merits of His holy Passion! Alas! my daughter, if you knew me such as I
really am you would not desire many years of life for me in this valley
of tears, but rather that God in His merciful goodness should soon take
me to Himself. Still less should you think that sanctity was ripe in me,
for truly all I can discover within my soul is very great poverty and
misery. To speak quite in confidence to you and to you alone: it has
pleased the divine Goodness to deprive me of all light and consolation,
and to let me be overwhelmed with darkness and affliction. In a word, I
am she for whom our good Mother has asked you to pray, and I beseech you
to do it with all the compassionate affection and the loving charity
which God has put into your heart for me. For indeed, dearest daughter,
I am in sore need of your prayers; no other desire am I conscious of
save that God may hold me in His blessed hands and so keep me from
offending Him. To do and suffer all, for and according to His good
pleasure, is enough for me. I tell you all quite openly in order that
you may speak of me to the _Heart_ of our divine Saviour, whom I bless
and thank for the graces that He continues to bestow upon you, with the
growth of that intimate realization of His divine presence. Oh, how
precious, how glorious is this grace! Yet this gift of His presence is
not the same as His presence in the divine Sacrament, where His Sacred
Body and Soul and Divinity all in the most real sense dwell with us, and
remain with us in our miserable tabernacles until the species is
consumed. Nevertheless in the gift of the presence of God this eternal
Truth remains in us by essence, by power, and by grace, and to be
conscious of this is an exceptional favour. You will understand this
better by reading the books that treat of it. In the "Treatise of Divine
Love" I think you will find it admirably explained. What I now tell you
I have learnt there, or heard in sermons. Oh! what a happiness for a
soul to possess her God in peace, and to be possessed entirely by Him! I
am surprised that what I say contents you and gives you peace, but it is
because our good God makes all things work to good for those who love
Him.
Once again I beseech of you to recommend me to His divine mercy, and I
pray that in you He may perfect His rare graces. All you have to do is
to leave yourself in the hands of this heavenly Workman, and to be very
faithful in paying no heed to what passes in you, but always keep the
eye of your mind fixed on God. Of a truth I desire myself to be very
attentive to this point, but my mind is so restless that I am not able
to do so, and this is a constant trouble to me. See how I give you all
my confidence. Will you not also tell me your thoughts, and it will be a
consolation and a profit to me, if God so wills. May He bless you and
all your Sisters to whose devout prayers I recommend myself. Those
amongst us are most blessed who long for the holy perfection of their
vocation. Divine Providence when it sees well will increase their
number, neither will it fail to provide all things necessary for the
maintenance of those who leave themselves in its care and only think of
conforming to its good pleasure.
Believe me, always yours entirely in our Lord. May He be blessed.
Palm Sunday. On this day Holy Church bids us sing,
"The Saviour comes in the multitude of His mercies."
May our souls eternally praise Him. Amen.
CIII. _To the Abbê de Vaux._[A]
Vive [+] Jésus!
ANNECY, 1637.
MY VERY DEAR AND VERY HON. BROTHER,
May the sacred love of our divine Saviour be our eternal life! The
little preface or pretended excuse in your letter is not quite in
keeping with the simple confidence with which we have resolved to treat
each other, which I believe God desires and ratifies, and with the
profession you make of wishing to live in the entire simplicity and
candour of the Visitation spirit, which one certainly cannot but see in
you. I bless God for it with all my heart, and know not how to thank Him
for His infinite Goodness in having given such a friend to our
Congregation, and such a support to the new plant which Providence has
set in the garden of the church of Angers. Now I say all this straight
out from my heart; will you not receive it, then, in this wise, my very
dear brother, and unite with me in praising God, for to Him we owe it
all. He is the sole author of all good things, hence should all glory be
referred to Him. Your whole bearing with our Sisters is extremely
pleasing to me. Sister Mary Euphrasia Turpin has a good heart, a fine
intelligence, and loves the Rule, which I advise her closely to follow,
above all in the guidance of her Novices. Will you not also give her
this advice? You will find her pliant, open, and easy to convince.
