Letter I. To Mother de Chantal, Superioress at Paris

St. Francis exhorts her to the practice of self -renouncement: it consists in a perfect indifference to all things and an entire acquiescence in the will of God.

Una PARIS, Sth August 16^9.*

MY DEAREST MOTHER — I am sure that I shall have to spend to-day again in solitude and silence, and perhaps to-morrow: if not, I will prepare my own soul with yours, as I told you before.

• Thus the French: 1616 seems the true date. [Tr.]

LET. i.] Later Letters to Visitation. 169..

I entirely wish you to continue the exercise -of re nouncing self, submitting yourself to Our Lord and to me. But, my dear mother, I want you to mingle with this some acts of your own, in the form of ejaculatory prayers, approving of this renouncement; as for example: I will it indeed, Lord; take away, freely take away all that clings to my heart. No, 0 Lord, let me except nothing, tear me from myself. 0 self, I quit thee for ever, until my Lord command me to take thee again. This ought to be gently but firmly declared.

Further, you must please, my dear mother, take no foster-father; yea, as you see, you must quit the one whom you will still have, and must stay as a poor little wretched creature before the throne of the divine mercy, and remain quite denuded of all things, without demanding any act or affection whatever for creatures: on the contrary, making yourself indifferent as to the acts and affections it may please God to ordain, not dwelling upon the thought that it is I who will act as your foster-father. Otherwise, taking a father at your own liking, you would not go out of self, but would be ever finding your own interest, which is the very thing we must above all avoid.

Admirable are the renunciations of our self-esteem, and of what we were according to the world (which was, in truth, nothing, save in comparison with the poor); of our own will, of complacency in creatures and in natural affection; in a word, of all self, which we must bury in an eternal abandonment, to see and to know it no longer as we have seen and known it, but only when God so ordains for us, and as he ordains for us.

Write and tell me how much you approve this lesson.

May God deign to possess me for ever, Amen: for I am his here, and I am his there, where I am in you, as you know, very perfectly; for you are indivisible from me except in the exercise and practice of the renunciation of all ourself for God.