LETTERS TO MADAME DU TERTRE FROM ST. JANE DE CHANTAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LETTERS TO MADAME DU TERTRE FROM ST. JANE DE CHANTAL

(MARIE-AIMÉE DE MORVILLE)

 

Francis de Sales/Jane de Chantal: Classics of Western Spirituality

 

The correspondence with Marie-Aimée de Morville (1598— 1632) reveals Jane as a guide for those whose perspective is thoroughly "worldly. This young widow became the secular foundress of the Visitation of Moulins and took the religious habit as a result of familial pressure. Her case is one of the few examples of the reception of a candidate into the Visitation on other than purely spiritual grounds. Apparently, the young Madame du Tertre was relegated to the cloister to avoid the scandal raised by a romantic liaison following her widowhood. Her high-placed family, two cardinals and a leading Jesuit of the day, asked Francis de Sales to give her asylum in one of his monasteries . . .

 

She took the habit and was professed at Moulins. Although she professed a desire for the values of religious life, the ambivalent novice could not for a long time bring herself to conform her behavior to the code that such a life implied. She insisted on retaining for herself the privileges reserved for foundresses who had not received the habit, and continually enlarged her sphere of independent operation. She dressed grandly, entertained visitors in the elegantly appointed house she occupied on convent grounds, several times tried to set fire to the house, and stirred up rivalry between two towns by promising and then withholding money for a new foundation of the order, thus involving Jane and Francis (quite without their consent or knowledge) in awkward diplomatic machinations. She made life so difficult for the community that Jane was obliged to write her stern letters and even go to Moulins herself in 1623 to try to reason with her. The young woman solicited and obtained a papal brief granting her secularization. Jane encouraged her to do this, knowing that she was not in her place and upsetting the community. But Marie-Aimée's efforts to return to secular life were blocked by the Paris Parliament.

 

For thirteen years she troubled and taxed Jane's ingenuity and generosity. Then, fifteen months before her early death, she had a dream of such vividness that she underwent a dramatic conversion, tore up the document which had secured her privileges as foundress and entered the novitiate with sincere heart and intentions she clung to tenaciously for the brief remainder of her life.

 

 

 

[Annecy, 8 June 1632) I have just come from holy communion, my dearest daughter, where I praised and thanked God who in His Infinite Goodness was pleased to call you back to Him so powerfully. begged Him with all my heart to hold you securely in His hands so that nothing could ever again draw you away from Him. For this, in all humility, I count on His grace and your faithful cooperation, my dear. I am confident that in the goodness of your dear heart you will never forget such abundant mercy. Think often of the sacred counsels given by the Princes of the Apostles, for they frequently exhort us in their letters to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, and to assure our vocation by good works.

 

Dearest daughter, it seems to me that the experience of your past misery should keep you in holy fear of falling again and make you very watchful over yourself, in order to avoid all dangerous occasions, especially those which have been most harmful, such as conversations, confidences, affections, contact with people from the outside, even with spiritual persons, except for rare and necessary occasions. You would be happiest if you could be satisfied with the instruction of your good Mother [M. Angélique de Bigny] who, besides her capabilities and charity, has a special love for you. And I think that the tears she has shed over you, the fasts, austerities and prayers that she has offered for you, have touched the Divine Heart and helped bring about your conversion. I'm sure that God will show her all that is necessary for your happiness. Never doubt that through her, His goodness will guide you safely. I am convinced that whoever gives up following the guidance of her Superior stops following that of God as well.

 

Finally, dearest, I want you to apply yourself to doing rather than learning. In the Institute, we have a wealth of the most solid instructions that we could ever wish for and which are uniquely suited to lead us to the very high perfection our vocation calls us to. From now on, let your joy be to read and practice these instructions faithfully. I beg you to do this, my dearest Sister, so that by these means you may offer to the Divine Goodness fruit worthy of the graces He has given you, and, by the exact observance of your vows, inspire the whole Institute by your true conversion. This will make up for all the sorrow and humiliation the Institute suffered by your past disorderly life, and we shall be greatly consoled, especially I who even now am comforted by the acts you have so generously performed. It would be impossible for me to harbor the least resentment toward you, my dearest daughter, for the past. You may be sure that I hold you in the very center of my heart, where I want to love you perfectly as my own most dear daughter. Know that you will receive from me, and from the whole Institute, only love and proofs of sincere affection.

