Letter IV. To Madame Rose Bourgeois, Abbess of Purrs D'orbe

[This was a Benedictine Abbey in Burgundy, ten miles from CMtillon-sur-Seine. The Abbess, on whose name, Rose, the Saint frequently plays, was daughter to M. Bourgeois de Cre"py, president of the parliament of Burgundy. One of her sisters was married to M. Brulard, another was prioress in the same Abbey. Madame de Chantal also called them sister, and they her. St. Francis, who made the acquaintance of them all when he preached the Lent of 1604 at Dijon, adopted the same style, and calls them all, indifferently, sisters.

Many of these letters are wrongly dated and arranged by the French editors. The dates are here restored, as far as possible, by the internal evidence of the letters themselves, resting on the following ascertained facts. The first could not have been earlier than May 1604, the date of the Saint's return to Annecy. An interview at Saint-Claude which is mentioned took place on 24th August 1604. Jeanne de Sales went to Burgundy with Madame de Chantal in May 1605. The Saint was commissioned to reform the Abbey in August 1608.]

On the devotion proper to a religious, and the means to obtain it: also on the method to be observed by a religious superior in reforming her community.

May 1604.*

You have two sets of duties, Madame my dear daughter; for you are a religious and you are an abbess; you must serve God in each capacity, and to this end must be directed all your aims and exercises and affections.

Remember that there is nothing so blessed as a devout religious, nothing so miserable as a religious without devotion.

Devotion is simply the promptitude, fervour, affection, and agility which we have in the service of God: and there is a difference between a good man and a devout man; for he is a good man who keeps the commandments of God, although it be without great promptitude or fervour; but he is devout who not only observes them, but does so willingly, promptly, and with a good heart.

The true religious ought to be devout, and to aim at acquiring a great promptitude and fervour. To do this, it is necessary, first, to have the conscience uncharged with any sin; for sin is a heavy burden, which makes its bearer unable to walk uphill. On which account it is necessary to confess often, and never to let sin sleep in our bosom.

Secondly, we must take away all that can tie the feet of our soul, which are the affections. These must be unfastened and withdrawn from every object which is, I do not say bad, but not entirely good; for a horse that is shackled or tethered cannot run.

• The French says, " Before 3rd May 1604." [Tr.] IV. C

Further, we must beg this promptitude from our Lord, and for this purpose exercise ourselves in prayer and meditation, letting no day pass without making it during the space of a short hour. And as regards prayer, I remind you (i) that you must never omit the ordinary Office which is prescribed by the Church; you must rather omit every other prayer: (2) after the Office you must prefer meditation to all other prayers, for it will be more profitable to you and more pleasing to God: (3) make it a practice to use ejaculatory prayers, which are sighs of love breathed out before God to ask his help and protection. It will greatly help you in this to keep before your imagination that point of your meditation which you have most relished, in order to ruminate over it throughout the day, as one uses lozenges for physical benefit. You will find the same help from a cross, or from a pious image suspended from your neck, or your Rosary, if you often touch and kiss it in honour of the person represented, or from saying, when the clock strikes, a little word with your heart or your lips, such as, Vive Jesus! or, Now is the hour to arise from sleep, or, My hour approaches, and the like. (4) Pass no day, as far as possible, without reading a little in some spiritual book, and the same before meditation, to put yourself into a spiritual frame of mind.

Make it a custom to put yourself in the presence of God in the evening before you go to sleep, thanking him for having preserved you, and making the examen of conscience, as spiritual books direct. Do the same in the morning, preparing yourself to serve God all the day long, offering yourself to his love, and offering to him your own.

I wish that your meditation should be made in the morning, and that on the day before you should read the point that you intend to meditate on in Granada, Bellintani, or a similar author.

In order to acquire a holy promptitude in the practice of virtue, let no day pass without some particular act of it with this intention; for practice serves mar vellously to facilitate our performance of all sorts of operations.

Never fail, at this commencement, to communicate every first Sunday of the month, besides the chief feasts; go to confession the night before, and excite in yourself a holy reverence and spiritual joy, as being about to have the happiness of receiving your sweet Saviour; and then make a new resolution of serving him fervently, confirming this, when you have received him, not by vow, but by a good and firm resolution.

On the day of your Communion, keep yourself as devout as ever you can, sighing after him who will then be yours and in you; and with the interior eye perpetually regard him lying in your heart, or seated in it as on his throne; and make your senses and your powers come one after another to hear his com mandments and to promise him fidelity. This should be done after Communion by a short half-hour's meditation.

Take care not to let yourself be moody and out of humour with those about you, lest, attributing this to devotion, they despise devotion; on the contrary, give them the greatest pleasure and satisfaction you can, in order that they may thus be brought to honour and esteem devotion, and to desire it.

Have in you the spirit of sweetness, joy, and humility, which most befit devotion; as also tranquillity, not disturbing yourself either for this or for that, but going your way of devotion with an entire confidence in the mercy of God, who will lead you by the hand into the heavenly country, and by this means keep yourself from vexations and from contentions.

As regards your quality of abbess, that is, of mother of a monastery, it obliges you to procure the good of all your religious in the perfection of their souls, and consequently to reform their manners and the whole house.

1. The method of doing it, at this beginning, ought to be sweet, attractive, and cheerful. You must not commence with the reprehension of things which have been tolerated up to now, but you yourself, without saying a word to them, must show the exact contrary in your life and conversation, employing yourself before them in holy exercises, such as saying prayers some times in the church, or possibly making your meditation there, saying the Eosary, having some spiritual work read to you while working with your needle; exhibiting to them meanwhile a more sweet and un affected love than ever, with special marks of friend ship for those who are giving themselves to devotion, yet not failing also to show every sign of affection to the others, in order to attract and lead them into the same path.

2. Be chary as to worldly conversations, and do not allow them in your own room further than you can possibly help, so that little by little you may get the sisters' dormitory entirely cleared of them; — that is most requisite, and your example is a great means towards it.

3. At table, have some good spiritual book read; such as Granada On the Vanity of the World, Gerson, Bellintani, and others of the kind; and make this a custom for every day.

4. At Office your own devout behaviour must set the law of modesty and reverence to all the religious. This you will easily do if you put yourself in the presence of God each time you begin the Office. I think that to introduce the Breviary of the Council of Trent will be a useful and profitable thing.

5. Do not adopt too austere an air at the outset, but be amiable with every one save very worldly persons; with these you must be short-spoken and reserved.

6. It will be good to employ one of your religious to help you in the management of temporal affairs, in order that you may have so much the more opportunity of giving yourself to the spiritual and to duties of charity.

7. Lastly, do not be in a hurry at this commencement, but do all that you will do so cheerfully and with such sweetness that all your daughters may come gradually to desire to embrace devotion; and when you see they have entered upon this you must treat more thoroughly of the re-establishment of the perfection of your Eule, which will be the greatest service you can do Our Saviour. But all must proceed not so much from your authority as from your example and gentle leading.

8. God calls you to all these holy works; hear him and obey. Consider that you can never take too much pains nor practise too much patience in the pursuit of so great a good. How happy will you be if at the end of your days you can say with Our Lord: * I have finished and perfected the work thou gavest me to do! Desire it, effect it; think of this, pray for this; and God, who has given you the will to desire it, will give you strength to execute it.