Letter 21. To Madame De Chantal

.... I SEE that all the seasons of the year are represented in your soul; one while you endure the winter of barrenness, distraction, repugnance, weariness; another time you taste the sweet dews of May, and the pleasant scent of holy blossoms; another while the warmth of an earnest desire to please our Dear Lord. Nought remains save autumn, of which you say that the fruits are scanty; but very often when the com is threshed and the grapes pressed, we find more result than the harvest promised.

You would fain have nothing but spring and summer, but, my dear daughter, there must be vicissitudes in the interior life as well as in that which is external Only in Heaven shall we find perpetual spring as to beauty; perpetual summer in love; perpetual autumn in fulfilment of desire. There will be no winter there, but here winter is necessary that we may practise self-abnegation, and a thousand minor graces which spring forth in the time of barrenness. Let us go on steadily, though slowly; so long as our affections are firm and good, we shall not go wrong.

No, my dear daughter, it is not necessary, in order to practise Christian graces, to be always dwelling consciously on each; such a process would confuse and hamper both your thoughts and feelings. Humility and love are the main links, to which all else is bound. Keep steady to these — the highest and lowest, for the whole building depends upon the foundation and the roof. If your heart is kept in the stedfast practice of these, you will not find other graces very difficult They are the parents, and all other virtues follow them as little chickens follow their brooding mother.

I am very glad that you are taking the part of schoolmistress. God will reward you for it He loves little children; — as I said the other day when catechising, wishing to urge our ladies to interest themselves for the girls, their guardian angels have a special love for those who bring up little children in the fear of God, and our Saviour threatens such as hinder them through any scandal with the wrath of those guardians.

.... No, you are not disobedient because you raise your heart to God less often than I bade you, or because you do not exactly follow all my advice. These things are counsels, profitable to you, but they are not commandments. When one lays commands on anybody, one does it in unmistakable terms. Do you know how counsels should be dealt with? They should not be despised, but rather loved; that is quite enough, they are not in any way binding.

Be of good cheer, my daughter. Let your heart be warmed this Lent. We must not doubt; — ^Jesus Christ is ours. As a little girl said the other day to me, “ He is more mine than I am His, more than I am my own.''