Meditation for August 21, Detachment from Family Ties

St. Jane Frances de Chantal realized that God wanted her in the religious state and her wise director, Francis de Sales entertained no doubt about the reality of her call.

The Saint had lost her husband, but she had children who had not yet reached majority. Without doubt she provided for their maintenance, but the poor little ones did not understand at all; they wished to keep their mother near them. In vain did she use her most convincing, tenderest, gentlest and sweetest arguments. They opposed her departure with tears. The eldest, when he saw his mother absolutely resolved to go on, threw himself across the doorway, so that the saint had to step over the body of her child to leave the house.

From other souls, too, God has asked sacrifices which at first sight seem almost inhuman, and which certainly required the spe­cial assurance of His Will. Consider the example of Blessed Marie of the Incarnation, whose son came repeatedly to the parlor creat­ing a scene, even going so far as to assemble his classmates to sur­round the convent walls of the Ursulines at Tour where his mother had entered, and to make an uproar. Or for example, Marie Reparatrice, Emilie d'Oultremont, who left her three sons to give herself to God.

God only permits these exalted examples to give to us who are called upon to make the lesser sacrifices, a true sense of detach­ment from our families. There must be nothing rude surely. The counsels do not suppress the commandments, and the vows of reli­gion certainly do not prevent a deep love for our parents. But love of family should never cause us to violate our rule, and all cor­respondence, visits, and alms received, must be according to the rule and the spirit of our Institute.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)