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ABANDONMENT
TO
DIVINE PROVIDENCE
The translation from the French of Father de
Caussade's book on "Abandonment to Divine
Providence" is to my knowledge well done,
and is a faithful rendering of the original
text.
fitful tbstat
ANSCAR VONIER, O.S.B., Abbot
DOM DUNSTAN, O.S.B.
yd March, 1921.
Imprimatur
* JOANNES Ep. Plym.
jth March, 1921.
Sisters Of The Goo'd Shepherd, Windsor N9C 1T9
Abandonment
TO
Divine Providence
BY
THE REV. J. P. DE GAUSSADE, S.J.
It
EDITED BY THE REV. J. RAMIERE, S.J.
INTRODUCTION BY DOM ARNOLD, O.S.B.
THIRD ENGLISH EDITION
From the Tenth Complete French Edition
BY
E. J. STRICKLAND
Printed and Published in England by
SYDNEY LEE. LIMITED
<Tattiol!f tvrrorfcs tftrss, ISietrr
Agent for America
B. HERDER BOOK COMPANY
15 ar 17 SOUTH BROADWAY
ST. LOUIS. MO.
DEDICATED TO ST. JOSEPH
" the one chosen shadow of God upon earth." Fr. Faber.
" Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them to little ones.
Yea Father, for so hath it seemed good in thy sight."
Matt, xi, 25, 26.
INTRODUCTION.
The Rev. Jean Pierre de Caussade was one of the most remark-
able spiritual writers of the Society of Jesus in France in the
1 8th Century. His death took place at Toulouse in 1751.
His works have gone through many editions and have been
republished, and translated into several foreign languages.
The present book gives an English translation of the tenth
French Edition of Fr. de Caussade's "Abandon a la Providence
Divine," edited, to the great benefit of many souls, by Fr. H.
Ramiere, S.J.
A portion of this remarkable work in English has already
appeared in America; but many readers, to whom this precious
little book has become a favourite, will welcome a complete
translation, especially as what has already appeared in the
English version may be considered as merely the theoretical
part, whilst the " Letters of Direction " which form the greater
portion of the present work give the practical part. They answer
objections, solve difficulties, and give practical advice. The
book thus gains considerably in value and utility.
It is divided into two unequal parts, the first containing a
treatise on total abandonment to Divine Providence, and the
second, letters of direction for persons leading a spiritual life.
The " Treatise " comprises two different aspects of Abandon-
ment to Divine Providence ; one as a virtue., common and
necessary to all Christians, the other as a state, proper to souls
who have made a special practice of abandonment to the holy
will of God.
The " Letters of Direction," now for the first time translated
into English, were addressed to Nuns of the Visitation at Nancy.
Fr. de Caussade had been stationed in this town for some time,
and when later he was called away, his letters to the Nuns
carried on the powerful influence he had exercised over them.
They were treasured and preserved with religious care, and thus
have come down to our own days. Fr. de Ramiere, S.J.,
collected these letters, and edited them with painstaking labour.
These " Spiritual Letters " are completely suited to the present
time ; Catholic spiritual life being ever the same, there is nothing
in them which might require alteration or revision. Directors
of souls will find them an answer to the daily and constantly
recurring difficulties and trials of the interior life, from the
initial difficulties of beginners to the hidden trials of souls of
great sanctity. Whilst the " Letters," from the fact that they
were originally written for the direction of Nuns, are chiefly
intended for Religious, yet earnest people living in the world
will derive from their perusal a most efficacious means for the
attainment of resignation and peace in the midst of the worries
and anxieties of lire.
The leading idea in the letters of Fr. de Caussade is abandon-
ment, complete and absolute, to Divine Providence. This was
the mainspring of his own spiritual life, and the key-note of his
direction of souls. He promises peace and holiness to every soul,
however simple, that follows his counsel, if it has an upright
intention, and a good will.
The following extract is from Fr. H. Ramiere's preface to the
Letters :
" That which renders Dr. de Caussade's letters especially
valuable, and makes them useful in an eminently practical
manner, is the circumstance that they are, for the most part,
addressed to persons suffering under different kinds of darkness,
desolation and trials ; in a word, to those whom God designs
for a high degree of sanctity. To all the doubts submitted to
him, and to all the sufferings exposed to him by his correspon-
dents, the holy Director applied but one and the same solution
and remedy abandonment ; but, with perfect tact he adapts
this practice to the particular nature of the trial, and proportions
its exercise to the degree, of perfection to which each soul has
attained. The same method of direction he applies in a hundred
different ways, and therefore this correspondence can be justly
compared to a ladder by which the soul ascends by successive
degrees from a still very imperfect state, to one of the most
intimate union with God, and to the most heroic abandonment.
To whatever degree a soul has attained we can safely promise
that it will find in these letters suitable advice and a solution
of the difficulties by which it is beset. Even those who look upon
the spiritual life as an inextricable labyrinth will receive from
the hands of Fr. de Caussade the clue which will enable them to
escape from the darkness that envelopes them, and to enjoy peace
in the midst of their uneasiness. May it prove this to all those
poor souls who are troubled, and who ' tremble for fear where
there is nothing to fear.' (Ps. 13). May this book realise the
message of the Angels, and bring peace to souls of a good will."
ii
The " Abandonment to Divine Providence " of Fr. de Caussade
is as far removed from the false inactivity of the Quietists, as
true Christian resignation is distinct from the fatalism of Mahom-
medans. It is a trusting, childlike, peaceful abandonment to the
guidance of grace, and of the Holy Spirit ; an unquestioning
and undoubting submission to the holy will of God in all things
that may befall us, be they due to the action of man, or to the
direct permission of God. To Fr. de Caussade, abandonment to
God, the " Ita Pater " of our Divine Lord, the " Fiat " of our
Blessed Lady, is the shortest, surest, and easiest way to holiness
and peace. Fr. de Caussade's work must be read with a certain
amount of discretion, as naturally every advice he gives does
not apply to all readers indiscriminately. Some of his counsels
may be appropriate for beginners ; others for souls of a more
advanced degree of spirituality. No one, however, can fail to
recognise in his writings the sure tone of a " Master," who has
united practical to theoretical knowledge of his subject.
Every page is redolent with the unction of the Spirit of God,
and readers will find in his doctrine a heavenly manna, a food of
unfailing strength for their souls. The present work has been
carefully translated into readable English, and more regard has
been paid to the meaning than to the literal exactness of the
sentences. The elevated, noble style of the author has been
preserved throughout. It is a real contribution to the spiritual
literature of England.
I am aware that our English word " Abandonment " does
not adequately render the meaning of the French word
" Abandon," but we have no better expression. The translation
has been undertaken solely for the purpose of helping souls
to follow the hidden paths of the spiritual life, and to surrender
themselves entirely to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
DOM ARNOLD, O.S.B.,
Buckfast Abbey.
(Feast of All Saints, 1921).
in
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
ON THE VIRTUE OF ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
ITS NATURE AND EXCELLENCE.
CHAPTER I.
SANCTITY CONSISTS IN FIDELITY TO THE ORDER OF GOD, AND
Section.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
IN SUBMISSION TO ALL HIS OPERATIONS.
The hidden operations of God
The hidden operations of God, continued
The work of our sanctification
In what perfection consists
The divine influence alone can sanctify us
On the use of mental faculties
On the attainment of peace
Page
i
2
3
6
7
9
10
To estimate degrees of excellence n
Sanctity made easy 13
CHAPTER II.
THE DIVINE ACTION WORKS UNCEASINGLY FOR THE
SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS
Section. Page
I. The unceasing work of God 15
II. By faith the operation of God is recognised 17
III. How to discover what is the will of God 19
IV. The revelations of God 20
V. The action of Jesus Christ in the souls of men 22
VI. The treatment of the divine action 24
VII. The hidden work of divine love 26
VIII. Experimental Science 27
IX. The will of God in the present moment is the source
of sanctity 27
X. God makes known His will through creatures 28
XI. . i Everything is supernaturalised by the divine action 30
XII. The divine word our model 34
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE NATURE AND EXCELLENCE OF THE STATE OF
ABANDONMENT.
Section. Page
I. The life of God in the soul 37
II. The most perfect way 37
III. Abandonment a pledge of predestination 38
IV. Abandonment a source of joy 40
V. The great merit of pure faith 41
VI. Submission a free gift to God 42
VII. Divine favours offered to all 43
VIII. God reigns in a pure heart 44
CHAPTER II.
THE DUTIES OF THOSE SOULS CALLED BY GOD TO THE STATE
OF ABANDONMENT.
Section. Page
I. Sacrifice the foundation of sanctity 48
II. The pains and consolations of abandonment 50
III. The different duties of abandonment 52
IV. God does all for a soul of goodwill 53
V. The common way for all souls 55
VI. The duty of the present moment the only rule 57
VII. Trust in the guidance of God 59
VIII. Great faith is necessary 61
CHAPTER III.
THE TRIALS CONNECTED WITH THE STATE OF ABANDONMENT.
Section. Page
I. Unwise interference 62
II. Unjust judgments 64
III. Self-contempt 65
IV. Distrust of self , 68
V. The life of faith 70
i
vi
CHAPTER IV.
CONCERNING THE ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY THE FATHERLY
PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO THOSE SOULS WHO HAVE
ABANDONED THEMSELVES TO HIM.
Section. Page
I. Confidence in God 74
II. Diversity of grace 76
III. The generosity of God 78
IV. The most ordinary things are channels of grace 79
V. Nature and grace the instruments of God 81
VI. Supernatural prudence 83
VII. Conviction of weakness 83
VIII. Self-guidance a mistake 84
IX. Divine love, the principle of all good 86
X. We must see God in all His creatures 88
XI. The strength of simplicity 90
XII. The triumph of humility 91
SPIRITUAL COUNSELS
OF PERE DE CAUSSADE.
Part I.
Counsel. Page
I- For the attainment of perfect conformity to the
will of God 91
II. For the outward behaviour of one called to the
life of abandonment 95
III. Method of interior direction 99
IV. Concerning our conduct after having committed
faults 101
V. On temptations and interior trials , 102
vii
Second Part.
LETTERS ON THE PRACTICE OF ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE
PROVIDENCE.
FIRST BOOK.
ON THE ESTEEM FOR, AND LOVE OF, THIS VIRTUE.
Letter Page
I. The happiness and peace of a soul entirely aban-
doned to God 107
II. This abandonment is the shortest way to arrive at
perfect love and perfection 108
III. Profound peace can be enjoyed in this abandon-
ment even amidst the bustle of business matters 109
IV. Spiritual liberty in the midst of affairs in
V. On having recourse always to God 112
VI. Abandonment ameliorates the wearisomeness of
solitude 113
VII. The happiness experienced by a community of
Poor Clares in practising abandonment 114
VIII. Concerning motives for abandonment on account
of the goodness and greatness of the Divine
Majesty 115
IX. Another fresh motive for abandoning ourselves
to God. His fatherly providence 117
X. Our faults should render us humble 118
XI. To the Sisters of the Visitation at Nancy, 1732.
Mutual good wishes between souls who seek
nothing but God alone 120
SECOND BOOK.
ON THE EXERCISE OF THE VIRTUE OF ABANDONMENT.
Letter Page
I. On the principles and practice of abandonment 122
II. A general plan of the spiritual combat 125
viii
Letter Page
III. On the first works of God in the soul 126
IV. On the general practice of abandonment 127
V. On the means of acquiring abandonment 128
VI. General direction 129
VII. Useless fears 132
VIII. Excellent advice on prayer to souls called to a
life of abandonment 133
IX. On prayer. The danger of delusion in the
prayer of recollection 134
X. Delusion in prayer 136
XI. On the practice of abandonment in the different
states of the soul 137
XII. On the practice of abandonment, and the peace
of the soul 141
XIII. The peace of the soul 142
XIV. On the practice of abandonment during con-
solations 146
XV. On consolations 149
XVI. The operations of grace 150
XVII. On docility to the interior impressions of the
Holy Spirit ; and peaceful waiting 154
XVIII. On the moderation of desires and fears 155
XIX. To aim at simplicity 156
XX. On simplicity 157
XXI. On the different attractions of grace 159
XXII. On abandonment in the trials to which vocation
is subject \.... 161
XXIII. On the value of good desires 162
XXIV. The call of God a sign of predestination 163
XXV. God only desires what we are able to give 165
XXVI. On abandonment as to employments and under-
takings 166
XXVII. On abandonment in the acceptance of duties 167
XXVIII. To will only what God wills 168
XXIX. Only God knows what is expedient for us 168
XXX. On abandonment in sickness 170
XXXI. Conduct in sickness 171
XXXII. On bearing with your neighbour and yourself 171
XXXIII. On bearing with oneself 172
XXXIV. On preparation for the Sacraments, prayer,
reading and conduct 173
XXXV. On conduct during a time passed in the country 174
XXXVI. On life and death. Consolations and trials 176
XXXVII. Desire for consolations a mistake 178
ix
THIRD BOOK.
ON THE OBSTACLES TO ABANDONMENT.
Letter Page
I. About feelings of vanity and frequent infidelities 180
II. Of the defect of beginners 184
III. On interior troubles voluntarily entertained, and
weakness 185
IV. Interior troubles 189
V. On the love of one's neighbour 195
VI. On attachment too keenly felt 196
VII. - Personal attachments 197
VIII. On natural activity 198
IX. On excessive fervour of good desires 200
X. On eagerness to read good books 201
XI. On intemperate and indiscreet zeal 201
XII. On disinclination to accept the comforts enjoined 203
XIII. On attachment to one's own judgment 204
XIV. On a difficulty in, and a dislike to, opening one's
mind to a director 206
XV. On discouragement 207
XVI. On the fear of being deceived, and of appearing
singular 208
FOURTH BOOK.
THE FIRST TRIALS OF SOULS CALLED TO THE STATE OF
ABANDONMENT. ARIDITIES, WEAKNESSES, AND WEARINESS.
Letter Page
I. On the trials above-mentioned. General direction 212
II. On interior vicissitudes ;.... 218
III. On abandonment during trials 219
IV. On obscurity and weakness 220
V. On weakness and distractions 223
VI. On interior rebellion and spiritual poverty 226
VII. On darkness and want of feeling 229
VIII. On dryness and distractions during prayer 232
IX. On distractions, weariness, and impulses 235
X. On weariness and idleness 237
XI. On weakness, remembrance of past sins, fatigue,
and fears , 238
XII. On the use of trials, and how to act about them 241
Letter Page
XIII. The use of trials, continued 245
XIV. The use of trials, continued 247
XV. Trials to be endured peacefully 250
XVI. Sensitiveness about defects a sign of self-love 254
XVII. Confidence in God is the cure of self-love 256
XVIII. Sacrifice and fidelity are the death of self-love 259
XIX. On the uses of trials, even if they be punishments 261
XX. On the fruit of trials profound peace 262
XXI. Things painful to nature are good for the soul 264
FIFTH BOOK.
FRESH TRIALS, SUFFERINGS, AND PRIVATIONS.
Letter Page
I. On illness and its uses. Rules to be observed 267
II. On sufferings of different kinds 268
III. On public calamities and disasters 269
IV. On contradictory tastes and characters 270
V. On the profit to be gained by patient endurance 272
VI. On different kinds of difficulties 272
VII. Rules to be followed 275
VIII. On annoyances caused by good people 276
IX. How to bear these trials 277
X. On seeing God in our trials 277
XI. On the deprivation of human assistance 278
XII. On the absence of a director 279
XIII. Reliance on God alone 280
XIV. On abandonment in trials of this nature 281
XV. On the usefulness of these afflictions 283
XVI. Bitterness mingled with pleasure to detach the soul 286
XVII. On conduct during trials 287
XVIII. The will of God to be preferred 289
XIX. On the happiness of souls that abandon themselves
to God in their afflictions 291
SIXTH BOOK.
ON THE CONTINUATION OF TRIALS AND FEAR OF THE ANGER OF
GOD.
Letter Page
I. On temptations, and the fear of giving way to them 293
II. On the fear of temptations .... 294
xi
Letter Page
III. An explanation of the state of a soul in temptation,
and the designs of God in regard to it 295
IV. On different temptations 298
V. On the fear of being wanting in submission to God 299
VI. How the fear of displeasing God may be caused by
self-love 303
VII. On the fear of being deficient in good-will 305
VIII. On the fear of loving creatures more than God 308
IX. On the fear of displeasing God and deceiving others 309
X. On the fear of making no progress, and of not
doing enough penance 311
XI. On fears about confession 313
XII. Rules to free oneself from these fears 313
XIII. On fears about contrition 314
XIV. On general confession 315
XV. Different fears , 316
XVI. Different fears, continued ..... 317
XVII. On remorse of conscience, and the rebellion of the
passions 319
XVIII. God alone can remove these trials 322
XIX. On relapses v 323
XX. On depression during trials ; distractions and
resentment 324
XXI. On humble silence and patience during trials 325
XXII. On the realization of misery and on exterior diffi-
culties 327
XXIII. On past sins 329
XXIV. On the vexatious results of imprudence 331
XXV. Rules to follow during trials 333
XXVI. To act with solid motives 335
SEVENTH BOOK.
THE LAST TRIALS. AGONY AND MYSTICAL DEATH. THE FRUIT
THEREOF.
Letter .
I. On spiritual nakedness. Annihilation. Temp-
tations to despair ... 339
II. Good symptoms 343
III. On interior oppression 347
IV. Purification of the hearU ..... 347
V. On emptiness of heart 348
xii
Letter Page
VI. On the renewal of pain 349
VII. Supernatural fears and pain 351
VIII. On violent temptations 353
IX. Annihilation and spiritual agony 356
X. On mystical death. Its use 358
XL Before the Retreat 360
XII. After the Retreat 362
XIII. On the purification of the soul 364
XIV. Explanation of certain trials. Direction 367
XV. Perfect detachment 371
XVI. Explanation of an apparent despair 373
XVII. On the practice of abandonment in the midst of
trials 374
XVIII. On the fruit of complete death to self 375
xm
BOOK I.
ON THE VIRTUE OF ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
ITS NATURE AND EXCELLENCE.
CHAPTER I.
SANCTITY CONSISTS IN FIDELITY TO THE ORDER ESTABLISHED BY
GOD, AND IN SUBMISSION TO ALL HIS OPERATIONS.
SECTION I. Hidden Operations of God.
Fidelity to the order established by God comprehended the
whole sanctity of the righteous under the old law ; even that of
St. Joseph, and of Mary herself.
God continues to speak to-day as He spoke in former times
to our fathers when there were no directors as at present, nor
any regular method of direction. Then all spirituality was
comprised in fidelity to the designs of God, for there was no
regular system of guidance in the spiritual life to explain it in
detail, nor so many instructions, precepts and examples as there
are now. Doubtless our present difficulties render this necessary,
but it was not so in the first ages when souls were more simple
and straightforward. Then, for those who led a spiritual life,
each moment brought some duty to be faithfully accomplished.
Their whole attention was thus concentrated consecutively like
a hand that marks the hours which, at each moment, traverses
the space allotted to it. Their minds, incessantly animated by
the impulsion of divine grace, turned imperceptibly to each
new duty that presented itself by the permission of God at
different hours of the day. Such were the hidden springs by
which the conduct of Mary was actuated. Mary was the most
simple of all creatures, and the most closely united to God.
Her answer to the angel when she said : " Fiat mihi secundum
verbum tuum " : contained all the mystic theology of her
ancestors to whom everything was reduced, as it is now, to the
2 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
purest, simplest submission of the soul to the will of God, under
whatever form it presents itself. This beautiful and exalted
state, which was the basis of the spiritual life of Mary, shines
conspicuously in these simple words, " Fiat mihi " (Luke i, 38).
Take notice that they are in complete harmony with those which
Our Lord desires that we should have always on our lips and in
our hearts : " Fiat voluntas tua." It is true that what was
required of Mary at this great moment, was for her very great
glory, but the magnificence of this glory would have made no
impression on her if she had not seen in it the fulfilment of the
will of God. In all things was she ruled by the divine will.
Were her occupations ordinary, or of an elevated nature, they
were to her but the manifestation, sometimes obscure, sometimes
clear, of the operations of the most High, in which she found
alike subject matter for the glory of God. Her spirit, transported
with joy, looked upon all that she had to do or to suffer at each
moment as the gift of Him who fills with good things the hearts
of those who hunger and thirst for Him alone, and have no
desire for created things.
SECTION II.
The duties of each moment are the shadows beneath which
hides the divine operation.
" The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee " (Luke
i, 35), said the angel to Mary. This shadow, beneath which is
hidden the power of God for the purpose of bringing forth Jesus
Christ in the soul, is the duty, the attraction, or the cross that
is presented to us at each moment. These are, in fact, but
shadows like those in the order of nature which, like a veil,
cover sensible objects and hide them from us. Therefore in
the moral and supernatural order the duties of each moment
conceal, under the semblance of dark shadows, the truth of
their divine character which alone should rivet the attention.
It was in this light that Mary beheld them. Also these shadows
diffused over her faculties, far from creating illusion, did but
increase her faith in Him who is unchanging and unchangeable.
The archangel may depart. He has delivered his message,
and his moment has passed. Mary advances without ceasing,
and is already far beyond him. The Holy Spirit, who comes
to take possession of her under the shadow of the angel's words,
will never abandon her.
THE WORK OF OUR SANCTIFICATION 3
There are remarkably few extraordinary characteristics in
the outward events of the life of the most holy Virgin, at least
there are none recorded in holy Scripture. Her exterior Life
is represented as very ordinary and simple. She did and suffered
the same things that anyone in a similar state of life might do or
suffer. She goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth as her other
relatives did. She took shelter in a stable in consequence of
her poverty. She returned to Nazareth from whence she had
been driven by the persecution of Herod, and lived there with
Jesus and Joseph, supporting themselves by the work of their
hands. It was in this way that the holy family gained their
daily bread. But what a divine nourishment Mary and Joseph
received from this daily bread for the strengthening of their
faith ! It is like a sacrament to sanctify all their moments.
What treasures of grace lie concealed in these moments filled,
apparently, by the most ordinary events. That which is visible
might happen to anyone, but the invisible, discerned by faith,
is no less than God operating very great things. O Bread of
Angels ! heavenly manna ! pearl of the Gospel ! Sacrament
of the present moment ! thou givest God under as lowly a
form as the manger, the hay, or the straw. And to whom dost
thou give Him? " Esurientes implevit bonis " (Luke i, 53).
God reveals Himself to the humble under the most lowly forms,
but the proud, attaching themselves entirely to that which is
extrinsic, do not discover Him hidden beneath, and are sent
empty away.
SECTION III. The Work of our Sanctification.
How much more easily sanctity appears when regarded from
this point of view.
If the work of our sanctification presents, apparently, the
most insurmountable difficulties, it is because we do not know
how to form a just idea of it. In reality sanctity can be reduced
to one single practice, fidelity to the duties appointed by God.
Now this fidelity is equally within each one's power whether in
its active practice, or passive exercise.
The active practice of fidelity consists in accomplishing the
duties which devolve upon us whether imposed by the general
laws of God and of the Church, or by the particular state that
we may have embraced. Its passive exercise consists in the
loving acceptance of all that God sends us at each moment.
4 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Are either of these practices of sanctity above our strength ?
Certainly not the active fidelity, since the duties it imposes
cease to be duties when we have no longer the power to fulfil
them. If the state of your health does not permit you to go
to Mass you are not obliged to go. The same rule holds good
for all the precepts laid down ; that is to say for all those which
prescribe certain duties. Only those which forbid things
evil in themselves are absolute, because it is never allowable
to commit sin. Can there, then, be anything more reasonable ?
What excuse can be made ? Yet this is all that God requires
of the soul for the work of its sanctification. He exacts it from
both high and low, from the strong and the weak, in a word
from all, always and everywhere. It is true then that He
requires on our part only simple and easy things since it is only
necessary to employ this simple method to attain to an eminent
degree of sanctity. If, over and above the Commandments,
He shows us the counsels as a more perfect aim, He always
takes care to suit the practice of them to our position and char-
acter. He bestows on us, as the principal sign of our vocation
to follow them, the attractions of grace which make them easy.
He never impels anyone beyond his strength, nor in any way
beyond his aptitude. Again, what could be more just ? All
you who strive after perfection and who are tempted to dis-
couragement at the remembrance of what you have read in
the lives of the saints, and of what certain pious books pre-
scribe ; O you who are appalled by the terrible ideas of perfection
that you have formed for yourselves ; it is for your consolation
that God has willed me to write this. Learn that of which
you seem to be ignorant. This God of all goodness has made
those things easy which are common and necessary in the order
of nature, such as breathing, eating, and sleeping. No less
necessary in the supernatural order are love and fidelity, therefore
it must needs be that the difficulty of acquiring them is by no
means so great as is generally represented. Review your life.
Is it not composed of innumerable actions of very little import-
ance ? Well, God is quite satisfied with these. They are the
share that the soul must take in the work of its perfection.
This is so clearly explained in Holy Scripture that there can be
no doubt about it : " Fear God and keep the commandments,
this is the whole duty of man " (Ecclesiastes xii, 13), that is to
say this is all that is required on the part of man, and it is
in this that active fidelity consists. If man fulfils his part
<God will do the rest. Grace being bestowed only on this con-
dition the marvels it effects are beyond the comprehension
of man. For neither ear has heard nor eye seen, nor has it
entered the mind what things God has planned in His omni-
THE WORK OF OUR SANCTIFICATION j
science, determined in His will, and carried out by His power
in the souls given up entirely to Him. The passive part of
sanctity is still more easy since it only consists in accepting
that which we very often have no power to prevent, and in
suffering lovingly, that is to say with sweetness and consolation,
those things that too often cause weariness and disgust. Once
more I repeat, in this consists sanctity. This is the grain of
mustard seed which is the smallest of all the seeds, the fruits of
which can neither be recognised nor gathered. It is the drachma
of the Gospel, the treasure that none discover because they
suppose it to be too far away to be sought. Do not ask me how
this treasure can be found. It is no secret. The treasure is
everywhere, it is offered to us at all times and wherever we may
be. All creatures, both friends and enemies, pour it out with
prodigality, and it flows like a fountain through every faculty
of body and soul even to the very centre of our hearts. If we
open our mouths they will be filled. The divine activity per-
meates the whole universe, it pervades every creature ; wherever
they are it is there ; it goes before them, with them, and it
follows them ; all they have to do is to let the waves bear them on.
Would to God that kings and their ministers, princes of the
Church and of the world, priests and soldiers, the peasantry and
labourers, in a word, all men could know how very easy it would
be for them to arrive at a high degree of sanctity. They would
only have to fulfil the simple duties of Christianity and of their
state of life ; to embrace with submission the crosses belonging
to that state, and to submit with faith and love to the designs
of Providence in all those things that have to be done or suffered
without going out of their way to seek occasions for themselves.
This is the spirit by which the patriarchs and prophets were
animated and sanctified before there were so many systems or
so many masters of the spiritual life.* This is the spirituality
of all ages and of every state. No state of life can, assuredly,
be sanctified in a more exalted manner, nor in a more wonderful
and easy way than by the simple use of the means that God, the
sovereign director of souls, gives them to do or to suffer at each
moment.
* It would be a mistaken idea of the meaning of the author to imagine
that he would urge anyone to undertake to lead a spiritual life without
the guidance of a director. He explains expressly elsewhere that in order
to be able to do without a director one must have been habitually and
for a long time under direction. Less still "does he endeavour to bring into
disrepute the means made use of by the Church for the extirpation of vice
and the acquisition of virtue. His meaning, of which Christians cannot
be too often reminded, is, that of all direction the best is that of divine
Providence, and that the most necessary and the most sanctifying of all
practices is that of fulfilling faithfully and accepting lovingly whatever this
paternal Providence ordains that we should do or suffer.
