Letters 13–25

Letter 13. How to Meet Trial

I AM very sincerely grieved at your brothers' misfortunes,1 but if they are forsaken of men, you must all the more win God's Help for them by your patience. He is the Shelter of all who are persecuted, and the Comforter of the afflicted. He is trying you through these events affecting your brothers; but He tries you only in order to your greater detachment, and that you may become more worthy of Him. " He that loveth father or mother or brother, or aught else, more than Me, is not worthy of Me." 2 You must sacrifice your own flesh and blood —

1 Political troubles in England following upon the Battle of the Boyne. * Matt. x. 37.

you must sacrifice yourself, to Him. He is our best Friend, and our closest Relative.

Also, Madame, what could you expect of men? Did you not know what they are? weak, blind, inconstant; some not willing to do what they can, others unable to do what they would. Man is but a broken reed; if one seeks to lean on it, the reed bends, and pierces one's hand. Practically, what I think is this: God has touched you to the quick in this humiliation; the Loving Physician has applied this remedy to a diseased, quivering surface. So much the better, He means to heal you. Be silent, adore the Hand which strikes; do not open your lips, save to say, " I have deserved it." Whatever you may say against the King and Queen will be in mere revenge, and cannot serve you. You would injure them without helping yourself. You cannot conscientiously say a word; such want of self-control would be scandalous. For my part, I think God was waiting for this opportunity, and that it will decide your spiritual progress. If you lose the fruits of such a cross, you will be doubly unfortunate, and you will fall most dangerously short of God's claim upon you. But what grace will come from it if you bear it bravely! It will be the entrance into a fresh path towards evangelic perfection. Do not hesitate, then; however bitter the cup may be, drain it to the dregs, like our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray Him to give ml to HI) out Bittern egg 41 you strength, and not to suffer you to give way to any unjust ebullitions of resentment. He died for those who slew Him, and He has taught us to love, bless, and succour with our prayers those who curse and persecute us. Redouble your prayers during this time of trouble and temptation. You will find all that is lacking to your heart, in order to love those whom your pride would fain hate and crush, in the Heart of Jesus, dying on the Cross.

Letter 14. On the Same Subject

You may rightly express your sorrow and grief at the misfortunes which have come upon your brother, and you may also show your great eagerness to help him by all innocent means; but you must beware of exhibiting resentment towards those who oppose him. It would only embitter him, and foster that spirit of hatred and revenge which you should strive to soothe. Do not tell him more than the precise facts which are necessary to his affairs, and important to a right understanding of his interests. Do not tell him details which can only tend to embitter his mind. In this way you will not only spare him temptation, but a great deal of mental pain.

Letter 15. Prejudice

You are continually called upon to suffer, both through yourself and in others. If you suffered only through others, and never yourself felt the evils you complain of in others, your unhappy neighbours would seem monsters only fit to be strangled! But God permits you to suffer from your own proud, unjust, rebellious spirit, in order to teach you to bear with what is irritating in other faulty people. I would have you observe that self-love is insatiable, and always ready to murmur. A few months ago you would have been only too thankful to have been certain of your brother's freedom, and of the pleasure of seeing him for two days before he returned to serve his King. All this has come to pass, and so far from thanking God for such unhoped-for mercy, you grumble because you have seen so little of him. Have a care lest you should see more of him than you would desire.

Why should you be so bitter against the King and Queen of England? Perhaps there are secret causes which make it impossible for them to do what you want; perhaps you are too exacting; perhaps they are prejudiced, and see things from a point of view different to

Peace amit) tTrial 43 yours. What then? do you consider prejudice an unpardonable crime? Is it not a weakness common to man? And who is altogether free from it, however wellintentioned? Have you never been prejudiced? Cannot you forgive the prejudices of others? Recall yourself, I beseech you, to common humanity, until such time as charity may soften your heart. If you cannot altogether restrain and moderate yourself, at least humble and check your pride, without admitting discouragement. Try to soothe yourself silently before God, as a mother soothes the child which is sobbing on her knees. By degrees calm will follow upon recollection. If only you will profit by your leisure at Dinan, and be diligent in prayer and reading, all will do well. Crosses are essential to you, and God, Who loves you, does not spare them. I pray that He will further give you strength to bear them.

