Our Patroness

The concept of the cloistered heart can be said to have several "patrons," but one saint in particular serves as a primary role model.  Why?  Perhaps the following will help, at least a little, to answer that question....

St. Jane de Chantal was Francis de Sales' co-founder of the Visitation of Holy Mary.  Before becoming a nun, however, Jane was a young widow consulting St. Francis for spiritual direction.  At that time, she was a busy laywoman with four children to raise.  

Recognizing the desires of her heart, Francis de Sales directed Jane "in her growing intimacy and conformity to the signified will of God.  He even confirmed her in the practice of imaging her own spiritual world with monastic imagery.  For example, she took the Virgin Mary as the Abbess of the cloister of her own heart."  

(Wendy Wright, Joseph Power OSFS and Peronne Marie Thibert VHM, Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal, Letters of Spiritual Direction, Paulist, 1988, p. 41) 

"The spirit of God does not depend on retirement.  Rather it is a spirit that strengthens and perfects all occupations." - St. Jane de Chantal

"Ah, what a happiness to live thus in the world without sharing in its miserable affections and aims!"  - St. Jane de Chantal

"You must adhere to this practice of looking at God within you and it will absorb all others."  - St. Jane de Chantal

"Our Lord, in no place of Scripture, says... give Me thy head, thine arms, thy life, but only:  My child, give Me thy heart.  Whoso has a person's heart, has the entire person.  The heart is the seat of love.  When I shall have thy heart, I shall set My love upon it.  I will make My love dwell therein and then all the rest will follow as a consequence."  - St. Jane de Chantal

For more background on St. Jane, click this line

This is a repost from the archives of 5/24/13.

Go Forward...

Welcome, Breadbox Letters friends!

Long Speeches Not Needed

I write this on August 12, feast of St. Jane de Chantal. For more about this saint and co-foundress of the Visitation Order, click this link to the beautiful website of the Tyringham Visittion nuns. 

And hope the Sisters will not mind my sharing the following prayer. It is well worth spending time with today.

Prayer of Abandonment 

O sovereign goodness of the sovereign Providence of my God!
I abandon myself forever to Thy arms.
Whether gentle or severe,
lead me henceforth whither Thou wilt;
I will not regard the way through which Thou wilt have me pass,
but keep my eyes fixed upon Thee,
my God, who guidest me.
My soul finds no rest without the arms
and the bosom of this heavenly Providence,
my true Mother, my strength and my rampart.

Therefore I resolve with Thy Divine assistance,
0 my Saviour,
to follow Thy desires and Thy ordinances,
without regarding or examining why Thou dost this rather than that;
but I will blindly follow Thee
according to Thy Divine will,
without seeking my own inclinations.

Hence I am determined to leave all to Thee,
taking no part therein save by keeping myself in peace in Thy arms,
desiring nothing except as Thou incitest me to desire,
to will, to wish.
I offer Thee this desire, 0 my God,
beseeching Thee to bless it;
I undertake all it includes,
relying on Thy goodness,
liberality, and mercy,
with entire confidence in Thee,
distrust of myself,
and knowledge of my infinite misery and infirmity. Amen!'

St. Jane de Chantal

Shall We Be Happy?

This is Prayer

Rose photo by N. Shuman

Baking Prayer

Painting: Jean-François Millet

One Thing

Painting: Neroccio di Bartolomeo de' Landi, The Virgin and Child with Sts. Benedict and Catherine of Siena, 1490

Faithful in the Moments

In Your Interior Mansion

Our Place of Enclosure

'The Enclosure of a Cloistered Heart is within the will of God.  As a cloistered nun or monk lives within a specific area known as the cloister, we can make a specific choice to live within the will of God.  We can actively embrace the boundaries of God’s will as these are revealed in Scripture and Church teaching.'


© Nancy Shuman
thecloisteredheart.org  

Three Obedient Bees

The Feast of the Visitation is this coming Friday, May 31st.  It is a feast I love, for it celebrates an event embodying much of what I want to live as a "cloistered heart."

The Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary love this feast as well.  Certainly they do.  They take their name from the scene of the visitation, when our Blessed Mother visited Elizabeth because both had first been Visited (one uniquely) by God.

In 1610, St. Jane de Chantal and two others stepped into a little house in Annecy, France, and thus the Order of the Visitation began.  Just the three of them, gathering to serve God for one reason only:  He had called them.  They did not know the path ahead.  They were not thinking centuries into the future.  They came in simple obedience, to love, to adore, to serve.

These ladies were, said Bishop Francis de Sales,  "like three little bees in a beehive or three innocent doves in a nest."  "Looking upon them with great joy, he said 'you are blessed because the Lord has chosen you.  Your courage is great; God will be your King.'  He then handed over to Madame de Chantal a compendium of the constitution which he had composed for them and said, 'follow this path, my dearest daughter, and see that it is followed by all those whom Heaven has destined to walk in your footsteps.'" (from Every Day with St. Francis de Sales, Francis J.  Klauder SDB ed., Salesiana Publishers, 1985,p.  159)

403 years later, people still walk in the footsteps of these first three women.  I present the following  as "evidence" of this fact.  If you have any interest at all in nuns or in cloistered life (are you smiling yet?), I strongly encourage you to take a look at this 6-minute video.

Amazing, isn't it, what God can do with three obedient bees...? 



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More Fleeting Than a Shadow

'For certain, this life is only a phantom of life,
and its pleasures
only the shadows of pleasures....

'If pleasure is met with
here below,
it is more fleeting than a shadow,

'for the soul's true satisfaction
is to reach its goal,
which is God -
and this everlasting,
and most to be desired, eternity.'

St. Jane de Chantal

Painting: Lovis Corinth Schattenspiele 1891

Our Patroness

The concept of the cloistered heart can be said to have several "patrons," but one saint in particular serves as a primary role model.  Why?  Perhaps the following will help, at least a little, to answer that question....

St. Jane de Chantal was Francis de Sales' co-founder of the Visitation of Holy Mary.  Before becoming a nun, however, Jane was a young widow consulting St. Francis for spiritual direction.  At that time, she was a busy laywoman with four children to raise.  Recognizing the desires of her heart, Francis de Sales directed Jane "in her growing intimacy and conformity to the signified will of God.  He even confirmed her in the practice of imaging her own spiritual world with monastic imagery.  For example, she took the Virgin Mary as the Abbess of the cloister of her own heart."  
(Wendy Wright, Joseph Power OSFS and Peronne Marie Thibert VHM, Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal, Letters of Spiritual Direction, Paulist, 1988, p. 41) 

"The spirit of God does not depend on retirement.  Rather it is a spirit that strengthens and perfects all occupations." - St. Jane de Chantal

"Ah, what a happiness to live thus in the world without sharing in its miserable affections and aims!"  - St. Jane de Chantal

"You must adhere to this practice of looking at God within you and it will absorb all others."  - St. Jane de Chantal

"Our Lord, in no place of Scripture, says... give Me thy head, thine arms, thy life, but only:  My child, give Me thy heart.  Whoso has a person's heart, has the entire person.  The heart is the seat of love.  When I shall have thy heart, I shall set My love upon it.  I will make My love dwell therein and then all the rest will follow as a consequence."  - St. Jane de Chantal

For more background on St. Jane, click this line