6 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
SECTION IV. In what Perfection Consists.
Perfection consists in doing the will of God, not in under-
standing His designs.
The designs of God, the good pleasure of God, the will of God,
the operation of God and the gift of His grace are all one and the
same thing in the spiritual life. It is God working in the soul to
make it like unto Himself. Perfection is neither more nor less
than the faithful co-operation of the soul with this work of
God, and is begun, grows, and is consummated in the soul
unperceived and in secret. The science of theology is full of
theories and explanations of the wonders of this state in each
soul according to its capacity. One may be conversant with
all these speculations, speak and write about them admirably,
instruct others and guicle souls ; yet, if these theories are only
in the mind, one is, compared with those who, without any
knowledge of these theories, receive the meaning of the designs
of God and do His holy will, like a sick physician compared
to simple people in perfect health. The designs of God
and His divine will accepted by a faithful soul with simplicity
produces this divine state in it without its knowledge, just as a
medicine taken obediently will produce health, although the sick
person neither knows nor wishes to know anything about medi-
cine. As fire gives out heat, and not philosophical discussions
about it, nor knowledge of its effects, so the designs of God
and His holy will work in the soul for its sanctification, and not
speculations of curiosity as to this principle and this state.
When one is thirsty one quenches one's thirst by drinking, not
by reading books which treat of this condition. The desire to
know does but increase this thirst. Therefore when one thirsts
after sanctity, the desire to know about it only drives it further
away. Speculation must be laid aside, and everything arranged
by God as regards actions and sufferings must be accepted with
simplicity, for those things that happen at each moment by the
divine command or permission are always the most holy, the
best and the most divine for us.
THE DIVINE INFLUENCE ALONE CAN SANCTIFY Us 7
SECTION V. The Divine Influence alone can Sanctify Us.
No reading, nor any other exercise can sanctify us except in
so far as they are the channels of the divine influence.
Our whole science consists in recognising the designs of God
for the present moment. All reading not intended for us by
God is dangerous. It is by doing the will of God and obeying
His holy inspirations that we obtain grace, and this grace works
in our hearts through our reading or any other employment.
Apart from God reading is empty and vain and, being deprived
for us of the life-giving power of the action of God, only succeeds
in emptying the heart by the very fulness it gives to the mind.
This divine will, working in the soul of a simple ignorant girl
by means of sufferings and actions of a very ordinary nature,
produces a state of supernatural life without the mind being
filled with self-exalting ideas ; whereas the proud man who
studies spiritual books merely out of curiosity receives no more
than the dead letter into his mind, and the will of God having
no connexion with his reading his heart becomes ever harder
and more withered.
The order established by God and His divine will are the life
of the soul no matter in what way they work, or are obeyed.
Whatever connexion the divine will has with the mind, it
nourishes the soul, and continually enlarges it by giving it what
is best for it at every moment. It is neither one thing nor
another which produces these happy effects, but what God has
willed for each moment. What was best for the moment that
has passed is so no longer because it is no longer the will of
God which, becoming apparent through other circumstances,
brings to light the duty of the present moment. It is this duty
under whatever guise it presents itself which is precisely that
which is the most sanctifying for the soul. If, by the divine
will, it is a present duty to read, then reading will produce the
destined effect in the soul. If it is the divine will that reading
be relinquished for contemplation, then this will perform the
work of God in the soul and reading would become useless and
prejudicial. Should the divine will withdraw the soul from
contemplation for the hearing of confessions, etc., and that even
for some considerable time, this duty becomes the means of
uniting the soul with Jesus Christ and all the sweetness of con-
templation would only serve to destroy this union. Our moments
are made fruitful by our fulfilment of the will of God. This is
presented to us in countless different ways by the present duty
which forms, increases, and consummates in us the new man
8 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
until we attain the plenitude destined for us by the divine
wisdom. This mysterious attainment of the age of Jesus Christ
in our souls is the end ordained by God and the fruit of His
grace and of His divine goodness.
This fruit, as we have already said, is produced, nourished and
increased by the performance of those duties which become
successively present, and which are made fruitful by the same
divine will.
In fulfilling these duties we are always sure of possessing the
" better part " because this holy will is itself the better part,
it only requires to be allowed to act and that we should abandon
ourselves blindly to it with perfect confidence. It is infinitely
wise, powerful and amiable to those who trust themselves un-
reservedly to it, who love and seek it alone, and who believe
with an unshaken faith and confidence that what it arranges
for each moment is best, without seeking elsewhere for more
or less, and without pausing to consider the connexion of these
exterior wofks with the plans of God. This would be the
refinement of self-love.
Nothing is' essential, real, or of any value unless ordained by
God who arranges all things and makes them useful to the soul.
Apart from this divine will all is hollow, empty, null, there is
nothing but falsehood, vanity, nothingness, death. The will of
God is the salvation, health and life ot body and soul, no matter
to what subject it is applied. One must not, therefore, scrutinize
too closely the suitability of things to mind or body in order to
form a judgement of their value, because this is of little importance.
It is the will of God which bestows through these things, no
matter what they may be, an efficacious grace by which the
image of Jesus Christ is renewed in our souls. One must not lay
down the law nor impose limits on this divine will since it is all-
powerful.
Whatever ideas may fill the mind, whatever feelings afflict
the body ; even if the mind should be tormented with distrac-
tions and troubles, and the body with sickness and pain, never-
theless the divine will is ever for the present moment the life
of the soul and of the body ; in fact, neither the one nor the
other, no matter in what condition it may be, can be sustained
by any other power.
The divine influence alone can sanctify us. Without it
bread may be poison, and poison a salutary remedy. Without
it reading only darkens the mind ; with it darkness is made
light. It is everything that is good and true in all things, and
in all things it unites us to God, who, being infinite in all per-
fections, leaves nothing to be desired by the soul that possesses
Him. fr;."
ON THE USE OF MENTAL FACULTIES
SECTION VI. On the Use of Mental Faculties.
The exercise of mental and other faculties is only useful when
instrumental of the divine action.
The mind with all the consequences of its activity might take
the foremost rank among the tools employed by God, but has
to be deputed to the lowest as a dangerous slave. It might be
of great service if made use of in a right manner, but is a danger
if not kept in subjection. When the soul longs for outward
help it is made to understand that the divine action is sufficient
for it. When without reason it would disclaim this outward
help, the divine action shows it that such help should be received
and adapted with simplicity in obedience to the order established
by God, and that we should use it as a tool, not for its own sake
but as though we used it not, and when deprived of all help
as though we wanted nothing.
The divine action although of infinite power can only take full
possession of the soul in so far as it is void of all confidence in
its own action ; for this confidence, being founded on a false
idea of its own capacity, excludes the divine action. This is
the obstacle most likely to arrest it, being in the soul itself;
for, as regards obstacles that are exterior, God can change them
if He so pleases into means for making progress. All is alil^e
to Him, equally useful, or equally useless. Without the divine
action all things are as nothing, and with it the veriest nothing
can be turned to account.
Whether it be meditation, contemplation, vocal prayer,
interior silence, or the active use of any of the faculties, either
sensible and distinct, or almost imperceptible ; quiet retreat,
or active employment, whatever it may be in itself, even if very
desirable, that which God wills for the present moment is best
and all else must be regarded by the soul as being nothing at all.
Thus, beholding God in all things it must take or leave them
all as He pleases, and neither desire to live, nor to improve, nor
to hope, except as He ordains, and never by the help of things
which have neither power nor virtue except from Him. It
ought, at every moment and on all occasions, to say with St.
Paul, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " (Acts ix, 6)
without choosing this thing or that, but " whatsoever You will.
The mind prefers one thing, the body another, but, Lord, I
desire nothing but to accomplish Your holy will. Work, con-
templation or prayer whether vocal or mental, active or passive ;
io ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
the prayer of faith or of understanding ; that which is distin-
guished in kind, or gifted with universal grace : it is all nothing
Lord unless made real and useful by Your will. It is to Your
holy will that I devote myself and not to any of these things,
however high and sublime they may be, because it is the per-
fection of the heart for which grace is given, and not for that of
the mind."
The presence of God which sanctifies our souls is the dwelling
of the Holy Trinity in the depths of our hearts when they submit
to His holy will. The act of the presence of God made in con-
templation effects this intimate union only like other acts that
are according to the order of God.
There is, therefore, nothing unlawful in the love and esteem
we have for contemplation and other pious exercises, if this
love and esteem are directed entirely to the God of all goodness
who willingly makes use of these means to unite our souls to
Himself.
In entertaining the suite of a prince, one entertains the prince
himself, and he would consider any discourtesy shown to his
officers under pretence of wishing for him alone as an insult to
himself.
SECTION VII. On the Attainment of Peace.
There is no solid peace except in submission to the divine
action.
The soul that does not attach itself solely to the will of God
will find neither satisfaction nor sanctification in any other means
however excellent by which it may attempt to gain them. If
that which God Himself chooses for you does not content you,
from whom do you expect to obtain what you desire ? If
you are disgusted with the meat prepared for you by the divine
will itself, what food would not be insipid to so depraved a taste ?
No soul can be really nourished, fortified, purified, enriched,
and sanctified except in fulfilling the duties of the present
moment. What more would you have ? As in this you can
find all good, why seek it elsewhere ? Do you know better than
God ? As He ordains it thus why do you desire it differently ?
Can His wisdom and goodness be deceived ? When you find
something to be in accordance with this divine wisdom and
goodness ought you not to conclude that it must needs be ex-
cellent ? Do you imagine you will find peace in resisting the
To ESTIMATE DEGREES OF EXCELLENCE n
Almighty ? Is it not, on the contrary, this resistance which
we too often continue without owning it even to ourselves
which is the cause of all our troubles ? It is only just, therefore,
that the soul that is dissatisfied with the divine action for each
present moment should be punished by being unable to find
happiness in anything else. If books, the example of the saints,
and spiritual conversations deprive the soul of peace ; if they fill
the mind without satisfying it ; it is a sign that one had strayed
from the path of pure abandonment to the divine action, and
that one is only seeking to please oneself. To be employed in
this way is to prevent God from finding an entrance. All this
must be got rid of because of being an obstacle to grace. But
if the divine will ordains the use of these things the soul may
receive them like the rest that is to say as the means ordained
by God which it accepts simply to use, and leaves afterwards
when their moment has passed for the duties of the moment that
follows. There is, in fact, nothing really good that does not
emanate from the ordinance of God, and nothing, however good
in itself, can be better adapted for the sanctification of the soul
and the attainment of peace.
SECTION VIII. To Estimate Degrees of Excellence.
The perfection of souls, and the degree of excellence to which
they have attained can be gauged by their fidelity to the order
established by God.
The will of God gives to all things a supernatural and divine
value for the soul submitting to it. The duties it imposes, and
those it contains, with all the matters over which it is diffused,
become holy and perfect, because, being unlimited in power,
everything it touches shares its divine character. But in order
not to stray either to the right or to the left the soul should only
attend to those inspirations which it believes it has received from
God, by the fact that these inspirations do not withdraw it from
the duties of its state. These duties are the most clear mani-
festation of the will of God, and nothing should take their place ;
in them there is nothing to fear, nothing to exclude, nor anything
to be chosen. The time occupied in the fulfilment of these duties
is very precious and very salutary for the soul by the indubitable
fact that it is spent in accomplishing this holy will. The entire
virtue of all that is called holy is in its approximation to this
iz ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
order established by God ; therefore nothing should be rejected,
nothing sought after, but everything accepted that is ordained
and nothing attempted contrary to the will of God.
Books and wise counsels, vocal prayer and interior affections
if they are in accordance with the will of God are instructive,
and all help to guide and to unify. In contemning all sensible
means to tnis end quietism is greatly to blame, for there are souls
that are intended by God to keep always to this way. Their
state of life and their attraction show this clearly enough. It
is vain to picture any kind of abandonment from which all
personal activity is excluded. When God requires action,
sanctity is to be found in activity. Besides the duties imposed
on everyone by their state of life God may require certain actions
which are not included in these duties, although they may not
be in any way opposed to them. An attraction and inspiration
are then the signs of the divine approval. Souls conducted
by God in this way will find a greater perfection in adding the
things inspired to those that are commanded, taking the neces-
sary precautions required in such cases, that the duties of their
state may not clash with those things arranged by Providence.
God makes saints as He pleases, but they are made always
according to His plan, and in submission to His will. This
submission is true and most perfect abandonment.
Duties imposed by the state of Ufe and by divine Providence
are common to all the saints and are what God arranges for
all in general. They live hidden from the world which is so evil
that they are obliged to avoid its dangers ; but it is not on this
account that they are saints, buf only on account of their sub-
mission to the will of God. The more absolute this submission
becomes the higher becomes their sanctity. We must not
imagine that those whose virtue is shown in wonderful and singu-
lar ways, and by unquestionable attractions and inspirations,
advance less on that account in the way of abandonment. From
the moment that these acts become duties by the will of God,
then to be content only to fulfil the duties of a state of life, or
the ordinary inspirations of Providence would be to resist God,
whose holy will would no longer retain the mastery of the passing
moments, and to cease practising the virtue of abandonment.
Our duties must be so arranged as to be commensurate with
the designs of God, and to follow the path designated by our
attraction. To carry out our inspirations will then become a duty
to which we must be faithful. As there are souls whose whole
duty is defined by exterior laws, and who should not go beyond
them because restricted by the will of God ; so also there are
others who, besides exterior duties, are obliged to carry out faith-
fully that interior rule imprinted on their hearts. It would be
SANCTITY MADE EASY 13
a foolish and frivolous curiosity to try to discover which is the
most holy. Each has to follow the appointed path. Perfection
consists in submitting unreservedly to the designs of God, and
in fulfilling the duties of one's state in the most perfect manner
possible. To compare the different states as they are in them-
selves can do nothing to improve us since it is neither in the
amount of work, nor in the sort of duties given to us that per-
fection is to be found. If self-love is the motive power of our
acts, or if it be not immediately crushed when discovered, our
supposed abundance will be in truth absolute poverty because
it is not supplied by obedience to the will of God. However,
to decide the question in some way, I think that holiness can be
measured by the love one has for God, and the desire to please
Him, and that the more His will is the guiding principle, and His
plans conformed to and loved, the greater will be the holiness,
no matter what may be the means made use of. It is this that
we notice in Jesus, Mary and Joseph. In their separate lives
there is more of love than of greatness, and more of the spirit
than of the matter. It is not written that they sought holiness
in things themselves, but only in the motive with which they
used them. It must therefore be concluded that one way is not
more perfect than another, but that the most perfect is that
which is most closely in conformity with the order established
by God, whether by the accomplishment of exterior duties, or
by interior dispositions.
SECTION IX. Sanctity Made Easy.
Conclusion of the first chapter. How easy sanctity becomes
when this doctrine is properly understood.
I believe that if those souls that tend towards sanctity were
instructed as to the conduct they ought to follow, they would
be spared a good deal of trouble. I speak as much of people
in the world as of others. If they could realise the merit con-
cealed in the actions of each moment of the day ; I mean in
each of the daily duties of their state of life, and if they could be
persuaded that sanctity is founded on that to which they give
no heed as being altogether irrelevant, they would indeed be
happy. If, besides, they understood that to attain the utmost
height of perfection, the safest and surest way is to accept the
crosses sent them by Providence at every moment, that the true
14 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
philosopher's stone is submission to the will of God which
changes into divine gold all their occupations, troubles, and suffer-
ings, what consolation would be theirs ! What courage would
they not derive from the thought that to acquire the friendship
of God, and to arrive at eternal glory, they had but to do what they
were doing, but to suffer what they were suffering, and that what
they wasted and counted as nothing would suffice to enable
them to arrive at eminent sanctity : far more so than extra-
ordinary states and wonderful works. O my God ! how much
I long to be the missionary of Your holy will, and to teach all
men that there is nothing more easy, more attainable, more
within reach, and in the power of everyone, than sanctity.
How I wish that I could make them understand that just as
the good and the bad thief had the same things to do and to
suffer ; so also two persons, one of whom is worldly and the
other leading an interior and wholly spiritual life have, neither
of them, anything different to do or to suffer ; but that one
is sanctified and attains eternal happiness by submission to
Your holy will in those very things by which the other is damned
because he does them to please himself, or endures them with
reluctance and rebellion. This proves that it is only the heart
that is different. Oh ! all you that read this, it will cost you
no more than to do what you are doing, to suffer what you are
suffering, only act and suffer in a holy manner. It is the
heart that must be changed. When I say heart, I mean will.
Sanctity, then, consists in willing all that God wills for us. Yes !
sanctity of heart is a simple " fiat," a conformity of will with
the will of God.
What could be more easy, and who could refuse to love a will
so kind and so good ? Let us love it then, and this love alone
will make everything in us divine.
THE UNCEASING WORK OF GOD 15
CHAPTER II.
THE DIVINE ACTION WORKS UNCEASINGLY FOR THE
SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS.
SECTION I.
The divine action, although only visible to the eye of faith,
is everywhere, and always present.
All creatures that exist are in the hands of God. The action
of the creature can only be perceived by the senses, but faith
sees in all things the action of the Creator. It believes that in
Jesus Christ all things live, and that His divine operation con-
tinues to the end of time, embracing the passing moment and the
smallest created atom in its hidden life and mysterious action.
The action of the creature is a veil which covers the profound
mysteries of the divine operation. After the Resurrection
Jesus Christ took His disciples by surprise in His various appa-
ritions. He showed Himself to them under various disguises
and, in the act of making Himself known to them, disappeared.
This same Jesus, ever living, ever working, still takes by surprise
those souls whose faith is weak and wavering.
There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself
under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation
to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes
place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals
His divine action.
It is really and truly there present, but invisibly present, so
that we are always surprised and do not recognise His operation
until it has ceased. If we could lift the veil, and if we were
attentive and watchful God would continually reveal Himself
to us, and we should see His divine action in everything that
happened to us, and rejoice in it. At each successive occurrence
we should exclaim : " It is the Lord," and we should accept
every fresh circumstance as a gift of God. We should look upon
creatures as feeble tools in the hands of an able workman, and
should discover easily that nothing was wanting to us, and
that the constant providence of God disposed Him to bestow
1 6 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
upon us at every moment whatever we required. If only we
had faith we should show good- will to all creatures ; we should
cherish them and be interiorly grateful to them as serving, by
God's will, for our perfection. If we lived the life of faith
without intermission we should have an uninterrupted com-
merce with God and a constant familiar intercourse with Him.
What the air is for the transmission of our thoughts and words,
such would be our actions and sufferings for those of God. They
would be as the substance of His words, and in all external
events we should see nothing but what was excellent and holy.
This union is effected on earth by faith, in Heaven by glory ;
the only difference is in the method of its working. God is
interpreted by faith. Without the light of faith creation would
speak to us in vain. It is a writing in cypher in which we find
nothing but confusion, an entangled mesh from which no one
would expect to hear the voice of God. But as Moses saw the
fire of divine charity in the burning bush, so faith gives us the
clue to the cypher, and reveals to us, in this mass of confusion,
marvels of divine wisdom. Faith changes the face of the earth ;
by it the heart is raised, entranced and becomes conversant
with heavenly things. Faith is our light in this life. By it we
possess the truth without seeing it ; we touch what we cannot
feel, and see what is not evident to the senses. Bv it we view
the world as though it did not exist. It is the key of the treasure
house, the key of the abyss of the science of God. It is faith
that teaches us the hollowness of created things ; by it God
reveals and manifests Himself in all things. By faith the veil
is torn aside to reveal the eternal truth.
All that we see is nothing but vanity and deceit ; truth can be
found only in God. What a difference between the thoughts of
God and the illusions of man ! How is it that although con-
tinually warned that everything that happens in the world is
but a shadow, a figure, a mystery of faith, we look at the outside
only and do not perceive the enigma they contain ?
We fall into this trap like men without sense instead of raising
our eyes to the principle, source and origin of all things, in which
they all have their right name and just proportions, in which
everything is supernatural, divine, and sanctifying ; in which
all is part of the plenitude of Jesus Christ, and each circumstance
is as a stone towards the construction of the heavenly Jerusalem,
and all helps to build a dwelling for us in that marvellous city.
We live according to what we see and feel and wander like
madmen in a labyrinth of darkness and illusion for want of the
light of faith which would guide us safely through it. By means
of faith we should be able to aspire after God and to live for Him
alone, forsaking and going beyond mere figures.
BY FAITH THE OPERATION OF GOD is RECOGNISED 17
SECTION II. By Faith the Operation of God is recognised.
The more hidden the divine operation beneath an outwardly
repulsive appearance, the more visible it is to the eye of faith.
The soul, enlightened by faith, judges of things in a very
different way to those who, having only the standard of the
senses by which to measure them, ignore the inestimable treasure
they contain. He who knows that a certain person in disguise
is the king, behaves towards him very differently to another
who, only perceiving an ordinary man, treats him accordingly.
In the same way the soul that recognises the will of God in every
smallest event, and also in those that are most distressing and
direful, receives all with an equal joy, pleasure and respect.
It throws open all its doors to receive with honour what others
fear and fly from with horror. The outward appearance may
be mean and contemptible, but beneath this abject garb the
heart discovers and honours the majesty of the king. The
deeper the abasement of his entry in such a guise and in secret
the more does the heart become filled with love. I cannot des-
cribe what the heart feels when it accepts the divine will in such
humble, poor, and mean disguises. Ah ! how the sight of God,
poor and humble, lodged in a stable, lying on straw, weeping
and trembling, pierced the loving heart of Mary ! Ask the in-
habitants of Bethlehem what they thought of the Child. You
know what answer they gave, and how they would have paid
court to Him had He been lodged in a palace surrounded by the
state due to princes.
Then ask Mary and Joseph, the Magi and the Shepherds.
They will tell you that they found in this extreme poverty an
indescribable tenderness, and an infinite dignity worthy of the
majesty of God. Faith is strengthened, increased and enriched
by those things that escape the senses ; the less there is to see,
the more there is to believe. To adore Jesus on Thabor, to
accept the will of God in extraordinary circumstances does not
indicate a life animated by such great faith as to love the will of
God in ordinary things and to adore Jesus on the Cross ; for faith
cannot be said to be real, living faith until it is tried, and has
triumphed over every effort for its destruction. War with the
senses enables faith to obtain a more glorious victory. To
consider God equally good in things that are petty and ordinary
as in those that are great and uncommon is to have a faith that
is not ordinary, but great and extraordinary.
To be satisfied with the present moment is to delight in, and
to adore the divine will in all that has to be done or suffered in
1 8 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
all that succession of events that fill, as they pass, each present
moment. Those souls that have this disposition adore God
with redoubled love and respect in each consecutive humiliating
condition ; nothing can hide Him from the piercing eye of faith.
The louder the senses proclaim that in this, or that, there is no
God ; the more firmly do these souls clasp and embrace their
" bundle of myrrh." Nothing daunts them, nothing disgusts
them.
Mary, when the apostles fled, remained steadfast at the
foot of the Cross. She owned Jesus as her Son when He was
disfigured with wounds, and covered with mud and spittle.
The wounds that disfigured Him made Him only more lovable
and adorable in the eyes of this tender Mother. The more awful
were the blasphemies uttered against Him, so much the deeper
became her veneration and respect.
The life of faith is nothing less than the continued pursuit of
God through all that disguises, disfigures, destroys and, so to
say, annihilates Him. It is in very truth a reproduction of the
life of Mary who, from the Stable to the Cross, remained un-
alterably united to that God whom all the world misunderstood,
abandoned, and persecuted. In like manner faithful souls
endure a constant succession of trials. God hides beneath
veils of darkness and illusive appearances which make His
will difficult to recognise ; but in spite of every obstacle these
souls follow Him and love Him even to the death of the Cross.
They know that, leaving the darkness, they must run after
the light of this divine Sun which, from its rising to its setting,
however dark and thick may be the clouds that obscure it,
enlightens, warms, and inflames the faithful hearts that bless,
praise and contemplate it during the whole circle of its mysterious
course.
Pursue then without ceasing, ye faithful souls, this beloved
Spouse who with giant strides passes from one extremity of the
heavens to the other. If you be content and untiring nothing
will have power to hide Him from you. He moves above the
smallest blades of grass as above the mighty cedar. The grains
of sand are under His feet as well as the huge mountains.
Wherever you may turn, there you will find His footprints,
and in following them perseveringly you will find Him wherever
you may be.
Oh ! what delightful peace we enjoy when we have learnt
by faith to find God thus in all His creatures ! Then is darkness
luminous, and bitterness sweet. Faith, while showing us things
as they are, changes their ugliness into beauty, and their malice
into virtue. Faith is the mother of sweetness, confidence and
joy. It cannot help feeling tenderness and compassion for
BY FAITH THE OPERATION OF GOD is RECOGNISED 19
its enemies by whose means it is so immeasurably enriched.
The greater the harshness and severity of the creature, the
greater by the operation of God, is the advantage to the soul.
While the human instrument strives to do harm, the divine
Workman in whose hands it is, makes use of its very malice to
remove from the soul all that might be prejudicial to it.
The will of God has nothing but sweetness, favours and
treasures for submissive souls ; it is impossible to repose too
much confidence in it, nor to abandon oneself to it too utterly.
It always acts for, and desires that which is most conducive to
our perfection, provided we allow it to act. Faith does not
doubt. The more unfaithful, uncertain, and rebellious are the
senses, the louder faith cries : " all is well, it is the will of God."
There is nothing that the eye of faith does not penetrate, nothing
that the power of faith does not overcome. It passes through
the thick darkness, and, no matter what clouds may gather,
it goes straight to the truth, and holding to it firmly will never
let it go.
SECTION III. How to Discover what is the Will of God.
The divine action places before us at every moment things
of infinite value, and gives them to us according to the measure
of our faith and love.
If we understood how to see in each moment some mani-
festation of the will of God we should find therein also all that
our hearts could desire. In fact there could be nothing more
reasonable, more perfect, more divine than the will of God.
Could any change of time, place, or circumstance alter or increase
its infinite value ? If you possess the secret of discovering it
at every moment and in everything, then you possess all that is
most precious, and most worthy to be desired. What is it that
you desire, you who aim at perfection ? Give yourselves full
scope. Your wishes need have no measure, no limit. However
much you may desire I can show you how to attain it, even
though it be infinite. There is never a moment in which I cannot
enable you to obtain all that you can desire. The present is
ever filled with infinite treasure, it contains more than you have
capacity to hold. Faith is the measure. Believe, and it will
be done to you accordingly. Love also is the measure. The
more the heart loves, the more it desires ; and the more it
desires, so much the more will it receive. The will of God is
at each moment before us like an immense, inexhaustible ocean
20 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
that no human heart can fathom ; but none can receive from
it more than he has capacity to contain, it is necessary to enlarge
this capacity by faith, confidence, and love.
The whole creation cannot fill the human heart, for it is greater
than all that is not God. It is on a higher plane than the material
creation, and for this reason nothing material can satisfy it.
The divine will is a deep abyss of which the present moment is
the entrance. If you plunge into this abyss you will find it
infinitely more vast than your desires. Do not flatter anyone,
nor worship your own illusions, they can neither give you any-
thing nor receive anything from you. Receive your fulness
from the will of God alone, it will not leave you empty. Adore
it, put it first, before all things ; tear all disguises from vain pre-
tences and forsake them all going straight to the sole reality.
