and THIRD ARTICLE
Meditations of Mother Jeanne de Chantal Jouzel
(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.
First Week here: First Week of Lent with the Spiritual Directory | Visitation Spirit
Last week we meditated on the first sentence “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 “. This week we continue to meditate on the remaining words of this sentence.
Sunday
and exterior
My exterior actions, that is those relating to the persons with whom I come in contact and those which are most materialistic, must also like my interior actions be vivified by the life of Jesus. He came upon Earth; He acted in order that I might see and use His merits and His example. I must do as He did or rather leave Him always free to direct all my movements.
This will come about in proportion as my personal life will diminish both interiorly and exteriorly
Yesterday I saw the three points of the third article as three dams keeping back what is human in me. How true is this aspect. The request for grace dams my natural useless and proud thoughts. This effort actually to breathe love as it were captivates my spirit and imagination.
The offering is a supernatural motive to all my actions. I will no longer act for my own sake not even in doing exterior things for everything is to be for the Divine glory and for Souls.
Finally sweet and peaceful endurance will arrest all complaints and unmortified movements; the self will be destroyed and Jesus will live on its ruins.
Monday
ask for the grace
We have now reached one of the most important points in the third article; it is necessary to let myself be crucified by this nail that is going to take away the self In me little by little . It is necessary that this nail should make me suffer .
This suffering is essential for death to self ; I have obtained a glimpse of a Sublime ideal.
I understand that is necessary to base this ideal on a firm foundation and I rejoice in the thought that the request for Grace places me above All in the state of profound sincere and frank humility; profound, because it is based on the intimate conviction of my misery of my nothingness and of my other incapacity for good .
Then like a pauper I beg for that which I lack and the very beginning of the action is impregnated with humility .
This humility is sincere also because this Grace descending upon me destroys the purely human and natural and reveals All things to me In truth, which is humility .
If I am blamed I know that the evil comes from me and I shall accept what I deserve with the aid of Grace ;if I am praised frankly I shall not attribute any glory to myself for it does not belong to me .
Thus little by little humility will take root in me
Tuesday
Together with true humility the request for Grace enables me to practice perfect obedience and to live in a state of continual dependence on the action of the Holy Spirit. This dependence gives to my entire life the Seal of reparation as it were for at the present moment together with pride there is a spirit of Independence throughout.
Who then listens to the Holy Spirit ? Who responds to his impulses of spirit of love?
I feel that you are asking it of me and I perceive more and more the beauty of my third article which makes me respond to your often despised desires. Yes I shall ask you for this Grace which you long to give and each action I shall follow not my personal impulse but yours.
I shall listen to your Inspirations which I shall discover in all the Divine commands in the words of my Superior who is your mouthpiece and in each word of my rule which was dictated by you.
My life will be no longer my own but yours and you shall form Jesus in me.
Wednesday
I could meditate at length on all the advantages that the request for Grace procures for me. Does it not place me in a state of Prayer? this asking makes me realize the words of the master it is necessary to bear it is necessary to pray always
It obliges me to remain attentive to the present moment placing me there at the beginning of each action; it launches me into what is exclusively Supernatural , for all that would be natural in an action is stopped at the beginning.
Finally and above all I must restrain myself and this final word contains everything; it makes me pursue the perfection of divine love .It is an ardent desire which can become almost uninterrupted of that infinite love who is God and who empties himself into the soul for the sake ofthe soul who asks for him.
How shall we make this request? For our most important actions we can pronounce some words but often a glance or a sigh will suffice ;it is more profitable to repeat this request several times at the different changes in our movements. This repetition ends by becoming a state, a habit and indispensable need of the soul thus to seek ardently for love.
Thursday
” and offer”
The request for Grace makes me thirst after love; the offering makes me return this love to God and these two heart beats are indeed those which Jesus desires in order to live in my soul and which the Sacred Heart felt while on Earth .
It is indeed the Perfection of love that I am pursuing for I am no longer aiming at anything but the Divine Glory.Both the beginning and end of my actions must be for God .
Since I no longer have myself in view am I really practicing these two points in the deepest sense? The highest point of Love is union and adoration and it is hither that the offering conducts me.
I am rendering to God that which is His due. I am participating as far as I am permitted in the function of a priest by making a continual offering.
To what heights does an act as simple and practice conduct me ? Just a few words: ” for thee my God I am offering this to thee” or perhaps a simple look , a movement of the heart will lift my actions to the Divine Heart .
This offering augments God’s accidental glory and moreover merits Grace for Souls as I shall see tomorrow.
Friday
I foresee more and more how the third article comprises the whole of our Visitandine Perfection and leads me to the end for which I was made a religious . The Third Article unites me to God .
Now what is Union ? It is a pouring of oneself into the Beloved by the request for Grace. God pours into my soul something of himself. By the offering it is I who dare to pour myself into him. Besides this is Union of Wills for I no longer desire anything but his glory and the welfare of Souls .
The offering enables me to respond to my Apostolic mission; at each moment I am making offerings for Souls, making as Mother Mary De sales said :continual discharges in order to make room for fresh charges of love .
By total forgetfulness of myself I shall arrive at heroic love.
It is necessary now to stop a moment to glance at the virtues already surveyed and at those that a continual practice of the third article will keep in store for me – the request for Grace forms the base: humility ,obedience , prayer , the offering, attains the summit : adoration, love , Union, apostolate .
To maintain me at the summit holy endurance will place me in a state of mortification, peace and abandonment. Verily all is contained herein.
Saturday
” to His Divine Goodness”
Our holy founder St Francis de Sales has said that there is not a word in our constitutions and directory that was not inspired by the Holy Spirit but certainly this fact must be particularly true of the words on which I am now meditating.
Did our blessed father have a presentiment then that one day his little Institute would receive by the gift of the Sacred Heart a seal of approbation, as it were ,on what he was doing then? He always placed us from our origin in the presence of that adorable vision of the Divine goodness.
It is with love not with Justice that we are concerned.Oh how this Declaration should fill me with joy and at the same time with generosity! My vocation is oriented entirely by love. The words love ,dilection and charity recur 58 times in the Constitution’s and directory.
Since love is stronger than fear how far will it enable me to climb ? This view of Love urging me on unceasingly to make offerings to Him, to give to him, is irresistible. It is an arrow that inflicts on the heart a wound that cannot healed.
This third article contains a secret from which one cannot escape .I feel that I shall be taken entirely captive.