Letters 89–99

Letter 89

An affectionate father is not always thinking about his son \ a thousand things occupy his imagination, and thereby his mind. But such, distractions never hinder His paternal affection. Whenever the thought of his child recurs, it is with conscious love, and he knows he has never ceased to love that child for a moment, though he has ceased to think of him. This is what our love for our Heavenly Father ought to be — simple, and without mistrust or anxiety. If the imagination wanders, and the mind is led away, we should not be troubled. All this is not the real man, that ** hidden man" of whom S. Peter speaks, whose strength lies in the " incorruptibility of a meek and quiet spirit."' Our business is to use our freedom of thought rightly, always turning back to the Presenceof the Beloved, and not fidget about our wanderings. When God pleases, He will increase our conscious facility in maintaining a recollection of His Presence. He often deprives us of it for our better progress; for such facility diverts lis with too many trains of thoughts, which are really

■ ' Rom. ii. 4. * I Peter iii. 4. distractions, and interrupt the straightforward, simple glance towards God, and so draw us out of the shadows of pure faith. We seek to gratify selflove in such processes^ and the satisfaction of selfapplause. So this sensible fervour becomes a distraction, while, on the contrary, we never pray better than when we are tempted to fancy that we are not praying at all. At such times we are afraid of praying amiss; but we ought to fear nothing save letting ourselves fall into natural cowardice, into that philosophical infidelity which always seeks to demonstrate its own operations in the faith, into a mere impatient longing to see and feel what is comfortable. There is no severer penance than such a condition of pure faith without any sensible support; whence I infer that it is very effectual, very crucifying, and free from delusion. It is a strange temptation. We seek sensible consolation impatiently, out of fear of lacking penitence. Why not let our penitence take the shape of renouncing the consolation we so eagerly seek?

Further, we must remember Jesus Christ forsaken of His Father on the Cross. He hid Himself,- as the last grief to be inflicted on the Man of Sorrows. It was the consummation of His Sacrifice. Never need we so entirely to give ourselves up to God as when He seems to have forsaken us. Let us accept light and consolation when He gives it, but without cleaving to them; and when He plunges us into darkness, let us go blindly into our agony. One moment of such tribulation may do the work of hours. Willing all, accepting all; downcast, but with a stedfast will to bear whatever God sends,

TO THE VIDAME D^ AMIENS 185 however hard. And so one is really at peace beneath the pressure. Blessed be God, Who does so great things in us^ notwithstanding our unworthiness!

Letter 90

It is not surprising that you are afraid of me. So long as you are not at one with yourself you are afraid of your own reason, still more of your faith, which condemns you; and just as naturally you are even more afraid of a man whom you believe to be but little indulgent to your infirmities. But I am not really so severe as you imagine. I pity you, and would fain comfort you. I would that I could bear your troubles, and set you free. There is nothing I would not do, save flatter you with a cruel indulgence.

You are suffering more than you would suffer by casting yourself into the Bosom of God. YoU would only have the same duties to perform day by day, and love would make them easy. The more you give heed to your indolence and your taste for certain pleasures, the more difficulties and hindrances you are making for yourself. Why do you defer your determination? It is irresolution and indecision of heart which depress you. If you were resolved, you would see things altogether differently, and feel what you have not yet felt. You are convinced as to what you owe to God

You have nothing to say against the claims of rehgion, save your adhesion to certain pleasures and your lukewarmness for virtue. " If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?"* Since our Lord has told you what is necessary to your salvation, why do you hesitate? Why not surrender yourself to His Grace and Love? Woe to the double heart!

Oh, if you had but once tasted the blessing and freedom which there is in having a will at one with God's, you would mourn over every lost moment 1 It is a sufficient affliction to have the flesh lustin^^ against the spirit, but at all events the spirit should not be divided; a man should be at one with himself in desiring only that which God wills. For want of such unity we know no peace, but carry about a civil w^ar I You can only put an end to your irresolution by prayer. Reason little, but pray much, and to that end pray simply. When you were with the army, I wrote to you as to the practice of prayer. You cannot use too great liberty of mind in it so as to persevere. Talk to God, as to the best of friends, of all your faults, troubles, and wants. Discuss your affairs with Him, and ask His counsel on all that needs deciding. . As to certain steps to be taken, without which you cannot thrive, you must be strict with yourself, and go forward without casting backward glances; you will get off easiest by so doing. Though you look upon me as a kind of bugbear, I long to embrace you as you pass this way. Love me, I pray you, as one who loves and prizes you exceedingly.