We must let Mother Claire Madeleine de Pierre complete her three
years,[B] and I hope by that time divine Providence will have provided a
successor. It is a very serious matter in a new foundation when a
superior is often ill, and cannot follow the common life. By seeking
pretexts, without necessity, to dispense herself, however little, from
the exercises, she does great harm to herself and her community. She who
ought to be a model of good example to her Sisters. How miserable and
dangerous is this false liberty. May God preserve us from it! What
responsibility have not such superiors on their consciences, and what an
account they will have to render, not only for their own faults but for
those which have been committed in imitation of them, and for impeding
their own perfection and that of those under their care. This is
far-reaching, my dear brother, so speak of it occasionally, I beg of
you. A true daughter of the Visitation is a great treasure--may God give
us all the grace to become such. You do not tell me if the Sisters are
still in your house. How good you are to them! I pray God to reward you
with the glorious gift of His eternal City. To Him you owe much for
having given you the heart and the generous soul you possess, wherein
there is but the one desire, to serve Him. Go forward, dear brother,
forward, always advancing and increasing in the purity and perfection of
divine love, and may God give you the grace faithfully to correspond to
the great favours He bestows upon you. This is, I know, your great wish,
and I seem to see our Blessed Father looking down upon you as one of His
most cherished children. God knows how I esteem you in His sight. But
alas! my own poverty and misery are beyond description. May God diminish
them for the sake of His glory. I trust to His Goodness and to the
prayers that are offered for my needs....
There is no doubt that this difficulty of not being able to make
considerations in prayer leads to a more simple form of prayer, and a
soul thus led ought to adhere to this way to which God is undoubtedly
calling her, however faint may be the call, and although the calm and
facility of dwelling reverently before Him which it brings be but
slight. Neither ought she to forsake it because of her indigent state
nor because of her wanderings of mind, but remain patiently and
tranquilly before Our Lord, not giving willing consent to distractions,
but when worried by them just say from time to time words of submission,
abandonment, confidence, and love of the divine will, and give up
discoursing with the understanding; indeed it is useless to split our
heads trying to do so, for it will be of no avail. The great secret of
prayer is to follow our attraction and to go to it in good faith.
A soul who wishes to live in the presence of God should be very faithful
to the practice of virtue, to great purity of heart, and to an
unconditional surrender of herself to the divine will. When she sees
herself walking in this way she need fear nothing, but if she has great
consolations and facilities in prayer without the practice of these
virtues, she certainly ought to fear. Truly this manner of prayer has in
its simplicity a wonderful power of leading souls to a total
despoliation of themselves. Yet they usually enjoy neither relish nor
sensible devotion.
Yours, etc.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Guy Lanier Abbé de Vaux not only put his own house at the disposal
of the Sisters foundresses of the Visitation at Angers, but continued in
after years to give them constant proofs of his paternal affection. He
was one of the most virtuous ecclesiastics of the seventeenth century.
[B] Each election in the Visitation Monasteries is for a period of three
years.
CIV. _To a great Servant of God._
Vive [+] Jésus!
ANNECY,
_December, 1637._
MY VERY DEAR MOTHER,
May Our Lord fill our souls with the consolations and with the merits of
His most holy Nativity.
It is about a month since I received your letter of November 9th in
which I read your true goodness and loving care of me in my never-ending
trials. However, by the grace of God they are somewhat less acute than
when I last wrote. At that time Our Lord had sent me a great sorrow in
the death of the virtuous Mother (de Châtel), who is a serious loss to
me. It seems as if God wishes to deprive me of all help both of nature
and of grace. This our Blessed Father prophecied to me before I was a
Religious. With all my heart I adore the most holy will of God, and the
only good I desire is its complete fulfilment. May I have the grace
never to resist it. If it is perfectly wrought out in me how happy I
shall be. Pray for this, dearest Mother, I beg of you. Strange to say,
when writing to you I can never altogether keep back my tears, though
otherwise I rarely weep, unless perchance when I reflect upon those
precious virtues[A] of which I feel deprived, and thoughts against them
rise up within me that are like daggers to my heart. Yet I am conscious
that these divine treasures exist, but where I know not, and it seems to
me that I do at least desire them and would willingly suffer anything in
order to have the enjoyment of them. My mind pictures untold delights
for souls who possess them: were I to dwell on this thought I should be
parched up with sorrow, because I care for nothing in comparison with
them. Could I be so fortunate as to die for Holy Church, nay, even for
the least article of our Faith, how happy I should be; for, thank God,
there is no point that I doubt about, though it seems to me that I am
destitute of all faith.
