Letter 60. To the Mere Favre

Superior of the Visitation at Lyons.

SeN ^ 10, i6i6,

.... If our Mother has had time she will perhaps have told you how much I fear lest the “little foxes ” should creep into our new vineyard and spoil it; I mean dislikes and aversions, which are the temptation of saints. Stifle all such in their birth. Let your charity be blindfold, and be suspicious of whatsoever is at all contrary to entire unity, mutual forbearance, and that reciprocal respect which you ought to feel for one another. Beware of earthly prudence, which our Lord counts as folly; work on peacefully, gently, trustingly, simply.....

These dislikes and repugnances of which I hear trouble me. Oh, when shall we duly estimate the importance of bearing patiently with our neighbour! It is the last and most important lesson in the doctrine of the Saints, and blessed is the soul which has learnt it 1 We wish to be borne with in our infirmities, which always appear to us worthy of indulgence, while we esteem those of our neighbour to be of a wholly different character, and not to be endured.

May God make you and all your flock holy, my f7o dear daughter, and may His Glory be set forth through all your weakness and faults, &a

C376.] LXIII.