FROM ASCENSION TO PENTECOST: A MINI-RETREAT IN THE SPIRIT OF STS. LOUISE and VINCENT 

In 1623, Louise de Marillac (Mademoiselle LeGras) was in a state of inner turmoil. She deeply desired to serve God and her neighbor more fully, but could not see clearly where God was leading her. As she prayed during Mass on Pentecost, she received a great grace – she called it her lumière – that freed her from all doubt. She understood that she was to remain with her ailing husband until another way would open for her, all in God’s own time.

From then on, Louise regarded the period between Ascension and Pentecost as a time of special grace. She encouraged her Sisters to make a retreat during this time of waiting and praying for the Holy Spirit to come in fullness.

Following are quotes from Sts. Louise and Vincent for each of the eleven days between Ascension and Pentecost. May their words stir up the desires of our hearts to be open to the Spirit’s transforming grace.  Come, Holy Spirit!

Day 1:

Do not be concerned whether or not you experience any consolation; God wants only our hearts. -St. Louise (SWLM:679 [L.40])

            Try to live content among your reasons for discontent. – St. Vincent (CCD:I:54)

Day 2:

I must have great trust in God and believe that His grace will be sufficient to enable me to fulfill His holy will, however difficult it may appear to be, provided the Holy Spirit is truly calling me. I shall know this by listening to the advice which He will permit me to receive. -St. Louise (SWLM:716 [A.5]))

Entrust yourself confidently to His guidance and prepare your own guidance for all sorts of events in order to make good use of any that will be unfavorable to you. I have no doubt that you will experience some. – St. Vincent (CCD:IV:290)

 

Day 3:

I must…labor diligently, O my soul, to …let the grace, with which the Holy Spirit wills to fill all the powers of my being, act in me. -St. Louise (SWLM:818 [A.26]).

If God is the center of your life, no words will be needed. Your mere presence will touch their hearts. – St. Vincent (CCD:XII:15)

 

Day 4:

I felt interiorly moved freely to place myself in a disposition of total availability…I must perseveringly await the coming of the Holy Spirit although I do not know when that will be. I must accept this uncertainty, as well as my inability clearly to perceive at this time the path which God wishes me to follow in His service. I must abandon myself entirely to His Providence so as to be completely His. -St. Louise (SWLM717 [A.5])

I hate uncertainty as much as you do, but what is really important to us is to govern our lives not by our hatred of uncertainty but by indifference, by which we are open to what God wants. Let us then try to grow in indifference. – St. Vincent, in a letter to St. Louise 

Day 5:    Our entire family should have great devotion to the Feast of Pentecost and total dependence on divine providence. -St. Louise (SWLM:768 [A.75]).

Your strength is Divine Providence, which initiated your Company; for who has chosen you, I ask you; who has made you what you are if not God? – St. Vincent (CCD:IX:47)

 

Day 6:

I beg you to help me by your prayers, as I will help you by mine, so that we may obtain from God the grace to walk simply and confidently along the path of His holy love. -St. Louise (SWLM:521 [L.557b]).

I trust [our hearts] will be in complete harmony in the Heart that contains them both, and that is the Heart of Our Lord. – St. Vincent 

Day 7:

Go then courageously, advancing moment by moment on the path on which God has placed you in order to reach Him. -St. Louise (SWLM:412 [L.359]).

Redouble your courage and fidelity and use well what God places in your path – St. Vincent (CCD:IV:117)

 

 

Day 8:

The Holy Spirit…will certainly remove any obstacle to his divine operations by the ardor of his love. He will establish the laws of holy charity by endowing [you] with the strength to accomplish tasks beyond [your] human powers so long as [you] remain in a state of total detachment. -St. Louise (SWLM:802 [A.25]).

When our Lord gives a helping hand, three can do the work of ten, and He always does this when He deprives us of human means and places us in the necessity of doing what is above our strength – St. Vincent (CCD:IV:122).

 

Day 9:

Since the Holy Spirit is the union of the Father and the Son, the life which we have freely undertaken must be lived in this great union of hearts. -St. Louise (SWLM:768 [A.75])

They [the Sisters] should be the image of the Most Holy Trinity; and even though they are several, they should form but one heart and one mind. – St. Vincent (CCD:XIIIb:274)

 

Day 10:

My dear Sisters, I continue to ask God for His blessings for you and pray that He will grant you the grace to persevere in your vocation in order to serve Him in the manner He asks of you. Take good care of the service of the poor. -St. Louise

(SWLM:835 [Spiritual Testament]).

Let us, my sisters, cherish the poor as our masters, since Our Lord is in them and they in Our Lord. – St. Vincent (Quoted in Robert Maloney’s book SV:XIII:540))

 

Day 11:

No desires, no resolutions, the grace of my God will accomplish in me whatever He wills. -St. Louise (SWLM:834 [M.8b])

Since, by the grace of God, we want only what He wills, we will await with great patience the time His Providence has ordained for the fulfillment of His plans. – St. Vincent (CCD:VII:292)

 

-        prepared by Regina Bechtle, SC