When God Calls
Introduction
For several years, the Bishop of Geneva has dreamed of founding a religious congregation. His intuitions are clear: to be able to welcome women who, because of their health or their age, would not be welcomed into a more austere congregation, that these women be “daughters of prayer” consecrated to prayer and contemplation, that charity and sisterly love are at the heart of their community life.
In June 1610, François de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal brought together some women in the gallery house. During the celebration of a Mass, a new congregation is hatching: it has no name yet, everything remains to be done. According to events, the intuitions of Francis de Sales materialize.
. The Founder meets regularly with the Visitandines, and his advice is collected in the Spiritual Talks. Vocations flocked to the nascent community.
While monasteries develop, the question of vocational discernment becomes crucial: how recognize a religious vocation?… What Saint Francis de Sales says here about the vocation to religious life is undoubtedly true of any other vocation. How to accept the call of God for my life?
You see how big and good it is difficult to recognize a good vocation (…). How, with such a wide variety of vocations and so different motives, will we be able to recognize the good from the bad ones, and how can we to do not to be deceived? Oh ! of course, it is true that it is a matter of great importance while this one and which is very difficult, however she is not so that we are entirely frustrated with the means of recognize when a vocation is good (…): the good vocation is nothing but a firm and consistent will – as long as the called person has, to want to serve God in the way and in the place in which the divine Majesty calls him, and that is the best mark one can have to recognize when a vocation is good.
But notice that when I say a firm and constant will to serve God in how and where God calls her, I do not say that she does, from the beginning, all what one must do in one’s vocation with such firmness and constancy that it is free from any repugnance, difficulty or disgust in regard to his vocation. No, I’m not saying that nor unless this firmness and constancy is such as to make it exempt from making mistakes, nor so firm that it never comes to waver nor vary in the undertaking it has made of practice the means which may lead it to perfec tion. Oh no, of course it’s not that I mean, for every man is subject to such passion, change and vicissitude, and such will love today of today a thing that he will not like tomorrow, one day is never the same (…).
See how variable and inconstant we are! It is therefore not among these various movements that must be judged of the firmness and constancy of the will to good that we once kissed, but yes well if among this variety of various movements the will remains firm in not leaving the good it once embraced (…). To discern one’s vocation, one must want what God wants . It doesn’t mean that God would have already determined and decided everything for me, that I would “only” have to discover its immutable decision and to implement it. It is rather in the relationship with the Lord that I discover fully what I am called to: the love of God does not crush me, but it arouses my freedom, a regular dialogue with the Lord reveals to me my identity and my deepest desire. Becoming aware of God’s love for me leads me to ask myself: how am I going to respond to this love of God? The question is no longer only: “what is my life project?” It becomes: “what will my life be like if I envision it with the Lord? “
I do not count only on my abilities, but first on God who engages with me in a particular choice of life: ” When God calls someone, he also promises him time to give him all the necessary means “, says François de Sales . It is not required, to know if God wants us to be religious or Nuns, that his divine Majesty speaks to us sensibly, or we send some Angel from Heaven to signify his will to us, no less is there need to be revelations for this subject. You don’t need the exam either. men of ten or twelve doctors from the Sorbonne to examine whether the inspiration is good o, you bad I will decide whether to follow her or not, but it is necessary to cultivate well and correspond to the first movement, because if we always try to keep our will very firm in wanting to seek the good that is shown to us, God will not fail to make it all successful his glory,
Source: Diocese of Annecy