Chapter III
Whoever has left his father, and his mother, his brother, his sister, or his house for Me, will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life.
(St Matthew, XIX -29)
To the Cloister
At the age of eighteen, her studies having been completed, Charlotte fully lived the family life, learning all the duties of a serious hostess. All preferred the intimacy of the family circle to social gatherings.
In this sweet and serene atmosphere, Charlotte felt the religious vocation grow in her. More and more eager to withdraw from the world to give herself to God, she looked for what monastic Order might be suitable for her attractions.
Since her childhood her desires had not changed; she wished for silence and the cross, so she thought she was called to live in a contemplative order situated in a mission country where she could hope to die a martyr. She entrusted her projects to an aunt, who urged her to settle for a cloister in France, then a priest who urged her to enter into a relationship with the Monastery of the Visitation of Caen, where she would find what she desired, though in another form.
For so long the ardent young girl had cherished the hope of the bloody sacrifice by which she would have liked to unite herself with the immolation of Our Lord, that she was suddenly disconcerted at the thought of having to give it up. She even went so far as to ask herself whether her religious vocation was not an illusion, and whether she should stay close to her parents to surround them with care and affection. Mr. Millet having retired, the whole family was recently established in Avranches. The pretty house she lived in seemed to present itself, with her rugged garden, as an oasis of peace, to the eyes of Charlotte, who, thinking to remain there, began to give to her room the appearance of a sanctuary in which she would shelter her piety.
An Accident
This state of affairs could not last! One night the anguish was great at home: one of the young people who had left in the morning on a bicycle was slow to return, the hours passed … they were afraid of a misfortune! With a tight heart, Charlotte felt the responsibility for it. Was it not because she was slow in responding to God’s call ? Praying, sobbing, she refused to take any rest and watched her father while waiting for the absent one. At last she heard someone being dragged into the street: it was her brother, but in what state! – all bloodied, his face crushed and an arm torn by a frightful road accident! At this sight she thought of Our Lord flogged and suddenly resumed with a vehement desire to enter the cloister. She promised to enter the Visitation of Caen as soon as she asked for the consent of her parents, who were too Christian to refuse her.
Permission
On an afternoon in August, seeing her father wander in the alleys of the garden reciting his rosary, she approached him affectionately; Realizing that his daughter had a serious question to deal with, he said softly: “Since you have something to ask me, come near the Sacred Heart” and he brought her to a statuette placed in the wall. “Speak now,” he continued. – “I’m twenty-one,” began the girl timidly “-” …. and you want to leave us? Interrupted his father with emotion; – then without giving him time to answer, he continues: “I can not argue with the Sacred Heart. Go to Him, my child, since it is your vocation. In a long embrace the tears of father and daughter mingled; they were the expression of the double feeling of gratitude and pain. Mr. Millet loved his child too much to envision a future separation without tearing them apart, but at the same time he appreciated God’s honor by choosing her, not to be deeply happy about it.
Twice again he will renew this sacrifice with the same generosity, leaving two more of his daughters to leave for Carmel and the Benedictine Abbey.
Retreat
In September 1900, Charlotte went to Caen to study her vocation in the Monastery of the Visitation where she was invited to make a few days of retreat. With great righteousness, she made herself known to the Superiors, who had no trouble discovering in her the marks of a true Visitandine vocation.
Assured of her reception, her soul filled with peace, the girl returned to the midst of her family to prepare for her final departure. In his great generosity, not wanting to “haggle his sacrifice to God”, his father wanted to help him himself. and regulated the manner in which farewells would be made so as not to unnecessarily prolong emotions that were too touching.
When the day of separation had come, he said to her, “Go, my daughter, where God calls you, bless you, pray for us. And, repeating his Fiat, he watched her go, accompanied by her aunt, to the convent which would be her home.
Read previous chapter 2 here: https://visitationspirit.org/2018/11/life-of-sr-angelique-millet-vhm-chapter-2/