Letter 1868

[No date.] Vive > Jésus!

My very dear and beloved Daughter,—Although this is a hurried opportunity, I cannot let it pass without sending you and your dear little flock my hearty greetings in your new house and a thousand benedictions on your commencement, so that it may progress as happily as we should expect for the daughters of Holy Mary. Do everything in your power to establish exact observance, for I know well from experience that on the bent that is given to houses at their birth their future happiness partly depends. Good seed brings forth good fruit, and good foundations a solid building. It is a great advantage to have such virtuous sisters as yours to govern. Keep closely united together with mutual esteem, so that those whom you shall receive may follow you in this path of holy and forbearing charity. Take special care of the novitiate, that the novices may be well grounded in piety and profound humility, for, I tell you once more, on a good foundation depends, to a certain extent, the solidity of the little edifice divine Providence has committed to your care. Labour then with great courage, leaning on the divine succour, that will never fail you provided you are always sincerely jealous of the practice of your observance.

As to what you say, my dearest daughter, about poultry being much cheaper in your little town than butcher’s meat, and that in consequence had you not better purchase it instead for the community? I answer, you must not introduce this custom: it is better to keep to what is laid down in the ‘ Book of Customs.’ Verily, we can never too much dread the least relaxation in any way whatsoever, and never should we relax under pretext of either good housekeeping or of economy, above all in things that tend to delicacy or sensuality. Fly from such as you would from death, and be content with the permission given in the ‘ Book of Customs’ to purchase fowl for the sick. It may sometimes be served to the community when given as alms, or as a present to the monastery, for that, in my experience, does not often happen.

I am very sorry the girl of whom you speak to me is of a melancholy and fretful disposition. They are both tiresome traits in a religious, and if, by a powerful grace and firm courage, they do not subdue these tendencies, such souls give great trouble to others and are martyrs to themselves. I cannot nor is it my place to determine whether or no she is to be sent away: that is for you and our good sisters who see her failings. You ought to judge her in the light of the Rule and the ‘ Conferences’ of our Blessed Father. If she has many faults, that does not signify, provided she humbly and simply use the remedies given her to make herself worthy of the grace of perseverance in the religious vocation.

Take my word for it, my daughter, and never adopt the practice of letting secular girls enter the enclosure in order to give them a desire to become nuns. It is for the Holy Ghost to put this inclination into their hearts. God is not obliged to give a vocation to those whom we desire to have it, for the choice does not belong to us but to Him alone. Our part is to receive and carefully train those who come solely by His inspiration.

No, indeed, the Superior ought not to allow her name to be engraved on the foundation-stone of the building. It is seeking after vanity. All that savours of distinction and worldly ways should be shunned by us, and a true and sincere humility be our only aim.

Yes, my very dear daughter, glass may be put in the cloisters in places where it can easily be procured, as when one is near glass manufactories.

In regard to the good out-sister, as it is since her entrance into the house that you have learnt that her husband has been transported and had been condemned to death, if she is good, virtuous, and devout, and, above all, extremely humble, I should not send her away. Take prudent advice of some sensible person. But, to avoid any complications or disputes, you could keep the young woman in the capacity of out-sister, without allowing her to make her oblation whilst there is any doubt as to her husband being still alive. However, the votes should be taken for her equally at the end of the two years’ novitiate, as a guarantee of her remaining with you and also as an assurance to her that she can remain in the monastery. There are so many forms of misery in this world and so many persons afflicted in various ways that, when we can help some one to bear her cross, we ought to do it very willingly. It was the great and daily practice of the truly charitable heart of our Blessed Father, and I am glad of this opportunity most earnestly to exhort you to inculcate in your daughters, from the beginning, maxims of sweetness and charity towards our dear neighbour, of whom, if they can do nothing else, they can always speak kindly. When there is no remedy for an evil, never permit them to speak to you of it, for it is waste of words, and there should always be a good end and solid reason for speaking of the amendment that others need.

Accustom your novices to talk on suitable and useful subjects and to bring God into their conversation at recreation. Often give them challenges to practise interior virtues, and train them to a great esteem and love of holy prayer.

Now, my dearest daughter, only one of your questions remains to be answered: No, it is not necessary on the examination of a novice that the [ecclesiastical] superior should come into enclosure in order to hear the opinion of a sister counsellor who may be sick; it is enough if he speaks to the three other counsellors, the mistress of novices, and the Mother Superior. With us, here, it is not customary for the [ecclesiastical] superior to come to the infirmary to see the sisters who may happen to be ill there at the time of the canonical visitation—only for the election of the Superior; on no other occasion does he come in to take their vote.

I assure you that it is a great pleasure to me that you are in no hurry to receive subjects. Experience will show you the wisdom of this, and how it helps to test their virtue.

You place me under great obligations by the confidence you show me. Say everything frankly without fear of importuning me. Nothing gives me greater consolation than this cordial confidence of our sisters, the superiors, towards me; and so I send you my answers as to one of my most dear daughters, for whom I wish an abundant participation in the merits of the Passion of Our Lord, in which I am, etc.