This post is the third in our mini-series on St. Jane’s Letters to her Mystical Visitandine daughters.
St Jane writes to an early Superior who experienced mystical favors:
LXXXV.
To Mother Anne Marguerite Clément, Superior at Montargis.
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Annecy, 1631.
I am very well satisfied, my dearest daughter, with the favorable opinion of your Bishop as to your dealings with God. Blessed for ever be He who is so infinitely good as to deign to communicate Himself in such plenitude to His poor and unworthy creature.
My daughter, there is nothing for me to say on this head. Do faithfully whatever your worthy Bishop desires you to do. You have only to look at God and to let Him work, completely forgetting yourself in Him. Since He in His love permits you to speak to Him so lovingly and familiarly I pray you, dearest daughter, present to Him sometimes my miserable little heart, humbly beseeching Him to make it entirely His, to strip it of all that does not find favor in His sight, and to give it the grace to do and suffer all things whatsoever that His good pleasure wills. Earnestly recommend to Him our poor little Congregation, that His spirit may reign therein, and commend me often to His most holy love. Do this so heartily that I may feel the effects in as full a measure as His adorable will permits. Give me always your sweet affection in that holy love. I have read the two pages of your letter regarding your interior state, upon which I say nothing, save to praise God for the graces and lights that He vouchsafes to you. It is not for the creature to use empty and insipid words when the Creator Himself deigns to speak.
WHO WAS MOTHER ANNE MARGUERITE CLEMENT AND WHAT DID SHE EXPERIENCE?
Born in Franche -Comte, May 7, 1593 to John Clement and Marguerite Bellin Anne -Marguerite Clement showed as a child ardent piety and founded a small organization to spread devotion to the Child Jesus . After an attempted entry into Carmel , Anne -Marguerite was drawn by the fame of the nascent Visitation. Admitted to Annecy, she was greeted by St. Francis de Sales and was professed in his hands , August 13, 1618 . Affected one day by a sermon of the holy founder ( 31 October 1619 ) , she resolved to belong to God alone , to the exclusion of every creature and it was the beginning of a life of deep union with God.. In 1628 , she was chosen to found a new monastery in Montargis , where she stayed until 1635. Then, for a similar purpose , she was sent to Melun, and remained there until her death ( January 3, 1661 ) .
Mystical Experiences
In 1636, the venerable Mother Clement, being in prayer, was vouchsafed a privilege like to that with which God honored St. Catharine of Siena. ” It seemed to me,” she wrote, ” that God took my heart out of my breast, and put His own in its place; so that, as it appeared to me, I had no other heart than that of Jesus.”
Ravished thus into ecstasy, she saw her blessed Father St. Francis de Sales making his sojourn in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and there receiving the inspiration to erect an Order which would have only one end, that of honoring the Divine Heart of Jesus. In another ecstasy she saw the Blessed Virgin Mary drawing from the pierced side of Jesus Christ and pouring over her dear Visitation all the graces of which it had need to fulfil its mission.
Mother Clement’s primary spiritual gifts were the mystical marriage, the impression of Jesus’ Name on her heart, and the union of hearts. The biography of her life was published in 1686 by her Barnabite Director, Father Gallicio.
Eucharistic spirituality
Mother Anne Marguerite had a great passion for the Holy Eucharist. The night before receiving Him , Our Lord gave her less rest , and elated her heart so that she could no longer contain herself. Here are some expressions that we see in her letters: “My soul has a great ” hunger of God , and she is very impaired, especially ” since He told her heart: “I am the living bread <come down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread ” < he will live forever . Come unto me all you who are ” overburdened, and I will refresh you. Another time : “ I feel so ” pressed to receive my God, I can not provide any cooling in my heart. “ She felt her mouth full of fire, which caused her pain; she saw it as a tangible sign that God heard her prayer to purify her speech , so she would not offer a single word that was not to His glory.
Mother Anne Marguerite entered eternity in 1661.
Source: Bishop Emile Bougaud and http://books.google.com/books?id=uhz8YYKYq5wC&pg=PA63&dq=mere+anne-marguerite+clement&hl=en#v=onepage&q=mere%20anne-marguerite%20clement&f=false