Letter 16. Peace Amid Trial

I CANXOT be as sympathetic with your sorrow, Madame, as I fain would be; but I see so many tokens of mercy, and so abundant a harvest of grace for you therein, that if nature groans under it. faith must needs rejoice. You give up hope, but without hope you will find peace in submission and in unreserved sacrifice. This is just what God would have. He drives you to that, in order to detach you from whatever is not Himself. What is left for you but to grasp the Cross He sets before you, and let yourself be crucified? When that is fairly done, He will comfort you. But He does not give poisoned comfort, which only fosters the venom of self-love, as men do; He does not comfort until He has deprived our proud, self-seeking nature of every resource. The peace which you find in submission, without any change in outward matters, is a great gift. By it God trains you to bear trial without despondency; although your shrinking, weak nature is depressed, your inner mind is upheld. Such a peace is all the purer that it is somewhat bitter. Your daily bread just now is the thought of God, Whose right over you His creature is boundless; and that of your own weakness, which deserves nought save humiliation and crosses. You accept it all, but you cannot understand why God should purify the guilty by punishing the innocent. But remember, Madame, that no one is innocent, or fit to come before His Judgment. How do you know but that the same blow which humbles you will bend your brother likewise beneath God's Hand? We must adore His dealings, without seeking to fathom them. It may be that by so many trials He p.tngcr of pclao 45 is drawing your brother to turn finally to Himself; perhaps the day will come when you will both rejoice over what now so greatly troubles you. Leave it all to God, man can do nothing. When all seems lost, all is sometimes most nearly saved. God casts us down, and brings us up from the precipice with His Own Hand. But whatever He may do for your brother, your part is to accept the Cross, and adore the Hand Which lays it on you. Happy they who are ready to accept every- ' thing; who never say, It is too much; who reckon, not upon themselves, but upon the Almighty; who ask onlysuch measure of consolation as God wills to give them, and who live by His Will alone.

Letter 17. Not to Postpone Plans of Amendment

I AM very glad, Madame, to hear that your health is restored. The mind you indicate proves that no cross is fruitless when accepted in the spirit of sacrifice. I hope that we shall see you return to Fontainebleau with renewed grace and detachment from the world. You are quite right in believing that it is no good to wait for freedom and retirement to overcome the old Adam and learn detachment. Such freedom is a mere fanciful idea.

perhaps never to be attained; and we ought to be prepared to live and die in the bondage of our calling, if Providence sees fit to thwart our plans for retiring. You are not your own mistress, and God only requires that of you which is in your own power. The Israelites when in Babylon yearned after Jerusalem; but how many of them never saw Jerusalem again, ending their days in Babylon! Supposing they had gone on delaying their faithful service of God and their efforts after holiness until they should be restored to their country, how great a delusion it would have been i Perhaps yours is a somewhat similar position.

I am touched at what you tell me of Mme. de la Sabliere. I never saw her save once, when she struck me greatly. She is quite right to seek nothing from man since she has found God, but to sacrifice even her dearest friends to Him. The best Friend is within our heart, the Jealous Bridegroom, Who repulses all else. As to death, only worldly, carnal people dread it. " Perfect love casteth out fear." We cannot cast out fear by thinking highly of ourselves, but by loving with a single heart, and giving up ourselves unreservedly to Him we love. This renders death easy and welcome. To him who is dead to self bodily death becomes merely the consummation of the work of grace.

possible Crjeriitohfre 47

XVI 11. A HOLY LIFE POSSIBLE EVERYWHERE.

1 CAN hardly recall, Madame, all that I said last Sunday. My general impression is that I told you two things: first, that we are bound to seek our sanctification in that state wherein Providence has placed us, rather than to build castles in the air concerning great possible virtue in positions we do not fill; and secondly, that we need very diligent faithfulness to God in the smallest things.

Most people spend the best part of their life in avowing and regretting their habits, in talking about changing them; in making rules for a future time which they look for, but which is not given them; and in thereby losing time which ought to be spent in good works and in setting forward their salvation.

