August 12th is the feast day of St. Jane de Chantal, wife, widow, young mother, friend, founder, and saint.
Like the valiant wife and mother of Proverbs, St. Jane was a woman whose feet were very firmly planted on the earth. Hers was a practical, “sleeves rolled up” love that manifested itself in the many vocational stages of her life.
As a young mother, for example, she treasured each of her children and worked tirelessly to care and provide for them. She fed, caressed and coaxed them; she taught them values and how to succeed in life, always showering them with abundant doses of motherly love and tender, even playful affection. That same robust love opened a soup kitchen for the poor right in her own backyard. There, in imitation of the example of the woman in Proverbs, she reached out her hands to the poor and extended her arms to the needy.
Later, as Foundress, her hands-on love spared nothing of herself in order to guide with wisdom and nourish with “Salesian bread” those women who had bravely followed her into a new expression of religious life. She welcomed each sister’s unique personality into the remarkable fabric which formed the foundational years of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary.
Even during the spiritual crucible of more than four decades of a dark night of the soul, Jane founded many monasteries, while offering spiritual guidance, advice, and encouragement to all sorts of people both inside and outside of the Order. And after the untimely death of her friend, mentor, and co-founder, St. Francis de Sales, she wisely helped to shape their shared vision into the spiritual legacy that has come to be known as Salesian spirituality.
Despite a very busy life, Jane faithfully dedicated herself each day to prayer. In prayer, the transforming love of God became the source of her incredible spiritual and physical energy, her “can-do love,” that greatly enhanced, ennobled, and bettered people and the world around her. From daily prayer before God into a busy life of service to others --this is how that remarkable woman lived out the double commandment of love. The quiet center of daily prayer, in which she came in touch with the love of God dwelling deep within her, gave birth to the self-less way she lived for others.
What can we learn from Jane de Chantal? Most of you reading this reflection probably have a very busy day ahead of you. Take a moment, however brief, to prayerfully dedicate this day to the Lord. Then move unhurriedly into your day, bringing the fruit of your prayer into the many encounters and events, large and small, foreseen and unforeseen, that lie before you. Occasionally throughout the day, as you catch your breath, pause to recall the presence of the Lord and rededicate yourself to whatever he asks of you next. In this way, you will see that each day becomes a prayer!
There is much we can learn from Jane de Chantal, that large-hearted wife, widow, mother, friend, founder, and saint!
Rev. Lewis Fiorelli, OSFS
Provincial, Wilmington-Philadelphia Province
