> [[jpc-abandonment-06|← Previous]] | [[jpc-abandonment-toc|TOC]] | [[jpc-abandonment-08|Next →]] # Second Book. On the Exercise of the Virtue of Abandonment Letter I. *Some General Principles* To Sister Marie-Antoinette de Mahuet (1731). On the principles and practice of abandonment. My dear Sister, Our Lord has given me something better for you than that which you desired, something that it did not occur to you to ask for. It is a summary of some general principles to guide your conduct in life, with an explanation of the easiest way of putting them into practice. 1st Principle. The mainspring of the spiritual life is a good will, that is to say, a sincere desire to belong to God entirely and without reserve; consequently it is not possible to renew too frequently this holy desire in order to strengthen it, and to make it more lasting and efficacious. 2nd Principle. The firm resolution to belong to God should produce in you a determination to think only of him, and this can be practiced in two ways, first by accustoming yourself never voluntarily to entertain thoughts, or to reflect on subjects which do not concern God directly or indirectly as do the duties of your state in general, or in particular. The best way of dealing with idle thoughts is not to combat and still less to be anxious and troubled about them, but just to let them drop, like a stone into the sea. Gradually the habit of acting thus will become easy. The second way to think only of God is to forget everything else, and one arrives at this state by dint of dropping all idle thoughts, so that it often happens that for some time one may pass whole days without, apparently, thinking of anything, as though one had become quite stupid. It often happens that God even places certain souls in this state, which is called the emptiness of the spirit and of the understanding, or the state of nothingness. This annihilation of one's own spirit wonderfully prepares the soul for the reception of that of Jesus Christ. This is the mystical death to the workings of one's own activity, and renders the soul capable of undergoing the divine operation. This great emptiness of the spirit frequently produces another void even more painful ---that of the will; so that one has seemingly, no feeling, either for the things of this world, or even for God, being equally callous to all. It is often God himself who effects this second void in the souls of certain people. One must not, then, try to get rid of this state, since it is a preparation for the reception of God's most precious operations, and is the second mystical death intended to precede a happy resurrection to a new life. This twofold void must therefore be valued and retained. It is a double annihilation very difficult for pride and self-love to endure, and must be borne with the holy joy of an interior spirit. 3rd Principle. We must confine our whole attention to fulfilling as perfectly as possible the holy will of God to its full extent, abandoning everything else to him, such as, the care of all our temporal and also our spiritual interests, as, our advancement in virtue. The practice of this double abandonment is, first ---every time we feel in our hearts a desire, or a fear, or have ideas and form projects regarding our own interests or those of our parents and friends, to say to God, "Lord, I sacrifice all this; I give up all my miserable interests to you. May all that you please, all that you wish, happen. However, as there may be occasions when it is reasonably necessary to think and to act, I beg you to give me the thought at the right time, and thus I shall do nothing but follow what you deign to inspire, and I accept in advance either good or adverse results." Having made this interior act we should let all our fears and desires drop like a stone, without troubling ourselves any more about them, being assured that God will give us, in his own good time, the thought and impulse to act according to his holy will and divine intention. As for the practice of the second kind of abandonment which is that of progress in perfection, it is a most difficult subject very badly set forth by spiritual writers, and one about which most mistakes are made, mistakes that produce nothing but trouble, and retard our progress in the ways of God. Here is a very simple method given by Jesus Christ to St. Teresa when he appeared to her: "Daughter," he said to her, "never think of anything but how to please me, to love me, and to do my will, and I, on my side, will attend to all your affairs, both temporal and spiritual." To thoroughly grasp this lofty precept look upon yourself as one who has entered the service of a king, like Solomon for example, the greatest, wisest and best of kings. However little nobility of feeling, refinement of heart, good sense or ability such a person might possess, he would doubtless address his master in these terms, "Lord, since I know that you are a Prince, as good as you are powerful, as liberal as you are magnificent, I give myself to you without reserve; I will serve you without knowing how much you will pay me by the day or the year, nor even at the end of my time. I promise to think only of your interests, and mine I leave to your discretion, or rather, to your goodness and generosity." Often apply this very imperfect and mean comparison to the great Master we serve and be assured that if the great King would not endure to see himself surpassed in liberality by one of his servants neither will the all-powerful and infinitely good God allow himself to be outdone by his miserable creatures. The practice of this principle and the consequences to be deduced from it are: 1st. An intense desire takes possession of me to acquire the gifts of prayer, humility, sweetness and the love of God. To this I answer, "Do not let me think so much of my own interests; my business is to occupy myself simply and quietly with God, to accomplish his will in all that he requires at present. That is my task, all the rest I leave to God; my progress is his business, as mine is to busy myself for him and to obey his orders." 2nd. It occurs to me that I am still very imperfect, full of faults and defects, infidelities and weakness; when shall I be freed from these miseries? "By God's grace I have no affection for my faults, I am determined to combat them, but I shall only be freed from them when God pleases; that is his business; mine is to hate these faults, and to make a point of combating them with patience, sorrow and humility till it shall please God to render me victorious." 3rd. I begin to think that I am so blind that I cannot see my faults, even when I have to weep for them before God and to confess them. I reply without hesitation, "But I wish to know my sins, I no longer live in a state of voluntary dissipation, I quietly employ a little time in self-examination." This is all that God requires, "he will give me more light and knowledge when he considers it necessary; that is his business. I have placed the affair of my spiritual progress entirely in his hands, it is therefore sufficient for the present to accuse myself of the daily faults that God reveals to me, and some sin of my past life." 4th. It strikes me: Have I ever made a good confession? Has God forgiven me? Am I in a state of grace, or not? What progress have I made in prayer and in the ways of God? I at once answer: "God has willed to hide all this from me to make me abandon myself blindly to his mercy; I submit, and adore his judgments. I wish to know only that which he desires me to know, and to walk in darkness if such is his will; it is his business to know my state, mine to occupy myself about him alone, to serve him and to love him as much and as well as I can; he will take care of all the rest, I depend upon him." 5th. But for a long time past I have asked him for certain graces; to obtain them I have begged the intercession of those powerful advocates the ever-blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, the holy apostles and all the saints in Heaven, and it seems as if nothing will move him: "he is the Master, may his will be accomplished in all things; I desire neither graces, nor merits, nor perfections beyond those it pleases him to give me, his will is enough for me and shall always be the rule of my desires." # Letter II. *The Three Degrees of Virtue* To Sister Marie-Thérèse de Vioménil (1731). A general plan of the spiritual combat. "God has left man in the hands of his own counsel; life or death, good or evil are before him, what he chooses will be given to him." By these words holy Scripture makes us understand that man is a free agent, and that his salvation depends on the good use he makes of his liberty. It is true that since the fall of man his will has become weakened toward good, and turned toward evil, but with the help of grace which never fails him, it is always in his power to strengthen his will toward good, although naturally so weak; and to fortify it against evil toward which it is, unhappily, so much inclined. There are three degrees of virtue which the liberty of our enfeebled will can practice only with great pain, and much difficulty. 1st. That virtue essential for salvation, the neglect of which constitutes a mortal sin. 2nd. That virtue enjoined by a less stringent precept the omission of which is a venial sin. 3rd. That perfect virtue that we cannot neglect without a diminution of merit. All these inclinations which weaken in us the resolution to fulfill our essential obligations, such as, hate, revenge, anger, inordinate attachments, avarice, envy, et cetera, are so many sources of spiritual ruin. The same can be said, proportionately, of those inclinations which incite us to commit venial sin, or voluntary imperfections, because whoever neglects small faults will fall little by little into grave ones, says the Holy Spirit; and to be lax in the pursuit of perfection in but one point will prevent the acquisition of it forever. Therefore, every victory by which our will is strengthened in the practice of virtue is a sign of predestination and of salvation. Our principal aim, then, ought to be to fortify continually our will toward virtue, and to overcome our inclination toward evil. We have three means to assure and hasten the success of this undertaking. The first is to make great sacrifices to God by overcoming all repugnance in that which costs us the most. The second is to make all those daily little sacrifices for which occasions are frequent and continual, and this with a constant generous and universal fidelity. The third means and the greatest is prayer, but prayer that is humble, simple and inspired by the Holy Spirit; because it is he, as St. Paul says, who teaches us to pray and who prays in us "with unspeakable groanings." The Publican is an excellent model of prayer: he prayed silently, with deep and humble compunction. The greatest sinners and the most imperfect can pray like him and thus from the depths of their misery will rise by degrees, if they remain faithful, to the highest sanctity. # Letter III. *The First Works of God in the Soul* To Madame de Lesen (1731), on the first works of God in the soul. I am not at all surprised at the effect of the first meditation on the great truths, and I thank our Lord for it, and congratulate you. You required these keen feelings, and I believe they are likely to last until they produce in you the spirit of compunction and of humility which should form the foundation of your spiritual structure, and the beginning of your spiritual infancy. The agitation which accompanied these feelings was too great, but if I am not mistaken, it was involuntary and perhaps necessary as an effect of divine justice. The same feelings when they recur will be quieter and more tranquil. I was aware before receiving your letter that God had given you great graces, and I guessed that you had not properly corresponded with them, and this I realize now better than before. 1st. Your soul is like a huge hall, quite bare, or at least very badly furnished. 2nd. It will never be a fit dwelling for our sovereign Lord if he himself does not give and arrange the valuable furniture suitable for such a guest. 3rd. He will never make his arrangements nor bestow his gifts on your soul except in the silence of prayer. You have, therefore, only to keep the hall swept and clean with the help of grace, then let him who takes care of the beautiful furniture with which it ought to be decorated, arrange it according to his own taste. Do not meddle then without necessity in a work which your interference would spoil. Let it alone, and imagine yourself a canvas on which a great master is about to paint a picture, and arm yourself with courage because I foresee that it will take a considerable time to pound and mix the colors, and then to lay them on, arrange them and vary the tints. You must keep the canvas prepared and get it stretched and nailed to the frame; this is humiliation next to annihilation of self and an act of resignation and total abandonment inasmuch as you lose your own will in the will of God. # Letter IV. *Practice of Abandonment* To Sister Marie-Henriette de Bousmard, on the general practice of abandonment. You are quite right, my dear daughter, to say what you do and it was the favorite maxim of St. J. F. de Chantal, "Not so much talk, so much science, nor so many writings, but more good practice." In fact with regard to those souls who have acquired the habit of avoiding all deliberate faults, and of fulfilling faithfully all the duties of their state, all perfection is contained in the exercise of a continual resignation to the will of God in all things, of a complete abandonment to all the arrangements of Divine Providence whether exterior or interior, at present or in the future. A single "fiat", or, as St. Francis de Sales said, "Yes, my heavenly Father, yes, always yes", said and reiterated by the habitual disposition of the heart without even the necessity of pronouncing it interiorly, is the short and straight path to the highest perfection, because it is a continual union with the holy and adorable will of God. To arrive so far it is not necessary to make a great deal of fuss, only two things are necessary: 1st, To be profoundly persuaded that nothing takes place in this world either spiritually or physically, that God does not will, or at least, permit; therefore we ought no less to submit to the permissions of God in things that do not depend upon us, than to his absolute will. 2nd, Believe firmly that everything that God wills or permits will, according to the purpose of an all-powerful and paternal providence, turn always to the advantage of those who practice this submission. Resting on this twofold assurance let us remain firm and immovable in our adhesion to all that God pleases to ordain in our regard. Let us acquiesce in advance in a spirit of humility, love and sacrifice, to all the imaginable decrees of his providence, let us assure him that we shall be satisfied with all that contents him. It is not always possible for us, doubtless, to feel this satisfaction in the inferior part of our soul, but we will, at least, keep it in the higher part of the spirit, in that highest point of the will, as St. Francis de Sales puts it; it will then be all the more meritorious. # Letter V. *Means of Acquiring This Practice* On the means of acquiring abandonment. You speak truly, my dear Sister, and it is indeed the Spirit of God who inspired your remark; one of the greatest obstacles to the reign of the Divine Spirit in our hearts is our own miserable nature which recoils from the sort of captivity and death with which the holy abandonment enables us to purchase a share in the liberty and life of God. But this same Spirit who has made you so well understand the evil, will assist you to apply a remedy for It. In a few words this is what you ought to do to arrive at pure love, and total abandonment. 1st, You must desire it ardently, and energetically will to acquire it, no matter at what cost. 2nd, Believe firmly and often say to God that it is absolutely impossible for you, left to yourself, to acquire such perfect dispositions, but that grace will make everything easy, that you hope for this grace through his mercy, and ask for it by and through Jesus Christ. 3rd, Humble yourself quietly and peacefully for as long as you are kept back from this holy captivity; do not be discouraged, but, on the contrary, protest to God that you are awaiting with confidence the moment when it shall please him to grant you this decisive grace which will make you die to yourself to live a new life in him, a life hidden with Jesus Christ our Savior. 