Letters 33–41

Letter 33

You are led away, sir, by the quickness of your feelings. You did not put yourself into your present position; Providence placed you there. God never requires what is impossible, and you will only be called to give account for that which you can do. They misunderstand Him who say with the slothful servant, '' I know Thee that Thou art an hard man, reaping where Thou hast not sown."

All who govern will come into contact with some refractory minds which refuse to bear the yoke* If you would win those under you to God, do not begin by rigidly adhering to an over-strict rule; you will never succeed with minds unaccustomed to the yoke. Rather, make yourself loved, and let it be felt that you love God. Accustom those under you to confide their infirmities to you; show them a father's kindness, and as much indulgence as your essential rules. will admit. Deal with each according to his need. Govern not by general rules so much as by adapting yourself to individual wants. Make yourself all things to all men through the perceptions of. grace, bearing with the weak while perfecting the strong. One can often see to the end of one's authority, and by carrying it too far one would only cause revolution. . It is well to bear iji mind from whence those under you have come, so as to be content with little. Not that I would have you neglect any part of Grod's Law, or the rules of your Community; but one must learn to tolerate what cannot be hindered — to wait, to hope, to point to a far-off goal, and encourage those who scarcely venture to look forward so far, helping them gradually to make the first needful steps. God's Blessing will be upon such a patient, kindly government. It is a real work of faith, toiling amid darkness without seeing the fruit of your labour. You only see your inferior's indolence, complaining, division, misunderstanding, contradictions; but amid all these briers, which seem to cover the whole ground, there is some fruitful seed, and it is for the sake of this seed that God subjects us to so many trials. I earnestly hope that your heart will find rest amid your duties, and that, while effecting such good as the state of things will admit of, you will abide quietly till God prepares the minds of those around you for a fuller and more effectual improvement. One must deal with every one according to his special prejudice; and after trying to put forward the truth, we must wait for it to effect that which we cannot do of ourselves, namely, to convince men and win their hearts.

So be it your part to do what you can day by day, and do not affect to promote God's Glory beyond what He sees good to permit. Be content wiih the daily bread He wills to you; what more would you have? Read, but give the preference to meditation over scientific reading. I would fain see you caring little for **' knowledge which puffeth

TO AN ECCLESIASTIC 75 up," and living rather in that "charity which edifteth." Check the curiosity of a worldly mind by recollection, and the habitual sense of God's Presence; hush your too lively imagination, in order that you may listen to God. In prayer alone you will find wisdom, courage, patience, gentleness, firmness, the art of ruling others. There only you will learn how to govern well. In the silence of prayer God will take away your mind, and fill you solely with His Own. He alone must be all in all. When He reigns absolutely among you. He will reach from one extremity to the other with gentle force. Therefore pray about everything; you cannot pray too much. If you decide or act without prayer, your self-will is sure to disturb you much, to involve you in many Annoyances, to cause you harassing doubts and misgivings, so that you will waste your strength for nothing; but if faithful to prayer, what else is a purgatory will become an earthly paradise, while you will do more good in one peaceful day than in a month of hurry and disturbance. Do not think about distance; those who are united in God are always together, while such as live under the same roof without such union are infinitely far apart.

Letter 34

I AM rejoiced, sir, to hear from yourself how diligently you have sought the truth, in spite of former prejudices. This straightforward hne will bring a real blessing on you personally, as well as on your ministry, and therefore on your flock* Nothing is so impprtant as simplicity and a sincere mistrust of self. If everybody were intent upon prayer, recollection, charity, freedom from self-, conceit, and the. renunciation of an empty reputation^ for wit andiearning, all disputes would be soon set at rest. Our Lord said to the Jews, " How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh of God only?"' And He went on to say, " If any man will do His Will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." * Thus we see that those wh6 mislead others and go astray themselves do so for lack of sfeeking God's Will with a -humble heart, and in submission to the Church. Heresy only tempts them because they open the door to it by vanity, curiosity; presumption, and dissipation, it is lack of recollection and of self-abnegation which fosters contentious spirits and raises up the founders of heresies and innovations; and therefore it is that S. Cyprian says, "Let no one imagine that they can ^ be good men who leave the Church. W^ind does not take the wheat, nor do storms overthrow the tree that has a solid root to rest on. It is the light straw that the tempest tosses. . . . Thus are the faithful approved, thus the false detected; thus, even h^re, before the Day of Judgment, the souls of the righteous and unrighteous are divided, the chaff

ON DRYNESS IN PRAYER JJ separated from the wheat"* Experience proves this visibly. . Who are the founders of schisms and heresies? Men who are learned, inquiring, critical, full of their own talents, kindled with a sharp, Pharisaical zeal for reform, contemptuous, indocile, imperious. They may be highly moral, and possess a rigid, proud courage, a bitter zeal against abuses, unremitting application to study and discipline; but you will find no gentleness, forbearance, -patience, humility, or true spirit of prayer among •them.

