From the Manuscript of Sister Rosalie Thouret, niece and biography of the Foundress: ‘Jeanne Antide was born on 27 November 1765 at Sancey-le- Long, Baume-les-Dames in Franche-Comté, diocese of Besançon. Her father, Jean-François Thouret, and her mother, Jeanne-Claude Labbe, rejoiced greatly at her birth, as they had sons but no daughters. She was the fifth of their children. Her godfather was Modest Biguenet and godmother Jeanne Antida Vestremayr’.
In commemorating her birth and baptism, we wish today to unite ourselves with her baptismal faith:
The Creed of Jeanne-Antide
I believe in God
I believe in Jesus Christ
I believe in the Holy Spirit
I BELIEVE IN GOD
Faith for Jeanne-Antide was not really a simple assent to particular truths about God.
It was an act by which she freely entrusted herself to God, who filled her with hope, trust, a spirit of discernment, foresight, boldness, and responsible tenderness. She believed in God and God ‘believed’ in Jeanne-Antide, giving her – just to stop us on her call – an authentic vocation for the poor and the sick, much tenderness for them, the desire and good will to console them.
I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST
Jeanne-Antide entrusted herself to God in complete freedom, confessing that she ‘wanted to live and die only for Jesus Crucified’.
And Jesus assimilated her to himself, finding in her full existential assent: ‘I have always been crucified and I will be until the end’.
I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
Jeanne-Antide surrendered herself completely to God, confessing that it is the Holy Spirit who acts in us and for us, ‘leading us and directing us to do God’s will’.
And the Holy Spirit, who knows no boundaries of time, place, even of cultures and religions, gave her a universal heart, wide open ‘to all times, all places, all people’.
On the occasion of the commemoration of the birth and Baptism of Jeane-Antide, we would like to take up the conclusions of Benedict XVI in his Wednesday catechesis in the Year of Faith:
‘I think that we should meditate more often – in our daily lives, characterised by sometimes dramatic problems and situations – on the fact that believing in a Christian way means this abandoning myself with confidence to the profound sense that sustains me and the world, that sense that we are not able to give ourselves, but only to receive as a gift, and which is the foundation on which we can live without fear. And this liberating and reassuring certainty of faith we must be able to announce it with our words and show it with our lives as Christians.
Faith is a gamble of life that is like an exodus, that is, an exit from oneself, from one’s own securities, from one’s own mental schemes, in order to entrust oneself to the action of God who shows us his way to achieve true freedom, our human identity, true joy of heart, peace with all. To believe is to entrust oneself freely and joyfully to God’s providential plan for history, as did the patriarch Abraham, as did Mary of Nazareth. Faith then is an assent with which our mind and heart say their ‘yes’ to God, confessing that Jesus is Lord. And this ‘yes’ transforms life, opens the way to a fullness of meaning, makes it new, full of joy and reliable hope’.
Cover photo: https://altusfineart.com/products/jorge-cocco-baptism-of-christ-john-baptizing-jesus
