Letter VIII. To the Same. (Madame de Chantal.)

Wliy he was strong before great attacks. His relish for prayer.

The first Thursday, 6th September, 1607.

How many things, my child, should I have to say to you, if I had the leisure! for I have received your letter of St. Anne's day, written in a particular style, and one "which appeals to the heart, and requires an ample response.

You are going on well, my child; only continue: have patience with your interior cross. Ah! our Saviour allows it you, that one day you may know better what you are by yourself. Do you not see, my child, that the trouble of the day is made clear by the repose of the night? An evident sign that our soul has need only to resign itself entirely to its God, and to make herself indifferent in serving him, whether among thorns, or among roses. Would you really believe, my best child, that this very night I have had a little disquietude about something which certainly did not deserve that I should even think of it! However, it has made me lose two good hours of my sleep, a thing which rarely happens to me. But, further, I was laughing myself at my weakness; and my mind saw as clearly as the day that it was all the disquietude of a mere little child; yet was there no means to find the way out of it: and I knew well that

God wanted to make me understand that if assaults and great attacks do not trouble me, as in truth they do not, it is not by my own strength, but by the grace of my Saviour j and I lie not when I say that I feel myself consoled by the experimental knowledge which God gives me of myself.

I assure you that I am very firm in our resolutions, and that they please me much. I cannot say many things to you, for this good father starts in an hour, and I have Mass to say; I will leave then all the rest. You gave me great pleasure in one of your letters by asking me straight out, whether I was making my prayer. O my child! act so; ask me always the state of my soul; for I know well that your curiosity in this comes from the ardour of the charity which you bear me. Yes, my child, by the grace of God I can say now better than before, that I make mental prayer, because I do not fail a single day in this; except sometimes on a Sunday, on account of confessions; and God gives me the strength to get up sometimes before daybreak for this purpose, when I foresee the multitude of the embarrassments of the day, and I do it all gaily; and meseems I have affection for it, and would greatly wish to be able to make it twice in the day; but it is not possible for me.

Vive Jesus! Vive Marie! Adieu, my dear child. God has made me, without end, without reserve, and beyond comparison, yours, &c.

Letters of the Sai?it about himself. 427