You should treat all such notions as very dangerous. Our salvation ought to be the work of every day and every hour. No time is fitter for it than that which God in His Mercy accords us now; and that because to-day is ours, but we know not what to-morrow may bring forth. Salvation is not to be achieved by wishing for it, but by seeking it heartily. The uncertainty of life ought to make us realise that we should prosecute this undertaking with all our energies, and that all other pursuits

48 ^pirittial ^Letter* are worthless, since they do not bring us nearer to God, the rightful End of all we do — the God of our salvation, as David continually calls Him in the Psalms.

Why do we make plans for advancing in perfection? Because we believe it necessary to our salvation. Why, then, do we defer carrying them out, when it is just as necessary to seek now after salvation as it will be ten years hence; now at Court, as hereafter in a more retired life? Surely it is wise always to take the safest side in whatever concerns salvation, a matter in which we lose all or gain all. That state of life to which God has called us is safe for us so long as we fulfil all our duties therein. If God foresaw that it was impossible to be saved at Court, He would have forbidden us to live in it. But so far from this, He has appointed Kings and their Courts, and gives men that birth and position which admits them to those Courts. So we may be sure that it is His Will that souls at Court should be saved, and find the narrow way to Heaven, the way of truth, that way which Jesus Christ has said ''shall make us free"1 — in other words, shall guide us out of all the dangers to which the world exposes us.

And so much the more you meet with these dangers in your present state of life, so much the more you must keep watch over yourself, that you yield not to them. John viii. 32.

possible CoerurDhere 49

Keeping watch over self means hearkening to God; it means always abiding in His Presence, being always recollected, never plunging into voluntary dissipation or distraction amid the things of this world; it means as far as possible caring for retirement, prayer, and good books; it means what David calls "pouring out your heart before God,"1 feeling Him within you, seeking Him earnestly, loving Him above all else, avoiding whatever is displeasing to Him. Such goodness as this, Madame, is suitable to every state of life; it will be most helpful to any one living at Court, and I know nothing better adapted to teach you to be in the world without being of the world. Pray adopt it, and strive never to forget that you are with God and He with you, so that you may abide stedfast in His service.

Make a habit of frequently adoring His Holy Will by humbly submitting yourself to the order of His Good Providence. Ask Him to uphold you, lest you fall. Intreat Him to perfect His work in you, so that, having inspired you in your present state of life with the desire to be saved, you may actually work out your salvation therein. He does not require great things for success. Our Lord Himself has said, " The Kingdom of God is within you; " 2 we can find it there when we will. Let us do what we know He requires of us, and so soon as we

Fin. Sp. L.—IL} D perceive His Will in anything, let there be no drawing back, only absolute faithfulness. Such faithfulness ought not merely to lead us to do great things for His service and for our salvation, but whatever our hand finds to do, or which appertains to our state of life. If one could only be saved by means of great deeds but few could hope for salvation. It depends, however, in fulfilling God's Will. The smallest things become great when God requires them of us. They are only small as regards themselves; but they forthwith become great when done for Him, when they lead to Him, and serve to unite with Him eternally.

Remember how He has said, " He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much!1' ' I should say that a soul which sincerely longs after God never considers whether a thing be small or great; it is enough to know that He for Whom it is done is infinitely great, that it is His due to have all creation solely devoted to His Glory, which can only be by fulfilling His Will.

As to you, Madame, I think you should accept your crosses as your chief acts of penitence; the worries of the world ought to teach you to sit loose to it, and your weakness wean you from yourself. If you bear this continual burthen patiently, you cannot fail to advance in ' Luke xvi. 10.

preparation for ^toertt 51 the narrow way. It is narrow by reason of the sorrows which wring your heart; but it is broad by reason of the enlargement God vouchsafes to that heart. One may suffer, be surrounded by contrarieties — one may even be deprived of spiritual consolations, yet be free because one accepts all suffering without seeking deliverance. One bears one's own weakness, preferring it to more agreeable conditions, because it is God's choice. The great thing is to suffer without losing courage.