The reign of faith is death to the senses ; it is their spoliation,
their destruction. The senses worship creatures ; faith adores
the divine will. Destroy the idols of the senses and they will
rebel and lament, but faith must triumph because the will of
God is indestructible. When the senses are terrified, or fam-
ished, despoiled, or crushed, then it is that faith is nourished,
enriched and enlivened. Faith laughs at these calamities as
a governor of an impregnable fortress laughs at the useless attacks
of an impotent foe. When a soul recognises the will of God and
shows a readiness to submit to it entirely, then God gives Him-
self to such a soul and renders it most powerful succour under
all circumstances. Thus it experiences a great happiness in
this coming of God, and enjoys it the more, the more it has
learnt to abandon itself at every moment to His adorable will.
SECTION IV. The Revelations of God.
God reveals Himself to us in as mysterious a manner in the
most ordinary circumstances, and as truly and adorably as in
the great events of History or of Holy Scripture.
The written word of God is full of mystery ; and no less so
His word fulfilled in the events of the world. These are two
sealed books, and of both it can be said " the letter killeth."
God is the centre of faith ; all that emanates from this centre
is hidden in the deepest mystery. This word and these events
are, so to say, but feeble rays from a sun obscured by clouds.
It is vain to expect to see with our mortal eyes the rays of this
THE REVELATIONS OF GOD 21
sun ; even the eyes of our soul are blind to God and His works.
Darkness takes the place of light, ignorance of knowledge, and
one neither sees nor understands. The sacred Scripture is the
mysterious utterance of a God yet more mysterious ; and the
events of the world are the obscure language of this same hidden
and unknown God. They are mere drops from an ocean of
midnight darkness, and partake of the nature of their source.
The fall of the angels and of Adam ; the impiety and idolatry
of men before and after the Deluge up to the time of the Patri-
archs who knew, and related to their children the history of
the Creation, and of the still recent preservation from the uni-
versal deluge ; these are, indeed, very obscure words of holy
Scripture. That, at the coming of the Messiah, only a handful
of men should be preserved from idolatry in the general ruin
and overthrow of faith throughout the world : that impiety
should prove always dominant, always powerful, and the small
numbers of the upholders of truth should be ever persecuted and
maltreated, seems incredible ! Consider the treatment of Jesus
Christ. Think of the plagues of the Apocalypse, yet these are
the words of God. They are what He has revealed ! He has
dictated them ! And the effect of these terrible, mysteries
which will continue till the end of time is still the living word,
teaching us His wisdom, power, and goodness. All the events
which form the world's history show forth these divine attributes ;
all teach the same adorable word. We cannot doubt it, although
we do not see. What is meant by the existence of Turks,
heretics, and all the other enemies of the Church ? Surely
they all proclaim loudly the divine perfections. Pharaoh and
the impious men who follow his example are allowed to exist
only for that purpose, but assuredly, unless beheld with the
eye of faith, it would all have the exactly contrary appearance.
To behold divine mysteries it is necessary to shut the eyes to
what is external, and to cease to reason. You speak, Lord, to
the generality of men by great public events. Every revolution
is as a wave from the sea of Your providence, raising storms and
tempests in the minds of those who question Your mysterious
action. You speak also to each individual soul by the circum-
stances occurring at every moment of life. Instead, however,
of hearing Your voice in these events, and receiving with awe
what is obscure and mysterious in these Your words, men see
in them only the outward aspect, or chance, or the caprice of
others, and censure everything. They would like to add, or
diminish, or reform, and to allow themselves absolute liberty to
commit any excess, the least of which would be a criminal and
unheard-of outrage. They respect the holy Scriptures, however,
and will not permit the addition of even a single comma. " It
22 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
is the word of God " say they, " and is altogether holy and true.
If we cannot understand it, it is all the more wonderful and we
must give glory to God, and render justice to the depths of His
wisdom." All this is perfectly true, but when you read God's
word from moment to moment, not written with ink on paper,
but on your soul with suffering, and the daily actions that you
have to perform, does it not merit some attention on your
part ? How is it that you cannot see the will of God in all this ?
Instead you find fault with everything that happens, nothing
pleases you. Do you not see that you are gauging everything
by the senses, and by reason, not by faith the only true standard ;
and that when you read the word of God in the sacred Scriptures
with the eye of faith, you do wrong to make use only of your
reason in reading the word in His marvellous operations.
SECTION V. The action of Jesus Christ in the Souls of Men.
The divine action continues to write in the hearts of men the
work begun by the holy Scriptures, but the characters made use
of in this writing will not be visible till the day of judgment.
" Jesus Christ yesterday, to-day, and for ever " (Heb. xiii, 8),
says the Apostle. From the beginning of the world He was, as
God, the first cause of the existence of souls. He has partici-
pated as man from the first instant of His incarnation, in this
prerogative of His divinity. During the whole course of our
life He acts within our souls. The time that will elapse till the
end of the world is but as a day ; and this day abounds with
His action. Jesus Christ has lived and lives still. He began
from Himself and will continue in His Saints a life that will
never end. O life of Jesus ! comprehending and extending
beyond all the centuries of time, life effecting new operations of
grace at every moment ; if no one is capable of understanding
all that could be written of the actual life of Jesus, all that He
did and said while He was on earth ; if the Gospel merely out-
lines a few of its features ; how many Gospels would have to be
written to record the history of all the moments of this mystical
life of Jesus Christ in which miracles are multiplied to infinity
and eternity. If the beginning of His natural life is so hidden
yet so fruitful, what can be said of the divine action of that life
of which every age of the world is the history ?
The Holy Spirit has pointed out in infallible and incontestable
characters, some moments in that ocean of time, in the Sacred
Scriptures. In them we see by what secret and mysterious ways
THE ACTION OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SOULS OF MEN 23
He has brought Jesus before the world. Amidst the confusion
of the races of men can be distinguished the origin, race, and
genealogy of this, the first-born. The whole of the Old Testa-
ment is but an outline of the profound mystery of this divine
work ; it contains only what is necessary to relate concerning
the advent of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has kept all the
rest hidden among the treasures of His wisdom. From this
ocean of the divine activity He only allows a tiny stream to
escape, and this stream having gained its way to Jesus is lost
in the Apostles, and has been engulfed in the Apocalypse ;
so that the history of this divine activity consisting of the life
of Jesus in the souls of the just to the end of time, can only be
divined by faith. As the truth of God has been made known by
word of mouth, so His charity is manifested by action. The Holy
Spirit continues to carry on the work of our Saviour. While
helping the Church to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, He writes
His own Gospel in the hearts of the just. All their actions,
every moment of their lives, are the Gospel of the Holy Spirit.
The souls of the saints are the paper, the sufferings and actions
the ink. The Holy Spirit with the pen of His power writes a
living Gospel, but a Gospel that cannot be read until it has left
the press of this life, and has been published on the day of eter-
nity. Oh ! great history ! grand book written by the Holy
Spirit in this present time ! It is still in the press. There is
never a day when the type is not arranged, when the ink is not
applied, or the pages are not printed. We are still in the dark
night of faith. The paper is blacker than the ink, and there is
great confusion in the type. It is written in characters of another
world and there is no understanding it except in Heaven. If we
could see the life of God, and behold all creatures, not as they are
in themselves, but as they exist in their first cause ; and if again
we could see the life of God in all His creatures, and could under-
stand how the divine action animates them, and impels them
all to press forward by different ways to the same goal, we should
realize that all has a meaning, a measure, a connexion in this
divine work. But how can we read a book the characters of
which are foreign to us, the letters innumerable, the type re-
versed, and the pages blotted with ink ? If the transposition
of twenty-five letters is incomprehensible as sufficing for the com-
position of a well-nigh infinite number of different volumes, each
admirable of its kind, who can explain the works of God in the
universe ? Who can read and understand the meaning of so
vast a book in which there is no letter but has its particular
character, and encloses in its apparent insignificance the most
profound mysteries ? Mysteries can neither be seen nor felt,
they are objects of faith. Faith judges of their virtue and truth
24 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
only by their origin, for they are so obscure in themselves that
all that they show only serves to hide them and to blind those
who judge only by reason.
" Teach me, divine Spirit, to read in this book of life. I desire
to become Your disciple and, like a little child, to believe what I
cannot understand, and cannot see. Sufficient for me that it
is my Master who speaks. He says that ! He pronounces
this ! He arranges the letters in such a fashion ! He makes
Himself heard in such a manner ! That is enough. I decide
that all is exactly as He says. I do not see the reason, but He
is the infallible truth, therefore all that He says, all that He
does is true. He groups His letters to form a word, and different
letters again to form another word. There may be three only,
or six ; then no more are necessary, and fewer would destroy
the sense. He who reads trie thoughts of men is the only one
who can bring these letters together, and write the words. All
has meaning, all has perfect sense. This line ends here because
He makes it do so. Not a comma is missing, and there is no
unnecessary full-stop. At present I believe, but in the glory to
come when so many mysteries will be revealed, I shall see plainly
what now I so little understand.
Then what appears to me at present so intricate, so perplexing,
so foolish, so inconsistent, so imaginary, will all be entrancing
and will delight me eternally by the beauty, order, knowledge,
wisdom, and the incomprehensible wonders it will all display."
SECTION VI. The Treatment of the Divine Action.
The divine action as manifested in daily events is treated by
many Christians in as unworthy a manner as the Jews treated
the Sacred Body of Jesus.
The world is full of infidelity. How unworthy are its thoughts
of God ! It complains continually of the divine action in a way
that it would not dare to use towards the lowest workman about
his trade. It would reduce God to act only within the limits,
and following the rules of its feeble reason. It presumes to
imagine it can improve upon His acts. These are nothing but
complaints and murmurings. We are surprised at the treat-
ment endured by Jesus Christ at the hands of the Jews, but,
O divine love ! adorable will ! infallible truth I in what way
are you treated ? Can the divine will ever be inopportune ?
Can it be mistaken ? " But there is this business of mine ! I
require such a thing ! The necessary helps have been taken from
me. That man thwarts all my good works, is it not most un-
THE TREATMENT OF THE DIVINE ACTION 25
reasonable ? This illness comes on just when my health is most
necessary to me." To all this there is but one answer that the
will of God is the only thing necessary, therefore what it does not
grant must be useless. My good souls ! nothing is wanting to
you. If you only knew what these events really are that you
call misfortunes, accidents, and disappointments, and in which
you can see nothing but what is irrelevant, or unreasonable,
you would be deeply ashamed and excuse yourselves of your
complainings as of blasphemies ; but you never think of them as
being the will of God, and His adorable will is blasphemed by
His own children who refuse to acknowledge it. When You were
on earth, O my Jesus, the Jews treated You as a demoniac,
and called You a Samaritan ; and now, although it is acknow
ledged that You live and work through all the centuries of time,
how is Your adorable will received ? that will worthy of all
benediction and praise for ever. Has one moment passed from
the creation to the present time, and will one moment pass
even to the day of judgment in which the holy name of God will
not deserve praise ; that name which fills all the ages, and every-
thing which takes place in the ages, that name by which every-
thing is sanctified ? What ! can the will of God do me harm ?
Shall I fear, or fly from the will of God ? And where shall I
find anything better if I dread the divine action in my regard,
or regret the effect of His divine will ? We ought to listen
attentively to the words uttered in the depths of our heart at
every moment. If our sense and reason do not understand nor
enter into the truth and goodness of these words, is it not because
they are incapable of appreciating divine truths ? Ought I
to wonder that my reason is bewildered by mysteries ? When
God speaks it is a mystery, and therefore a death-blow to my
senses and reason, for it is the nature of mysteries to compel
the sacrifice of both. Mystery makes the soul live by faith ;
for all the rest there is nothing but contradiction. The divine
action by one and the same stroke kills and gives life ; the more
one feels the death to the senses and reason, the more convinced
should one become that it gives life to the soul. The more ob-
scure the mystery to us, the more light it contains in itself.
This is why a simple soul will discover a more divine meaning
in that which has the least appearance of having any.
The life of faith is a continual struggle against the senses.
26 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
SECTION VII. The Hidden Work of Divine Love.
The divine love is communicated to us through every creature
under veils, like the Eucharistic species.
What great truths are hidden even from Christians who
imagine themselves most enlightened ! How many are there
amongst them who understand that every cross, every action,
every attraction according to the designs of God, give God to
us in a way that nothing can better explain than a comparison
with the most august mystery ? Nevertheless there is nothing
more certain. Does not reason as well as faith reveal to us the
real presence of divine love in all creatures, and in all the events
of life, as indubitably as the words of Jesus Christ and of the
Church reveal the real presence of the sacred flesh of our Saviour
under the Eucharistic species ? Do we not know that by all
creatures, and by every event the divine love desires to unite
us to Himself, that He has ordained, arranged, or permitted
everything about us, everything that happens to us with a view
to this union ? This is the ultimate object of all His designs
to attain which He makes use of the worst of His creatures as
well as of the best, and of the most distressing events as well
as of those which are pleasant and agreeable. Our communion
with Him is even more meritorious when the means that serve to
make it closer are repugnant to nature. If this be true, every
moment of our lives may be a kind of communion with the
divine love, and this communion of every moment may
produce as much fruit in our souls as that which we receive
in the Communion of the Body and Blood of the Son of God.
This latter, it is true, is efficacious sacramentally which the
former cannot be, but on the other hand, how much more fre-
quently can it not be renewed, and what great increase of merit
it can acquire by the more perfect dispositions with which it
may be accomplished. Consequently how true it is that the
more holy the life the more mysterious it becomes by its apparent
simplicity and littleness. O great feast ! O perpetual festival !
God ! given and received under all that is most feeble, foolish
and worthless upon earth ! God chooses that which nature
abhors, and human prudence rejects. Of these He makes
mysteries, sacraments of love, and by that which seems as if
it would do most harm to souls, He gives Himself to them as
often and as much as they desire to possess Him.
EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE 27
SECTION VIII. Experimental Science.
That which is sent us at the present moment is the most useful
because it is intended especially for us.
We can only be well instructed by the words which God utters
expressly for us. No one becomes learned in the science of God
either by the reading of books, or by the inquisitive investigation
of history. The science that is acquired by such means is vain
and confused, producing much pride. That which instructs us
is what happens from one moment to another producing in us
that experimental science which Jesus Christ Himself willed to
acquire before instructing others. In fact this was the only
science in which He could grow, according to the expression
of the holy Gospel ; because being God there was no degree of
speculative science which He did not possess. Therefore if this
experimental science was useful to the Word incarnate Himself,
to us it is absolutely necessary if we wish to touch the hearts
of those whom God sends to us. It is impossible perfectly to
understand anything that experience has not taught us by
suffering or by action. This is the school of the Holy Spirit
who in this way speaks life-giving words to the soul, and those
which He speaks to us through others come from the same
source.
Reading and seeing become fruitful and possess virtue and
light only by the acquisition of this divine science, otherwise
they are like dough to which leaven is necessary, and the salt
of experience to season it. And since without this salt we have
only vague ideas to act upon, we are like visionaries, who, though
knowing the roads that lead to all the towns, yet lose their way
going to their own house.
We must listen to God from moment to moment to become
learned in the theology of virtue which is entirely practical and
experimental. Do not attend therefore to what is said to others,
but listen to that which is said to you and for you ; there will be
enough to exercise your faith because this interior language of
God exercises, purifies, and increases it by its very obscurity.
SECTION IX. The Will of God in the Present Moment is the
Source of Sanctity.
O, all you who thirst, learn that you have not far to go to find
the fountain of living waters ; it flows quite close to you in the
present moment ; therefore hasten to find it. Why, with the
fountain so near, do you tire yourselves with running about
2 8 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
after every little rill ? These only increase your thirst by giving
only a few drops, whereas the source is inexhaustible. If you
desire to think, to write, and to speak like the Prophets, the
Apostles, and the Saints, you must give yourself up, as they did,
to the inspirations of God. O unknown Love ! it seems as if
Your wonders were finished and nothing remained but to copy
Your ancient works, and to quote Your past discourses ! And
no one sees that Your inexhaustible activity is a source of new
thoughts, of fresh sufferings and further actions : of new Patri-
archs, Apostles, Prophets, and. Saints who have no need to copy
the lives and writings of the others, but only to live in perpetual
abandonment to Your secret operations. We hear of nothing
on all sides but " the first centuries," " the time of the Saints."
What a strange way of talking ! Is not all time a succession of
the effects of the divine operation, working at every instant,
filling, sanctifying, and supernaturalising them all ? Has there
ever been an ancient method of abandonment to this operation
which is now out of season ? Had the Saints of the first ages
any other secret than that of becoming from moment to moment
whatever the divine power willed to make them ? And will this
power cease to pour forth its glory on the souls which abandon
themselves to it without reserve.
O Love eternal, adorable, ever fruitful, and ever marvellous !
May the divine operation of my God be my book, my doctrine,
my science. In it are my thoughts, my words, my actions,
and my sufferings. Not by consulting Your former works shall
I become what You would have me to be ; but by receiving You
in everything. By that ancient road, the only royal road, the
road of our fathers shall I be enlightened, and shall speak as
they spoke. It is thus that I would imitate them all, quote
them all, copy them all.
SECTION X. God Makes Known His Will Through Creatures.
In the present moment are made manifest the name of God,
and the coming of His Kingdom.
The present moment is the ambassador of God to declare His
mandates. The heart listens and pronounces its " fiat." Thus
the soul advances by all these things and flows out from its
centre to its goal. It never stops but sails with every wind.
Any and every direction leads equally to the shore of infinity.
Everything is a help to it, and is, without exception, an instru-
ment of sanctity. The one thing necessary can always be found
for it in the present moment. It is no longer a choice between
GOD MAKES KNOWN His WILL THROUGH CREATURES 29
prayer and silence, seclusion and society, reading and writing,
meditation and cessation of thought, flight from and seeking
after spiritual consolations, abundance and dearth, feebleness and
health, life and death, but it is all that each moment presents by
the will of God. In this is despoilment, abnegation, renunciation
of all things created, either in reality or affectively, in order to
retain nothing of self, or for self, to be in all things submissive to
the will of God and to please Him ; making it our sole satis-
faction to sustain the present moment as though there were
nothing else to hope for in the world.
If all that happens to a soul abandoned to God is all that is
necessary for it, then we can understand that nothing can be
wanting to it, and that it should never pity itself, for this would be
a want of faith and living according to reason and the senses
which are never satisfied, as they cannot perceive the sufficiency
of grace possessed by the soul. To hallow the name of God, is
according to the meaning of the holy Scripture, to recognise His
sanctity in all things and to love and adore Him in them.
Things, in fact, proceed from the mouth of God like words. That
which God does at each moment is a divine thought expressed
by a created thing, therefore all those things by which He in-
timates His will to us are so many names and words by which
He makes known His wishes. His will is unity and has but
one name, unknown, and ineffable ; but it is infinitely diverse
in its effects, which are, as it were, so many different characters
which it assumes. To hallow the Name of God is to know, to
adore, and to love the ineffable Being whom this name designates.
It is also to know, to adore and to love His adorable will at every
moment and in all its decrees, regarding them all as so many
veils, shadows and names of this holy and everlasting will.
It is holy in all its works, holy in all its words, holy in all its
diverse characters, holy in all the names it bears.
It was for this reason that Job blessed the name of God in
his utter desolation. Instead of looking upon his condition as
ruin, he called it the name of God and by blessing it he protested
that the divine will under whatever name or form it might appear,
even though expressed by the most terrible catastrophes, was
holy. David also blessed it at all times, and in all places. It
is then, by this continual recognition of the will of God as mani-
fested and revealed in all things, that He reigns in us, that His
will is done on earth as it is in Heaven, and that our souls obtain
nourishment. The whole matter of that incomparable prayer
prescribed by Jesus Christ is comprised and contained in aban-
donment to the divine will. Many times daily is it recited vocally,
by the command of God and of Holy Church, but we repeat it
at every moment in the centre of our hearts when we love to do,
3 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
or to suffer whatever this holy will ordains. That which takes
time to repeat in words, the heart pronounces at every moment,
and it is in this way that simple-minded souls are called to bless
God. Nevertheless they cannot bless Him as much as they
desire, and this inability is a subject of grief to them ; so true is it
that by the very means that seem like privations, God bestows
graces and favours on faithful souls. To enrich the soul at the
expense of the senses, filling it by so much the more as they
experience the more terrible emptiness, is a secret of the divine
wisdom.
The events of every moment bear the impress of the will of
God, and of His adorable Name. How holy is this name !
It is right, therefore, to bless it, to treat it as a kind of sacrament
which by its own virtue sanctifies those souls which place no
obstacles in its way.
Everything bearing the impress of this august Name should
be held in the most profound veneration. It is a divine manna
from Heaven, and imparts a constant increase of grace. It
is the reign of holiness in the soul, the bread of angels eaten on
earth as well as in Heaven. We can no longer consider our
moments as trifles since in them is a whole kingdom of sanctity
and food for angels.
" Yes, Lord, may your kingdom come in my heart to sanctify
it, to nourish it, to purify it, and to render it victorious over all
its enemies. Moment most precious ! How insignificant in
the eyes of the vulgar, but how great in those enlightened by
faith. If it is great also in the eyes of my Father who is in
Heaven, how can I regard it as insignificant ? All that comes
from His hand is essentially good and bears the impress of its
origin."
SECTION XI. Everything is Supernaturalised by the Divine
Action.
The divine action incites souls to aim at the most eminent
sanctity ; all that is required on the part of the soul is abandon-
ment to this action.
It is only from want of knowing how to make use of the divine
action that so many Christians pass their lives in anxiously pur-
suing a multitude of methods which might prove useful if or-
dained by this divine action, but which by preventing a simple
union with it, become positively harmful. All this multiplicity
fails to impart that which can only be found in the principle of all
life, that which is continually present with us, and which stamps
each of its tools with a character of its own and makes it work
EVERYTHING is SUPERNATURALISED BY THE DIVINE ACTION 3 1
with an incomparable fitness. Jesus is sent to us as a Master to
whom we do not sufficiently attend. He speaks to every heart,
and to each He utters the word of life, the only word applicable
to us, but we do not hear 'it. We want to know what He has
said to others and do not listen when He speaks to ourselves.
We do not sufficiently regard things as having been supernatur-
alised by the divine action. We should always accept them
with the perfect confidence they merit ; with an open mind and
with generosity, and be sure that nothing will harm those who
act thus. This vast activity, which is in itself ever the same
from the beginning to the end of time, is employed with every
moment, pouring out its immensity and virtue on the souls
which adore it, love it, and rejoice in it alone.
You say you would be delighted to find an opportunity of
dying for God, and would be completely satisfied with some such
action, or with a life leading to the same result. To lose all,
to die forsaken, to sacrifice your life for others, these are indeed
charming ideas ! But as for me, Lord, I glorify in all things
the might of Your will in which I find all the happiness of
martyrdom, austerities, and good works for others. Your will
is enough, and I am content to live and to die as it decrees. In
itself it is more pleasing to me than all the attributes of the
instruments of which it makes use, or than their effects, because
it pervades all, makes all divine, and changes all into itself.
It is all heavenly to me, and every one of my moments is a
genuine divine action, and living or dying I shall always be
satisfied with it. Yes, divine Love, I shall no longer single out
times or ways, but shall welcome You always and in any fashion.
It seems to me, O divine Will, as if You had revealed Your im-
mensity to me ; I will therefore take no steps save in the bosom
of Your infinity, You who are the same yesterday, to-day, and
for ever. The unceasing torrent of graces has its rise in You.
It is from You that it flows, is carried on, and made active.
Therefore it is not within the narrow limits of a book, or the life
of a saint, or in some sublime idea that I ought to seek You.
These are but drops of that ocean which is poured out over
every creature and in which they are all immersed. They are
mere atoms that disappear in this deep abyss. I will no longer
seek this action in the thoughts of spiritual persons. I will
no longer beg my bread from door to door, nor pay court to
creatures, but I will live as the child of an infinitely good, wise,
and powerful father whom I desire to please, and to make happy.
I wish to live according to my faith, and since the divine action
is applied by every single thing and at every moment for my
perfection, I will live on this immense fortune, this certain
income, and in the most profitable manner.
32 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Is there any creature whose action can equal that of God ?
Why then should I go to creatures for help since all that happens
to me is the work of His uncreated hand ? Creatures are power-
less, ignorant, and without affection and I should die of thirst
rushing like this from one fountain to another, from one stream
to another when there is a sea at hand, the waters of which
encompass me on every side. All that happens to me therefore
will be food for my nourishment, water for my cleansing, fire
for my purification, and a channel of grace for all my needs.
That which I might endeavour to find in other ways seeks me
incessantly and gives itself to me through all creatures.
O Love of God ! how is it that all creatures do not know how
freely you lavish Yourself and Your favours on them while they
are seeking You in byways and corners where You are not to
be found ? How foolish to refuse to breathe the open air !
to search for a spot on which to place the foot when there is the
whole countryside before you ; to be unable to find water
when there is a whole deluge at your service, nor to possess and
enjoy God, nor to recognise His action when it is present in all
things. You search for hidden ways of belonging to God, good
people, but the only way is that of making use of whatever He
sends you. All leads to union, to perfection, except what is
sinful or not a duty. All that is necessary is to accept everything,
placing no obstacle in the way of its action but letting it accom-
plish its work. All things are intended to guide, raise, and
support you, and are in the hand of God whose action is vaster
and more present than the elements of earth, air, and water.
Even by means of the senses God will enter, provided they
are used only as He ordains, because everything contrary to His
will must be resisted. There is not a single atom that goes to
form part of your being,, even to the marrow of the bones, that
is not formed by the divine power. From it all things proceed,
by it all things are made. Your very life-blood flows through
your veins by the movement this power imparts to it, and all the
fluctuations that exist between strength and weakness, languor
and liveliness, life and death, are divine instruments put in
motion to effect your sanctification. Under its influence all
bodily states become operations of grace. From this invisible
hand come all your opinions, all your ideas on whatever subject
they may be formed. What this action will effect in you, you
will learn by successive experiences, for there is ho created heart
or mind that can teach it to you. Your life flows on uninter-
ruptedly in this unsounded abyss in which each present moment
contains all that is best for you, and as such must be loved and
esteemed. It is necessary to have a perfect confidence in this
action which of itself can do nothing but what is good.
EVERYTHING is SUPERNATURALISED BY THE DIVINE ACTION 33
Yes, divine Love ! to what heights of supernatural, sublime,
admirable and incomparable virtue would all souls arrive if
they would but be satisfied with Your action !
Yes, if they would leave the matter in this divine hand they
would attain to an eminent degree of perfection ! Everyone
would arrive at it because it is offered to all. No effort is re-
quired because the work accomplishes itself. Every soul pos-
sesses in You an infinitely perfect model, and by your action
which works ceaselessly to this end, is rendered like this model.
If all souls were faithful copies of this divine example they would
all speak, act, and live divinely. They would not require to
copy each other, but would be singled out by the divine influence,
and each would be rendered unique by the most simple and ordi-
nary things.
By what means, O my God, can I make your creatures appre-
ciate what is offered to them ? Must I who possess so great a
treasure with which I could enrich the whole world, see souls
perish in poverty ? Must I behold them withering like plants
in a desert when I can show them the source of living waters ?
Gome, foolish souls, you who have not an atom of sensible
devotion, you too who possess no talent nor even the rudiments
of education, you who cannot understand a single spiritual term,
who stand astonished at the eloquence of the learned whom
you admire ; come, and I will teach you a secret which will place
you far beyond these clever minds. I will make perfection so
easy to you that you will find it everywhere and in everything.
I will unite you to God, and make you walk hand in hand with
Him from the moment that you begin practising what I will
teach you. Come, not to study the map of the spiritual country,
but to possess it, to walk in it at your ease without fear of losing
your way. Come, not to study the theory of divine grace, nor
to find out what it has accomplished in the past and still
continues to accomplish ; but to become simply subject to its
operations. It is not necessary that you should understand
what it has said to others, nor to repeat the words intended only
for them and which you have overheard, but you, yourself, will
receive from it what is best for you.
