Letter XXXII. To a Keligious Sister

On patience under a humiliating infirmity.

I ASSURE you, my dear Mother, my daughter, that I would greatly wish to bear in my body and in my heart all the pains which you suffer from your remedies; but as I am unable thus to relieve you, holily embrace these little mortifications, receive these abjections in a spirit of resignation, and, if possible, of indifference. Accommodate your imagination to reason, and your natural feelings to your understanding, and love the will of God in these subjects which are of themselves disagreeable, as if it were in the most agreeable of things. You do not receive your remedies by your choice nor through sensible feeling; you do so then through obedience and by reason: — is there anything so agreeable to our Saviour?

But there is some abjection: — And St. Andrew and so many Saints have suffered the nakedness of the cross.

0 little cross! thou art dear to me, because neither sense nor nature loves thee, but higher reason alone.

My dear mother, my heart salutes yours filially and more beyond comparison than filially. Be a little sheep, a little dove, all simple, mild and affectionate, without art or second thought. God bless you, my dear mother; may your heart be ever in him and to him. Do not employ your mind in matters of business, and receive humbly and lovingly the little attentions which your infirmity requires. Vim Jesus et Marie I

1 am he whom this same Jesus has made your, &c.

LETTER XXXIY. To A RELIGIOUS SISTER.

Congratulations on the anniversary of her profession; it is a high point of humility to be humble with those who look down upon us; unceasing efforts to be made against our faults.

YES indeed, my good and dear daughter, let us bless God together for this happy day on which, by a quite

LET. xxxiv.j Further Letters Outside Visitation. 349 new fire, you renewed the holocaust of your heart, offered and vowed henceforth to the divine Majesty; and may this day be therefore counted amongst the memorable days of our life. May it hold the second rank after that of our baptism. Day of the renewal of our interior temple; day in which by a favourable exchange we consecrated our life to God to live no more but in his death; foundation-day, God helping, of our salvation; day the harbinger of the holy and desirable eternity of glory; day whose memory will not only rejoice us at temporal death but also in immortal life. Ah! my dear daughter, truly, methinks, did God then make you to be born again in my interior arms, which certainly embraced you with tenderness, and my heart was quite dedicated to yours.

I well know that you very often have occasion for exercising the love of contempt, of rebuffs, and of your own abjection. Do this indeed; for it is the great point of humility to see, serve, honour and converse with, as opportunity occurs and at proper time (for one must not make oneself troublesome in our attempts) those whom we have an aversion for, and to be humble, submissive, sweet and tranquil amongst them. This is a very admirable point; for you see, my daughter, the humilities which are least seen are the finest. But still for the exterior also I should greatly desire, on account of religious propriety, that you amend yourself of this haughty and unrestrained way of speaking.

It is nothing to feel these movements of anger and impatience, if they are mortified as soon as you see them arise, that is, if you try to put yourself back into restraint and calmness of heart; for thus, although the combat should last all day, it would be practice but not loss for you. Have good courage, my daughter. I clearly see that Our Lord wills to love us and to make us his. I hope in Our Lady that no fire will ever inflame our hearts save that of the holy love of his Son, for whose sake I am in all truth, yours entirely, &c.