To tell you further, dearest Mother, shortly after my last letter to you
it pleased the divine Goodness somewhat to relieve me of the great
oppression and desolation from which I was then suffering, by giving me
a sensible feeling of the divine presence. I have already told you that
I have never been altogether without some slight and almost
imperceptible feeling of the presence of God, by which in the midst of a
storm of troubles and temptations my spirit never wholly loses its
tranquility, and as long as I maintain myself in that presence my soul
is calm notwithstanding the piteous struggle. When it first pleased our
Lord to give me some relief in the terrible temptations under which I
laboured for so many years after I made my Vow,[B] I received the grace
of a simple consciousness of His presence at prayer, and remaining in it
I used to surrender myself up to Him and become absorbed and at rest in
Him. This favour has not been withdrawn from me, notwithstanding that by
my infidelities I have often hindered it; yielding to apprehensions that
I should be useless in this state, and, wanting to do something on my
own part, I used to spoil all. I am still often subject to this same
fear, not, however, when at prayer, but at other exercises; I am always
wanting to make acts, or to do something, and yet I feel that by so
doing I am taking myself from my centre--that this looking straight at
God alone is the only remedy for me, the sole relief in all the
troubles, temptations, and accidents of life. If I followed my
attraction, I should certainly never seek any other way than this, for
when I think to fortify my soul by reflections and discourses, or by
acts of resignation, for all of which I have to do violence to self, I
only succeed in exposing myself to fresh troubles and temptations, and
finding therein nought but dryness and dissatisfaction, I have perforce
to return to this simple surrender to God. Apparently He wishes thus to
show me that He desires on this subject a total cutting off of the
activities and workings of my mind, so that His activity and not mine
should undertake the care of all. Mayhap He requires this of me not only
on the subject of Faith but on all others as well, for in every trouble
and in every spiritual exercise to look at Him is all that He seems to
want of me, and the more unwaveringly I do so the better I find myself,
and the quicker my troubles pass. But the activity of my mind is such
that I am always in need of comfort and encouragement. Alas! my dearest
Father often spoke to me of this. Yet recalling the past, I see that my
sufferings at that time were not the troubles I now endure. Then it was
only my distracted prayers and such-like trifles that troubled and
sometimes deceived me, for which I am not sorry, as there was no real
danger; God was there, and I had only to keep myself steadfast to Him.
But in my present trials I am as one always on the edge of a precipice.
Our late Mother (Péronne de Châtel) was an immense help to me, for she
taught me to walk with simplicity, firmly and fearlessly in the presence
of God, and that sufficed for all. The more completely I am stript of
all sentiment, all relish, all repose in God, the more do I seem to gain
strength and peace of soul, and the more clearly do I see that there is
nothing to lean upon but God alone, purely, and simply. One of our
Sisters[C] is drawn by this absolute detachment to a degree that it is
almost impossible to surpass, and our good Mother (de Châtel) told me
that God gave this Sister to me as an example to follow. She wrote at
the request of our late Mother an account of her interior state to which
I have added in detail. She is a soul of great virtue and her detachment
is marvellous. Speaking of this, some days ago, Our Lord gave me a light
so vivid and set it before me in a manner so luminous that I saw without
a shadow of doubt that I must no longer cast my eyes upon myself about
anything whatsoever, nor even question my Beloved, but in all simplicity
and repose become absorbed in Him. Now since this day of alleviation it
seems to me that I have kept myself more continuously in God's presence,
and I have but seldom had those violent temptations--only two or three
times.
This is, I think, all that I can give myself time to say at present. If
I have not expressed myself well to this distinguished servant of God
you will not fail to understand me and will tell me what he says.
Yours, etc.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The following extract from a letter of St. Francis to Mme. de
Chantal, March 28th, 1612, tells us what these virtues were: he says,
"But let us come to the interior trial which you write to me about. It
is in reality a certain insensibility which deprives you of the
enjoyment not only of consolations and inspirations but also of faith,
hope, and charity. You have them all the time, and in a very good
condition, but you do not enjoy them: in fact you are like an infant
whose guardian takes away from him the administration of all his goods
in such sort that, while in reality all is his, yet he handles and seems
to possess no more than what he requires for living, and as St. Paul
says in this, 'He differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of
all things.' In the same way, my dear daughter, God does not want you to
have the management of your faith, your hope, or of your charity, nor to
enjoy them except just to live, and to use them on occasions of pure
necessity."