4th, If you are submissive to the inspirations of the Spirit of God you will beware of making your progress depend on the vividness and sensible sweetness of interior impressions. This Divine Spirit on the contrary will make you set more value on operations that are almost imperceptible, because the more subtle and profound they are and the more withdrawn from the senses, the more divine they become. Then it is that you become more entirely for God, because you will tend to him with your whole being and with all your powers, uniting yourself to him without particularizing anything, as every being seeks its center. Be persuaded besides that you still have a great way to go. You will have to work and to grow for a long time, but concerning this as about all other things you ought to say "Oh my God, your holy and most amiable will shall always be the exact measure of my desires however holy, just or apparently perfect they may be. I desire neither grace nor sanctity but at the time appointed and in the precise degree you will, nothing more, nothing less. If all the saints and holy angels prostrated themselves before your throne to ask you for a single degree more of grace or of glory than you have destined for me I should refuse it, because I prefer to remain exactly and simply, Oh my God, in the position you have been pleased to ordain for me." I implore you, and this is my last word, never to have, in any of your actions, any other motive than the pure love of God and his greater glory. At the same time you need not exclude motives of hope, and of fear, and whenever the Holy Spirit inspires you with these do not hesitate to entertain them, but pure love should reign in your heart above every other sentiment. You should desire, and very ardently, your salvation and perfection; but, even in this desire have the glory of God at heart much more than your own happiness. Nothing is more likely than this habit of mind to enable you to make great strides in virtue, and great merit. The smallest actions inspired by this love are, beyond comparison, of more value than the greatest performed with other good motives. But do not forget that you will make the more certain progress the more pure love induces you to renounce yourself even in the smallest things. If it did not lead to this it would not be pure love. Be carefully on your guard against the snares that the enemy will lay in your path to make you forsake your good intentions. Do not seek for, nor expect from creatures anything but forgetfulness and contempt, and may the joy of resembling Jesus Christ your divine Example make this contempt dearer to you than all the glory of the world. Let no occasion escape, however slight it may be, of perfecting in you this divine likeness, and after having faithfully profited by these slight trials humble yourself for not being judged worthy of greater ones. # Letter VI. *Rules for General Direction* To Sister Marie-Thérèse de Vioménil. General direction. My dear Sister, 1st. Do not burden yourself with vocal prayers besides those that are of obligation, but apply yourself especially to acquiring interior perfection and to mental prayer. 2nd. It is very useful to try and prevent faults by acts of penance, but it would be better still to endeavor to expiate them after having committed them, than to multiply your penances in advance without real necessity. 3rd. Moderate and supernaturalize your affection for those who are dear to you. 4th. In order to excite yourself to fervor profit by the good examples and conservations of spiritual persons; but do not ever show contempt for, nor give way voluntarily to any dislike of others. 5th. Do not be so much vexed with yourself for being so often at war with your miserable nature; Heaven is worth all these combats. Perhaps they will soon end, and you will speedily gain a complete victory. After all, they pass away and our rest will be eternal. Remain then in peace and let your humility be always united to confidence. 6th. Profit by bodily infirmities to strengthen your soul by the spirit of resignation to the will of God, and of union with Jesus Christ. 7th. Be careful to die to yourself; to renounce your natural inclinations; to stifle on every occasion human passions and tenderness. This kind of mortification is most essential, it does not injure the health, and is more efficacious than corporal austerities in multiplying merits, and in realizing the designs of God, who desires you to belong to him entirely and without reserve. 8th. Labor to profit faithfully but peacefully by all the different states through which it pleases our Lord that you should pass for his glory, and your own perfection. 9th. It is necessary that zeal for one's own advancement and for that of others under one's care should be earnest and energetic, but never restless, nor accompanied with anxiety and distrust. 10th. Apply yourself to becoming more and more interior and aspire to all the perfection of your holy state by a perfect regularity. Humble yourself unceasingly before God so that he may render you victorious over yourself. You have need of a very powerful assistance to overcome your sensitiveness, and to destroy the fastidiousness natural to you, before you die, because these defects are the result of your character and temperament. True, this consideration somewhat excuses the faults, and excites the good God to compassion for his poor spouse, but nevertheless you must continue to fight so that even if your miserable pride and self-love are not absolutely destroyed before your last hour, death will, at any rate, find you at war with them, and trying to destroy them. Your principal weapons should be divine love, an infinite gratitude for God's grace, complete confidence in him and a profound contempt for yourself, but without discouragement, and in peace. You will derive ever-increasing strength in Holy Communion, in prayer, in humility, sweetness, patience, obedience, mortification and above all in interior abnegation. 11th. Illness and infirmities accepted in submission to the will of God with humble thanksgiving, and in union with Jesus Christ, are very useful to expiate the past and to weaken the old Adam; they help also to make us die spiritually to all things before having to die naturally, which death in ending our transient ills will make us enter, let us hope, into the enjoyment of eternal happiness. As this kind of penance is sent to us by God himself, and as we are thus unable to mortify ourselves exteriorly, we must make up for it by interior mortification, applying ourselves more earnestly to the destruction of self-love, pride, fastidiousness and criticism of others, all of which are its bad fruits. Finally endeavor to become humble and simple as a little child for the love of our Lord, in imitation of him, and in a spirit of peace and recollection. If God finds this humility in us he will prosper his work in us himself. Persevere in being faithful to grace for the greater glory of God and for the pure love of him. All consists in loving well, and with all your heart and in all your employments, this God of all goodness. 12th. According to our advance in the course of our earthly pilgrimage let us endeavor to increase in solid fervor, the perfection of our holy state, and the particular designs of God in our regard. When he grants us attractions and sensible devotion let us profit by them to attach ourselves more firmly to him above all his gifts. But in times of dryness let us go on always in the same way, reminding ourselves of our poverty and also thinking that, perhaps, God wishes to prove our love for him by these salutary trials. 13th. Let us be really humble, occupied in correcting our own faults, without reflecting on those of others. Let us see Jesus Christ in all our neighbors, and then we shall have no difficulty in excusing them as well as helping them and taking care of them. His example ought to be sufficient; look at his patience with his disciples who were so rough and ignorant. Let us turn all our energies to glorifying God in ourselves and in those who think well of us. Let us live hidden in Jesus Christ and dead to all created things and to ourselves; without this, Jesus Christ will not deign to dwell in us, at any rate, not in the way he aims at, which is in absorbing all our human life in his divine life. Besides we must bear with ourselves also out of charity as we put up with others, humbling ourselves and punishing ourselves for our faults as soon as possible. While praying for ourselves, let us also pray for sinners who are our brethren. # Letter VII. *Useless Fears* To Sister Marie-Thérèse de Vioménil (1731). My dear Sister and very dear daughter in our Lord, may the peace of Jesus Christ be always with you. 1st. I thank God for all the good thoughts with which he inspires you. As long as you keep this good intention of belonging to God without reserve, resigning yourself entirely to his good pleasure, and fearing neither dryness, darkness, temptation, nor destitution, all will turn to your spiritual profit. 2nd. The fear of being mistaken about being at peace in the midst of interior troubles is very useless. What you unwittingly disclose to me proves that this peace is very real; it is the foundation of all else and a great grace which you must preserve at all costs. All the attacks and stratagems of the devil are aimed to make you lose it, or to diminish or disturb it; but keep firm in faith and confidence through abandonment. Take care not to pledge yourself by vow to anything whatever. 3rd. To be completely severed from creatures in the intention and the affections is a great favor which infallibly leads to pure love and divine union. 4th. The secret presentiment of approaching death may come either from God or from the devil. If it detaches you more completely from all things, without disturbing you or creating discouragement and distrust, it comes from God; if not, it must be rejected, because all that comes from God has a good effect, and it is entirely from the effects that the spirit it proceeds from is discerned. All the repugnance that you feel is intended to detach you more completely from all human support, so that you may have none but God alone; your interior practices about this are very good. But I am surprised that you have not yet learned that when God permits this darkness all feeling for good disappears like the sun during the night. All that can be done then is to remain firm and peaceful, waiting for the return of the sun and the dawn of day when all will be as usual. I give you permission to write one, two, three or four letters during the year, and whenever, after imploring the help of God, you deem it necessary, and if I should think the same, I shall be very particular to reply to you. # Letter VIII. *Advice on Prayer* To Sister Marie-Anne-Thérèse de Rosen. Excellent advice on prayer, to souls called to a life of abandonment. 1st. Apply yourself to prayer by a simple glance at the subject, that is to say by a single apprehension of its object, by faith without any reasoning. 2nd. I advise you to pause longer on that which is most likely to humiliate you, and to destroy self-love. The more distressed you feel, and penetrated with a sense of your misery, the more disposed you will be to receive the gifts of God. 3rd. Do not be uneasy about distractions, but when you perceive them, collect your mind and, above all, your heart by an act of faith in the presence of God, and in a holy repose. If that does not succeed you can only resign yourself. The state of distraction is often a cross more meritorious than the prayer itself, for it unites our will with the will of God who is all our good. 4th. The result of the prayer will prove its efficacy. Solid faith is incomparably better than faith that is sensibly felt, under its guidance the soul makes more rapid progress, and proceeds with greater certainty. 5th. Hear Holy Mass with great recollection, and give yourself up to a boundless confidence in the divine goodness, while relying on the merits of the divine victim, Jesus Christ. 6th. The way of dryness and aridity is greatly preferable to that of consolations, although it is painful. It is only in this way that solid virtue can be acquired; in the other way, the most apparently, perfect dispositions are subject to failure at the slightest breath of aridity or of temptation. God usually sends trials to those souls who have enjoyed for some time spiritual sweetness and consolation. 7th. When it pleases the divine goodness to make a soul advance in the way of pure love, fear makes no impression on it. As fear is the forerunner of love, perfect love casts out fear, as St. Augustine says, following St. John. Those who are charged with the guidance of such a soul should carry out the designs of God by conducting it in the ways of love and confidence. If the occasion arises where fear is necessary for the avoidance of evil, God will certainly bestow it. Let this soul continue then to love without troubling about other things, and above all let it avoid all anxiety and perplexity, for this temptation is more to be feared than any other by those who follow this way. One must then always recommend them to keep, at all costs, interior peace, and to reject as an envoy of Hell everything which tends to disturb, or diminish it. For the rest, know that the most perfect is that which is the most simple and the most simple is that which contains the least of our own, the fewest ideas, imaginations and reasonings; in which one single feeling continues longer than the rest. The longer the feelings inspired by grace continue in the soul, the more will it become impressed with them, and the more easily will it act under their influence. That of divine love which contains in an eminent degree all other virtues should form its ordinary food: when it masters all the affections of the soul it will effect in it an enthusiasm and a sort of enchantment which will make it run in the ways of holiness. # Letter IX. *Danger of Delusion Explained* To Sister Marie-Anne-Thérèse de Rosen (1731), on prayer. The danger of delusion in the prayer of recollection. My dear Sister, Always listen to that great interior Director, who alone can give light and strength to us in our necessities. Do not use books when he speaks interiorly. Let your main point be a holy repose in the divine presence; never leave it, do not break the sacred silence unless God gives you an attraction for some holy and useful colloquy, after which reenter your fort and sanctuary which is no other than recollection and interior silence in the presence and the sight of your Beloved. In him alone, and in this simple and sweet repose in God will you find all light, courage, strength, sweetness, patience, humility, resignation, peace and rest for your soul. I wish you all this to the highest perfection. Do not be afraid of darkness and dryness in prayer; when one knows how to unite one's will to the holy will of God, accepting all that he wills, one is safe and has everything. This is, according to St. Teresa, the most perfect prayer and the most perfect love. You did very wisely in explaining to the Rev. Fr. \_\_\_\_\_ the subject about which you write to me. I have so much respect for his views that I should consider myself mistaken, if mine were opposed to his. I have always thought, with him, that no one ought to meddle with the prayer of recollection unless he be called to it, and also that this grace cannot be merited by good works, nor can anyone succeed in it by any effort of his own. I have only added, with Fr. Surin and other authors, that one can, indirectly and beforehand, dispose oneself to receive this great gift of Heaven by removing obstacles, first by a great purity of conscience, secondly by purity of heart, thirdly of spirit, and fourthly of intention which will carry a soul very far on the road to it; and that having so far disposed oneself, one ought by short and frequent pauses, as if waiting to listen, give free course to the interior spirit. Will you read this to the Rev. Fr., or send him this little paper if you are not able soon to see him to speak to? Tell him when you see him, I beg of you, that I consider him bound in conscience to disabuse in my name all those persons whom he considers to have been misled, and that I depend upon him in this matter as I do not know whom it concerns. But in order to proceed with all due discretion and the prudence necessary, I beg him first to be good enough to consider these two points. 1st, That he ought to certify himself of the fact by gaining some knowledge of the interior state of the persons in question, because only to hear about it at secondhand does not throw much light on a secret and altogether interior subject. But it may be said that these persons are known to be very imperfect and have been seen to commit many faults at which others have taken scandal. My reply to this is the second point. Experience in direction teaches us that beneath very imperfect appearances God often hides great interior virtues known only to himself. Therefore I do not believe that these persons can be accused of being misled and mistaken in their manner of prayer, especially as it often happens that their faults and imperfections are grossly exaggerated by a want of charity or by still worse motives. I remember now that St. Teresa said, speaking of herself, that this method of prayer was a subject of suspicion in her; and that what made it seem a mistake and delusion of the devil was that the most enlightened persons whom she consulted could not reconcile in their minds such a gift of prayer with her conduct at that time; that is to say, with her eagerness to go to the parlor, to know, to see and to be seen, to chatter with relations and worldly acquaintance, thus losing a great deal of time and neglecting her soul; for she herself tells us that this was, then, her state: "And this", she adds, "is why all who knew me considered my prayer to be nothing but delusion." With regard to this I have come across directors who have had experience about it, and they said that God sometimes gives this prayer, 1st, To great sinners at the beginning of their conversion, in order that this work of their conversion should be more speedily and completely effected. 2nd, To very imperfect souls to enable them to correct their failings more easily and promptly. But what is added, and what I believe to be very true and correct, is that it is extremely rare to find this gift retained at the same time as faults, and considerable imperfections, especially if these be habitual, frequent and recognized, without any efforts being made to correct them. # Letter X. *Delusions in Prayer* On the same subject. This is my reply about the person in question. It seems to me that her prayer of recollection is more from the mind than from the heart. It is the opposite of what it should be, for in order that prayer be fruitful the heart should have a greater share in it than the intellect, in fact it is entirely a prayer of love; the soul resting in God loves him without the knowledge of that which it loves, nor how this love is produced in it. But the reality of it is manifested by a certain warmth it feels in the heart, by an irresistible attraction to this divine center, which it seeks without seeing distinctly what it pursues, and to which it yields, and from which nothing can distract it. From this arises the great facility of this prayer which is a sweet rest for the heart, and continues without effort for as long as it is desired. Therefore, if the person of whom you speak experiences as a preliminary, a great exertion of the mind, it is a sign that her recollection is not yet what it should be. The remedy for this seems to me to be, 1st, When carried away by this great recollection to concentrate the attention on the movements and affections of the heart, as if to retain and enjoy this delightful repose; there is such a charm about this feeling of sweetness and joy that it engrosses the whole attention of the soul, which thus understands better that it loves; while the mind without effort, and almost without voluntary application, finds itself captivated by this feeling which is, as it were, the food of the heart. 