34 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
SECTION XII. The Divine Word our Model.
The divine action alone can sanctify us, for that alone can
make us imitate the divine Example of our perfection.
In course of time the idea formed by the Eternal Wisdom of
all things is carried out by divine action. All things have,
in God, their likeness, and are recognised and known by the
divine Wisdom. Should you know all those things that are
not for you, such knowledge would be no guide to you in any way.
The divine action beholds in the Word the idea after which you
ought to be formed and this example is always before it. It
sees in the Word all that is necessary for the sanctification of
every soul. The holy Scriptures contain one part, and the
workings of the divine action in the interior of the soul, after
the example set forth by the Word, complete the work. We
must understand that the only way of receiving the impression
of this eternal idea is to remain quietly amenable to it ; and that
neither efforts, nor mental speculations can do anything to that
end. It is obvious that a work such as this cannot be effected
by cleverness, intelligence, nor subtlety of mind, but only by
the passive way of abandonment to its reception, and by yield-
ing to it like metal in a mould, or canvas under the pencil, or
stone in the hands of the sculptor. It is evident that to know
all the divine mysteries of God is by no means the way in which
by His will we are made to resemble His image, that image which
the Word has formed of us ; that our resemblance to the divine
type can only be formed in us by the impression of the seal of
the divine action, and that this impression is not produced
in the mind by ideas, but in the will by abandonment. The
wisdom of the just soul consists in being content with what is
intended for it ! in confining itself within the boundary of its
path, and not trespassing beyond its limit. It is not inquisitive
about God's ways of acting, but is content as regards itself
with the arrangements of His will, making no effort to discover
its meaning by comparisons or conjectures, but only desiring to
understand what each moment reveals. It listens to the voice
of the Word when it sounds in the depths of the heart, it does
not inquire as to what the divine Spouse has said to others,
but is satisfied with what it receives for itself, so that moment
by moment it becomes, in this way, divinised without its know-
ledge. It is thus that the divine Word converses with His
spouse, by the solid effects of His action which the spouse without
scrutinising curiously, accepts with loving gratitude. Thus
the spirituality of such a soul is perfectly simple, absolutely
THE DIVINE WORD OUR MODEL 35
solid, and thoroughly diffused throughout its entire being. .Its
actions are not determined by ideas nor by a confusion of words
which by themselves would only serve to excite pride. Pious
people make a great use of the mind, whereas mental exertion
is of very little use, and is even antagonistic to true piety. We
must make use only of that which God sends us to do or to suffer,
and not forsake this divine reality to occupy our minds with the
historical wonders of the divine work instead of gaining an
increase of grace by our fidelity.
The marvels of this work, of which we read for the purpose
of satisfying our curiosity, often only tend to disgust us with
things that seem trifling but by which, if we do not despise
them, the divine love effects very great things in us. Fools
that we are ! We admire and bless this divine action in the
writings relating its history, and when it is ready to continue
this writing on our hearts, we keep moving the paper and prevent
it writing by our curiosity, to see what it is doing in and around
us. Pardon, divine love, these defects ; I can see them all in
myself, for I am not yet able to understand how to let You act.
So far I have not allowed myself to be cast into the mould.
I have run through all Your workshops and have admired all
Your works, but have not as yet, by abandonment, received
even the bare outlines of Your pencil. Nevertheless I have
found in You a kind Master, a Physician, a Father, a beloved
Friend.
I will now become Your disciple, and will frequent no other
school than Yours. Like the Prodigal Son I return hungering
for Your bread. I relinquish the ideas which tend only to the
satisfaction of mental curiosity ; I will no longer run after
masters and books but will only make use of them as of other
things that present themselves, not for my own satisfaction, but
in dependence on the divine action and in obedience to You.
For love of You and to discharge my debts I will confine myself
to the one essential business, that of the present moment, and
thus enable You to act.
BOOK II.
ON THE STATE OF ABANDONMENT.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE NATURE AND EXCELLENCE OF THE STATE OF
ABANDONMENT.
SECTION I. The life of God in the soul.
There is a time when the soul lives in God, and a time when
God lives in the soul. What is appropriate to one state is
inconsistent with the other. When God lives in the soul it
ought to abandon itself entirely to His providence. When the
soul lives in God it is obliged to procure for itself carefully and
very regularly, every means it can devise by which to arrive at
the divine union. The whole procedure is marked out ; the
readings, the examinations, the resolutions. The guide is always
at hand and everything is by rule, even the hours for conver-
sation. When God lives in the soul it has nothing left of self,
but only that which the spirit which actuates it imparts to it at
each moment. Nothing is provided for the future, no road is
marked out, but it is like a child which can be led wherever one
pleases, and has only feeling to distinguish what is presented to
it. No more books with marked passages for such a soul ;
often enough it is even deprived of a regular director, for God
allows it no other support than that which He gives it Himself.
Its dwelling is in darkness, forgetfulness, abandonment, death
and nothingness. It feels keenly its wants and miseries without
knowing from whence or when will come its relief. With eyes
fixed on Heaven it waits peacefully and without anxiety for
someone to come to its assistance. God, who finds no purer
disposition in His spouse than this entire self-renunciation for
the sake of living the life of grace according to the divine opera-
tion, provides her with necessary books, thoughts, insight
into her own soul, advice and counsel, and the examples of the
wise. Everything that others discover with great difficulty
this soul finds in abandonment, and what they guard with care
in order to be able to find it again, this soul receives at the moment
there is occasion for it, and afterwards relinquishes so as to admit
nothing but exactly what God desires it to have in order to live
by Him alone. The former soul undertakes an infinity of good
works for the glory of God, the latter is often cast aside in a
corner of the world like a bit of broken crockery, apparently
of no use to anyone. There, this soul, forsaken by creatures
THE LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL 37
but in the enjoyment of God by a very real, true, and active
love (active although infused in repose), does not attempt any-
thing by its own impulse ; it only knows that it has to abandon
itself and to remain in the hands of God to be used by Him as
He pleases. Often it is ignorant of its use, but God knows well.
The world thinks it is useless, and appearances give colour to
this judgment, but nevertheless it is very certain that in mysteri-
ous ways and by unknown channels, it spreads abroad an infinite
amount of grace on persons who often have no idea of it, and of
whom it never thinks. In souls abandoned to God everything
is efficacious, everything is a sermon and apostolic. God im-
parts to their silence, to their repose, to their detachment, to
their words, gestures, etc., a certain virtue which, unknown
to them, works in the hearts of those around them ; and, as they
are guided by the occasional actions of others who are made use
of by grace to instruct them without their knowledge, in the same
way, they, in their turn, are made use of for the support and guid-
ance of others without any direct acquaintance with them, or
understanding to that effect.
God it is who works in them, by unexpected and often unknown
impulses, so that these souls are like to Jesus, from whom pro-
ceeded" a secret virtue for the healing of others. There is this
difference between Him and them, that often they do not per-
ceive the outflow of this virtue and even contribute nothing by
co-operation : it is like a hidden balm, the perfume of which is
exhaled without being recognised, and which knows not its own
virtue.
SECTION II. The most perfect way.
In this state the soul is guided by the divine action through
every kind of obscurity.
When the soul is moved by the divine influence, it forsakes
all works, practices, methods, means, books, ideas, and spiritual
persons in order to be guided by God alone by abandoning itself
to that moving power which becomes the sole source of its per-
fection. It remains in His hands like all the saints, understand-
ing that the divine action alone can guide it in the right path,
and that if it were to seek other means it would inevitably go
astray in that unknown country which God compels it to traverse.
It is, therefore, the action of God which guides and conducts
souls by ways which it alone understands. It is, with these
souls, like the changes of the wind. The direction is only known
in the present moment, and the effects follow their causes by
38 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
the will of God, which is only explained by these effects because
it acts in these souls and makes them act either by hidden un-
doubted instincts, or by the duties of their state. This is all the
spirituality they know ; these are their visions and revelations,
this is the whole of their wisdom and counsel insomuch that
nothing is ever wanting to them. Faith makes them certain
that what they do is well, whether they read, speak, or write ;
and if they take counsel it is only to be able to distinguish more
clearly the divine action. All this is laid down for them and they
receive it like the rest, beholding beneath these things the divine
motive power and not fastening on the things presented, but
using or leaving them, always leaning by faith on the infallible,
unruffled, immutable and ever efficacious action of God at each
moment. This they perceive and enjoy in all things, the least
as well as the greatest, for it is entirely at their service at every
moment. Thus they make use of things not because they have
any confidence in them, or for their own sake, but in submission
to the divine ordinance, and to that interior operation which,
even under contrary appearances, they discover with equal
facility and certitude. Their life, therefore, is spent, not in
investigations or desires, weariness or sighs, but in a settled
assurance of being in the most perfect way.
Every state of body or soul, and whatever happens interiorly
or exteriorly as revealed at each moment to these souls is, to
them, the fulness of the divine action, and the fulness of their
joy. Created things are, to them, nothing but misery and dearth ;
the only true and just measure is in the working of the divine
action. Thus, if it take away thoughts, words, books, food,
persons, health, even life itself, it is exactly the same as if it did
the contrary. The soul loves the divine action and finds it
equally sanctifying under whatever shape it presents itself. It
does not reason about the way it acts ; it suffices for its approval
that whatever comes is from this source.
SECTION III. Abandonment a Pledge of Predestination.
The state of abandonment contains in itself pure faith, hope,
and charity.
The state of abandonment is a certain mixture of faith, hope,
and charity in one single act, which unites the soul to God and
to His action. United, these three virtues together form but
one in a single act, the raising of the heart to God, and abandon-
ment to His action. But how can this divine mingling, this
spiritual oneness be explained ? How can a name be found to
ABANDONMENT A PLEDGE OF PREDESTINATION 39
convey an idea of its nature, and to make the unity of this trinity
intelligible ? It can be explained thus. It is only by means
of these three virtues that the possession and enjoyment of God
and of His will can be attained. This adorable object is seen,
is loved, and all things are hoped for from it. Either virtue can
with equal justice be called pure love, pure hope, or pure faith,
and if the state of which we are speaking is more frequently
designated by the last name, it is not that the other theological
virtues are excluded, but rather that they may be understood
to subsist and to be practised in this state in obscurity.
There can be nothing more secure than this state in the things
that are of God ; nothing more disinterested than the character
of the heart. On the side of God is the absolute certitude of
faith, and on that of the heart is the same certitude tempered
with fear and hope. O most desirable unity of the trinity of
these holy virtues ! Believe then, hope and love, but by a
simple feeling which the Holy Spirit who is given you by God
will produce in your soul. It is there that the unction of the name
of God is diffused by the Holy Spirit in the centre of the heart.
This is the word, this is the mystical revelation, and a pledge
of predestination with all its happy results. " Quam bonus
Israel Deus his qui recto sunt corde " (Psalm 72, i). This
impress of the Holy Spirit in souls inflamed with His love, is
called pure love on account of the torrent of delight overflowing
every faculty, accompanied by a fulness of confidence and light ;
but in souls that are plunged in bitterness it is called pure faith
because the darkness and obscurity of night are without allevi-
ation. Pure love sees, feels, and believes. Pure faith believes
without either seeing or feeling. In this is shown the difference
between these two states, but this difference is only apparent,
not real. The appearances are dissimilar, but in reality' as the
state of pure faith is not lacking in charity, neither is the state
of pure love lacking in faith nor in abandonment ; the terms
being applied according to which virtue prevails. The different
gradations of these virtues under the touch of the Holy Spirit
form the variety of all supernatural and lofty states. And since
God can rearrange them in an endless variety there is not a
single soul that does not receive this priceless impress in a char-
acter suitable to it. The difference is nothing, there are the same
faith, hope, and charity in all. Abandonment is a general means
of receiving special virtues in every variety of different impresses.
Souls cannot all lay claim to the same sort, nor to a similar state,
but all can be united to God, all can be abandoned to His action,
all can receive the impress that is best suited to them, all in fact
can live under the reign of God and enjoy a share in His justice
with all its advantages. In this kingdom every soul can aspire
40
to a crown, and whether a crown of love, or a crown of faith, it
is always a crown, always the kingdom of God. There is this
difference, it is true the one is in light, the other in darkness;
but again what does this signify if the soul belongs to God and
obeys His will ? We do not seek to know the name of this state,
its characteristics, nor excellence, but we seek God alone and His
action. The manner of it ought to be a matter of indifference
to the soul. Let us therefore no longer preach to souls about
either the state of pure love, or of perfect faith, the way of
delights, or of the Cross, for these cannot be imparted to all in
the same degree nor in the same manner ; but let us preach
abandonment in general to the divine action, to all simple souls
who fear God, and let us make them all understand that by
these means they will attain to that particular state chosen
and destined for them by the divine action from all eternity.
Let us not dishearten, nor rebuff, nor drive away anyone from
that most eminent perfection to which Jesus calls everyone,
exacting from them submission to the will of His heavenly Father
and thus making them members of His mystical body. He is
their head only in so far as their will is in accordance with His.
Let us continually repeat to all souls that the invitation of this
sweet and loving Saviour does not exact anything very difficult
from them, nor very extraordinary. He does not ask for talent
and ingenuity, all He desires is that they have a good will and
desire to be united to Him so that He could guide, direct and
befriend them in proportion as they are so united.
SECTION IV. Abandonment a Source of Joy.
The state of abandonment comprises the most heroic generosity.
There is nothing more generous than the way in which a soul
having faith, accepts the most deadly perils and troubles, be-
holding in them something divine of the spiritual life. When it
is a question of swallowing poison, of filling a breach, of slaving
for the plague-stricken ; in all this they find a plenitude of divine
life, not given to them drop by drop, but in floods which inun-
date and engulf the soul in an instant.
If an army were animated by the same ideals it would be in-
vincible. This is because the instinct of faith is an elevation
and enlargement of the heart above and beyond all that is pre-
sented to the senses.
The life of faith, and the instinct of faith are one and the same.
It is an enjoyment of the goods of God, and a confidence founded
ABANDONMENT A SOURCE OF JOY 41
on the expectation of His protection, making everything pleasant
and received with a good grace. It is indifference to, and at the
same time a preparation for every place, state, or person. Faith
is never unhappy even when the senses are most desolate. This
lively faith is always in God, always in His action above contrary
appearances by which the senses are darkened. The senses,
in terror, suddenly cry to the soul, " Unhappy one ! You have
now no resource, you are lost," and instantly taith with a stronger
voice answers : " Keep firm, go on, and fear nothing."
SECTION V. The Great Merit of Pure Faith.
By the state of abandonment and of pure faith the soul gains
more merit than by the most eminent good works.
Whatever we find extraordinary in the lives of the saints,
such as revelations, visions and interior locutions, is but a
glimpse of that excellence of their state which is contained and
hidden in the exercise of faith ; because faith possesses all this
by knowing how to see and hear God in that which happens from
moment to moment. When these favours are manifested visibly
it does not mean that by faith they have not been already
possessed, but in order to make the excellence of faith visible for
the purpose of attracting souls to the practice of it ; just as the
glory of Thabor, and the miracles of Jesus Christ were not from
any increase of His intrinsic excellence, but from the light which
from time to time escaped from the dark cloud of His humanity
to make it an object of veneration and love to others.
That which is wonderful in the saints is the constancy of their
faith under every circumstance ; without this there would be
no sanctity. In the loving faith which makes them rejoice in
God for everything, their sanctity has no need of any extra-
ordinary manifestation ; this could only prove useful to others
who might require the testimony of such signs ; but the soul
in this state, happy in its obscurity, does in no way rely on these
brilliant manifestations ; it allows them to show outwardly
for the profit of others, but keeps for itself what all have in
common, the will of God, and His good pleasure. Its faith is
proved in hiding, and not in manifesting itself, and those who
require more proof have less faith.
Those who live by faith receive proofs, not as such, but as
favours from the hand of God, and in this sense things that are
extraordinary are not in contradiction to the state of pure faith.
But there are many saints whom God sets up for the salvation
of souls, and from whose faces He causes rays of glory to stream
42 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
for the enlightenment of the most blind. Of such were the
Prophets and the Apostles and all those saints chosen by God
to be set in the candlestick of the Church. There will ever be
such, as there ever have been.
There is also an infinity of others who, having been created to
shine in the heavens give no light in this world, but live and die
in profound obscurity.
SECTION VI. Submission a Free Gift to God.
The state of abandonment includes the merit of every separate
operation.
Abandonment as practised interiorly contains every possible
variety of operation, because, the soul giving itself up to the good
pleasure of God, this surrender, effected by pure love, extends
to all the operations of this good pleasure. Thus the soul
practises at each moment an abandonment without limit, and
in its virtue are comprehended all possible qualities and every
method. It is, therefore, by no means the business of the
soul to decide what is the object of the submission it owes to
God ; its sole occupation is to submit at all times and for all
things.
What God requires of the soul is the essential part of abandon-
ment. The free gifts He asks are abnegation, obedience, and
love, the rest is His business. Provided that the soul carefully
fulfils the duties of its state ; provided it quietly follows the
attraction given to it, and submits peacefully to the dealings of
grace as to body and soul, it is in this way exercising interiorly
one general and universal act, that of abandonment. This act
is by no means limited by time, nor by the special duty of the
moment, but possesses in the main all the merit and efficacy
which a sincere good will always has, although the result does
not depend upon it. What it desired to do is done, in the sight
of God.
If God's good pleasure sets a limit to the exercise of particular
faculties, it sets none to that of the will. The good pleasures of
God, the being and essence of God are the objects of the will,
and by the exercise of charity its union with God has neither
limit, distinction, nor measure. If this charity ends in the
exercise of the faculties for certain objects, it is because the will
of God only goes so far ; it contracts itself, so to speak, restricting
itself to the exigencies of the present moment from whence
it passes to the faculties, and then to the heart. Finding the
SUBMISSION A FREE GIFT TO GOD 43
heart pure, free, and without reserve, it communicates itself
fully to it on account of the infinite capacity which charity has
effected, by emptying it of all created things, thus rendering it
capable of union with God. O heavenly purity ! O blessed
annihilation ! O unreserved submission ! through you is God
drawn into the centre of the heart. Let the faculties then be
what they will, provided, Lord, that I possess You. Do what
You will with this insignificant creature ; whether it works,
becomes inspired, or becomes the subject of Your impressions,
it is all one. All is Yours, all is from You and for You. I have
no longer anything to look after, anything to do. I have no
hand in the arrangement of one single moment of my life, all is
Yours. I ought neither to add to, nor to diminish anything,
neither to seek after, nor to reflect upon, anything. It is for
You to regulate everything. Direction, mortification, sanctity,
perfection, and salvation are all Your business, Lord ; mine is
to be satisfied with Your work, and not to appropriate any
action, or any state, but to leave all to Your good pleasure.
.
SECTION VII. Divine Favours Offered to All.
Every soul is called to enjoy the infinite benefits contained
in this state.
Therefore do I preach abandonment, and not any particular
state. Every state in which souls are placed by Your grace is
the same to me. I teach a general method by which all can
attain the state which You have marked out for them. I do
not exact more than the will to abandon themselves to Your
guidance. You will make them arrive infallibly at the state
which is best for them.
It is faith that I preach ; abandonment, confidence, and faith ;
the will to be subject to, and to be the tool of the divine action,
and to believe that at every moment this action is working in
every circumstance, provided that the soul has more or less
good- will. This is the faith that I preach. It is not a special
kind of faith, nor of charity, but a general state by which all souls
can find God under the different conditions which He assumes ;
and can take that form which divine grace has marked out for
them. I have spoken to souls in trouble, and now I am speaking
to all kinds of souls. It is the genuine instinct of my heart to care
for all, to announce the saving secret far and wide, and to make
myself all to all. In this happy disposition I make it a duty
which I fulfil without difficulty, to weep with those who weep,
to rejoice with those who rejoice, to speak foolishly with the
44 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
foolish, and with the learned to make use of more learned and
more scholastic terms. I wish to make all understand that
although they cannot aspire to the same distinct favours, they
can attain to the same love, the same abnegation, the same God
and His work, and thence it follows naturally, to the highest
sanctity. Those graces which are called extraordinary and are
given as privileges to certain souls, are only so called because
there are so few sufficiently faithful to become worthy of receiving
them. This will be made manifest at the day of judgment.
Alas ! it will then be seen that instead of these divine favours
having been withheld by God, it has been entirely by their
own fault that these souls have been deprived of them. What
untold blessings they would have received through the complete
submission of a steadfast good-will.
It is the same with regard to Jesus as with the divine action.
If those who have no confidence in Him, nor respect for Him,
do not receive any of the favours He offers to all, they have only
their own bad disposition to thank for it. It is true that all
cannot aspire to the same sublime states, to the same gifts, to
the same degree of perfection ; yet if, faithful to grace, they
corresponded to it, each according to his degree, they would all be
satisfied because they would all attain that degree of grace and
of perfection which would fully satisfy their desires. They would
be happy according to nature, and according to grace, because
nature and grace share equally in the ardent desire for this
priceless advantage.
SECTION VIII.; God deigns in a Pure Heart.
All the treasures of grace are the fruit of purity of heart and
perfect abandonment.
He, therefore, who wishes to enjoy an abundance of all bless-
ings had but one thing to do ; to purify his heart by detaching it
from creatures, and to abandon himself entirely to God. In
this purity and abandonment he will find all that he desires.
" May others, Lord, ask You for all softs of gifts, may they
multiply their words and prayers ; as for me, my God, I only
ask one single gift, I have only one prayer to make give me a
pure heart." O pure heart ! how happy you are ; for by the
liveliness of your faith you see God as He is in Himself. You
see Him in all things and at every moment working within you
and around you. In all things you are His subject and His
instrument. He rules you and leads you. You have not to
GOD REIGNS IN A PURE HEART 45
think because He thinks for you. Whatever happens to you,
or may happen by His will, it is enough for Him that you will
it also. He understands your readiness. In your salutary
blindness you try to discover in yourself this desire, but you
cannot see it, nevertheless He sees it quite clearly. How foolish
you are ! a well-disposed heart is a heart in which God dwells.
Seeing therefore the good inclinations in this heart God well
knows that it will remain always submissive to His will ; He
knows also that you are ignorant of what would be useful to
you and therefore He makes it His business to give you what is
necessary.
It matters very little to Him whether you are thwarted or
not. You imagine you are going East, He makes you go West.
You are about to strike against a rock, He pushes the tiller
and brings you into port. Without either a map or a compass,
wind or tide, the voyages you make are always fortunate. If
you encounter pirates, an unexpected puff of wind instantly
wafts you beyond their reach.
O good will ! O pure heart ! Jesus well knew where to place
you when He ranked you among the Beatitudes. What greater
happiness can there be than to possess God, if He mutually
possesses you ? It is a state full of charm and of joy, in which
the soul reposes peacefully in the bosom of divine Providence
where it sports innocently with the divine Wisdom, feeling no
anxiety about the journey which suffers no interruption, but
in spite of rocks and pirates and constant storms, ever continues
as happy as possible.
O pure heart ! O good will ! the sole foundation of every
spiritual state, to you are granted the gifts of firm faith, holy
hope, perfect confidence and pure love, and by you are they made
profitable.
On your stem are grafted the flowers of the desert ; in other
words, from you spring those priceless graces which blossom
in souls entirely detached, where God, as in an uninhabited
dwelling, takes up His abode to the exclusion of all else. You
are the faithful source from whence flow those streams that water
the flower garden of the divine Spouse, and of His chosen one.
Your voice calls all the souls of men saying to them, " Look well
at me ; it is I who impart fair love, that love which chooses the
better part and lays hold of it. It is I who give birth to that
fear, so gentle and efficacious, which produces a horror of evil,
and makes it easy to avoid ; I, who bring to light those fine
perceptions by which are discovered the greatness of God and
the value of virtue ; in fine it is from me that those ardent
desires take their rise, enkindled by holy hope. It is I who cause
virtue to be practised in expectation of the promised reward
46 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
that divine Object of our love, the possession of Whom will one
day form the happiness of faithful souls. Invite them all to
come to you to be enriched with your inexhaustible treasures.
All spiritual states and paths lead back to you. It is from
you that they derive all that is beautiful, attractive, and charm-
ing, for all is drawn from your depths. Those marvellous
fruits of grace, and of every kind of virtue that helps to nourish
the soul, and that abounds on every side, are produced by you.
Milk and honey flow in your land. Your breasts distil milk,
and on your bosom is the bouquet of myrrh from which, under
the pressure of your fingers, the aromatic liquid flows abundantly.
Let us go, then, let us run and fly to that ocean of love by
which we are attracted ! What are we waiting for ? Let us
start at once, let us lose ourselves in God, even in His heart, to
become inebriated with the wine of His charity. We shall find
in His heart the key of heavenly treasures. Let us begin at
once our journey to Heaven. There is no passage that we cannot
discover, nothing is shut against us, neither the garden, nor the
cellar, nor the vineyard. If we desire to breathe the fresh country
air, we can go on our own feet and return when we please. With
this key of David we can enter and depart ; it is the key of
science, and of that abyss in which are contained all the hidden
treasures of divine Wisdom. With this heavenly key we also
open the gates of mystical death with its sacred darkness. By it
also we descend into the deep pools and into the den of lions.
By it souls are thrust into those obscure prisons from whence
they emerge unscathed. By it we are introduced into that
joyful place where light and understanding have their dwelling,
where the Spouse takes the midday rest in the open air, and where
He reveals the secrets of His love to faithful souls. O divine
incommunicable secrets that no mortal tongue can describe !
Since every good thing that it is possible to possess is given to
those who love, let us love then, in order to be enriched with
them ; for love produces sanctity with all that accompanies
it. It flows on every side, on the right hand and on the left,
into those hearts open to receive this divine outpouring. O
divine harvest for eternity ! it is not possible to praise you suffi-
ciently. And why speak so much about you ? How much
better to possess you in silence than to praise you with mere
words. But what am I saying ? You must be praised but only
because you take possession of us, for, from the moment you enter
into possession of a heart, then reading, writing, speaking or
silence are matters of complete indifference. One can take or
leave anything, live in solitude, or as an apostle ; one is well or ill,
dull or eloquent, in fact anything that you will. That which
you dictate, your faithful echo, the heart, repeats to all the
GOD REIGNS IN A PURE HEART. 47
faculties. In that compound of matter and spirit, the heart,
which you regard as your kingdom, you reign supreme, and as it
has no other instincts than those which you inspire, all the
things that you present are equally agreeable. Those things
that nature, or the devil wish to substitute, cause nothing but
disgust and horror. If you allow it to be occasionally overcome,
it is only to make it wiser and more humble ; but from the
moment it realises its mistake it returns to you with renewed
love, and clings to you with greater tenacity.
48 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
CHAPTER II.
THE DUTIES OF THOSE SOULS CALLED BY GOD TO THE STATE OF
ABANDONMENT.
SECTION I. Sacrifice, the Foundation of Sanctity.
The first great duty of souls called by God to this state is the
absolute and entire surrender of themselves to Him.
