Letter V. To the Same

Same Subject.

ANNEOY, between May and end of August 1604.+ MADAME — I have sent to President Brulart's wife, your sister, a writing which I wish to be communicated to you; not that the one I have given you is no longer of use for you and for the present time, but that you may ever have more and more illumination in your soul, to the advancement of which I feel myself so much bound that there is nothing in the world I desire more, not only on account of the great confidence God has given you in my regard, but also on account of that which he gives me, that you will greatly serve for his glory: have no doubt of this, madame, and have good courage. I am extremely consoled by the pleasure you take in reading the life of St. Teresa, for you will see the great courage which she had in reforming her Order; and this will doubt less aid you to reform your monastery, which will be much easier for you than she found it, since you are perpetual superior. But keep to the method I re commended to you, of commencing by example; and

• John xvii. 4. f The French says, " 3rd May 1604."

though it may seem to help you but little at first, yet have patience, and you will see what God will do. I recommend to you above all the spirit of sweetness, which is what ravishes hearts and gains souls. Hold tightly and resolutely, in this beginning, to the good performance of all your exercises, and prepare yourself for temptations and contradictions. The evil spirit will excite innumerable such, to hinder the good which he sees is about to come from your resolution; but God will be your protector, as I beseech him to be with all my heart, and will beseech him all the days of my life. I beg you to recommend me to his mercy, and to believe that I am, as greatly as you can desire and as I can be, — Madame, yours, &c.

My companion told me on the journey that you wished to come to Saint-Claude, and that I shall then have the advantage of seeing you. I beg you in that case to let me know beforehand, that I may be able to be in a place and in a state of leisure suitable for your consolation.

LETTEK VI. To THE SAME (THE ABBESS OF PUITS D'OEBE).

Advice on her own conduct, on the introduction of certain community exercises, and the general reformation of the Abbey.

Autumn of 1604.*

MADAME — I have kept your messenger, Philibert, a long time, but it is because I have never had a single day to myself, although I have been in the country;

• The French says, " gth October 1604."

for the charge which I hold carries its martyrdom with it everywhere, and I cannot say that any single hour of my time is my own, except my hours of Office; so much the more earnestly do I desire to be recom mended to your prayers.

I send to you, my dear daughter (such is the name that you desire and that my heart dictates), a paper on what seems to me the easiest and most profitable method of making mental prayer. I have inserted for you some exercises and ejaculatory prayers. This will amply suffice to teach the form which you must follow for spending the day. I want you to communicate it to Madame the wife of the President, your sister, and to Madame de Chantal; for I think it will be useful to them.

As to the matter of your meditations, I should like it to be, as a rule, on the life and death of Our Lord; for these are the most simple and most useful.

The books which I recommend you are Bruno, a Jesuit; Capiglia, a Carthusian; Bellintani, a Capuchin; but above all Granada in the True Way — to begin with. Bruno and Capiglia may serve you for feasts and Sundays, the other two for the common days of the year. But although you may look at these authors, who are excellent, do not depart from the form which I have sent you.

Always enter upon prayer by putting yourself in the presence of God, invoking him, and proposing to yourself the mystery; and after the considerations always make acts of the affections, not of all, but of some, and the resolutions; after that the thanksgivings, the offering, the prayer; lastly, read carefully the little memorial which I send you, and put it in practice.

LBT. vi.] Previous to Founding of Visitation. 41

As to meditation on death, judgment, and hell, it will be very useful to you, and you will find mate rials for it in Granada at great length. Only, my daughter, I beg you to let all these meditations on the four last things end always with hope and confidence in God, and not with fear and terror; for when they end with fear they are dangerous, particularly those on death and hell.

Therefore, after having considered the greatness of the torments and their eternity, and after having excited yourself to the fear of them, and made a resolution of serving God better, you must represent to yourself the Saviour on the cross, and running to him with outstretched arms, you must go and take hold of his feet, with interior exclamations full of hope: 0, harbour of refuge, ah! your blood shall be my safety; I am yours, Lord, and you will save me: and leave off in this affection, thanking Our Lord for his blood, offering it to his Father for your deliverance, and beseeching him to apply it to you. But never at any time fail to finish by hope, otherwise you would draw no profit from such meditations; and ever keep to this rule of finishing your prayer with confidence; for it is the virtue which is most required for gaining God's help, and the one which honours him the most. So you may make these meditations on the four last things once every three months, during four days.

