Letter XVI. To a Lady. on the Feast of Pentecost

MY DEAR DAUGHTER — Doubt not but that I love you more than ever, because I see you in the way of entering into that path of true devotion wherein one begins to detach one's heart from all the things of the world, in order to be all God's, that he may be able absolutely to dispose of you, that you may love only what God loves, that you may do his will and follow his counsels, that you may avoid with an extreme care all that can offend him, mortify your passions, regulate your life on the maxims of Jesus Christ, be humble and patient.

For the great secret of maintaining a good devotion is to have much humility. Be humble, and God will be on your side, and will sustain your good will. Give yourself to him without concealment and without reserve, asking him from the bottom of your heart that if up to now you have not served him well enough, he would have the goodness to pardon you and to fortify you in the resolution which you have taken of detaching yourself from all the affections of the world, and of attaching yourself to nothing save the love of God, and serving him faithfully with all your heart.

I should like also to communicate to you, my dear daughter, something of what I have just written to Mother Agnes * at the Carmelites, on the dispositions for receiving well the Holy Spirit at this great feast of Pentecost — that uncreated love, which without regard to his own advantage is everywhere occupied in seeking our good, often sending forth his fairest flames when we were least thinking of this holy splendour, to engage us to love him with all our power; and be cause this love is a gratuitous gift of his love, there fore ought we to love it with all our strength. We must not disturb ourself about our offences, for this Divine Spirit is often more liberal of his gifts to those who have been more ungenerous with their heart and affections towards him.

But, my dear daughter, we must testify to Jesus Christ all our confidence, with the holy Apostles and disciples, on whom he did not will to send his Holy Spirit till after he had ascended into heaven. If you ask me why this was, you must first know that the Holy Spirit is the wine of heaven, according to St. Bernard, who said that in heaven there was an over flowing abundance of this wine, I mean ythe joy of the Holy Ghost and beatific jubilee — but they had not that sacred bread of Christ's humanity. The earth, on the other hand, had this sacred bread, which it made its delight and its joy; it had not that sweet * La grande mtre Agnl*.

LET. xvii.] Letters for Various Festivals. 425 and sparkling wine of the Holy Ghost, which was to inebriate our souls and crown them with joy.

And hence that admirable inference of Jesus Christ's, when he showed his Apostles that it was not right to keep the humanity of Jesus Christ, and at the same time to have this admirable wine of heaven. There must be then, said Jesus Christ, a holy bargain be tween you and the Angels: you shall infallibly have from heaven that mighty wine of the Holy Ghost, if you share with it your sacred bread which is still on the earth and as it were in your hands — that is, the humanity of Jesus Christ. I think, my dear daughter, that this is enough to open your heart wide for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and of those tongues of fire and adorable flames. Adieu. I am entirely yours.