Friday
and make progress.
“To possess a means of not losing an instant of one’s life, of ascending always, of progressing, of acquiring merits which double themselves with each act, what a secret. And the third article reveals it to me. I am not astonished then that the Sacred Heart of our Lord revealed to one of our sisters that a Visitandine is destined for the rank of the Seraphim.
By a way where one progresses continually,one can reach the summit of sanctity. What is it that retards the progress of a soul? It is that one puts too much of the human of self in what one does, and this failing diminishes the value of everything.
Now by the third article, each act becomes supernatural because of its principle, which flows from God even to its end, which reascends towards Him. Nature is again destroyed by bearing the pain and mortification encountered well.
In truth, by asking for the grace and by the offering, self no longer has a place, and the bearing of whatever suffering occurs prevents self from returning. In this way, the life of Jesus can develop in me and one can really progress in the way of our Lord.”
Saturday
in the way of our Lord.
“Our holy Founder has not said make progress in Visitandine perfection, but in the way of our Lord, because the two things are identical. Our road. is truly the road of our Lord which is to be followed on earth. Simple and ordinary in its exterior, but how supernatural and sublime.
In the eyes of his Heavenly Father to be on the way of our Lord means then to follow Him step by step, in order to grow with Him in all the virtues.
But it is more than that. And here, my soul, it is necessary to recollect yourself, for a divine horizon is about to be unveiled before you. Jesus has said I am the way. It is therefore necessary to arrive at living in him of His very life, and to let him live in uS.
Now on earth He lived of the love of the Holy Spirit, who led him, as it is said, to the desert. Then He lived according to the will, the glory of His Father, which was nourishment to Him. If at each request for grace I make Love, the Holy Spirit descend upon me, if at each offering I occupy myself with the divine glory, I shall be living the life of Jesus. And I shall need no more than to increase this life unceasingly by bearing the suffering he sends.”
Source: Mother Jeanne de Chantal Jouzel of the former Monastery of the Visitation of Gennes-Sur-Seiche, France.
Reference: The Third Article
The Sisters who wish to prosper and make progress in the way of our Lord must at the beginning of all their actions, both interior and exterior, ask for His grace and offer to His divine goodness whatever good they may do, thus preparing themselves to endure with peace and gentleness of mind, all the trouble and mortification they may meet with, as coming from the fatherly hand of our good God and Savior, whose most holy intention as by such means to make them merit, that he may afterwards recompense them with the abundance of his love. This they must not omit, even in little matters, and such as seem to them of small importance, even though employed in things wholly agreeable and conformable to their will and necessity, such as eating, drinking, resting, recreating, and such like. So that according to the counsel of out of the apostle, whatever they do may be done in the name of God and for His sole pleasure.