Letter 19. Preparation For Advent

THE season of Advent should kindle in us an earnest desire to give ourselves to God, to prepare our heart to receive the fulness of His Grace, and make ready to be born again with Jesus Christ — or, more correctly, to profit by His Birth through the union with Him which we need, and which only God's Love can create.

We ought each severally to hear as spoken to ourselves S. John's exhortation to the Jews, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight," l so that He may find us ready to receive Him and His Blessings. This preparation consists of an ardent desire to possess Him. For this reason the Church reminds us at this season of ' Matt. iii. 3.

5 2 Spiritual the holy patriarchs' longing for the Coming of Messiah, Who is called the Desired of all Nations in Holy Scripture. We kindle this longing in prayer when we pour forth our hearts before God, and intreat Him to " raise up His Power and come among us." Our Lord Himself put this prayer into our mouth when He bade us ask, " Thy Kingdom come; " in other words, that He may reign within us, and we be bound by bonds of love to His Law and His Gospel.

Such longings are best nurtured in solitude; therefore, Madame, I counsel you to retire as often and as much as you can to seek God's Grace, believing that as He spake to S. John Baptist in the desert, and made known the Messiah to His people in the wilderness, so He will enlighten you and fill you with His Spirit, above all when you are trying to seek Him in retirement, and seeking to unite yourself to His Merits.

I would advise, then, that you spend much time in prayer, and that you take as subject-matter for your meditations the third chapter of S. Matthew, part of the first chapter of S. Mark, the third of S. Luke, and the first of S. John. There you will find the subject of S. John Baptist's exhortations to the people, which embody all we ought to do in preparation for the Coming of Jesus Christ into the world and into our hearts. His teaching may be summed up as follows: —

I. Repentance, leading us to separate from the world, to bemoan our past attachment to it, and to embrace the Gospel maxims as to the narrow way.

II. Humility, owning ourselves unworthy to appear before Jesus Christ, much more to be united with Him and to receive Him in our heart.

III. Real courage and firmness in what is right, never being discouraged by the difficulties which beset us, and vigorously resisting the world's stream.

Letter 20. Advantages of a Humiliating Illness

YOUR letter has given me great pleasure, telling me that you are better, that you will return shortly, and, best of all, that you have tried to make good use of your trials. Whatever attacks your fastidiousness and proud sensitiveness will go straight to the mark. God knows how to choose just what we want, and the blows He deals are mercies. Your malady is more precious than all the natural gifts which bound you to the world. You are happy in having this penance laid on you; it should teach you to despise nothing, entertain horror for nothing, not to esteem yourself above any, and to bear with the infirmities of all. The leprosy of pride, self-love, and all such moral passions, would, but for our blindness, seem to us far more horrible and infectious than the most loathsome maladies which only affect the body. I await your return with sincere pleasure.

Letter 21. Rules For a Busy Life

INDEED, Madame, it is not I that am hard to find, it is you! Please to remember this, and don't talk any more about people keeping me like a relic! I dare not disturb you when surrounded by M. de Gramont, and so many others! Seriously, though I am sorry for your difficulties, you greatly need certain free hours to be given to recollection. Try to steal some such, and be sure that such little parings of time will be your best treasures. Above all, try to save your mornings; defend them like a besieged city! make vigorous sallies upon all intruders, clear out the trenches, and then shut yourself up within your keep! Even the afternoon is too long a period to let go by without taking breath.

Recollection is the only cure for your haughtiness, the sharpness of your contemptuous criticism, the sallies of your imagination, your impatience with inferiors, your love of pleasure, and all your other faults. It is an ex

JiuU* for a ^ttjsn life 55 cellent remedy, but it needs frequent repetition. You are like a good watch, which needs constant winding. Resume the books which moved you; they will do so again, and with greater profit than the first time. Bear wi:h yourself, avoiding both self-deception and discouragement. This is a medium rarely attained; people either look complacently on themselves and their good intentions, or they despair utterly. Expect nothing of yourself, but all things of God. Knowledge of our own hopeless, incorrigible weakness, with unreserved confidence in God's Power, are the true foundations of all spiritual life. If you have not much time at your own disposal, do not fail to make good use of every moment you have. It does not need long hours to love God, to renew the consciousness of His Presence, to lift up the heart to Him or worship Him, to offer Him all we do or bear. This is the true Kingdom of God within us, which nothing can disturb.

