| Consecrate Those Difficulties to Him |
At our Living Jesus Chat this Sunday we will be talking about the following letter of St. Francis de Sales to St. Jane de Chantal, taken from Selected Letters of St. Francis de Sales.To prepare for our chat, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  Image by Jacques Savoye from PixabayTo Mere de Chantal, written from Annecy on 25 January 1612 The great wonder-worker, St. Paul, woke us up very early in the morning, my very dear daughter, by his cry in the ears of my heart and of yours: ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me do?’ My very dear Mother and so very dear daughter, when will the time come when we shall be dead before God and alive to that new life, no longer having any will of our own but letting God will for us whatever we have to do, allowing his living will to act on our dead will?Keep very close to God, my dear daughter; consecrate your difficulties to him, wait patiently for the return of your life’s lovely sun. Ah, God has not shut us out from enjoying his sweetness, he has only withdrawn for a little while so that we may live for him and not for his delights; so that our sisters who are in need may find compassionate help in us and tender, loving support; so as to receive a sweet odor from the holocaust of a heart that has been burnt, consumed and brought low.O Lord Jesus, by your incomparable sadness and the terrible desolation which filled your heart on the Mount of Olives and on the cross, and by the desolation of your dear Mother when she was deprived of your presence, be the joy or at least the strength of this daughter of mine when your cross and passion dwell deep in her soul. I am sending you this cry from my heart, my very dear daughter, and may the great St. Paul bless my prayer for you. Reflections: Why is it important to ask God what He will do with us?How can we confidently know God’s will for us?With the aids of the sacraments, why can following God still be difficult?What advantage does foregoing delights and pleasures have in our spiritual life?How can Christ’s “incomparable sadness” and “terrible desolation” of the crucified Jesus be our joy?The second paragraph talks about “our sisters who are in need may find compassionate help….” Would St. Francis be addressing some problems among the sisters that St. Jane, as superior, would have to deal with? What are the needed qualities of a superior, parent, or supervisor in listening to the complaints of those under us?What do you think of the idea of including in a letter to a friend a prayer to God? Have you ever done this? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time |