[B] On September 2nd, 1604, Saint Jane Frances made a vow of perpetual
chastity and of obedience to St. Francis de Sales, from this time until
her death she suffered from temptations against Faith in varying
intensity. On Oct. 4th of this same year (1604), St. Francis wrote to
her, "You ask a remedy for the temptations against faith which assail
you. Never argue with them, but do as the children of Israel, who threw
the bones of the Paschal Lamb into the fire without attempting to break
them," and again: "Oh, my daughter, it is a good sign when the enemy
urges so vehemently from without, it is a sign he is not within."
[C] Sister Anne Marie Rosset.
CV. _To Mother Marie Aimée de Rabutin, Superior at Thonon._
Vive [+] Jésus!
ANNECY,
_October 15th, 1639._
MY DEAREST DAUGHTER,
May God be always blessed in all things and may He be particularly
blessed for the good health you tell me you enjoy, and for the care you
take to do all that is prescribed to keep you well. I am sending you a
box of lozenges. Take them as directed besides the other remedies. I beg
of you to take them regularly, for they are sweet, not unpleasant, and
very inexpensive. Do not, I beseech of you, undertake any extra fasting
nor abstain more than you can easily manage. Continue cheerfully to make
use of the little alleviations that are settled for you, and any others
that your weakness may require, just as you would see that others did.
Drink your wine, at least half your portion, for your wine-cups are very
small.[A] Neither rise earlier nor go to bed later than the others, nor
undertake any laborious work, for I know your health would not stand
it. Take the discipline only on Fridays. Possess your spirit in peace
and calm, and pass gently through this miserable life, not taking too
much to heart the faults of your sisters, nor their little ways of
worrying you. Do your best amongst them, and leave the rest to God.
Pray, and get prayers, that it may please God to turn the miseries and
calamities of this world to His glory and to the salvation of His
people, and do not forget me. If you would like me to write to Sister J.
Antoine I will do so. However, she must be kept to the promises she made
to me--tell her that I have spoken to you about them and have asked you
to let me know how she is going on. May God be your support. Blessed be
He and His holy Mother. Amen.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] These wine-cups held about two small glasses.
CVI. _To St. Vincent de Paul at Paris._
ON THE ARRIVAL OF THE LAZARIST FATHERS AT ANNECY.
Vive [+] Jésus!
ANNECY, 1640.
MY VERY DEAR FATHER,
Praised be our divine Saviour who for His great glory and the salvation
of many souls has brought your dear children happily here. Their coming
is a subject of thanksgiving to Our Lord from everyone, but most of all
from the Bishop of Geneva and myself, to whom it is an unbounded
consolation. We look upon them as our true brothers, with whom, in
simple openheartedness and confidence we are as one, and they too feel
this. I have had a conversation with them, and truly they speak as if
they were daughters of the Visitation. All are full of goodness and
candour. The third and the fifth need a little help to get out of
themselves. I shall tell their Superior, M. Escarts, of it. He is a
Saint, and a man truly equal to his charge. I have given them each a
practice of virtue. With God's help, for our mutual consolation and to
obey you, I will always lovingly continue so to do, for indeed, my dear
Father, there is much to speak of to these dear souls. The good Father
N. has manifested his own difficulties to me with the utmost simplicity.
He has an upright heart and a good judgement, but it will be difficult
for him to persevere. I have begged of him to put aside all thought of
either leaving or staying, and to apply himself in good earnest to do
God's work, leaving himself trustfully to His Providence. I wish he
could settle down, as he is a soul of great promise. In fact they are
all charming and have already given great edification in this town
during the three or four days that they have been here. Their spirit is
very like that of my dear and good Father.
CVII. _To Sister Claire-Marie-Françoise de Cusance[A] at Gray._
Vive [+] Jésus!
ANNECY, 1640.
