Letter 1722. To Sister Jeanne Agnes Provenchére

My dearest Daughter,—Before answering your letter I wish to make an act of thanksgiving to our good God for having preserved you from infection. As soon as our dear sister, the Superior of Mans, told us that this malady had come upon you, we offered up special prayers for your preservation. All the arrangements you have made for this present time of danger are excellent. Our Lord never fails to enlighten us when we have recourse with confidence to His goodness.

That virtuous little sister is happy to have left this world before the malice of our age had corrupted the innocence of her heart. It has given me pleasure to hear how Sister Paule Marie nursed her to the end, regardless of the danger to herself; and what you tell me of the charity and courage with which our good sisters were ready to expose themselves for the sake of each other is also a great consolation to me. Our Lord will not fail to reward their goodwill.

I never doubted but that you are genuinely delighted to be again in the pleasant position of a subordinate. It is a happiness of which good use should be made. You have done quite right not to change the election list as first fixed, notwithstanding the contentions of these good sister counsellors. Hold it as an inviolable maxim never to put in charge as counsellors those who are of an ambitious or 2A suspicious turn of mind: they are not only incapable of giving sound advice, whether by reason of a certain feebleness of mind or from preoccupation, but they gain over the other counsellors and do harm; nay, even sometimes altogether upset the counsel. My God! daughter, how glad I am to know that you have cultivated those dear souls so carefully in the spirit of their vocation, and with what affection you carried out the intentions of our holy Founder. But to take it so much to heart as to collapse, and get faint when they commit faults, shows an over-eagerness of spirit that must be corrected. And this can be done by practising the loving and gracious charity and the tranquillity of our most kind-hearted Father: for he regarded all things with repose of spirit. This advice applies in like manner to the resolution you have made since your deposition of imposing upon yourself a penance each time you fail by giving your opinion or advice. If you are quick and active you will have plenty to do, dear daughter: there is no need, forsooth, to be so penitent. Keep yourself humbly recollected near God. Do this with gentle attentiveness, and you will be doing quite enough. When you see others commit some fault, do not correct them, but be satisfied with acquainting the Superior, if the matter is of importance. [If it is not, then give a cordial admonition [in the refectory]. As your spiritual Father wishes you to be bursar while you are building, I make no objection, though I am always strongly inclined to let the deposed mother have at least a year of rest. I hope, however, that your being bursar will satisfy them without your having all these little charges that you mention. As to confession, the directions in the book of ‘Little Customs’ must be strictly adhered to, and under no pretext whatsoever should the written confessions of the sisters be seen. . . . Keep strictly to this, dearest daughter. Live in holy joy and openness with your good Mother, and take no notice of her manner, for she loves you dearly.