2nd, If, notwithstanding all efforts to the contrary, the intensity of thought continues, forbid this person to spend more than two hours, at most, in prayer; and during her reading, and at other times, tell her not to purposely try to get recollection, but only to give herself up to it when God impels her, remembering always to fix her attention interiorly on the affections of her heart, to enjoy in them, at leisure, this sweetness, delightful repose and interior peace. 3rd, Tell her always to employ a little time to examine how her prayer was made; at its beginning, in its progress and at its conclusion; that is to say, firstly, what form did the recollection take? secondly, if it produced in her distinct thoughts and feeling, or, if this sweet sleep was too profound to enable her to remember anything? thirdly, how she felt when this state ceased; for example did it leave her in a state of great recollection, with a great desire to act rightly, to attach herself entirely to God, and to please her Divine Master only? Let us be thoroughly persuaded that we can find God everywhere without the least effort; because he is truly present to those who seek him with all their hearts, although they may not be always aware of his presence. Therefore whenever you are no longer occupied with created things so that you have ceased to think any more about them, know that your soul is then occupied by God, and in God without your knowledge. And this is the reason: God, being that hidden and invisible object to which tend all the desires of a right heart; from the moment it turns its desires away from creatures, they then find their natural center, which is God; and by continually dwelling in this center they gradually increase until they become very distinctly felt and produce strong outbursts of love. Therefore the true presence of God is, to speak plainly, but a kind of forgetfulness of creatures with an interior desire to find God. You thus perceive in what consists the divine interior and exterior silence, so precious, so desirable and so advantageous; true earthly paradise in which souls who love God already enjoy a foretaste of heavenly happiness. # Letter XI. *The Impressions of the Holy Spirit* To Mother Louise-Françoise de Rosen (1735). On the practice of abandonment in the different states of the soul. My dear Sister, Peace in our Savior Jesus Christ. When we are attentive and docile to the interior spirit, it guides us so surely that we very rarely make false steps. I commend, however, the wise precaution of occasionally explaining oneself to the priests of Jesus Christ in a spirit of self-distrust. God has so greatly blessed this humility in you that I was almost inclined to write only, "All is well, go on as you are doing." However, for your consolation I will add what God may inspire after a reperusal of your letter. I admire what you say ---"I do not care to speak, nor to write, nor to read much." This alone indicates a spirit usually well occupied interiorly; and a good spiritual writer has said of such a one that without working it is well occupied. Another calls this happy disposition, holy leisure, a holy idleness, in which although apparently doing nothing, everything is done, in saying nothing, all is said. 1st. I find nothing but what is good in the three dispositions you experience alternately; firstly of faith, secondly of tastes and feelings, thirdly of subversion and suffering; but their value differs. The first is the most simple, the most certain, and is less favorable to the growth of self-love; the second is more pleasant and requires a great detachment from all taste and feeling even from that which is divine, so as to attach yourself solely and purely to God, as Fénélon expresses it. The third is painful, and often very crucifying, but then it is also the best, because all that mortifies the interior purifies it, and consequently disposes it for a more intimate union with the God of all purity, and of all sanctity. 2nd. Thanks to the goodness of God you behave very well in all these states, and have only to go on in the same way, but you explain yourself in a manner that might be misunderstood by those who have no experience of this state of prayer. You say that you do nothing; yet you must all the time be at work, otherwise your state would be one of mere laziness; but your soul acts so quietly that you do not perceive your own interior acts of assent and adhesion to the impressions of the Holy Spirit. The stronger these impressions are, the less is it necessary to act; you must only follow your attraction and allow yourself to be led quite calmly, as you so well express it. 3rd. Your way of acting in times of trouble and distress, gives me great pleasure. To be submissive, to abandon yourself entirely without reserve, to be content with being discontented for as long as God wills or permits will make you advance more in one day than you would in a hundred spent in sweetness and consolation. It is a good, beautiful and solid practice. Teach it to all, and especially to poor Sister N. Properly speaking she only requires this one point ---and this constantly practiced by her will sanctify her, and sweeten all her spiritual trials: with this single practice she will become a different being, as if she had been remodeled and transformed. 4th. Your total abandonment to God, constant and universal as it is, and practiced in a spirit of confidence and of union with Jesus Christ doing always the will of his Father, is, of all practices, the most divine and the most certain to succeed: try to instill it into everyone, especially the good Sister of whom I have just spoken. 5th. The grace and light, which enable you to combat and to stifle the feelings of nature on every occasion of which you have told me, deserve to be especially retained. Care and fidelity in corresponding fully with these graces even on the smallest occasions will serve to increase them; but never expect to be free from feeling the first movements, they will help to keep alive interior humility which is the foundation and guardian of every virtue. 6th. As to your ordinary faults you must know that directly our imperfections are really displeasing to us, and that we are sincerely resolved to combat them without exception, from that moment there is no longer any affection for them in the heart; and consequently no obstacle to our union with God. Therefore what we ought to work at with all our strength is to diminish the number of these faults and imperfections. If, however, we fall again through frailty, surprise or otherwise, we should at once courageously rise again and return to God with the same confidence as if nothing had happened, and having humbled ourselves in his presence, beg his forgiveness without feelings of vexation, anxiety or agitation. Humility will supply for the want of fidelity, and often makes good our faults with advantage to ourselves. Finally should there be, with regard to your neighbor, any little reparation to be made, never omit the opportunity of generously overcoming pride and human respect by making it. 7th. When you experience, involuntarily, the first irregular movements of any passion, give yourself time, before they are stifled by the help of grace, to thoroughly recognize to what lengths pride and passion would have carried you without such help. In this way you will acquire by personal experience a complete knowledge of that deep abyss of perversity into which you, like so many others, would fall if God did not uphold you. It is by this practical knowledge, these oft-repeated feelings, and frequent personal experiences, that all the saints learned that profound and heartfelt humility, self-contempt and holy hatred of themselves of which we find so many proofs in the history of their lives and which formed the most solid foundation of their perfection. 8th. With regard to your trials and temptations, I understand from all that you tell me that the Holy Spirit has so well regulated your thoughts, feelings and conduct in these matters, both exteriorly and interiorly, that I have nothing further to add. In the marks of esteem and friendship that are shown to you without your own seeking, if they cause you annoyance instead of pleasure, then the pain and trouble will prove their own antidote. There could not be anything but great merit in suffering patiently in conformity to God's will and the arrangements of his providence and following the example of Jesus Christ, suspicions, rash judgments, envy, jealousy, et cetera, without attempting to clear yourself, except insofar as the edification of your neighbor enjoins. When you are exposed to all sorts of criticism and unjust accusations go on in your own way without making any change in your conduct, according to the pleasure of Divine Providence and keeping pace with his plans; this is truly to live by faith alone with God in the midst of the bustle and confusion of creatures. In such a condition exterior things can never penetrate to the interior, and neither flattery nor contempt can disturb the peace that you enjoy. This is to live a truly interior life. As long as this state of independence has not been acquired, virtues that have a most attractive appearance are not really solid, but very superficial, and liable to be overthrown by the faintest breath of inconstancy or contradiction. 9th. Be well on your guard against all these illusions which aim at making you follow your own ideas, and prefer yourself to others. The spirit of self-sufficiency and criticism of one's neighbor seems to many persons a mere trifle; but it is nevertheless undeniable that this spirit is much opposed to religious simplicity, and that it hinders a great many souls from attempting an interior life. It is not possible, in fact, to begin this life without the help of the Holy Spirit, who only communicates himself to the humble, the simple, and those who are little in their own eyes. 10th. Your way of resisting all sorts of temptation; profound, gentle, simple and almost imperceptible as it is, is a pure grace from God: keep to it; that simple look at God is worth infinitely more than any other sort of act. The peaceful doubts you experience after the temptation has ceased are caused by a chaste fear which you must never lay aside; as for anxious doubts born of self-love, they must be despised and driven away. With regard to the rest, there is nothing easier to recognize, and discover, than the deceits and illusions incident to the prayer of faith, and of simple recollection; and that by the infallible rule of Jesus Christ; the tree is known by its fruits. Therefore all prayer that produces reformation of the heart, amendment of life, the avoidance of vice, the practice of the evangelical virtues and the duties of one's state, is a good prayer. Also all prayer which does not produce these fruits, or which produces their opposite, is a false prayer and produces the fruit of a bad tree, even were it accompanied by raptures, ecstasies and miracles. The paths that lead us to God are those of faith, charity and humility, therefore all that makes us walk in these paths is useful to us, and whatever leads us away from them is dangerous and hurtful. This is the safest and most infallible rule to prevent and reform all that is evil, all that is illusory, and it is within everyone's power. I greet, very cordially, your good Sister. Please tell her from me to allow herself to be always guided by the interior spirit, and thus to be ready, as she is, to abandon herself completely into the hands of God, equally content when he gives, or when he takes away, and with that apparent nothing that he leaves her; as it pleases him. In this is all perfection and the true progress of a faithful soul. How pleasing you must be to God in recommending so unceasingly to his spouses this holy abandonment which alone can unite them entirely to him. # Letter XII. *Peace and Submission* On the practice of abandonment and the peace of the soul. My very dear Sister, May the peace of Jesus Christ be always with us, and in us, since God does not act freely except in peaceful hearts. I rejoice, and congratulate you on the peace that our Lord gives you in the practice of an entire conformity of your will to the designs of his good providence. This peace, as you know, is the foundation of the interior life for many reasons, but principally because it is the health and strength of the soul; as trouble produces languor and weakness, acting on the soul in the same way that fever acts on the body. In the second place, because agitation and anxiety in the soul are an obstacle to the hearing of the gentle voice and soft breathing of the Holy Spirit. To keep yourself in this peace which will, I hope, continually increase, there is no better way than always to practice total abandonment, and that absolute resignation of which I have already spoken to you. You will, without doubt, succeed, if you never lose sight of the great and consoling truth that nothing happens in this world but by the command of God, or, at least, with his divine permission; and that whatever he wills or permits turns infallibly to the advantage of those who are submissive and resigned. Even that which most disturbs our spiritual plans changes into something better for us. Keep firmly by this great principle, and the most violent tempests will not be able to trouble the depth of your soul, even though they may ruffle the surface by disquieting the feelings. When, in prayer, you experience certain inclinations and a sweet repose of soul and heart in God, receive these gifts with humility and gratitude, but without attaching yourself to them. If you liked these consolations for themselves you would compel God to deprive you of them, for, when he calls us to pray it is not to flatter our self-love, or to cause us to feel complacency in ourselves, but to dispose us to do his holy will, and to teach us to conform ourselves always more perfectly and in all things to it. When distractions and dryness follow consolations, you know how you ought to bear them, I mean, in peace, submission and abandonment for as long as it pleases God to permit them to continue. You know, also, that the only hurtful distractions are those that are voluntary, therefore, all those that are displeasing do not prevent the prayer of the heart, and the desire. Do not ever force yourself to fight against these obstinate distractions, it is better and safer to let them alone, as one takes no notice of the various follies and extravagancies that, in spite of ourselves, pass through the mind and imagination. What has happened to you before will happen again; God will cause you to experience after prayer what he has refused you at the time in order to make you understand that it is the effect of his grace alone and not of any effort or industry of yours. Nothing serves better to keep us in dependence on grace, and in a state of abjection in our own eyes: and this produces humility of heart and mind. During the day try to keep yourself united to God, either by frequent aspirations toward him, or by the simple glance of pure faith; or better still, by a certain calm in the depths of your soul and of your whole being in God, accompanied by a complete detachment from all the exterior objects of this world. God himself will show you which of these three ways will best suit you to unite yourself to him, by the attraction to it, the taste for it, and the facility in the practice of it which he will give you, for this union is in proportion to the degree of grace to which the soul is raised. Each of these states has its special attraction; one must learn to know one's own, and then follow it with simplicity and fidelity, but without anxiety, uneasiness or haste; always sweetly and peacefully as St. Francis de Sales says. # Letter XIII. *Peace and Confidence* On the same subject. What you tell me about the peace and tranquility you experience has given me great pleasure. You must remember all your life that one of the principal reasons why certain souls do not advance is because the devil continually throws them into a state of uneasiness, perplexity and anxiety which makes them incapable of applying themselves seriously, quietly and with constancy to the practice of virtue. The great principle of the interior life is the peace of the soul, and it must be preserved with such care that the moment it is attacked all else must be put aside and every effort made to try and regain this holy peace, just as, in an outbreak of fire everything else is neglected to hasten to extinguish the flames. Read, from time to time, the treatise on the peace of the soul which is to be found at the end of the little book called "The Spiritual Combat", and which the ancient fathers very truly called "the road to Paradise", to make us understand that the high road to Heaven is this happy peace of the soul. The reason of this is that peace and tranquility of mind alone give great strength to the soul, to enable it to do all that God wishes, while, on the other hand, anxiety and uneasiness make the soul feeble and languid, and as though sick. Then one feels neither taste for, nor attraction to virtue, but, on the contrary, disgust and discouragement of which the devil does not fail to take advantage. For this reason he uses all his cunning to deprive us of peace, and under a thousand specious pretexts, at one time about self-examination, or sorrow for sin, at another about the way we continually neglect grace, or that by our own fault we make no progress; that God will, at last, forsake us, and a hundred other devices from which very few people can defend themselves. This is why masters of the spiritual life lay down this great principle to distinguish the true inspirations of God from those that emanate from the devil; that the former are always sweet and peaceful inducing to confidence and humility, while the latter are intense, restless and violent, leading to discouragement and mistrust, or else to presumption and self-will. We must, therefore, constantly reject all that does not show signs of peace, submission, sweetness and confidence, all of which bear, as it were, the impression of the seal of God; this point is a very important one for the whole of our life. You ask me for some rules by which to regulate the thoughts of the mind during the day ---to which I answer: 1st. That it is better to approach God and virtue by the affections of the heart than by the thoughts of the mind, and it is an important counsel to nourish the heart and make the mind fast; that is to say, to desire God, sigh after God, long for the holy love of God, for an intimate union with God, without amusing yourself with so many thoughts and reflections. Therefore it is more useful to occupy yourself with the affair of belonging to God without reserve; with the desire to lead an interior life, with a profound humility, fervor, the gift of prayer, the love of God, the true spirit of Jesus Christ, and with the practice of those virtues which he taught by word and his divine example, than to make a thousand useless reflections about them. If you do not feel any of these desires, the mere wish to have them, the mere raising of the heart, is sufficient to keep your soul recollected and united to God. Therefore, once more, the mere raising of the heart to God, or toward certain virtues in order to please God, will do more to help you on than all your reflections and grand reasonings. This is called being led to God by inclination, attraction and affection; and this way is gentler, surer and more efficacious than all those beautiful lights, unless, indeed, God infuses them by his grace and special favor; and even then, unless these lights are united to a certain taste and an interior attraction which touches and charms the heart, we usually make no progress. 