Fifth Letter: Today I received two books and a letter from Sister M--,
who is preparing to make her profession. She desires the prayers of your
holy society, and yours in particular. I think she greatly values your
support. Please do not disappoint her. Pray to God that she may take her
vows in view of His love alone, and with a firm resolution to be wholly
devoted to Him. I will send you one of those books about the presence of
God; a subject which, in my opinion, contains the whole spiritual life. It
seems to me that whoever duly practices it will soon become devout.
I know that for the right practice of it, the heart must be empty of all
other things; because God will possess the heart alone. As He cannot
possess it alone, without emptying it of all besides, so neither can
He act there and do in it what He pleases unless it be left vacant to
Him. There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful
than that of a continual conversation with God. Only those can comprehend
it who practice and experience it. Yet I do not advise you to do it
from that motive. It is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this
exercise. Let us do it from a principle of love, and because it is God's
will for us.
Were I a preacher, I would above all other things preach the practice
of the presence of God. Were I a director, I would advise all the world
to do it, so necessary do I think it, and so easy too. Ah! knew we but
the want we have of the grace and assistance of God, we would never lose
sight of Him, no, not for a moment.
Believe me. Immediately make a holy and firm resolution never more to
forget Him. Resolve to spend the rest of your days in His sacred presence,
deprived of all consolations for the love of Him if He thinks fit. Set
heartily about this work, and if you do it sincerely, be assured that
you will soon find the effects of it.
I will assist you with my prayers, poor as they are. I recommend myself
earnestly to you and those of your holy society.
Sixth Letter: I have received from M-- the things which you gave her for
me. I wonder that you have not given me your thoughts on the little book
I sent to you and which you must have received. Set heartily about the
practice of it in your old age. It is better late than never.
I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the
practice of the presence of God. For my part I keep myself retired with
Him in the depth and center of my soul as much as I can. While I am with
Him I fear nothing; but the least turning from Him is insupportable. This
practice does not tire the body. It is, however, proper to deprive it
sometimes, nay often, of many little pleasures which are innocent and
lawful. God will not permit a soul that desires to be devoted entirely to
Him to take pleasures other than with Him. That is more than reasonable.
I do not say we must put any violent constraint upon ourselves. No, we
must serve God in a holy freedom. We must work faithfully without trouble
or disquiet, recalling our mind to God mildly and with tranquillity as
often as we find it wandering from Him. It is, however, necessary to put
our whole trust in God. We must lay aside all other cares and even some
forms of devotion, though very good in themselves, yet such as one often
engages in routinely. Those devotions are only means to attain to the
end. Once we have established a habit of the practice of the presence
of God, we are then with Him who is our end. We have no need to return
to the means. We may simply continue with Him in our commerce of love,
persevering in His holy presence with an act of praise, of adoration,
or of desire or with an act of resignation, or thanksgiving, and in all
the ways our spirits can invent.
Be not discouraged by the repugnance which you may find in it from
nature. You must sacrifice yourself. At first, one often thinks it a waste
of time. But you must go on and resolve to persevere in it until death,
notwithstanding all the difficulties that may occur.
I recommend myself to the prayers of your holy society, and yours in
particular. I am yours in our Lord.
Seventh Letter: I pity you much. It will be a great relief if you can
leave the care of your affairs to M-- and spend the remainder of your life
only in worshipping God. He requires no great matters of us; a little
remembrance of Him from time to time, a little adoration. Sometimes to
pray for His grace. Sometimes to offer Him your sufferings. And sometimes
to return Him thanks for the favors He has given you, and still gives you,
in the midst of your troubles. Console yourself with Him the oftenest
you can. Lift up your heart to Him at your meals and when you are in
company. The least little remembrance will always be pleasing to Him.
You need not cry very loud. He is nearer to us than we are aware. And we
do not always have to be in church to be with God. We may make an oratory
of our heart so we can, from time to time, retire to converse with Him
in meekness, humility, and love. Every one is capable of such familiar
conversation with God, some more, some less. He knows what we can do.
Let us begin then. Perhaps He expects but one generous resolution
on our part. Have courage. We have but little time to live. You are
nearly sixty-four, and I am almost eighty. Let us live and die with
God. Sufferings will be sweet and pleasant while we are with Him. Without
Him, the greatest pleasures will be a cruel punishment to us. May He be
blessed by all.
