Letter XIX. To a Religious of the Visitation

Perfection to be gained by the continual practice of divine love: the gift of prayer will be given to 'the soul that is empty of self: an alms voiced but not bestowed may be transferred to an object equally good.

OH how irany benedictions will God pour out on your heart, and how many consolations on mine, if you go on increasing in the perfect practice of divine love,

LET. xix.] Later Letters to Visitation. 205 my dear daughter! The Holy Spirit sometimes fol lows the method of inspiring by degrees what he wants done as a whole, and his calls a,re wont to be very solid. That good man in the Gospel * who had two sons said to the one: My child, go work in my vineyard; and he said: I will not; but afterwards, on reflection and returning to himself, he went, and worked hard. Then the father said to the other: My child, go and work in my vineyard; and he answered: I go, and yet he went not at all. Now, said Our Lord, which of the two did the father's will? Undoubtedly the first, my dear daughter.

You have too good a heart not to do perfectly what has to be done, for the love of him who will only beloved entirely; walk then truly so, my dear daughter; your spirit upraised in God and regarding nothing but the face and eyes of the heavenly Spouse, to do all things according to his pleasure; and doubt not that he will pour out upon you his most holy grace, to give you strength equal to the spirit which he has breathed into you.

The sacred gift of prayer is all ready in the right hand of the Saviour. As soon as ever you shall have emptied yourself of self, that is, of the love of your body and of your own will, that is, when you are very humble, he will pour it into your heart. Have patience to walk with short steps till you have legs to run with, or ra.,^ wings to fly. Be content yet a while to be a little nympha, soon you will become a full-formed bee.

Humble yourself lovingly before God and men, for God speaks to ears bowed down. Hearken, says he to his spouse,t and see, and incline thine ear, and forget

• Matt. xxi. t Ps. xliv. u.

thy people and thy father's house. So the well-beloved Son prostrates himself on his face when he speaks to his eternal Father, and awaits the answer of his oracle. God will fill your vessel with his balm when he sees it empty of the perfumes of this world, and when you are humble he will exalt you. But, my dear daughter, do not say like the younger son of that man, I will go and work, save with a firm desire of going.

Well now, it is the truth that I have written, once only, to N. to say, that an alms vowed but not bestowed was to some extent capable of being transferred to an other work of equal piety; but that being vowed, given over, completed, it could no more be withdrawn; be cause an alms actually given is no longer his who gave it, but belongs of full right and most certainly to him who has received it, and particularly when he has received it without condition, or under a condition which on his side he is ready to execute.

But as to complaining of you, certainly I have never done it, nor in any way compromised my opinion, which is that of all theologians. But, moreover, it is the best in the world for applying to the case, if you will but follow it, in spite of what the world may say. Moreover, it is the same thing whether you give here or there, since the God of the monastery of N. is God of the monastery of N., as both houses are equally the most holy Virgin's, and your own, my dear daughter, whom I conjure to persevere in loving me constantly in Our Lord, as I am for ever and without reserve invariably yours, not ceasing to beseech the most holy Virgin, most beloved Lady of heaven and earth, to love you and to make you the entirely beloved one of her Son, by the continual inspirations which she will obtain for you from his divine Majesty. Your most humble father and servant, &c.