The life of St. Jane de Chantel was extraordinary and would have tested the faith and patience of many a saint. Born as the second child to the President of the French Republic of Burgundy, she married an officer in the army of King Henry IV. Three of their six children died in infancy. In the seventh year of their marriage her husband was shot in a hunting accident and died in her arms.

At the age of 28 she was left widowed with an infant son, three daughters, and a father-in-law who was a disagreeable tyrant. Four years later, Jane placed herself under the spiritual direction of St. Frances de Sales who advised her not to join the Carmelites, as she desired, but instead to form a new community, which would be called the Order of the Visitation. It would be a community of women whose health, age or other circumstances prevented them from being accepted by older established communities.

The charism or vision of St. Francis was for this community to engage in spiritual and corporal works of mercy in imitation of Mary at the Visitation to Elizabeth. Canon law, at that time, however, pretty much limited that type of activity to male orders while female convents remained cloistered.

Several years later, St. Vincent de Paul was one of the first who was able to break through the legal tape establishing the Sisters of Charity to do precisely the kind of work Jane and Francis had previously envisioned. St. Vincent de Paul said of Jane: She was filled with faith, yet her whole life long she had been tormented with thoughts against it. But for all her suffering her face never lost its serenity, nor did she ever once relax in the fidelity which God asked of her. And so I regard her as one of the holiest souls I have ever met on this earth.

We may not all be called to live the heroic trials and virtues of St. Jane Frances and others like her, but we are called to preach the gospel by example. How do you handle situations that threaten to undermine your serenity--your peace of mind-- your peace with God and others?

Every afternoon as the school emptied, children crossed the neighboring lawn, belonging to some elder citizens. This day by day ritual was wearing an ugly path through their well manicured grass. At first the couple was simply annoyed, and then they grew angry. Something had to be done. They were loosing their peace of mind.

They had the path covered with crushed gravel and lined with flowers. They put benches along the side so each afternoon, as school let out, they sat on the bench and greeted the children.

The children responded with wonder and gratitude as they stopped to talk with the couple.

Ingenuity, the response of a mind that knows peace and serenity. Unusual? It doesn’t have to be. There are as many options to difficulties as there are people in the world.