and the 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.
Holy Week here: https://visitationspirit.org/2025/04/holy-week-with-the-spiritual-directory/
Conclusion
Easter Sunday
eating and drinking
I can therefore supernaturalize each of my actions even the most material. Our blessed father purposely chose examples such as eating and drinking . I shall notice first that he separates one action from the other which shows to what degree I can renew the request ,offering and active endurance not by many words but by those movements of the heart which are aimed at love and return to him .
One is receiving Graces ,a temporal benefit, nourishment ;one must ask for the grace to profit by it supernaturally. One thus mounts back to our Divine Providence by the offering and the grace .
Then during the action one endures the mortifications encountered and unites them to the merits of our Savior .
Like us and for us he wished to subject himself to these needs of nature. He was hungry -the gospels often speak of repasts, Feasts ,symbols of mystical Union and of the Divine nourishment which is Himself .
He was thirsty at Jacob’s Well, on the cross and his Sitio is filled with Mysteries well adapted to giving no place any longer to anything natural in our repasts.
Easter Monday
Resting, Recreation and such like
A large part of my life is taken up by sleep. Is it then deprived of Love ,of Merit ?
No, with the third article I shall envelop it with love and the merits of Our Lord. I shall offer it to the Divine glory and thus all my hours of rest will be sanctified and I shall find them again in Eternity .
It is the same with all my moments of relaxation and recreation . Oh it was not for nothing that Jesus wished to live on earth my life in its least details! He rested in the arms of his mother, in the ship of Peter, he stretched himself out to die on the bed of the cross, he went to the wedding at Cana ,he spoke with his disciples and by these words such like which contain all my material occupations I see always Jesus who serves as my model,who offers me his merits and wishes indeed to re-live this action in me.
What a means of supernaturalizing everything in order to make reparation for the millions and millions of actions done in the world which are reduced to nothing because they do not have a supernatural principle.
Easter Tuesday
so that according to the Council of the Apostle whatever they do may be done
Behold I have only to make my resolution for this word all which recurs for the fourth time gives self the death blow . Self has lived long enough.
Until now I have certainly done some actions for God but have I really done all of them? In their details and as a whole have I given all ?
Has not self had a large part in these actions ? Perhaps I have performed them at certain times and on certain days when I felt like it and then on other days I took something back .
However today I feel that I no longer have a right to do this . I have understood through these meditations that all my being must be surrendered to God, that neither suffering nor the multiplicity of actions nor their littleness need be an obstacle but that all on the contrary is a means of making my surrender more complete.
I must do all in the name of God that is let Jesus do all in me and according to his good pleasure for the glory and satisfaction of the adorable Trinity.
I must disappear. This word all crushes and destroys nature and provokes the existence of a true spiritual life.
Easter Wednesday
in the name of God
Saint Paul tells us that we must become partakers of the divine nature . Each day at Holy Mass holy church has us ask Jesus to let us participate in his divinity .
To what Heights then is a Christian called ! To do all in the name of God does not mean only to do all for him and to glorify his name but also to do everything through him in the degree to which our souls are intense with the Divine Life.
And it is here that I am led by my third article which makes me prosper in the way of Our Lord . I him act then oh my soul from moment to moment or rather may it be no longer be you who lives and acts but Jesus.
Then in each action I can do this by the request for grace ;through the impulse of God the Holy Spirit I shall participate in the merits of God the Savior by the act of endurance and I shall make the offering to God the Father .
All shall be done in the name of God one in three persons whom I shall thus glorify continually. My life shall become an Act of praise and of glorification which nothing could interrupt.
That is what it it means to be a contemplative.
Easter Thursday
and for his sole pleasure
It is necessary to add a final word to this masterpiece which I have been analyzing for the past 50 days and truly this last gem is worthy of crowning all those which have preceded it.
To have nothing before our eyes but the sole Divine pleasure is enough to enchant my life until eternity and instead of looking henceforth at the things that cost me much may I fix my glance rather on this adorable pleasure which surpasses by far by its intense Joy all the intensity of the Sorrows which suffering can bring .
I understand that these words are the last of the third article because only disengagement from self can make us practice them :little by little each word has led me to this .
Now if I wish really to correspond to Grace I shall no longer behold myself . I shall no longer live as I meditated yesterday for Jesus it is who will live in me and with him I shall no longer occupy myself with anything but the good pleasure of his Father the only pleasure there is, for there is only one .
Oh Unity brought about by the transformation in God !Amen.
Easter Friday CONCLUSION
prayer to obtain Fidelity to the third article
Oh my God who has granted me the grace of so beautiful a vocation enable me to attain to complete Perfection by the means which your Holy Spirit dictated himself to our holy founder. Grant that by the constant practice of the third article I may arrive at truly living the life of Jesus breathing as he does the love of the Holy Spirit by the request for Grace and your greater glory.
Oh Eternal Father by a continual offering of myself in Union with him may each Act of endurance born with peace and gentleness augment this Divine Life In My Soul even to its plenitude, even to the abundance of love .
Oh Father Son and Holy Spirit may I unite myself to you in each of my actions even to my consummation in the union which you have promised . Amen .
God be praised!