2nd. God often permits souls to suffer from that emptiness of the mind of which I have spoken before, and in such cases it would be useless to wish to have distinct thoughts since God has deprived us of them. It would even be hurtful to make efforts to think or to reflect much; from which I conclude that, in any state, it is better to remain before God peacefully, acquiescing heartily in his will as to what he gives or takes away without doing more than retaining in the depths of the soul a sincere desire to belong entirely to God; to love him ardently and to be ultimately united to him, or else, as I have explained, to wish to have these desires. 3rd. As God gives lights and thoughts when he pleases, either in prayer, or at other times; if you find that these lights and thoughts come quietly and gently, you can dwell upon them for as long a time as you feel any attraction or repose, content to let them go whenever God pleases, without making any effort to retain them; otherwise it would seem as if they were your own, and would act against that perpetual dependence in which God wills to keep those souls which he calls to the interior life. And it is especially to keep them in this continual dependence that, sometimes, God does nothing but give and take away in turns, almost unceasingly; and this produces in those souls perpetual changes. It is through these different changes and constant vicissitudes that God himself exercises these souls in a perfect submission of mind and heart in which consists true perfection. The conduct of God in the interior of the souls he loves and wishes to raise to a perfect and solid virtue somewhat resembles that of a wise and firm mother who, to overcome the obstinacy and self-will of her child, and to make him perfectly submissive and obedient, gives, and takes away again what he likes best, and continues to do so until she has overcome his rebellious spirit. Oh! if we could only understand the loving conduct of God, what peace would be ours, and what submission we should practice in the midst of these spiritual vicissitudes and changes of the interior state. From this I draw the conclusion which I have often explained to you before that, in certain circumstances, the most efficacious way of making spiritual progress is the simple one of acquiescing in the will of God. "I agree to all, Lord, I wish what You wish, I resign myself entirely to Your will." This is called desiring nothing and being prepared for everything; nothing for oneself, and everything by resignation: it is called walking before God in the greatest simplicity. This method, in a certain sense, has nothing disturbing about it, because this simple adhesion of our will to the will of God comes almost spontaneously as a drawing and attraction, and finally as a sweet habit. You are surprised that having heartily made certain sacrifices for God, temptations about them should return, most violently, so as to cause you anxiety. It is necessary that this should happen, to prevent self-complacency and self-love which would spoil all. Be satisfied, then, that God has inclined you in the first place by his grace to make these sacrifices for him, and firmly resist the temptations to retract them. God intends through them to keep you humble; the mind is naturally so inclined to vaunt itself and to be puffed up about everything and to appropriate to itself all that is good and virtuous by self-complacency, that without the help of these oft-repeated trials of our misery and feebleness we should flatter ourselves to have had a great share in the victory, and should thus lose all the fruit we might have gained. In withdrawing from the truth of our own nothingness we go on in vanity and lies which are so opposed to God who is essential truth. Thus it is that the actual and almost unintermittent experience of our own weakness becomes the protection of those virtues that faith makes us practice. From this it happens that according to the progress we make God gives us corresponding light, and a more lively realization of our misery and poverty, to retain in us the treasures of grace and virtue of which our enemies would deprive us if God did not bury them in an abyss of misery well-known to ourselves, and keenly apprehended by us. This will enable you to understand how it happens that the most saintly persons are always the most humble, and have the poorest opinion of themselves. It is because, by our great inclination to vanity we compel God to hide from our own eyes the small amount of good that we do by the help of his grace, and all our spiritual progress and the virtues he bestows upon us without our knowledge. This is a very touching proof, not only of our own misery, but also of the wisdom and goodness of our God, who is reduced, so to speak, to hiding from us his greatest benefits for fear that we should love them and appropriate them by vanity and scarcely perceptible self-satisfaction. From this great rule it follows that our wretchedness, thoroughly well recognized and experienced, is worth more to us than an angelic virtue the merit of which we unjustly attribute to ourselves. This rule, deeply engraved in the soul, keeps it always in peace in the midst of a lively realization of its misery, since it regards these feelings as very great graces from God, as indeed they are. # Letter XIV. *Singular Favors of God* To Sister Anne-Marguerite Boudet de la Belliére (1734). On the practice of abandonment during consolations. My dear Sister, What you tell me about the extraordinary circumstances attending your vocation is more useful than you imagine, because a director who recognizes a call of Providence in a vocation has the right to conclude that God has special designs on the soul so singularly chosen, and that he desires to find in it a devotion proportioned to the predilection he has shown it. I thank God for the first grace, and still more for the second which consists in making you know and appreciate this singular favor. I conclude from these favors that you are of the fortunate number of those from whom God expects a particular fidelity, and who would run a great risk if they failed to correspond to the loving kindness of their heavenly Spouse, or if they wounded the divine jealousy of his love. It is true that in the interior life you must be prepared for continual vicissitudes. This is the law to which all the transitory things of this life are subjected by God, and this law is so universal that to remain always in the same state must be looked upon with suspicion. What must you do now, then, that God is overwhelming you with lights and caresses? 1st. You must wait, and prepare yourself for the distressing absences of your Spouse: also in his absence you must look forward to his return, and sustain yourself with the hope of it. 2nd. You must not give yourself up too completely to these affections and consolations for fear of becoming attached to them. You should use the same moderation and the same sobriety with regard to them as a mortified person does with regard to the dishes at a feast. 3rd. Your present method of prayer is more a gift of grace than your own. Therefore let grace act, and remain in a position of humble docility, keeping with calmness and simplicity your interior glance fixed lovingly on God, and on your own nothingness. God will then effect great things in your soul without your knowledge either as to what they are, or how he works. Be careful not to give way to curiosity; be content to know and to feel that it is a divine operation, trust him who works in you and abandon yourself entirely to him so that he may form and fashion you interiorly as best pleases him. Is it not enough that you should be to his liking and taste? 4th. During these happy moments have no other fear than that of becoming more attached to these gifts and graces than to the Giver and Benefactor. Do not value nor enjoy these graces and favors except in as far as they serve to inflame your soul with divine love, and are useful to help you in acquiring those solid virtues which please your heavenly Lover: self-abnegation, humility, mortification, patience, sweetness, obedience, charity and gentle forbearance with your neighbor. Know that the devil is not the author of favors such as these, and that he can never deceive you if you only make use of these tastes and attractions for the acquisition of those solid virtues which faith and the Gospel teach and prescribe for us. Let God act; do not by your natural activity place obstacles in the way of his holy operations, and be faithful to him in the smallest things for fear of exciting or provoking his divine jealousy. 5th. The most simple thoughts, and those that lead more directly to a filial confidence are the best in prayer. How pleasing to God are those prayers that are, at the same time, simple, familiar and respectful, and how irresistible they are to him. I wish you, with all my heart, a continuation of this simple and humble gift of prayer which is the greatest treasure of the spiritual life. 6th. You say that you cannot understand how the strong antipathy that you formerly entertained for your present state of life should have given place to such a perfect love of it. It is, my dear Sister, because, by different interior operations, your soul has, so to say, been remodeled, somewhat in the way that an old metal or silver pot is recast to make an entirely new one, shining and bright. There will be many other remoldings in your soul if you become quite detached from consolations, faithful to grace, and completely resigned to God's good pleasure in aridity, trouble and desolation. 7th. I feel, as you do, that it is God's will that, little by little, you should die to all things, in order to live only in him, for him, and by him; that is to say, to have neither thoughts, desires, plans, views, ambitions, affections, joys, fears, hope nor love but for him. But before arriving at this entire detachment, which is what is called a mystical death, you will have to endure cruel agonies. From henceforth you must prepare yourself for this, as, in bygone times, the virgins and the rest of the faithful prepared themselves for martyrdom, because this is in reality a true martyrdom beginning in love, and tending to the consummation of love. But be of good courage; God will uphold you and will give you, now and then, breathing space for the enjoyment of heavenly graces and of a delightful sweetness with which he will fill your soul as with a heavenly manna to nourish and fortify it during its sojourn in the desert of this world. 8th. What a fortunate attraction it is which unceasingly recalls you interiorly! What a holy dwelling, and blessed retreat has the heavenly Spouse made for himself in your soul, where he makes himself known to you and speaks to your heart in the most profound and loving silence, without sound of words, or confusion of fugitive thoughts! This should be your permanent dwelling and when you perceive yourself on the point of quitting it, try very gently to return, and to reenter this divine trysting place. It is in this that it is most necessary for you to be faithful. 9th. As concerns your extreme weakness and misery during times of aridity, and in the absence of the heavenly Bridegroom, you need not be in the least surprised at it and still less excessively afflicted or troubled. All good souls suffer in the same way, and God acts thus to remind us, by a hundred personal experiences, that we are nothing without him, so that we shall attribute to him alone all the glory of the little good that we perform by the help of his grace, and appropriate nothing to ourselves but evil. 10th. During this time that immediately follows the entrance of a soul into the state of recollection, you would hardly believe how necessary it is, not only to deny itself every useless pleasure and natural satisfaction, but also conversations, even pious ones, that are too long. It is often a device of the devil to feed pride, self-love and foolish self-esteem, and to draw us gradually away till we forget God even in speaking about him and about our own souls. We escape this danger when by continual efforts we have acquired a habit of living an interior life, and become accustomed to let the heart speak, rather than the intellect. 11th. Preserve most jealously a great taste for silence and solitude: the desire of it is enough for the present, and later, the time will come to put it into practice. 12th. It is certain, also, that familiar correspondence by letter, even in the most harmless way, is an obstacle to perfection, especially in youth. One of your former directors has already given you this advice and you did well in obeying him. This little sacrifice was very pleasing to God, and will have obtained for you the grace to make a second which I judge necessary. I see that it is incumbent on you to make continual progress in the way of detachment, and also that the special graces bestowed on you by God give him the right to expect a corresponding fidelity on your part. After weighing the matter well in the sight of God, and in the interests of your soul this is what I think; I wish you to tell the person, quite simply, that your director, whose advice you wish to follow, tells you that this letter-writing, though of the most innocent description, must be given up, as a little sacrifice which he desires and exacts, although he knows quite well that there is no danger either on your side or the other, as you have declared that the correspondence is with an upright man, a good Religious who is a relative: and that in spite of knowing all this the director is firm, and will maintain his prohibition, under the penalty of refusing any longer to undertake the care of your soul and that you neither wish nor dare to disobey him. I believe that this declaration, made with quiet energy, will suffice to give your soul its full liberty. 13th. I thoroughly understand the miserable self-love of which you speak, and its natural result in the instinctive and indeliberate seeking after your own ease and comfort. This self-love is so deeply rooted in us that only its opposite, divine love, can cause its death. It is enough, at present, to grieve about it, and to humble yourself before God. The prayer he gives you is a sacred fire which will insensibly consume all these evil inclinations, as fire consumes straw; so, have confidence in God, and wait patiently till this wretched straw is completely consumed. # Letter XV. *Heartfelt Prayer* To Mother Louise-Françoise de Rosen on the same subject. My dear Sister, I see no cause for anxiety in the state of your soul as you describe it in your letter. 1st. The feelings of gratitude, of joy and of self-effacement which keep you in union with God for entire days without any relaxation are the effects of one of those operations which you have already experienced. You have but to accept this gift with humble gratitude, and I can only congratulate you on the grace God has bestowed on you. 2nd. There is a language of the heart which only God can understand, and which is expressed by desires and other interior movements, as men converse with the voice and articulate words. This is called heartfelt prayer altogether interior and spiritual. In this the Holy Spirit, in the inmost sanctuary of the soul, listens, speaks, instructs, silences, turns and forms it according to his pleasure. It is the work of the Divine Spirit on the created spirit of which the soul hardly understands anything, apparently, and yet, nevertheless, is completely revived by the impressions made upon it. In this also, it only remains to receive in all simplicity the gift of God, and since it pleases him to communicate himself to the soul in secret, and as it were, "incognito", it should carefully abstain from opposing his designs by eager investigations or indiscreet curiosity. 