The Morning After

To St. Francis de Sales

Vive Jesus!

Annecy, 1614

I write because I cannot refrain from doing so; for this morning I am more wearisome to myself than usual. My interior state is so gravely defective that, in anguish of spirit, I see myself giving way on every side. Assuredly, my good Father, I am almost overwhelmed by this abyss of misery. The presence of God, which was formerly such a delight to me, now makes me tremble all over and shudder with fear. I bethink myself that the divine eye of Him whom I adore, with entire submission, pierces right through my soul looking with indignation upon all my thoughts, words and works. Death itself, it seems to me, would be less painful to bear than the distress of mind which this occasions, and I feel as if all things had power to harm me.

I am afraid of everything; I live in dread, not because of harm to myself, but because I fear to displease God. Oh, how far away His help seems! Thinking of this I spent last night in great bitterness and could utter no other words than these, "My God, my God, alas! Why hast Thou forsaken me." At daybreak God gave me a little light in the highest part of my soul, yet only there; but it was almost imperceptible; nor did the rest of my soul and its faculties share the enjoyment, which lasted only about the time of half a Hail Mary, then, trouble rushed back upon me with a mighty force, and all was darkness.

Not withstanding the weariness of this dereliction, I said, though in utter dryness, "Do, Lord, whatever is pleasing to Thee, I wish it. Annihilate me, I am content. Overwhelm me, I most sincerely desire it. Tear out, cut, burn, do just as Thou pleasest, I am Thine." God has shown me that He does not make much account of faith that comes of sentiment and emotions. This is why, though against my inclination, I never wish for sensible devotion. I do not desire it. God is enough for me. Notwithstanding my absolute misery I hope in Him, and I trust He will continue to support me so that His will may be accomplished in me. Take my feeble heart into your hands, my true Father and Lord, and do what you see to be wisest with it.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal

*From "Selected letters of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal"

Feast! St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Hello and happy St. Jane Frances de Chantal feast day! Wow, that is a mouth full. Should I have chosen a patron saint with a shorter name? Nah, St. Jane Frances de Chantal is awesome!

We started school this week so I haven't been able to blog as much during my St. Jane Frances de Chantal celebration week but still, yay! This is my first time celebrating her feast day, I converted during Easter Vigil 2016 so it's been awesome having her feast come relatively soon after that. lol

I've talked before about how SJFdC isn't one of the "cool kids" so there's not blog posts and pages and books about ways to celebrate her feast days but will that stop me? NO. lol So here are some ideas I had:

-Being that she was French, anything French! I admit, I might just go the route of "easy" and make French toast for dinner. Listen, it's a start!

-SJFdC had a devotion to the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart so I lucked out there. Very easy to incorporate ideas utilizing those and honoring St. Jane Frances de Chantal! Like:

Sacred Heart egg toast

AND

Sacred Heart cheesecake

AND

Sacred Heart cupcakes

Actually, those cupcakes look pretty good. Maybe tonight's dinner will be French toast AND cupcakes. My kids will love me! lol

Hopefully by next year I will have even more ideas to celebrate my patron saint's feast day. Until, then...St. Jane Frances de Chantal, pray for us! <3

A Saint With No Schwag

Hello everyone and welcome to another post honoring one of my favorite saints: St. Jane Frances de Chantal! Her feast day is August 12th and since this will be my first August 12th as a Catholic (haha) and St. Jane Frances is my patron saint, I'm celebrating blog style!

Although I was introduced to St. Therese WAY before being Catholic was on my radar (about 15 years before) and I have a special love for her, I decided to find a lesser known saint as my patron. There is something neat about having a patron saint that not everyone has picked. Maybe it's because I can beg more of their attention? lol

But there is a downside. Saints that aren't one of the "in crowd" get less books written about them, there's less information available about their lives, fewer paintings/pictures, and practically NO schwag. And if I'm being honest, schwag is one of my favorite Catholic things.

My St. Jane Frances rosary, one of the only things I've tracked down

So as much as I adore St. Jane Frances de Chantal, there's not a lot out there. But being a creative person, that hasn't stopped me. lol I started playing with a drawing app on my phone and decided to sketch out something to make a St. Jane Frances peg doll:

Listen, I never said I could draw. LOL The finished product is simple but now I have a St. Jane Frances de Chantal peg doll so there's that. lol

I was chatting with Tiffany about chaplets that are dedicated to particular saints. My main question being: what the heck do you do when one of your favorites doesn't have a specific chaplet or even a novena. Is it okay to create your own?

You probably don't know this about me, but I LOVE missions. As in, there's an out of print book that costs a ton on the secondary market? I WILL track that book down and I WILL NOT pay that much for it. You say that my patron saint doesn't have a specific chaplet all their own? I BEG TO DIFFER I WILL FIND IT. Well, in this case, maybe not BUT I'm starting to think it's possible to put something together. There might not be a ton of information about St. Jane Frances de Chantal but she did have a love for the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart so I think that's going to be my jumping off point.

I think I've lost the point of this post...hmmm...

