St. Jane de Chantal Salesian Center
Simple, yet powerful and life affirming, Salesian Spirituality is the foundation for all that is Visitation; it is our legacy from the Sisters. To safeguard and continue this incomparable way of life, Georgetown Visitation founded the St. Jane de Chantal Salesian Center in May 2016.
The Center's mission is to ensure that the Sisters’ gentle, inspired common sense approach to living a faith-filled life continues to endure, flourish, and guide all aspects of a Visitation education into our third century and beyond. The Center is built on four guiding pillars:
- Faith Formation: Creating diverse offerings to support our community’s understanding and embrace of Salesian Spirituality.
- Leadership and Living Our Faith Through Service: Cultivating and energizing our students and alumnae to be leaders in the Church, the community, and the world through voice, witness, and deed—"Living Jesus" in all that they do.
- Engagement Beyond the Green Gate: Sharing the inspired writings and teachings of St. Francis de Sales, St. Jane de Chantal, and the Sisters of the Visitation within and beyond our campus.
- Preserving Our Past: Carefully preserving our archival documents, photographs, and objects that celebrate our two centuries of history, and making our rich story and traditions accessible through multimedia.
To carry out this important work, our Director works collaboratively with the Sisters of the Visitation, Salesian Ministry, Campus Ministry, Christian Service, and Religion Departments to create meaningful ways for our lay community to be the hands and voice of our Salesian charism as we witness the Sisters’ beautiful way of Living Jesus.
The School Archivist & Historian leads the Center’s efforts to collect, preserve, and make available the primary and secondary source materials that chronicle the history and spiritual heritage of Georgetown Visitation.
St. Jane de Chantal Center Staff
Olivia Wills Kane '85, Director
Genevieve Kocienda, School Archivist
Our mission speaks to the importance of educating the mind and heart. We must plant the seeds as the lay community accepts the call to carry the spirit to those who have yet to encounter the Salesian Way. The St. Jane de Chantal Salesian Center makes this possible.
Laurie Collins Quirk '74, English Department
Live Jesus
2
religious co-founders
220+
years of history
4
visitation schools in the U.S.
2
Salesian camps
23
acres of history
1610
founding of the visitation order
14
buildings on national register
Salesian Programming
To ensure that the Sisters’ gentle, inspired common sense approach to living a faith-filled life continues to endure, flourish, and guide all aspects of a Visitation education into our third century and beyond, Visitation founded the St. Jane de Chantal Salesian Center, which works collaboratively with the Sisters of the Visitation, Salesian Ministry, Campus Ministry, Christian Service, and Religion Departments to create meaningful ways for our lay community to be the hands and voice of our Salesian charism as we witness the Sisters’ beautiful way of Living Jesus.
- Visitation Salesian Network Monthly Themes
- Salesian Friends Group with the Sisters
- Loving Life, Living Jesus Reflections
- First Friday Adoration
- Salesian Lay Association for Men (SLAM)
- First Friday Rosary with the Visitation Fathers' Club
- Women Who Make A Difference Speaker Series
- Crescent Conversations
Visitation Salesian Network Monthly Themes
Salesian Friends Group with the Sisters
Loving Life, Living Jesus Reflections
First Friday Adoration
Salesian Lay Association for Men (SLAM)
First Friday Rosary with the Visitation Fathers' Club
Women Who Make A Difference Speaker Series
Crescent Conversations
Georgetown Visitation is one of four Visitation schools supported by the Sisters of the Visitation. As members of the Visitation Salesian Network, we work together to support and maintain a consistent Salesian identity among our schools. Every five years, each Visitation school is asked to evaluate how they believe they are living their mission. In the fall of 2019, Georgetown Visitation embarked on our own Salesian assessment process to measure the vitality of the Salesian charism in our school.
Through self-reflection (in the form of community surveys and focus groups) and thoughtful observation from representatives of our national Visitation Salesian Network, we learned more about what is working well here on 35th Street and how we can continue to grow.
Salesian Events
- Founders' Day
- Salesian Soup for the Soul
- Pilgrimages to Annecy, France
- VISTORY
- Salesian Leadership Camp
Salesian Resources
An ever-expanding library of classic and contemporary Salesian Spirituality resources is available in the Salesian Center and St. Bernard Library to support our community's Salesian education and formation.
Additionally, the Sisters of the Visitation and DeSales Resource & Ministries, Inc. each sponsor a web presence for their charism and ministries.
- "Visitation Spirit" - A online ministry of the Second Federation of the Visitation in the United States that promotes the spirituality of Sts. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal.
- Embraced by God - Resources for joyful living inspired by Sts. Francis and Jane.
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Salesian Reflections
Loving Life, Living Jesus
In order to share the charism of the Sisters of the Visitation, Georgetown Visitation offers a weekly digital spiritual reflection for members and friends of our Visitation family near and far. "Loving Life, Living Jesus" celebrates the spirit of love so beautifully lived in the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth in the mystery of the Visitation.
This spiritual friendship was later modeled in St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal and continues in the loving community of the Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary. We share this gift by offering these meditations written by members of the Visitation community. We hope they are examples of how Salesian Spirituality thrives within the people we know and love, and we pray that these reflections edify your own efforts to Live Jesus.