| Like a Good Father Who Holds His Child by the Hand, He Will Conform His Steps to Yours |
At our Living Jesus Chat Room this Sunday we will be talking about the fragments from certain letters of St. Francis copied by St. Jane de Chantal in her notebook (between 1605 and 1608), 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 MIGUEL ANGEL CASTELAN from PixabayWhatever time we decide to give God in prayer, let us give it to him with our thoughts free and disentangled from everything else, resolving never to take this time away from him again, whatever toil comes our way. Let us treat this time as something which no longer belongs to us; and even if you just spend the time acutely aware of your insufficiency, do not let it upset you, even rejoice in it, thinking that you are a very good object for God’s mercy.Often ask yourself whether you can really say in all truth: ‘My beloved is mine and I am his.’1 See whether there is not some part or faculty of your soul or some sense in your body which does not belong wholly to God; and having discovered it, take it, wherever it may be, and give it back to him, for you are all his, and everything that is in you is his. Our Lord does not want you to think either about your progress or about your improvement in any way whatever; but to receive and use faith fully the occasions of serving him and of practising the virtues at every moment, without any reflection either on the past or on the future. Each present moment should bring its task, and the only thing we have to do as we turn towards God is to abandon ourselves utterly to him and long for him to destroy everything in us that opposes his plans.People should love the virtues which accord with their voca tion and are suitable to their state. A widow’s virtues are humi lity, despising the world and herself, simplicity. She should exercise herself in loving her abjection, serving the poor and the sick; her place is at the foot of the cross; her rank is to be the very last of all; her glory is to be despised; her crown should be her neediness: all these are little virtues. For as to matters like ecstasies, insensibilities, divine union, elevations, transformations and so on, and considering it a distraction to serve Our Lord in his humanity and in his members, and spend ing all one’s time in the contemplation of the Divine Essence we must leave all that to exceptional souls who are far advanced and worthy of it. We ourselves do not deserve such a high rank in God’s service; we must first of all serve him in lowly offices before being drawn into the inner sanctuary.Look at your Abbess in all the circumstances of her life. In her room at Nazareth, she shows her modesty in that she is afraid, her candor in wanting to be instructed and in asking a question, her submission, her humility in calling herself a hand maid. Look at her in Bethlehem: she lives simply and in poverty, she listens to the shepherds as though they were learned doc tors. Look at her in the company of the kings: she does not try to make any long speeches. Look at her at the time of her puri fication: she goes to the temple in order to conform to church customs. In going to Egypt and in returning she is simply obeying Joseph. She does not consider she is wasting time when she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth as an act of loving courtesy. She looks for Our Lord not only in joy but also in tears. She has compassion on the poverty and confusion of those who invited her to the wedding, meeting their needs. She is at the foot of the cross, full of humility, lowliness, virtue, never drawing any attention to herself in the exercise of these qualities.God rewards his servants according to the dignity of the office they exercise. I do not say that we may not aspire to these outstanding virtues, but I say that we must train ourselves in the little virtues without which the great ones are often false and deceptive. Let us learn to suffer humiliating words gladly, and whatever leads to the disparagement of our opinions and ideas; after that let us learn to suffer martyrdom, to annihilate ourselves in God and to hold all things as nothing. David first of all learnt how to hunt animals and afterwards how to defeat armies. We know what Abraham’s servant did in order to see whether Rebecca was fit to be the wife of his master’s son: he asked her for a drink of water, to see whether she would give it willingly, and also to his camels. A little courtesy, a humble virtue, but the sign of a much greater one.I do not exclude the upraising of your soul, mental prayer and interior conversation with God, a constant lifting up of your heart towards Our Lord; but do you know what I mean, my daughter? I mean that you should be like the valiant woman of whom the Wise Man says: ‘She hath put out her hand to strong things: and her fingers have taken hold of the spindle.’ Meditate, lift up your mind and let it rise up to God, that is to say, draw God into your mind: those are the strong things. But with all that, do not forget your distaff and your spindle: spin the thread of little virtues, do humble works of charity. Anyone who tells you differently is making a mistake and is himself deceived.Leave the care of your other desires to me, I will keep them very carefully for you; have no anxiety about them, because I may never even give them back to you, as it may not be expedient; but have confidence that I shall not make bad use of them. I must render an account of them to God and I hold myself responsible for them.Go straight on, and always in God’s sight. God takes pleasure in seeing you make your little steps; and like a good father who holds his child by the hand, he will conform his steps to yours and will be quite happy not to go any faster than you. What are you anxious about? Whether you are taking this road or that other way, going fast or slow? All that matters is that he is with you, and you with him.Never argue with the enemy or give him any quarter whatso ever when he suggests things to you which are against faith, chastity, vowed obedience or against your resolution to aim at perfection. Your heart is impregnable, and these are the things on which its strength is founded. What need is there to argue? No, not a single word is to be said in answer, unless the words of Our Lord: ‘Get thee behind me, Satan, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’Go on your way with joy, my daughter, with very great confidence in the mercy of your Spouse, and believe that he will lead you aright; but leave it to him.The practice of the presence of God taught by Mother Theresa in chapters 29 and 30 of The Way of Perfection is excellent, and I think it amounts to the same as I explained to you when I wrote that God was in our spirit as though he were the heart of our spirit, and in our heart as the spirit which breathes life into it, and that David called God: the God of his heart.1 Use this boldly and often for it is most useful. May God be the soul and spirit of our heart forever, my very dear daughter! Courage! Reflections: Why do we so often treat prayer as if it is getting in the way of our other activities/duties? How can we embrace it more fully?Discuss the paradox that we are supposed to grow in holiness without being preoccupied about growing in holiness.What does it mean that “we must first of all serve him in lowly offices before being drawn into the inner sanctuary”?How can we better mirror the life of Our Lady?How can we focus more on our interior conversation with God amidst the noise and busy nature of our society? 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 . |