On the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady, Mother Barat and Henriette Girard renewed their vows. The night before the Feast, Mother Barat told the novices that "if they could not yet consecrate themselves to Jesus forever by vows, they could do so by desire and give themselves entirely and generously to God following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary." They were to place themselves under her protection and ask her for the grace to be faithful to their vocation.
St. Francis Xavier had been chosen as patron of the house as Mother Barat had great confidence in his intercession. To prepare for his feast she proposed a double novena spending the nine days before the feast and the nine after it asking the saint for "the virtues which are most necessary to fulfill our vocation: humility, the spirit of recollection and zeal for the salvation of souls."
These are still the virtues needed for union and conformity with the Heart of Jesus in the spirituality of Madeleine Sophie.
I think that whatever our state in life we are called to have humility, a certain spirit of recollection, and zeal for the salvation of others. Where do I see this in my own daily, ordinary life? Maybe it would be good to make a novena asking Sophie to give me these necessary virtues and make it nine days before her feast and nine days after it. We need to begin soon as her feast is May 25.
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