FEAST OF SAINT JEANNE DE CHANTAL
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11, 2019
by Père Philippe MULLER
Translated from the French by this website
We know St. Francis de Sales well. Jeanne de Chantal has long remained in his shadow. Yet she was an exceptional woman and her life was remarkable.
“The decisions of the Lord whose unfathomable, impenetrable paths …” These words of Saint Paul summarize well the life of Jeanne de Chantal, who knew how to answer the most unexpected calls.
Born January 23, 1572, she did not know her mother, who died while giving birth to André, her brother, and it was her father, Monsieur Frémyot, who made himself a catechist and educator of her three children.
He instilled in Jeanne-Françoise the sense of prayer that will accompany her life as a woman of the world, while preparing her life as a nun.
At twenty, as was the custom at the time, she was given in marriage to Baron de Chantal. For nine years, they lived a great happiness at the Château de Bourbilly.
Following a hunting accident for her husband, she was widowed at the age of twenty-eight, with four young children between six and three months old. Her sorrow and pain were immense, but she did not let herself be defeated. She fulfilled her educational duties, and remained faithful to her deceased husband.
She refused to remarry, despite the promising benefits for her and her children. Even her father insists on presenting him with a widower who is both rich and Christian.
So that her children would not be disinherited, she had to live at the Château de Monthelon with her father-in-law, an old man who had become shrewish and a servant girl who kept humiliating her.
Later, she will say, “If God allows you to miss everything, ask yourself what you have to do; with a new confidence you will open your heart to him and abandon him to him, hoping against all hope. IV, 264.
In the midst of all her hardships, she has the comfort of meeting Saint Francis de Sales, who will help her answer an urgent call from the Lord.
Her mother’s heart, always ready to give herself, will be offered to the service of a family that far exceeds her human family: the Order of the Visitation.
After the death of her little Charlotte, 10 years old, heartbroken by the demands of the call of the Lord, she leaves everything to come to Annecy to lay the foundations of the Visitation, with François de Sales.
For years, while being religious, she will closely follow her three children where the Lord had placed them She certainly instilled in them, as she will write later, that:
“God our Father knows what we need, he will provide us with the necessities if we are faithful to him. “
As a young girl, wife, mother, widow, educator, Jeanne de Chantal has never deviated from the path laid out by the Lord, despite many heavy crosses to wear, repeated bereavements, health tests and even an anxious temperament.
As soon as she was a widow, Jeanne de Chantal heard the call to the consecrated life.
She took a first step by writing: “As soon as it was God’s pleasure to withdraw my husband from me, the divine Goodness gave me very ardent desires to serve him so that I devoted myself to his love by the vow of chastity. “.
François de Sales will help her to live this consecration. Already, after their first meeting at the Lenten talk preached in Dijon by Saint Francis de Sales, a deep relationship had been established between Jeanne de Chantal and Francois de Sales, made of a total and affectionate mutual trust.
After having known the desires of Jeanne, while sketching out the idea of a new and original foundation, it cultivates in her the search for holiness. It’s for everyone as he teaches in the Introduction to Devout Life.
He forms her to a simple obedience made of free choices to the will of the Lord: “Freedom is the richest part of man, because it is the life of our heart. This is the most precious gift we can make. It’s such an excellent piece that the devil can not touch it: it turns, blurs, rolls all around, but it can not force it. Even God who gave it to us does not want it to have it by force … He has never annoyed anyone to serve him and will never do it … “
As this Salesian note is important for any vocation! It’s in the same line as “All out of love, nothing by force. “
To help Jeanne de Chantal to walk further along the path of the contemplative life, Francis de Sales guides her in the path of prayer and prayer of the heart.
He commits her to live humility in her concrete life every day, which will lead to total surrender to God for her future.
For this purpose he invites her to give up all useless dreams. Francis de Sales has forged the character of Jeanne to prepare her to take the decisive step to consecrate herself to God. This requires a lot of renunciation. She will later write to a sister: “You have to have great courage to
serve God in every way he will please …
Another way of saying that we must have the will to serve God not only in the great circumstances, not only in the contemplation, but also in the banality of everyday life.
Francis de Sales writes to Jeanne de Chantal: “You must be like that strong woman of whom the Sage says: She put her hand on strong things and her fingers wielded the spindle. Meditate, elevate your mind, these are strong things. But with all this, do not forget your cattail and your spindle, spin the thread of little virtues, lower yourself to the charity exercises. Whoever says otherwise is wrong and is deceived. XIV 110.
What good sense we find elsewhere in Jeanne de Chantal in her function as superior of the Visitation. She writes to Mother Marie Aimée de Blonay: “Oh my daughter, you must have good teeth to chew all the pieces of this life.” C II, 352.
On another occasion, writing to a somewhat scrupulous sister: “You make a fly an elephant. It looks like today: “You are drowning in a glass of water. And she adds:
“You would be blessed if you submit to believe what is said to you and you miss all your trust in God, which is not so cruel! C II, 124.
It is comforting to see how Francis de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal discovered and revealed, in their time, most of the consecrated life that is not always understood today.
The Visitandines, even today, live heart to heart with the Lord, in personal and communal prayer, but keeping their feet on the ground, and sharing the joys and sorrows of human life. Their life is given to God in the service of the Church and of men.
They are of those who, as the Gospel of Mark reminded us, “do the will of God. “
This is what Jeanne de Chantal wrote at a Visitandine in Annecy, and which we can receive as a personal invitation:
“Who seeks only God who wills God find him in all things. How can we not find it in the sanctity of our vocation? “
12 years after the founding of the Visitation, François de Sales dies suddenly, leaving to Jeanne de Chantal the responsibility to pursue alone the work undertaken with two.
Jeanne de Chantal founded 87 monasteries in 30 years! Such dedication goes beyond human strength, especially since Jeanne de Chantal was not brought to such an active life. She writes to Vincent de Paul:
“I have a lot of trouble for my charge, because my mind hates the action greatly … forcing me to act, my body and my mind remain depressed. “
Despite her desire to retire to live in hiding, she responds faithfully to all the calls of the Lord who asks her to go further, and always in the midst of unforeseen trials.
Exhausted, Jeanne de Chantal surrendered her soul to God, at the Visitation of Moulins, on December 13, 1641. It was possible to live with this spirit of the Visitation: to have a deep humility towards God and a great sweetness towards the neighbor.
SUNDAY AND MONDAY 11 AND 12 AUGUST 2019
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