TO THE VI DAME D* AMIENS 1 87

Letter 91

... I PRAY daily that God would uphold you against yourself^ and not suffer all His Grace, so abundantly shed in your heart, to turn to your condemnation* You know what is right; you love it. Your conscience reproaches you for what you do, and for what you leave undone. You despise that which holds you as by a charm; you are ashamed of that which you are preferring to God. You would shrink with horror from dying as you are living, in dissipation, lukewarmness, and unfaithfulness. You would break through this kind of enchantment if you would but subject yourself to a little restraint in two matters: first, giving a quarter of an hour, morning and evening, to meditation and reading, with some inward effort to find God in your heart, and recall His Presence during the events of the day; and next, shunning all that you know dissipates you, excites you, and gives you a distaste for God. You would find that only unprofitable amusements cause this dissipation, and that all pursuits which belong to your position by the order of Providence do not separate you from Him, if you would use them with moderation for His Sake. Could there be a more advantageous bargain? Be courageous: do not hesitate any longer, but give yourself to Him Who seeks you only for your own eternal happiness. You. will

1 receive a hundred-fold even in this life for what you give up. . . .

Letter 92

Your last letter touched me greatly. I remember you daily and fervently at the Altar. You should not be surprised to find yourself so lukewarm, so frail and easily dissipated; it is the natural result of an habitual laxity. Your passions are strong-; you live in the midst of the world, and the most dangerous temptations; your faith is feeble; your self-love indulges freely in all which the fear of God does not set before you as gross sin. It is a worldly life somewhat restrained by fear of God; but it is not living in the love of God instead of self-love. You cannot escape from this unstedfast state save by giving yourself freely to God, and nurturing love by free and frequent prayer. When a man will only adopt so much religion as seems to quiet his conscience and give him some degree of hope, he has but a languid spiritual- existence. He is like a convalescent, who eats just enough to keep him from fainting or from acute pain, but who can barely dn^ along, and knows not what to da If you ask what to do, I answer: —

I. Consider yourself as a man who has chosen his side, does not deny it, is not ashamed of Jesus Christ, though he avoids all affectation; who sedcs to be confirmed in doing right without looking back.

TO THE VIDAMB d'aM/BNS 189

II. You must read and pray: pray heartily. Frequent the Sacraments, and adopt a good rule of life under the advice of some man who is alike free from harshness and laxity, and is thoroughly experienced in God's Ways.

III. You must examine, especially in prayer, and directly after Communion, as to what God requires of you in respect of your passions, in guarding against self, in restraining your tastes, and cutting off pleasures which interfere with your external duties, or with a recollected life. You will see that if you give yourself up to the Spirit of Grace, He will show you what hinders you in the path by which God calls you.

IV. You must not be surprised or disheartened at your faults. You must bear patiently with yourself, without flattery, or sparing correction. Do by yourself as you would by another. Directly you perceive that you have done wrong, condemn yourself, and ask God to accept your repentance; tell your fault honestly to the minister of God who is in your confidence. Begin again, as if for the first time, and do not grow weary of making continual fresh beginnings. Nothing reaches God's Heart better than such humble, patient courage.

We must not be disheartened because we experience many temptations and commit many faults. God's strength is "made perfect in weakness," S. Paul tells us.' It is less through sensible attraction and spiritual consolation, than by interior humiliation and frequent recourse to God, that we draw near to Him. I intreat you to think of all this. . . .

