Letter XVIII. To a Lady in Pregnancy

We musty each in his own state, malie 'profit of the subjects of mortification which are therein.

We must, before all things, my dearest daughter, procure this tranquillity, not because it is the mother of contentment, but because it is the daughter of the love of God, and of the resignation of our own will. The opportunities of practising it are daily; for contradictions are not wanting wherever we are; and when nobody else makes them, we make them for ourselves. My God! how holy, my dear daughter, and how agreeable to God should we be, if we knew how to use properly the subjects of mortification ' which our vocation affords; for they are without doubt greater than among religious; the evil is that we do not make them useful as they do.

Be careful to spare yourself in this pregnancy: make no effort to oblige yourself to any kind of exercise, except quite gently: if you get tired kneeling, sit down; if you cannot command attention to pray half an hour, pray only a quarter or a half quarter.

I beg you to put yourself in the presence of God, and to suffer your pains before him.

Do not keep yourself from complaining: but this should be to him, in a filial spirit, as a little child to its mother; for, if it is done lovingly, there is no danger in complaining, nor in begging cure, nor in changing place, nor in getting ourselves relieved. Only do this with love and with resignation into the arras of the good will of God.

Do not trouble yourself about not making acts of virtue properly; for as I have said they do not cease to be very good, even if made in a languid, heavy, and as it were forced manner.

You can only give God what you have, and in this time of affliction you have ho other actions. At present, my dear daughter, your beloved is to you a bundle of myrrh:* cease not to press him close to your breast. My beloved to me, and I to him, ever shall he be in my heart. Isaias calls him the man of sorrows. He loves sorrows, and those that have them.

Do not torment yourself to do much, but suffer with love what you have to suffer. God will be gracious to you, Madam, and will give you the grace to arrange about this more retired life of which you speak to me. Whether languishing or living or dying we are the Lord's,\ and nothing, with the help of his grace, will separate us from this holy love. Never shall our heart live, save in and for him; he shall be for ever the God of our heart; I will never cease to beg this of him, nor to be entirely your, &c.

• Cant. i. 12. f Rom. xiv. 8.