" Sacrificate sacrificium, et sperate in Domino." That is to
say that the great and solid foundation of the spiritual life is the
sacrifice of oneself to God, subjecting oneself to His good pleasure
in all things, both interior and exterior, and becoming so com-
pletely forgetful of self thereafter as to regard oneself as a chattel,
sold and delivered, to which one no longer has any right. In
this way the good pleasure of God forms one's whole felicity ;
and His happiness, glory and existence one's sole good. This
foundation laid, the soul has nothing else to do but to rejoice
that God is God, and to abandon itself so entirely to His good
pleasure that it feels an equal satisfaction in whatever it does,
nor ever reflects on the uses to which it is applied by the arrange-
ments of this good pleasure. To abandon oneself, therefore,
is the principal duty to be fulfilled, involving, as it does, the
faithful discharge of all the obligations of one's state. The
perfection with which these duties are accomplished will be the
measure of the sanctity of each individual soul. A saintly
soul is a soul freely submissive, with the help of grace, to the
divine will. All that follows on this free consent is the work of
. God, and not of man. The soul should blindly abandon itself
and be indifferent about everything. This is all that God re-
quires of it, and as to the rest He determines and chooses accord-
ing to His own plans, as an architect selects and arranges the
stones for the building he is about to construct. It is therefore
of the first importance to love God and His will, and to love this
will in whatever way it is made manifest to us, without desiring
anything else. The soul has no concern in the choice of different
objects, that is God's affair, and whatever He gives is best for
the soul. The whole of spirituality is an abridgment of this
maxim, " Abandon yourself entirely to the over-ruling of God,
and by self-oblivion be eternally occupied in loving and serving
Him without any of those fears, reflexions, examens, and anxieties
49
which the affair of our salvation, and perfection sometimes
occasion." Since God wishes to do all for us, let us place
everything in His hands once and for all, leaving them to His
infinite wisdom ; and trouble no more about anything but what
concerns Him. On then, my soul, on with head uplifted above
earthly things, always satisfied with God, with everything He
does, or makes you do. Take good care not to imprudently
entertain a crowd of anxious reflexions which, like so many
trackless ways, carry our footsteps far and wide until we are
hopelessly astray. Let us go through that labyrinth of self-love
by leaping over it, instead of traversing its interminable windings.
On, my soul, through despondency, illness, aridity, uncertain
tempers, weakness of disposition, snares of the devil and of men ;
through suspicions, jealousies, evil imaginations and prejudices.
Let us soar like the eagle above all these clouds with eyes always
fixed on the sun, and on its ways, which represent our obligations.
All this we must needs feel, but we must, at the same time,
remember that ours is not a life of mere sentiment, and that it
does not depend upon us either to feel, or to be callous. Let us
live in the higher regions of the soul in which God and His will
form an eternity ever equal, ever the same, ever unchanging. In
this dwelling entirely spiritual, wherein the uncreated, immeasur-
able and ineffable holds the soul at an infinite distance from all
that is specific in shadows and created atoms, it remains calm,
even when the senses are tossed about by tempests. It has
become independent of the senses ; their troubles and agitations
and innumerable vicissitudes no more affect it, than the clouds
that obscure the sky for a moment and then fade away, affect
the sun. We know that all passes away like clouds blown along
by the wind, and nothing is consecutive nor ordered, but every-
thing is in a state of perpetual change. In the state of faith,
as in that of glory, God and His will is the eternal object that
captivates the heart, and will one day form its true happiness,
and this glorious state of the soul will influence the material part
which at present is the prey of monsters and savage beasts.
Beneath these appearances, terrible though they be, the divine
action will so work on this material part as to make it partake
of a heavenly power which will render it brilliant as the sun ;
for the faculties of the sensitive soul, and those of the body
are prepared here below like gold or iron, or like canvas for a
picture, or stones for a building. Like the matter of which these
different materials are composed they will not attain their
brilliance and purity of form until they have passed through many
alterations, have endured many deprivations, and survived
many destructions. Whatever they suffer here below under the
hand of God serves to that end.
50 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
The soul, in the state of faith, which knows the secret of God,
dwells always in peace. All that takes place interiorly, instead
of alarming, reassures it. Deeply convinced that it is guided
by God, it takes all that happens as so much grace, and over-
looking the instrument with which God works, it thinks only
of the work that He is doing.
It is actuated by love to fulfil faithfully and exactly all its
duties. All that is distinct in a soul abandoned to God, is the
work of grace, with the exception of those defects which are
slight, and which the action of grace even turns to good account.
I call that distinct of which a soul receives a sensible impression
either of sorrow or consolation through those things applied to
it unceasingly by the divine will for its improvement. I call it
distinct because it is more clearly distinguished by the soul from
all else that takes place within it. In all these things faith sees
only God, and applies itself solely to become conformed to His
will.
SECTION II. The Pains and Consolations of Abandonment.
The soul ought to strip itself of all things created in order to
arrive at the state of abandonment.
This state is full of consolation for those who have attained
it ; but to do so it is necessary to pass through much anguish.
The doctrine concerning pure love can only be taught by the
action of God, and not by any effort of the mind. God teaches
the soul by pains and obstacles, not by ideas.
This science is a practical knowledge by which God is enjoyed
as the only good. In order to master this science it is necessary
to be detached from all personal possessions, to gain this
detachment, to be really deprived of them. Therefore it is
only by constant crosses, and by a long succession of all kinds
of mortifications, trials, and deprivations, that pure love becomes
established in the soul. This must continue until all things
created become as though they did not exist, and God becomes
all in all. To effect this God combats all the personal affections
of the soul, so that when these take any especial shape, such as
some pious notion, some help to devotion ; or when there is any
idea of being able to attain perfection by some such method,
or such a path or way, or by the guidance of some particular
person ; in fine to whatever the soul attaches itself, God upsets
its plans, and allows it to find, instead of success in these pro-
jects, nothing but confusion, trouble, emptiness, and folly.
THE PAINS AND CONSOLATIONS OF ABANDONMENT 51
Hardly has it said " I must go this way, I must consult this
person, or, I must act in such a manner," than God immediately
says the exact contrary, and withdraws all the virtue usual in
the means adopted by the soul. Thus, finding only deception
and emptiness in everything, the soul is compelled to have
recourse to God Himself, and to be content with Him.
Happy the soul that understands this lovingly severe conduct
of God, and that corresponds faithfully with it. It is raised
above all that passes away to repose in the immutable and the
infinite. It is no longer dissipated among created things by
giving them love and confidence, but allows them only when it
becomes a duty to do so, or when enjoined by God, and when
His will is made especially manifest in the matter. It inhabits
a region above earthly abundance or dearth, in the fulness of
God who is its permanent good. God finds this soul quite empty
of its own inclinations, of its own movements, of its own choice.
It is a dead subject, and shrouded in universal indifference.
The whole of the divine Being, coming thus to fill the heart,
casts over all created things a shadow, as of nothingness, ab-
sorbing all their distinctions and all their varieties. Thus there
remains neither efficacy, nor virtue in anything created, and
the heart is neither drawn towards, nor has any inclination for
created things, because the majesty of God fills it to its utmost
extent. Living in God in this way, the heart becomes dead to
all else, and all is dead to it. It is for God, who gives life to all
things, to revive the soul with regard to His creation, and to give
a different aspect to all things in the eyes of the soul. It is the
order of God which is this life. By this order the heart goes out
towards the creature as far as is necessary or useful, and it is
also by this order that the creature is carried towards the soul
and is accepted by it. Without this divine virtue of the good
pleasure of God, things created are not admitted by the soul,
neither is the soul at all inclined towards them. This dissolution
of all things as far as the soul is concerned, and then, by the will
of God, their being brought once more into existence, compels
the soul at each moment to see God in all things, for each moment
is spent for the satisfaction of God only, and in an unreserved
self-abandonment with regard to its relations to all possible
created things, or rather to those created, or possibly to be
created by the order of God. Therefore each moment contains
all.
5 2 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
SECTION III. The Different Duties of Abandonment.
The active exercise of abandonment either in relation to
precept, or to inspiration.
Although souls called by God to a state of abandonment are
much more passive than active, yet they cannot expect to be
exempted from all activity. This state being nothing else but
- the virtue of abandonment exercised more habitually, and with
greater perfection, should, like this virtue, be composed of two
kinds of duty ; the active accomplishment of the divine will,
and the passive acceptance of all that this will pleases to send.
It consists essentially, as we have already said, in the gift of
our whole self to God to be used as He thinks fit. Well ! the
good pleasure of God makes use of us in two ways ; either it
compels us to perform certain actions, or it simply works within
us. We, therefore, submit also in two ways, either by the faithful
accomplishment of its clearly defined orders, or else by a simple
and passive submission to its impressions of either pleasure or
pain. Abandonment implies all this, being nothing else but a
perfect submission to the order of God as made manifest at the
present moment. It matters little to the soul in what manner
it is obliged to abandon itself, and what the present moment
contains ; all that is absolutely necessary is that it should
abandon itself unreservedly. There are, then, prescribed duties
to be fulfilled, and necessary duties to be accepted, and further
there is a third kind which also forms part of active fidelity,
although it does not properly belong to works of precept. In this
are comprised inspired duties ; those to which the spirit of God
inclines the hearts that are submissive to Him. The accom-
plishment of this kind of duty requires a great simplicity, a
gentle and cheerful heartiness, a soul easily moved by every
breath of directing grace ; for there is nothing else to do but to
five oneself up, and to obey its inspirations simply and freely.
o that souls may not be deceived, God never fails to give them
wise guides to indicate with what liberty or reserve these in-
spirations should be made use of. The third kind of duty
takes precedence of all law, formalities, or marked-out rules.
It is what, in saints, appears singular and extraordinary ; it is
what regulates their vocal prayer, interior words, the perception
of their faculties, and also all that makes their lives noble, such
as austerities, zeal, and the prodigality of their self-devotion
for others. As all this belongs to the interior rule of the Holy
Spirit, no one ought to try to obtain it, to imagine that they have
it, to desire it, nor to regret that they do not possess the grace
THE DIFFERENT DUTIES OF ABANDONMENT 53
to undertake this kind of work, and to practise these uncommon
virtues, because they are only really meritorious when practised
according to the direction of God. If one is not content with
this reserve one lays oneself open to the influence of one's own
ideas, and will become exposed to illusion.
It is necessary to remark that there are souls that God keeps
hidden and little in their own eyes, and in the eyes of others.
Far from giving them striking qualities, His design for them is
that they should remain in obscurity. They would be deceived
if they desired to attempt a different way. If they are well
instructed they will recognise that fidelity to their nothingness
is their right path, and they will find peace in their lowliness.
The only difference, therefore, in their way and that of, appar-
ently, more favoured souls, is the difference they make for
themselves by the amount of their love and submission to the
will of God ; for, if they surpass in these virtues the souls that
appear to work more than they exteriorly, their sanctity is,
without doubt, so much the greater. This shows that each
soul ought to content itself with the duties of its state, and the
over-ruling of Providence ; clearly God exacts this equally from
all. As to attraction and the impressions received by the soul,
these are given by God alone to whom He pleases. One must
not try to produce them oneself, nor to make efforts to increase
them. Natural effort is in direct opposition and quite contrary
to infused inspirations, which should come in peace. The voice
of the divine Spouse will awaken the soul, which should only
proceed according to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, for, if
it were to act according to its own ideas it would make no
progress.
Therefore, if it should feel neither attraction nor grace to do
those things that make the saints so much admired, it must,
in justice to itself, say, " God has willed it thus for the saints,
but not for me."
SECTION IV. God Does All for a Soul of Good-Will.
The conduct of a soul raised to a state of abandonment with
regard to this two-fold manifestation of the good pleasure of
God.
Souls called by God to a life of perfect abandonment resemble
in this respect our Lord, His holy Mother, and St. Joseph.
The will of God was, to them, the fulness of life. Submittin g
entirely to this will as to precept and inspiration directly it wa s
made manifest to them, they were always in complete depend
54 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
ence on, what we might call, the purely providential will of God;
From this it follows that their lives, although extraordinary in
perfection, showed outwardly nothing that is not common to
all, and quite ordinary. They fulfilled the duties of religion,
and of their state as others do, and in, apparently, the same way.
For the rest, if one scrutinizes their conduct, nothing can be
discovered either striking or peculiar ; all follows the same
course of ordinary events. That which might single them out
is not discernible ; it is that dependence on the supreme will
which arranges all things for them, and in which they habitually
live. The divine will confers on them a complete self-mastery
on account of the habitual submission of their hearts.
Therefore the souls in question are, by their state, both solitary
and free ; detached from all things in order to belong to God,
to love Him in peace, and to fulfil faithfully the present duty
according to His expressed will. They do not allow themselves
to reflect, to neglect, nor to think of consequences, causes or
reasons ; it is enough for them to go on simply, accomplishing
their plain duties just as if there did not exist for them anything
but their present obligation, and their duty to God. The present
moment, then, is like a desert in which the soul sees only God
whom it enjoys ; and is only occupied about those things which
He requires of it, leaving and forgetting all else, and abandoning
it to Providence. This soul, like an instrument, neither receives
interiorly more than the operation of God effects passively, nor
gives exteriorly more than this same operation applies actively.
This interior application is accompanied by a free and active
co-operation which is, at the same time, infused and mystical;
that is to say that God, finding in this soul all the necessary
qualifications for acting according to His laws, and satisfied
with its good-will, spares it the trouble of doing so, by bestowing
all that would otherwise be the fruit of its efforts, or of its effectual
good-will. It is as though someone, seeing a friend preparing
for a troublesome journey, would go in his stead, so that the friend
would have the intention of going, but be spared the trouble
of the journey ; yet by this impersonation he would have gone
himself, at least virtually. This journey would be free because
it would be the result of a free determination taken beforehand
to please the friend who then takes upon himself the trouble and
expense ; it would also be active because it will be a real advance ;
and it will be interior because effected without outward activity ;
and, finally, it will be mystical because of the hidden principle
it contains. But to return to that kind of co-operation that we
have explained by this imaginary journey ; you will observe that
it is entirely different from fidelity in the fulfilment of obligations.
The work of fulfilling these is neither mystical nor infused, but
GOD DOES ALL FOR A SOUL OF GOOD-WILL 55
free and active as commonly understood. Therefore abandon-
ment to the good pleasure of God contains activity as well as
passivity. In it there is nothing of self, but an habitual general
goodwill, which like an instrument, has no action of itself, but
responds to the touch of the master. While in his hands it
fulfils all the purposes for which it was formed. Intentional
and determined obedience to the will of God is, in the ordinary
order of vigilance, care, attention, prudence, and discretion ;
although ordinary efforts are sensibly aided, or begun by grace.
Leaving God, then, to act for all the rest, reserve for yourself
at the present moment, only love and obedience, which virtues
the soul will practise eternally. This love, infused into the soul
in silence, is a real action of which it makes a perpetual obligation.
It ought, in fact, to preserve it faithfully, and to maintain itself
constantly in those dispositions resulting from it, all of which,
it is evident, cannot be done without action. The action, how-
ever, is quite different to obedience to the present duty, by which
the soul so disposes its faculties as to fulfil perfectly the will of
God made manifest to it exteriorly, without expecting anything
extraordinary.
This divine will is to the soul in all things its method, its rule,
and its direct and safe way. It is an unalterable law which is of
all times, of all places, and of all states. It is a straight line
which the soul must follow with courage and fidelity, neither
diverging to the right, nor to the left, nor overstepping the bounds.
Whatever is over and above must be received passively, as it
carries on its work in abandonment. In a word, the soul is active
in all that the present duty requires, but passivf and submissive
in all the rest, about which there should be no self-will, but
patient waiting for the divine motion.
SECTION V. The Common Way of all Souls.
The soul that aims at union with God should value all the
operations of His grace, but should only attach itself to that of
the present moment.
It is by union with the will of God that we enjoy and possess
Him ; and it is an illusion to endeavour to obtain this divine
enjoyment by any other means. Union with the will of God is
the universal means. It does not act by one method only, but
all methods and all ways are, by its virtue, sanctified. The divine
will unites God to our souls in many different ways, and that
which suits us is always best for us. All ways should be esteemed
56 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
and loved, because in each we should behold that which is or-
dained by God accommodating itself to each individual soul, and
selecting the most suitable method of effecting by it the divine
union. The duty of the soul is to submit to this choice, and to
make none for itself ; and this without dispensing itself from
esteeming and loving this adorable will in its work in others.
For instance, if this divine will should prevent me saying vocal
prayers, having sensible devotion, or receiving lights on mys-
teries, I should still love and esteem the silence and bareness
induced by the sight of the faith of others ; while for myself I
should make use of the present moment, and by it should become
united to God. I should not, as the Quietists do, reduce all
religion to personal inaction despising all other means ; because
what makes perfection is obedience to the law of God which
always renders the means it applies suitable to the soul. No !
I should not admit of obstacles or bounds to the will of God,
neither should I take anything in place of it, but should welcome
it in whatever way it was made manifest to me, and should revere
it in whatever way it was pleased to unite itself to others. Thus
all ordinary souls have but one common way in which each is
distinct and different in order to form the variety of the mystical
robe of the Church. All these souls mutually approve of, and
esteem each other, and all say " We are going to the same goal by
different paths, and are all united in the same way, and by the
same means in the ordinance of God, which is so different in
each." It is in this sense that we must read the lives of the saints,
and other spiritual books, without ever making a change, and
forsaking our own path. For this reason it is necessary that we
should neither read spiritual books, nor hold spiritual conver-
sation unless God so will ; for, if He makes it the duty of the
present moment, the soul, far from making any change, will be
strengthened in its way, either by what it finds in conformity wit h
its own method, or even by that in which it differs. But if the w ; ll
of God does not make this reading, or spiritual intercourse a
present duty it will cause nothing but trouble, and a confusion of
ideas ; and a succession of changes will ensue; because without the
concurrence of God's will there cannot be order in anything.
Since when, therefore, have we busied ourselves with the pains
and anxieties of our souls which have nothing to do with our
present duty ? When will God be all in all to us ? Let creatures
act according to their nature, but let nothing hinder us, let us
go beyond all created things and live entirely for God.
57
SECTION VI. The Duty of the Present Moment the Only Rule.
From souls in this state God exacts the most perfect docility
to the action of His grace.
It is necessary to be detached from all that one feels, and from
all that one does, to follow this method, by which one subsists
in God alone, and in the present duty. All regard to what is
beyond this should be cut off as superfluous. One must restrict
oneself to the present duty without thinking of the preceding
one, or of the one which is to follow. I imagine the law of God
to be always before you, and that the practice of abandonment
has rendered your soul docile to the divine action. You feel
some impulse that makes you say, " I have a drawing towards
this person " ; or " I have an inclination to read a certain book,
to receive, or to give certain advice, to complain of certain things,
to open my mind to another, or to receive confidence ; to give
away something, or to perform some action." Well ! obey this
impulse according to the inspiration of grace without stopping
to reflect, to reason, or to make efforts. Give yourself up to
these things for as -long as God wishes without doing so through
any self-will. In the state in question the will of God is shown
to us because He dwells within us. This will ought to supplant
all our usual supports. At each moment we have to practise
some virtue. To this the obedient soul is faithful ; nothing of
what it has learnt by reading or hearing is forgotten, and the
most mortified novice could not fulfil her duties better. It is
for this that these souls are attracted sometimes to one book,
sometimes to another ; or else to make some remark, some re-
flexion on what may seem but a trifling circumstance. At one
time God gives them the attraction to learn something that at
some future time will encourage them in the practice of virtue.
Whatever these souls do, they do because they feel an attraction
for it, without knowing why. All they can explain on the subject
can be reduced to this : " I feel myself drawn to write, to read, to
ask, to examine this ; I follow this attraction, and God who
gives it to me keeps these particular things in reserve in my
faculties to become in future the nucleus of other attractions
which will become useful to myself and others." This is what
makes it necessary for these souls to be simple, gentle, yielding,
and submissive to the faintest breath of these scarcely perceptible
impressions.
In the state of abandonment the only rule is the duty of the
present moment. In this the soul is light as a feather, liquid as
water, simple as a child, active as a ball in receiving and following
5 8 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
all the inspirations of grace. Such souls have no more consis-
tence and rigidity than molten metal. As this takes any form
according to the mould into which it is poured, so these souls are
pliant and easily receptive of any form that God chooses to give
them. In a word, their disposition resembles the atmosphere,
which is affected by every breeze ; or water, which flows into
any shaped vessel exactly filling every crevice. They are
before God like a perfectly woven fabric with a clear surface ;
and neither think, nor seek to know what God will be pleased
to trace thereon, because they have confidence in Him, they
abandon themselves to Him, and, entirely absorbed by their
duty, they think not of themselves, nor of what may be neces-
sary for them, nor of how to obtain it. The more assiduously
do they apply themselves to their little work, so simple, so
hidden, so secret, and outwardly contemptible, the more does
God embroider and embellish it with brilliant colours. On the
surface of this simple canvas of .love and obedience His hand
traces the most beautiful design, the most delicate and intricate
pattern, the most divine figures. " Mirificavit Dominus sanctum
suum." " The Lord hath made His holy one wonderful.'*
(Psalm iv.) It is true that a canvas simply and blindly given
up to the work of the pencil only feels its movement at each
moment. Each blow of the hammer on the chisel can only
produce one cruel mark at a time, and the stone struck by re-
peated blows cannot know, nor see the form produced by them.
It only feels that it is being diminished, filed, cut, and altered
by the chisel. And a stone that is destined to become a crucifix
or a statue without knowing it, if it were asked, " What is hap-
pening to you ? " would reply if it could speak, " Do not ask me,
I only know one thing, and that is, to remain immovable in the
hands of my master, to love him, and to endure all that he in-
flicts upon me. As for the end for which I am destined, it is
his business to understand how it is to be accomplished ; I am
as ignorant of what he is doing as of what I am destined to be-
come ; all I know is that his work is the best, and the most perfect
that could be, and I receive each blow of the chisel as the most
excellent thing that could happen to me, although, truth to tell,
each blow, in my opinion, causes the idea of ruin, destruction, and
disfigurement. But that is not my affair ; content with the
present moment, I think of nothing but my duty, and I endure the
work of this clever master without knowing, or occupying
myself about it."
Yes ! give to God what belongs to Him, and remain lovingly
passive in His hands. Hold for certain that what takes place
either exteriorly or interiorly is best for you.
THE DUTY OF THE PRESENT MOMENT THE ONLY RULE 59
Allow God to act, and abandon yourself to Him. Let the chisel
perform its office, the needle do its work. Let the brush of the
artist cover the canvas with many tints which only have the
appearance of daubs. Correspond with all these divine opera-
tions by a simple and constant submission, a forgetfulness of
self, and an assiduous application to duty. Continue thus in
yo.ur own groove without studying the way, the ins and outs,
and surroundings, the names or particulars of the places ; go on
blindly pursuing this path, and you will be shown what is to
follow. Seek only the kingdom of God and His justice by love
and obedience, and all the rest will be added to you. We meet
with many souls who are distressed about themselves, and inquire
anxiously, " WRo will direct us so that we may become mortified
and holy, and attain perfection ? " Let them search in books
for the description and characteristics of this marvellous work,
its nature and qualities ; but as for you, do you remain peacefully
united to God by love, and follow blindly the clear straight path
of duty. The angels are at your side during this time of darkness,
and they will bear you up. If God requires more of you, He will
make it known to you by His inspirations.
SECTION VII. Trust in the Guidance of God,
The docile soul will not seek to learn by what road God is
conducting it.
When God makes Himself the guide of a soul He exacts from
it an absolute confidence in Him, and a freedom from any sort
of disquietude as to the way in which He conducts it. This
soul, therefore, is urged on without perceiving the path traced
out before it. It does not imitate either what it has seen, or
what it has read, but proceeds by its own action, and cannot do
otherwise without grave risk. The divine action is ever fresh,
it never retraces its steps, but always marks out new ways.
Souls that are conducted by it never know where they are
going ; their ways are neither to be found in books, nor in their
own minds ; the divine action carries them step by step, and they
progress only according to its movement.
When you are conducted by a guide who takes you through an
unknown country at night across fields where there are no tracks,
by his own skill, without asking advice from anyone, or giving
you any inkling of his plans ; how can you choose but abandon
yourself ? Of what use is it looking about to find out where you
are, to ask the passers-by, or to consult maps and travellers ?
The plans or fancies of a guide who insists on being trusted would
60 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
not allow of this. He would take pleasure in overcoming the
anxiety and distrust of the soul, and would insist on an entire
surrender to his guidance. If one is convinced that he is a good
guide one must have faith in him, and abandon oneself to his
care.
The divine action is essentially good ; it does not need to be
reformed or controlled. It began at the creation of the world,
and to the present time has manifested ever fresh energy. Its
operations are without limit, its fecundity inexhaustible. It
acted in one way yesterday, to-day it acts differently. It
is the same action applied at each moment to produce ever new
effects, and it will extend from eternity to eternity. It has
produced Abel, Noah, Abraham, all different types ; Isaac,
also original, and Jacob from no copy ; neither does Joseph
follow any prefigure. Moses has no prototype among his pro-
genitors. David and the Prophets are quite apart from the
Patriarchs. St. John the Baptist stands alone. Jesus Christ
is the first-born ; the Apostles act more by the guidance of His
spirit than in imitation of His works.
Jesus Christ did not set a limit for Himself, neither did He
follow all His own maxims to the letter. The Holy Spirit ever in-
spired His holy soul, and, being entirely abandoned to its every
breath, it had no need to consult the moment that had passed,
to know how to act in that which was coming. The breath of
grace shaped every moment according to ' the eternal truths
subsisting in the invisible and unfathomable wisdom of the Blessed
Trinity. The soul of Jesus Christ received these directions
at every moment, and acted upon them externally. The Gospel
shows in the life of Jesus Christ a succession of these truths ;
and this same Jesus who lives and works always, continues to
live and work in the souls of His saints.
If you would live according to the Gospel, abandon yourself
simply and entirely to the action of God. Jesus Christ is its
supreme mouthpiece. " He was yesterday, is to-day, and will be
for ever " (Hebr. xiii, 8) ; continuing, not recommencing His
life. What He has done is finished ; what remains to be done is
being carried on at every moment. Each saint receives a share in
this divine life, and in each, Jesus Christ is different, although
the same in Himself. The life of each saint is the life of Jesus
Christ ; it is a new gospel. The cheeks of the spouse are com-
pared to beds of flowers, to gardens filled with fragrant blossoms.
The divine action is the gardener, admirably arranging the flower
beds. This garden resembles no other, for among all the flowers
there are no two alike, or that can be described as being of the
same species, except in the fidelity with which they respond
to the action of the Creator, in leaving Him free to do as He
TRUST IN THE GUIDANCE OF GOD 61
pleases, and, on their side, obeying the laws imposed on them
by their nature. Let God act, and let us do what He requires
of us ; this is the Gospel ; this is the general Scripture, and the
common law.
SECTION VIII. Great Faith is Necessary.
This total abandonment is as simple as its effects are mar-
vellous.
Such then is the straight path to sanctity. Such is the state
of perfection, and of the duties imposed by it ; such the great
and incomparable secret of abandonment ; a secret that is, in
reality, no secret, an art without art.
God, who exacts it of all, has explained it clearly, and made
it intelligible, and quite simple. What is obscure in the way of
pure faith is not necessary for the soul in that way, to practise ;
there is, in fact, nothing more easy to understand, nor more
luminous ; ' the mystery is only in what is done by God.
This is what takes place in the Blessed Eucharist. That
which is necessary to change bread into the Body of Jesus Christ,
is so clear and so easy that the most ignorant priest is capable
of doing it ; yet it is the mystery of mysteries, where all is so
hidden, so obscure, so incomprehensible that the more spiritual
and enlightened one is, the more faith is required to believe it.
The way of pure faith presents much that is similar. Its effect
is to enable one to find God at each moment ; it is this that makes
it so exalted, so mystical, so blessed. It is an inexhaustible
fund of thought, of discourse, of writing, it is a whole collection,
and source of wonders. To produce so prodigious an effect but
one thing is necessary ; to let God act, and to do all that He wills
according to one's state. Nothing in the spiritual life could
be easier, nor more within the power of everyone ; and yet
nothing could be more wonderful, nor any path more obscure.