Touching the order of prayer for the day, I think I have given you sufficient instruction in this little paper which I send you. I will, however, tell it you here a little more particularly.

Knowing that you are a very early riser, I say that in the morning after you rise you ought to make your meditation and the morning exercise which I have called preparation, with the proviso that the whole shall not last longer than three-quarters of an hour at most, as I do not want the meditation and exercise to take an hour. After this you can proceed with the day's business until Office, if there is any time.

At the Mass, I advise you to say your chaplet rather than any other vocal prayer; and while saying it you can break off when you have to observe the points I have marked — the Gospel, the Credo, the Elevation, — and then take it up where you left off, and have no fear but that it will be the better said for these inter ruptions; and if you cannot finish it at the Mass, it will do at some other time of the day, but you need only go on from where you stopped.

At dinner, I should approve of your arranging to have the Benedicite said, and the ecclesiastical grace which is at the end of the Breviary. This you can introduce at the same time that you introduce the Tridentine Breviary, or before, if you think well; and little by little get each sister to take her turn in saying it, for the Church has not given the order except for us to observe it. When at Annecy I always observe it.

A little before supper it would be very useful for you to take a quarter of an hour's recollection to ruminate the morning's meditation, unless at that time they are saying Compline in the monastery.

In the evening, before going to rest, I recommend that if the church be not too far removed from your rooms, and if not inconvenient, you should all go there together, and that when you get there, and are on your knees and in the presence of God, the one whose week it is should make the examination of conscience thus: Paternoster, and the rest said secretly; Am Maria and Credo, and at the end Carnis, resurrectionem, vitam ceternam, Amen. Then all together the Confiteor, up to med culpd, and stop for about half a quarter of an hour to make the examen; then finish the med culpd and the rest, Misereatur and Indulgentiam. After that the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, and the prayer of Our Lady, or that which follows: Visita qucesumus Domine, habitationem istam, &c. The others answer: Dormiam et requiescam. V. Benedicamus Domino. E. Deo Grratias. V. Requiescant in pace. And from that time let each one retire to her cell, after all have saluted one another together.

For the rest, dear madame, it is above all necessary that yourself first should keep a fixed order, not only for the Offices, but also as to rising and retiring; other wise you cannot continue in health: and it is so arranged in all communities. Night vigils are dangerous for head and stomach. I should advise that dinner should not be later than ten, nor supper than six, nor bed-time than nine to ten, and getting up from four to five, unless some constitutions require more time for sleep, or cannot take so much. But for not sleeping so much the cause must be well approved; because for young women it seems that six hours are almost required, and if they do not take it they are without energy the whole of the day.

Do not make mental prayer after dinner, at least not for four hours after, and never after supper. On fast- days collation may be taken at seven; and as to fasting, for yourself it will suffice to begin with Friday, and to be satisfied with this for some time, particularly because you must be with the rest, and must lead them on little by little.

When you are ill make only ejaculatory prayer. Take care of yourself, obeying the doctor scrupulously, and be sure that this is a mortification agreeable to God; and when your sisters are ill be very affectionate in visiting them, assisting them, getting them served and comforted. Similarly, if some of them are sickly, show to them a tender compassion, easily dispensing them from their duty, from Office, according as you judge fitting; for this will gain their hearts wonderfully.

As to Communion and confession, I approve that it should be every week, and that on the evening of the Saturday you should add to the Visita the prayer of the Blessed Sacrament.

I sent you a little formula for confession, which I have prepared expressly for you. I do not put every thing into it, but only what I have thought suitable for your instruction. You can communicate it to Mesdames Brulart and de Chantal, and to the religious whom you may see disposed to profit by it. I have not here the books which treat of it, and perhaps they say it better than I do; but it matters not, if you find it elsewhere so much the better.

As to the reformation of your house, my dear daughter, you must have a great and durable courage, and you will succeed without doubt, if God gives you his grace and some years of life. You are the one who will be employed on this sacred business, and without great trouble. I am glad that you are but few sisters; multitude breeds confusion. But how are you to begin? My idea is this.

