Letter IV. To the Same

Great crosses are more meritorious, and require more strength.

La Roche, lgth February, 1605.

Madam, — I have so much sweetness in my desire for your spiritual good, that nothing I do under this influence can hurt me.

You tell me you still bear your great cross, but that it weighs less heavily because you have more strength. O Saviour of the world! here is one who goes well! We must carry our cross; he who carries the heaviest will do best. May God, then, give us greater crosses, but may it please him to give us greater strength to bear them! So, then, courage: If thou wilt believe, thou shalt see the glory of God.*

I do not answer you now, for I cannot; I am only passiug rapidly over your letters. I will not send you anything at present about the reception of the most Holy Sacrament; if I can, it will be at the first convenience.

• John xi. 40.

I saw one day a pious picture; it was a heart, ou which the little Jesus was seated. O God, said I, thus may you sit on the heart of this daughter whom you have given me, and to whom you have given me. It pleased, me in this picture that Jesus was seated and resting, for that represented to me a certain stability; and it pleased me that he was a child, for that is the age of perfect simplicity and sweetness: and communicating on the day on which I knew you were doing the same, I entertained by this desire that blessed guest, in this place (the heart) both in your house and in mine. God be in all and everywhere blessed, and deign to possess our hearts for ever and ever! Amen. Your, &c.