Letter XVI. To Teresa Rejadella

Rome, November i $, 1543.

JHUS.

May the supreme grace and love of Christ Our Lord ever favour us continually and help us.

First: I have learnt that His divine will has been accomplished in taking away and removing out of the present troubles of this life your and. our sister in the Lord Luisa, and I am certain on many grounds and from many signs that in the other life she is full of glory for ever without end.* where I trust, so long as we do not forget her in our prayers however unworthy and poor, she in her turn will favour and repay us with holy interest. If in spite of that I were to speak more at length and to expand my words of consolation, I should deem myself to be doing you an injustice, seeing that, as is right, you conform in all things to the supreme and eternal providence who deals in all for our greater good.

Second: As to the habit and rule, since you have obtained an opinion on the matter, and, even supposing you had not, since it has the confirmation of the Apostolic See, there is no reason whatever to doubt that you are acting in conformity with the divine service and will. For any rule of a holy

-68 founder can be made binding under the penalty of sin in so far as it is confirmed by the Vicar of Christ Our Lord, or with his authority by another. Thus the rule of Saint Benedict, of Saint Francis, or of Saint Jerome, cannot of itself bind under penalty of sin; but when it is confirmed and authorized by the Apostolic See, on account of the divine virtue which it imparts to that rule, then it may bind under sin.

As the practice of daily Communion, let us remember that in the Primitive Church all went to Communion every day, and that from that time to this there has been no order or writing of our holy Mother the Church, or of holy doctors, scholastic or positive, prohibiting those whose devotion so moves them from receiving Communion every day. Let us remember too, that the blessed Saint Augustine says that he neither praises nor blames daily Communion, adding elsewhere that he exhorts all to Communion on all Sundays, and in another place, speaking of the most sacred Body of Christ Our Lord: “This bread is daily bread; therefore so live that you may receive it every day.” This being the case, even if there were not so many good indications and sound inspirations to encourage you, yet the very judgment of your conscience is testimony good and entire enough. And its dictate is, that since all is licit to you in Our Lord, if you judge yourself free from manifest mortal sin, and such sins as you may judge to be mortal, and your soul desires more sustenance, and is more inflamed with the love of our Creator and Lord, and if with such

Google intention you communicate, finding by experience that this most holy spiritual food supports, calms, and rests you, and while preserving you raises you also in His greater service, praise and glory, then without any doubt it is licit, indeed it will be better for you to communicate every day.

As I have conversed at length on this and other matters with the Licentiate Araoz who will deliver to you this letter, I refer you to him in Our Lord, and conclude praying God Our Lord that through His infinite clemency you may be guided and governed in all things by His supreme goodness.

From Rome, November 15, 1543.

Poor in goodness,

Inigo.