Letter XLVI. To a Sister of the Visitation

What it is to live according to the spirit, and what according to the flesh.

How very reasonable is it, my dear daughter, that I should write to you a little, and with what good heart I do it! Would to God that I had the spirit necessary for your consolation. To live according to the spirit, my well-beloved daughter, is to think, speak, and act according to the virtues that are in the spirit, and not according to the sense and sentiments which are in the flesh. Of these latter we must make use, must reduce them to subjection, and not live according to them; but those spiritual virtues we must serve, and must subject to them all the rest.

What are these virtues of the spirit, my dear daughter? They are faith, which shows us truths entirely elevated above the senses; hope, which makes us aspire to things invisible; charity, which makes us love God above all things and our neighbour as ourselves, with a love not of sense, not of nature, not of self-interest, but with a love pure, solid, and unchange able, having its foundation in God.

Look, my daughter: the human sense, stayed upon

LET. XLVII.] Later Letters to Visitation. 255 the flesh, causes us many times to fail in abandon ing ourselves into the hands of God; we think that since we are of no worth God will make no account of us, as men who live according to human prudence despise those who are of no use. On the contrary, the spirit, stayed upon faith, takes courage amid diffi culties, because it knows well that God loves, supports, and succours the miserable, provided that they hope in him.

The human sense would be engaged in all that is going on; and it so loves itself that it fancies nothing is good unless it has part therein. The spirit, on the contrary, attaches itself to God, and often says that what is not of God is nothing to it; and as it takes part in the things which are communicated to it through charity, so also does it willingly yield its share in things which are kept back from it through abnegation and humility.

To live according to the spirit is to love according to the spirit; to live according to the flesh is to love according to the flesh; for love is the life of the soul, as the soul is the life of the body. A sister is very sweet, very agreeable, and I love her tenderly; she loves me greatly, she favours me much; I love her in return for this. Who sees not that I live according to the senses and the flesh? — for animals which have no mind, and have flesh and senses only, love their bene factors and those who are sweet and agreeable to them.

A sister is rough-mannered, sharp, and uncourteous; but all the same she is very pious, and also desirous of improving herself and making herself more sociable; wherefore, not for any pleasantness I find in her nor for any self-interest, but for God's good pleasure, I love her, I go to her, I serve her, I embrace her. This love is according to the spirit, for the flesh has no share in it.

I am distrustful of myself, and for this reason would greatly desire to be let live according to that inclination; who sees not that this is not according to the spirit? No, undoubtedly, my dear daughter; for while I was still quite young, and had as yet no spirit, I already lived so. But although according to my natural disposition I am timid and fearful, still I desire to try and overcome those natural passions, and little by little to do properly all that belongs to the charge which obedience, coming from God, has laid upon me; who sees not that this is to live according to the spirit? My dear daughter, to live according to the spirit is to do the actions, say the words, and think the thoughts, which the Spirit of God requires from us. And when I say thoughts I mean voluntary thoughts.

I am sad, and therefore will not speak; parrots and boorish carters act so. I am sad, but since charity requires me to talk I will do so; thus do spiritual persons act.

I am despised and get angry about it; just so do peacocks and monkeys. I am despised and rejoice; the Apostles acted so.

Hence to live according to the spirit is to do what faith, hope, and charity teach us, whether in temporal or in spiritual things.

Live then wholly according to the spirit, my dear daughter; remain sweetly at peace; be quite assured that God will help you; whenever trouble arises, lay yourself within the arms of his paternal mercy and goodness.

LET. XLVIII.] Later Letters to Visitation. 257

May God be for ever your all, and I am in him all yours; you know it well.

Your honoured father is well, and so are all that belong to you according to the flesh; thus be it with what belongs to you according to the spirit! Amen.