A Homily given at the Visitation Monastery of Moulins France, May 9, 2015
Translated by Visitationspirit.org
“What joy and emotion for me to celebrate in this blessed place! I am brought back to a time of childhood when, living in Nantes, I served Mass on Sundays in the Monastery of the Visitation of the city, and there willingly read the Word of God while I was still high to a grasshopper .
We are this morning at the Visitation, daughters of St. Jane de Chantal and daughters of St. Francis de Sales!
1. Visitation: why this name?
This name was chosen by Francis de Sales in reference to the joyful mystery of Mary’s life reported by St. Luke in his Gospel (Lk 1: 39-56). This “visit” is placed under the sign of charity.
Meeting with her cousin Elizabeth who recognizes her as “the one who is blessed among women,” and the meeting of two children hidden in the womb of their mothers, John the Baptist and Jesus,
Mary “went in haste” to her cousin Elizabeth to live with her for three months.
By that name of the Visitation, Francis de Sales expressed his desire that the Visitation could live the hidden nature of childhood of Jesus, which became one of foundations of life of the Visitation.
Let’s talk about precisely the Visitandine mind. This can feed our thanksgiving during this year of consecrated life.
Visitandine Spirit
This spirituality is primarily Salesian, so full of nuance, gentleness, humility and humanity. It is not based on rules but on behavior, it is not easy to summarize in a few words.
Francis de Sales, and Jane de Chantal communicated a principle: “I would like the girls in our congregation to have well-shod feet, but their hearts quite bare and stripped of worldly affections, their heads well covered and their spirit bare..” “Thus, the life goal of Visitation is not so much to do great exterior works but to live excellently all the little things of everyday life …Francis de Sales calls his daughters to holiness not by physical austerity, but by abandonment to the divine will. He invites them to share Christ’s hidden life lived in community by welcoming others in charity, gentleness and self-surrender.
- To illustrate this vocation, the Visitation is represented allegorically as:
– Bees who give selflessly to their hive,
– Sheep under their superior,
– Pure doves that rise towards the sky,
– Sunflowers whose heart turns to the divine sun and the warmth of his love,
– Humble violets abandoned to the divine will.
This new way of sanctification, which was hastily and often described as “sweet” allowed persons of poor health, widows and elderly women, to become religious, even if they did not fulfill the usual conditions for access to Reformed orders in the early seventeenth century.
And that all might live prayer fully, St Francis obtained the use of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. Finally, for his daughters to be fully open to the will of God, he had planned for them a daily hour of prayer, that is to say, of silent prayer and meditation in the choir, facing the Blessed Sacrament.If we talk about the Visitandine mind, we must finally tell of the Sacred Heart!
3. Devotion to the Sacred Heart
Christ chose Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitandine of Paray-le-Monial, to let the world know the greatness of his loving heart.
The devotion to the Heart of Jesus was not born at the Visitation; others before Margaret Mary had pondered the infinite love of God for men. However, the Sacred Heart appearances at Visitation in 1675, and the canonization of the saint in 1920 were key.
This devotion, which was emulated in the world since the early eighteenth century with the erection of the first altars, won the world. Witness the Basilica of Montmartre or Christ of Rio de Janeiro. The Pope consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart, and there were many soldiers on both sides who, in the trenches of the First World War, carried with them a picture of the Sacred Heart …
Is it so surprising that the spirituality of the Sacred Heart is so important for the Visitation, when we learn what makes Saint Jeanne de Chantal in the year 1609 so devoted? Listen carefully to this anecdote recounted by the Mother Chaugy: “The devil so redoubled his furious assaults and temptations, it seemed to the poor heart of this holy widow that she would be discomfited in this tough war; but as a generous Sulamite, wanting to escape her enemy she raised a wonderful sign in the dungeon of his fortress. It was that, in her own hand, she engraved the holy name of Jesus on her heart . We do not know with what instrument, but the mark remained there all her life.
Beloved, I cordially invite you to imitate this act of love of St. Jane de Chantal, and spiritually enter the name of Jesus in your heart. Amen. God be praised!
Father Julien Durodié