3rd. Your thoughts and feelings about the happiness of the saints are founded on truth, for it is of faith that the essence of that sovereign happiness is but the ebbing and flowing of the very happiness of God. A small share of this happiness he imparts to certain souls here on earth, to attract them to himself, and to inspire them with a distaste for all else; so transitory impressions have their good effect, for which reason we are permitted to desire, and to enjoy them with interior moderation and sobriety. 4th. The comparison of the stone which has to be cut with blows of the hammer on the chisel, and afterward to be polished, is very just. You have only to allow yourself to be shaped and modeled, and to be careful not to destroy the form and shape given by the divine Workman, by thoughts and actions that obviate his industry. # Letter XVI. *The Operations of Grace* To Sister Marie-Anne-Thérèse de Rosen (1734). The operations of grace. My dear Sister, I have read your letter with much consolation and spiritual joy. I bless God from my heart for having been pleased to glorify himself in your weakness and poverty. We celebrate today the feast of St. Agatha, and in her collect we pray that as he has chosen the weaker sex to show forth his mighty power, so we might by her intercession be brought nearer to him. I have applied this thought to you. 1st. Your great attraction toward simplicity is a grace that can have no other effect than to unite you more closely with God, for simplicity tends to unity, and this can be obtained, first, by a simple and loving interior looking to God in pure faith, whether this interior looking is perceptible by its sweetness, as at present, or becomes almost unknown to the senses by being in the depths of the soul, or in the apex, or point of the spirit. Secondly, by keeping guard over all your interior senses in a profound silence. Thirdly, by only making repeated acts and reflections according as God gives you the thought, attraction and impulsion. 2nd. This indistinct knowledge, or rather, this strong impression that you have of the immensity of God is the work of grace, which produces, and leaves in the depth of the soul very salutary effects that no one has ever been able to explain, and on which it is best not to reason nor even to dwell unless God, himself, impels us. Do not interfere with this impression, nor distress yourself when it pleases God to take it away. The soul will thus be prevented from becoming more attached to the gifts of God than to God himself, and from ruining all the operations of grace by attributing the good effects they produce to itself. 3rd. The holy Scripture says that God dwells in inaccessible darkness to the spirit of man, but when he introduces a soul into that darkness it becomes luminous to it. Then can it see all without seeing anything, it can hear all without hearing, and gain knowledge without knowing anything. This is called wise ignorance, or, as St. Denis explains it, the darkness of the light of faith. All that is necessary to know about it is that it is an operation of grace; allow yourself to be immersed in it with joy, let yourself be engulfed and lost in it as much as God pleases. 4th. This attraction to and taste for mental prayer, and this profound peace and silence full of admiration and love are marked effects of the prayer of recollection. But to remain in a kind of inactivity, like an empty space, or a mere instrument waiting for the master-hand of the worker, is another operation of grace. In this state you have only to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Wait patiently in silence and resignation, as the holy king, David, said, "Like a servant waits with her eyes fixed on her mistress to forestall and accomplish her commands at the least sign from her"; if nothing is said, still wait in the same interior spirit of submission and abandonment. Should grace inspire particular and formal acts, perform them quietly, following step by step the impulse given for that purpose, and stop directly it ceases, to resume once more the same silent attention. 5th. This spirit of total abandonment, with the fervent and reiterated petition to accomplish all that God wills, frequently prognosticates a transition to an interior state of trial extremely hard and crucifying. All that can be done is to prepare yourself generally, before God, by a complete self-distrust and a great confidence in him; and by a general abandonment to all without particularizing anything unless God makes it clear to you. On this subject I say to you that if for want of tyrants there are no longer martyrs for the faith to the shedding of blood, Jesus Christ will continue to have martyrs of grace. The torments of the body give place with advantage to the different interior sufferings which souls have to endure to purify them more and more and to render them better fitted for a more strict and intimate union with the God of all purity and holiness. The feeling of confusion and of interior annihilation is caused by the action of the Spirit of God; all the graces he gives us should always bear the sign-manual of humility, and all that has not this sign must be regarded with suspicion, and likewise everything that has the slightest shadow of pride, presumption or vain self-satisfaction. 6th. Having once experienced the sweetness, efficacy and purity of the divine operations, I am not surprised at the sort of horror you entertain for your own efforts which are nearly always hurried, wild, uneasy and followed by a thousand fruitless self-examinations. It is not a bad thing to remain inactive when you do not think yourself to be actuated by the Spirit of God; as long as one of these two conditions can be found in this state ---that this inaction does not last long, or else that it is a peaceful waiting which is not idleness, since there is in it that interior and loving attention to God, with faith, desire and hope of his holy operation, which are so many acts, and so many movements of the mind and heart, forming the essence of true interior prayer. You must not scrutinize spiritual things so much, but follow God with simplicity, as St. Francis de Sales says: "To do otherwise is to oppose the holy simplicity that pertains to candid and innocent souls." All that is caused by, or proceeds from the love of God, says your saintly Father, is sweet and gentle, like this very holy love itself; and the signs of a self-seeking nature are the confusion, haste and anxiety of a self-love that is perpetually eager, anxious and impetuous. 7th. I understand that your attraction has always been the knowledge and love of God in, and through, Jesus Christ. The simple perception, or consideration, of these mysteries, accompanied by holy affections, is already a very good method of prayer. When all the contemplation of the mind and the affections of the heart are gathered into one point, for instance ---the Deity, the prayer is much simplified, is better and more divine; but you must not imagine that this method will always continue: usually it is not a permanent state, but a fugitive grace. When it has passed, you must return to the simple contemplation of the mystery with some affections of the heart, gentle, peaceful, without effort or too much examination. 8th. Be careful, during the time of prayer, not to reflect on yourself, or your method of prayer, because to examine closely in this way, one often leaves off looking at God to look at oneself, to reflect and, as it were, to turn back on oneself simply out of self-love which, not having been entirely given up, falls back naturally on itself. When divine repose begins, do not think of its sweetness but only of God in whose heart your soul should rather seek charity and the infusion of those virtues which fill the soul during that happy sleep, than its own repose. For the rest you could not hear Mass or recite the Office in a more worthy manner than with these interior dispositions, but you must prepare to be weaned from the milk of spiritual infancy and to eat the bread of the strong. May God be praised for this beforehand. 9th. Certainly the more annihilated and empty of created things a soul becomes the greater will be its capacity for divine love, and the more abundantly will this love be infused into it. Then the soul drinks long draughts of love with a delicious satiety, and an insatiable thirst. One must then be content to drink at the source, and not make unseasonable commotion. Formal acts of charity would be greatly out of place when one feels that the heart is entirely submerged in charity. God wills that by dint of plunging and replunging your soul in this ocean of charity your heart may become inebriated with this holy love, and set on fire with these pure and divine flames. To attain this you must think of two things only ---first to detach your mind and heart more and more from all created things, secondly to allow God to act, for he alone produces these effects in your soul. Still you can, and ought, to desire and to ask for a greater love of God, when you feel inclined, and impelled to do so; but this you will do almost without thinking and without being able to help yourself. 10th. God carries out his work with any tools he pleases, and sometimes effects wonderful things with very weak instruments. Therefore do not deny yourself to those souls whom he has inspired to appeal to you: say quite simply what you think and give them what God has given you for their benefit, and rest assured that he will give his blessing to your simplicity, and to the humility of these good souls. When God sends someone to us in whatever way it may be, it is not meddling to help others, but the best way of showing our love and gratitude to him. Even when they seem to repel you, stand your ground, and endure all for the glory of your great Master. Letter XVII. *Attraction to the Interior Life* To Mother Marie-Anne-Sophie de Rottenbourg (1738). On docility to the interior impressions of the Holy Spirit, and peaceful waiting. Reverend Mother, All that you tell me about the interior attraction of many of your daughters to holy recollection, and the measures you take to turn aside the obstacles, specious and well-disguised as they are, by which the devil tries to prevent them, can only come from the Holy Spirit. I have nothing further to remark about it. Follow quietly and step by step the light that God gives you. What a consolation and joy for me it is to learn that all those good sisters whom I know best, and am most interested in, are just those that are most attracted to and have the greatest desire for the interior life. I beg you to congratulate them from me for this gift of God, and to greet them all, particularly your dear Sister Marie-Anne-Thérèse de Vioménil. How delighted I am to hear that she is persevering in this work. The seven you mention, with whom you have formed a holy league for the renewal of an interior spirit in your community, will gradually make proselytes, and before long will win over the whole house. As to yourself, profit by your experiences and never forsake the plain path of pure faith which God has made you enter upon for any reason whatever. Do not forget that in this path the operations of God are almost imperceptible. The work of grace is accomplished in the innermost recess of the spirit, that which is the furthest from the senses, and from all that can be felt. To confirm you in this way you must remember first that this is what Jesus Christ meant when he said that we must worship the Father in spirit and in truth; secondly, that what is evident to the senses is, so to say, only a mark of grace; as Fr. Louis Lallement says; thirdly, that Mother de Chantal has very justly said that the more simple, deep and imperceptible are the workings of God, the more spiritual, solid, pure and perfect they are. That spirit of peace in yourself and in the others is one of the greatest gifts of God. Follow this spirit and all that it inspires; it will work wonders in yourself and in your neighbor. When we have learned to remain in interior peace, God will teach others by our example without the sound of words to be peaceable and obedient, so that directors will only have to say to us, "Listen attentively to the voice of the Spirit of God", or, better still, "Be faithful in following the interior impressions of his grace." This is what St. John said to the first Christians, "You have no need that any man teach you, but as his unction teacheth you all things, and is truth, and is no lie. And as it has taught you, abide in him." Follow faithfully and obediently, when you feel it, this divine unction; wait for it peacefully and with confidence when its impression becomes indistinct; this is the best way of making rapid progress in the way of perfection without danger of going astray. Why do we always wish to substitute our own action for that of the Divine Worker who labors in us without ceasing to make us perfect? How much more progress should we not make if we took more care not to interfere with his action, but to abandon ourselves to him, and to wait for him? The Holy Scriptures frequently recommend us to "wait on the Lord" and there is hardly any means better calculated to make us holy. There is nothing to which souls already sufficiently exercised in the active life and the fulfillment of the precepts should more earnestly apply themselves, than to these peaceful waitings. It is the way to acquire the spirit of prayer, of holy recollection, and of a most intimate union with God. Our God is infinitely liberal; and his hands are always full of graces which he only desires to pour out on us. To receive abundantly of these graces all that is necessary is to prepare our hearts and to remain always in readiness. But the dryness and weariness of this waiting tire those souls that are impatient and impetuous, and dishearten those who think only of their own interests instead of allowing themselves to be led by the pure love of God which consists in conforming our will always with his. There is no treasure in the world to be compared to this. But people are always rushing after all sorts of chimerical perfections and lose sight of the only true perfection, which is the fulfillment of the divine will; this infinitely wise and sweet will, which, if we allow it to guide us, will show us close at hand and at every moment what we are so laboriously and uselessly hunting for elsewhere. Letter XVIII. *Desires to Be Moderated* To Sister Marie-Thérèse de Vioménil. On the moderation of desires and fears. Salutary fear causes neither disturbance, uneasiness nor discouragement. If fear produces contrary effects you must drive it away, and not allow it to take possession of you, as in this case it comes either from the devil, or your own self-love. We must always remain in the presence of God, waiting his pleasure even about our most lawful desires, and the projects that seem most saintly; and must be always submissive and resigned to his holy will. Why? Firstly, because the desires of God should be the only rule of all our desires. The most certain way of arriving at perfection is to submit, and to persevere in adhering to all the interior and exterior circumstances in which we find ourselves by the permission of that Divine Providence who rules everything, and disposes everything, even to the fall of a leaf from the tree, or a hair from our heads. Secondly, because the giving up of our own will is a necessary and important condition of our sanctification. Nothing is so calculated to make us acquire this abnegation than the delays we meet with in the execution of our good purposes. It is on this account that God often delays their accomplishment for entire years. Then, indeed, do we require faith, abandonment and confidence. But what makes this trial all the more bitter is that sometimes we do not feel that we have any of these virtues, because we are deprived of the power of making formal acts. What is to be done in this case? We must sustain ourselves by the simple light of bare faith, and by frequent recourse to God interiorly to implore his divine assistance, humbly confessing our impotence and misery. In this way we shall take part in the designs of God who seems occasionally to leave us to our own devices, to make us understand how little we can do when left to ourselves. What a great favor! and what an important virtue we shall have acquired in learning by repeated personal experiences the depths of our weakness, misery and poverty, and the continual need we have of the sustaining power of God to raise, enlighten and animate us by the interior influence of his grace. The deep impression that God has given you of a keen desire to divest yourself of your own will to follow his is a most precious grace; to guard and increase it you must, with all your heart and soul, make every effort, as often and for as long a time as you can, especially at prayer. I could wish that you were able to spend your whole life in this exercise alone, in great interior silence allowing the Holy Spirit to work in you by his grace; but all without violence or effort; gently, tranquilly, peacefully, because God only dwells in peaceful souls in which he takes his delight. Letter XIX. *To Aim at Simplicity* To Sister Marie-Anne-Thérèse de Rosen. To aim at simplicity. My dear Sister, Only a few days ago I answered at some length your last letter but one. If you find that, through me, God does not do much for you, you ought to conclude that my help is not necessary for you, or else that he will himself provide for your necessities. How well he can do without us when he chooses! One single word uttered by him to the ear of the soul is more instructive than all the discourses of men. The least little breath of grace wafts our ship more speedily on its course, and makes it arrive more surely and speedily into harbor than all our oars, sails and sculls. I am delighted to hear that you are beginning to learn this, or rather that you daily have fresh and more touching proofs of it. Keep in this state: the interior silence of respect and submission alone, kept