| You Would Only Be Leaving in Order to Live for Yourself |
This week we read a letter from St. Francis de Sales to Soeur de Girard, Sister at the Visitation of Grenoble, written from Annecy on 14 January 1620.To prepare for our chat on Sunday, please read the letter, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on UnsplashMy very dear daughter,Your ideas about leaving the convent bear every sign of a genuine temptation; but blessed be God that the fortress has not yet yielded to this assault and is not likely to either, as I see it. My very dear daughter, be very much on your guard. There is nothing to choose between your leaving and your being lost, for do you not see, you would only be leaving in order to live for yourself, by yourself and in yourself? And this would be all the more perilous as your pretext would be closer union with God who, however, does not ever want such union with solitaries who single themselves out and withdraw of their own accord, leaving their vocation, their vows, their congregation through bitterness of heart, vexation, resentment, aversion for community life, for obedience to the rule and for religious observance .O do you not see how prompt Symeon Stylites was to leave his column on the advice of the ancients? And you, my very dear daughter, refuse to give up your abstinence on the advice of so many excellent people who have no interest whatever in making you give it up except to rid you of your love of self? Come now, my very dear daughter, and from now on sing the song of love: O how sweet and good it is to see sisters living together! Be harsh with your temptation and say to it firmly: ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God; be gone, Satan; the Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve.’ (Mt 6:7-10) Please turn this over in your mind, my very dear daughter: what could be clearer as a sign of temptation than genuflecting to the Blessed Sacrament as though out of spite? Good inspirations are humble, gentle, tranquil and holy; so how can your inclination be a good one when it is resentful, hard, cross and tempestuous? Get right away from this, my very dear daughter; treat this as one treats a temptation to blasphemy, treachery, heresy or despair. Do not enter into argument or come to terms with it, do not listen; counter it as often as possible by constant renewal of your vows, by frequent acts of submission to your Mother Superior; keep on invoking your guardian angel, and I hope, my very dear daughter, that you will then find the peace and sweetness of loving your neighbor. So be it.I am writing to you in haste; but do what I tell you. And when you are in choir and the temptation says: stop singing! go on singing all the more perseveringly, as the blind man in the Gospel did. May the peace of the Holy Spirit be with you.Francis, Bishop of Geneva. Reflections: Do you think St. Francis is being too pushy in order to keep this young woman in the convent?How can we more easily discern what God is calling us to versus a temptation away from something?Why is it important to recognize when resentment creeps in compared to the “peace that surpasses understanding” (Philippians 4:7)?How is resentment, etc. similar to a temptation toward blasphemy or heresy?How can we counter this resentment, or how do we “go on singing” as St. Francis puts it?How many priests and religious who left their vocations do you think have really found happiness afterwards? Married couples?How does one overcome thoughts of “the grass is always greener on the other side” when it comes to a vocation? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room: Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time U.S. this Sunday . |