To walk in it the soul has need of great faith, all the more so. as
reason is always suspicious, and has always some argument
against it. All its ideas are confused. There is nothing in it
that reason has ever known or read about, or been accustomed
to admire ; it is something quite new. " The Prophets were
saints, but this Jesus is a sorcerer," said the Jews. If the soul
following their example, is scandalised, it shows but little faith,
and well deserves to be deprived of those wonderful things that
God is so ready to work in the faithful soul.
6z ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
CHAPTER III.
THE TRIALS CONNECTED WITH THE STATE OF ABANDONMENT.
SECTION I. Unwise Interference.
The first trial : the obloquy and unreasonable exactions of
persons with a reputation for wisdom and piety.
There is no way more secure than that of abandonment, and
none more easy, sweet, clear, and less subject to illusion and error.
In it God is loved and all Christian duties fulfilled ; the Sacra-
ments are frequented, and all the exterior acts of religion which
are binding to all are performed. Superiors are obeyed, and the
duties of the state of life are discharged ; temptations of the
flesh, the world, and the devil are continually resisted ; for none
are more on guard, or more vigilant in acquitting themselves of
all their obligations, than those who follow this way.
If this is the case, why is it that they should be subject to
so many contradictions ? The most usual of these is, that when
they, like other Christians, have accomplished all that the most
strict theologian could exact, they are expected also to be bound
to inconvenient practices to which the Church by no means
obliges them ; and if they do not comply they are charged with
labouring under illusion. But I ask, can a Christian who confines
himself to the observance of God's commandments, and those
of the Church, and who, besides, without practising meditation,
contemplation, or spiritual reading, and without being attached
to any particular form of devotion, yet attends to worldly
business, and to other affairs of private life can he be wrong ?
One cannot presume to accuse, or even to suspect him of error.
One must admit this to oneself, and while leaving the Christian
of whom I am speaking in peace, it is but justice not to trouble
a soul that not only fulfils the precepts at least as well as one
does oneself, but who, in addition, practises exterior acts of
piety that are even unknown to others, or, if known, are treated
with indifference. Prejudice goes so far as to affirm that this
soul deceives itself, and deludes itself because, after having sub-
mitted to all that the Church prescribes, it holds itself free to be
in the condition to give itself without hindrance to the interior
operations of God, and to attend to the impressions of His grace
at times when no other duty intervenes to expressly compel them.
In a word they are condemned because they employ that time
UNWISE INTERFERENCE 63
which others give to amusements and temporal affairs, in loving
God. Is not this a crying injustice ? This cannot be too strong-
ly insisted upon. If anyone keeps the ordinary course, goes to
confession once a year, nothing is said about it, he is left in peace
with an occasional injunction, not pressed with too much im-
portunity, nor making it an obligation, to do a little more. If
he should change his ways and try to improve them, then he is over-
whelmed with counsels for his conduct, and with different
methods ; and if he does not follow these pious rules diligently,
then he is done for, he is a subject of suspicion, and nothing is
too bad to predict of him.
Are they not aware that these practices, however good and
holy they may be, are, after all, only a way leading to divine
union ? Is it necessary, then, to be always on the road when one
has already arrived at the goal.
Nevertheless, it is this that is exacted of a soul which is sup-
posed to be labouring under illusion. This soul has made its
way, like others, at the beginning ; like them it knew what to
do, and did it faithfully ; it would be vain now to attempt to
keep it bound to the same practices. Since God, moved by the
efforts it has made to advance with these helps, has taken it
on Himself to lead it to this happy union, from the time it arrived
at the state of abandonment, and by love possessed God ; in
fine,f from the time that the God of all goodness, relieving
it o all its trouble and industry, made Himself the principle
of its operations, these first methods lost all their value and were
but the road it had traversed. To insist upon these methods
being resumed and constantly followed, would be to make
the soul forsake the end at which it had arrived to re-enter
the way which led to it. But, if this soul has any experience,
their time and trouble will be thrown away. In vain will they
pursue it with noisy clamours ; turning a deaf ear it will remain
untroubled and unmoved in that intimate peace in which it so
advantageously exercises its love. This is the centre in which
it reposes, or, if you prefer it, it is the straight line traced by
the hand of God. It will continue to walk therein, for all its
duties are plainly marked out in it and by following this line
it fulfils them without confusion or haste as they present them-
selves. For all else it holds itself in perfect liberty, always
ready to obey every movement of grace directly it perceives it,
and to abandon itself to the care of Providence. God makes
known to this soul that He intends to be its Master, and to direct
it by His grace ; and makes it understand that it cannot, without
attacking the sovereign rights of its Creator, allow its own liberty
to be fettered. It feels that, if it tied itself down to the rules
of those who live by their own efforts and industry, instead of
64 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
acting according to the attraction of grace, it would be deprived
of many things necessary in order to be able to fulfil future
duties. But, as no one knows this, it is judged and condemned
for its simplicity, and, though it does not find fault with others
but approves of every state, and well knows how to discern every
degree of progress, it is despised by pretended wiseacres who
cannot appreciate this sweet and hearty submission to divine
Providence.
Worldly wisdom cannot understand the perpetual wanderings
of the Apostles, who did not settle anywhere. Ordinary spiritu-
ality also cannot endure that souls should depend for their action
on divine Providence. There are but few in this state who
approve of them, but God, who instructs men by means of their
fellow creatures, never fails to make such souls encounter those
who abandon themselves to Him with simplicity and fidelity.
Besides, these latter require less direction than others in conse-
quence of having attained to this state with the help of very
good directors. If they find that they are occasionally left to
themselves, it is because divine Providence removes by death,
or banishes by some event, the guides who have led them in this
way. Even then, they are always willing to be guided, and only
wait in peace the moment arranged by Providence. During the
time of privation also, they meet from time to time persons
in whom they feel they can repose a confidence inspired by
God, although they know nothing about them. This is a sign
that He makes use of them to communicate certain lights,
even if these are only temporary. These souls ask advice,
therefore, and when it is given they follow it with the greatest
docility. In default of such assistance however, they have
recourse to the maxims supplied to them by their first directors.
Thus they are always very well directed, either by the old prin-
ciples formerly received, or by the advice of those directors
they encounter, and they make use of all until God sends them
persons in whom they can confide, and who will show them His
will.
SECTION II. Unjust Judgments.
Second trial of the state of abandonment. The apparent
uselessness and exterior defects allowed by God in the souls
He wills to raise to this state.
The second trial of souls conducted by God in this way is the
result of their apparent uselessness, and of their exterior defects.
There can be neither honour nor reward in a service hidden,
UNJUST JUDGMENTS 65
often enough, under the most utter incapacity and uselessness,
as far as the world is concerned. Doubtless those who are given
more important posts, are not, on this account, necessarily
precluded from the state of abandonment. Less still is this
state incompatible with striking virtue, and that sanctity which
attracts universal veneration. Nevertheless there is a far
greater number of souls raised to this sublime state whose virtue
is known only to God. By. their state these souls are free from
nearly every outward obligation. They are little suited for
worldly business or affairs, for complicated concerns, or for
putting their mind into the conducting of industries. It seems
as though they were quite useless ; nothing is noticeable in them
but feebleness of body, mind, imagination and passions. They
take no notice of anything. They are, so to say, quite stupid,
and possess nothing of that culture, study, or reflexion which
go to the making of a man. They are like children of nature
before they are placed in the hands of masters to be formed.
They have noticeable faults which, without rendering them more
guilty than children, cause more offence. God takes away
everything but innocence in order that they should have nothing
to rely upon but Him alone. The world, being in ignorance of
this mystery can only judge by appearance, and can find nothing
in them to its taste, nor anything that it values. It, therefore,
rejects and despises them, and they seem to be exposed to censure
from all. The more closely they are observed, the less is thought
of them and the more opposition do they encounter ; no one
knows what to make of them. Although some hidden voice
seems to speak in their favour, yet people prefer to adhere to
their own malignant prepossessions rather than to follow this
instinct, or at least to suspend their judgment. Their actions
are pried into to find out their opinions, and like the Pharisees
who could not endure the actions of Jesus, they are regarded
with such prejudice that everything they do appears either
ridiculous or criminal.
SECTION III. Self -Contempt.
The third trial : interior humiliations.
Contemptible as they are in the eyes of others, the souls
raised by God to this state are far more contemptible in their
own. There is nothing either in what they do, or in what they
suffer that is not altogether paltry and humiliating ; there is
nothing striking in anything about them, all is quite ordinary,
66 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
nothing but troubles and afflictions interiorly, and contradictions
and disappointments exteriorly. With a feeble body requiring
many alleviations and comforts, the very reverse one would think
of that spirit of poverty and austerity so much admired in the
saints. Neither heroic undertakings, nor fasts, large alms,
nor ardent and far-reaching zeal can be discerned in them ;
but united to God by faith and love they behold in themselves
nothing but disorder. They despise themselves still more by
comparison with those who pass for saints, and who, besides
adapting themselves with facility to rules and methods show
nothing irregular either in their persons or actions. Therefore
their own short-comings in this respect fill them with confusion,
and are unbearable to them. It is on this account that they
give way to sighs and tears, marking the grief with which they
are oppressed. Let us remember that Jesus Christ was both
God and man ; as man He was destroyed, and as G od He re-
mained full of glory. These souls have no participation in His
glory, but they share in the sadness and misery of His sufferings.
Men regard them in the same way as Herod and his court re-
garded Jesus Christ. These poor souls, therefore, are nourished
as to their senses and mind, with a most disgusting food, in
which they can find no pleasure. They aspire to something
quite different, but all the avenues leading to the sanctity they
so much desire, remain closed to them. They must live on this
bread of suffering, on this bread mingled with ashes, with a
continual shrinking both exterior and interior. They have
formed an idea of saintliness which gives them constant and
irremediable torment. The will hungers for it, but is powerless
to practise it. Why should this be, except to mortify the soul
in that which is its most spiritual and intimate part, which,
finding no satisfaction or pleasure in anything that happens
to it, must needs place all its affection in God who conducts
it this way for the express purpose of preventing it taking pleasure
in anything but Him alone.
It seems to me that it is easy to conclude from all this that
souls abandoned to God cannot occupy themselves, as others
do, with desires, examinations, cares, or attachments to certain
persons. Neither can they form plans, nor lay down methodical
rules for their actions, or for reading. This would imply that
they still had power to dispose of themselves, which would
entirely exclude the state of abandonment in which they are
placed. In this state they give up to God all their rights over
themselves, over their words, actions, thoughts, and proceedings ;
over the employment of their time arid everything connected
with it. There remains only one desire, to satisfy the Master
they have chosen, to listen unceasingly to the expression of His
SELF-CONTEMPT 67
will in order to execute it immediately. No condition can better
represent this state than tha of a servant who obeys every order
he receives, and does not occupy his time in attending to his
own affairs ; these he neglects in order to serve His Master at
every moment. These souls then should not be distressed at
their powerlessness ; they are able to do much in being able to
give themselves entirely to a Master who is all-powerful, and
able to work wonders with the feeblest of instruments if they
offer no resistance.
Let us, then, endure without annoyance the humiliations
entailed on us in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, by what
shows outwardly in our lives ; or rather, let us conceal ourselves
behind these outward appearances and enjoy God who is all ours.
Let us profit by this apparent failure, by these requirements,
by this care-taking and the necessity of constant nourishment,
and of comfort ; of our ill-success, of the contempt of others,
of these fears, uncertainties, troubles, etc., to find all our wealth
and happiness in God, who, by these means, gives Himself entirely
to us as our only good. God wishes to be ours in a poor way,
without all those accessories of sanctity which make others to
be admired, and this is because God would have Himself to be
the sole food of our souls, the only object of our desires. We are
so weak that if we displayed the virtues of zeal, almsgiving,
poverty, and austerity, we should make them subjects for
vainglory. But as it is, everything is disagreeable in order
that God may be our whole sanctification, our whole support,
so that the world despises us, and leaves us to enjoy our treasure
in peace. God desires to be the principle of all that is holy in
us, and therefore what depends on ourselves and on our active
fidelity is very small, and appears quite contrary to sanctity.
There cannot be anything great in us in the sight of God except
our passive 'endurance. Therefore let us think of it no more,
let us leave the care of our sanctification to God who well knows
how to effect it. It all depends on the watchful care, and
particular operation of divine Providence, and is accomplished
in a great measure without our knowledge, and even in a way
that is unexpected, and disagreeable to us. Let us fulfil peace-
fully the little duties of our active fidelity, without aspiring to
those that are greater, because God does not give Himself to
us by reason of our own efforts. We shall become saints of God,
of His grace, and of His special providence. He knows what
rank to give us, let us leave it to Him, and without forming to
ourselves false ideas, and empty systems of sanctity, let us con-
tent ourselves with loving Him unceasingly, and in pursuing
with simplicity the path He has marked out for us, where all is so
mean and paltry in our eyes, and in the estimation of the world
68 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
SECTION IV. Distrust of Self.
The fourth trial of souls in the state of abandonment ; the
obscurity of their state, and their apparent opposition to the
will of God.
For a soul that desires nothing else but the will of God, what
could be more miserable than the impossibility of being certain
of loving Him ? Formerly it was mentally enlightened to per-
ceive in what consisted the plan for its perfection, but it is no
longer able to do so in its present state. Perfection is given to
it contrary to all preconceived ideas, to all light, to all feeling.
It is given by all the crosses sent by Providence, by the action
of present duties, by certain attractions which have in them
no good beyond that of not leading to sin ; but seem very far
from the dazzling sublimity of sanctity, and all that is unusual
in virtue. God and His grace are given in a hidden and strange
manner, for the soul feels too weak to bear the weight of its
crosses, and disgusted with its obligations. Its attractions are
only for quite ordinary exercises. The ideal it has formed of
sanctity reproaches it interiorly for its mean and contemptible
disposition. All books treating of the lives of the saints condemn
it, it- can find nothing in vindication of its conduct ; it beholds a
brilliant sanctity which renders it disconsolate because it has
not strength sufficient to attain to it, and it does not see that its
weakness is divinely ordered, but looks upon it as cowardice.
Those whom it knows to be distinguished for striking virtue,
of sublime contemplation regard it only with contempt. " What
a strange saint," say they ; and the soul, believing this, and
confused by its countless useless efforts to raise itself from this
low condition, is overwhelmed with opprobrium, and has nothing
to advance in its own favour either to itself or to others. The
soul in this state feels as if it were lost. Its reflexions afford it
no help for its guidance, or enlightenment, and divine grace
seems to have failed it. It is, however, through this loss that
it finds again that same grace substituted under a different
form, and restoring a hundredfold more than it took away
by the purity of its hidden impressions.
This is, without doubt, a death-blow to the soul, for it loses
sight of the divine will which, so to speak, withdraws itself from
observation to stand behind it and push it on, becoming thus
its invisible principle, and no longer its clearly defined object.
Experience proves that nothing kindles the desire more than
this apparent loss ; therefore the soul vehemently desires to be
DISTRUST OF SELF 69
united to the divine will, and gives vent to the most profound
sighs, finding no possible consolation anywhere. A heart that
has no other wish but to possess God must attract Him to itself,
and this secret of love is a very great one since by this way al one
are established in the soul sure faith and firm hope. It is then
that we believe what we cannot see, and expect to possess
what we cannot feel. Oh ! how much does this incompre-
hensible conduct of an action, of which one is both subject and
instrument, tend to one's perfection without any visible sign of
appearance. Everything that one does seems done by chance,
or natural inclination, and is very humiliating to the soul.
When inspired to speak, it seems as if one spoke only from oneself.
One never sees by what spirit one is impelled ; the most divine
inspiration is a terror, and whatever one does or feels is a source
of constant self-contempt, as though it were all faulty and
imperfect. Others are always admired, and one feels very
inferior to them, while their whole way of acting causes confusion.
The soul distrusts its own judgment, and cannot be certain
about any of its thoughts ; it pays excessive submission to the
least advice given by a respectable authority, and the divine
action in thus keeping it apart from striking virtue seems to
plunge it into deeperhumiliation. This humiliation has no
appearance of virtue to the soul ; according to its own idea it
is pure justice. The most admirable thing about it is, that in
the eyes of others whom God does not enlighten, and even in its
own eyes, the soul appears actuated by feelings absolutely
contrary to virtue, such as pure obstinacy, disobedience, trouble-
someness, contempt, and indignation, for which there seems no
remedy. The more earnestly the soul strives to overcome these
defects the more do they increase, because they form part of the
design of God as being the most suitable means of detaching
the soul from itself to prepare it for the divine union.
It is from this sad trial that the principal merit of the state
of abandonment is gained. Now all is of a nature to withdraw
the soul from its narrow path of love and simple obedience and
it requires heroic virtue and courage to keep firm in plain active
fidelity, and to sing its part in a song that seems to express in
its tones that the soul is mistaken and lost ; while grace sings a
second. It does not hear this, however, and if it has courage
to let the thunder roll, the lightning flash, and the tempest roar,
and to walk with a firm tread in the path of love and obedience,
of duty, and of the present attraction, it can be compared to the
soul of Jesus during His passion, when our divine Saviour walked
steadfastly in the fulfilling of the will of His Father, and in His
love which imposed upon Him a task apparently quite incon-
sistent with the dignity of a soul of such sanctity as His.
jo ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
The hearts of Jesus and Mary, bearing the fury of that darkest
of nights, let the clouds gather, and the storm rage. A multitude
of things in appearance most opposed to the designs of God
and of His order, overwhelmed their faculties ; but though
deprived of all sensible support they walked without faltering
in the path of love and obedience. Their eyes were fixed only
on what they had to do, and leaving God to act as He pleased
with all that concerned them, they endured the whole weight
of that divine action. They groaned under the burden, but
not for a single instant did they waver or pause. They believed
that all would be well, provided that they kept on their way
and let God act.
SECTION V. The Life of Faith.
The fruit of these trials. The conduct of the submissive soul-
It results from all that has just been described that, in the path
of pure faith, all that takes place spiritually, physically, and
temporarily, has the aspect of death. This is not to be wondered
at. What else could be expected ? It is natural to this state.
God has His plans for souls, and under this disguise He carries
them out very successfully. Under the name of " disguise "
I include ill-success, corporal infirmities, and spiritual weakness.
All succeeds, and turns to good in the hands of God. It is by
those things that are a trouble to nature that He prepares for
the accomplishment of His greatest designs. " Omnia co-
operantur in bonum iis qui secundum propositum vocati sunt
sancti." " All things work together unto good to such as
according to His purpose are called to be saints." (Rom. viii, 28).
He brings life out of the shadow of death ; therefore, when nature
is afraid, faith, which takes everything in a good sense, is full
of courage and confidence. To live by faith is to live by joy,
confidence, and certainty about all that has to be done or suffered
at each moment according to the designs of God. It is in order
to animate and to maintain this life of faith that God allows the
soul to be plunged into and carried away by the rough waters
of so many pains, troubles, difficulties, fatigues and overthrows ;
for it requires faith to find God in all these things. The divine
life is given at every moment in a hidden but very sure manner,
under different appearances, such as the death of the body,
the supposed loss of the soul, and the confusion of all earthly
affairs. In all these, faith finds its food and support. It pierces
through all, and clings to the hand of God, the giver of life.
THE LIFE OF FAITH 71
Through all that does not partake of the nature of sin, the faithful
soul should proceed with confidence, taking it all as a veil, or
disguise of God whose immediate presence alarms and at the
same time reassures the faculties of the soul. In fact this great
God who consoles the humble, gives the soul in the midst of its
greatest desolation an interior assurance that it has nothing to
fear, provided it allows Him to act, and abandons itself entirely
to Him. It is grieved because it has lost its Well-beloved, and
yet something assures it that it possesses Him. It is troubled
and disturbed, yet nevertheless has in its depths I know not
what important grounds for attaching itself steadfastly to God.
" Truly," said Jacob, " God is in this place, and I knew it not "
(Gen. xxviii, 16). You seek God and He is everywhere ; every-
thing proclaims Him, everything gives Him to you. He walks
by your side, is around you and within you : there He lives,
and yet you seek Him. You seek your own idea of God while
all the time you possess Him substantially. You seek perfec-
tion, and it is in everything that presents itself to you. Your
sufferings, your actions, your attractions are the species under
which God gives Himself to you, while you are vainly striving
after sublime ideas which He by no means assumes in order to
dwell in you.
Martha tried to please Jesus by cooking nice dishes, but Mary
was content to be with Jesus in any way that He wished to give
Himself to her ; but when Mary sought Him in the garden accord-
ing to the idea she had formed of Him, He eluded her by present-
ing Himself in the form of a gardener. The Apostles saw Jesus,
but mistook Him for a phantom. God disguises Himself,
therefore, to raise the soul to the state of pure faith, to teach it
to find Him under every kind of appearance ; for, when it has
discovered this secret of God, it is in vain for Him to disguise
Himself ; it says, " He is there, behind the wall, He is looking
through the lattice, looking from the windows " (Cant, ii, 9).
Oh ! divine Love, hide yourself, proceed from one trial to
another, bind by attractions, blend, confuse, or break like threads
all the ideas and methods of the soul. May it stray hither and
thither for want of light, and be unable to see or understand
in what path it should walk ; formerly it found You dwelling
in Your ordinary guise, in the peaceful repose of solitude and
prayer, or in suffering ; even in the consolations You give
to others, in the course of conversation, or in business ; but now
after having tried every method known to please you, it has to
stand aside not seeing You in any of these things as in former
times. May the uselessness of its efforts teach it to seek You
henceforth in Yourself, which means to seek You everywhere,
in all things without distinction and without reflexion ; for,
72 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
oh divine Love ! what a mistake it is, not to find you in all
that is good, and in every creature. Why then seek You in any
other way than that by which You desire to give Yourself?
Why, divine Love, seek You under any other species than those
which You have chosen for Your Sacrament ? The less there
is to be seen or felt so much the more scope for faith and obedi-
ence. Do You not give fecundity to the root hidden under-
ground, and can You not, if You so will, make this darkness
in which You are pleased to keep me, fruitful ? Live then,
little root of my heart, in the deep, invisible heart of God ;
and by its power, send forth branches, leaves, flowers and
fruits, which, although invisible to yourself, are a pure joy and
nourishment to others. Without consulting your own taste
give of your shade, flowers, and fruit to others. May all that
is grafted on you receive that indeterminate sap which will be
known only by the growth and appearance of those same grafts.
Become all to all, but as to yourself remain abandoned and in-
different. Remain in the dark and narrow prison of your
miserable cocoon, little worm, until the warmth of grace forms
you, and sets you free. Then feed upon whatever leaves it
offers you, and do not regret, in the activity of abandonment,
the peace you have lost. Stop directly the divine action would
have you stop, and be content to lose, in the alternations of
repose and activity, in incomprehensible changes, all your
old formulas, methods and ways, to take upon you those de-
signed for you by the divine action. Thus you will spin your
silk in secret, doing what you can neither see nor feel. You will
condemn in yourself a secret envy of your companions who are
apparently dead and motionless, because they have not yet
arrived at the point that you have attained ; you continue to
admire them although you have surpassed them. May your
affliction in your abandonment continue while you spin a silk
in which the princes of the Church and of the world and all
sorts of souls will glory to be attired.
After that what will become of you, little worm ? by what
outlet will you come forth ? Oh ! marvel of grace by which souls
are moulded in so many different shapes ! Who can guess in
what direction grace will guide it ? And who could guess either,
what nature does with a silkworm if he had not seen it working ?
It is only necessary to provide it with leaves, and nature does
the rest.
Therefore no soul can tell from whence it came, nor whither
it is going ; neither from what thought of God the divine wisdom
drew it, nor to what end it tends. Nothing is left but an entire
passive abandonment, and to allow this divine Wisdom to act
without interfering by our own reflexions, examples and methods.
THE LIFE OF FAITH 73
We must act when the time to act comes, and cease when it is
time to stop ; if necessary letting all be lost, and thus, acting or
remaining passive according to attraction and abandonment we,
insensibly, do, or leave undone without knowing what will be
the result ; and after many changes the formed soul receives
wings and flies up to Heaven, leaving a plentiful harvest on earth
for other souls to gather.
74 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
CHAPTER IV.
CONCERNING THE ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY THE FATHERLY
PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO THOSE SOULS WHO HAVE ABANDONED-
THEMSELVES TO HIM.
SECTION I. Confidence in God,
The less the soul in the state of abandonment feels the help
it receives from God, the more efficaciously does He sustain it.
There is a kind of sanctity in which all the communications
of God are luminous and distinct ; but in the passive state of
pure faith all that God communicates partakes of the nature
of that inaccessible darkness that surrounds His throne, and
all ideas are confused and indistinct. The soul, in this state of
obscurity is often afraid, like the Prophet, of running headlong
against a rock. " Fear not, faithful soul, for this is your right
path, and the way by which God conducts you. There is no
way more safe and sure than this dark way of faith." " But
it is so dark that I cannot tell which way to go." " Go wherever
you please ; you cannot lose the way where there is no path ;
every way looks the same in the dark, you cannot see the end
because nothing is visible." " But I am afraid of everything.
I feel as if, at any moment, I might fall over a precipice. Every-
thing is an affliction to me ; I well know that I am acting accord-
ing to abandonment, but it seems to me that there are things I
cannot do without acting contrary to virtue. I seem to be so
far from all the virtues. The more I wish to practise them the
more remote they seem. I love virtue, but the obscure impres-
sions by which I am attracted seem to keep virtue far from me.
I always give in to this attraction, and although I cannot per-
ceive that it guides me well, I cannot help following it. The
spirit seeks light ; but the heart is in darkness. Enlightened
persons, and those with lucid minds are congenial to my spirit,
but when I hear conversations and listen to discourses, my heart
understands nothing ; its whole state and way is simply an
impression of the gift of faith, which makes it love and appre-
ciate those principles, truths, and paths wherein the spirit has
neither object nor idea, and in which it trembles, shudders, and
falters. I have an assurance, I do not know how, in the depths
of my heart, that this way is right ; not by the evidence of my
senses, but by a feeling inspired by faith." This is because it
CONFIDENCE IN GOD 75
is impossible for God to lead a soul without persuading it that
the path is a right one, and this with a certainty all the greater
the less it is perceived. And this certainty is victorious over all
censures, fears, efforts, and all imaginations. The mind vainly
cries out and seeks some better way. The bride recognises the
Bridegroom unconsciously, but when she stretches out her hand
to hold Him, He disappears. She understands that the Spouse
to whom she belongs has rights over her, and she prefers to wander
without order or method in abandoning herself to His guidance
rather than to endeavour to gain confidence by following the
beaten tracks of virtue.
Let us go to God, then, my soul, in abandonment, and let us
acknowledge that we are incapable of acquiring virtue by our
own industry or effort ; but let us not allow this absence of
particular virtues to diminish our confidence. Our divine Guide
would not have reduced us to the necessity of walking if He had
not intended to carry us in His arms. What need have we of
lights and certainties, ideas and reflexions ? Of what use would
it be to us to see, to know, and to feel, when we are no longer
walking but being carried in the arms of divine Providence. The
more we have to suffer from darkness, and the more rocks,
precipices, and deserts there are in our way ; the more we have
to endure from fears, dryness, weariness of mind, anguish of
soul, and even despair, and the sight of purgatory and hell,
the greater must be our confidence and faith. One glance at
Him who carries us is sufficient to restore our courage in the
greatest peril. We will forget the paths and what they are like ;
we will forget ourselves, and abandoning ourselves entirely to
the wisdom, goodness, and power of our Guide we will think
only of loving Him, and avoiding all sin, not only that which
is evident, however venial it may be, but even the appearance of
evil, and of fulfilling all the duties and obligations of our state.