humbly in the presence of God if he does not command us to act, will sanctify our energies, soften our anxieties and pacify our troubles, and that in one moment. Remain in this state of unity and simplicity; multiplicity throws the mind into trouble and confusion, scatters and disorders our powers without our being able to perceive it. Many desires trouble the soul, says the Holy Spirit. Here is a practice which I advise you to follow in order to reduce all your desires to a single one; take this truth well to heart. "I have been created and put into this world to serve God, to love him, and to please him; that is my task here; what does he wish to do with me in this world and the next? to what degree of glory will he raise me? That is for him to determine; it is his business, it is, so to say, his task; each to his own business the doing of that is the only thing to think of. Please God I will think of mine as willingly as God thinks of his." I remain in him and through him ---my dear Sister. Yours, et cetera. Letter XX. *Holy Simplicity* To Sister Anne-Marguerite Boudet de la Bellière. On the same subject. My dear Sister, The way in which you take your little trials is infinitely pleasing to God, and I do not fear to give you this assurance, because in so generously renouncing, as you do, all interior sweetness and consolation for the love of him, you merit to receive them more abundantly when the time arrives. The little, you tell me, that you have remembered of what I told you, is the essential part, and that ought to suffice. God sees the heart, and that is all that he wants. Perfection does not consist in a multiplicity of acts even though interior; on the contrary the more we advance the more is God pleased to make it out of our power to produce many acts, but invites us to remain in his presence in a state of silence and humble recollection. Follow this attraction of grace. Be content to renew from time to time a simple act of faith and of charity, accompanied by total resignation and filial confidence. In all the different changes both interior and exterior, say always from the depths of your heart, "My God, I wish what you wish, I refuse nothing from your fatherly hand, I accept all, and submit to all." In this simple act, continued, or rather habitual, consists our whole perfection. Also in this the heart and soul are kept in peace at their center even when agitated on the surface by different trials and emotions that war against it. The better you understand how to maintain this holy interior simplicity the greater will be your progress, or to speak more correctly, the more God will help you to advance. Do not, however, expect to be able to measure the progress you make; that is impossible for this reason, that your progress depends more on the work of God in your soul than on your own acts, and that this work being purely spiritual, on that account is hardly perceptible. However, I give you some signs by which you may recognize in future the results of the divine action in your change of heart. 1st. A holy indifference which resembles a sort of insensibility to all things of this world. 2nd. A fund of peace from which it follows that you will not trouble yourself about anything, even about your faults and imperfections, and far less about those of your neighbor. 3rd. A certain attraction toward God and the things of God; a sort of hunger and thirst after justice, that is to say, after virtue, piety and all perfection. This hunger, which is very keen, is, nevertheless, exempt from eagerness and trouble, and leads you to will always what God wills, and nothing more; to bless him in spiritual poverty as much as in abundance. Remember always this great saying of Jesus Christ: "If you do not become like little children you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." Be on your guard never to infringe, in the slightest degree, this holy simplicity, so little known, so little esteemed, yet so precious in the sight of God. Be always more and more upright and simple in your thoughts, words, opinions, actions and behavior. There are people who want to be just the contrary, and who pretend to be, out of vanity. How very far are these people from the Kingdom of God, since they have not even the foundation of it, which is humility. Whenever you go to pray, or leave it with a quiet, recollected and well-disposed mind, you will always derive some fruit from it one way or another, and all the more when you believe that God is farthest from you, for then he will be nearest. Do not make a number of acts during prayer, but make a few very quietly, with the greatest repose of mind and heart, and in the greatest tranquility possible. During the day do not force yourself to make so many different acts, and still less to feel fervor and devotion in making them; keep yourself firmly, humbly and patiently in peace, tranquil and quite resigned in this emptiness of the mind and of the will. It is this emptiness of the spirit which conduces to pure love, and union with God. Letter XXI. *Different Attractions of Grace* To Mother Louise Françoise de Rosen, on the different attractions of grace. My dear Sister, The tendencies, on the subject of which you consult me, are not rare among souls who, like you, have been called by God to unite themselves with him by a loving abandonment. Sometimes, you say, you feel yourself drawn to adore the Divine Majesty with humility mixed with love, and by very distinct acts which arise of their own accord apparently, and are very delightful, filling the soul with a great contentment. At other times you are inclined to remain in complete repose with a clear apprehension of the presence of God, and without the power of forming distinct acts, unless with violent efforts, even during holy Mass, and then you feel obliged to take a book, and to do violence to yourself to escape from this apparent inaction which occasions you uneasiness: this is as near as possible to the two states, the principal traits of which you have depicted in your letter, and on the subject of which you desire my counsel. This is what I think about it. In the first place it is certain that each of these two states is a gift of God, but the second seems to be the best; first because it is more simple, more profound, more spiritual and further removed from the senses, consequently more worthy of God who is a pure spirit, and whom we must worship in spirit and in truth; secondly, because it is an exercise of pure faith, which is less satisfying to the soul, less reassuring, and consequently, in which there is more of sacrifice and of perfect abandonment to God. Thirdly, because in this state it is the Holy Spirit that acts with the approval and consent of the soul, while in the first state, it is the soul that acts with the grace of God and this is more like ordinary affective prayer. Well! you must understand that those operations in which God has the greatest share, and the creature the least, must be the most perfect. From this it follows that in this second state there is no serious danger of wasting time nor consequently any reason to fear that you do not fulfill the precept to hear Mass. You may adhere to this decision without the slightest scruple. And if, further, you wish to have my advice as to how to behave with regard to these two states when you experience them, I will give it to you. First, whenever the second attraction is strongly experienced, and absorbs you, in some measure, in spite of yourself, you ought to allow yourself to be gently drawn on, otherwise you would be resisting the inspiration and secret operations of the Holy Spirit within you, and thus would be acting according to your own ideas, out of self-love and in order to become satisfied and reassured. Now you must seek, in all things, not your own satisfaction however spiritual it may be, but the perfect satisfaction of God. If this attraction should not be very strong nor very urgent, you ought, nevertheless, to second it by keeping yourself in a profound silence to give more opportunity for the inmost operations of the Holy Spirit. This, at any rate, is the advice I give you for long hours of prayer; because, when you have only a short time for prayer, as in short visits to the Blessed Sacrament morning and evening, it would be more useful to cultivate the first attraction you mentioned. You could then make formal acts of adoration and love of God. But I will remind you of the counsel St. Francis de Sales gave to a person who followed the same method: I should wish these particular acts to be made without much feeling or effort, so that they may flow and be distilled from the highest point of the mind, as the same saint expresses it; because it is a received opinion that the more simple and above the senses these operations are, so much the more profoundly spiritual, and, consequently, perfect do they become. To pray according to your first method is to pray by formal, successive and perceptible acts; to pray according to the second method is to pray by implicit acts, experienced, but in no way expressed nor perceptible except confusedly. Or, in other words it is to pray by a simple but actual inclination of the heart; now this simple and real inclination of the heart contains all, and says all to God without, however, express words. The different names that are given to this method of prayer will make you understand it perfectly; it is called a loving waiting on God, a simple looking, or pure faith and simplicity tending to God; the prayer of surrender and abandonment to God, arising from the love of God, and producing an ever-increasing love of God. By these examples you will see that this method is of more value than the other; you must, therefore, make it your principal exercise, without, however, neglecting the first at certain times as I told you above. Yours in our Lord. Letter XXII. *Fidelity to the Call of God* To a Postulant. On abandonment in the trials to which vocation is subject. All that you have told me, and written to me, makes me convinced that God calls you to religion, and, in particular, to the Order of the Visitation. Your interior attraction to this Order, and the reasons you allege for it do not leave a doubt of this double vocation; for, as there is one for religion in general, there is also one for this or that community in particular. It only remains for you to be faithful to the call of God and thus to make sure your predestination. Now, this fidelity requires three things of you; first you must endeavor to preserve in your heart in spite of every obstacle both exterior and interior, this attraction toward God with the sincere desire to follow it when he who has given it to you will himself provide the means by which you will be able to concentrate yourself to his service in reality, as you have already done beforehand in your mind and heart. Your second duty is to hope against hope as Abraham did; that is, to believe firmly that, as God is all-powerful and that nothing in the world can resist him, he will know how to overcome all the obstacles and oppositions of men in his own time. All minds and hearts are in his hands and he can turn them as he will without effort. It was by his simple "Fiat" that he created all things out of nothing. Therefore, when the time arrives, he has but to say "Fiat" and all the obstacles to your vocation will be removed. At present he allows these obstacles to try your patience, your faith in him, and your firm reliance on his powerful succor. Therefore, do not be alarmed, but continue to trust firmly in God. Do not trouble yourself nor torment yourself at all, but submit to God generously; accept all the trials he sends you, saying to him without ceasing, "Lord may all that you will be accomplished in me, at the time, and in the way that pleases you; I accept all and sacrifice my own interests, my wishes, and all the desires of my heart to have none other than to obey and please you in all things." Your third duty is a great fidelity to all your exercises of piety; prayers, readings, meditations, masses, confessions, Communions, examens and interior recollection; frequent raising of the heart to God without ever giving up in the slightest degree any of these practices, either through grief, trouble, disgust, weariness, dryness or for any other reason whatever. These trials are necessary to detach you from everything and to keep you united to God who alone should be your light, your support, your consolation and your strength. Apparently it is to make you practice this abandonment better that God has permitted you to be forbidden to enter the Visitation, so that, receiving no consolation except from him directly, you should attach yourself purely and solely to him and thus gain great merit. You must, therefore, obey his orders in obeying those who have the right from him to command you. If the command should prejudice the welfare of your soul God will not allow it to persist. He can easily put aside the obstacle when it is necessary, therefore rest quietly and without the slightest anxiety in the arms of his merciful providence as a little child rests on the breast of its mother. Letter XXIII. *The Value of Good Desires* To the same person, on the value of good desires. The increase of the desire to consecrate yourself to God is an additional grace of his mercy. To suffer all the pain of being unable to accomplish these ardent desires is, insomuch as you bear it with resignation, to correspond well with this grace, and to merit its continuance. The interior effort to maintain yourself in this state of resignation is a sort of martyrdom that will, sooner or later, be rewarded. God will carry out the pious design with which he has inspired you, the delay is intended to try your fidelity. If, in the meantime, you are getting on in years, you need not consider that, because you already possess the best part of what you wish for, which is, the strong desire to consecrate yourself to God. This desire is, in the sight of God, the best part of the sacrifice, or, to speak correctly, it is the entire sacrifice since you have already given yourself to him in heart and soul, and are now sacrificing your most earnest desires in awaiting patiently the time chosen by his providence. Possibly this last sacrifice is of more value than the first, since by it you renounce more entirely your own will. Therefore be at peace and quite tranquil in the presence of him who sees to the bottom of our hearts and who takes all your good desires for performance. He has no need of anything that you could give him; but he loves a heart that is ready and willing to sacrifice all. The fear of death and of the judgments of God is a good thing as long as it does not go so far as to cause you trouble and anxiety; then it would be an illusion of the devil. For, what is it that makes you afraid? Is it because you have not yet done what you have not been able to do? Does God require what is impossible? Is it, as you add, because you have, as yet, done nothing for Heaven? Be careful again in this; it is a delicate subject for it seems as if you wanted to acquire merit for your own assurance. This is not real confidence which can only be founded on the mercy of God, and the infinite merits of Jesus Christ. Any other confidence would be vain and presumptuous, since it would rest on your own nothingness, and I know not what wretched works which have no value in the sight of God. Without depending in any way on ourselves let us try and accomplish, with the help of God's grace, all that he demands of us, and hope only in his goodness and in the merits of Jesus Christ, his Son. You are right in saying that more grace is required to save us in the world than in religion. From this I form the opinion that, evidently, a much more distinct vocation is necessary for those who have to remain in the world, than for the religious state; but, at the same time there are particular graces given to those who, against their will, have to remain in the world. God is then, as it were, obliged to take care of them. Therefore fear nothing, you are already a Religious in heart and soul. Try to subject your mind, feelings and actions to the spirit of the rules of this holy state, by a humble resignation and a perfect confidence in the fatherly goodness and power of that heavenly Spouse whom you have chosen. He, also, regards you as his beloved Spouse. Letter XXIV. *The Call of God a Sign of Predestination* To the same person. You are quite right to consider the design with which God has inspired you as one of the greatest graces. It is the surest sign of the predestination of a soul by God when he calls it to his divine service. On this, not only its eternal salvation depends, but even temporal happiness, since experience proves that peace and true contentment in this world can only be found in the service of God. Besides, the depravity of the times is so great that it is very difficult to serve God perfectly out of religion. It costs so much to serve God in the world that people often lose courage and give up their good intentions. You must, therefore, thank our Lord without ceasing for the gratuitous grace he has given you, in preference to so many others who are lost in the world while leading in it a life full of sorrow and disappointment. In the second place you must trust in the goodness of God, and firmly hope that the design with which he has inspired you, he will bring to a successful conclusion. It is often for our greater advantage that he defers the accomplishment of our most holy desires. His providence can by hidden, but infallible means, cause things to succeed in spite of every obstacle, even when success seems absolutely impossible. God often allows his work to be thwarted in order to make the exercise of his power more striking, and to show us that he is absolute master of all, and that, as without him we can do nothing, so with his assistance we shall be able to accomplish what appears impossible in our eyes. In the third place you must resign yourself entirely to whatever is the will of God, telling him frequently that you wish to depend on him for everything, and