" I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth,** said our Lord Jesus Christ, "because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." ' And He has also said, "If the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him." 3 I am ever most sincerely yours, etc.

Letter 35

TOURNAI, Oct. 26, i/or.

Forgive me. Reverend Father, for not having answered your question. . . . What I think about the matter is simply this:^-

• Our body merely requires nourishment; ft is Enough for the ruling soul to be conscious of its needsj and the effecting of what is necessary is

• De Unit. Eccht. : Libra'^y of the Fat/urs, vol. iii. Treat. V. p. 138. ' ' Matt. rA. 25. 3 Luke x. 6. made easy by the satisfaction thereby created. As to the soul, it has a further want. If it were altogether simple, it too might receive and rightly use a conscious strength; but being diseased, so to say, through self-love, it is needful that God should conceal its strength, its growth, and good desires. Or if permitted to see these, it is but a faint perception, so vague that the soul cannot rely on them; yet even so, it is prone to view such gifts with vain self-complacency^ in spite of the humiliating uncertainty. What would it not do were it able clearly to behold the grace which inspires it, and a faithful correspondence thereto? Therefore it is that God does two things for the soul, while He does but one for the body. .To this latter He gives nourishment, together with hunger and pleasure in eating, all of which are sensible. But to the' soul He gives the hunger of desire, and food; but while giving these gifts He hides them, lest the soul derive self-complacency through them. And thus, when purifying us with trial. He deprives us of delight, of sensible fervour, of acute conscious desires. As the soul in its pride turned all sensible power to poison, God reduces it to feel nought save languor, distaste, weakness, temptation. Not but that it does always receive real help; it is warmed, kindled, upheld in perseverance, but without the conscious enjoyment of all this, which is a very different thing from the fact. Prayer is not at all the same thing as the conscious pleasure which often is its accompaniment. Saint Teresa observes that many souls give up prayer directly that they cease to find sensible pleasure in it, whereas this is to give up

ON DRYNESS IN PRAYER 79 prayer just when it Is in the way to be perfected. True prayer is not a matter of sense or imagination, but of the mind and will. But one may easily make mistakes in speaking of pleasure and delight. There is a pleasure altogether vague and indeliberate, which does not proceed from the will; and there is a deliberate pleasure, which is neither more nor less than a stedfast will. And this delight which comes of the deliberate will is that of which the Psalmist says, " Delight thou in the Lord, and He shall give thee thy heart's desire."' This delight is inseparable from all real prayer, because it is in itself prayer; but this which is of the will is not always accompanied by that other delight, which is involuntary and sensible. The former may be most real, and yet not give any sensible consolation; and thus sometimes souls most severely tried may retain the delight of the will in an utterly dry prayer without conscious pleasure. Otherwise we should be reduced to say that souls are only perfected in God's Ways in proportion as they feel their pleasure in virtue increasing, and that all souls deprived of sensible pleasure by trial have lost the love of God, and are under delusion. This would be to upset everything, and measure all piety by the imagination, a proceeding which would tend to the most dangerous fanaticism, every one deciding his own degree of perfection by the degree of his pleasure and taste. Moreover, this is really done by some souls unconsciously; they seek nothing save pleasure and satisfaction in prayer, and give themselves up to feeling, believing nothing to