Letter 22. Support Under Difficulty

You need not doubt, Madame, as to what is your support under your difficulties. God is using them to detach you from yourself, and from the easy-going side of life. Recollection and fervour would do less to lower your pride and crucify your over-indulged senses. Endeavour voluntarily to make time for reading, prayer, solitude, and silence. Be firm! Deny yourself especially at night, so as to enable yourself to get more time in the morning; but when the order of Providence brings you unavoidable hindrances, do not be disturbed. Wheresoever God may lead you, there you will find Himself, as much in the most harassing business as in the calmest meditation.

And together with interior nourishment you will find self-mortification. ... I pray God with all my heart that He may be your Light in the difficulties now surrounding you. Indeed, Madame, I often think of you, and the grace you stand in need of — often when, perhaps, you do not suppose I am heeding you. Nothing can exceed the earnest desire I have for your welfare.

Letter 23. Patience Under God's Hand

I AM delighted to hear your good news of the Comte de Gramont, and wish him a long and happy life more than ever, since he seriously seeks to use it well. If I thought it would not disturb him to see me, I would try to steal patience 57 away between our morning and evening lessons, and congratulate him on his good intentions. . . .

As to you, Madame, you can only bear your cross patiently. The trying things which you fancy come between God and you will prove means of union with Him if you bear them humbly. Those things which overwhelm us and upset our pride do more good than all which excites and inspirits us. You, more than most people, need to be overthrown like S. Paul at Damascus; you need to realise that you have no resource in yourself. The deeper the wound, so much the larger and more painful must the probing be. All that you are suffering comes of God's Hand healing you of a wound you recked not of, but which is a thousandfold worse than those natural sores which trouble you. Pride is fouler than this bodily abscess, though you are not so horrified at it Do not be discouraged; give yourself up to God's Hand, Who is dealing with you in mercy — without by perplexity, and within by sickness. He loves you, and would have you love Him like our Lord upon His Cross. If you put no limit to what you expect of Him, it will be to you according to your faith.

Letter 24. On the Comte de Gramont's Recovery

I WAS very sorry, Madame, not to see you when you were last here. I hope the Comte de Gramont's good health will allow you to return soon for a longer time. I hear that his health is excellent; it is God's gift, and it would be unfair to use it against Him. The Comte must deal honourably and definitely with God, as he has ever dealt with those he encountered in the world; God loves a noble heart, and real nobility implies fidelity, firmness, and constancy. Could one so grateful to the King, whose gifts are perishable, be ungrateful and faithless to God, Who gives all things? I do not believe it, and will not suppose it possible. I think I know how good a heart the Comte has, and I reckon upon his courage in despising false shame and contemptible ridicule. . . . You, better than any one, Madame, can help him to guard against bad habits and the insidious entanglements of society. He should reflect seriouslj that his recovery, while deferring death, does but defer it, and that the longest life can be but short. But I do not mean to preach; I would rather rejoice with you over this welcome recovery. I long to see you both here in perfect health, and with the same earnest mind. I am, etc.

Letter 25. God's Crosses Safer Than Self-Chosex Crosses

ISSY, May 25.

THE crosses which we make for ourselves by over-anxiety as to the future are not Heaven-sent crosses. We tempt God by our false wisdom, seeking to forestall His arrangements, and struggling to supplement His Providence by our own provisions. The fruit of our wisdom is always bitter. God suffers it to be so that we may be discomfited when we forsake His Fatherly guidance. The future is not ours: we may never have a future; or, if it comes, it may be wholly different to all we foresaw. Let us shut our eyes to that which God hides from us in the hidden depths of His Wisdom. Let us worship without seeing; let us be silent and lie still.

