The Spirit of St. Francis de SalesCamus, Jean-Pierre
Religion
The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales
Camus, Jean-Pierre
Christian life -- Catholic authors; Devotional literature
What our Blessed Father dreaded for the Institute was what happens to those
Institutes which fail in exactitude of observance. And he often quoted
Saint Bernard's saying that though devotion had given birth to riches,
these unnatural daughters had stifled their mother. Whenever he heard of
any House established in his time beginning to complain of want of comforts
or conveniences he would say: "One day they will have only too many."
All his letters are full of exhortations to put up with discomforts, and
to lean upon Providence, casting all care upon God, Who feeds the young
ravens, satisfies the hunger of all flesh, and fills every living creature
with blessings. Wealth, not poverty, was what he feared for his Order. This
is what he says in the Constitutions: "For the more perfect observance of
the holy virtue of poverty, when once the buildings of the convents are
finished, the revenues shall be limited according to the place where each
convent is situated, to the end that even in this a proper mean may be
kept, and that there be no superfluity of goods in the Community, but only
a fair sufficiency, and when this is once attained nothing further shall
be taken for the reception of the Sisters coming to it, but what shall
be requisite to keep up and maintain well the just competency of the
convent."[1]
And in the letter which he wrote to the most Serene Infanta, Margaret of
Sovoy, Dowager Duchess of Mantua, to invite her to take this Congregation
under her protection, he says:
"This Congregation does not solicit alms, but is established in such a
manner that the ladies who enter it give a dowry in order to maintain
the buildings, the sacristy, the chaplain, and to defray the expenses of
illness, etc., either by means of a regular and perpetual income, or by
some other way which cannot injure anyone or interfere in any possible
manner with the payment of the taxes and subsidies due to his most Serene
Highness the Duke. I hope also that the above-mentioned Congregation will
in a few years' time be endowed with revenues sufficient for the support
of the Community, Thus widows without children, and young girls who desire
to serve God in chastity, obedience, and poverty, will have every facility
for entering it, since they will be received without any other payment than
that of a dowry or pension provided by their family for their support."
[Footnote 1: Constitution 5.]
HIS DEFENCE OF HIS NEW CONGREGATION OF THE VISITATION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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