This is the only charge You lay upon Your children, O divine
Love ! all the rest You take upon Yourself. The more terrible
this may be, the more surely can Your presence be felt and
recognised. Your children have only to love You without
ceasing, and to fulfil their small duties like children. A child
on its mother's lap is occupied only with its games as if it had
nothing else to do but to play with its mother. The soul should
soar above the clouds, and, as no one can work during the dark-
ness of the night, it is the time for repose. The light of reason
can do nothing but deepen the darkness of faith : the radiance
necessary to disperse it must proceed from the same source as
itself. In this state God communicates Himself to the soul as
its life, but He is no longer visible as its way, and its truth.
The bride seeks the Bridegroom during this night ; she seeks
j6 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Him before her, and hurries forward ; but He is behind her, and
holding her with His hands. He is no longer object, or idea, but
principle and source. For all the needs, difficulties, troubles, falls,
overthrows, persecutions, and uncertainties of souls which have
lost all confidence in themselves and their own action, there are
secret and inspired resources in the divine action, marvellous and
unknown. The more perplexing the circumstances the keener
is the expectation of a satisfactory solution. The heart says " All
goes well, it is God who carries on the work, there is nothing
to fear." That very suspense and desolation are verses in the
canticle of darkness. It is a joy that not a single syllable is left
out, and it all ends in a " Gloria Patri " ; therefore we pursue
the way of our wanderings, and darkness itself is a light for our
guidance ; and doubts are our best assurance. The more puzzled
Isaac was to find something to sacrifice, the more completely did
Abraham place all in the hands of Providence, and trust entirely
in God.
SECTION II. Diversity of Grace.
The afflictions which the soul is made to endure are but loving
artifices of God which will, one day, give it great joy.
Souls that walk in light sing the canticles of the light ; those
that walk in darkness sing the songs of the darkness. Both
must be allowed to sing to the end the part allotted to them by
God in the great Oratorio. Nothing must be added to the score,
nothing left out ; every drop of bitterness must be allowed to
flow freely at whatever cost. It was thus with Jeremias and
Ezechiel whose utterances were broken by tears and sobs, and
who could find no consolation except in continuing their lamenta-
tions. Had the course of their grief been interrupted, we should
have lost the most beautiful passages of Scripture. The Spirit
that afflicts can also console ; these diverse waters flow from the
same source. When God appears angry the soul trembles ; when
He threatens it is terrified. The divine operation must be allowed
to develop, for, with the evil it carries a remedy ; so continue to
weep and to tremble ; let restlessness and agony invade your
souls, make no effort to free yourselves from these divine terrors,
these heavenly troubles, but open your hearts to receive these
little streams from that immense sea of sorrows which God bore
in His most holy soul. Sow in sorrow for as long as grace
requires, and that same grace will gradually dry your tears.
Darkness will disappear before the radiance of the sun, springtime
will come with its flowers, and the result of your abandonment
DIVERSITY OF GRACE 77
will be seen in the admirable diversity of the divine action.
Indeed it is quite useless for man to trouble himself; all that
takes place in him is like a dream. One cloud chases another
like imaginations in the brain of the sleeper, some sorrowful,
others consoling. The soul is the playground of these phantoms
which follow each other with great rapidity, and on awaking
it feels that, in all this, there is nothing to detain it. When these
impressions have passed away it takes no notice of the joys or
sorrows of dreams.
O Lord ! it can" be truly said that You carry Your children in
Your arms during this long night of faith, and that You are
pleased to allow an infinite variety of thoughts to pass through
their minds ; thoughts holy and mysterious. In the state in
which these dreams of the night place them, they indeed exper-
ience the utmost torment of fear, anguish, and weariness, but
on the bright day of eternal glory these will give place to a true
and solid joy.
It is at the moment of, and just after the awakening that holy
souls, returning to themselves, and with full right to judge, can
never tire of admiring and praising the tact, the inventions and
refinements of loving deception practised by the divine Spouse.
They understand how impenetrable are His ways, how impossible
it is to guess His enigmas, to find out His disguises, or to receive
consolation when it is His will to spread terror and alarm.
At this awakening those who, like Jeremias and David, have
been inconsolable in their grief, will see that in their desolation
they have been a subject of joy to the angels, and of glory to God.
The bride sleeps through the bustle of industries, and of human
actions, and in spite or the sneers of sceptics. In her sleep she
will sigh and tremble ; in her dreams she will pursue and seek
her Spouse, who disguises Himself to deceive her.
Let her dream ; her fears are only born of the night, and of
sleep. When the Spouse has exercised her beloved soul, and
shown forth in it what can only be expressed by Him, He will
develop the result of these dreams and will awaken it at the
right time.
Joseph caused Benjamin to weep, and his servants kept his
secret from this beloved brother. Joseph deceived him, and not
all his penetration and wit could fathom this deception. Ben-
jamin and his brothers were plunged in unspeakable sorrow,
but Joseph was only playing a trick on them, although the poor
brothers could see nothing but an evil without any remedy.
When he reveals himself and puts everything right they admire
his wisdom in making them think that all is lost, and to cause
them to despair about that which turns out to be a subject of the
greatest joy they have ever experienced.
7 8 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
SECTION III. The Generosity of God.
The more God seems to despoil the soul that is in the state of
abandonment, the more generous are His gifts.
Let us continue to advance in the knowledge of the divine
action and of its loving deceptions. That which it withdraws
from the perception, it bestows incognito, as it were, on the
goodwill. It never allows it to want for anything. It is as if
someone who had maintained a friend by bounties bestowed
personally upon him, should suddenly, for the welfare of this
same friend, pretend that he could no longer oblige him, yet
continues to assist him without making himself known. The
friend, not suspecting any stratagem in this mystery of love,
feels hurt, and entertains all sorts of ideas and criticisms on the
conduct of his benefactor.
When, however, the mystery begins to be revealed, God knows
what different feelings arise in the soul ; joy, tenderness, grati-
tude, love, confusion and admiration ; followed by an increase
of 2eal for, and attachment to the benefactor. And this trial
will be the means of strengthening the soul, and accustoming
it to similar surprises.
The application is easy. With God, the more one seems to
lose the more one gains. The more He strikes off of what is
natural, the more He gives of what is supernatural. He is
loved at first for His gifts, but when these are no longer per-
ceptible He is at last loved for Himself. It is by the apparent
withdrawal of these sensible gifts that He prepares the way for
that great gift which is the most precious and the most extensive
of all, since it embraces all others. Souls which have once for all
submitted themselves to the divine action, ought to interpret
everything favourably. Yes, everything ! even the loss of the
most excellent directors, and the want of confidence they cannot
help feeling in those who offer themselves for that post.
In truth those guides who, of their own accord, run after
souls, deserve to be distrusted. Those who are truly inspired by
the spirit of God do not, as a rule, show so much eagerness and
self-sufficiency. They do not come forward until they are
appealed to, and even then they proceed with caution. May
the soul that has given itself entirely to God pass without fear
through all these trials without losing its balance. Provided
it is faithful to the divine action, this all-powerful action can
produce marvels in it in spite of every obstacle.
God and the soul work in common, and the success of the work
depends entirely on the divine Workman, and can only be spoilt
if the soul prove unfaithful. When the soul is well* all is well,
THE MOST ORDINARY THINGS ARE CHANNELS OF GRACE 79
because what is from God, that is to say, His part and His
action are, as it were, the counterpoise of the fidelity of the soul.
It is the best part of the work, which is done something like
beautiful tapestry, stitch by stitch from the wrong side. The
worker employed on it sees only the stitch he is making, and the
needle with which he makes it, while all the stitches combined
form magnificent figures which do not show until, every part
being complete, the right side is turned outwards. All the
beauty and perfection jof the work remain in obscurity during
its progress. It is the same with the soul that has abandoned
itself to God ; it has eyes only for Him and for its duty. The
performance of this duty is, at each moment, but an imperceptible
stitch added to the work, and yet with these stitches God per-
forms wonders of which He sometimes allows a glimpse to be
seen, but which will not be visible in their entirety till revealed
on the great day of eternity. How full of goodness and wisdom
is the guidance of God ! He has so entirely kept for His own
grace, and His own action, all that is admirable, great, exalted
and sublime ; and so completely left to our souls, with the
aid of grace, all that- is little, light and easy, that there is no one
in the world who cannot easily reach a most eminent degree of
perfection in accomplishing lovingly the most ordinary and
obscure duties.
SECTION IV. The Most Ordinary Things are Channels of Grace.
In the state of abandonment God guides the soul more safely
the more completely He seems to blind it.
It is most especially with regard to souls that abandon them-
selves entirely to God that the words of St. John are applicable :
" You have no need that any man teach you, as His unction
teacheth you of all things " (i Eph., St. John, ii, 20). To know
what God demands of them they need only probe their own
hearts, and listen to the inspirations of this unction, which
interpret the will of God according to circumstances.
The divine action, concealed though it is, reveals its designs,
not through ideas, but intuitively. It shows them to the soul
either necessarily, by not permitting any other thing to be
chosen but what is actually present, or else by a sudden impulse,
a sort of supernatural feeling that impels the soul to act without
premeditation ; or, in fine, by some kind of inclination or aversion
which, while leaving it complete liberty, yet none the less leads
it to take or refuse what is presented to it. If one were to judge
by appearances, it seems as if it would be a great want of virtue
to be swayed and influenced in this manner ; and if one were to
80 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
judge by ordinary rules, there appears a want of regulation and
method in such conduct ; but in reality it is the highest degree
of virtue, and only after having practised it for a long time does
one succeed. The virtue in this state is pure virtue ; it is, in
fact, perfection itself. One is like a musician who combines
a perfect knowledge of music with technical skill : he would be
so full of his art that, without thinking, all that he performed
within its compass would be perfect ; and if his compositions
were examined afterwards, they would be found in perfect
conformity with prescribed rules. One would then become
convinced that he would never succeed better than when, free
from the rules that keep genius in fetters when too scrupulously
followed, he acted without constraint ; and that his impromptus
would be admired as chef d'ceuvres by all connoisseurs. Thus
the soul, trained for a long time in the science and practice of
perfection under the influence of reasonings and methods of
which it made use to assist grace, forms for itself a habit of acting
in all things by the instincts implanted by God. It then knows
that it can do nothing better than what first presents itself,
without all those arguments of which it had need formerly.
The only thing to be done is to act at random when unable to
trust in anything but the workings of grace which cannot mis-
lead it. The effects of grace, visible to watchful eyes, and in-
telligent minds, are nothing short of marvellous.
Without method, yet most exact ; without rule, yet most
orderly ; without reflexion, yet most profound ; without skill,
yet thoroughly well constructed ; without effort, yet everything
accomplished ; and without foresight, yet nothing better suited
to unexpected events. Spiritual reading with the divine action,
often contains a meaning that the author never thought of.
God makes use of the words and actions of others to infuse
truths which might otherwise have remained hidden. If He
wishes to impart light in this way, it is for the submissive soul
to avail itself of this light. Every expedient of the divine action
has an efficacy which always surpasses its apparent and natural
virtue.
It is the nature of abandonment always to lead a mysterious
life, and to receive great and miraculous gifts from God by means
of the most ordinary things, things that may be natural, acci-
dental, or that seem to happen by chance, and in which there
seems no other agency than the ordinary course of the ways of
the world, or of the elements. In this way the simplest sermons,
the most commonplace conversations, and the least high-toned
books, become to these souls, by the virtue of God's will, sources
of knowledge and wisdom. This is why they carefully gather
up the crumbs that sceptics trample underfoot. Everything is
NATURE AND GRACE THE INSTRUMENTS OF GOD 81
precious in their eyes, everything enriches them . They are
inexpressibly indifferent towards all things, and yet neglect
nothing, having a respect for, and making use of all things. As
God is everywhere, the use made of things by His will is not so
much the use of creatures, as the enjoyment of the divine action
which transmits His gifts by different channels. They cannot
sanctify of themselves, but only as instruments of the divine
action, which has power to communicate His grace, and often
does communicate it^to simple souls in ways and by means
which seem opposed to the end intended. It enlightens through
mud as well as through glass, and the instrument of which it
makes use is 'always singular. To it everything is alike. Faith
always believes that nothing is wanting to it, and never com-
plains of the privation of means which might prove useful for
its increase, because the Workman, who employs them effica-
ciously, supplies what is wanting by His action. The divine
action is the whole virtue of the creature.
SECTION V. Nature and Grace the Instruments of God.
The less capable the soul in the state of abandonment is of
defending itself, the more powerfully does God defend it.
The one and infallible influence of the divine action is invari-
ably applied to the submissive soul at an opportune moment,
and this soul corresponds in everything to its interior direction.
It is pleased with everything that has taken place, with every-
thing that is happening, and with all that effects it, with the
exception of sin. Sometimes the soul acts with full consciousness,
sometimes unknowingly, being led only by obscure instincts to
say, to do, or to leave certain things, without being able to give
a reason for its action.
Often the occasion and the determining reason are only
of the natural order ; the soul, perceiving no sort of mystery
therein, acts by pure chance, necessity, or convenience, and
its act has no other aspect either in its own eyes, or those of
others ; while all the time the divine action, through the
intellect, the wisdom, or the counsel of friends, makes use of
the simplest things in its favour. It makes them its own, and
opposes so persistently every effort prejudicial to them, that it
becomes impossible that these should succeed.
To have to deal with a simple soul is, in a certain way, to have
to deal with God. What can be done against the will of the
Almighty and His inscrutable designs ? God takes the cause
of the simple soul in hand. It is unnecessary for it to study
the intrigues of others, to trouble about their worries, or to
82 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
scrutini2e their conduct ; its Spouse relieves it of all these
anxieties, and it can rejpose in Him full of peace, and in security.
The divine action frees and exempts the soul from all those
low and noisy ways so necessary to human prudence. These
suited Herod and the Pharisees, but the Magi had only to follow
their star in peace. The child has but to rest in His Mother's
arms. His enemies do- more to advance His interests than to
hinder His work. The greater efforts they exert to thwart,
and to take Him unawares, the more freely and tranquilly does
He act. He never humours them, nor basely truckles to them
to make them turn aside their blows ; their jealousies, suspicions,
and persecutions are necessary to Him. Thus did Jesus Christ
live in Judea, and thus does He live now in simple souls. In
them He is generous, sweet, free, peaceful, fearless, needing
no one, beholding all creatures in His Father's hands, and
obliged to serve Him, some by their criminal passions, others
by their holy actions ; the former by their contradictions, the
latter by their obedience and submission. The divine action
balances all this in a wonderful manner, nothing is wanting
nor is anything superfluous, but of good and evil there is only
what is necessary. The will of God applies, at each moment,
the proper means to the end in view, and the simple soul,
instructed by faith, finds everything right, and desires neither
more nor less than what it has. It ever blesses that divine
hand which so well apportions the means, and turns every
obstacle aside. It receives friends and enemies with the same
patient courtesy with which Jesus treated every one, and as
divine instruments. It has need of no one and yet needs all.
The divine action renders all necessary, and all must be received
from it, according to their quality and nature, and corresponded
to with sweetness and humility ; the simple treated simply, and
the unpolished kindly. This is what St. Paul teaches, and what
Jesus Christ practised most perfectly.
Only grace can impress this supernatural character, which is
appropriate to, and adapts itself to each person. This is never
learnt from books, but from a true prophetic spirit, and is the
effect of a special inspiration, and a doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
To understand it one must be in the highest state of abandon-
ment, the most perfect freedom from all design, and from all
interests, however holy. One must have in view the only
serious business in the world, that of following submissively
the divine action. To do this one must apply oneself to the
fulfilling of the obligations of one's state ; and allow the Holy
Spirit to act interiorly without trying to understand His opera-
tions, but even being pleased to be kept in ignorance about
them. Then one is safe, for all that happens in the world
SUPERNATURAL PRUDENCE 83
can work nothing but good for souls perfectly submissive to
the will of God.
SECTION VI. Supernatural Prudence.
The soul, in the state of abandonment, does not fear its
enemies, but finds in them useful helps.
I fear more my own action aqd that of my friends than that of
my enemies. There is no prudence so great as that which
offers no resistance to enemies, and which opposes to them only
a simple abandonment. This is to run before the wind, and as
there is nothing else to be done, to keep quiet and peaceful.
There is nothing that is more entirely opposed to worldly pru-
dence than simplicity ; it turns aside all schemes without com-
prehending them, without so much as a thought about them.
The divine action makes the soul take such just measures as
to surprise those who want to take it by surprise themselves.
It profits by all their efforts, and is raised by the very things
that are done to lower it. They are the galley slaves who
bring the ship into port with hard rowing. All obstacles turn
to the good of this soul, and by allowing its enemies a free hand,
it obtains a continual service, so sufficing that all it has to fear
is lest it should itself take part in a work of which God would be
principal, and His enemies the agents, and in which it has nothing
to do but to peacefully observe the work of God, and to follow
with simplicity the attractions He gives it. The supernatural
prudence of the Divine Spirit, the principle of these attractions,
infallibly attains its end ; and the precise circumstances of each
event are so applied to the soul, without its perception, that
everything opposed to them cannot fail to be destroyed.
SECTION VII. Conviction of Weakness.
The soul in the state of abandonment can abstain from justi-
fying itself by word or deed. The divine action justifies it.
This order of the divine will is the solid and firm rock on
which the submissive soul reposes, sheltered from change and
tempest. It is continually present under the veil of crosses,
and of the most ordinary actions. Behind this veil the hand of
God is hidden to sustain and to support those who abandon
themselves entirely to Him. From the time that a soul becomes
firmly established in abandonment, it will be protected from the
opposition of talkers, for it need not ever say or do anything in
self-defence. Since the work is of God, justification must never
be sought elsewhere. Its effects and its consequences are
84 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
justification enough. There is nothing but to let it develop
" Dies diei eructat verbum " ; " Day to day uttereth speech "
(Ps. xviii, 3). When one is no longer guided by reflexion, words
must no longer be used in self-defence. Our words can only
express our thoughts ; where no ideas are supposed to exist,
words cannot be used. Of what use would they be ? To give
a satisfactory explanation of our conduct ? But we cannot
explain that of which we know nothing for it is hidden in the
principle of our actions, and we have experienced nothing but
an impression, and that in an ineffable manner. We must,
therefore, let the results justify their principles.
All the links of this divine chain remain firm and solid, and the
reason of that which precedes as cause is seen in that which follows
as effect. It is no longer a life of dreams, a life of imaginations,
a life of a multiplicity of words. The soul is no longer occupied
with these things, nor nourished and maintained in this way ;
they are no longer of any avail, and afford no support.
The soul no longer sees where it is going, nor foresees where it
will go ; reflexions no longer help it to gain courage to endure
fatigue, and to sustain the hardships of the way. All this is
swept aside by an interior conviction of weakness. The road
widens as it advances ; it has started, and goes on without
hesitation. Being perfectly simple and straightforward, it
follows the path of God's commandments quietly, relying on
God Himself whom it finds at every step, and God, whom it
seeks above all things, takes upon Himself to manifest His
presence in such a way as to avenge it on its unjust detractors.
SECTION VIII. Self-guidance a Mistake.
God imparts life to the soul in the state of abandonment by
means which seem more likely to destroy it.
There is a time when God would be the life of the soul, and
Himself accomplish its perfection in secret and unknown ways.
Then all its own ideas, lights, industries, examinations, and
reasonings become sources of illusion. After many experiences
of the sad consequences of self-guidance, the soul recognising
its uselessness, and finding that God has hidden and confused
all the issues, is forced to fly to Him to find life. Then, con-
vinced of its nothingness and of the harmfulness of all that it
derives from itself, it abandons itself to God to gain all from Him.
It is then that God becomes the source of its life, not by means
of ideas, lights, or reflexions, for all this is no longer anything
to it but a source of illusion ; but in reality, and by His grace,
which is hidden under the strangest appearances.
SELF-GUIDANCE A MISTAKE 85
The divine operation, unknown to the soul, communicates its
virtue and substance by many circumstances that the soul
believes will be its destruction. There is no cure for this ignor-
ance, it must be allowed its course. God gives Himself therein,
and with Himself, He gives all things in the obscurity of faith.
The soul is but a blind subject, or, in other words, it is like a
sick person who knows nothing of the properties of remedies
and tastes only their bitterness/ He often imagines that what
is given him will be his death ; the pain and weakness which
result seem to justify his fears ; nevertheless it is under the
semblance of death that his health is restored, and he takes
the medicines on the word of the physician. In the same way
the submissive soul is in no way pre-occupied about its infir-
mities, except as regards obvious maladies which by their nature
compel it to rest, and to take suitable remedies. The languor
and weakness of souls in the state of abandonment are only
illusory appearances which they ought to defy with confidence.
God sends them, or permits them in order to give opportunities
for the exercise of faith and abandonment which are the true
remedies. Without paying the least attention to them, these
souls should generously pursue their way, following by their
actions and sufferings the order of God, making use without
hesitation of the body as though it were a horse on hire, which
is intended to be driven until it is worn out. This is better
than thinking of health so much as to harm the soul.
A courageous spirit does much to maintain a feeble body, and
one year of a life spent in so noble and generous a manner is of
more value than would be a century of care-taking and nervous
fears. One ought to be able to show outwardly that one is in
a state of grace and goodwill. What is there to be afraid of in
fulfilling the divine will ? The conduct of one who is upheld
and sustained by it should show nothing exteriorly but what is
heroic. The terrifying experiences that have to be encountered
are really nothing. They are only sent that life may be adorned
with more glorious victories. The divine will involves the soul
in troubles of every kind, where human prudence can neither see
nor imagine any outlet. It then feels all its weakness, and,
finding out its shortcomings, is confounded. The divine will
then asserts itself in all its power to those who give themselves to
it without reserve. It succours them more marvellously than the
writers of fiction, in the fertility of their imagination, unravel the
intrigues and perils of their imaginary heros, and bring them
to a happy end. With a much more admirable skill, and much
more happily, does the divine will guide the soul through deadly
perils and monsters, even through the fires of hell with their
demons and sufferings. It raises souls to the heights of heaven,
86 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
and makes them the subjects of histories both real and mystical,
more beautiful, and more extraordinary than any invented by
the vain imagination of man.
On then, my soul, through perils and monsters, guided and
sustained by that mighty invisible hand of divine Providence.
On, without fear, to the end, in peace and joy, and make all the
incidents of life occasions of fresh victories. We march under
His Standard, to fight and to conquer ; " exivit vincens ut
vinceret " ; " He went forth conquering that he might conquer "
(Apocal. vi, 2).
As many steps as we take under His command will be the
triumphs we gain. The Holy Spirit of God writes in an open
book this sacred history which is not ye tfinished, nor will be
till the end of the world. This history contains an account of
the guidance and designs of God with regard to men. It remains
for us to figure in this history, and to continue the thread of it
by the union of our actions and sufferings with His will.
No ! It is not to cause the loss of our souls that we have so
much to do, and to suffer ; but that we may furnish matter for
that holy writing which is added to day by day.
SECTION IX. Divine ~Lave, the Principle of All Good.
To those who follow this path, divine love is all-sufficing.
While despoiling of all things those souls who give themselves
entirely to Him, God gives them something in place of them.
Instead of light, wisdom, life, and strength, He gives them His
love. The divine love in these souls is like a supernatural
instinct. In nature, each thing contains that which is suitable
to its kind. Each flower has its special beauty, each animal its
instinct, and each creature its perfection. Also in the different
states of grace, each has a special grace. This is the recompense
for everyone who accepts with good-will the state in which
he is placed by Providence. A soul comes under the divine
action from the moment that a habit of goodwill is formed within
it, and this action influences it more or less according to its degree
of abandonment. The whole art of abandonment is simply
that of loving, and the divine action is nothing else than the
action of divine love. How can it be that these two loves
seeking each other should do otherwise than unite when they
meet ? How can the divine love refuse aught to a soul whose
every desire it directs ? And how can a soul that lives only
for Him refuse Him anything ? Love can refuse nothing that
love desires, nor desire anything that love refuses. The divine
action regards only the goodwill ; the capability of the other
DIVINE LOVE, THE PRINCIPLE OF ALL GOOD 87
faculties does not attract it, nor does the want of capability repel
it. All that it requires is a heart that is good, pure, just, simple,
submissive, filial, and respectful. It takes possession of such
a heart, and of all its faculties, and so arranges everything for
its benefit that it finds in all things its sanctification. That
which destroys other souls would find in this soul an antidote of
goodwill which would nullify its poison. Even at the edge of
a precipice the divine action would draw it back, or even if it
were allowed to remain there it would prevent it from falling ;
and if it fell, it would rescue it. After all, the faults of such a soul
are only faults of frailty ; love takes but little notice of them, and
well knows how to turn them to advantage. It makes the soul
understand by secret suggestions what it ought to say, or to
do, according to circumstances. These suggestions it receives
as rays of light from the divine understanding : " intellectus
bonus omnibus facientibus cum " ; "A good understanding
to all that do it " (Ps. ex, 10), for this divine understanding
accompanies such souls step by step, and prevents them taking
those false steps which their simplicity encourages. If they
make arrangements which would involve them in some promise
prejudicial to them, divine Providence arranges some fortunate
occurrence which rectifies everything. In vain are schemes
formed against them repeatedly ; divine Providence cuts all the
knots, brings the authors to confusion, and so turns their heads
as to make them fall into their own trap. Under its guidance
those souls that they wish to take by surprise do certain things
that seem very useless at the time, but that serve afterwards
to deliver them from all the troubles into which their uprightness
and the malice of their enemies would have plunged them.
Oh ! what good policy it is to have goodwill ! What prudence
there is in simplicity ! What ability in its innocence and
candour ! What mysteries and secrets in its straightforwardness !
Look at the youthful Tobias ; he is but a lad, yet with what con-
fidence he proceeds, having the archangel Raphael for his guide.
Nothing frightens him, nothing is wanting to him. The very
monsters he encounters furnish him with food and remedies ;
the one that rushes forward to devour him becomes itself his
sustenance. By the order of Providence he has nothing to
attend to but feasts and weddings, everything else is left to the
management of the guiding spirit appointed to help him. These
things are so well managed that never before have they been so
successful, nor so blessed and prosperous. However, his mother
weeps, and is in great distress at his supposed loss, but his father
remains full of faith. The son, so bitterly mourned, returns
to rejoice his family and to share their happiness.
Divine love then is, to those who give themselves up to it
88 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
without reserve, the principle of all good. To acquire this
inestimable treasure the only thing necessary is greatly to desire
it. Yes, God only asks for love, and if you seek this treasure,
this kingdom in which God reigns alone, you will find it. If
your heart is entirely devoted to God, it is itself, for that very
reason, the treasure and the kingdom that you seek and desire.
From the time that one desires God and His holy will, one enjoys
God and His will, and this enjoyment corresponds to the ardour
of the desire. To desire to love God is truly to love Him, and
because we love Him we wish to become instruments of His
action in order that His love may be exercised in, and by us.
The divine action does not correspond to the aims of a saintly
and simple soul, nor to the steps it takes, nor to the projects it
forms, nor to the manner in which it reflects, nor to the means it
chooses, nor to the purity of its intention. It often happens
that the soul can be deceived in all this, but its good intention
and uprightness can never deceive it. Provided that God
perceives in it a good intention, He can dispense with all the rest,
and He holds as done for Him what it will eventually do when
truer ideas second its goodwill.
Goodwill, therefore, has nothing to fear. If it fall, it can only
do so under the almighty hand which guides and sustains it in
all its wanderings. It is this divine hand which turns it again
to face the goal from which it has strayed ; which replaces it in
the right path when it has wandered. In it the soul finds re-
sources for the deviations to which the blind faculties which
deceive it, render it subject. It is made to feel how much it
ought to despise them, and to rely on God alone, abandoning
itself absolutely to His infallible guidance. The failings into
which good souls fall are put an end to by abandonment. Never
can goodwill be taken unawares. That all things work for its
good is an article of faith.
