Letter 13. To Madame De Chantal

Feb, i8, 1605.

I PRAISE God for the constanqr with which you bear your trials. Nevertheless, I see some lingering remains of anxiety and over-eagerness, which hinder your entire patience. “ In your patience possess ye your souls,” the Son of God has said.' The effect of patience, then, is to enable us to possess our souls, and the more perfect it becomes, the fuller and better will that possession be. Now that patience is most perfect which is least mingled with anxiety and eagerness. May God deliver you from these inconveniences, and you will soon be delivered from all else.

Courage, I intreat you, my dear Sister I You have borne the discomforts of your way but three years, and you crave for rest I Remember that the children of Israel were forty years in the desert before they arrived at the promised land, although six weeks would easily have taken them thither; yet they were not allowed to inquire why God led them by such winding ways, and through so many difficulties; and all who murmured died before arriving. Remember, too, that Moses, who was nearest to God of the whole band,

• Luke, XXL 19.

Google died on the borders of that land, beholding it only, and not entering in.

Would to God that we could pay but little heed to the road we tread, rather fixing our eyes on Him Who leads us, and on the blessed country towards which we travel! What does it signify whether we pass through desert places or pleasant fields, so long as God is with us, and that we reach Paradise? Believe me, you had better forget your pain as much as possible, and if you feel it, at all events do not dwell upon it, — ^the sight will cause you more fear than the feeling causes pain. It is the custom to blindfold those who are about to undergo a severe operation. It seems to me that you dwell rather too much upon the thought of your trouble.

As to what you say, that it is a great trial to have the will and not the power to act, I might say that one must will what one can perform; as also that it is a great matter in God’s Sight to be able to will. Consider the utter desolation of our Master in the Garden of Olives; see how that Dear Son asked consolation at His Father’s Hand, and knowing that He willed not to give it Him, endured all in patience and tranquilly, asking no more, but stedfastly and heroically carrying out the work of our Redemption... When you have prayed that God would comfort you, if He does not will so to do, cease to seek it, but gird yourself up

Google to work out your salvation on the Cross, as though you were never to come down thence, never again to live in a clear imtroubled atmosphere. What would you have? We must speak with God amid the storm and the whirlwind; we must see Him in the burning bush, and in order to do this, we must indeed, like Moses, put our shoes from off our feet, and make a hearty abnegation of our will and affections. But God's Gracious Goodness has not called you on so far, without strengthening you for all this. It is His to finish His work. He may be long about it, seeing your needs; only be patient

In short, for God's Glory, accept His Will entirely, and never suppose that you could serve Him better in any other way. You can never serve Him well, save in the way He chooses. And He chooses you to serve Him without sweetness, without emotion; rather with repugnance and mental convulsions. Such a service does not please you, but it satisfies Him — it is not according to your liking, it is according to His.

Supposing that you were never to be set free from such trials, what would you do? You would say to God, ‘‘ I am Thine — if my trials are acceptable to Thee, give me more and more." I have full confidence in our Lord that this is what you would say, and then you would not think more of it — ^anyhow you would not be anxious. Well, do the same now.

Make friends with your trials, as though you were always to live together; and you will see that when you cease to take thought for your own deliverance, God will take thought of it for you; and when you cease to help yourself eagerly. He will help you.

Madame B. inquires through you whether she may wait for the arrival of her spiritual father,* to accuse herself of something forgotten in her general confession, and apparently she wishes much to do so. But tell her, I beg, that that cannot be; I should be a traitor to her soul, if I permitted such an abuse. She must accuse herself of this forgotten sin or sins, at her very next confession, in all simplicity and honesty, without repeating any other part of her general confession, which was very good, and then, in spite of these omissions, she must not be troubled. Try to remove the mistaken feeling which troubles her in this matter. In truth, the first and foremost point of Christian simplicity consists in frankly and without pretence confessing one’s faults, not shrinking from our confessor’s knowledge of them. It is his office to hear of sins, not virtues; aye, and of sins of every kind too. Let her, then, bravely conquer this fear, by means of a great humility and self-contempt, not shrinking firom laying bare all her weakness to him by whose means God wills to heal her..... But if she * Himself.

feels an excessive shame or fear in going to her ordinary confessor, she may go elsewhere; but I would have it all done with perfect simplicity, and in truth I believe that what she has to say is, after all, no great matter, and that timidity alone makes it appear alarming. Tell her all this very tenderly, and assure her that if I could yield to her wish I would gladly do so. If afterwards, the first time she sees her spiritual father, it is any comfort or benefit to her to tell him these faults, she can do so, although it be not necessary. But by her last letter she seems to wish it, and I think it may be useful to her to make another general confession with very careful preparation.. •.

Be firm, I pray you. Let nothing move you. It is night as yet, but the day is coming, and will not tarry. Meanwhile let us follow David, “ Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and praise the Lord.” * Let us bless Him with all our heart, and intreat Him to be our guide, our vessel, our haven. I will only answer some of the most urgent points of your letter.

You cannot believe, my very dear daughter, that temptations against the Faith and the Church come fi-om God; but who ever told you that they did? Darkness, powerlessness, grovelling, absence of all vigour, lack of spiritual perception, interior bitterness,

■ In the Vulgate it is, In noctibus extoUite manus vestras in sancta, et benedicite Dominom.” — Ps. cxxxiv. 2.

all these may come from Him, but blasphemous, doubting, unbelieving thoughts, never! He is all Pure and cannot create such things.

Shall I tell you what He really does? He permits the wicked maker of lies to present such abominations to us, in order that by despising them we may bear witness to our love for heavenly things. And if so, my dear sister, must we be troubled or upset because of them? Surely no. It is the devil who walketh about our minds, hunting for some loophole to enter in. Even so he dealt with Job, with S. Anthony, S. Catherine of Sienna, and an infinitude of pious souls whom I have known, as well as with my own worthless soul, which I do not know. But you must not be grieved at it. Let him work his own confusion, and keep eveiy avenue carefully closed; he will grow weary at last, or God will constrain him to raise the siege.

Remember what I think I have said to you before. It is a good sign when the devil makes such a stit ^vithout; it proves that he has not got within. Take courage, dear soul; so long as we can say resolutely, though without excited feeling, Hail, Jesus 1 we need not fear. Do not tell me that you feel as if you said it like a coward, without strength or courage, and only by doing violence to yourself This is just that very violence which takes Heaven by storm.

.s: FJ^ANCIS DE SALES.

Indeed, my daughter, it is a sign that the enemy has taken the fortress, all save the impenetrable, immovable watch-tower, which cannot be lost unless it betray itself Such violence is in the free will, which, bare and open before God, dwells in the highest and most spiritual part of the soul, depending wholly upon God and upon itself; so that when all other faculties of the soul are vanquished by the enemy, this alone remains self-controlled and unrelenting.

You will find souls aggrieved because the enemy takes possession of all other faculties, and makes a frightful tumult therein, while the higher will, in spite of its clearer voice, scarce can be heard. In truth, the vulgar clamour of the one drowns the other. Finally, remember this — ^so long as you are grieved at the temptation there is nothing to fear, for why does it grieve you save because your will does not consent to it? In truth, these troublesome temptation come from the devil’s malice, but the pain and suffering they cause us come from God’s Mercy, Which causes a holy tribulation to spring forth from the wiles of the enemy, thereby to refine the gold He destines for His treasury. I repeat, then, your temptations are of hell and the devil; but your troubles and afflictions are of God and Paradise. Despise the temptation, embrace the tribulation.

[77.1 XIV.