The crosses actually laid upon us always bring their own special grace and consequent comfort with them; we see the Hand of God when It is laid upon us. But the crosses wrought by anxious foreboding are altogether beyond God's dispensations; we meet them without the special grace adapted to the need — nay, rather in a faithless spirit, which precludes grace. And so everything seems hard and unendurable; all seems dark, helpless, and the soul which indulged in inquisitively tasting forbidden fruit finds nought save hopeless rebellion and death within. All this comes of not trusting to God, and prying into His hidden ways. " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," our Lord has said, and the evil of each day becomes good if we leave it to God. What are we that we should ask Him, Why doest Thou thus? It is the Lord, and that is enough; it is the Lord, let Him do as seemeth Him good. Let Him lift up or cast down, let Him wound or heal, let Him smite or soothe, let Him give life or death, He is always Lord; we are but His work, a very toy in His Hand. What matter, so long as He is glorified, and His Will be fulfilled in us? Let us throw self aside, and then God's Will, unfolding hour by hour, will content us as to all He does in or around us. The contradictions of men, their inconstancy, their very injustice, will be seen to be the results of God's Wisdom, Justice, and unfailing Goodness; we- shall see nought save that Infinitely Good God hidden behind the weakness of blind, sinful men.

Thus the deceitful course of this world, which flits before us like a stage scene, will become a very real thing, worthy of eternal praise. The greatest of men are nothing of themselves, but God is great in them. He uses their caprices, their pride, their dissimulation, vanity, and other

(Erodes 61 wild passions, to set forward His everlasting purposes for His elect. He turns all within and without, the sins of Others, our own failings, to our sanctincation; all in Heaven and earth is designed to purify and make us worthy of Him. So let us be glad when our Heavenly Father tries us with sundry inward or outward temptations; when He surrounds us with external contrarieties and internal sorrow, let us rejoice, for thus our faith is tried as gold in the fire. Let us rejoice to learn the hollowness and unreality of all that is not God; it is this crucial experience which snatches us from self and the world. Let us rejoice, for by such travail the new man is born in us.

What! shall we be disheartened while God's Hand is hastening His work? We are perpetually calling on Him to do it, and so soon as He begins we are troubled, our cowardice and impatience hinder Him. I said that in the trials of life we learn the hollowness and falseness of all that is not God — hollowness, because there is nothing real where the One Sole Good is not; and falseness, because the world promises, kindles hopes, but gives nought save vanity and sorrow of heart — above all, in high places. Unreality must be unreal everywhere, but in high places it is all the worse because it is more decorated; it excites desire, kindles hope, and can never fill the heart. That which is itself empty cannot fill another. The weak.

wretched idols of earth cannot impart a strength or happiness which they do not possess themselves. Do men seek to draw water from a dry well? Surely not. Then why should they look for peace and joy from great people who are ever complaining, who themselves cannot find amusement, and who are consumed with ennui amid all their outward display? " They that make them are like unto them," as the Prophet says of idolaters.1 Let us fix our hopes higher, further from the casualties of this life.

Further, I said that all that is not God will be found to be vanity and falsehood, and consequently we find them in ourselves. What is so vain as our own heart? With what delusions do we not deceive ourselves? Happy he who is thoroughly undeceived, but our heart is as vain and false as the outer world; we must not despise that without despising ourselves. We are even worse than the world, because we have received greater things from God. Let us bear patiently if the world, with a hidden retribution, fails or misuses us, as we have so often failed or mistreated God, doing despite to His Spirit of Grace. The more the world disgusts us, the more it is furthering God's work, and while seeking to harm us it will help us.

I pray that you may daily grow in these truths, that they may take deep root in your heart, and specially help 1 Ps. cxv. 8.

Jiecollerttort 63 you to be renewed in the Spirit of Jesus Christ during your retreat. " May the Peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus." Cut away every root of bitterness, and cast aside whatever disturbs the simple peace and trust of a child of God. Turn to your Father in every care; bury yourself in that tender Bosom, where nothing can fail you; rejoice in hope, and, casting aside the world and the flesh, taste the pure joys of the Holy Spirit. May your faith be unmoved amid every storm, and may you ever remember the words of the great Apostle, " All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose." '