Letter 279. To Madame du Tertre

at Moulins. [Paris, August 1620.]

Vive & Jésus!

Oh! my most dear daughter, be of good courage and say firmly, I can do all things in Him who strengthens me. Yes, He who has given you the desire to sacrifice yourself to His everlasting love will take care to perfect His work. But on your part there must be an altogether filial and childlike confidence in this good heavenly Father who has done you the honour and the grace of drawing you out of hell (for so I call the world) to place you in His house and in His garden of delights as a plant of love, so that afterwards He may transplant you into His sacred pleasance, where the delights of His glory will be your unceasing enjoyment. Oh, my daughter, what a grace! Give yourself over, I beg of you, to all the labour that your nature dreads and perchance will make you suffer. Happy are we in giving our Saviour toil for toil, life for life, love for love, in as far as in our poor small way we are capable.

Be courageous then, my daughter, and bring your courage to bear in accepting the disappointment occasioned by the absence of your immediate family from your reception. Their excuse is a reasonable one, for the war manoeuvres frighten everyone. Let not your heart be troubled by such accidents. God and His Angels are our relatives, and the most holy Virgin is our Mother. And then, too, our sisters and your good Superior will be true sisters and a mother to you, and we shall be with you in spirit by our prayers and by all the cordial affection which you could and ought to desire.

Truly yours without reserve, etc.

P.S.—I very cordially and humbly salute Madame I forget her name—the Governor’s daughter. Excuse my bad writing: I have not time to form the letters.