Book I. Dialogue XII: On the prayer of the Venerable Mother de Chantal (continued): what writings she has left us on this important matter

I

Q. From all that has been said in the preceding Dialogue is it not to be concluded that a soul in this way would never be idle, when it tried to keep itself always, as far as it could, in the actual disposition of its simple abandonment?

A. In a sense, says the Bishop of Meaux, 1 the soul practises only a single act, and at the same time practises a hundred, according to what Cassian says of this prayer of faith in which all the sentiments are combined in one, conglobatis sensibus.

Q. How does Bossuet explain this combination of all these various sentiments and acts in one, in a soul in this way ?

A. He tells us that after the most specific acts, prescribed by Scripture to the faithful have been produced and repeated, there is composed of all these real and physical acts in certain souls a single moral act in which all is joined. This is what happened, in the time of Mere de Chantal, to her holy daughter Marie- Rosette, in whom all the affections of which a Christian soul is capable came together, and were infused, so to speak, into each other, and thus tending to the same end produced an admirable harmony; for this holy religious tried to keep herself always as actually as possible in the same state of simple surrender to God. But as there arose in her heart a thousand particular good

Book VIII, § 36.

desires, without giving herself the consolation of remaining in them she included them in her one great act of abandonment, in which everything had been so well specified. Here we see what real prayer is, produced by the simple yet actual disposition of the heart, more durable and easier to maintain in certain souls than passing acts.

Q. But when souls possessing a great inclination towards simplicity and abandonment are found, should they be permitted to limit themselves to their actual and more or less ordinary dispositions, in order to practise an almost continuous prayer ?

A. They must be treated as this holy religious was: she was led and inclined by her attraction, says Bossuet,¹ though as if from afar, to a continuity and unity of acts which is not of this life. But during this pilgrimage this extraordinary attraction had to be reduced, as it were, by the ordinary Christian attraction which leads to particular acts, explained and developed in the Pater and the Credo. It was for this reason that the Venerable Mother de Chantal and her holy director felt themselves obliged to impose a daily recitation of them on their holy daughter, in order to save her from the illusion into which the false mystics fell with their suppression of all ordinary acts of piety.... ‘ May God ever be praised for his marvellous operations in souls, 5 concludes Bossuet. These words more than suffice to confound the spirit of incredulity in this matter, not only among those who live in the world but also among certain devout persons and pretended spirituals.

Q. Are not people of this great attraction to this kind of prayer rare ?

A. Yes, very rare, if you are considering this prayer in the same degree as that of the Venerable Mother de Chantal and her holy daughter; but if it is taken in its lower degrees, while not common to all Christians it is not, perhaps, so rare as many people think, especially in religion, if the views of the most experienced persons are to be believed.²³

Q. I should very much like to know what the Venerable Mother thought of this; for apart from the veneration of the Bishop of Meaux, who gives her as a model, the cause of her beatification is proceeding, and several Congregations have been held to consider her writings, which they have all declared most orthodox; and therefore her words would have great weight to my mind.

II

A. These are her views as I found them in the replies on the rules, the constitutions and the Customary of the Order of the Visitation -,⁴ 6 It is necessary, 5 she replied, ‘ that I should state simply what for good reasons I have hitherto held back, which the necessity of souls now constrains me to say freely: that is, that the further I go the more clearly I see that Our Lord leads almost all the daughters of the Visitation to the prayer of a very simple unity and unique simplicity of the presence of God, by entire surrender of themselves to the holy will and care of his divine Providence. Our blessed Father calls this the prayer of simple surrender to God, and says it is very holy and salutary, and embraces all that can be desired for the service of God. 5

Q. These words: almost all the daughters of the Visitation, are very remarkable, and I do not doubt that though this kind of prayer is common among these holy women, it finds to-day, as then, many detractors.

A. Hear the rest of the Mother’s discourse: * Nevertheless, I know that this prayer is strongly objected to by those whom God leads by the way of discourse, and many of our sisters have been harassed by being told that they were idle and wasting time. But with all due respect to these persons, I assure you, my beloved

Q. But if God gave the same grace to most other

A. And I say that if God granted it equally to the

A. These are her words on the same subject, in a liberty of spirit and enter into a sort of constraint and perplexity which tears away their peace and hinders them gravely in their way. I have had but too many experiences of this truth. 51 This is a beautiful lesson for all those whose souls God visits with this attraction (which once more is not so rare as is thought, even in the world) when one gives oneself unreservedly to God. In this matter I cannot help exclaiming with the Bishop of Meaux: May God ever be praised for his marvellous operations in so many souls.

Q. What would you say if someone said to you: The venerable Mother spoke in one age and we live in another ?

A. Is it possible either in charity or equity to think that God has changed his conduct in regard to these holy women, while on their part there appears no change with regard to God ?

