Letter VII. To a Gentleman who wished to leave the World

Sir, — Go and bless our Lord for the favourable inspiration he has given you to withdraw yourself from this great and wide road which those of your age and profession are accustomed to follow, and by which they ordinarily arrive at a thousand kinds of vices and inconveniences, and very often at eternal damnation. Meanwhile, to make this Divine vocation fruitful, to realize more clearly the state which you are about to choose, and to better satisfy this infinite mercy, which invites you to his perfect love, I counsel you to practise these exercises for the three months following.

Firstly, to cut off some satisfactions of the senses, which you might take without offending God; and for this purpose always to rise at six, whether you have slept well or badly, provided you are not ill (for in that case you would have to condescend to the sickness); and to do something more on Fridays, rise at five. This arrangement will give you more leisure to make your prayer and reading.

Also, to accustom yourself to say every day, after or before prayer, fifteen Our Fathers, and fifteen Hail Marys, with your arms extended in the form of a cross.

Moreover, to renounce the pleasures of the taste, eating those meats at table which may be less agreeable to you, provided they are not unwholesome, and leaving those to which your taste may have more inclination.

Further, I would wish you sometimes in the week to sleep clothed.

For these little light austerities will serve you to a double end; the one, to impetrate more surely the light required for your spirit to make its choice (for the lowering of the body in those who have entire strength and health marvellously raises the spirit); the other, to try and to feel austerity, in order to see if you could embrace it, and what repugnance you will have to it. This experiment is necessary to test the slight inclination you have to leave the world; and if you are faithful iu the practice of the little which I propose to you, you will be able to judge what you would be iu the much, which is practised iu religious orders.

Pray earnestly to our Lord to illuminate you, and say often to him the word of St. Paul: Lord, what would you have me to do? # and that of David: Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God.f Above all, if you awake during the night, employ well this time in speaking to our Lord on your choice; protest often to his majesty that you resign to him, and leave in his hands the disposition of all the moments of your life, aad that he must please dispose of them at his will.

Fail not to make your prayer morning and evening, when you can; with a little retreat before supper, to lift up your heart unto our Lord.

Take pastimes which are of the more vigorous kind, such as riding, leaping, and the like; and not the soft ones, such as cards and dancing. But if you are touched with some vainglory about those others, — alas! you must say, what does all this profit one for eternity?

Go to communion every Sunday, and always with prayers to beg the light you need: and on feast-days you may well visit, as an exercise, holy places — the Capuchins, St. Bernard's, the Carthusians. May God grant you his peace, his grace, his light, and his most holy consolation.

If you feel the inspiration towards religion gather * Acts ix. 6. f Ps. cxlii. n.

strength, and your heart urged by it, take counsel with your confessor; and in case you make a resolution, gradually dispose your grandfather towards it, that the annoyance and pain of your leaving may fall as little as possible on religion, and that you only may be burdened with it. Oh! how good is God to his Israel / How good to the right of heart*

CONSIDERATIONS PROPER FOR A PERSON WHO HAS AN INSPIRATION TO QUIT THE WORLD.

I. Consider, first, that our Lord, being able to oblige his creatures to all sorts of services and obediences towards him, has not, however, willed to do so, but is satisfied with obliging us to the keeping of his commandments. So that, if he had pleased to ordain that we should fast all our life, that we should all live the life of hermits Carthusians, Capuchins, still it would be nothing to the great duty we owe him; and yet he is content that we simply keep his commandments.

II. Consider, secondly, that though he has not obliged us to any greater service than we pay him in keeping his commandments, still he has invited and counselled us to live a very perfect life, and to observe an entire renouncement of the vanities and concupiscences of the world.

III. Consider, thirdly, that whether we embrace the counsels of our Lord, giving ourselves to a stricter life, or whether we live in the common life, and in the

• Ps. lxxii. 1.

o mere observance of the commandments, in each we shall have some difficulty. If we leave the world we shall have labour to keep our appetites continually guarded and subject, to renounce ourselves, give up our own will, and live in a very absolute subjection, under the laws of obedience, chastity, and poverty. If we stay in the common path, we shall have a perpetual labour in fighting the world which will surround us, in resisting the frequent occasions of sin which beset us, and in keeping our bark safe amid the tempests.

IV. Consider, fourthly, that in both one life and the other, serving our Lord well, we shall have a thousand consolations. Out of the world, the mere satisfaction of having left all for God is worth more than a thousand worlds; the satisfaction of being conducted by obedience, of being preserved by laws, and of being, as it were, under protection from the chief snares of life, are sweet satisfactions. I leave out the peace and tranquillity found there, the pleasure of being occupied night and day in prayers and Divine things, and a thousand such deliciousnesses (delices). And as to the common life, the liberty, the variety of the service he can pay our Lord, the ease of having only to observe the commandments of God, and a hundred other such considerations, make it very delectable.

On all this you will say to God: — Ah! Lord, in what state shall I serve you? Ah! my soul, wherever thy God calls thee, thou shalt be faithful to him.

But on which side do you think you will do best? Examine your spirit, to know if it does not feel more inclination to one side than the other; and having ascertained this, still do not as yet resolve, but wait till you are told.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS.

I. Imagine you see St. Joseph and our Lady, just before our Lord's birth, arrive in Bethlehem, and seek a lodging everywhere, without finding any one willing to receive them. O God! what contempt and rejection of heavenly and holy persons does the world show, and how willingly do these two holy souls embrace this abjection! They do not set themselves up, they make no remonstrances about their quality, but quite simply receive these refusals and this harshness with an unequalled sweetness. Oh! miserable that I am, the least forgetfulness of the punctilious honour which is my due, or which I think my due, troubles me, disquiets me, excites my arrogance and pride, everywhere I force myself into the front rank. Alas! when shall I have that virtue, — the contempt of myself and of vanities!

II. Consider how St. Joseph and our Lady enter the hollow and shed which sometimes served for a stable to strangers, to effect the glorious bringing-forth of the Saviour. Where are the proud edifices which the ambition of the world raises for the habitation of vile and detestable sinners? Ah! what contempt of the grandeurs of the world has this Divine Saviour ig6 St. Francis de Sales.

taught us! How happy are those who know how to love holy simplicity and moderation! A miserable wretch like me must have palaces; and is not satisfied then: and behold my Saviour under a broken roof, and on straw, poorly and pitifully lodged!

III. Consider this Divine baby, born naked, shivering in a manger, in swaddling-clothes. Alas! how poor all is, how vile and abject, in this birth! How soft are we, and slaves to our comforts, and in love with sensualities! We must strongly excite in ourselves the contempt of the world, and the desire of suffering for our Lord abjections, discomforts, poverty and need. If you are sometimes a little difficult to treat in your temporal infirmities, little by little this will pass. The human spirit makes so many turns and doubles, without our thinking of it, that we must make some wry faces: he who makes the least is the best.