Letter IX. To a Young Lady

What the courage of Christians is.

January, 1606.

This letter is to my daughter, who is kind, and whose heart I feel to be unchangeable in the holy friendship which she bears me. I have given myself time enough to answer I know, but my leisure has been taken up with embarrassments which our jubilee has brought me. Truly, my dearest daughter, the resolutions which you communicate to me were all as I could have wished you them, and therefore good ones. Keep closely to holy humility and the love of your own abjection.

Know that the heart which loves God must be attached only to the love of God: if this same God wills to give it another love, he may; if he does not will to give it another, he does as he pleases. I am sure, however, that this good daughter will not keep her heart back. I should be greatly grieved, for I love her, and she would commit a great fault.

Ah! my dear daughter, how falsely do we call courage, what is haughtiness and vanity! Christians call these cowardice and faint-heartedness: as, on the contrary, they call courage, patience, gentleness, mildness, humility, the acceptance and love of contempt and abjection. For such has been the courage of our Captain, of his Mother, of his Apostles, and of the most valiant soldiers of this heavenly army; a courage with which they have overcome tyrants, conquered kings, and gained over the whole world to the obedience of the crucified. Be equal-minded, my dearest daughter, towards all -these good young persons: salute them, honour them; do not avoid them, yet neither seek them, except in so far as they seem to wish it. Do not speak about all this unless with an extreme charity. Try to bring that soul which you are going to visit to some sort of excellent resolution. I say excellent, because little resolutions not to do wrong are not sufficient; we must also do all the good we can, and cut off not only what is wrong, but all that is not of God and for God.

Well, now we shall see one another, please God, before Easter. Live entirely for him who died for us, and be crucified with him. May he be blessed eternally by you, my dearest daughter, and by me, who am, without end, your, &c.