 

I think it would be good if in a few months, persevering in your good resolutions, you let the whole Institute know in a few humble words the sorrow you feel for your misdeeds of the past. You did well, dearest daughter, to give your heart and your entire being unreservedly to God; you will see that His Providence will not fail you and that He will never allow you to want for anything.

St Anthony Mary Claret

 

St Anthony Mary Claret

The love of Christ drives us on

Driven by the fire of the Holy Spirit, the holy apostles travelled throughout the earth. Inflamed with the same fire, apostolic missionaries have reached, are now reaching and will continue to reach the ends of the earth, from one pole to the other, in order to proclaim the word of God. They are deservedly able to apply to themselves those words of the apostle Paul: The love of Christ drives us on.

  The love of Christ arouses us, urges us to run, and to fly, lifted on the wings of holy zeal. The man who truly loves God also loves his neighbor. The truly zealous man is also one who loves, but he stands on a higher plane of love so that the more he is inflamed by love, the more urgently zeal drives him on. But if anyone lacks this zeal, then it is evident that love and charity have been extinguished in his heart. The zealous man desires and achieves all great things and he labors strenuously so that God may always be better known, loved and served in this world and in the life to come, for this holy love is without end.

  Because he is concerned also for his neighbor, the man of zeal works to fulfil his desire that all men be content on this earth and happy and blessed in their heavenly homeland, that all may be saved, and that no one may perish forever, or offend God, or remain even for a moment in sin. Such are the concerns we observe in the holy apostles and in all who are driven by the apostolic spirit.

  For myself, I say this to you: The man who burns with the fire of divine love is a son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and wherever he goes, he enkindles that flame; he desires and works with all his strength to inflame all men with the fire of God’s love. Nothing deters him: he rejoices in poverty; he labors strenuously; he welcomes hardships; he laughs off false accusations; he rejoices in anguish. He thinks only of how he might follow Jesus Christ and imitate him by his prayers, his labors, his sufferings, and by caring always and only for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

From the treatise On the Nature of God by Saint Albert the Great.

 

From the treatise On the Nature of God by Saint Albert the Great.

 

The Word of the Father increased, not diminished, the virginity of his mother.

 

The Blessed Virgin is called the morning star because the morning of   grace has dawned in her, and she is among the clouds which usually rise in the morning. The cloud that the Blessed Virgin scatters is threefold namely, the cloud of sin, the cloud of sorrow, and the cloud of error. First she scatters by interceding for sinners, the second by pouring consolation on those who suffer, and the third by revealing the truth. She shines like the full moon, whose light is not diminished but increases and

remains continuously diffusing the light of grace to all who are in darkness and in the shadow of death. And like the shining sun she both sheds the warmth of piety and in her goodness melts all rational creatures in order to mold them anew. But this is not sufficient for her praise. Indeed, she is more beautiful than the sun and excels every constellation of the stars.  Compared with the light she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against Mary, the star of the sea, evil does not prevail.

 

This star of light alone so guides us even in darkness that a little old woman may sometimes contemplate what the learned do not grasp, because the learned scorn to make their intellects captive and bring their minds submission to God. And this is symbolized, when the ass reproves the prophet, for the ass and not the prophet recognized the angel of God and the will of God. Thus. according to the Sentences of Peter Lombard, through a mute beast of burden God rebuked the foolishness of the prophet. This still happens when an unlearned person serves under the yoke of Christ, mute as to the

the rhetorical and polished language that comes from a knowledge of the arts, and rebukes by word and example the doctors who from the summit of their science know how to examine the heights of heaven as well as the depths of the abyss.

 

She is a star because "like a ray from a heavenly body the Virgin brought forth her Son in a similar way. For a star does not lose its integrity from its ray, nor did the Mother from her Son." So great is the difference between the birth of heavenly bodies and earthly bodies that the terrestrial in giving birth lose their integrity, the heavenly do not. For no matter how rays of light a star puts forth, the star is not marred nor is its light teen to diminish. Thus, the Word of the Father, the ray of eternal light, a brilliant and spotless mirror of the clarity of the Father, brought fecundity to the mother, but did not take away her virginity. The light of her virginity increased, it did not diminish. Without a doubt nothing will be impossible with God. For he who walked on the waves of the sea without immersing his body, who came forth from the tomb without breaking the seal on the done which we read was rolled back by an angel not by the Lord, and who entered the room with the disciples while the doors were locked, was also Able to be born of a virgin mother without breaking the cloister of her virginal chastity. Thus the aforesaid star, the Blessed Virgin, has risen out  Jacob, because like a rose springing from a root and branch of thorns, thus she herself from the thorny people of the synagogue consented to the lord's birth.