8o be reisil but what they feel and imagine — biecoming mere enthusiasts. If they have a fit of fervour, they will enter upon, and deal with anything; .nothing stops them, no authority can restrain them. -But if this sensible fervour dies out, forthwith such souls are disheartened, grow slack, and fall away. They must be perpetually beginning again; they.turn like a weathercock with every wind; they only follow Jesus Christ for the miraculous loaves and.fishes; they demand quails in the desert; they are for ever crying oUt, like S. Peter on Mount Tabor, " It is good for us to be here! " Happy that soul which is faithful alike in sensible abundance and in,the most severe privation; it " shall be even as •Mount Sion, . which may not be removed, but standeth fast for ever." * It eats the daily bread of pure faith, neither seeking the enjoyment of which God deprives it, nor the sight of what He conceals; :it is content, to believe what the Church has taught it, to love God with a simple will, and to do, at all:co5ts, whatever the Gospel commands or counsels. :If satisfaction [in prayer] is given, it accepts it. as a help to its own weakness; if not, it bears the privation. quietly, and loves on. Clinging to what is sensible leads at one time to discouragement, at another to illusion. He who loses his sensible.delectation without any fault of his own only sijffers as a child when his mother weans him: dry bread is less pleasant but mqre. strengthening than milk; a tutor's correction is more profitable than the fondling of a nurse.

But let us put aside philosophic discussion as to

DELUSIONS OF SELF-CONCEIT 8 1 the cause, and dwell only upon the result. We may be sure that we never need to pray so earnestly as when we cannot lay hold of any pleasure in prayer; that is the season of probation and temptation, and consequently the time for most earnest recourse to God in urgent prayer. On the other Jiand, it is well to accept all sensible fervour. very.simply, as given to feed, comfort, strengthen the soul, never reckoning upon such sweetness, wherein imagination often has its share in flattering us. Let us follow Jesus Christ to His Cross like S. John; in so doing we shall never be deceived. S. Peter was in a sort of illusion on Mount Tabor. It is easy to say to one's self, ".I love God with all my heart," when conscious of nought save pleasure in such love; but true love is that which suffers while loving: " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."

Letter 36

On the Caution needful in directing Souls which

SEEM to be led IN EXTRAORDINAKY PATHS.

I CANNOT pretend, Reverend Father, to form any opinion as to the sincerity of the person in question, or to judge of the things she professes to experience; you, who have watched the details, can judge much better than I, who have seen nothing. But, generally speaking, I should fear that reading about extraordinary matters has affected a weak imagination to excess. Moreover, self-love easily flatters itself that it has attained the altitudes

•which it has admired in books. It seems to me ihat the only course to be taken is to guide such persons without taking any notice of such things, ^nd oblige them never to dwell voluntarily on such. This is the real way of discovering how ■much self-conceit has to do with these supposed ■gifts. Nothing tends so much to pique self-conceity and bring illusions to light, as a simple direction which sets aside the marvellous, and requires the person who aspires to it to act as •though nothing of the sort existed. Without such a test, I do not think you can pretend to have proved a person thoroughly, or to have taken due precautions against illusion. In thus obliging any one not to dwell voluntarily on extraordinary occurrences, you will only be following the rule given by the Blessed John of the Cross, to look beyond such light, and to abide in the twilight of simple faith. If the gifts be real, such detachment will not hinder them from leaving their mark upon the soul; if not, such uncompromising faith will be a sure guarantee against illusion. Moreover, such a line will not keep back the soul from God's true leadings, for there is no opposition. It can only vex self-conceit, which finds a hidden complacency in such unusual gifts; and that self-conceit is the very thing which needs pruning. Or even if such gifts are unquestionably real and good, it is most important for the soul to learn detachment from ihem, and to live by simple faith. However excellent the gifts may be, detachment from them is •better still. " And yet show I you a more excellent way " — the way of faith and love; i>ot clinging

ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND 83 either to sight, feeling, or taste, only to obedience to the Beloved One. Such a way is simple, real, straightforward, free from the snares of pride. Such bare simplicity keeps the soul from stopping short in aught save God. . . .

Letter 37

God has taken what is His: surely He has done all things well! It was time that F. . . should rest from his many troubles; they have been great, and he never spared himself. There was no thought of himself, only of the Will of Him Who ordered all. Crosses are only blessed to us in so far as we give ourselves up to them unreservedly and forgetting self. So, dear sir, seek to forget yourself, else all suffering is useless. God does not lay suffering on us merely that we may suffer, but that we may die to self by dint of putting it aside under the most difficult of all circumstances, viz., pain. I sympathise with the good Abba's loss in F. . . ; I know how united they were. Such a death has nothing save what is happy in it He is nearer to us than he was. There is no curtain to hide him now; even the veil of faith is lifted for those who are full of pure, disinterested love.

flDn t^e Deatd of a muttut JFrieitn.

