Letter (number unidentified). Reply to a spiritual challenge of the friars and nuns at Pastrana, Avila, circa September 14, 1572

Reply to a spiritual challenge of the friars and nuns at Pastrana.

JESUS, MARY!

ON reading the challenge, we thought we could not brace ourselves to encounter in the field such mettlesome and puissant knights. For no doubt they would conquer us and leave us rifled of all our goods — we might even be so daunted as to difficulty and to grant her humility, she will give them all the merits she gains if their prayers are answered.

The Mother Subprioress, whose name is Isabel de la Cruz, declares that if these cavaliers pray that she may renounce self-will, she will give them all her merits for two years.

To any of these knights who gazes on a crucifix three times a day in honour of the three hours our Lord hung on the cross, and obtains for her the victory over a strong passion which torments her soul, Sister Sebastiana Gomez promises all the merit she wins by its conquest.

To all who recite a Pater Noster and Ave Maria daily to obtain for her patience and resignation in her ill-health, Mother Maria de Tamayo offers, on each dav that they pray for her, the third part of the merits won by her sufferings which are excessive: for more than a year she has been unable to speak.

Sister Ana de la Miseria promises to the knights and daughters of the Blessed Virgin who, while contemplating the poverty in which Jesus Christ was born and died, shall demand for her the poverty of spirit which she has vowed to His divine Majesty, that she will bestow on them all the reward she earns in the sight of God by grieving over her sins committed in His service.

To all the squires and daughters of the Virgin who shall watch beside our Saviour for the three hours in which He hung living on the cross, and who shall obtain for Sister Isabel de Santangelo grace to keep her three vows perfed:ly, she offers

A CHALLENGE ACCEPTED 107 a share in the sufferings her soul has gone through.

Sister Beatriz Renion declares that she will give a year of the merits she gains to each friar or daughter of the Virgin who begs God daily to grant her humility and obedience.

Sister Maria de la Cueva makes over three years of her merits (which are no slight ones, for she has passed through severe interior trials) to every knight or daughter of our Ladv who shall daily ask for her the gift of faith, light, and grace.

Sister Maria de San José proffers a year of her merits to those of the above mentioned religious who entreat our Lord to make her humble and obedient.

To any one who begs our Lord for the gift of self-knowledge for Sister Catalina Alvarez, she will give what she has earned by a year of sufferings, which means a great deal.

For any cavalier or sister who will intercede with our Lady to obtain from her Son grace for Sister Leonar de Cantreras to serve God and to persevere, she will recite three times daily the Salve Regina — so it will be well to pray for her every day.

If any knights or daughters of the Blessed Virgin will daily ask our Lord to bestow His love on Sister Ana Sanchez, she will daily recite for their intentions three Ave Marias in honour of our Lady's purity.

Sister Maria Gutierrez offers a share in all her merits in God's sight to any one who prays that she may obtain a perfecil love for God and may persevere in it.

Sister Maria Cimbrón' says that those who pray for her happy death will participate in what she gains by her sufferings. For a long while she has been unable to move in bed, and her end is near.

Sister Inés Diaz will recite five times daily the Pater Noster 2LnáAve Maria for those who ask each day that she may share what the Virgin felt at the foot of the cross.

If the above mentioned knights and sisters will beg our Lord to make Juana de Jesus contrite for her sins, she offers them part of the many humiliations and sufferings brought on her by her misdeeds of which the number is large.

To those above mentioned who ask our Lord, for the sake of the torture He suffered when the nails were driven into His flesh, to grant Sister Ana de Torres grace to serve Him and to obey, she pledges whatever merits she may gain this year.

To any one who will ask of Christ, in memory of what He endured while being nailed to the cross, that grace may be given Catalina Velasco not to offend Him and that our Order may increase, she will devote part of what she obtains during the time she spends daily at our Lady's feet, which means a great deal.

To those who will obtain for her patience, humility, and light to serve God, Sister Jeronima