Letter LII. To a Lady

The remedy for calumny is not to trouble ourselves about it. Advice on Confession.

My dearest Sister, — I have not had the pleasure of seeing Monsieur N., but I am not ignorant that you have been afflicted on account of certain libels which have appeared yonder, and I should much wish always to bear your troubles and labours, or at least to help you to bear them. But since the distance of our residences does not allow me to help you in any other way, I beseech our Lord to be the protector of your heart and to banish therefrom all inordinate grief.

Truly, my dearest sister, the greater part of our ills are rather imaginary than real. Do you think the world believes these libels? It is possible that some take an interest about them, and that others imbibe some suspicion; but know, that your soul being good and truly resigned into the hands of our Lord, all attacks of this sort vanish into air like smoke; and the more wind there is, the quicker they disappear. The harm of calumny is never so well cured as by appearing not to feel it, by despising contempt, and showing by our firmness that we are beyond attack, principally in the case of a libel of this kind: for a calumny, which has neither father nor mother willing to acknowledge it, shows that it is illegitimate.

Now, my dearest sister, I want to tell you a saying of St. Gregory to an afflicted bishop: Ah! said he, if your heart was in heaven, the winds of earth would not ruffle it at all; he who has renounced the world, can be harmed by nothing that belongs to the world. Throw yourself at the feet of the crucifix, and see how many injuries He receives: beseech him, by the meekness with which he received them, to give you strength to bear these little evil reports which, as to his sworn servant, have fallen to your lot. Blessed are the poor, for they shall be rich in heaven, that kingdom belonging to them: and blessed are the injured and calumniated, for they shall be honoured of God.

As to the rest of your letter: — the annual review of our souls is made, as you understand, to supply the defects of ordinary confessions, to provoke and strengthen by exercise a more profound humility, but especially to renew, not good purposes, but good resolutions. These we must apply as remedies to the inclinations, habits, and other sources of our trespasses, to which we find ourselves most subject.

Now, it would indeed be more suitable to make this review before him who had received our general confession, in order that by the consideration and reference of the preceding life to the following life, we might better take the requisite resolutions; that would be more desirable; but the souls which, like you, have not this convenience, may make use of some other confessor, the most discreet and wise they can find.

To your second difficulty I answer, my dearest sister, that there is no need whatever in your review to signify in particular the number or little circumstances of your faults, but it suffices to say in general what are your principal falls, what your primary weaknesses of spirit. You need not say how many times you have fallen, but whether you are very subject and given to the sin. For example, you must not scrutinize yourself to see how often you have fallen into anger; perhaps this would give you too much to do; but simply say whether you are subject to this irregularity; whether, when it happens, you remain a long time entangled in it; whether it is with much bitterness and violence. In fine, say what are the occasions which most provoke you to it; the passion for play, self-consequence or pride, melancholy or obstinacy (of course I give them as examples): and thus in a short time you will have finished your little review, without much tormenting either your memory or your leisure.

As to the third difficulty, — some falls into mortal sin, provided we have no intention of staying in them, and do not go to sleep in the sin, do not prevent our making progress in devotion. This devotion, although lost by sinning mortally, is nevertheless recovered at the first true repentance we make of the sin, when, as I say, we have not long remained steeped in sin. So that these annual reviews are greatly salutary to souls which are still a little feeble; for if, perchance, the first

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resolutions have not altogether strengthened them, the second and third will confirm them more; and at last, by dint of resolving often, we remain entirely resolved, and we must not at all lose courage, but with a holy humility look at our weakness, declare it, and ask pardon, and beg the help of heaven. I am your, &c.