MY DEAREST DAUGHTER,
Your letter fills me with tender compassion, but it also gives me very
real comfort, seeing how joyfully God is enabling you to make your
passage through this life to Him. You will love and adore Him in an
eternity of glory, for this is the only good that is worth setting our
hearts upon. Here we are all regretting your absence, and envying you
your happiness, but our regret and our envy are more than balanced by
our gratitude to God who is taking you so mercifully to Himself. Oh! how
hard and long is this life for those who yearn to be with Him! You must
do, my daughter, as your good Mother desires about your state of health.
Most earnestly do I beg of you to ask God that I may live and die in His
grace and according to His good pleasure. Do not refuse me this favour,
and when you see Him do not forget to speak to Him about me. Be kind to
me in this.
I remain,
Yours affectionately in His love. Amen
FOOTNOTE:
[A] This religious belonged to the ancient family of the Counts of
Berghen, Champlitte, and Belvoir. At the age of thirteen, upon the
foundation of the Monastery of Champlitte, she was taken there and given
the title of Foundress. Her arrival was the signal for a great ovation.
Cannons boomed forth their welcome, while the Magistrates harangued, and
the people cheered her, acclaiming the great and good deeds of her
ancestors. In this wise did the child enter into her new life of
poverty, obedience, and chastity. Soon after her entrance the war
between France and Spain obliged the Community to leave Champlitte for
the little town of Gray. Here fresh trials awaited it; the plague broke
out, and so awful were its ravages that the town was soon a veritable
sepulchre. Yet none of the terrors that surrounded her shook the
resolution of the brave child. Full of confidence in God she remained
calm and joyful in the midst of unheard-of privations.
The fame of her courage and her virtue went abroad and even before her
profession she was the object of public veneration, for the people loved
her and claimed her as their own heroine. At the age of sixteen, Sister
Claire-Marie-Françoise de Cusance made her solemn vows and became the
Saint Stanislaus Kostka of the Visitation. She died two years after her
profession, having spent those eighteen years of life more like an angel
than a woman, and having enjoyed many supernatural communications. No
sooner was her death known, than the Mayor ordered all the bells of the
town of Gray to be tolled, on which the inhabitants at once announced
their intention of assisting at the obsequies with torch-lights to
honour not so much her birth as her high virtue. The Visitation
Monastery had not as yet a cemetery of their own, so the religious of
the Annunciation, at their urgent request were given the holy remains,
which for some days they exposed to public veneration. Numerous were the
graces obtained during those days by the devout inhabitants through the
mediation of the holy nun. Her portrait was circulated in Flanders where
[like Soeur Thérèse of Lisieux in our day] she was venerated, though not
yet on the Altars of the Church. Fourteen days after the obsequies had
been celebrated a religious of the Annunciation wrote to the Mother
Superior of the Visitation at Gray. "This dear deceased is still quite
beautiful and her body quite flexible, the veins are to be seen in her
person as in a living body, which proves to us that it was truly the
temple of a pure and angelic soul. Several persons have noticed a
fragrant perfume exhaling from the coffin, and others have received
extraordinary graces and interior illumination when praying beside it."
(Taken from Vol. IX. of the "Lives of the Sisters of the Visitation.")
CVIII. _To Sister Jeanne Benigne Gojos,[A] Lay Sister at Turin._
Vive [+] Jésus!
ANNECY, 1640.
MY DAUGHTER MOST DEAR,
Your few words explaining your interior occupation have made your soul
as clear to me as if it lay open before mine eyes. All that passes
within you and without you is God's own work.
Regarding your interior life, my advice is: Give God a free hand to do
as He likes, while you look on in loving simplicity. And as to the
exterior: Practise virtue by making faithful use from moment to moment
of the opportunities provided by divine Providence. But it is
superfluous for me to offer advice, as the heart that is governed by God
needs no other guidance. Beseech of Him in His goodness, my dear
daughter, to accomplish in us His holy will, without let or hindrance on
our part.
Yours, etc.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] Sister Jeanne Benigne Gojos died at Turin, in the odour of sanctity,
November 5th, 1692. Her life was written under the title of "The Charm
of Divine Love," and it possesses all the beauty of true mysticism. It
is hoped that one day she may be raised to the Altars of the Church. St.
Jane Frances said of her: "From the day of her profession she seemed no
longer to be on earth."
CIX. _To the Sister Louise-Angélique de la Fayette,[A] at the First
Monastery of Paris._
Vive [+] Jésus!
ANNECY, 1641.
MY DEAREST DAUGHTER,