During the past four centuries, the Visitation Order has spread
throughout the world. Today vocations
to Visitation are most plentiful in the Third World countries.
Please pray for an increase in vocations here in the United States
especially during this 400th jubilee year. In August we celebrate the
feast of our Lady of the Snows on the 5th and that of our Lady's
Assumption on the 15th. Very important for us Visitation
Sisters, we celebrate the feast of Jane de Chantal on August 12th.
Other feasts in August include the Transfiguration of our Lord on
the 6th, Maximilian Kolbe, a WWII martyr on the 14th, Bartholomew,
an apostle, on the 24th, and the mother and son team of Monica and
Augustine on the 27th and 28th. The biography of each one of
those saints is fascinating. Below are some Salesian
thoughts for reflection this month.
Weeks
of August 1-7:
"We have received all things from God, and
especially the supernatural blessings of holy love. If we
have received them, why do we take glory for them?" - St. Francis de Sales
"In the hands of God, the soul must become like clay
in the hands of a potter who from it can form any sort of dish,
or, if you like, the soul must become like soft wax, receptive to
the impression of a seal, or like a blank sheet upon which the
Holy Spirit writes His divine will."
- St. Jane de Chantal
Week
of August 8-14:
"Let us realize that the more we say the less
people remember. Therefore, we shall do well to receive all
graces and favors humbly because it is God's hand which fills
our hearts with them."
- St. Francis de Sales
"When entering upon prayer, let us
make ourselves a mere capacity for receiving the spirit of God.
This would suffice for all method. Prayer must be carried
on by grace, and not be deliberate art."
-St. Jane de Chantal
Week
of August 15-21:
"Mortification
and prayer are the two wings by which one may take one's flight into
those holy resting places in which one may find one's peace in God
far from the business of the marketplace."
- St. Jane de Chantal
"It is a better state of mind to distrust our own power of
resistance to temptation than to consider ourselves as sufficiently
strong and safe. We must take care that what we do not expect
from our strength we do expect from the grace of God. "
- St. Francis de Sales
Week
of August 22-28:
"We must not let ourselves think that by means of
mortification alone, without the aid of prayer, a soul will ever take
flight in order to raise itself to God. Penances without prayer
are useless pains; prayer without penance is food without salt which
easily goes stale. "
- St. Jane de Chantal
"When humility and meekness are good and true they
preserve us from the inflammation and swelling that injuries
usually cause in our hearts." - St. Francis de Sales
Week of
August 29-31:
"It is necessary to fit our souls with the wings of
prayer and mortification so that we may make our flight to the
heavenly court in which we may find contentment of soul in
conversation with our God." -St. Jane de Chantal
"If we reflect on what we did when God was not with
us, we will easily perceive that what we do when He is with us
is not the result of our own efforts. Glorify God because
He alone is its author."
-St. Francis de Sales
Week
of August 8-14:
Week
of August 15-21:
