Letter 1062. To Mother Anne Catherine de Beaumont

Superior at Grenoble. Annecy, 9 December [1630]. Vive > Jésus!

You can imagine, my truly good and dearest daughter, what consolation your letter gave me, for I assure you I was thirsting to receive news of you. Thanks be to God, your house is spared the infection. These gentlemen of Grenoble who were here the other day had already assured me of this: we have written to you by them. They are MM. Ponnet, de Somoron, Rochette, and Miltollier. All four spoke with affection of you. I should like you to make their wives some return when you see them, in order to show your gratitude, for they have greatly obliged us. It is such a consolation to me to see the care of divine Providence over you, in the charity of the late poor Madame de Bouqueron. May God reward her! This shows us, dearest daughter, that to seek first the kingdom of God is alone necessary, for if we serve Him faithfully He will see that nothing is wanting to us.

We have not been spared, any more than you, from a great deal of illness. The beds in the infirmary have been full nearly the whole summer, although, thank God, we have been preserved from contagious maladies and have only had ordinary ones... .

I biess God for what you tell me of our sisters having made good retreats; nor do I think less of the road upon which they are walking than if they abounded in consolations and sensible devotion, for if they are faithful in this way God will not leave them without manifesting Himself to them, and making them feel the delights of His consolations. The thought came to me this morning before I received your letter that I would tell you that, if nothing happens at the end of your triennial, we shall leave you where you are for three more years. So you ought to look about you in good time to find those you think most suitable to succeed you in the superiorship, in order to set up their credit and reputation with the other sisters, and train them carefully in the ways of government.

First of all, it seems to me, you ought to consider our sister the assistant, for if indeed she has an inclination to charges of importance, it is not from pride or ambition but through the diffidence which seems to take possession of her when she is in lowly and unimportant offices. At such times she thinks she is fit for nothing, and that one can have little hope of her. You have also our sister of Bourges, in whom I see nothing to find fault with, unless it is, that in her great gentleness she might let rules be somewhat relaxed in the house; nevertheless she may do very well for the time. Then you have our sisters, de Rogat, M. Félicienne [Baudet], and the Mistress of Novices, who, with the care and trouble you will take to form them, all appear to me to have capability for government: that is, presuming they have the requisite virtue, and this, if they are faithful in walking uprightly before God, they could acquire in time. Work. hard with them all, dearest daughter, and though the time may be lost on them it will not be on you, if you do it because your poor little Mother bids you.

As for your novice, I do not see in her the dispositions requisite for her profession; but, nevertheless, I should leave the matter in God’s hands and take the opinion of the sisters. Your house is already overwhelmed with infirm sisters without adding to their number one who besides is a bit of an idiot. I quite see that it would be a great charity to keep her, but your first duty is to your house, not to fill it with useless members of whom you already have enough.

You have done wisely in not writing to the monasteries about Sister H. M.’s accident. The sisters in offices will find my answer to them in our notes. Only yesterday I received your letter, to-day I am answering it, and I am sending it to Rumilly to those gentlemen of Grenoble, together with those we have already written. Now all your questions are answered, my very dear daughter, and there is nothing left for me but to pray that God may fortify you and give you the necessary health to bear the burden He has put upon your dear shoulders. I hope His goodness will do this, and I beg of you, on your part, to support it as well as you can for the sake of your daughters, who need you until they become a little stronger. May God in His mercy give them the grace to continue to walk on in their path humbly and resolutely, and may He give them in abundance His pure and holy love, in which I remain with all my heart, yours, etc.