that you will have no other will but his. In this way when anything happens to cross your, apparently, most just desires you must, before all, make the sacrifice of them, and then remain in peace, for nothing is so opposed to the Spirit of God and to the marks of his grace, than interior distress, produced by a too great eagerness for even the best and holiest things. Moderate this indiscreet zeal, this too impetuous impulsiveness, and direct all your efforts to the fulfillment of the holy will of God in all things, renouncing your own will however holy and reasonable it may appear to you. There is, truly, no solid virtue nor true sanctity apart from an entire resignation to, and acquiescence in the will of God. If you feel an occasional repugnance to submit yourself to what God ordains, you should go to him at once interiorly by prayer, and implore him to subject your will to his in all things, and to give you strength to overcome your repugnance and your self-love which desires its own satisfaction in even the holiest things. Nevertheless, as it is God's rule that we should do all in our power to cause the good desires with which he has inspired us to succeed, this is what you ought to do. 1st. Frequent the Sacraments as often and as well as you can. 2nd. Live in a great purity of conscience by avoiding the slightest fault that might keep God at a distance from you. 3rd. Every day, at your convenience, spend some time in spiritual reading which will take the place of meditation when you are unable to make it. 4th. During the course of the day raise your mind and heart to God as often as possible, especially when you experience pain, weariness, disappointment or any repugnance. Offer them to him as a continual sacrifice. In this way you will obtain constant fresh graces and heavenly inspirations, to which it is of infinite importance that you should be faithful, because it is particularly to this fidelity that God usually imparts his greatest gifts, and above all, that of perseverance. Letter XXV. *God Only Desires What We Are Able to Give* To the same person. The sort of martyrdom you are suffering will, if you endure it with patience and perfect resignation, be very pleasing to God, for all perfection consists in conforming your will entirely to the will of God in all things; that is to say, that you must never will anything else but what God wills. Now, it is of faith that God wills everything that happens to us, except sin, because with the exception of sin nothing happens in this world but by the hidden dispensations of Providence. This taken for granted, I cannot understand why you should suffer so much at the postponement of your sacrifice, since it is God who puts obstacles to it, and thus shows you that he only requires of you the desire to make it until such time as he, himself, gives you means and power to do so. But beware lest, since we always try to gratify our own will in all things, this inability should wound your self-love, make you lose interior peace, and cause all sorts of troubles. It is a sure sign that we are seeking rather to indulge our own self-love than to please God when we prefer our own will to his. For if we only desired to do this holy will, we should always be content and tranquil with this thought: God only requires of me what I am able to give him, and that is, the desire to consummate my sacrifice; and, according to his will this desire should be quiet, peaceful and submissive to all the designs of his Divine Providence: but suppose I should never be able to accomplish my holy desires? Very well! that would prove to me that God does not require it, and I should be satisfied to do his holy will; because it would then be obvious that God did not wish for the sacrifice itself, but only that I should be willing to make it. It was thus that God acted with regard to Abraham, whose generous readiness to sacrifice his son Isaac he rewarded as though the sacrifice had been consummated. It has been the same with many of the saints who had a very strong desire for martyrdom without being able to carry it out. God, not permitting nor desiring the actual sacrifice, is satisfied with the sacrifice of desire, which, in his sight, is the same thing. But, suppose that in consequence of this I am obliged to live in the world, what will become of me? These are vain fears put into your mind by the devil to make you lose the peace of your soul. You must abandon yourself entirely to God, and put your whole trust in him. He is powerful enough to make you stand firm in the world, and good enough to sustain you when it is by the arrangements of his providence that you live in it. You could not do better, therefore, than to practice recollection and abnegation in renouncing your own will in everything, but particularly in your too eager desires, however holy they may be; for this excessive vehemence, and these restless struggles show much imperfection and self-love. These defects are still more clearly shown in the vexation and distress to which you give way after falling into certain faults; for these feelings are never produced by the love of God, which, on the contrary, conduces to peace; but by a discontented self-love, and a secret pride stung by the sight of your own imperfections. A soul that is truly humble, instead of entertaining these useless and dangerous feelings, will, after a fall, humble itself gently and tranquilly before God without any uneasiness on account of it. It will feel sorry without anxiety and beg forgiveness without disturbance, and even thank him for preventing it falling into greater sins. Letter XXVI. *On Abandonment as to\ Employments and Undertakings* To Sister Marie-Thérèse de Vioménil. My dear Sister, If you could but understand, once for all, that everything that God wills must succeed, because he knows how to make even difficulties and the opposition of men conduce to the fulfillment of his designs. Believe me, if it be for your greater advantage, in vain will men try to prevent its success; but if, on the contrary, it will not be advantageous to you, what better can God do than to prevent it? Now God alone can look into the future and see all its consequences; as for us, we are poor blind creatures, who have to fear all sorts of danger even in the events that appear to have the best promise of success. What better could we do than to place the whole matter in God's care? Could our future be more secure than in the all-powerful hand of that adorable Master, of that good and loving Father? who loves us more than we love ourselves? Where could we find a safer refuge than in the arms of Divine Providence? This is the blissful center in which our hearts should find their repose. Withdrawn from this there is no solid peace, nor comfort, nothing but discomfort, anxiety and bitterness of heart, miseries in the present life, and danger to eternal salvation. Letter XXVII. *Acceptance of Duties* To Mother Marie-Anne-Sophie de Rottenbourg (1738), on abandonment in the acceptance of duties. May the peace of Jesus Christ reign always in your heart, and may the most holy will of God be ever accomplished in, and by, you. I already knew of your election, Rev. Mother, and rejoiced at it at once in God, because I did not doubt that it would be pleasing to all the community and for their spiritual profit. As long as you retain your present dispositions your office, however calculated it may seem to relax your spirit, will not be at all injurious to you, for I remember to have read that our duties and employments do not hurt us so much as the eagerness, anxiety and trouble that arise from the activity of our nature, and the desire to succeed in everything before the world. The celebrated M. de Renti said that it made no difference to him, nor did he experience any difficulty in keeping recollected whether he was at prayer in his oratory, or working, or in any occupation done for the love of God, or the good of his neighbor. We should be able to say the same, if we were as detached as he and as free from all self-seeking. You do not do well, therefore, in so strenuously opposing the office that Providence had allotted to you. God forgive you, but do not go on with it. To desire nothing, and to refuse nothing, was the maxim of St. Francis de Sales. I advise you to make it yours. Any fresh proof that you are likely to receive of the visible succor of Heaven, will render you without excuse if you do not ground yourself in an unreserved abandonment, and an unlimited confidence. Sister N. has committed the same kind of fault, but she is less excusable, as she would not yield to the entreaties that were made to her. Please tell her how little edified I was at her conduct. The hope of being better able to preserve recollection has made her lose the occasion for practicing a host of virtues. If she had had the simplicity to submit, she would have practiced at the same time the virtues of obedience, charity and zeal. I do not speak of abnegation which she would also have practiced so excellently in overcoming her antipathy, and in giving her services so generously to the community in the duty that was offered her. Even the want of capacity that she believed she recognized in herself should have been a greater incentive to its acceptance, for the harm which might have resulted to the community through her incapacity, was no business of hers, as she did not try in any way to obtain this office, and therefore it could have had no other result for her than merit. To how many little acts of humility, patience, and endurance of inconveniences, and constraint; how much vigilance and charity would not this incapacity have given occasion for? But she had not the courage to face these sacrifices, and has given in to her self-love while she imagined she was following the dictates of humility. At least let her humble herself profoundly before God, let her learn to become very little in her own eyes, and omit nothing that could repair the disedification she has given her Sisters. Letter XXVIII. *To Will Only What God Wills* Everything that tends to lessen the strength of our passions or to hold them in check is a singular grace of God. Give yourself up, therefore, to the attraction which this holy repose has for you, and allow no free entrance either in your mind or heart to anything like desire, fear, hope, sadness, joy or voluntary despondency, so that, in this way, the peace of God will dwell within you, and the less sensible it is the more is it to be prized as it can come only from God. When one does not interfere in anything that does not concern one, a delightful solitude can be found everywhere; however, those difficulties and importunities with which Divine Providence allows us to be afflicted are preferable to this solitude. It is true that the former condition is pleasanter, and more consoling, but the latter being more painful, is also more meritorious when it is arranged by God without our own choice. From this I conclude that there are many ways that lead to God but that each person should follow her own without envying that of her neighbor. Not to will to be otherwise than God wills ---in this is contained all present happiness with the hope of eternal joy. Let us always distrust our eagerness, especially for good works; let us put up patiently with what God puts up with, and after having done all that, in reason, we could do, or thought we ought to do according to the light God gave us, let us remain quiet and peaceful, abandoning ourselves in all things to his adorable will. Letter XXIX. *To Leave All to God* To the same person. Only God knows what is expedient for us. My dear Sister, You say you wish to know the time of my return. To tell you the truth I do not know myself, and do not wish to know; I give and abandon myself entirely to Divine Providence in everything, and for everything from day to day. Do the same as far as you can, nothing could be better. Oh! my dear Sister, how much I desire you to taste the sweetness of this hidden manna, which to the true Israelite has the flavor of the most delicious food. Let us desire only God, and God will satisfy all our desires. Let us blindly abandon ourselves to his holy will in all things, and by doing so we shall be delivered from all our cares. We shall then find, that, to advance in the ways of salvation and perfection there is, after all, very little to do, and that it suffices without so much examination about the past, and reflection as to the future, to place our confidence in God at the present moment, and to regard him as our good Father who is leading us by the hand. God forbid, then, that I should make any attempt whatever to throw light on the complete ignorance in which I am as to my destination. I much prefer to remain in this ignorance, abandoned to God, with no cares nor anxieties, like a little child reposing on the breast of a good and loving mother; willing only what God wills, and desiring nothing contrary to his wishes. In this happy state of abandonment I find peace and a complete rest for the heart and mind, and this protects me from a thousand useless thoughts and from all uneasy desires and anxieties about the future. God has made me pass through many places, conditions and duties, and in all of them were mingled so much that was good and also so many hardships that, had I to pass through them again, I should not be able of myself to make a choice. Only God knows what is expedient for us, he loves us more than we love ourselves; what better can we do then, than to leave all to his will to choose for us? If we could but realize that the only great and important affair in this world is that of our eternal salvation. Provided we succeed in this, all will be well, and we need trouble about nothing else. Besides, if I sought my own pleasure I do not see where I could find any better than to be like a bird on a branch, without any certainty about my stay. This uncertainty leads to a more complete abandonment, and this again forms my peace. It delivers me from the care of guiding myself and gives me the assurance of arriving safely at my journey's end supported by God, and following the steps of his Divine Providence. From whom else could I receive such a consoling assurance? There is no one capable of giving it to me however perfect his friendship. Letter XXX. *Resignation in Sickness* To the same person, on abandonment in sickness. Your incurable complaints would affect me with a very great compassion did I not know that they form a great treasure for you in eternity. It is a sort of martyrdom, a kind of Purgatory, and an inexhaustible source of every species of sacrifice, and of acts of continued resignation. I assure you that all this, borne as you are doing it, without complaint, or murmuring, is very likely to sanctify you. Even if you only practiced the patience of ordinary good Christians you would gain a great deal of merit; but, from what you say I gather that you are doing more than this, and the involuntary rebellion of nature and occasional little signs of impatience which escape you in spite of yourself will not impede your union with God which remains in the center of your heart. Your life may well be called a hard and laborious one, a life of pain and trial; it will, therefore, be your Purgatory in this world and deliver you from that of the next or at any rate shorten it considerably. This is why I do not dare to ask God to deliver you from a trouble that must soon end, and for which you will have to thank him for all eternity as a special sign of his mercy. The only request I could make him for you is an increase of his love, and the virtues of submission, patience and resignation, which will greatly add to the merit of your sufferings. To feel no fear at the thought of death is a grace from God. As for your sufferings and the outward annoyances you have to endure, bear them as you do your physical ills. God does not require more; just a daily "fiat" applied to all your exterior sufferings ought to work your salvation as well as your perfection. All that books or directors can say may be reduced to this one word, "Fiat, fiat", at all times and for everything, but especially in the penitential and crucified life to which it has pleased Providence to reduce you. Tobit in his blindness, Job on his dunghill, and so many other saints prostrate on beds of suffering did no more than this. It is true that they did it more perfectly, and with greater love. Let us try to imitate their virtues as we share their trials, and one day we shall assuredly share their glory. Letter XXXI. *Conduct in Sickness* To Sister Marie-Antoinette de Mahuet (1735). Although your illness is not serious I am sure you act like those generous souls, who, in their least discomforts, go on till the worst comes to the worst, in order to have occasion to make greater sacrifices for God. But, it is usually said, in order to offer the sacrifice of one's life to God ought one not to feel better prepared for death! and I am so unprepared! To these fears I urge you to reply in the following manner. Whether ready and prepared to die or not, I am always ready, always disposed to do the will of God. Your blessed Father St. Francis de Sales said a very remarkable and consoling thing on this subject that would suit all sorts of people: "I believe", said he, "that God would not condemn the greatest sinner on earth, however great his crimes, who at his last moments made a generous offering of his life, abandoning himself entirely to his divine will and loving Providence." And I truly believe it, since such an act is one of perfect love capable of blotting out all sin even without confession, like baptism and martyrdom. Often let us make these acts of love, then, by placing in the hands of God all that he has lent us, because he could not give us anything absolutely. And since, according to the words of Jesus Christ we must become little children again, let us imitate those little ones whose father, to try their dispositions, makes them return some of the playthings and sweets he has given them. They would be very silly and very selfish if they did not at once say, "Dear father, take