| Draw Out the Thread of Your Plans Until You Put Them into Effect |
,At our Living Jesus Chat Room this Sunday we will be talking about part of a letter written by Francis de Sales to St. Jane de Chantal, written from Cluses on August 6, 1606, 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 TImor from PixabayMay God help me, my very dear daughter, to reply usefully to your letter of July 9th. I desire this infinitely, but I foresee that I shall not have leisure to arrange my thoughts; it will be as much as I can do to express them at all.You are right, my daughter, speak to me frankly, as to me, that is to say as to a soul which God by his sovereign authority has made all yours. You are beginning to put your hand to the task, you tell me. O dear God, how greatly this consoles me! Keep on doing this, putting your hand to the task, spinning a little every day, whether by daylight, in interior joy and brightness, or at night, by the lamplight of helplessness and dryness of spirit.The Wise Man praises the valiant woman for this: ‘Her fingers,’ he says, ‘have taken hold of the spindle.’ How I should like to talk to you about these words! Your distaff is the store of all your desires: spin just a little every day, draw out the thread of your plans until you put them into effect, and you will certainly do well. But beware of over-eager haste, else your thread will get into a knotted tangle, and you will not be able to work your spindle. Let us keep going all the time; however slowly we get on, we shall still make plenty of way.Your spiritual helplessness is doing you a lot of harm, you say, because it prevents you from entering into yourself and getting close to God. But you are quite wrong. God leaves you in this state for his glory and your own great profit; he wants your poverty to be the throne of his mercy, and your helplessness the seat of his omnipotence. Did not God put the divine strength he gave Samson into his hair, the frailest part of his frame? Let me hear no more words of this kind from a daughter who wants to serve God according to his divine pleasure and not according to her own taste and delight. ‘Although he should kill me,’ says Job, ‘I will trust in him.’ No, my daughter, this helplessness does not stop you from entering into yourself; but it certainly stops you from self-complacency.We are always wanting this and that, and although we have our sweet Jesus resting on our heart we are not satisfied; and yet this is all we can possibly need and desire. One thing alone is necessary—to be near him. Now tell me, my dear daughter, you know, don’t you, that at the birth of Our Lord the shepherds heard the angelic and divine songs of heavenly beings; this is what the scriptures tell us. But nowhere does it say that Our Lady and St. Joseph, who were closest to the child, heard the angels’ voices or saw the marvelous radiance; on the contrary, instead of hearing the angels sing they heard the child crying, and by the wretched light of some poor lantern they saw the eyes of this divine boy full of tears and saw him chilled by the cold. Now tell me frankly, would you not rather have been in the dark stable which was full of the baby’s crying, rather than with the shepherds, ravished with joy and gladness by sweet heavenly music and the beauty of this marvelous light?Yes, indeed, says St. Peter, it is good for us to be here, when he saw the Transfiguration (and the Church is celebrating this feast today, 6 August); but your Abbess is not there; she is there later on Mount Calvary where she sees nothing but death, nails, thorns, helplessness, extraordinary darkness, utter desolation and dereliction. I have said enough, my daughter, and more than I intended on this subject which has already come up so often between us: but not again, I entreat you.Love God crucified in the darkness, stay near him and say: It is good for me to be here; let us make here three tabernacles, one to Our Lord, the other to Our Lady and the last to Saint John. Just three crosses, and then stand by the Son’s or by his mother’s, or his disciple’s: you will be welcome there with the other daughters of your order who are all there with you. Reflections: What does it mean to put your “hand to the task.” Is this just a focus on our daily tasks? Is St. Francis focused on building a personal enterprise?Why is it important to try to not act with haste and be content with an even pace?Why is it that God’s power is made manifest in our weakness? What does that even mean?St. Francis says: “One thing alone is necessary–to be near him.” Does this mean we should not concern ourselves with our responsibilities? Does this contradict what he says about keeping our “hand to the task”?What does it mean to “love God crucified in the darkness, stay near him and say: It is Good for me to be here…”From St. Francis’ letter we can tell that St. Jane is complaining that her spiritual helplessness prevents her from entering into herself and getting close to God. How can St. Francis’ story of the shepherds and angels, and the Christ child crying in the manger help us if we have the same problem? 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. |