Letter IX. To Pietro Contarini

Venice, August, 1537.

JHS.

Having dwelt at greater length on our affairs in a letter to Doctor Martin Sornoya which contains certain matters directly concerning your Lordship,

I will write a few words here not so much from necessity as from a desire to show that I do not forget. 1

Hitherto by the goodness of God we have prospered materially; we experience every day more and more the truth of the text: “Having nothing and possessing all things”; all, that is, which the | Lord has promised He would bestow upon those I who seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice. But if all things shall be bestowed upon those who seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, can anything be wanting to those who seek only the justice of God and His Kingdom? Those, whose reward is not so much of the dew of heaven and the fruit of the earth, as of the dew of heaven alone?

Those, I mean, who are not divided; those who have both eyes turned to heavenly things. This may He grant us Who, when He was possessed of all things, deprived Himself of all things for our instruction; Who, when He was in the fulness of such power, wisdom, and goodness, yet subjected Himself to the authority, judgment, and will of poor insignificant man. But this is enough, above all for such as are bent on the service of Christ in another kind of life. You more particularly it behoves to take thought that, if you possess anything, you are snot possessed and dominated by it; but that you rule everything in Him from Whom you have received it. For he, who cannot be wholly occupied with the one thing necessary, does the next best thing if he sets his own affairs in order and keeps to his engagements. But I wander too much from the point where I had begun; I return to ourselves.

Near Vicenza at a place outside the gate called Santa Croce we found a monastic house which bears the name of S. Pietro in Riccasolo, occupied by no one. And so the brethren of S. Maria delle Grazie of Vicenza are content to let us stay there at our pleasure. This we are doing and shall continue to do if God permits it.

Consequently we have no capital to begin with except our efforts after sanctity and perfection. Beg therefore Our Lord along with us to give us all the grace to fulfil His holy will which is the sanctification of us all. And so farewell in Christ Jesus Our Lord; may He direct us all in the way of peace which is in Him alone.

As regards Signor Gaspar I earnestly beg of you that if perchance his affairs, which can be transacted by you, have not been arranged, you should see to them so that he may have no ground for saying or thinking that we are the cause of his being delayed at Venice.

To the noble Lord Pietro Contarini, my very dear friend in Christ, at Venice.