Letter XX. To the Same (?). on the Feast of St. John Baptist

MY VERY DEAR DAUGHTER — Why have I not some worthy sentiment of joy for this angelic man, or human Angel, whose birth we are celebrating! What sweetness should I have in occupying myself with it! But I assure you that the greatness of my idea of him hin ders me from giving myself this satisfaction.

I find him more than virgin, because he is a virgin even with the eyes, which he has fixed on the insensible objects of the desert, nor does he even know by the senses that there are two sexes; more than confessor, because he confessed the Saviour before the Saviour confessed himself; more than preacher because he preaches not only with the tongue but with the hand and the finger, which is the highest excellence of preaching; more than doctor, because he preached without having heard the source of doctrine; more than martyr, because the other martyrs die for him who died for them, but he dies for him who is still living, and pays back, according to his little measure, the death of his Saviour before it was given him; more than evangelist, for he preaches the Gospel before it was given; more than apostle, for he goes before him whom the Apostles follow; more than prophet, for he points out him whom the prophets predict; more than patriarch, for he sees him whom they believed in; and more than angel, and more than man, for the angels are pure spirits without bodies, and men have too much body and too little spirit: this man has a body and is but spirit.

I have an extreme pleasure while contemplating him in that gloomy but blessed desert which he wholly per fumes with his devotion, and in which, night and day, he pours forth ecstatic soliloquies and discourses before the great object of his heart — that heart which, seeing itself alone with its sole love, rejoices in the presence thereof, finds in solitude the multitude of eternal sweetnesses, and there sucks the heavenly honey, which it will soon after go to distribute to the souls of the Israelites, by the river Jordan.

Behold, my daughter, what an admirable Saint he

LET. xxii.] Letters for Various Festivals. 433 is! He is born of one barren, he lives in the desert, he preaches to the hard and stony heart, he dies among the martyrs, and amidst all this asperity, he has a heart wholly filled with graces and benedictions! But this further is admirable, that Our Lord having said * that amongst those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, adds: But he who is lesser in the kingdom of God is greater than he. 0 my dear daughter, it is true; for the lowest Christian when communicating is greater than St. John: and how is it that we are so little in sanctity?

Good night to you, my dear daughter, and to all the dear flock of our daughters. May the good St. John deign to bless them, with their dear mother.