Letter 1872

LETTER 1872 [No date.] Vive > Jésus!

You are right, my dearest daughter, in the view you have taken about the foundation. God will look after it if it is His will: for never under any circumstances should we hold out hopes of accepting either a foundation, or subjects, or means, or anything whatever that we know to have been taken away from or offered to any other of our houses, unless that house itself begs of us to do so. Keep firm, I beg of you, to this, and be also on your guard not easily to believe any suspicion against one of our sisters. If some one acts in a way that looks as if there was a want of that confidence and affection which is our due, I should, before giving credit to it or speaking of it, write to that person with all simplicity and frankness and tell her of it, not as a thing you believe, but about which you desire to know the truth from her, so as to put a stop to it.

I beg of you, my very dear daughter, let your government be broad and large-hearted. Give your sisters holy liberty, and banish from your own and from their minds all servitude and constraint. If anyone is wanting in confidence, show no coldness towards her, but win all through love and kindness. Let no prejudice enter your mind against anyone; be the same to all, thus guiding them with a carefulness that is neither over-eager nor overanxious, but lovingly gentle and cordial. One cannot, I know, better succeed than by this manner of conduct with souls. The more kindness and frankness you show, the more will you support them, the more will you gain entire possession of their hearts, and that is the great means of making them advance in the perfection of their vocation. Now be present at the community exercises as much as ever you can, and let it be seen that you like to be there. You tell me that you cannot bear the burden of your charge. Oh, my daughter! I beseech you let me not hear this again. What! would you bury the talent God has given you, and render useless so many gifts and graces with which His goodness has endowed you, and of which you have made use for the increase of His glory in the government of the house He has confided to you—and that for lack of determination, and of lifting up your spirit above self and above your timorous and cowardly disposition? Trample it under foot, my very dear daughter, regarding God and the good pleasure of His eternal designs over you. Abandon your future to Him, that He may employ it to His liking and not to yours, and hand over to Him all your consolations. Believe me ever yours, etc.