Читать книгу Selected Letters of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal - Saint Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal - Страница 11

[A] This pious widow together with two other ladies made a journey to Annecy in 1613 in order to place themselves under the direction of St. Francis de Sales. On their return to Lyons all three petitioned the Archbishop, Mgr. de Marquemont, to establish a Monastery of the Visitation in that town. Before, however, acceding to their request he asked St. Francis the object of the new Order. The Saint at once replied: "To give God souls of prayer who will be so interior as to be found worthy to serve and adore His infinite Majesty in spirit and in truth. To the great Orders already established in the Church we leave the praiseworthy exercises and brilliant virtues by which they honour Our Lord. But I wish that the Religious of my Order should have no other ambition than to glorify Him by their lowliness, so that this little Institute of the Visitation may be as a dovecot of innocent doves whose care and employment will be to meditate on the law of the Lord without making itself seen or heard in the world, remaining hidden in the clefts of the Rock and the Hollow places of the wall there to give to their Beloved, as long as life shall last, proofs of sorrow and love by their lowly and humble sighing."

[B] St. Francis de Sales.