 

Or we may say that we are that thorny people who have been bloodied by the thorn of sin, or by our very ignorance of the thorn; but as the thorn brings forth a rose so we from our nature brought forth Mary. Therefore, it said: As a lily among thorns so is my beloved among the maidens. She is called a lily, not that she is not a rose, but that the totality of her virtue may be understood. For she is the rose of patience amidst the pricking of thorns Ind the lily of chastity blooming in the field of our nature, which field is accustomed to bring forth the poisons and nettles of an alluring concupiscence. But through this star a shoot arose from Israel, that is, the power and the rule of Christ: A shoot shall spring from the stump of Jesse, und a branch will sprout from his roots. From Jesse the Lord has sprung In the flesh, but not by the power of human generation, no matter how powerful the fire of the human spirit. For he was born by the power of the Holy Spirit, not from Jesse' s substance, for the name Jesse is interpreted as "fire. "

St. John of Capistrano

 

"Capistrano" redirects here. For other uses, see Capistrano (disambiguation).

Saint John of Capistrano O.F.M.
Illumination depicting St. John of Capistrano (c. 1470)
Confessor
Born	24 June 1386 Capestrano, Abruzzi, Kingdom of Naples
Died	23 October 1456 (aged 70) Ilok, Syrmia, Kingdom of Hungary
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	16 October 1690 (Liturgy); 4 June 1724 (Bull), Rome by Pope Alexander VIII and Pope Benedict XIII respectively
Feast	23 October; 28 March (General Roman Calendar, 1890–1969)
Patronage	Jurists, Belgrade and Hungary

John of Capistrano, OFM (Italian: San Giovanni da Capestrano, Hungarian: Kapisztrán János, Polish: Jan Kapistran, Croatian: Ivan Kapistran; 24 June 1386 – 23 October 1456) was a Franciscan friar and Catholic priest from the Italian town of Capestrano, Abruzzo. Famous as a preacher, theologian, and inquisitor, he earned himself the nickname "the Soldier Saint" when in 1456 at age 70 he led a Crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire at the siege of Belgrade with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi.

Elevated to sainthood, he is the patron saint of jurists and military chaplains, as well as the namesake of two Franciscan missions, one in Southern California and the other in San Antonio, Texas.

Early life

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As was the custom of this time, John is denoted by the village of Capestrano, in the Diocese of Sulmona, in the Abruzzi region, Kingdom of Naples. His father had come to Italy with the Angevin court of Louis I of Anjou, titular King of Naples. He studied law at the University of Perugia.^[1]

In 1412, King Ladislaus of Naples appointed him Governor of Perugia, a tumultuous and resentful papal fief held by Ladislas as the pope's champion, in order to effectively establish public order. When war broke out between Perugia and the House of Malatesta in 1416, John was sent as ambassador to broker a peace, but the Malatestas threw him in prison. It was during this imprisonment that he began to study theology. When he was released, he decided to become a Franciscan friar,^[2] citing a dream where Saint Francis of Assisi ordered him to enter the Order. He had married before the war, but asserted that the marriage was never consummated and received permission to take holy orders.

Friar and preacher

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Together with James of the Marches, John entered the Order of Friars Minor at Perugia on 4 October 1416. Along with James, he studied theology at Fiesole, near Florence,^[3] under Bernardine of Siena.^[1] He soon gave himself up to the most rigorous asceticism, violently defending the ideal of strict observance and orthodoxy,^[4] following the example set by Bernardine. From 1420 onwards, he preached with great effect in numerous cities and eventually became well known. He was ordained in 1425.

Unlike most Italian preachers of repentance in the 15th century, John was effective in northern and central Europe– in German states of Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and the Kingdom of Poland. The largest churches could not hold the crowds, so he preached in the public squares; at Brescia in Italy, he preached to a crowd of 126,000.^[1]

Reformer

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San Giovanni di Capistrano, by Santi Buglioni c. 1550

When he was not preaching, John was writing tracts against heresy of every kind. This facet of his life is covered in great detail by his early biographers, Nicholas of Fara, Christopher of Varese and Girlamo of Udine. While he was thus evangelizing, he was actively engaged in assisting Bernardine of Siena in the reform of the Franciscan Order, largely in the interest of a more rigorous discipline in the Franciscan communities.^[3] Like Bernardine, he strongly emphasized devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, and, together with Bernardine, was accused of heresy on this account. In 1429, these Observant friars were called to Rome to answer charges of heresy, and John was chosen by his companions to speak for them. They were both acquitted by the Commission of Cardinals appointed to judge the accusations.

