The Novena to St. Jane – August 4-12

Saint Jane de Chantal

O Glorious saint, blessed Jane Frances, who by the fervent prayer, attention to the Divine Presence, and purity of intention in they actions attainedst on earth an intimate union with God, be now our advocate, our mother, our guide in the path of virtue and perfection. Plead our cause near Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, to whom thou wast so tenderly devoted, and whose holy virtues thou didst so closely imitate. Obtain for us, O amiable and compassionate saint, the virtues thou seest most necessary for us; an ardent love of Jesus in the most holy Sacrament, a tender and filial confidence in His Blessed Mother, and, like thee, a constant remembrance of His sacred Passion and death. Obtain also, we pray thee, that our particular intention in this Novena may be fulfilled.

V. Pray for us, O holy St. Jane Frances.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

O almighty and Merciful God, Who didst grant blessed St. Jane Frances, so inflamed with the love of Thee, a wonderful degree of fortitude through all the paths of life, and wast pleased through her to adorn Thy Church with a new religious Order, grant, by her merits and prayers, that we, who sensible of our weakness confide in Thy Strength, may overcome all adversities with the help of Thy heavenly Grace, through Christ our Lord. Amen

On A Saturday Afternoon

innerchurch2

“The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love, It produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.”

~ Saint Thomas Aquinas

innerchurch

“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God´s compassionate love for others.”

~ St. Clare of Assisi

“Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing: God alone suffices.”

“It is love alone that gives worth to all things”

~ St. Teresa of Avila

I don’t know that these quotes have anything to do with these pictures, but they’re certainly great quotes, and they happen to be on my desktop at the moment.

St. Jane is a beautiful little Church, and it’s surprisingly not as small as it looks. And it’s a very loving and friendly community.

Off into the weekend ~~~ Pax Christi.

Life at St. Jane's

St. Jane de Chantal Church

Yes, you guessed it: I’ve been walking around with my camera again.

And then going for that startling, vibrant look which is so ‘in’ in photos these days.

Oh, wait… you’ve not been seeing startling and vibrant photos which look quite like these?

Well. On a separate note, we really need to do something about these power lines in front of the Church, like run them underground.

That’s a joke by the way.

On the right side of the choir loft is a little belfry type room with windows; the first Pastor used to spend his nights there. I guess he more or less lived in the choir loft, which no doubt made for an interesting life. (I used to do that, but I was an organist.) The little room is about ten feet by eight feet, at the most.

And that’s no joke.

St. Jane's

The rain here has been amazing. The dry, dry earth from the past few years has been soaking it up, and everything is green as could be and beautiful. Lots of dramatic clouds, too.

One of my seminary friends (now Dr. Jerry Harrington,) took up the photo a day contest that I bailed on recently, which inspired me to get back to it. Why not give it a try… what could happen?

Px, out.

The Rev. Kenneth Allen