August 21

St. Jane De Chantal

Preparation. - “Who shall find a valiant woman,” asks the Holy Ghost (Prov. 31. 10). This valiant woman is found in St. Jane Frances de Chantal; she gave proofs of her fortitude, first, by her lively and unshaken faith, and secondly, by her invincible constancy in doing good. Let us resolve never to stray from the maxims of perfection. Happy those who live by faith in all things and never heed the prejudices of the world and the vain fears of self-love. “Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed” (John 20. 29).

I. St. Jane De Chantal’s Lively And Firm Faith

Jane was hardly five years old, when she already showed her extreme horror of heretics, so far as to reprove, with a sagacity and energy above her age, a Protestant nobleman for denying Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. Her father, charmed with her happy dispositions, neglected nothing for their development. He taught her to cling with her whole heart to the Roman Church and the common Father of the faithful. Jane profited by his instructions and later on practiced faith even unto heroism.

As a wife and mother, she regulated her household with a truly Christian wisdom, and all therein became a model of order, piety, modesty and industry. The poor, the sick, the afflicted were also objects of her solicitude. In them she beheld the person of Jesus Christ Himself, and took pleasure in rendering to them the most humble services. During a famine, which afflicted the country, God rewarded her faith and charity in multiplying the victuals she distributed to the needy.

It was the same spirit of faith that urged her to conquer herself, to renounce her own will, and to die to herself to the innermost recesses of her being, as St. Francis de Sales expresses it. Her success was perfect, for she could truly say: “I wish for God alone, in this world and in the next.” Such is the end a lively faith attains for those who walk by its light.

Is such a faith always the motive of our actions and the rule of our life? Do we not rather follow our impressions, our feelings human respect, rather than the principles of perfection and of an enlightened conscience? How do we look upon our neighbor? Do we consider him as the image of God, the child of the heavenly Father, the brother of Jesus Christ, the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, a member of the mystical body of the Church, of which the Redeemer is the Head? If a monarch, a ruler, a president, were to send you his own son, would you speak harshly to him, without regard to his position? Why then do we do so, when there is question of the poor, the ignorant, the rude and the rustic, whom the Lord considers as His children and sends to ask our services?

O my God, if I had the faith of saints, how respectfully and deferentially I would treat all men, even those that come to me under the most humble exterior! Deign henceforth to inspire me with that lively and firm faith, which shows me the beauty of our mysteries, the value of good works, the nobility of the human soul, and which, at the same time, will impart to me the strength to conquer myself, to seek Thee alone, and to profess my faith both by word and deed.

II. St. Jane’s Constancy In The Practice Of Virtue

The immovable constancy of our saint often manifested itself during her life. Having lost her husband by an accident as deplorable as it was unforeseen, her grief was immense, but she overcame it by the vigor of her faith and the energy of her piety. It was the same when death took away some member of her family. She deeply felt these losses, but her grandeur of soul prompted her to the most generous acts. Being called by God to leave the world, she had the courage to step over her son, who had laid down in the threshold of the door to prevent her from leaving.

But her fortitude was especially displayed in her many and protracted interior trials. For forty-one years she felt only disgust in her pious exercises. It seemed to her, as if she had lost faith, hope and charity, so little did she feel their effects. Being seized with an extreme dread of being in the state of mortal sin, she thought herself forsaken by God, and her suffering increased still more during the last nine years of her life. She fancied she beheld our Lord driving her out of His presence, and the impressions this caused her, were so painful, as to appear like the pains of the reprobate. During so great a desolation she never ceased, though unaware of it, making the most beautiful acts of confidence in God and of self-surrender to Him, according to the testimony of St. Francis de Sales.

Her example should cause us to blush for neglecting prayer, when we find no sensible relish in it. Is not this a sign that we seek therein our own satisfaction rather than that of God? Mental prayer is especially necessary in times of trial, aridity and temptation, for then we are most in need of the divine assistance. Should not this prevail upon us to prolong our prayer, when we feel annoyed or disturbed, as the Saviour, our Head and Model, did in the garden of olives: “Being in an agony He prayed the longer” (Luke 22. 43).

O my Redeemer, through the intercession of Thy holy Mother and St. Jane de Chantal, enable me to resolve, first, to bear without complaining, not only external evils, but even the most overwhelming interior trials, and secondly, never to cease praying in the midst of feelings of disgust, sadness and in my combats. Make me constant and faithful in my spiritual exercises, that I may be so likewise in fervor and in striving after perfection.