Letter XII. To a Sister of the Visitation

Consolations in sickness: consideration for the sick a mark of the Visitation Order; confidence in God.

yth February 1620.

THIS paper goes to find your eyes, in order through them to salute your heart, most dear to mine, my very dear daughter. Oh that poor heart! I see it very ill, in the letter which you wrote me on the 1 2th December, which I received very late. But I speak wrongly, without meaning it, my dear daughter; it is not your heart which is sick, it is your body; and on account of the tie which there is between them it seems to the heart that it suffers the evil of the body. My dear daughter, do not think yourself to be burdened when you suffer what you have to suffer; you must do it for the most holy will of God, who has given this weight and this measure to your bodily state: but love knows all and does all; it seems to make me a physician.

I am a great favourer of the sick, and am always afraid lest the inconveniences which they cause should excite a spirit of prudence in the houses, and a ten-

dency to desire to dismiss them without getting leave from the spirit of charity, under which our congregation has been founded, and for which there has been expressly made the distinction of sisters which is seen therein. I favour then the cause of your sick person, and provided that she is humble, and acknowledges herself indebted to charity, you must receive her, poor daughter. It will be a continual holy exercise for the charity of the sisters.

0 my dear daughter, remain at peace; do not occupy yourself with your imperfections, but keep your eyes uplifted towards the infinite goodness of him who to keep us in his humility lets us live in our infirmities. Have every confidence in his goodness, and he will have a care of your soul and of all that concerns it, beyond what you could think.

1 will help M. N. in all that I can; but I must confess that in the matter of business and affairs, particularly worldly ones, I am a poor priest more than ever I was, having learnt at court to be more simple and less worldly.

Remain in peace, my dear daughter, and live wholly in God. I salute very cordially our dear sisters, and am entirely yours, my dear daughter. Our mother has plenty of work cut out in France, in the multitude of houses which are asked for. Vim Jesus, and may his name be blessed for ever and ever! Amen. You are my very dear daughter, and God wills that I should have the consolation of saying so.

LET. xiii.] Later Letters to Visitation. 191