Letter 1282. To Mother Louise Dorothée de Marigny

Superior at Montpellier. [Annecy, December 1633.]

Vive > Jésus!

My good and truly dearest Daughter,—Your letters have arrived and have been, believe me, the source of great joy, for I was longing to get your news, and when it comes it always gives me peculiar consolation. As for your temporal affairs, I am not much troubled about them, for you have such a good Father to look after you that he will see that you are not in want of anything. I do not think I can write to him this time, for I am so overwhelmed with letters and other business that it is as much as I can do to get through them.

I am very glad you have undertaken to build half your monastery. It is a dash of courage and generosity that I like well. As for daily bread, my very dear daughter, it will never fail those who seek God. The Son of God has pledged Himself to that, so we must not doubt it. Indeed, I cannot tell you how consoled I am to hear of the good state of your house; above all, of the good news you give me as to its spiritual state: namely, that our sisters are so well advanced in perfection. Verily, those who serve God, and do not continually strive to live up to the life and reality of their vocation, show plainly that they possess but little courage; they render themselves unworthy of the benedictions God usually confers on those who walk faithfully in their appointed way. I beg His divine goodness to grant them the grace more and more to persevere therein.

As to your charges . . . I think you arrange the sisters very well.

Once more I tell you what an immense consolation it is to me to know how well they are all making their way towards perfection. For, if indeed there are some who have a great deal of work to do, as they relish prayer it is a good sign that God will give them the courage to achieve the work they have begun. But what consoles me most is to know that you and those whom you brought with you are so united, for this is quite necessary to draw down blessings on a house at its commencement; yet it is not to be found everywhere.

I can well believe what you say about receiving plenty of subjects when you get into your new house. Parents look a good deal to such things, and even postulants do when they lack courage.

It is quite true that I have not written to you since the departure of M. de Vallat, having had no opportunity. Believe me, dearest daughter, if I wrote to you as often as my inclination dictated, you would have letters enough from me. But I know very well that you do not think it is from any want of goodwill or affection on my part, any more than I should think you were wanting in it to me when you do not write, and I have only had one letter from you since M. Vallat left, and that, just after he had gone. I forgot to say that I do not remember to have heard that the Barnabite father passed near you, for had I known it, not only I but also several of our sisters would have willingly written. As to the packet he brought you from Arles, he got it at Chambéry or somewhere else, for none of us wrote by him except to our sisters of Valence.

I must confess I am still so bound to natural affections that I felt keenly the death of my poor daughter de Chantal.

I absolutely loved her because she was so good; and I even feel the death of M. de Toulonjon. Both of them died, I think, within a fortnight. I am grateful to you for your prayers. To be relieved by prayers is all I desire for them. My daughter de Toulonjon is here. Her strong affections cause her to feel her loss deeply. She is making arrangements to remain for the winter with her two children—a boy of three months and a girl of twelve years old. I recommend her to your prayers.

I will write to my sister the Superior of the faubourg for the recommendation you wish to be made in your favour to the Duchess.

It gives me pleasure to know that Madame de N. has permission to enter the enclosure. I knew her formerly, and I am quite sure you will receive nothing but consolation and edification from her.

The Bishop of Geneva, after an illness of three months, is, by the grace of God, making a very good recovery. He suffers only from weakness now, but he is so energetic that he makes no account of that. You are quite right in thinking that I have been very anxious about him. I assure you I was as ill in heart as he was in body.

Our sisters are writing all our news to your community. My news is that we are on the point of beginning a second house in this town, to accommodate a great number of good and virtuous souls who desire to join us, and for whom we have no room here, being forty in number. We have already purchased the site for building on the credit of this, and we have three hundred florins in pocket to furnish the house and make all provision. Pray God to increase them.