God has fulfilled His Will: He has taken what is

His, and has deprived you of what was not yours you yourself are wholly His. I know thatTu desire ta be so, and to that end you must sacrifice everything when the occasion offers. He was canng for your best. interests when He took our dear A. , to Himself; the suddenness of the

TtL '' WK """^A^T^^^ ^^y ^ ^P^""& ^^^ temp, tation When God has brought His work to the point He chooses. He confirms the holy will which Jie has inspired, and sets His children free from all uncertamties. He veils the last sacrifice in order to spare them the dread of it. Let us leave Him to do as He will, and turn straight to Him Do not give ear to yourself: mistrust your rather morbid temperament, and still more your too reflective mind.

I am in a state of very bitter peace, and I wish you all the peace without the bitterness. It is impossible for me to tell you more about myself.' t- do not understand my own condition; whatever i try to say seems unreal. Often death would be a consolation; often I am cheerful, and amused with everything. As to telling you the reason of one or tlie other, it is what I cannot do, for I have no real reasons. But taking everything into consideration I believe that I am where I ought to be, and do not let myself remember that there is anywhere else in the world than the place to which my duties bind me. If I could see you, I should rejoice; but not being able to do so, it" is enough to be ever near you in spirit, in spite of distance. Let us continue thus united so" long as God's Providence wills us to be so separated. ,'

PEACE IN SUFFERING 85

Letter 39

Peace in %uffennc^.

As to N. . . , I pray that our Lord may give her that simplicity which would be a root of peace to lier. When we learn stedfastly to put aside all restless^ unnecessary anxiety, which springs from a love of self very different from true love, we shall haVe attained the very heart of the narrow way, and, lacking in nothing towards God or man, we shall enjoy the pure liberty and the innocent peace of His children;

I take to myself, sir, the lesson I preach to others^ land know well that I need to seek peace where I tell them to seek it. My own heart is suffering; It is through living to self that one suffers; the dead do not feel suffering. If we were dead, and " our life hid with Christ in God/' as the Apostle says,* we should not feel any of these mental troubles. Wc might have bodily sufferings, such as fever, gout, etc., and we might have certain spiritual sufferings — that is to say, such as visit the soul without any agency of its own; but as to sufferings arising from anxiety, in which resistance doubles the weight of the cross laid on us by God, all such only arise because we live to ourselves.

A cross wholly inflicted by God, and fully accepted without any unrestful hesitation, is full of peace as Avell as of pain. On the contrary, a cross not fully and simply accepted, but even slightly resisted by ihe love of self, is doubled: it is still more a cross,

S thanks to that futile resistance, than through the pain it necessarily entails. . Suffering and peace are marvellously blended in purgatory. Nothing suffered there but comes from the Hand of God, and there is no resistance of will mingled. with that pain. Happy they who can bear sufifering in this peaceful acquiescence! Nothing so lightens and alleviates pain.

But for the most part we bargain with God; we always want to fix a limit and see the end. The same hidden, root of obstinate self-love which makes us need crosses makes us repulse them and hinder their work. And so it has to begin again perpetually; we suffer, yet do not allow the work that suffering has to do to be achieved. I pray our Lord that none of us may fall into that torpid state in which our crosses do us no good. S. Paul says that " God loveth a cheerful giver." ' How much more must He love those who give themselves up cheerfully to His Will, ready to bear all His dealings, however painful!

Letter 40

I CANNOT but marvel at the virtue of the cross; we are worth nothing save through it. It makes me shudder convulsively as soon as I feel it, and all that I have said about its healing gifts vanishes before the agony inflicted on my heart. But so soon as I recover my breath I open my eyes once, mor^, I se^

• a Cor. ix 7.

THE BLESSING OF SUFFERING 87 the blessing, and am ashamed that I was so speedily overthrown. The experience of this feebleness is a searching lesson.

Whatever state your invalid may be in, and whatever end God may send to her malady, she is happy to be thus docile in the Lord's Hand. If she dies, she will die unto the Lord; if she lives, she will live to Him. " To suffer or to die" was S. Teresa's prayer.

