Letter

Vive > Jésus!

My Daughter,—Learn to yield an absolute submission of your higher powers to God, and to hold your spirit in sweet authority over your passions so that they may be ruled according to reason, and preserve your equanimity in all events. Be at all times and under all circumstances kind and gentle. Win with such discretion the hearts of your daughters that while opening theirs you may open to them your own. Never be surprised to see them commit great faults, and let them not even be surprised at themselves, although their faults may be serious; but turn them very gently to the knowledge of their own misery. We should aspire to the perfect virtue required of us by our vocation, but it does not follow from this that we may not commit faults. Oh no! for the finest virtue is only acquired amidst contradictions. But if it has already been attained with labour, then things most painful no longer cause us pain; not that the merit is less, since the preceding conflict renders very meritorious all that is afterwards done, with an increasing advantage. Natural virtues are meritorious only through the care which we take in directing our intention. In a word, the greater the combat the greater the crown, and the more glorious is the triumph. Nor must we avoid it under any pretext whatsoever, nor be astonished at the rebellion of our passions, nor at the repugnances shown by those others; such persons we must meet with much amiability, remembering that each one, like ourselves, has two sides, one tending to good, the other to evil. Turn to God at all times and occasions, my daughter, above all in times of perplexity. Never let your heart grow remiss in comporting yourself with the utmost exterior suavity of manner. Keep unceasingly before your mind the gentleness and charity of God to His creatures, above all to Magdalen and to all sinners. Think of those kind words of His to His Apostles, ‘Do you not know that I am not come in the spirit of Elias?’ When you see others in trouble, meet them with words of tenderness and love: for what are we to merit so great a grace as that power should be given us by God over these angels whom He destines us to guide! This thought should never be absent from us. Turn from the repugnance that you feel for your charge, and often say: ‘O my God, my dear Saviour, rather a thousand times may I die than live according to my own inclinations! No, my God, all I wish for is a peace-abiding humility and a sweet love of my own lowliness by which I gain perfect acquiescence in Thy will. I stand before Thee humble and tranquil with perfect trust in Thy divine goodness.’

We must, my daughter, have great courage in order to serve God in whatsoever way it shall please Him, now by consolations and again by the troubles and afflictions incidental to our charges—above all to yours, seeing that in it your only aspiration should be to please God and to employ your heart, your spirit, your person in His service, so as by humility, gentleness, and charity to become a saint. Never need you be troubled as long as you lean on the strength of God and not on your own.