Letter VII. To the Same

Humility is the virtue proper for widows; in what it consists. The great utility of meditating on the life and death of our Lord. Remedies for temptations against faith. Advice on the exercise of virtues.

1 st November, 1605.

My God! what heartiness and passion I have in the service of your soul! You could not sufficiently believe it, my dear sister. I have so much that this alone suffices to convince me that it is from our Lord, for it is not possible, I think, that all the world together could give me so much; at least, I have never seen so much in the world.

To-day is the Feast of All Saints, and at our solemn matins, seeing our Lord begin the beatitudes with poverty of spirit, which St. Augustine interprets of the holy and most desirable virtue cf humility, I remember that you had asked me to send you something about humility. I think I said nothing in my last letter, though it was very ample and perhaps too long. Now, God has given me so many things to write to you, that if I had time I think I should say wonders.

In the first place, my dear sister, it comes to my mind that doctors give widows, as their proper virtue, holy humility. Virgins have theirs, so have martyrs, doctors, pastors — each his or her own, like the order of their knighthood: and all must have had humility, for they would not have been exalted had they not been humbled. But to widows belongs, before all, humility; for what can puff up the widow with pride? She has no longer her virginity. (This can, however, be amply supplied for by a great widowly humility. It is much better to be a widow with plenty of oil in our lamp, by desiring nothing but humility and charity, than a virgin without oil, or with little oil.) She has no longer that which gives the highest value to your sex in the estimation of the world; she has no longer her husband, who was her honour, and whose name she has taken. What more remains to glorify herself in, except God! O happy glory! O precious crown! In the garden of the church widows are compared to violets, little and low flowers, of no striking colour, nor of very intense perfume, but marvellously sweet. O how lovely a flower is the Christian widow, little and low by humility! She is not brilliant in the eyes of the world; for she avoids them, and no longer adorns herself to draw them on her; and why should she desire the eyes when she no longer desires the hearts.

The Apostle orders his dear disciple to honour the widows who are widows indeed* And who are widows indeed save those who are snch in heart and mind — that is, who have their heart married to no creature? Our Lord says not to-day: Blessed are the clean of body, but of heart; and praises not the poor; but the poor in spirit. Widows are to be honoured when they are such in heart and mind; what does widow mean except deserted and forlorn — that is, miserable, poor and little? Those, then, who are poor, miserable and little in mind and heart, are to be praised. All this means those who are humble, of whom our Lord is the protector.

But what is humility? Is it the knowledge of this misery and poverty? Yes, says our St. Bernard; but this is moral and human humility. What then is Christian humility. It is the love of this poverty and abjection, contemplating these in our Lord. You know that you are a very wretched (pauvrette) and weak widow? Love this miserable state; make it your glory to be nothing; be glad of it, since your misery becomes an object for the goodness of God to show his mercy in.

Amongst beggars those who are the most miserable and whose sores are the largest and most loathsome^ think themselves the best beggars, and the most likely to draw alms. We are but beggars; the most miserable are the best off; the mercy of God willingly looks on them.

Let us humble ourselves, I beseech you, and plead * 1 Tim. v. 3.

only our sores and miseries at the gate of the Divine mercy; but remember to plead them with joy, comforting yourself in being quite empty, and quite a widow, that our Lord may fill you with his kingdom. Be mild and affable with every one, except with those who would take away your glory, which is your wretcheduess and your perfect widowhood. / glory in my infirmities* says the Apostle; and it is better for me to die than lose my glory. Do you see, he would rather die than lose his infirmities, which are his glory.

You must carefully guard your misery and your littleness; for God regards it, as he did that of the Blessed Virgin. Man seeth those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the hearty If he sees our. littleness in our hearts, he will give us great graces. This humility preserves chastity, whence, in the Canticles, that lovely soul is called the lily of the valleys. Be then joyously humble before God, but be joyously humble also before the world. Be very glad that the world makes no account of you; if it esteems you, mock at it gaily, and laugh at its judgment, and at your misery which is judged; if it esteems you not, console yourself joyously, because in this, at least, the world follows truth.

As for the exterior, do not affect visible humility, but also do not run away from it: embrace it, and ever joyously. I approve the lowering of ourselves sometimes to mean offices, even towards inferiors and

• 2 Cor. xii. 9. f 1 Kings, xvi. 7.

proud persons, towards the sick and poor, towards our own people at home and abroad; but it must ever be ingenuously and joyously. I repeat it often, because it is the key of this mystery for you and for me. I might rather have said charitably, for charity, says St. Bernard, is joyous; and this he says after St. Paul. Humble services, and matters of exterior humility are only the bark, but this preserves the fruit.

Continue your communions and exercises, as I have written to you. Keep your soul very closely this year to the meditatiom of the life and death of our Lord: it is the gate of heaven; if you keep his company you will learn his disposition. Have a great and long-suffering courage; do not lose it for mere noise, and specially not in temptations against faith. Our enemy is a great clatterer, do not trouble yourself at all about him; he cannot hurt you, I well know. Mock at him and let him go on. Do not strive with him, ridicule him, for it is all nothing. He has howled round about the Saints, and made plenty of hubbub; but to what purpose? In spite of it all, there they are, seated in the place which he has lost, the wretch!

I want you to look at the 41st chapter of the Way of Perfection by the blessed Mother St. Teresa, for it will help you to understand well the doctrine which I have told you so often, that we must not be too minute in the exercises of virtues; that we must walk open-heartedly, frankly, naively, after the old fashion (a la vieille Franqoise), with liberty, in good faith, in a broad way (grosso modo). I fear the spirit of constraint and melancholy. No, my dear child, I desire that you should have a heart large and noble, in the way of our Lord, but humble, gentle, and without laxness.

I commend myself to the little but penetrating prayers of our Celse-Benigne; and if Aimee begins to give me some little wishes, I shall hold them very dear. ' I give you, and your widow's heart, and your children, every day to our Lord, when offering his Son. Pray for me, my dear child, that one day we may see one another with all the saints in Paradise: my desire to love you and to be loved by you has no less measure than eternity. May the sweet Jesus will to give us this in his love and dilection! Amen. I am then, and wish to be eternally, entirely yours in Jesus Christ.