Letter XIII. To the Same, at Lyons

Encouragement in the difficulties of her enterprise: exhortation to charity and forbearance.

February 1615.*

I HAVE received none of your letters, my most dear daughter, since your departure. What does this mean? I pray. Now I know well all the same that your charity is invariable, but I learn by letters from Lyons that you are ill, and also a little disappointed to find things not on so good a footing as our desire made me imagine. These, my dear daughter, are true signs of the goodness of the work: the approach is always difficult, progress a little less so, and the end happy.

Do not lose courage, for God will never lose the care of your heart, and of your flock, so long as you confide in him. The gate of consolations is narrow; the after-way makes up. Do not be disheartened, my dear daughter, nor let your spirit sink amid contra dictions. When was the service of God ever exempt from them, particularly at its birth?

But I must tell you frankly what I fear more than all on this occasion; it is the temptation of aversion and repugnance between you and our N.; for it is the temptation which ordinarily occurs in matters which depend on the co-operation of two persons; it is the temptation of earthly angels, since it arose between the greatest saints, and it is the weakness

• The French says, " End of January; " but the house at Lyons wag only founded on 2nd February. [Tr.]

LET. xv.] Earlier Letters to Visitation. 1 1 9 of all of us who are children of Adam, and ruins us unless charity deliver us from it. When I see two Apostles separate from one another * through dis agreeing about a third companion, I find these little repugnances very bearable, provided that they spoil nothing, as that separation did not disturb the Apostolic mission. If something of the kind happened between you two who are women, it would not be very bad, supposing it did not last. But still, my dear daughter, lift up your spirit, and be assured that your action is of great consequence; suffer, do not get impatient, soften everything; bear in mind that it is God's work in which this lady acts according to her ideas, and you according to yours, and that both of you ought to bear and forbear with one another for love of Our Saviour: two or three years soon pass, and eternity remains.

Your corporal malady is an extra burden, but the help promised to the afflicted ought to strengthen you greatly. Above all, keep from discouragement. Believe me, you must sow in labour, in perplexity, in anguish, to gather with joy, with consolation, with happiness; holy confidence in God sweetens all, obtains all, and establishes all. I am entirely yours, in truth, my dearest daughter, and I cease not to beg God to make you holy, strong, constant, and perfect in his service.

I salute very cordially our dear sisters and conjure them to pray to God for my soul, inseparable from yours and theirs in the love which is according to Jesus Our Saviour.

• Acts xv.

LETTER XYI.

To THE SAME.

In the spiritual life ice must le ever beginning again, with courage always increasing: it is a maxim of the Saints to speak little of self: congratulations on having the Blessed Sacrament in the new house.

BELIEVE me, my dear mother, as yourself. God wants unknown great things from us. I saw the tears of my poor sister N., and methinks all our childishness proceeds from no fault but this, that we forget the maxim of the Saints, who have warned us that every day we should consider we begin our course of perfection; and if we thought properly of this we should not be disturbed at finding miseries in ourselves, or things to amend. We have never done; we must always begin again and again with a good heart. When a man liatJi done., then shall lie begin* What we have done up to now is good, but what we are going to begin shall be better; and when we have finished it we will begin another thing which shall be better still, and then another, till we depart out of this world to begin another life, which will have no end, because nothing better can come to us. Go and see, then, my dear mother, whether we are to weep when we find some work to be done in our souls, and whether we must have courage to go ever forward, since we must never stop, and whether we need to have resolution in our renunciations, since we must * Ecclus. xviii. 6.

LET. XVL] Earlier Letters to Visitation.

bring the razor to the division of the soul and the spirit* of the nerves and the sinews.

Truly, my dear mother, you see that my heart, which is your own, is full of this sentiment, since it pours out these words, though without leisure and without having thought over them. But now, my dear mother, observe well the precept of the Saints, which all have regarded who want to become so, to speak little or not at all of oneself or of what belongs to self. Do not think that because you are at Lyons you are dispensed from the compact which we made, that you should be moderate in speaking of me, as also of yourself. If the glory of tine Master do not require it, be brief, and exactly observe simplicity. The love of ourself often dazzles us; eyes must be very true to avoid being deceived when we look at ourself. This is why the great Apostle cries out: For not he who commendeth himself is approved, lut he whom God commendeth. t

The good Father Granger said right, and the Holy Spirit will be pleased with him for it. I am very glad that in your hive and in the midst of this new swarm you have your King, your honey, and your all. The presence of this sacred Humanity will fill all your house with sweetness; and it is a great consolation to souls who are attentive to faith to have this treasure of life near. I have prayed this morning with a special ardour for our advancement in the holy love of God, and feel greater desires than ever for the good of your soul. Ah! I say, 0 Saviour of our heart, since we are every day at your table to eat not your bread only but yourself, who are our living and supersubstantial bread, * Heb, iv. ia. t 2 Oor. x. 18.

grant that we may every day make a good and perfect digestion of this most perfect food, and that we may perpetually live by your sacred sweetness, goodness, and love. Well, now, God does not give so much desire to this our one heart without willing to favour it with some corresponding effect. Let us hope, then, my one sole mother, that the Holy Spirit will crown us one day with his holy love; and while waiting let us perpetually remain in hope, and make space for this sacred fire, emptying our heart of ourselves as far as shall be possible to us. How happy shall we be, my dear mother, if one day we change our ownself into this love, which, making us more one, will perfectly empty us of all multiplicity, to have in our heart only the sovereign unity of his most holy Trinity! May thia be ever blessed, world without end. Amen.