Letter 1140. To the Reverend Mother Marie de la Trimté

To the Reverend Mother Marie de la Trimté, Pnioress of the Carmelites at Troyes. [Annecy, 1632.] Vive > Jésus!

My truly good and dear Mother,—I beseech the divine Saviour of our souls to fill your blessed soul with His holy and pure love! I cannot tell you the consolation I received on hearing your news from her whom you were pleased to allow to write tome. Ah! truly what sweetness and strength there is in friendships of which God is the foundation, in comparison to those of this world; for, truth to say, my dear Mother, I feel always in my heart of hearts that the holy love God has given me for you is as strong as ever. How is it then that I appear to you to be negligent of showing itin my letters? I can, indeed, see no other cause save the multiplicity of affairs and the continual occupations in which divine Providence employs me through the correspondence of all our houses with this one. Your charity will, then, bear with me, my very dear Mother, and you will not cease to continue your charitable love and remembrance of me before the divine Goodness. How grateful I am to your reverence for this. You cannot imagine my extreme need of divine assistance. It is only, I know, too true that in proportion as I am overwhelmed with distracting occupations I am losing the devotion needful to sustain me in them. But I take comfort in the fact that they are not of my choice, and that, as divine Providence has put me in this position, God’s most holy will ought to be enough for my contentment.

Here I am past my sixtieth year, and you talk of making the journey to the other life before me! Alack! you certainly deserve this mercy, and I the punishment of still remaining in this miserable world. May God give me the grace to let it be in order to do rigorous penance. I see, however, that His goodness gratifies you by many sufferings in the way of bodily infirmities. They are sent but to increase your love and your crown, my very dear Mother, and for this I pray to His sovereign sweetness, in which I remain, etc.