Gradually become accustomed to worship Him in this way; to beg His grace,
to offer Him your heart from time to time; in the midst of your business,
even every moment if you can. Do not always scrupulously confine yourself
to certain rules or particular forms of devotion. Instead, act in faith
with love and humility.
You may assure M-- of my poor prayers, and that I am their servant,
and yours particularly.
Eighth Letter: You tell me nothing new. You are not the only one who
is troubled with wandering thoughts. Our mind is extremely roving. But
the will is mistress of all our faculties. She must recall our stray
thoughts and carry them to God as their final end.
If the mind is not sufficiently controlled and disciplined at our first
engaging in devotion, it contracts certain bad habits of wandering and
dissipation. These are difficult to overcome. The mind can draw us,
even against our will, to worldly things. I believe one remedy for this
is to humbly confess our faults and beg God's mercy and help.
I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer. Many words
and long discourses are often the occasions of wandering. Hold yourself
in prayer before God, like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man's
gate. Let it be your business to keep your mind in the presence of the
Lord. If your mind sometimes wanders and withdraws itself from Him, do
not become upset. Trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the mind
than to re-collect it. The will must bring it back in tranquillity. If
you persevere in this manner, God will have pity on you.
One way to re-collect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and
preserve it more in tranquillity, is not to let it wander too far
at other times. Keep your mind strictly in the presence of God. Then
being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep
your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its
wanderings. I have told you already of the advantages we may draw from
this practice of the presence of God. Let us set about it seriously and
pray for one another.
Ninth Letter: The enclosed is an answer to that which I received from
M--. Please deliver it to her. She is full of good will but she would
go faster than grace! One does not become holy all at once. I recommend
her to your guidance. We ought to help one another by our advice, and
yet more by our good example. Please let me hear of her from time to
time and whether she is very fervent and obedient.
Let us often consider that our only business in this life is to please
God, that perhaps all besides is but folly and vanity. You and I have
lived over forty years in the monastic life. Have we employed them in
loving and serving God, who by His mercy has called us to this state
and for that very end? I am sometimes filled with shame and confusion
when I reflect, on the one hand, upon the great favors which God has
done and continues to do for me; and, on the other, upon the ill use I
have made of them and my small advancement in the way of perfection.
Since, by His mercy, He gives us yet a little time, let us begin
in earnest. Let us repair the lost time. Let us return with full
assurance to that Father of mercies, who is always ready to receive
us affectionately. Let us generously renounce, for the love of Him,
all that is not Himself. He deserves infinitely more. Let us think of
Him perpetually. Let us put all our trust in Him.
I have no doubt that we shall soon receive an abundance of His grace,
with which we can do all things, and, without which we can do nothing
but sin. We cannot escape the dangers which abound in life without the
actual and continual help of God. Let us pray to Him for it constantly.
How can we pray to Him without being with Him? How can we be with Him
but in thinking of Him often? And how can we often think of Him, but by
a holy habit which we should form of it? You will tell me that I always
say the same thing. It is true, for this is the best and easiest method
I know. I use no other. I advise all the world to do it.
We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often
think of Him. And when we come to love Him, we shall then also think
of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.
Tenth Letter: I have had a good deal of difficulty bringing myself to
write to M.--. I do it now purely because you desire me to do so. Please
address it and send it to him. It is pleasing to see all the faith you
have in God. May He increase it in you more and more. We cannot have
too much trust in so good and faithful a Friend who will never fail us
in this world nor in the next.
If M.-- takes advantage of the loss he has had and puts all his confidence
in God, He will soon give him another friend more powerful and more
inclined to serve him. He disposes of hearts as He pleases. Perhaps
M.-- was too attached to him he has lost. We ought to love our friends,
but without encroaching upon the love of God, which must always be first.
Please keep my recommendation in mind that you think of God often; by day,
by night, in your business, and even in your diversions. He is always near
you and with you. Leave Him not alone. You would think it rude to leave
a friend alone who came to visit you. Why, then, must God be neglected?
Do not forget Him but think on Him often. Adore Him continually. Live
and die with Him. This is the glorious work of a Christian; in a word,
this is our profession. If we do not know it, we must learn it.