After four centuries, still going strong
Visitation launches celebration of order’s 400th anniversary
After four centuries, still going strong ?Visitation launches celebration of order’s 400th anniversary
Visitation school and monastery are launching a year-long celebration of the order’s 400th anniversary, commemorating a remarkable journey that has produced saints and scholars. The order’s founders, St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal, developed Salesian spirituality based on the “little virtues” of gentleness, kindness, humility and cheerfulness. Their message was radical in the early 17th century: lay people, in addition to professed religious, are called to holiness, which can be experienced in mundane moments and daily routines. “Be who you are,” St. Francis famously said, “and be that well.”
Though the number of Visitation nuns in Mendota Heights has steadily dwindled – standing once at 45, now hovering at 9 – and many members are frail, the practice of Salesian spirituality has never been stronger. In recent years, the school has made a concerted effort to infuse it throughout classrooms, lunchrooms and labs. It hired Anne Williams ’82 five years ago to serve a new position, director of Salesian Studies. She has helped students grasp the grounding wisdom, a refreshing directive for busy, noisy modern life.
“Salesian Spirituality may be 400 years old, but it is incredibly applicable and accessible today,” Williams said. “Our students get it. They practice the little virtues amid tests and term papers and tournaments. The deep roots of our order have blossomed so beautifully.”
Rather than hosting one super-duper event, the school is instilling an anniversary spirit in every special event held during the 2009-2010 school year. For instance, there will be special recognition of the anniversary at the Sept. 25 school-wide opening Mass. Alumnae will join the celebration during the Sept. 25-27 reunion weekend, pausing to acknowledge their place in this enduring institution.
Fittingly, the Class of 2010 will graduate on June 6, the exact day the order was founded 400 years before.
Biography of St. Francis de Sales
Biography of St. Jane de Chantal
Monthly Salesian inspiration
February
Hallmark wants us to worry this amorous month, but Scripture advises the opposite, saying that perfect love casts out fear. That’s the Salesian spirit. “First thing in the morning, prepare your heart to be at peace,” St. Francis once instructed. “Then take great care throughout the day to call it back to that peace frequently and, as it were, to again take your heart in your hand.”
