Letter 1834. To Mother Marie Aimée de Blonay

My dear Mother, my Daughter,—May God be our all! For your consolation we will indeed try to give you all our news; but to make it reach you as quickly as you desire we should have to employ an express messenger, for the one you sent us from Paris has been the cause of our not getting your letters. We received those you had written since we left Lyons only last Thursday; so you see you must have patience, and take it for granted that, when there is no hurry on my part to write, it is asign that all is going well. Otherwise you would promptly have news of it. Do not then let this trouble you any more.

I beg of you, dear daughter, take in good part the journeys God wishes me to undertake, since I hope His sweet goodness will draw His glory from them. I have never seen the will of God so manifest in any of my journeys as in this one, and if you were here you would try to persuade me to remain as long as necessary, or, if I were still at Annecy, you yourself would urge me to come to do what God requires of me for His glory. It pains me somewhat that in all your letters you so press my speedy return: for you ought to know that I would not stay away from our dear Annecy longer than is absolutely necessary. Since it is God’s will that we should go to Paris, I am very glad that things are satisfactory; if it were otherwise, great delays would doubtless have been caused, and we should have been obliged to return there later, whereas here we are already half-way. Besides, the confessor of our dear sisters of Paris tells me that for God’s glory I am required at that house. I hope, too, that we can easily accomplish the journey before the winter by starting from here on the 2oth of this month [September], so as to return about the same date in the month of November. I have sent them word that they must not keep me any longer. You may be sure these good mothers of Paris have not a notion of what we suspect them of. I read one of the letters your Charity wrote to them, as you sent it loosely sealed. I do wish it had been in a more cordial tone. Try to write to them as soon as you can, I beg of you, to make up for it.

In former letters I answered what you desire to know; and that is why I have not mentioned it again.

If you saw the sweet, humble generosity, the pliableness and goodness, of our dear Madame de Montmorency, you would not pity me for the length of our sojourn with her; and besides, I receive immense consolation from seeing what God has done in this community. It is completely transformed. These dear souls are as pliable as children, and I hope in the mercy of God that, with the help of the virtuous Mother! they have elected, this family will become one of the best in the Order. But for this a little time is needed to give them strength. I had arrived here when your letter of the last day of August reached me. It consoled me to hear of your good state of health and that of all the dear sisters. J thank Our Lord for it, and pray Him to continue all His holy graces, and to restore the use of reason to poor Sister J. Colombe [de Lacombe]. Alas, how sad itis! She is an innocent soul, and the thought of this is a great relief to me. There is no need to speak about her state amongst the sisters. I feel sure you are taking great care of those poor ones who are in trouble: Sisters F. Dorothée Longis, F. Innocente de la Fléchére, and J. Francoise de Vallon; although their troubles are very different one from another. [Several lines illegible here.]

As to our sister bursar, she is, no doubt, somewhat brusque, but her heart is good. Hardly any bursar would satisfy some, unless they were to get from her everything they asked for, and to give them that is not always expedient. You are quite right not to believe all you hear, and to make mature inquiries, so that your gentle corrections may be of profit to those who are at fault.

I am asking Sister J. Thérése [Picoteau] to answer what I have not time for, as I have so little leisure. But I will¹

Footnotes

1. Sister Frangoise Jacqueline de Musy, the deposed Mother of Montargis. 404. SAINT JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL just say this, good Mother and dearest daughter: I cannot think that you can have a greater desire for my return than I have, but I do indeed believe, by the grace of God, neither you nor I would wish to set aside His will in order to follow our own inclinations. I am not aware of having had recourse to dissimulation in treating with you. I did not certainly know the precise nature of the trouble that keeps me here longer than my obedience lasted, and that will occasion my having to stay for the winter; neither did I know of the steps taken by the Paris sisters with his Lordship, nor of their employing persons to secure me; though I did indeed think that, seeing that I was half-way on the road, they made every effort to have me, but I told the ecclesiastical superiors that I saw no necessity for it. What more could Ido? Besides, this did not prolong our absence. These suspicions have arisen from the simplicity with which I write out my thoughts. I remain, dearest Mother and daughter, wholly yours. ↩