Ill

Q. Does not the Venerable Mother de Chantal give any counsel on this subject?

A. She gives four very important ones.

Q. What is the first?

A. It concerns beginners, to whom she says: We must faithfully follow this way from the moment we are drawn to it; for we must not travel thither ourselves, but wait humbly and patiently for the hour when our divine Saviour has ordained that we should be introduced into this happiness; in short, in order to journey to God and reach him, we must let ourselves be led by his Spirit; what he has chosen is always best for us.⁵

Q. What is her second counsel ?

A. It concerns persons led by this path, who, she says, ‘ are bound to a great purity of heart, lowliness, surrender and total dependence on God; they must

1 Customary of the Visitation, p. 510.

simplify their spirit in all things, casting away all reflections on the past, the present and the future; instead of regarding what they do or are about to do they should regard God, forgetting all things as much as possible, for this continual remembrance, uniting their spirit to his goodness, and that simply, in everything that happens from moment to moment. 51

IV

Q. What is the third counsel ?

A. It concerns the time of aridity, insensibility and distractions: c It often happens 5 (she says) c that souls in this way are harassed by many distractions, and remain without any sensible support, for Our Lord has taken from them the feeling of his sweet presence and all sorts of interior aids and knowledge, so that they remain in complete impotence and insensibility. This is rather astonishing to souls not yet experienced; but they should remain firm and repose in God above all thought and feeling, suffering, receiving, cherishing equally all the ways and operations which it pleases God to effect in them, sacrificing themselves and surrendering without any reserve to the mercy of his love and his most holy will, neither seeing nor wishing to see what they do or should do; but above their whole way and knowledge they should join themselves to God with the highest point of their spirit and lose themselves in him, by this means attaining peace in the midst of war, rest in travail. In short we must remain in that state in which God places us; be patient in difficulty, passive in suffering. The sure signs of a right prayer are when it produces the fruits of the true virtues and when the soul is as constant in fidelity to all good works, amid bitterness and desolation, as in the enjoyment of favours and divine consolations. 2

Q. According to the Bishop of Meaux’s report I understand that the holy Mother herself passed through⁶ Customary of the Visitation, p. 511. 2 Ibid., p. 512.

DIALOGUE XII 1 19 the trials of which she here speaks; but I should like to know what she said when speaking confidentially of herself.

A. Here is her own confession, in a letter to a Superior of her Order: ‘You give me good cause for confusion, 5 she says, ‘ in asking what is my way of prayer; alas ! my daughter, it is usually nothing but distraction and some suffering; for how could a poor miserable soul like mine do otherwise, filled as it is with a thousand affairs ? But I may tell you in confidence, and simply, that it is twenty years since God took from me all power of acting in prayer with understanding, consideration or meditation, and that I only know how to suffer a nd to keep my spirit simply in. God, cleaving to his works by simple surrender, but without performing any acts except when I am stimulated by his movement, waiting for what it pleases him in his goodness to grant. 51

Q. This frank confession surprises me; who could be satisfied with such prayers ? I do not know what to think, for the more I compare what writers have said on this subject, and what has come to me in my own mind, the less I know what I should believe, despite the beautiful names such prayers are given.

A. I will solve this mystery for you in a few words. Nothing is more sublime than contemplation in books; nothing more beautiful, more grand, than passive prayer, looked at speculatively, b ut in practice nothing is more tor menting and hum iliating. Let us recall what Bossuet briefly says to us in his Preface, 2 speaking of contemplation: ‘ Learned men as well as others have submitted to the hidden conduct of God, by which he makes them as small as he wishes, and discovers nothing in them but ignorance and blindness.’ Such is the sublime knowledge they draw from these beautiful prayers, which makes them truly great before God in proportion as they become small in their own eyes. O my God ! by how many phantoms are we frightened through lack of all practical knowledge, by which we repel others by dressing them up a scarecrow of vanity in a prayer of darkness, of confusion, of impotence and of nothingness, in which it seems that the mind, reason, human will, the whole man, lose themselves to become as a beast l of burden before you, O my God, according to the words of the Prophet: Ut jumentum factus sum apud te.

Q. What is the last counsel of the Venerable Mother ?

A. It concerns reading suitable for those who feel this attraction:⁷ ‘You will find 5 (she says) ‘ in the Treatise On the Love of God, Book VI, Chapters 7, 8, 9, etc., in the Conference of S. Francis de Sales and in the works of S. Teresa the knowledge necessary in this way; also in the Life of Fr. Baltazar Alvarez, where there are many things that are good for us.’

Footnotes

1. Book VIII, § 36. ↩

2. Customary of the Visitation, p. 509. 'Ibid., p. 511. ↩

3. Book III, Letter 108. ↩

4. Customary of the Visitation, p. 508. 116 ONPRAYER sisters, that you must not be turned aside from your way by such discourses, for our Blessed Father, etc. 51 She adds later, c Walk then henceforth in this divine way with humble assurance, bringing to it no other method or effort than that of following simply and faithfully the attraction of God, being content each one with the portion allotted you, and not desiring more. 5 2 Q Why does she add these last words ? A. She has already said, what is important to notice, that there are various degrees in this manner of prayer as in all others, some souls possessing that single simplicity and that repose to a much greater degree than others, and receiving various lights in it. But in the end all arrive at the same place, almost without knowing they are there. orders this would soon be common prayer. majority of really devout souls in the world, it would yet be rare among Christians, it would still be the prayer of the smaller number, in fact of very few. ‘L- Does she not speak of it further in her writings ? letter to a Superior of her Order: 4 The almost uni- versal attraction of the daughters of the Visitation is one of simple presence of God and entire surrender.... I might well omit the almost, for I have realized that all those who applied themselves properly to prayer from the beginning were attracted to it in the first place. Finally I hold that this manner of prayer is essential to our little congregation, that it is a very great gift of God, and that it requires of us an almost infinite gratitude. 5 3 But what appears to me most singular and instructive is that she continues: c This attraction is so peculiarly our own that the souls drawn away from it seem to abandon their centre, lose their ↩

5. Ibid. ↩

6. Book V, Letter 37. * Preface, § 7. ↩

7. Customary of the Visitation, p. 513. ↩