The exact reformation of a monastery of women

'. vi.] Previous to Founding of Visitation. 45 consists in obedience well kept, poverty, and chastity, You must be closely on your guard to give no alarm, either loud or low, of your intention of making a reform; for that would cause all the hasty and busy-minded people to take up arms and set themselves against you. Do you know what must be done? It is necessary that the sisters should reform themselves under your guidance, and bind themselves to obedience and poverty. But how? Walk very little at a time; gain those young plants which are there; inspire into them the spirit of obedience; and to do this use three or four artifices.

The first is to give them commands often, but in things very little, pleasant, and light, and this before others; and then gracefully to praise them about it, and to call them to obedience with expressions of love, — my dear sister, or child, and the like; and just before doing this to say: If I ask you to do this or that, will you not do it well for the love of God?

The second is to put before them some books which will help them, and amongst others there are three admirable ones which I counsel you to have, and to read the most suitable points from, sometimes to them by themselves. These are Flatus, On the Advantages of the Religious State, which is printed in French at Paris; The G-erson of Religious, composed by Pere Pinel, printed at Lyons and at Paris; The Desiring [sout], or Treasure of Devotion, printed at Paris and Lyons. Also, to speak often of obedience, not as if wanting it from them, but as wanting to render it to some one. For example: Ah! how much happier are those abbesses who have superiors to command them! They are not afraid of erring; all their actions are much more agreeable to God; and the like little baits.

The third is to command, so sweetly and amiably, as to make obedience an object of love, and after they have obeyed you to add: May God reward you for this obedience — and so to make yourself very humble.

The fourth is to make profession yourself of wishing to do nothing save by the advice and counsel of your spiritual father, to whom, however, you must attribute no right at all of commanding, just as you must not give to what you do under his direction any title of obedience, for fear of exciting contradictions, and of making unkind people raise jealousy in the minds of those who are superiors of your monastery. That would spoil all; and I have had my experience in such accidents through having seen them happen in France, in monasteries wherein there was no little difficulty in appeasing these tempests.

I say the same of poverty. It is necessary to lead them to it step by step in such way, that, inspired after this sweet fashion, after some time all their pen sions may be placed together in one purse, from which they will draw all that is necessary, equally and as required, according to each one's need, as is done in many monasteries of France which I know. But above all you must not in any way give the alarm about all this, but lead them to it by gentle and sweet inspirations, towards which, also, the above-named books will assist.

As to chastity, you must begin thus. Declare that you yourself are never so content as when you are alone with them; that it seems to you the greatest of pleasures to be thus in your private sisterly society amongst yourselves; that you like every one to be in his or her place, people of the world by themselves, and you with the sisters; or that worldly people only come to a religious house to get something to carry away and spread about here and there, and such-like little words to influence their minds — which, however, must be so said as to seem to be only your own personal ideas. You will see that, little by little, they will be very glad to give up going out into the world, and letting the world come in to them; and at last some day (it may well be after a year, or even two) you will get this passed into a constitution and rule; for, after all, enclosure is the guardian of chastity.

I am pleased to know that almost all of you are young, for this age is suited to receive impressions. At the monastery of Montmartre, near Paris, the young, with their abbess still younger, have effected a reformation.

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but prudently let them pass, and bend them with sweetness and time: if all do not show themselves disposed, have patience, and advance as far as you can with the rest. Do not show any desire to conquer; excuse in the one her infirmity, in the other her age; and say as little as you possibly can that there is a want of obedience.

But tell me — do you think it little that you have done already for the Office, the veil, and the like? Good heavens! Our Saviour was three and a half years forming the college of his twelve apostles, and there was, after all, a traitor and much imperfection when he died. We must possess our heart in longanimity; great designs are not effected save by virtue of patience and duration of time. Things which grow in one day decay in another. Courage, then, my good daughter! God will be with you.

