Eleventh Letter: I do not pray that you may be delivered from your pains;
but I pray earnestly that God gives you strength and patience to bear
them as long as He pleases. Comfort yourself with Him who holds you
fastened to the cross. He will loose you when He thinks fit. Happy are
those who suffer with Him. Accustom yourself to suffer in that manner,
and seek from Him the strength to endure as much, and as long, as He
judges necessary for you.
Worldly people do not comprehend these truths. It is not surprising
though, since they suffer like what they are and not like Christians. They
see sickness as a pain against nature and not as a favor from God. Seeing
it only in that light, they find nothing in it but grief and distress. But
those who consider sickness as coming from the hand of God, out of
His mercy and as the means He uses for their salvation, commonly find
sweetness and consolation in it.
I pray that you see that God is often nearer to us and present within us
in sickness than in health. Do not rely completely on another physician
because He reserves your cure to Himself. Put all your trust in God. You
will soon find the effects in your recovery, which we often delay by
putting greater faith in medicine than in God. Whatever remedies you use,
they will succeed only so far as He permits. When pains come from God,
only He can ultimately cure them. He often sends sickness to the body to
cure diseases of the soul. Comfort yourself with the Sovereign Physician
of both soul and body.
I expect you will say that I am very much at ease, and that I eat and
drink at the table of the Lord. You have reason. But think how painful
it would be to the greatest criminal in the world to eat at the king's
table and be served by him, yet have no assurance of pardon? I believe
he would feel an anxiety that nothing could calm except his trust in
the goodness of his sovereign. So I assure you, that whatever pleasures
I taste at the table of my King, my sins, ever present before my eyes,
as well as the uncertainty of my pardon, torment me. Though I accept
that torment as something pleasing to God.
Be satisfied with the condition in which God places you. However happy
you may think me, I envy you. Pain and suffering would be a paradise to
me, if I could suffer with my God. The greatest pleasures would be hell
if I relished them without Him. My only consolation would be to suffer
something for His sake.
I must, in a little time, go to God. What comforts me in this life is
that I now see Him by faith. I see Him in such a manner that I sometimes
say, I believe no more, but I see. I feel what faith teaches us, and,
in that assurance and that practice of faith, I live and die with Him.
Stay with God always for He is the only support and comfort for your
affliction. I shall beseech Him to be with you. I present my service.
Twelfth Letter: If we were well accustomed to the practice of the presence
of God, bodily discomforts would be greatly alleviated. God often permits
us to suffer a little to purify our souls and oblige us to stay close
to Him.
Take courage. Offer Him your pain and pray to Him for strength to endure
them. Above all, get in the habit of often thinking of God, and forget
Him the least you can. Adore Him in your infirmities. Offer yourself to
Him from time to time. And, in the height of your sufferings, humbly and
affectionately beseech Him (as a child his father) to make you conformable
to His holy will. I shall endeavor to assist you with my poor prayers.
God has many ways of drawing us to Himself. He sometimes seems to hide
Himself from us. But faith alone ought to be our support. Faith is
the foundation of our confidence. We must put all our faith in God. He
will not fail us in time of need. I do not know how God will dispose
of me but I am always happy. All the world suffers and I, who deserve
the severest discipline, feel joys so continual and great that I can
scarcely contain them.
I would willingly ask God for a part of your sufferings. I know my
weakness is so great that if He left me one moment to myself, I would be
the most wretched man alive. And yet, I do not know how He could leave
me alone because faith gives me as strong a conviction as reason. He
never forsakes us until we have first forsaken Him. Let us fear to leave
Him. Let us always be with Him. Let us live and die in His presence. Do
pray for me, as I pray for you.
Thirteenth Letter: I am sorry to see you suffer so long. What gives me
some ease and sweetens the feeling I have about your griefs, is that they
are proof of God's love for you. See your pains in that view and you will
bear them more easily. In your case, it is my opinion that, at this point,
you should discontinue human remedies and resign yourself entirely to the
providence of God. Perhaps He waits only for that resignation and perfect
faith in Him to cure you. Since, in spite of all the care you have taken,
treatment has proved unsuccessful and your malady still increases, wait
no longer. Put yourself entirely in His hands and expect all from Him.
I told you in my last letter that He sometimes permits bodily discomforts
to cure the distempers of the soul. Have courage. Make a virtue of
necessity. Do not ask God for deliverance from your pain. Instead, out
of love for Him, ask for the strength to resolutely bear all that He
pleases, and as long as He pleases. Such prayers are hard at first, but
they are very pleasing to God, and become sweet to those that love Him.
Love sweetens pains. And when one loves God, one suffers for His sake
with joy and courage. Do so, I beseech you. Comfort yourself with Him. He
is the only physician for all our illnesses. He is the Father of the
afflicted and always ready to help us. He loves us infinitely more than
we can imagine. Love Him in return and seek no consolation elsewhere. I
hope you will soon receive His comfort. Adieu.
I will help you with my prayers, poor as they are, and shall always be
yours in our Lord.
Fourteenth Letter: I give thanks to our Lord for having relieved you a
little as you desired. I have often been near death and I was never so
much satisfied as then. At those times I did not pray for any relief,
but I prayed for strength to suffer with courage, humility, and love. How
sweet it is to suffer with God! However great your sufferings may be,
receive them with love. It is paradise to suffer and be with Him. If,
in this life, we might enjoy the peace of paradise, we must accustom
ourselves to a familiar, humble, and affectionate conversation with God.
We must hinder our spirits wandering from Him on all occasions. We must
make our heart a spiritual temple so we can constantly adore Him. We
must continually watch over ourselves so we do not do anything that may
displease Him. When our minds and hearts are filled with God, suffering
becomes full of unction and consolation.
I well know that to arrive at this state, the beginning is very difficult
because we must act purely on faith. But, though it is difficult, we know
also that we can do all things with the grace of God. He never refuses
those who ask earnestly. Knock. Persevere in knocking. And I answer for
it, that, in His due time, He will open His graces to you. He will grant,
all at once, what He has deferred during many years. Adieu.
Pray to Him for me, as I pray to Him for you. I hope to see Him soon.
Fifteenth Letter: God knows best what we need. All that He does is for
our good. If we knew how much He loves us, we would always be ready
to receive both the bitter and the sweet from His Hand. It would
make no difference. All that came from Him would be pleasing. The
worst afflictions only appear intolerable if we see them in the wrong
light. When we see them as coming from the hand of God and know that it
is our loving Father who humbles and distresses us, our sufferings lose
their bitterness and can even become a source of consolation.
Let all our efforts be to know God. The more one knows Him, the greater
one desires to know Him. Knowledge is commonly the measure of love. The
deeper and more extensive our knowledge, the greater is our love. If
our love of God were great we would love Him equally in pain and pleasure.
We only deceive ourselves by seeking or loving God for any favors which
He has or may grant us. Such favors, no matter how great, can never bring
us as near to God as can one simple act of faith. Let us seek Him often
by faith. He is within us. Seek Him not elsewhere.
Are we not rude and deserve blame if we leave Him alone to busy ourselves
with trifles which do not please Him and perhaps even offend Him? These
trifles may one day cost us dearly. Let us begin earnestly to be devoted
to Him. Let us cast everything else out of our hearts. He wants to
possess the heart alone. Beg this favor of Him. If we do all we can,
we will soon see that change wrought in us which we so greatly desire.
I cannot thank Him enough for the relief He has given you. I hope to
see Him within a few days. Let us pray for one another.
Brother Lawrence died peacefully within days of this last letter.