Letter 93

I THANK God for the fi-rao. u -°«^ '9. .709.

but I fear lest youT Senln"^ r'''^'' "« fi"s you, portionateto somuchS'**"^ ^"W «« be Jro-' dreaded than despised Vra.^ "? '' '"o« »<> be judgment will foUowmerciwwhU^ the severest forth fruit. It is the sinTf * ** ^^^ "«* bought. ing the Holy SpTrU gL'T'"'"'" ^^ ««^^tthrough this year seemingly to^raf^"''^^ >«" Him by so many secret insn.vl^ ^°" ° 'o^e next campaign draws neLrx"'- ^" ^^ the for you. l/cod's^N^rd ro^t'th^ '"""« which perhaps is granted i tt crisJ T""'' eternal salvation, be spent i„ luxury!7rivoHtt ^''"i pleasure! '' '"'^outy, and

You have parents who serve God heartilv • have a wife, who if not yet reaUy reli-^ious T" plenty of good sense, kindness, virtue, and res^Iet for true religion. Are you not fortunate from with out, while God continually draws you within? H " is not repulsed by your negligence, but deigns to show you the patience which you ought to show Him. I am afraid this patience of God is spoiling you! Do not be content with avoiding gross sin Pray; unite your heart to God; accustom yourself to go apart with Him in loving confidence • do everything in His Presence, and put aside whatever

TO THE VIDAME D^AMIENS I9I is unworthy to be oflfered to Him. This should be your standard in all matters of conscience.

Read some good book, and use it for simple, heartfelt meditation, applying what you read to yourself. Frequent the Sacraments. Do not regulate your Communions by your life, but your life by your frequent Communions. And then, be cheerful, kindly, indulgent to the faults of others, and diligent in correcting your own, without selfflattery, or impatience in a labour which must begin afresh daily. Do credit to religion by showing that it may be made attractive in any state of life. Attend to your business rather than to the clocks. The first machine which concerns you is your home, and your own financial prosperity. Consider your creditors, who must not run a risk of ruin if you were to fail them, or be kept unduly waiting. Such delays are almost as dishonest as refusing payment.

Do not let yourself go with the fashion of a passing world. You will pass away with it. A little while, and all we see will be gone for ever. Oh, how I long to see your wife's heart drawn to God! She would help you; you would support one another. . . . Ask her to try at least to go apart with God every morning and evening for half a quarter of an hour. It is not too much to do for eternal life. One only need to go to God as (o a friend one loves, without restraint. She is good, sincere, free from vanity and love of the world. Why should she not be wholly God's 1 May you both be His, dear Vidame { ## Letter 94

tlTo tte %8mf. ^mtiCtion.

What can I say, dear friend, but that, while you are a thoroughly worthy man as regards the world, you are no better than an ungrateful wretch towards God? Would you heap benefits and kindness on a friend who was as careless and flighty to you as you are to Him? In spite of so many things to scold you for, I love you dearly; but I do not want you to wear out God's Patience, and intreat you to diminish your love of pleasure and your idle curiosity, not your religious duties. What would you sacrifice to God, if you have not courage to give up such superfluities? It is like refusing Him the parings of your nails and the tips of your hair! As to your advancement at Court, I will only ask two things: first, that you never do anything unjust, or mean, or deceitful, to promote it, but that you be content to ask for promotion in due turn, with modest dignity; and secondly, that you should only wish for this lawful promotion after a reasonable, quiet fashion, with entire submission to Providence, Ambition does not carry its mark of disgrace upon it like many openly shameful sins. It springs up insensibly, takes root, spreads its branches under plausible pretexts, and we only begin to be conscious of it after the heart is |>oisoned. Mistrust it; it kindles jealousies, leads to avarice in the most disinterested, spoils the finest characters, and extinguishes the spirit of grace.

TO THE VI DAME D AMIENS I93

Just contemplate an eager courtier, and tremble lest you grow like him! Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The man commonly called a promising courtier, who is alive to his own interests, is an odious thing. Deserve everything, ask reservedly, desire little. But, on the other hand, do not go out of mere lack of ambition and bury yourself in a workshop regulating clocks, instead of serving God and His world.

Good evening. Can you forgive me for saying all this? I love you too well to say less, even if it makes you pout! A thousand regards to Madame la Vidame. I pray heartily for her, but do not tell her so; she might do as a friend did once, who begged me not to pray for him, for fear he might be converted before he wished it himself. She is good and generous; she must be won by degrees, through confidence and example, without pressure.

Letter 95

March as, 1711.

