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.
Fourth Week of Lent here: https://visitationspirit.org/2025/03/fourth-week-of-lent-with-the-spiritual-directory/
Continuation…
Sunday
of our good God
It is quite clear and I must understand more and more that my life is that of love and that it must result in peace and sweetness . It is not between the Arms of an irritated God that the third article places me but before the paternal hand of our good God .
This word good has something so touching about it that my soul cannot help melting away in tenderness and love . The good God is so good, once said a saintly religious ,many bestow on him this gentle appellation but how few act in keeping with this word .
It would seem that our holy founder St Francis is asking here of Visitandines a sort of reparation.
Yes we shall say the good God and thus finding good all that he sends them there shall issue forth from their hearts, their spirit and their lips only peace and gentleness ,the inhaling and exhaling of love.
Oh good God the heart overflowing with charity you have seen this and it is for this reason that you has come by preference to our little Institute.
Oh may I not deceive you.
Monday
and Savior
The third article is indeed complete for it responds to all the needs of the Soul. It is truly the Divine Spirit who inspired it.
The paternal hand is very attractive coming as it does from our good God; nevertheless a father who has never suffered and who asks his child to carry the cross does not have the same Force as he who has tried the cross before us and for us . Now with the fatherly hand the hand of the Savior also stretches itself toward me, this adorable hand which took human form in order to resemble me ,this little Hand of Jesus in the stable chilled through and through with the cold ,his workman’s hand hardened by the plane, his pierced hand as Redeemer on the cross .
Received from this hand shall not poverty ,labor and suffering appear quite supportable ? Besides there is still another mystery of Love through this gaping wound in the hand of the Savior.
I can see all his merits as Redeemer . I have only to take them to enrich myself with them and to use them for myself and for those who do not understand so that another mission of reparation reveals itself to me here.
Tuesday
Whose most holy intention
God never does anything by chance still less out of Caprice. In all that he does he always has a most holy and adorable intention, all of love, tending always toward my greater good
Have I always understood this Most Holy intention ? Alas ,often occupied with my own intention I have not seized upon the Divine intention . The Divine Hearts bending toward me has looked anxiously to see whether as a spouse I would be able to understand him .He has been disappointed.
In this word of the third article there is still another powerful means of destroying my occupation with myself to substitute for it a life given over to listening to the Divine intention . It is absolutely necessary that I let myself be captured ,the traps are set up on all sides how can I now let my cross fal, how can I fail to carry it with peace and sweetness ?
The most holy intention of God is in this cross and is so provoking that I shall surrender without any longer wishing to dream of my personal desires .
What a life will now result composed entirely of the most delicate manifestations of love. These words truly render the soul a spouse . May I understand them completely.
Wednesday
to make them merit
I have understood that it is not my desires that I must follow but those of God. My intention will naturally always tend towards some enjoyment or other( even if I intend to mortify myself it is for the purpose of sanctifying myself in order to enjoy more from God ). The original Divine intention in creating us was to create us for happiness and actually the Divine intention still wishes to lead us to happiness only the means are no longer the same
I am often mistaken about the means whereas I must convince myself that in following the most holy intention of God which always tends toward my end all my actions will be meritorious and worthy of a reward above all if I unite these tiny merits to the infinite merits of Jesus .
Whereas if I wish to act without following the Divine intention I am working only for myself and I’m performing poor actions without any Merit which fall to the ground if they are not indeed occasions of blame and diminution of Grace .
Eve misunderstood the Divine intention which wished to make her merit; she followed her own desires; she wished to become as a god. Alas if I wish to follow the Divine intention I shall participate in the divine nature by the three means that will enable me to merit it.
Thursday
by such means
Each Soul who has foreseen her ideal has only one thought; by what means to realize it .
As far as I am concerned I do not have to look far for these means for the fatherly hand of God has prepared them for me.
The Divine intention is that these means tend to my greatest good . Oh my soul plunge yourself into this unique means that brings to you the present action with all that it contains and live sweetly ,peacefully, without preoccupation, without particular choices and without any desire.
Our holy founder used to say that if he had to live over again he would no longer have any desire to such a degree did he understand the Perfection of this state which besides he practiced so well. That is therefore settled :I have found the means of no longer finding any obstacle, everything is serving toward the attainment of my end; this trouble, this country ,this trying period, this illness, this humiliation and so forth are means by which I shall Merit the abundance of love and each moment I hold all things in my hands to enrich my soul.
Now everything is becoming simplified and clear, oh may I understand my good fortune and use all these fruitful means.
Friday
that he may afterwards
This word afterwards can mean several things . It’ alludes to heaven where the souls that will have lived the third article will enjoy an abundance of love that cannot be expressed. It also designates that state of greatest perfection in which the faithful Soul necessarily tends by letting Jesus do with it as he Wills ,the State of Union with Jesus ,the abundance of love which is the fullness of his life in the soul
And after one has practiced The Third Article seriously one arrives to the state from here below .
This word afterwards is finally that force ,that augmentation of Grace and love which operates from action to action and which gives in fact the continual abundance of divine love.
What a life this is in perspective; one moment of endurance and afterwards follows the recompense ,love.
Oh my soul would you neglect such a treasure ? Would you not go on from hour to hour enriching yourself?
Behold what the Saints have done those men and women full of love. With my third article nothing can prevent me from equaling that in the measure fixed by the Divine will.
Saturday
recompense them
God deserves all and owes us nothing but his love tends always toward giving and after having bestowed on us the gift of the grace necessary in order that we might offer him something good he wishes besides to recompense us .
It is ineffable and what is the recompense? Indeed that recompense promised us by The Third Article can coexist with the most pure and most disinterested desires. If the recompense is heaven can it be promised and decreed for me in a way more excellent than under the form the abundance of love ?
If the recompense is the state of the greatest Perfection there too I can without fear work with an eye to the recompense because this abundance of Love is what can glorify God most while fulfilling most completely my own desires .
And if at length this recompense is the afterwards of each moment of my life I am truly living this life of love which is so desirable .Each moment plunges me into it and makes me grow in it .
What a happy recompense which alone is worthy of being desired -many men labor to acquire a recompense that does not last . Oh if they could understand and taste mine!