Families more wealthy than the Chavoins often sent their children away to boarding-school. Among these was Marie Jotillon, a clever attractive girl, faithful to her prayer and lessons about God. One time when Marie was home on holidays Jeanne-Marie was shocked to see the way she was dressed. Marie who was then about 14 or 15 years old had come home wearing a new fashion - colourful ribbons braided through her hair. These days that would mean nothing, but in Coutouvre at that time it was not a good sign. Jeanne-Marie judged rightly that the young teenager was becoming more interested in her own appearance than in her faith and care of others. She wondered what she should do.
Just a short time before this, a young man who was studying to be priest had come to visit Coutouvre. He was staying with the parish priest, Father Guiller met. Before long he could see that Jeanne-Marie was o very good person with strong faith and a great desire to know God as fully as she could. The two of them had talked on a number of occasions and now he was teaching her how to pray more deeply and helping her to know God better and to understand how she could become the be.st person she could be. It was in this young man, Jean-Philibert Lefranc, that Jeanne-Marie confided her worries about Marie Jotillon. JeanÂPhilibert offered to help Marie in the same way he was helping her and suggested that Jeanne-Marie persuade her to come and see him.
Jeanne-Marie waited for the right opportunity, but she had to wait a while because Marie guessed what her older friend was up to and tried to avoid her. At last one day they met at the bock gate of the Chavoin house.
Jeanne-Marie invited her friend to sit with her in their back yard underneath the beautiful pear-tree. There she shared with her the concerns she had and told her how much she was learning from JeanÂPhilibert. Finally, Marie agreed to go and see him.
From then on Jeanne-Marie and Marie become very special friends because what they treasured most was their faith in God and so it was this that they talked about. They used to meet every week to share with one another how they were growing in their love for God, how they were trying to become the persons they thought God wanted them to be, where they were foiling and how they were trying to overcome their weaknesses. It is not everyone you could talk to about such things - that is why their friendship was so special.
Families more wealthy than the Chavoins often sent their children away to boarding-school. Among these was Marie Jotillon, a clever attractive girl, faithful to her prayer and lessons about God. One time when Marie was home on holidays Jeanne-Marie was shocked to see the way she was dressed. Marie who was then about 14 or 15 years old had come home wearing a new fashion - colourful ribbons braided through her hair. These days that would mean nothing, but in Coutouvre at that time it was not a good sign. Jeanne-Marie judged rightly that the young teenager was becoming more interested in her own appearance than in her faith and care of others. She wondered what she should do.
