Letter 49. To Mother Marie Jacqueline Favre

The good Father is come to us this evening, and consequently, my dearest daughter, my darling, I shall not be able to write all I want to say to you as I should have liked; but, at any rate, I will do my best. Your letter of the 14th arrived this evening, Eh! verily, darling, how inconstant men are! Happy are the souls that are thoroughly well established in the love and the will of God! Let us, beloved daughter, adhere thereto so that nothing whatsoever may be able to make us waver. Oh! but we must not worry at what is said from that quarter,) however regrettable it be. Keep it all out of your heart, recommend it to divine Providence, and then think no more about it. JI am more troubled about your weak health than about all their talk. Two remedies are indeed essential for your cure. Adopt them. The first, to recall joy to your heart even though it may cost you a little pain and effort; the other, to eat well and to take rest. Now see that this is done, and without haggling about it or putting it off. Your health is, for the present, absolutely necessary to the service of God, and for this reason it must be restored and carefully preserved. I am speaking seriously, without sentiment or softness, and I tell you, dearest daughter, that one of the greatest acts of fidelity that Our Lord requires of you at present is to keep up your strength in order to do the work He has ordained

I am very glad that the Archbishop is going to see our Rules, so that this matter may be ended and copies given to those who wish to have them. Urge it on gently, but as from yourself. Let it slip out adroitly to him that his Lordship! always defers to his opinion, and that it is expedient that the affair be settled so as to enable us to send some copies of the said Rules to the good souls who desire them. In the meantime make Father Philippe console those poor ladies at Billon? and hold out the prospect of assistance to them. If you think well, you might write to them, and also to good M. Favre, who has written to me on the part, I fancy, of the Riom ladies; * but I will speak to his Lordship, and perhaps write to him myself.

My dearest daughter, when the good Archbishop speaks to you about enclosure or any other essential point of our Rule, only answer him by a pleasant little smile, modestly and courteously, unless you think you ought to say a few words, in which case tell him of the good understanding between him and his Lordship, and that, as for us, we are the daughters of obedience, and love our Institute above all things. This answer ought to suffice. May God in His kindness preserve in this good prelate the sentiments he carried away with him from here.

Do not trouble, my child, to write your confession. Oh! I know it without seeing it. May God in His infinite goodness make you every day more His own, and more entirely and solely dependent on Him, for in this consists our only happiness and blessedness. Do not worry about the book on the Love of God. You will soon, please God, have it with our good M. Michel! I think our poor sister [Madame] de Chamoisy will be spared to us.2, His Lordship could not avoid going to her: he had been so urged by M. de Chamoisy. He will not return until Sunday. The good God will guide poor Sister de Gouffier. It consoles me greatly that He has so united you two. Would it be well for me to write to her? Has she expressed anything as to this?

Some other time I will speak to you regarding exterior mortifications, so that they may be performed according to the spirit of God; as yet they should be permitted but rarely. In fact, his Lordship told me lately that he much preferred one little mortified inclination to all exterior acts of the kind, and that nature took complacency in the selfchoosing of these things. Nevertheless, we must honour them and permit them sometimes, since they were practised by the Saints. Truly, my dear daughter, I feel like you: I dare not mortify our sisters, and when they ask me to give them a penance I do not know what to say tothem. When it is necessary to impose them for their good, Our Lord will inspire me what to say. I cannot give you a suitable answer about those extraordinary confessors, as I have not spoken to his Lordship, for these persons [at Lyons] are so punctilious that, if they knew of it, it would upset them.

The colour ought to be grey: it is to embroider carnations on crimson satin,® and so I think it ought not to be too dull. Do not send the glass for the Agnus Dei: we bought some at Chambéry. I am writing this during recreation, as I have no way of doing it otherwise. All our sisters send you affectionate greetings. You are often the subject of our conversation, for you are indeed my very dear daughter, and your two companions also, whom I salute with all my heart. I am beginning the long letters I promised them, but I cannot send them this time. Good-bye, my

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Sister J. C. de Bréchard adds:

A thousand salutations to my dearest sister. Our Mother desires me to tell you to send her the book of St. John Climacus and the powders which she left on the window-sill. She greets all our sisters, your dear novices, and so do I most affectionately, above all the professed. Our Mother begs you to send news of M. de Neuchéze.¹²³⁴

Footnotes

1. The Archbishop of Lyons was beginning to agitate about imposing new Tules contrary to those of the Holy Founder upon the monastery of Lyons. for you in your charge. O daughter most dear, our body and our health should, on certain occasions, be altogether disregarded, while on others they ought to be taken great care of and strengthened. Do this then faithfully, and be pliable to your coadjutrix, to whose care I recommend you. ↩

2. St. Francis de Sales. ® Pious persons who wished to have a Visitation monastery in their town. It was not established there until 1650. ↩

3. Riom was at the time in hopes of getting a foundation; it took place in 1623. ↩

4. In the spring of 1616 M. Michel (the confessor of the nuns at Annecy) brought the precious book to Lyons for approval and publication. * Madame de Chamoisy (Philothea of the Devout Life) was ill at this time. * St. Jane Frances occupied her daughters in embroidery for the sacristy, and even for secular people. child. May God abundantly favour you, etc. God be praised. ↩