64. To Robert and his Sisters and Daughters

Anselm, archbishop, to his friend and dearly loved son, Robert, and to his dearest sisters and daughters, Seit, Edit, and Hydit, Luveris, Virgit, Godit, greeting, and God's blessing, and his own, if it aught avail.

I rejoice in, and thank God for, your holy purpose and the holy intercourse which you have with each other in the love of God and of a holy life, as I learnt from our brother and son, William. Your affection, so dear to me, beloved daughters, requests me to write to you some suggestions which may teach and incite you to live aright; though you have with you my dear son Robert, whom God has taught to watch over you in Him and to teach you day by day both by word and by example how you ought to live. Since, however, I ought to respond to your petition if I can, I will try to write some words, in accordance with your desires. Dearest daughters, every praiseworthy, every reprehensible action, is deserving of praise or blame solely from the will. For out of the will grows the root, arises the source, of actions which are within our power; and if we are not able to do what we would, still each one will be judged before God according to the intention of his own will. Be therefore anxiously careful, not so much about what you do, as about what you desire; not so much what your actions are, as what your will is. For every action which is rightly done, that is, with an upright will, is good; and that which is done with a faulty will, is not good; from his upright will is a man designated just, from an evil will is he called unjust. If therefore you wish to live well, incessantly mount guard over your will both in great things and in the least; in those which lie within your power and those which you cannot do, lest it should at all swerve from rectitude. But, if you wish to be sure that your will is upright: that will most certainly is so which is subject to the will of God. When therefore you are preparing to do or thinking of doing something important, say thus in your hearts: "Doth God will that I should will this, or not? "If your conscience answers you, "Truly God doth will that I should so will, and such a desire pleaseth Him," then whether you can carry it out or not, cherish that will and intention. But if your conscience testifies to you that God doth not desire you to have that volition, then with all your might turn your heart away from it; and if you wish to drive it entirely away from you, as far as you can shut out the thought and recollection of it from your heart. By whatever means however you banish from you an evil will or evil thoughts, consider this little bit of advice which I give you, and hold it fast. Do not struggle with wrong thoughts or an evil desire, but when they annoy you, persistently occupy your mind with some profitable To Robert, and his Sisters and Daughters. 2 1 3 reflection and wish. For no thought or desire is ex pelled from the heart except by some other thought or wish that does not agree with it. So therefore treat any unprofitable thoughts and wishes as that your mind, straining its every effort after such as are useful, may disdain even to remember or glance at the others. If when you wish to pray, or attend to some good meditation, thoughts trouble you to which you ought not to grant admittance, never choose for their importunity to set aside the good action you had entered on, lest their inspirer, the devil, should rejoice at having made you desist from the good you had begun; but by the method I have just mentioned, by despising them, overcome them. Neither do you either grieve or be gloomy because of their molestation (so long as, despising them as I said before, you yield no consent to them): lest on account of this sadness they return again to the memory and revive their importunity. For it is a habit of the human mind that what pleases or grieves it returns to its recollection oftener than what it feels or thinks with indifference. In like wise should any one who intends to lead a holy life proceed with regard to any unadvisable impulse, whether of body, or mind, as of temptation, or anger, or envy, or vain-glory. For they are most easily extinguished when we disdain to feel them, or think about them, or do anything through their influence. Nor fear lest this class of impulses or thoughts be imputed to you as sin, if your will in no degree joins closely to them, for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh. But this, to walk after the flesh, is to be in agreement with the carnal will. But "flesh "is the name given by the Apostle to every wrong impulse whether of soul or body, when he says, "the flesh striveth against the 214 Selections from the L etters of St A nselm. spirit, and the spirit against the flesh." We therefore easily annihilate suggestions of this sort if we obliterate their very germ, according to the advice before given; but only with difficulty when once we have admitted them fully-grown into our minds. To thee, dearest friend and son Robert, I give all the thanks I can for the care and love thou bearest for God's sake to these his hand-maidens; and I pray most earnestly thou mayest go on in this holy and pious mind. For thou mayest be assured that a great reward awaits thee from God for these holy efforts. May Almighty God be ever the guardian of all your life. Amen. May the almighty and merciful God grant you remission of all your sins, and ever make you advance with humility to better things and never to sink back. Amen.