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.
Fifth Week of Lent here: Fifth Week of Lent with the Spiritual Directory | Visitation Spirit
Continuation..
Sunday
with the Abundance of His Love
Behold these final words forseen from the beginning and which each stage of this work made me present . My third article has not misled me for it is indeed into love that it plunges me without interruption .
I am breathing this love by the request for Grace which renewed at each action gives it to me with more abundance, I am living this Love by the endurance which at each instant constitutes the martyrdom of love, the meeting of love ,the intention of Love the Game of Love coming from the hand of our good God and savior.
My heart is filled with love; it is an abundant, a super abundant measure .I breathe this love then by the offering and since I possess an abundance that is more than I need I shall offer it for holy church and the welfare of my neighbor.
Thus I shall be devoting myself continually to the Perfection of divine love .I shall see tomorrow that this abundance of Love Is the Life of Union with the Holy Trinity the plenitude of the life of Jesus in my soul .
Truly I cannot desire nor possess more here below.
Monday
God is charity. The Holy Trinity is nothing but love.
God the Father Son and Holy Spirit reflect toward one another their mutual love. These are torrents of love in which the soul finds itself captured having by the faithful practice of the third article truly loved.
She experiences the promise of Jesus in the gospel ,the Holy Trinity lives in her and she lives in God ;this is the abundance of love in its fullness ;this is the realization of the first article for the soul is uniting itself continually Above All to Jesus who became man to enable her to participate in the divine nature.
She is living his life ,is breathing with him the love of the Holy Spirit by the request for Grace, is rebreathing by the offering for the glory of his father and the welfare of the world and each Act of endurance in disengaging her from herself augments the Divine Life for the limiting of self , is he.
All is done through him ,with him ,in him; it is the all of God ,nothing of self ,all for God nothing for self ,all to God nothing to self of our Saint Sister Margaret Mary .
Oh my soul what a life is to be yours to enjoy your abundance of love!
Tuesday
These words contain so much that I cannot exhaust them. These are all the riches of the treasure that is the third article and they are innumerable.
It is here that I find the means of fulfilling my vows and all their perfection and of having the three Divine persons enrich me infinitely for the poor gifts that I offer them . I is always the abundance of love ,all the action and impulse of the Holy Spirit on my will which I sacrificed to him by my vow of obedience and by the request for Grace .
Jesus becomes my spouse by my vow of Chastity and his Union increases with each Act of endurance .
God the Father enriches me with all his treasures, he permits me to pour them upon souls in the measure that I offer him everything by my vow of poverty .
From this abundance of love these fruits drop down as a result of the life of Abandonment practiced according to the third article
Liberty in the measure that I sacrifice my own will by the request for Grace ,it is the freedom of the children of God, it is necessary to taste it to believe it :profound interior peace which comes from endurance and joy the gift promised to the soul who offers everything to the Divine good pleasure to infinite beatitude.
Wednesday
Before leaving these words which have opened to me such beautiful Horizons my heart must needs contemplate one more sweet vision . The Third Article does not mention this explicitly but the abundance of love makes me present it no doubt after the merits of the Savior which flow in abundance .
I participate also in the abundance of those of the Most Blessed Virgin whom our blessed father has given me for my mother and mistress . I must render her an account of my victories for she assists at all my actions according to the third article
She herself has given me the example and associates me with her life is not her ECCE Ancilla the request for Grace; her state of humble dependence on the action of the Holy Spirit ?
Her Fiat is the endurance with Jesus of all crosses , The Magnificat repeats her continual offering to God the Father and her Zeal for Souls that is so well characterized in the mystery of the Visitation in which she pronounced it and that is so definitely that of a Visitandine.
Oh indeed do these words enclose within themselves the abundance of love!
Thursday
this they must not omit
For several days now I have been discovering in my third article several means of perfecting myself. The thing to do now is to profit by them by not neglecting them; they are being offered to me continually .
It is not like certain actions that one has occasion to do rarely; it is at each moment of the day that I must utilize these precious means that are particular to the Visitation .
And telling me that I must not neglect these ,that is, the request ,the offering and the act of endurance in the smallest actions our blessed father gives me to understand clearly that this triple occupation must become like a state which provokes a continual stream of love .
It is from this occupation that the abundance of Love comes .This is a very important point which perhaps will make clear to me how little of complete success I have had so far in my enterprise .
Oh what a stimulus toward fervor and generosity .How necessary it is to be no longer negligent and indolent .
Nature will protect strongly but Grace will repeat the word all which excludes neither small nor great actions.
Friday
even in little matters and such as seem to them of small importance
In the eyes of God who is Almighty and infinitely great our greatest actions are indeed small!
He regards only the intention which accompanies them. Now there is often more delicacy in love in fidelity to the littlest things to the smaller details in order to please the Beloved . Our blessed father had good reason to say and such a seem to them of small importance for in reality that is not so since in the life of love everything is very important especially what I foresaw yesterday that by neglecting no action whatever I should establish myself in a state of fidelity to the third article which provokes an uninterrupted abundance of love .
To ask for the grace in little things do we not know that God occupies himself even with the fall of a leaf or a hair? He wishes therefore to place his Divine action into my smallest actions and thus he will approve the offering of them which will procure for him so much more Glory as it will be repeated more often.
With regard to endurance it is in the smallest sufferings that I must practice it more so perhaps than great trials do they aid in the destruction of self which proceeds in the measure that one gift self no respite.
Saturday
even though employed and things holy agreeable and conformable to their will and necessity
The third article is truly that Philosopher’s Stone so eagerly sought after which changes into gold all that I do even the things that I think have no merit because I find them agreeable and conformable to my will and necessity ;all inundated by the streams of Love which I bring forth by the request for grace and the offering which becomes Supernatural actions worthy of regard by the Divine complacency
Then another truth is revealed . It sometimes happens that a soul who has understood the value and merit of suffering desires to discard those things that appear agreeable and conformable to her will but our blessed father has foiled that delusion .He does not say that we should prefer what is agreeable but if they are employed within the merits of obedience itsurpasses everything else and as with all the things conformable to my necessity I can add this merit of obedience .
Oh then may I fear not but completely occupied by my third article may I lose no occasion of increasing my abundance of love.