Letter 192. To the same

Vive > Jésus!

My dearest Grande fille,—I spoke this morning to his Lordship about the affair of which you wrote to me, not having seen him sooner. He was at a loss what to say, knowing neither the state of M. Le Blanc’s affairs nor his manner of addressing you. You ought, he said, to ask M. de Saint-Nizier’s advice, as he already knows that you have the poor dear deceased’s money, and probably she will have made this known at her death. That, my child, is all he said: for we see him but briefly and rarely. No fresh news to send you from here. We are still looking for a house. May God in His goodness help us, for we have to be out of this one by the feast of St. John. Aspirants to our life continue to abound, and next week, please God, we will begin to receive them. Our Sister Anne Catherine [de Beaumont] is, thank God, recovering: the tertian fever has left her. We have constant visitors, and I am overburdened with correspondence, so you will only get this line from me with a request to send us a hundred copies of our Rules. In a little time we will pay you for them.

Pray for us, and for my special needs, I implore you, my dearest daughter; for I have a strong desire of complete self-surrender and to live in perfect observance. We are strictly obliged to this—we, the old ones—so as to show the road to the others. My daughter, here we are at the end of our ninth year, and, alas! I have not yet begun. What an account shall I not have to render to God, and if I do not improve, what confusion will be mine! I do indeed wish to start with new courage, and never, with God’s holy grace, to fall back. Let us pray earnestly for each other, so that we may be pleasing to our good God.

His Lordship also thinks that we should not oppose the Archbishop of Lyons; but if he will not grant us the privilege of the little Office, we must ask, very humbly, for years to learn the great one; and meanwhile we will get permission to continue the little one—for certainly all the houses ought to unite in trying to obtain it, and we shall, please God, succeed.

Adieu to you and all our dear sisters. May the Holy Spirit confirm you all in His most holy love. Amen.

Send us the date of your grant for the foundation by the King and Parliament, and pray for me, etc.¹

Footnotes

1. Name given by St. Francis to Mother Favre, ↩