Letter (number unidentified). To Father Gracian, Andalusia, Toledo, January 9, 1577

Thanks for his letter. Concerning confession. Plan of reforming the Caked nuns. Expressions of affeion.

JESUS!

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be with you, my Father.

OH ! What blessings your old daughter invoked on you to-day, the ninth of January, when she received the letter you sent her by Father Mariano. For I had received another on the eve of the Kings' feast with the commission for Caravaca. To my great joy, only two days later, I found a safe messenger to bear the commission to that convent.

I was deeply grieved at what you told me about your illness, in spite of your making light of it. — God be praised for the great favour He has shown me in restoring your health. I had written at once to all the houses I could, begging them to pray for you, and now I must do so again to tell them the good news, for I know of no other means of reassuring them. It is a great blessing that your second letter arrived so soon. You put me under a stricter obligation to you every day by the trouble you take to give me pleasure; I hope that God will repay you.

I can assure you that I am amused at hearing that you are writing a treatise on confession — as if you had nothing else to do! It seems taxing nature beyond endurance. After all, we must not ask God to perform miracles: you must remember that you are not made of iron, and that many members of the Society have exhausted their brains through overwork. I have long grieved over what you tell me about the perdition of those souls who entered religion in order to serve God.' Good confessors would help them greatly, and unless your Paternity insists on this in the convents which our Discalccd nuns are sent to reform, I am afraid the sisters will do but little good, for to restrid: the inmates outwardly with no one to help their inner life is hard work. I found it so before the Discalced confessors came to the Incarnation. As your Paternity's only aim is to reform their souls, let it be done, and done at once; procure some one who can help them and give orders in the priories of (Calccd) friars that nobody must go to the convent to disturb it. I believe that Fray Millan is at Antequera; perhaps he would be suitable as confessor; at least his letters to your Paternity pleased me very much. God grant the affair may be successful ! Amen.

Oh, how delighted I am with the perfedlion of your Paternity's letters to Esperanza \ It is best, even for your own sake, that what is to be seen by others should be in that style. How right you are in saying (when speaking of the needs of the Reform) that souls are not to be won like bodies, by not making a confessional as some translators have thought. Nothing on the subject appears on the list of Father Gracian's writings in the Peregrinación.

force of arms. May God preserve you, for you please me extremely. I wish I were very good so that I might pray much for you: I mean that I might obtain what I asked for and gain courage, though, glory be to God, I never was cowardly except when Paul was concerned. Oh, how delighted Angela was at the feeling shown in the loose sheet enclosed with one of his letters. She says she should like to kiss his hands repeatedly and wishes your Paternity to tell him so. She may well be free from trouble, for He Who brought about the contradi being Who He is, tied the knot so firmly that life alone can loosen it and even after death, the bond will grow closer. No foolish illusion of perfedtion could effeót this: the memory of it incites her to praise God.

Her former liberty was an obstruction : her present subjeótion seems greater freedom and very pleasing to God, for now she has some one to help her to lead souls to praise Him. This affords her great comfort and joy in which I take a large share. May God be for ever praised ! Amen.

Your Paternity's unworthy daughter and subjed:, Teresa de Jesus.