Daily Thought For January 26, 2022

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 Tranquility of Heart

Saint Jane speaks to her Daughters on prayer, and on signs of true inspiration and holy indifference:

Do what the Lord counsels you. The souls who are prompt in following the divine inspirations are those whom the Eternal Father has prepared to be the spouses of his Beloved Son. We must go where inspiration urges us, without flinching. Having found the will of God in our vocation we remain lovingly in its practice. A good sign of a true inspiration, and more especially of an extraordinary inspiration, is tranquility of heart. Peace is inseparable from most holy humility. I speak of a humility that is noble, real, that reaches to the very marrow, is solid, supple to correction, pliable, and prompt to obedience. In a word, the three best marks of a legitimate inspiration are: perseverance against inconstancy and levity, a tranquil heart against anxiety and overeagerness, humble obedience against obstinacy and capriciousness.

In order to find out what is sound in a matter of inspiration, we should get the advice of a wise spiritual father, and if he fails, consult two or three spiritual persons. Then make a decision and in the name of God adhere to your resolve, taking heed to progress in it and to act up to it perseveringly.

Although difficulties, temptations, and the vicissitudes of events meet us in our progress, we must hold to our decision and not let them affect it, considering that if we had made another choice we should perhaps find it a hundred times worse. After we have made a decision with a devout mind we must no longer doubt the holiness of carrying it out. If we persevere in it, it will never fail us; to do otherwise is a mark of great self-love, childishness, or a shallow mind.

God, oftentimes, to exercise us in holy indifference, inspires us with great projects in which, however, he does not wish us to succeed. Thus, as we ought boldly, courageously, and perseveringly to begin and to continue the work as long as we are able, so must we gently and tranquilly acquiesce in the issue of the enterprise, whatever it may please God that it should be. Oh, how blessed are such souls, valiant and strong in undertaking the enterprise with which God inspires them, gentle and supple in laying it down when God so wills. Such are the marks of a very perfect indifference. We, on the contrary, wish that whatever we have undertaken should succeed; yet it is unreasonable to expect that God should do everything to our liking.

In a letter to M. Noël Brulart (Commandeur de Sillery) at a time when, due to strong opposition, he was forced to abandon afar-reaching work of charity, Saint Jane writes:

Our blessed Father used to say that we should with firm, unshakable, long-winded courage, without ever growing slack, pursue the good works committed to us by God so long as we see his holy will in them. But he said also that we should, if such were God’s good pleasure, cease the pursuit, and even more than that, if it did not succeed, sweetly and tranquilly abandon it altogether.

—Excerpts from conferences on prayer given to the Sisters of the Visitation; from a letter written to M. Noël Brulart (Commandeur de Sillery), July 18, 1638

De Chantal, J. F. (2011). A Simple Life: Wisdom from Jane Frances de Chantal (K. Hermes, Ed.; pp. 21–23). Pauline Books & Media.

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