school of the Visitation, and her dedication has special affection for two small residents who were her own nieces. However, these nieces were none other than Marie and Pauline Martin! Sister-Dosithée in the world, Louise Guerin, was the eldest sister of the mother of St. Therese of the Child Jesus; and Pauline will be the “little mother” of the saint!
Thus, the Visitation of Le Mans has played a hidden role (which is one of the characters works of God) in the radiance of Solesmes.
January 30, 1875, Dom Guéranger died holily in his abbey. The Visitation mourned him as a father. But he will never forget the ties that have united them to his heart. In one of his last interviews, Dom Guéranger had told them: “Our Lord Himself has created these links, my dear girls, it is blessed! They remain forever, I trust, and always, the Visitation of Le Mans, Saint Pierre and Sainte-Cécile de Solesmes, will be united in one heart to glorify his name and sing his infinite mercies! … ”
Source:
http://www.domgueranger.net/dom-gueranger-et-la-visitation-du-mans/