At any rate, even those saints that don't come with ready made "schwag" can be celebrated and we can create ways to remember them and honor them. It's been an interesting challenge and I look forward to creating more ways to spotlight St. Jane Frances de Chantal. :D

St. Jane Frances de Chantal Novena!

Hello everyone!

Tiffany and Cristina from Planned Not Scripted put together a little group to pray a St. Jane France de Chantal novena together and I am SO.HAPPY.

And it starts today!

We'll be praying together until her feast day on August 12th, please join us!

Sister, Mentor, Mother: St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Hello everyone!

The feast day for St. Jane Frances de Chantal is coming up (August 12th) and since she is my patron saint, I thought I'd post {almost} daily about her, why I picked her and how it is having a saint that's not one of the "popular kids". :P I'll also be praying a St. Jane Frances de Chantal novena leading up to her feast day, please join me! :D

IMAGE

It was difficult choosing just one patron saint, and I know that you're allowed to enjoy or have affection for multiple saints but I really wanted one special saint that I could learn about and call on, a sort of "One Saint to Rule Them All" if you will.

I'm not even sure how I discovered St. Jane Frances de Chantal. I knew I wanted a woman, I wanted someone that I could learn from but that was also human i.e. NOT PERFECT. And I know that no saint is perfect but I am really intrigued by the brokenness...or rather, rising above your brokenness and discovering God. Sometimes it's difficult to remember that they didn't become saints until after they died. You can get so discouraged thinking I MUST BE PERFECT AND MUST NOT LOSE MY S$%t. Which I think is a guilt women already place on themselves but add some saint being all "saintly" and the pressure is enormous. But maybe that's just me... *ahem*

So originally I found this post and I really love it although I'm not sure of the accuracy. But I really, really want her friend to have said, "Even stupid jokes were funny when she told then," about her. Humor and laughter, especially of the "stupid" variety, is HUGE with me, and as soon as I read that, I was sold. Of course, when someone lived in the 1500s/1600s and wasn't super famous and no one was recording every minute of their lives, you do wonder how much is actually what happened but in this case, I choose to believe that she was hilarious.

Most accounts record that she was a mother, a wife, and talented at budgeting and running a household efficiently. Well, I'm with her on the first two, at least. :P So here was a woman that I felt I could relate to, she had experienced the same place in life that I am experiencing now, with all of its delights and frustrations, but also a woman that I thought I could learn from...both a sister and a mentor.

She dealt with frustrating people, circumstances, spiritual dryness, days full of night, while never abandoning her faith. She accepted the rejected. Another hot topic for me, although you might be rejected by anyone and everyone, God NEVER rejects you. That one, along with self love, has been a tough one for me to accept.

There's comfort in reading: "Don't commit the sin of hating yourself when you have done nothing wrong." Another thing I really hope she actually said.

Being a good wife and mother, running a household, accepting others, forgiving others, forgiving yourself, experiencing grief and coming out the other side a stronger, more faithful person, having faith when inside you're screaming something different, to lose ourselves in the "Ocean of the divine goodness".

Sounds like my kind of saint.

"Should you fall even fifty times a day, never on any account should that surprise or worry you. Instead, ever so gently set your heart back in the right direction and practice the opposite virtue, all the time speaking words of love and trust to our Lord after you have committed a thousand faults, as much as if you had committed only one. Once we have humbled ourselves for the faults God allows us to become aware of in ourselves, we must forget them and go forward."

Baptism!

Since I converted this past Easter Vigil and my girls had not been previously baptized, it was time to get them caught up. lol So this past June they were baptized!

We were lucky to get to this point. Turns out, you need at least one godparent to be Catholic and since I'm the ONLY Catholic in my family, this was somewhat of a challenge for us to say the least. lol I remember telling the Faith Formation director, "Sooooooo what happens if I can't find a Catholic?" LOL They were cool about it and in the end, we DID find the perfect Catholic godfather so it all worked out. :D

The Deacon got a kick out of them, I think we were the liveliest of the bunch (but we were surrounded by babies so...lol). It was a lovely morning...

Why I Veil

So, as you may have surmised from my "About Me" page, I wear a veil to Mass:

Funny enough, my daughter started the whole thing. She noticed a friend of mine wearing one and asked her about it who in turn gave her a veil and she's been wearing it ever since. NO one else in our parish wears one, at least not at the service we attend. lol But that hasn't stopped my daughter from wanting to wear hers, she's been wearing it for months and she looked so lovely that I decided to get one (or a bunch, I sort of went nuts and bought a few colors...*ahem* lol).

Obviously, I'm no theologian and I think the choice to veil or not is a personal one and whether or not you do isn't the point. I'd like to say that I prayed about it, did some in depth research, consulted high ranking smart people that know things, and then made a spiritual decision based on heavy conviction that this was something I was suppose to do.

But honestly, it just makes me feel good to wear a veil during Mass. It makes going to Mass that much more special. Sort of like, I'm showing Him that I think being in His presence is meaningful and I want to mark the occasion.