He was frequently deployed to embassies by Popes Eugene IV and Nicholas V: in 1439, he was sent as legate to Milan and Burgundy, to oppose the claims of the Antipope Felix V; in 1446, he was on a mission to the King of France; in 1451 he went at the request of the emperor as Apostolic Nuncio to Austria. During the period of his nunciature, John visited all parts of the Empire. As legate, or inquisitor, he persecuted the last Fraticelli of Ferrara, the Jesuati of Venice, the Crypto-Jews of Sicily, Moldavia and Poland, and, above all, the Hussites of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia; his aim in the last case was to make talks impossible between the representatives of Rome and Bohemian "Hussite king" George of Podiebrad, for every attempt at conciliation seemed to him to be conniving at heresy.^[4]

He also worked for the reform of the Order of Friars Minor. He upheld, in his writings, speeches and sermons, theories of papal supremacy rather than the theological wranglings of councils (see Conciliar Movement).^[4] John, together with his teacher, Bernardine, his colleague, James of the Marche, and Albert Berdini of Sarteano, are considered the four great pillars of the Observant reform among the Friars Minor.^[5]

The Soldier Priest

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The saint's coat of arms, with a sword piercing a crescent moon, on the Papal Ombrellino at Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano.

Reconstructed Coat of arms of John of Capistrano

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Empire, under Sultan Mehmed II, threatened Christian Europe. That following year Pope Callixtus III sent John, who was already aged 70, to preach a Crusade against the invading Ottomans at the Imperial Diet of Frankfurt. Gaining little response in Bavaria and Austria, he decided to concentrate his efforts in Hungary. By July 1456, Capistrano managed to raise a large, albeit poorly trained force made up of peasants and local countryside landlords, with which he advanced towards Belgrade which was under siege by Turkish forces. Though poorly equipped they were highly motivated. Capistrano and John Hunyadi traveled together, though commanding the army separately. Between them, they had gathered around 40,000–50,000 troops altogether.

Hunyadi managed to break the naval blockade on the Danube, and breach the siege, bringing reinforcements and supplies to the city. By some accounts, the peasant soldiers started a spontaneous action, and forced Capistrano and Hunyadi to take advantage of it. Despite Hunyadi's orders to the defenders not to try to loot the Ottoman positions, some of the units crept out from demolished ramparts, took up positions across from the Ottoman line, and began harassing enemy soldiers. Ottoman Sipahis tried without success to disperse the harassing force. As more defenders joined those outside the wall, what began as an isolated incident quickly escalated into a full-scale battle.

John of Capistrano at first tried to order his men back inside the walls, but soon found himself surrounded by about 2,000 peasant levymen. He then began leading them toward the Ottoman rear across the Sava river. At the same time, Hunyadi started a desperate charge out of the fort to take the cannon positions in the Ottoman encampment. In the aftermath of a fierce battle, the Ottomans withdrew and retreated under cover of darkness; the siege was lifted. His involvement led to Capistrano being called "the Soldier Priest". Although he survived the battle, John fell victim to the bubonic plague, which flourished in the unsanitary conditions prevailing among armies of the day. He died on 23 October 1456^[3] at the nearby town of Ilok (now a Croatian border town on the Danube).

Sainthood and feast day

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The year of John of Capistrano's canonization was liturgically celebrated 16 October 1690 by Pope Alexander VIII. The Bull of Canonization, Rationis Congruit, was published on 4 June 1724 by Pope Benedict XIII.^[13]

In 1890, his feast day was included for the first time in the General Roman Calendar and assigned to 28 March.^[14] In 1969, Pope Paul VI moved his feast day to 23 October, the day of his death. Where Mass and the Office are said according to the 1962 Roman Missal and its concomitant calendar, his feast day remains on March 28.

 

Telluris ingens

Telluris ingens conditor (Gregorius Magnus?)

