Letter 74. To a Religious

My Dear Daughter, 9, 1619,

Strive to keep your heart in peace, and to preserve an even temper. I do not say do but strive to do it; let this be your chief aim. Above all, beware of being disturbed because you cannot all at once conquer the excitability of your temper and its many moods.

Shall I tell you what a monastery is? It is an academy for a minute education, in which each soul must learn to be manipulated, repaired, and polished, so that, having been finished and perfected, it may be fitted into precisely that position which has been assigned to it by God's Will. There is no surer sign of perfection than a willingness to be corrected; the best fruit of humility is a knowledge that we stand in need of correction. A monastery, again, is a hospital of spiritual invalids who seek to be cured, and who are ready, to that end, to endure the lancet or the knife, as well as all other necessary treatment. In the early days of the Church monks were called by a name which signified “ one who heals.” Now, my daughter, do you be all this, and put away all that self-love may say to the contrary ] only let your resolution so to do be quietly and lovingly made. Say, “ I must either die or be healed, and inasmuch as I would not die spiritually I must be healed; and in order to be healed I will bear one and correction, and I will intreat the physicians to spare me no suffering which is needful to such a cure.”

My dear daughter, I hear that you are afraid of spirits and ghosts I The Sovereign Spirit of God is everywhere, and without His Will and permission no spirit has any power at all. Whoso fears His Holy Spirit need fear none besides. You are safe imder His Wings, like a chicken beneath those of its brooding mother. When I was young I shared somewhat in this fancy, and in order to get rid of it I forced myself by degrees to go alone into the places which

Letten. q were alarming to my imagination, armed with trust in God; and I grew so completely out of the terror that now I delight in the darkness and solitude of night, in which the Presence of God seems more especially near. His good Angels, too, are around you, as a guardian band. “He shall give His Angels charge over thee; thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night”

You will gradually win this confidence, as God's Grace waxes stronger in you; for grace brings forth trust, and “hope maketh not ashamed.” May God ever reign within your heart In Him I am, yours, &c.

1^473] LXXVII.