I DO not doubt but that the warnings you believe you have felt in your heart for the last ten years come from God, and are very precious gifts. The more we approach God, the more He takes possession of us, to warn, reprove, and correct us. And indeed, all progress in the interior life depends upon our faithful correspondence with these dealings of the Spirit of Grace. The more God gives, the more He requires; it is but just. We are uneasy directly that we refuse Him anything, and it is in real mercy that God makes us feel this uneasiness when we fail towards Him; it is a loving reproach of the Beloved to our soul. All inward drawing^ would lie false and delusive if it inspired aught save evangelic virtues, or if we fancied our lights other than those of the Faith; but when that inward drawing does not flatter self-love, or lead us into any indiscreet singularity, but only excites us to mortification of passion and taste, and binds us. closer to duty, then it is assuredly the leading of grace and conscience. And conscience becomes more sensitive, and more jealous for God as opposed to self, in proportion as we heed Him, and His Love grows in us. The great thing is to yield to this leading. " To obey is better than sacrifice," Holy Scripture says.' On the other hand, to resist God's Holy Spirit is the one sin not to be forgiven in this world or the next. Do not you resist.

Accustom yourself to have familiar recourse to God, and to ask His Help, whenever He requires some sacrifice which you have not courage to make. Your sensitiveness as to the smallest trifles shows how much you need that God should tear them from you. Oh, how blessed it is when one can make great sacrifices to God by offering up what is as mere child's play! We need not take to sackcloth and hair shirts, or fly to the desert; we need only let God deprive us of some childish trifles. Without overstepping the limits of ordinary life, or adding a cross to our daily life, we can die to self, and offer

TO THE DUC DE CHAULNES 1 95 an inexhaustible sacrifice to God. If we have faithlessly refused something He asked, it needs but to relax our grasp the moment we are conscious of the fault. But to obtain such faithfulness we must watch, pray, strengthen our heart, not our curiosity, or vanity, or sloth. You are young, and in the midst of the world, but in time of war there is but a spider's web between you and death.' God calls you. He would have you entirely His Own. What are you, tliat you should judge for yourself.^ Make haste to do His Will, at the willing cost of all your own self-chosen plans. Do you propose to spend the summer with the army, or to stay at Chaulnes?

I long to see you and your wife, but we must wait, and not make plans so far ahead.

Letter 96

I AM noways surprised that worldly dissipation and the love of pleasure deaden your heart to your religious duties; but this experience should teach you how often things which one supposes to be innocent become practical dangers. A man gives himself up to literary investigation, to the amusements of friendly society, to the comforts of an easy, independent life, and asks, "What harm in all this? Am I not keeping within the limits of what is suit-

' The Vidame d'Amicns was made Due de Chaulnes in 171 z. able to my position? Is it not enough if I pray regularly, if I read some good book daily, and frequent the Sacraments? " Yes, certainly, all this would be enough if it were well done, but your luxurious, dissipated life prevents it being well done. In order to that, all your daily occupations should feel the effects of your religious exercises, and be animated by the spirit they should kindle; whereas, on the contrary, it is your seasons of prayer and reading which are affected by the indolence and dissipation which predominate in your exterior life. People carry to their prayers an imagination excited by all manner of idle frivolities, a mind buoyed up with thoughts and projects of self- pleasing, and a will divided between duty to God and inclination to all that fosters self-love. Can you wonder that their prayer so easily becomes a mere helpless distraction, all lifeless, an uninteresting form, which they are impatient to have done with? That which ought to be their support in all temptation is itself without strength or power; that which ought to be the heart's food is itself unted — the source of life is dried up. What remedy can we find for this? I know but two; one to lessen the day*s distractions, the other to increase recollection in those hours which are free.

I do not want you to cut off anything from your public duties; indeed, I have sometimes fancied that you did not give time enough to visits of courtesy, and the claims of society arising out of your position. But you ought to cut to the quick as regards your free hours. Less of mere indulged curiosity, fewer lengthy documents, fewer details,

TO THE MARQUIS DR FENELON I97 less of the anatomy of business. You should often cut things short with two decided words, and learn the great art of letting others help you. You dissipate your mind more in your own study with disagreeable matters than you would do by performing social duties which interfere with your notions of freedom. It is excitement ' which shakes up selflove and causes distraction. Take away men's excitability and their roused self-love, and no occupations in the way of duty would distract them; all would be quietly done as in God's Presence, all their exterior duties would become a kind of prayer. They would be like the hermits of olden time, who kept up an almost continuous prayer together with manual labour.

