How God Works

 We are assured daily by Scripture, spiritual reading and our own prayer, that God is always with us and will help us overcome every obstacle.  Sometimes, however, the obstacles are so huge, that our vision is blurred and we fall into discouragement, despair and depression.  Where is this loving, ever-present God? we ask.   We learn that God is there in those dark times, but it's how he works that causes us to question and fall into those three "d's". 
St. Jane Frances de Chantal's life is a good example of God's "devious" but planned-for-the-best ways.  She married at 20, brought forth 8 children, three of whom died very young.  Her husband died of wounds and left Jane a widow at 28.  Here is where she succumbed to depression, no wonder why.  Friends urged her to "move on" for the sake of her remaining children, which she did.  A vision of a man caused her puzzlement, but later when he was preaching, she realized that it was Francis de Sales she had seen in the vision.  He became her spiritual director, encouraging her works of charity and finally proposing that she begin a religious order which would take in widows, or women who were rejected by other orders.  She envisioned an order that would be active and involved in the local community.  Rome, however, insisted that they be cloistered like other nuns.  Another disappointment for Jane.  Yet, she carried on, in the meantime, burying the rest of her children, and losing her dear friend, Francis, when he died before her.  She died peacefully at the age of 69, having learned, but never fully understanding the mysterious ways in which God works.   May her life inspire us to TRUST, even when it seems we are headed for complete disaster!
Bro. Rene