My daughter, I approve the charity you are willing to show to this poor misguided creature, provided that she return with a spirit of gratefulness and penitence; and if she come in this way she will find it sweet as sugar and honey to be placed in the lowest rank, and to have no part in the honours of the house, until the virtues she may display to balance her past faults may raise her back into new honours — except her order, which it is reasonable for her to lose absolutely. In particular, I am thoroughly of opinion that you should lift up her heart by gentleness, and that you invite all the other sisters to do likewise; for the Apostle says * quite plainly that those who are spiritual must lift up those who have been overtaken in any fault in the spirit of mildness, when they come in dispositions of penitence. Thus are we to mingle justice with kindness, after the manner of our good God, in order that charity may be practised and discipline observed.

I should approve that the exercise of the examen of conscience should not be made till a good half-hour or three-quarters after supper, and that during this three-quarters of an hour there should be recreation in innocent conversation, or even in singing spiritual songs, at any rate in this beginning.

Your children ought to receive Communion at eleven, at latest, supposing that they have the discretion which is ordinarily had at that age. And the first time they go to Communion it is well that you should yourself take pains to instruct them as to the reverence they * Gal. vi. i.

ought to have, and to make them mark the day and year in their prayer-book, to thank God for it each following year.

And now, it seems to me, I have answered all you asked me, madame my dear sister. I have only to say that I am, without ceremony, entirely yours and your abbey's, throughout which I hope one day to see holy devotion flourishing; in what I can, I will contribute both, what God will give me of his Spirit, and my feeble prayers. I never fail to make good room for you all in the Memento of holy Mass; and be sure that if you desire to be near me, I also greatly desire to be near you. But we are near enough, since God unites us in the desire to serve him. Let us live in God, and we shall be together. I beseech him with all my heart to strengthen you more and more in his love, with all the ladies your religious, whom I salute and beg not to forget me in their prayers, but to bestow on me some of the breathings of devotion which they direct towards heaven, where their hope is. Amen.

Meditation for the Beginning of each Month.

Place yourself in the presence of God; beseech him to inspire you. Imagine that you are a poor servant of Our Lord, and that he has placed you in this world as in his house.

I. Ask him with humility why he has placed you there; and consider that it is not for any need he may have of you, but in order to exercise his goodness and liberality upon you, for it is to give you his Paradise; and in order that you may have it, he has

LV. D given you an understanding to know him, a memory to be mindful of him, a will and a heart to love him and your neighbour, an imagination to represent to yourself him and his benefits, all your senses to serve him, your ears to hear his praises, your tongue to praise him, your eyes to contemplate his wonders, and so of the rest.

2. Consider that, being created for this end, all actions contrary to it ought to be utterly avoided, and those which do not conduce to it ought to be held in no esteem.

3. Consider what an evil thing it is to see in the world that men for the most part think not of this, but suppose they are in the world to build houses, lay out gardens, possess vineyards, amass gold, and the like transitory things.

4. Eepresent to yourself your misery, which was so great at such time as you were of this number. Alas! must you say, what was I thinking of when I was not thinking of thee, 0 Lord? Of what was 1 mindful when I was forgetting thee? What did I love when I loved not thee? Was I not unhappy in serving vanity instead of truth? Alas! the world, which was only made to serve me, ruled me, and was mistress over my affections! I renounce you, vain thoughts, useless memories, faithless friendships, lost and miserable services.

Make your resolutions, and a firm purpose of hence forward applying yourself faithfully to what God wants from you, saying to him: Thou shalt henceforth be my only light in my understanding; thou shalt be the object of my memory, which shall occupy itself solely in representing to itself the greatness of thy goodness, so sweetly exercised in my regard; thon shalt be the sole delight of my heart, and the only well-beloved of my soul.

Particular Application.

Ah! Lord, I have such and such thoughts; I will refrain from them in future: I have too keen a memory of injuries and slights; I will give it up from this time: I have my heart still attached to such or such a thing which is useless or hurtful to thy service, and to the perfection of love which I owe thee; I will entirely withdraw and disengage it, by the help of thy grace, that I may be able to give it all to thy love.

Fervently beseech God to give you this grace, and practise what you can in something which concerns this point.

Often repeat the saying of S. Bernard; and in imitation of him, stirring up your heart, say often: Rose, what hast thou come into this world to do? What art thou doing? Do that which thy Master hath charged thee to do, that for which he has put thee into this world and preserves thee in it. No one shall be crowned with roses who has not first been crowned with thorns by Our Lord.

One who desires your perfection in God, in whose tender mercies he is yours, &c.