As to seasons of prayer and reading, I would not have you increase them at present, you have too much external occupation; but I would have you combine with these systematic devotions a frequent act of recollection, wherein you would see God wherever you are — driving in your carriage, or what not As to mortifications, be content with keeping to a strict regime and patient endurance of your malady. This is all I can say in this hasty note.

Letter 97

tlo t\z ©arquiis Be JTencIon, tol&en on %erbice.

Try to avoid laxity and dissipation; keep certain hours strictly for your soul's 'nourishment. Unite

• " La passion." yourself to God as you promised to do; moderate all those impulses which you know to be too keen. One cannot always repress a first unforeseen outbreak, but it is all-important to repress the second, failing which the third will be far more vehement; and a passion which might have been nipped at the birth grows so strong that it overpowers one. You must watch against vanity in your faults; one is apt to persist in them from a false shame in confessing and correcting them.

Letter 98

I OFTEN apply to you S. Paul's words: ** Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame.''* The world cannot understand that patience can be a road to our true aim; it persists in imagining patience to be mere inaction. Moreover, the world does not understand that our aim is a struggle. Men seek to attain a rest crowned with glory and delight. Nevertheless it is true that a struggle patiently borne up to the end of life is the greatest of blessings, according to our belief. Nor can we hope for this blessing, save by a perpetual looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Like Him, we must choose the cross rather than tHe

' Heb. xit. X, a.

TO A GENTLEMAN 1 99 poisonous pleasures of the world, and despise the contempt of libertines. Why should we be less cheerful than irreligious men, we who have nothing hard to perform save what is done in a spirit of love and with the hope of an eternal kingdom, whereas they have everything to fear and nothing to hope? Let our joy be in the Lord!

Letter 99

tS^o a Gentleman* 0n Dirfction.

I AM very sorry to hear of the distress your sister is in. I have often seen, and do see daily, people consumed by scruples. It is a kind of interior martyrdom, and becomes almost a despairing insanity, though it springs from reason and goodness. The only remedy for such troubles is docility. One should be cautious as to whom one trusts, but one must trust somebody, and obey without allowing one's self to argue. What can the holiest and most enlightened director do to cure you if you do not tell him everything, and will not do as he bids you? It is true that when people get into the state of distress which scruples cause, they are tempted to believe that nobody can understand them, and that the most experienced guides advise them ill for want of such understanding; but this is merely the delusion of a warped imagination, which, if yielded to, ends in incurable self-will. Ought any one to appoint himself the judge of his own course in a state of temptation or of distress in which he has but a divided use of his own reason? Is not

2O that the time, of all others, when one needs double submission to one's director and mistrust of self? Ought we not to believe that God does not forsake us under such hard trials, and that He will enlighten the director, through whom we are but seeking Him, so that he should advise us according to our urgent need? S. Paul tells us that God does not permit us to be tempted above that which we are able to bear; but it is to simple, obedient hearts that He promises He will stretch out His right Hand to uphold them. It is mistrusting God, ignoring His Goodness, to doubt but that He will endow a good director with whatever we need to save us from shipwreck amid the storm. I grant that during the height of trouble one must tolerate some impatience and caprice, some contradictory words or acts; but the will should be stedfast beneath, and a sincere resolution to be persistently docile must be maintained. As to all else, it depends upon details of which I am ignorant. But whatever remedies your sister seeks, whatever change she tries, she must have a director who is not to be changed. Changing one's director is practically to make one's self one's own director. Such varied direction ceases to be any at all; it is mere indocility seeking self-indulgence to the top of its bent The hardest of all penances is humiliation of the inner mind; it implies a ceasing to bear and believe in self; it implies a meek submission to God's minister; it is that poverty of spirit which, according to Jesus Christ, makes a man blessed. Without it one can turn even mortification into food for self-love. Try to help your sister to be stedfast, to

TO A GENTLEMAN 20I sub»niit her intellect, trusting in God^s Goodness, aiici to obey with a simple heart. This will bring true peace.