Meter: 8.8.8.8

Melody: d f g g f a g g

• File:198 Telluris ingens.mp3 H.D, p. 198

Latinam Tellúris ingens cónditor, mundi solum qui éruens, pulsis aquæ moléstiis, terram dedíst(i) immóbilem, Ut germen aptum próferens, fulvis decóra flóribus, fecúnda fructu sísteret pastúmque gratum rédderet: Mentis perústæ vúlnera munda viróre grátiæ, ut facta fletu díluat motúsque pravos átterat, Iussis tuis obtémperet, nullis malis appróximet, bonis repléri gáudeat et mortis actum néscciat. Præsta, Pater piísime, Patríque compar Unice, cum Spíritu Paráclito regnans per omne sæculum. Amen.

English Great Creator of the globe, who dug the foundation of the earth, from troubled knocking of the sea, you gave (to us) the solid land. As bringing forth the chosen seed, the graces with the golden flowers, his bounty would 'stablísh fecund and freely offer sustenance. The refreshed wounds of parchéd mind (now newly) greened for grace, that deeds by tears he wash away and coarse impulse away. Complies it with your (true) command, never to near to evil, may he rejoice fill'd with His goods not knowing death's dark deeds. Grant (now) O most devoted Father, and Only Equal of the Father, who with the Spirit Paraclete reigning in every age. Amen.

BLESSING OF A ROSARY

BLESSING OF A ROSARY

To begin, the celebrant says: Lord, show us your mercy and love
All reply: And grant us your salvation

As circumstances suggest, the celebrant may begin with an explanation of the blessing.

Someone reads a text of sacred Scripture, such as the following.

Lk 2:51b-52
Mary, his mother, kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

or

Acts 1:14
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

With his hands outstretched, the celebrant says the prayer of blessing:

Blessed be our God and Father,
who has given us the mysteries of his Son
to be pondered with devotion
and celebrated with faith.
May he grant us, his faithful people,
that by praying the rosary we may,
with Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
seek to keep his joys, sorrows,
and glories in our minds and hearts.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

Lucis Creator Optime

 

Lucis Creator Optime is a 5th-century Latin Christian hymn variously attributed to St Gregory the Great or Saint Ambrose. It takes its title from its incipit.

In modern usage, it is commonly known in English translation as "O Blest Creator of the Light", and may be sung to a number of different settings.

History

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The authorship of Lucis Creator Optime is uncertain; the hymn has been attributed to St Gregory the Great or Saint Ambrose. Historian Franz Mone identified it in 8th-century manuscripts from Darmstadt and Trier and considered it to be an early 5th-century work, while other scholars have dated it as a much later work.^[1]

The hymn is found in 11th-century English hymnaries held at the British Museum and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and in an 11th C Spanish breviary.^[1]

Lucis Creator Optime was sung as the first hymn for Sunday Vespers in monasteries.^[2]

In the Roman Breviary, Lucis Creator Optime is set for Vespers on Sundays after Epiphany and Sundays after Pentecost. In the Liturgy of the Hours the hymn is set for Sunday evening Vespers for the first and third weeks in Ordinary time.^[3]

Text and translations

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Latin text

Lucis creator optime,
lucem dierum proferens,
primordiis lucis novae,
mundi parans originem.

Qui mane junctum vesperi,
diem vocari praecipis,
illabitur tetrum chaos,
audi preces cum fletibus.

Ne mens gravata crimine,
vitae sit exsul munere,
dum nil perenne cogitat,
seseque culpis illigat.

Caeleste pulset ostium,
vitale tollat praemium,
vitemus omne noxium,
purgemus omne pessimum.

Praesta Pater piissime,
Patrique compar unice,
cum Spiritu paraclito,
regnans per omne saeculum.

English translation by John Henry Newman

Father of Lights, by whom each day
Is kindled out of night,
Who, when the heavens were made, didst lay
Their rudiments in light;

Thou, who didst bind and blend in one
The glistening morn and evening pale,
Hear Thou our plaint, when light is gone,
And lawlessness and strife prevail.

Hear, lest the whelming weight of crime
Wreck us with life in view;
Lest thoughts and schemes of sense and time
Earn us a sinner's due.

So may we knock at Heaven's door,
And strive the immortal prize to win,
Continually and evermore
Guarded without and pure within.

Grant this, O Father, Only Son,
And Spirit, God of grace,
To whom all worship shall be done
In every time and place.