There is nothing higher than the cross, save the perfect reign of God; and even so suffering lovingly borne is the beginning of that reign, with which we must rest content while He delays the full consum-: mation. You, like me, stand in need of crosses, and the faithful Giver of all gifts has ordered wisely for us. His Holy Name be blessed for ever, because He chastens us for our correction! ,,

I have nothing more to say concerning yourself. I can see nothing to add to that which God is showing you, and which it is important to follow unremittingly. Die to self more and more. Such death is far deeper when laid on us by another. Accept the dependence in which God places you; it is good for you, and will tend to conquer your self-esteem and to make you lowly — you whose tendency is ta lead others. I feel for all your crosses. I seem to be closely united to all who suffer in our Lord. Suffering is only sent to lead us on. When God purposes to accomplish a great work in a short time. He sends many crosses, and His blows fall heavily; but oh, how full of love they are, even when they seem to crush us pitilessly! The cross is a holy relic to be kept close, and Iovcl ss

Without the cross would be a frenzy, and become illusion; but the cross brings down all lofty ideas all beautiful imaginations, aU consoling fervours' One becomes very lowly under suffering, especially when It is sharp and prolonged, and one winces sorely under it. Suffering is a merciful purgatory in this world; but who bears it like the souls God is purifying in the next? Who among us bears it like them— motionless beneath God's Hand, seeking no relief, without impatience, without attempt to shake it off; with a calm, ever^increasing love, with a pure joy amid every pang, and with a lowliness and simplicity which keeps them from imagining that in so suffering they are offering up anything to God? Let us strive to found some such an earthly purgatory even as men found hospitals.

Letter 41

tTo ©ne litoinfi: in ^olitune.

I WILL never fail any of those whom God has committed to me, so do not fear lest I give you up. Moreover, God would very readily do Himself that which He ceased to do through a wretched instrument. " Fear not, man of little faith." Abide in all your wonted habits; give full confidence to N. . . , who knows you thoroughly, and can help you in all your troubles. No convent would suit you; all would be a restraint, and put you into perilous temptation. Restraint would harass you. Remain free in your solitude, and occupy yourself in all simplicity with God Every day is a festival

TO ONE JN SOLITUDE 83 for those who tr>' to live unfettered by any will save His. Never prescribe any limit to Him. Never hinder any of His workings. Why should you hesitate to open when the Bridegroom knocks at the door of your heart? . . .

There is an exceeding difference between suffer*> ing and trouble of mind (la peine et le trouble). Simple suffering is a purgatory; but a troubled mind is as hell. Suffering without unfaithfulness is calm and peaceful, by reason of the entire purpose of the soul to accept the pain sent by God. But trouble and anxiety are as a revolt against God, and a division of the will which seems to tear the very soul to pieces* Oh, how purifying sorrow alone is! — how sweet, in spite of all the pain it brings i Those who accept what they suffer have no suffering of the will, and thus they are in peace. Blessed seed of Paradise sown in purgatory! But if we resist God, under whatever plausible pretexts, we move Him to resist us. Forsaking the grace He has given, you throw aside peace; and the knowledge of this is like the pillar of fire by night and of cloud by day which led the Israelites in the wilderness. Live by faith, and die to all worldly wisdom.

(IDt{)er0.

N, . ♦ is brave and a warm friend, and these two characteristics carry h^r beyond her strength; she fancies herself able to do more than she is really able. What you say touches her, but she is not yet thoroughly capable of the sacrifices you require of her. Jesus Christ, Who knew His disciples better than they knew themselves, said, " I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now."' And He told them, "Ye shall all be offended because of Me this night." S. Peter maintained that it would not be true of him: " Though all shall be offended, yet will not I. . . . If I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee in any wise." ' Our. Lord persisted, foretelling that Peter would deny Him three times before the cock crowed; and soon after a maid-servant's question caused him to deny his Master with an oath. This is what comes of relying on one's self and one's own strength. Let N... go on reading, feeling, praying, feeding her soul. You must be patient, and let souls take in for long before you ask them to give out anything. They must have been nourished inwardly by prayer, and have at* tained some degree of love, before you can hope to see them bring forth visible fruits of good works^ How does a mother deal with her babe.*^ She suckles and carries him. If she tried to make him walk at first, he would only fall; but when he has gained strength through her milk, you see him beginning to go of his own accord. And so in the spiritual life we must wait and carry the sucking babes. "When God makes His drawing sufficiently felt to point out a separation from the world, it will be time enough to help the person in question to come to this trying decision.

TO ONE IN SICKNESS 9 1