Letter XLII. To a Superioress of the Visitation

Candidates are to be judged not according to nature, bttt according to grace. Remarks on the form of profession.

MY VERY DEAR MOTHER — At last God has willed that Sister N. should remain assistant by the majority of the votes, and he always wills the best; for she is a good, wise, steady person, and a true servant of Our Lord: a little hard and cold in countenance, but of good heart, brief in speech but to the point. We make but few prefaces, she and I, and little appendix either.

But to speak of our Sister N., I must tell you that she is a sister altogether admirable in words, in be haviour, in act, for in all things she breathes virtue and piety.

I am entirely of your opinion and that of our good Father N., as to our Sister N. Let a sister be of as bad a natural disposition as you like, but let her only act in essential matters by grace and not by nature, according to grace and not to nature, and she deserves to be received with love and respect, as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a wolf by nature but a sheep by grace. 0 my mother, I supremely fear natural prudence in the discernment of the things of grace; and if the prudence of the serpent be not tempered with the simplicity of the dove of the Holy Spirit, it is altogether poisonous.

I am astonished at those good Fathers who think that a person is bound to add that he or she is taking vows to superiors. If they looked at the form of profession of the Benedictines, which is the profession of the most ancient and numerous monasteries, they would have plenty of objections to make; for there is no mention at all made there either of superiors or of vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, but only of stability in the monastery, and of conversion of manners according to the rule of St. Benedict. Whoso ever promises obedience according to the Constitutions of Saint Mary, promises obedience and observance of vows to the Church and to the superiors of the Congregation or monastery. In a word, one must remain in peace; for he who wants to listen any longer to all that is said will have plenty to do.