Letter XXIX. To a Keligious Priest

Religious exercises by which the Sisters of the Visitation supply for not saying the great Office.

MY REVEREND FATHER — As to the question which that good gentleman of whom you write to me asks, about the occupations of the Sisters of the Visitation, in case they do not say the great Office, there are two things to say.

(i.) Since they say the little Office solemnly and with pauses, they employ as much time as most other religious women give to saying the great Office, with this difference only, that they say it with more edification and better pronunciation than the latter.

Certainly, a week ago in a monastery near this city, I saw things which might well make the Huguenots laugh; and some of the nuns told me they never had less devotion than at Office, where they managed always to commit plenty of faults, partly from not knowing the accents and quantities, partly from not knowing the rubrics, or again from the haste with which they were obliged to say it; and they declared it to be impossible for them, amid so many distracting things, to keep their attention. I do not, however, mean to say that they are to be dispensed, unless when the Holy See, taking compassion on them, shall think it good. But, at the same time, I do mean to say that there is no impropriety but much advantage in leaving to the Visitation the little Office alone. In fact, my Reverend

IV. L

Father, this little Office is the life of devotion in the Visitation.

(2.) The second answer is that in the Visitation there is not a single moment which is not most use fully employed in prayer, examination of conscience, spiritual reading, and other exercises. I am sure that the Holy See will favour this work, which is against neither the law nor the religious state, and which acquires it so many houses of obedience at a time and in a kingdom where it has lost so many; and since also there is not so much to be considered with regard to houses of women, inasmuch as they are of no consequence to the other Orders, nor can be occasion of complaint to nuns founded under other statutes. Solely the consideration of the greater glory of God gives me this desire, and the advantage of many souls capable of excellently serving his divine Majesty in this congregation, if charged only with the little Office, while incapable of following the great Office. Will it not be a thing worthy of Christianity that there should be a place whither these poor daughters can retire, who have the heart strong but the eyes and constitution weak? For the rest, my Reverend Father, labour diligently to make the work of your seminary succeed, for in my opinion it will be necessary in the future. Your friend and servant, &c.

LET. xxxv.] Earlier Letters to Visitation. 163