what you like, you can have them all." After all, what do these poor children give, and to whom does it really belong? All the same the father's heart is touched by these little signs of a good disposition. "Oh you good children, you dear children!" and he kisses them and is always more generous toward them in future. This is how our good God will act toward us, whenever he gives us occasion to offer him some sacrifice. Letter XXXII. *Patience with the Faults of Others* To Sister Marie-Thérèse de Vioménil, on bearing with your neighbor and yourself. My dear Sister, It is a great grace to see others behaving badly without feeling bitterness, indignation, impatience or even disturbance. If, for good reasons, you speak about it, watch over your heart and your tongue, so that nothing may escape you that would not be approved by God: and have good motives for whatever you say. Humble yourself quietly and lament in peace those faults that may have crept in during such talks. Often ask God to give you great charity and circumspection, and then remain tranquil. Keep yourself in the holy desire to belong entirely to God; pray with faith, confidence and resignation, and above all humble yourself profoundly before his Divine Majesty. It is for him to finish the work he has begun in you; no one else would be able to succeed in it, but know that there are many sacrifices to be made before God can take possession of our hearts by the ineffable delights of his pure love. Let us sigh for this happiness, and let us never weary of begging for it; let us purchase it by generous sacrifices, we shall never be able to pay too much for it. As our hearts cannot exist without love, shall we not go to the Heart of our God to derive from it the sustenance that alone can appease our hunger? May this divine love come then, and take possession of our hearts, may it sustain them, set them on fire and transform them into itself. Let us abandon ourselves without reserve to God and not interfere with his loving providence but think only of keeping straight in the road that God has marked out for us from all eternity, and in which we find ourselves at the present moment. One can dispute unendingly about predestination, and such arguments can only serve to make salvation seem more difficult; what is, however, undeniable is that there is no better expedient to insure predestination than the actual and continual accomplishment of the will of God. Letter XXXIII. *Patience with Oneself* To the same person. On bearing with oneself. My dear Sister, We must submit to God in all things and about all things; as to the state and condition in which he has placed us, the good or evil circumstances that he has allotted us, and even as to the character, mind, nature, temperament and inclinations with which he has endowed us. Practice yourself, therefore, in being patient with regard to yourself and in this perfect submission to the divine will. When you have acquired this you will enjoy great peace, and not distress yourself about anything, nor get out of humor with yourself, but put up with yourself with the same gentleness which you should use toward your neighbor. This is a more important matter than you would imagine, and just at present is most essential to your sanctification. Keep it, therefore, always before your eyes, and make frequent acts of submission to the holy will of God, of charity, of endurance and of gentleness toward yourself even more than toward your neighbor. You will never attain to this without great efforts. A soul to whom God makes known its defects is much more burdensome to itself than its neighbor ever could be to it, because the latter, however near to us, is not always with us; at any rate is not within us; whereas we carry ourselves about with us, and cannot leave ourselves for a single moment, nor completely cease to behold ourselves, to feel ourselves, and to carry about with us everywhere our imperfections and our faults. But see wherein the infinite goodness of our God shines forth; for the sorrow and shame that our faults cause us are their own remedy, provided that this shame never turns into defiance, and that the sorrow is inspired by the love of God, and not by self-love. Sorrow born of self-love is full of vexation and bitterness; far from healing the wounds of our soul, it only serves to poison them. On the other hand, sorrow produced by the love of God is calm and full of resignation; while detecting the fault it delights in the humiliation which follows, and from this it results that much merit is gained, and thus even from losses we make profit. Cease then from tormenting yourself on account of your defects and of the imperfection of your works. Offer to God the sorrow they occasion you, and allow his Divine Providence to make good these slight infidelities by many little crosses and sufferings of all kinds. Arm yourself only with patience, raise yourself again as soon as possible and deplore your falls with a sweet, tranquil humility. God wishes you to act thus, and by this indefatigable patience you will render him more glory and will make more progress than the most violent efforts would have enabled you to do. Letter XXXIV. *Preparation for the Sacraments* To the same person. On preparation for the Sacraments, prayer, reading and conduct. Believe me, my dear Sister, that peace of mind, confidence and abandonment to God, with the desire of being united to Jesus Christ are the best preparation for the Sacraments. But the devil tries to deceive people, and leaves nothing undone to disturb the interior peace of the soul, for he well knows that once this divine peace is firmly established in the heart, all will be easy to us, and we shall fly, as it were, in the ways of perfection. Do not let us be deluded, then, by any pretexts of which he may make use, however specious they may be, and let us go to God humbly with the simplicity and confidence that St. Francis de Sales advises, in the uprightness of a heart that sincerely seeks him. As to prayer you well know what I have so much recommended to you; do not allow yourself to be discouraged, nor vexed at your distractions. Manage, however, that your interior turning to God and the raising of your heart to him during the day may become so frequent that that alone, in case of need, will take the place of prayer, without, however, leaving off making it as well as you can. Apply yourself especially to reading the letters of St. Francis de Sales, you will find them so well suited to your present state and condition that you could read them as though the saint had written them to yourself from Heaven, and as though the Holy Spirit had dictated them to him for you. You wish to know what it is that I ask of God for you in particular. It is this, and for such easy things that their very facility will charm you. 1st. The moderation of your exterior conduct, which will be a wonderful help to you in gradually overcoming your passions; in other words, to speak gently, to act quietly, without any vehemence or impetuosity just as though you were of a phlegmatic temperament. 2nd. Interior gentleness toward yourself and others, at least of the kind that nothing contrary to this virtue may show in your exterior conduct; or that, if for a moment you should forget yourself you will not fail to make reparation and to rise without delay. 3rd. An entire abandonment to Divine Providence as to the success of everything, without excepting your own advancement in virtue; not wishing to be better than God wishes you to be, and saying always, "I wish only what God wills." 4th. A peace of heart that nothing can disturb, not even your own faults and sins, and which will make you return to God with a peaceful and quiet humility, as though you had not had the misfortune to offend his Divine Majesty or that you were assured of pardon. Follow this advice with simplicity, and you will see how God will help you. Letter XXXV. *Conduct in a Time of Rest* To a secular, on conduct during a time passed in the country. This is what you should do during the time you spend in the country. If you faithfully follow my counsels, they will sanctify this time of rest and make it bear fruit. 1st. Approach the Sacraments as often as you are allowed to do so. 2nd. Offer to God each morning the recreations of the day and with them the different pains both exterior and interior with which he is pleased in his goodness to season them, and say from time to time: "Blessed be God in all things and for all things; Lord may your holy will be done." 3rd. As you are less busy than others, employ more of your time in reading good books, and in order to make this more efficacious, set about it in this way. Begin by placing yourself in the presence of God, and by begging his help. Read quietly, slowly, word for word to enter into the subject more with the heart than the mind. At the end of each paragraph that contains a complete meaning, stop for the time it would take you to recite a "Pater", or even a little longer, to assimilate what you have read, or to rest and remain peacefully before God. Should this peace and rest last for a longer time it will be all the better; but when you find that your mind wanders resume your reading, and continue thus, frequently renewing these same pauses. 4th. Nothing need prevent you continuing the same method, if you find it useful to your soul, during the time you have fixed for meditation. 5th. In the course of the day, occupy yourself about things that are necessary, and that obedience requires of you, and which Divine Providence has marked out for you. 6th. Be careful to drop vain and useless thoughts directly you are conscious of them, but quietly, without effort or violence. 7th. Above all drop all anxious thoughts, abandoning to Divine Providence all that might become a subject of preoccupation for you. 8th. In raising your heart to God, often say to him, "Lord deliver me from so many reflections which, however good in appearance, might keep me in my own way, and in a dangerous confidence in myself. Substitute your Divine Spirit for mine, transform and remodel all the powers of my soul by this holy Spirit and by his holy operations." At other times say, "When will it please you, oh my God, to teach me the great secret of understanding how to keep myself in interior peace and silence, to allow of your effecting in my soul all the changes you know to be necessary? Lord, this I desire with all my heart, and ask it of you with the greatest earnestness through Jesus Christ your Son, in order that you may be able to establish gradually within me the reign of your ineffable peace, of your grace and of your divine love. And since for this you require the cooperation of your poor unworthy creature, I will prepare myself with the help of your grace, by being faithful to all the little practices that have been recommended to me; I hope that you will bless and second this blind submission, and I offer you beforehand all the pains of my mind, and rebellions of heart which you may permit in order to try me; I resign myself to them and from henceforth offer them to you in sacrifice." Letter XXXVI. *On Life and Death* To Sister Marie-Antoinette de Mahuet (1742), on life and death, consolations and trials. Here I am again at Albi, in a very agreeable climate, and among sociable people in whom the only fault I find is that of being too kind to me who always prefers solitude. The frequent invitations I receive are, to me, a veritable cross, and God will without doubt send me many others to temper the pleasure I feel in finding myself for the fourth time in a country that I have always loved so much. Blessed be God for all. He sows crosses everywhere! but I have already made a sacrifice of all, have accepted and offered in advance all the afflictions he is pleased to send me. This intention made beforehand renders trials much easier to bear when they come and makes them seem much lighter than imagination depicted them. Therefore I am overjoyed to find myself where God wishes me to be by the arrangements of his loving providence which always leads me as though by the hand. This paternal solicitude of which I am continually the object, redoubles my confidence. Although I am always in perfect health I feel that the years, so rapidly passing, will soon bring me to that eternal goal to which we are all hastening. True! this thought is bitter to nature but by dint of considering it as salutary it becomes almost agreeable as a disgusting remedy gradually ceases to appear so when its good effects have been experienced. One of my friends said the other day that in getting old it seemed to him that time passed with increasing rapidity, and that weeks seemed to him as short as days used to be, months like weeks, and years like months. As for that, what do a few years more or less signify to us who have to live and continue as long as God himself? Those who have gone before us twenty or thirty years ago or even a century, or those who will follow us twenty or thirty years hence will neither be behindhand nor before others in that vast eternity, but it will seem to all of us as though we began it together. Oh! what power does not this thought contain to soften the rigors of our short and miserable life which, patiently endured, will be to our advantage. A longer or a shorter life, a little more, or a little less pain, what is it in comparison with the eternal life that awaits us? for which we are making rapidly, incessantly, and which is almost in sight, for me especially who am as it were on the brink, and on the point of embarking. It is therefore time, I ought to say with St. Francis de Sales and Fr. Surin, to prepare my small equipment for eternity. Now the best equipment is that which appeared for us in the crosses which we bear lovingly, and the great sacrifices we make for God in doing his holy will. Nothing will console us more at the hour of death than our humble submission to the different arrangements of Divine Providence in spite of the subtle imaginations of self-love often hidden under the most spiritual disguise and the most specious pretexts. Do not be surprised then, my dear Sister, at being placed by God in this necessity of practicing abandonment. The vicissitudes of good and evil, of illness and cure through which he makes you pass are well calculated to keep you in a state of continual dependence upon him and to impel you to make acts of confidence of the most meritorious kind. To make a holy use of sufferings mitigates them considerably, and renders them extremely profitable. To bear them well is to make a great sacrifice comparable to that of those generous Christians who formerly confessed their faith at the stake; because the sufferings of life and the sorrows attached to the different states make martyrs of providence, as the tortures inflicted by tyrants made martyrs of faith and of religion. I find, too, that the comparison of which you make use is very just. Yes, our life is like the journey of the Israelites across the desert amidst a thousand trials and followed by the too just judgments of God. Let us imitate the faithful Jews in recognizing the divine equity in the chastisements he inflicts on us, and in regarding all our afflictions both visible and hidden as the work of God and not that of man's injustice. God, says St. Augustine, would not allow any evil to happen, if he were not sufficiently powerful and good to turn it all to the greater good of his elect. Let us make use of our present evils, to escape those that are eternal, and to merit the rewards promised to faith and patience. The time will come, and it is at hand, when we shall say with David, "We have rejoiced for the days in which thou hast humbled us, for the years in which we have seen evils" (Ps 89:15). Letter XXXVII. *Not to Desire Consolations* To the same person. Nancy, February 21, 1735. Desire for consolations a mistake. My dear Sister, I have seen the card announcing the death of dear Sister Anne-Catherine de Prudhomme (see note).^1^ I could in no way regret the departed whose fate is rather to be envied. At the sight of death fear should be united to confidence, but confidence ought to predominate. Abandonment is what the Sister you mention should aim at. I refer her on this subject to the letter of B. Paul, who says she is no longer uneasy, as formerly, about the graces necessary during life, and at the hour of death, because she will be encouraged by God whose name of "Father" gives her confidence with resignation. If it is not possible to feel this, even then one must abandon oneself to God, and this abandonment when not felt is of more value since it involves a greater sacrifice. This letter of B. Paul I use as spiritual reading. After having answered it, it seemed to me that I had understood better from it, and more enjoyed certain very interior things that were both delicate and profound. I do not at all approve of an anxious pursuit after consolations either in spiritual or physical wretchedness and misery. That comes of too much care of oneself. Would that there were souls strong and courageous enough to endure the apparent absences of the heavenly Spouse, who never absents himself in reality, but only in appearance, to detach us from what is sensible even in the most spiritual things, because the gifts of God are not God himself. He alone is all, and should be all in all to us. Excessive fear arises from a want of confidence and abandonment; it is on this account that I referred Sister \_\_\_\_\_ to this letter of B. Paul. God wills that she, and you too, should remain in such absolute poverty that he has given me nothing for either of you; but I hope that you will both profit by a good long letter written to someone of whom I asked a copy. Will you return me the original as I want to send it to another person, who is precisely Sister \_\_\_\_\_ of whom God made me think? I greet most heartily all the Sisters, and particularly Marie-Anne-Thérèse, and with especial respect your Rev. Mother, L. F. de Rosen. --- ![[maps/bibliography#^biblio-adp]] > [[jpc-abandonment-06|← Previous]] | [[jpc-abandonment-toc|TOC]] | [[jpc-abandonment-08|Next →]]