Letter 1604. To Sister Francoise Angélique de la Pesse,+
To Sister Francoise Angélique de la Pesse,+ Mistress of Novices of the Second Monastery of Annecy. (Turin, 1638.] Vive > Jésus |
My dear Daughter.—How you ought to value this favour, this holy, intimate word which our divine Saviour in His loving-kindness uttered in the depth of your heart! With such a grace dwell in peace, and be careful to practise the good precept to have no care of self. Overlook difficulties, overlook incapacity, trusting generously to Him who is within you. Truly God keeps the guidance of these dear ones out of our hands and in His own, but He guides them through us and for us. Rest then in peace, and walk forward faithfully and humbly. My good and dear daughter, Our Lord never seems to leave you long without some privileged visit, that illuminates your heart with new understanding and desire of the complete surrender of self to His holy will. This blessed attraction the divine Master has always made1
Footnotes
-
On April 28, 1623, Francoise Angélique de la Pesse, then a mere child, was drowned in a deep river, out of which her body was rescued after three hours with every evidence of death, when through the intercession of St. Francis de Sales she was restored to life. The Saint did not delay to adopt her as his daughter in the First Monastery of Annecy. Unsparing of herself, she had recourse to the most violent means of overcoming her faults of character and her defects, until, becoming dead to self, Sister Francoise Angélique lived only in and for God. Very unusual spiritual favours prepared her to bear the cleansing fire of grace. One day she hesitated to accept a humiliation, and Our Lord appeared to her under the form of the Ecce Homo and said to her: Behold the model thou shouldest imitate. Upon another occasion, frightened at the responsibility involved in the charge of mistress of novices, which was about to be confided to her at the Second Monastery of Annecy, she understood her sovereign Lord to make her this reproach: O anxious soul, what dost thou fear? Knowest not thou that I am with thee? The letters of St. Jane Frances de Chantal allude to the special graces received by this humble religious. She governed consecutively the monasteries of Agen, Saint- Amour, and the second of Annecy with innumerable blessings from heaven and fidelity to the maxims of the Institute—Taken from the Book of Vows of the First Monastery of Annecy; Année Sainte, vol. ix, yours; co-operate faithfully with His grace, unburdening all care of yourself on Him and simply reposing on His breast. Recommend me to the divine mercy. ↩
Chapter 171 of 252