SECTION X. We Must see God in all His Creatures.
In the state of abandonment the soul finds more light and
strength, through submission to the divine action, than all those
possess who resist it through pride.
Of what use are the most sublime illuminations, the most
divine revelations, if one has no love for the will of God ? It was
because of this that Lucifer fell. The ruling of the divine action
revealed to him by God, in showing him the mystery of the
Incarnation, produced in him nothing but envy.
On the other hand a simple soul, enlightened only by faith,
can never tire of admiring, praising, and loving the order of
WE MUST SEE GOD IN ALL His CREATURES 89
God ; of finding it not only in holy creatures, but even in the most
irregular confusion and disorder. One grain of pure faith will
five .more light to a simple soul than Lucifer received in his
ighest intelligence. The devotion of the faithful soul to its
obligations ; its quiet submission to the intimate promptings
of grace ; its gentleness and humility towards everyone ; are
of more value than the most profound insight into mysteries.
If one regarded only the divine action in all the pride and harsh-
ness of creatures, one would never treat them with anything but
sweetness and respect. Their roughness would never disturb
the divine order, whatever course it might take. One must only
see in it the divine action, given and taken, as long as one is
faithful in the practice of sweetness and humility. It is best
not to observe their way of proceeding, but always to walk
with firm steps in our own path. It is thus that by bending
gently, cedars are broken, and rocks overthrown. Who amongst
creatures can resist a faithful, gentle, and humble soul ? These
are the only arms to be taken if we wish to conquer all our
enemies. Jesus Christ has placed them in our hands that we
may defend ourselves ; there is nothing to fear if we know
how to use them.
We must not be cowardly, but generous. This is the only
disposition suitable to the instruments of God.
All the works of God are sublime and marvellous ; wh ile
one's own actions, when they war against God, cannot resist t he
divine action in one who is united to it by sweetness and humili y.
Who is Lucifer ? He is a pure spirit, and was the most
enlightened of all pure spirits, but is now at war with God and
^vith His rule. The mystery of sin is merely the result of this
conflict, which manifests itself in every possible way. Lucifer,
as much as in him lies, will leave no stone unturned to destroy
what God has made and ordered. Wherever he enters, there is
the work of God defaced. The more light, science, and capacity
a person has, the more he is to be feared if he does not possess a
foundation of piety, which consists in being satisfied with
God and His will. It is by a well-regulated heart that one is
united to the divine action ; without this everything is purely
natural, and generally in direct opposition to the divine order.
God makes use only of the humble as His instruments. Always
contradicted by the prpud, He yet makes use of them, like slaves,
for the accomplishment of His designs.
When I find a soul which does all for God alone, and in sub-
mission to His order, however wanting it may be in all things else,
I say " This is a soul with a great aptitude for serving God."
The holy Virgin and St. Joseph were like this. All else without
these qualities makes me fear. I am afraid to see in it the action
90 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
of Lucifer. I remain on my guard, and shut myself up in my
foundation of simplicity, in opposition to all this outward
glitter which, by itself, is nothing to me but a bit of broken glass.
SECTION XI. The Strength of Simplicity.
The soul in the state of abandonment knows how to see God
even in the proud who oppose His action. All creatures, good
or evil, reveal Him to it.
The whole practice of the simple soul is in the accomplish-
ment of the will of God. This it respects even in those unruly
actions by which the proud attempt to depreciate it. The proud
soul despises one in whose sight it is as nothing, who beholds
only God in it, and in all its actions. Often it imagines that the
modesty of the simple soul is a mark of appreciation for itself ;
when, all the time, it is only a sign of that loving fear of God
and of His holy will as shown to it in the person of the proud.
No, poor fool, the simple soul fears you not at all. You excite
its compassion ; it is answering God when you think it is speaking
to you : it is with Him that it believes it has to do ; it regards
you only as one of His slaves, or rather as a mask with which
He disguises Himself. Therefore the more you take a high
tone, the lower you become in its estimation ; and when you
think to take it by surprise, it surprises you. Your wiles and
violence are just favours from Heaven.
The proud soul cannot comprehend itself, but the simple
soul, with the light of faith, can very clearly see through it.
The rinding of the divine action in all that occurs at each
moment, in and around us, is true science, a continuous revelation
of truth, and an unceasingly renewed intercourse with God.
It, is a rejoicing with the Spouse, not in secret, nor by stealth,,
in the cellar, or the vineyard, but openly, and in public, without
any human respect. It is a fund of peace, of joy, of love, and
of satisfaction with God who is seen, known, or rather, believed
in, living and operating in the most perfect manner in every-
thing that happens. It is the beginning of eternal happiness
not yet perfectly realised and tasted, except in an incomplete
and hidden manner.
The Holy Spirit, who arranges all the pieces on the board of
life, will, by this fruitful and continual presence of His action,
say at the hour of death, " fiat lux," " let there be light " (Gen.
i, 14), and then will be seen the treasures which faith hides in
this abyss of peace and contentment with God, and which will
be found in those things that have been every moment done,
or suffered for Him.
THE TRIUMPH OF HUMILITY 91
When God gives Himself thus, all that is common becomes
wonderful ; and it is on this account that nothing seems to be so,
because this way is, in itself, extraordinary. Consequently
it is unnecessary to make it full of strange and unsuitable marvels.
It is, in itself, a miracle, a revelation, a constant joy even with
the prevalence of minor faults. But it is a miracle which, while
rendering all common and sensible things wonderful, has nothing
in itself that is sensibly marvellous.
SECTION XII. The Triumph of Humility.
To the souls which are faithful to Him, God promises a glorious
victory over the powers of the world and of hell.
If the divine action is hidden here below under the appearance
of weakness, it is in order to increase the merit of souls which are
faithful to it ; but its triumph is none the less certain.
The history of the world from the beginning is but the history
of the struggle between the powers of the world, and of hell,
against the souls which are humbly devoted to the divine action.
In this struggle all the advantage seems to be on the side of
pride, yet the victory always remains with humility. The image
of the world is always presented to our eyes as a statue of gold,
brass, iron, and clay. This mystery of iniquity, shown in a
dream to Nabuchodonosor, is nothing but a confused medley of
all the actions, interior and exterior, of the children of darkness.
This is also typified by the beast coming out of the pit to make
war, from the beginning of time, against the interior and spiritual
life of man. All that takes place in our days is the consequence
of this war. Monster follows monster out of the pit, which
swallows, and vomits them forth again amidst incessant clouds
of smoke. The combat between St. Michael and Lucifer, that
began in Heaven, still continues. The heart of this once mag-
nificent angel, has become, through envy, an inexhaustible
abyss of every kind of evil. He made angel revolt against angel
in Heaven, and from the creation of the world his whole energy
is exerted to make more criminals among men to fill the ranks
of those who have been swallowed up in the pit. Lucifer is the
chief of those who refuse obedience to the Almighty. This
mystery of iniquity is the very inversion of the order of God ;
it is the order, or rather, the disorder of the devil.
This disorder is a mystery because, under a false appearance
of good, it hides irremediable and infinite evil. Every wicked
man, who, from the time of Cain, up to the present moment, has
92 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
declared war against God, has outwardly been great and powerful,
making a great stir in the world, and being worshipped by all.
But this outward semblance is a mystery. In reality they are
beasts which have ascended from the pit one after another to
overthrow the order of God. But this order, which is another
mystery, has always opposed to them really great and powerful
men who have dealt these monsters a mortal wound. As fast
as hell vomits them forth, Heaven at the same time creates fresh
heroes to combat them. Ancient history, sacred and profane,
is but a record of this war. The order of God has ever remained
victorious and those who have ranged themselves on the side
of God have shared His triumph, and are happy for all eternity.
Injustice has never been able to protect deserters. It can
reward them only by death, an eternal death.
Those who practise iniquity imagine themselves invincible.
O God ! who can resist You ? If a single soul has the whole
world and all hell against it, it need have no fear if, by abandon-
ment, it takes its stand on the side of God and His order.
The monstrous spectacle of wickedness armed with so much
power ; the head of gold, the body of silver, brass, and iron, is
nothing more than the image of clay ; a small stone cast at it
will scatter it to the four winds of Heaven.
How wonderfully has the Holy Spirit illustrated the centuries
of the world ! So many startling revelations ! so many re-
nowned heroes following, each other like so many brilliant stars !
So many wonderful events !
All this is like the dream of Nabuchodonosor, forgotten on
awaking, however terrible the impression it made at the time.
All these monsters only come into the world to exercise the
courage of the children of God, and if these are well trained, God
gives them the pleasure of slaying the monsters, and sends fresh
athletes into the arena.
And this life is a spectacle to angels, causing continual joy in
Heaven, work for saints on earth, and confusion to the devils
in hell.
So all that is opposed to the order of God renders it only the
more to be adored. All workers of iniquity are slaves of justice,
and the divine action builds the heavenly Jerusalem on the ruins
of Babylon.
SPIRITUAL COUNSELS OF
FR. DE CAUSSADE
I. Conformity to the Will of God.
Written in 1731 to Sister Marie-Therese de Vomienil, in the
9th year of her profession, and the 28th of her age.
For the attainment of perfect conformity to the will of God.
i st. At the beginning of each day, and of meditation, Mass,
and Communion, declare to God that you desire to belong to Him
entirely, and that you will devote yourself wholly to acquiring
the spirit of prayer and of the interior life.
znd. Make it your chief study to conform yourself to the
will of God even in the smallest things, saying in the midst of
the most annoying contradictions and with the most alarming
prospects for the future : " My God, I desire with all my heart
to do Your holy will, I submit in all things and absolutely to
Your good pleasure for time and eternity ; and I wish to do this,
Oh my God, for two reasons ; first : because You are my Sove-
reign Lord and it is but just that Your will should be accom-
plished ; secondly : because I am convinced by faith, and by
experience that Your will is in all things as good and beneficent
as it is just and adorable, while my own desires are always
blind and corrupt ; blind, because I know not what I ought to
desire or to avoid ; corrupt, because I nearly always long for
what would do me harm. Therefore, from henceforth, I re-
nounce my own will to follow Yours in all things ; dispose of
me, Oh my God, according to Your good will and pleasure.
3rd. This continual practice of submission will preserve that
interior peace which is the foundation of the spiritual life, and
will prevent you from worrying about your faults and failings.
You will put up with them instead, with a humble and quiet
submission which is more likely to cure them than an uneasy
distress, only calculated to weaken and discourage you.
4th. Think no more about the past but only of the present
and future. Do not trouble about your confessions, but accuse
yourself simply of those faults you can remember after seven or
eight minutes examen. It is a good thing to add to the accusa-
tion a more serious sin of your past life. This will cause you to
make a more fervent act of contrition and dispose you to receive
94 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
more abundantly the grace of the Sacrament. You should not
make too many efforts to get rid of the obstacles which make
frequent confession disagreeable to you.
5th. To escape the distress caused by regr-et for the past or
fear about the future, this is the rule to follow : leave the past
to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence,
give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace.
6th. When God in His goodness sends you some disappoint-
ment, one of those trials that used to annoy you so much ;
before all thank Him for it as for a great favour all the more
useful for the great work of your perfection in that it completely
overturns the work of the moment.
yth. Try, in spite of interior dislike, to show a kind face to
troublesome people, or to those who come to chatter about their
troubles ; leave at once prayer, reading, choir office, in fact
anything, to go where Providence calls you ; and do what is
asked of you quietly, peacefully, without hurry, and without
vexation.
8th. Should you fail in any of these points, .make immediately
an act of interior humility not that sort of humility full of
uneasiness and irritation against which St. Francis of Sales
said so much, but a humility that is gentle, peaceful, and sweet.
This is a matter essential for overcoming your self-will, and to
prevent you becoming a slave to your exterior or interior de-
votion.
9th. We must understand that we can never acquire true
conformity to the will of God until we are perfectly resolved to
serve Him according to His will and pleasure and not to please
ourselves. In everything look to God, and you will find Him
everywhere, but more especially where you have most com-
pletely renounced yourself. When you are thoroughly con-
vinced that of yourself you are incapable of doing any good,
you will give up making resolutions but will humbly confess to
God : " My God, I acknowledge after many trials that all my
resolutions are useless. Doubtless I have hitherto depended
too much on myself, but You have abased me. You alone
can do all things ; make me then, do such and such a thing,
and give me, when necessary, the recollection, energy and strength
of will that I require. Without this, I know from my former
sad experiences, I shall never do anything."
loth. To this humble prayer add the practice of begging
pardon at once or as soon as possible of all those who witnessed
any of your little impetuosities or outbursts of temper. It is
most important for you to practise these counsels for two reasons :
first, because God desires to do everything in you Himself;
secondly, on account of a secret presumption, which, even in the
95
midst of so many miseries, prevents you referring everything to
God, until you have experienced a thousand times how abso-
lutely incapable you are of performing any good. When you
become thoroughly convinced of this truth you will exclaim
almost without reflexion, when you act rightly, " Oh my God it
is You who do this in me by Your grace." And when you do
wrong : " This is just like me ! I 'see myself as I am." Then
will God be glorified in all your actions, because He will be
proved to be the sole author of all that is good. This is your
path ; all the misery and humiliation you must take on yourself,
and render to God the glory and thanks that are His due. 'All
the glory to Him, but all the profit to you. You would be very
foolish not to accept with gratitude a share so just and so ad-
vantageous.
II. Counsel for Outward Behaviour.
Counsel for the outward behaviour of one called to the life of
abandonment. Addressed to Sister Charlotte Elkabeth Bourcier
de Monthureux.
When you wake raise your soul to God, realising His divine
presence ; adore the Blessed Trinity, imitating the great St.
Francis Xavier, " I adore You, God the Father, who created me,
I adore You, God the Son, who redeemed me, I adore You, God
the Holy Ghost, who have sanctified me, and continue to carry
on the work of my sanctification. I consecrate this day entirely
to Your love and to Your greater glory. I know not what
this day will bring me either pleasant or troublesome, whether I
shall be happy or sorrowful, shall enjoy consolation or undergo
pain and grief, it shall be as You please ; I give myself into Your
hands and submit myself to whatever You will."
Fix your attention on what strikes you at the beginning of
the day and on that with which grace inspires you more par-
ticularly in the interior of your soul, keeping it before you quietly
Begin your prayer with it, then give yourself up completely to
the Spirit of God and remain thus for as long as He pleases.
Imitate the good woman who exclaimed, " My God, if You will
not give me bread, at any rate give me patience."
Those who practise ordinary prayer in which the intellect is
exercised should remember the subject of meditation prepared
overnight, because if the mind is allowed to wander to all sorts
of subjects, then the whole day will be out of order as a clock not
set correctly at first will go wrong all day.
For the toilet, do all that is necessary, then think no more
about it.
96 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
The way to hear holy Mass worthily is to represent to yourself
the mystery of the Cross. Ascend Mount Calvary in spirit,
and contemplate what takes place there as though you actually
saw it. Admire first the justice of God who punishes His only
Son for the sins of men of which He took on Himself the sem-
blance and for which He had offered Himself as the atonement.
Secondly, the greatness of God to whom such a reparation was
due. Thirdly, the value of our souls reclaimed at such a price ;
fourthly the eternal happiness that Jesus Christ has merited
for us and the eternal torments from which He has delivered us.
Reflexions on these divine subjects should fill our souls with
faith, hope, humility, compunction, gratitude and love. Those
who cannot keep their minds steadfastly fixed on such high
subjects should address themselves to the Blessed Virgin, who
was present at this mystery, or to St. John, St. Mary Magdalen
and the good Thief, and finally to our Lord Himself in token of
their piety, and to give Him the honour due to Him on account
of the excess of His immense and incomprehensible charity and
mercy.
I have only two things to say on the subject of prayer. Make
it with absolute compliance with the will of God, no matter
whether it be successful, or you are troubled with dryness, dis-
tractions, or other obstacles. If it is easy and full of conso-
lations, return thanks to God without dwelling on the pleasure
it has caused you ; if it has not succeeded submit to God, hum-
bling yourself and go away contented and in peace even if it
should have failed through your own fault ; redoubling your con-
fidence and resignation to His holy will. Persevere in this way
and sooner or later God will give you grace to pray properly ; but
whatever trials you may have to endure never allow yourself
to be discouraged. As to the Office, there are three ways of
saying it, equally easy and solid. The first is to keep yourself
in the presence of God and to say the Office with great recollection
in union with Him, occasionally raising your mind and heart to
Him. Those who can say it thus need not trouble to alter their
method. The second way is to attend to the words in union with
the mind of the Church, praying as she prays, sighing when she
sighs, and deriving all the instruction from it ; praising, adoring,
thanking, according to the different meanings of the verses we
are pronouncing. The third way is to reflect humbly that you
are actually united to holy souls in praising God and in desiring
to share their holy dispositions. You should prostrate yourself
in spirit at their feet, believing that they are much more full of
piety and fervour than yourself. These feelings are very pleasing
to His divine Majesty, and we cannot be too deeply impressed
with them. With regard to confession, be firmly convinced
COUNSEL FOR OUTWARD BEHAVIOUR 97
that you need not trouble about it, either on account of your
miseries or of your sins. St. Francis of Sales says that after
sorrow for sin there should be peace. This then is what you
ought to aim at, and above all you should be full of great confi-
dence in the infinite goodness of God, remembering that His mercy
is greater than any of His works, that He glories in forgiving
us, but cannot prove His generosity if we are wanting in confi-
dence. He loves simplicity, candour, and uprightness, go to
Him therefore with perfect confidence, in spite of all your weak-
ness, misery and unfaithfulness. That will win His heart, and
He will forgive everything to those who trust in His goodness
and love.
Do not spend more than half-an-hour over your preparation.
More than that would be waste of time, and would give the
devil an opportunity to create trouble in your soul. This must
be avoided more than anything, for peace of mind is a tree of
life, the true root of the interior spirit, and the best preparation
for the prayer of recollection and interior silence. The first
quarter of an hour at the most can be occupied with the remem-
brance of your faults, all those that you forget after this examen
will be as if non-existent, and you will be forgiven. The last
quarter of an hour should be employed in exciting yourself
to contrition, begging this grace from God, and endeavouring
to obtain it quietly and without any effort of the mind, by the
thought of the goodness of God and the great mercy He has shown
you in withdrawing you from the world, where you would have
been lost, and calling you to the religious life in which you can
so easily save your soul ; or, by preserving you from dying
in a state of sin ; or, by reclaiming you from a tepid, feeble and
imperfect life, in which you ran the risk of being lost, even in the
religious state.
After reflecting for some moments in this way you should think
that contrition being purely spiritual is, by nature, not sensibly
felt, and that sensible sorrow is so misleading that certain sinners,
in spite of every sign, are refused absolution, because it is possible
that a habit of sin even of mortal sin to which the will consents,
may subsist with it. The surest sign of true sorrow for which the
greatest sinner will receive absolution is, to resolve by the
grace of God never to commit these great sins again. Then say
from the bottom of your heart : " Lord ! I hope You have given
me the necessary contrition. I hereby ask Your pardon for
all the sins I have committed ; I detest them with all my
heart because of the hatred You bear them. You see, my God,
that I am truly sorry, not only for having committed them,
but also because I am unable to feel all the sorrow I wish to have.
You conceal this sorrow from me even in giving it, so that I may
98 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
never be certain of having been pardoned, nor of being in a
state of grace. It pleases You to keep me in this humble de-
pendence in order to give occasion for faith and holy hope,
the way by which You would conduct me. I am compelled to
be satisfied with the remembrance of Your great mercy, and in
it I will lose myself, and to it I will blindly abandon myself,
fully and without reserve ; and I will do so, Oh my God ! with
all my heart. Yes, Lord, I will rest willingly on You alone,
accepting this state of uncertainty that is so terrible and in
which all are kept, even the greatest saints and the souls most
dear to You."
As regards the declaration of your sins ; tell those that you
recollect simply and in as few words as possible, leaving the rest
to the unbounded mercy of God without troubling about what
you do not remember, or do not know. You can conclude by
mentioning some greater sin of your past life. After that you
may feel morally certain that you have received the grace of the
Sacrament. The following is an easy way of practising frequent
confession. To prevent more certainly all anxiety about the
past and as a help for the future here is a counsel in a few words.
Leave the past to the infinite mercy of God the future to His
sweet providence, and the present give up entirely to the love
of God by our fidelity with the assistance of His grace, which
will never fail you, except by your own fault.
While receiving absolution let this thought preoccupy you
and, throwing yourself in spirit at the foot of the Cross, kiss the
wounds in our Lord's sacred feet saying " Oh ! my God ! I ask
but for one drop of that most precious and adorable Blood that
You shed for my salvation. In Your goodness let it fall upon
my sinful soul to cleanse it more and more from all its stains,
and above all, from the grievous sins of my past life for which
I very humbly ask pardon. I have a sure hope of obtaining
it from that very great mercy You have so often shown to this
miserable and vile creature." This done, I forbid you in the
name of God, to think, voluntarily, any more either of the con-
fession you have just made, of your sins, or of contrition in order
to find out if you have been forgiven and are restored to grace.
This is a mystery known only to God, and one which He keeps
to Himself ; and the devil makes use of it to disturb and trouble
souls in order to make them waste time, and to deprive them
of that sweet interior peace, which is the best disposition for
communion, and without which they can derive little fruit
from that heavenly feast. In such a state of anxiety and distress
it is difficult to have any desire for this divine food ; it is even
distasteful to us through our own fault, because, instead of
rejecting and despising these foolish anxieties into which the
INTERIOR DIRECTION 99
evil one has thrown our souls we permit ourselves to be harassed
and afflicted by them. Let them fall as a stone falls into the sea.
For Holy Communion these two points will suffice : before
Communion let us act like Martha, and after like Mary,
that is to say we should prepare purselves by fervent acts of
virtue and of the good works adapted to our state, without
uneasiness and without over-eagerness, and then reflect on
Jesus Christ, on His infinite merits and love and remain united
to Him in an ineffable peace, transcending all feeling.
Nature seeks self in everything, even in exercises .of piety and
virtue as well as in those actions prescribed by the necessities
of this life. It was on this account that the saints sighed con-
tinually and were ceaselessly on their guard, looking upon
themselves as their own greatest enemies. We should be par-
ticularly careful as regards those things for which we have an
attachment and be ready to sacrifice anything that gives us
pleasure to comply with the lawful demands of our neighbour,
especially where the matter is one of obedience. The will of
God should always prevail over our own desires however holy
they seem to us.
III. Interior Direction.
Method of interior direction, addressed to the same Sister.
i st. We attain to God by the annihilation of self. Let us
abase ourselves till there is nothing of self to be perceived.
2nd. In the degree in which we banish all that is not God,
we shall become filled with God, because where we no longer
find self we shall find God. The greatest good we can do for
our souls in this life is to fill them with God.
3rd. The practice of complete abnegation consists in having
no other care but that of dying entirely to self to make room
for God to live and work in us.
4th. The most excellent act of which we are capable, and
one which in itself contains all other virtues, is to resign ourselves
entirely to God by a total self-renunciation, and to lose self
in the abyss of our own nothingness to find it no more save in
God. This is the one thing necessary recommended by our
Lord in the Gospel. Oh ! the riches of nothingness ! Why are
you not known ? The more completely a soul annihilates
itself the more precious does it become in the sight of God. To
lose yourself in your own nothingness is a sure way of finding
God. Let us endeavour then to make the simple recollection
of God, combined with a profound forgetfulness of ourselves and
ioo ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
a loving and humble submission to His will become our sole task.
This effort will keep far from us all that is evil and retain in us
all that is useful for our salvation, and meritorious in the sight
of God.
jth. Do not draw distinctions between the rest from labour,
that is exterior, and that which is interior : it is all the same
provided you submit willingly and keep interior peace it is
well to note this.
6th. In our intercourse with others let us be detached in a
way that will show how far removed we are from all tenderness
or feeling. It is inconceivable how small a thing will suffice to
impede the soul, and for how long a time, often for a whole
life-time a trifle is capable of preventing the wonderful progress
that grace would have effected in our souls. God requires an
empty space even in the most" remote recesses of our nature in
order to communicate Himself to our souls.
yth. It is in the most trying and annoying circumstances
that you can practise the most perfect self-effacement and become
confirmed in this matter by the loss of secondary things ; let
us then cheerfully acquiesce in the loss of everything except the
loss of God.
8th. Let no business matter, nor any occurrence whatever,
have any value out of God, and let God be all in all to us.
9th. Let us never be eager about anything nor allow our
hearts to be oppressed by anything whatever. Where there is
neither interest nor affection, there is no eagerness, nor sadness,
but a void that is ever peaceful and unchangeable. In this we
shall be established when we have detached ourselves from all
created things, and shall find ourselves where self-seeking ceases ;
let us lose all to find all.
loth. When we have reduced ourselves to the Unity that is
God, all that is not God is undesirable to us. If we but knew how
to content ourselves with this supreme Unity we should never
trouble ourselves about anything else. This truth thoroughly
understood and well practised will enable us to cut off all super-
fluous things, even those that seem good, holy, and necessary,
but which, in the end, might do us harm instead of helping us
to attain the object of all our aspirations namely to be one
with the Supreme Unity.
nth. Let our motto be that of blessed Giles of Assisi, " One
to love, a single soul to a single God." Let us go further still
and love our identity in this Unity, but let us forget all things
else, and remember nothing but this Unity, this infinite Unity
God alone. This expression unity is very enlightening. It
will make us cut off all multiplicity, all superfluity and will be
very efficacious in inducing us to give our whole minds to God
CONDUCT AFTER FAULTS 101
and to discover all that He desires from us. We shall find in
it treasures of grace, of light, of innocence, of holiness and of
happiness.
IV. Conduct after Faults. .
Concerning our conduct after having committed faults.
i st. Endure with humility before God the humiliation of
your faults. After having been unfaithful to grace and after
accidental failings remember always that you are nothing and
have a holy contempt of yourself. This is the great advantage
that God allows us to gain even from our faults.
2nd. Fear, especially if carried to excess after whatever fault
you may have committed, proceeds from the devil. Instead of
giving in to this dangerous illusion use every effort to repel
it, and cast uneasiness away as you would cast a stone into the
depths of the sea, and never dwell upon it voluntarily. However,
should this feeling, by God's permission, be stronger than the
will, then have recourse to the second remedy, which consists
in allowing ourselves to be crucified in peace according as God
permits and as the martyrs abandoned themselves to their
tortures.
3rd. What is said about the fears that go with conspicuous
faults applies equally to that feeling of uneasiness and distress
which proceeds from constant little infidelities. This oppression
of the heart is occasioned also by the devil. Despise and combat
it as if it were a real temptation. Sometimes, however, God
makes use of this anguish and excessive terror that certain
souls suffer in order to purify them and make them die to them-
selves. If it is impossible to succeed in driving them away, the
only remedy left is to endure this interior crucifixion peacefully
in a spirit of absolute resignation to the divine will. This
is the way to regain the peace and calm of a soul truly resigned
to the will of God.
4th. The fears roused about the recitation of the Office are
nothing but a mere temptation because actual attention is not
necessary. In order that prayer may have all its merit it is
sufficient to make it with virtual attention which is nothing
more than an intention to pray well formed before beginning,
and this, no distraction even though voluntary can recall. So
you can say the Office quite well while at the same time enduring
continual involuntary distractions, as the trouble caused by
these distractions is the best proof that the wish to pray well
is heartfelt ; it is also a sign that the wish is genuine. Therefore
this wish makes the prayer a good and true prayer. Although
hidden from the soul on account of the trouble occasioned by
io2 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
these distractions the good intention, nevertheless, exists and
is not hidden from the sight of God who gives us a double grace,
first in hearing our prayers as He does all prayers rightly made,
and then in concealing this from us in order that we may be
mortified in everything, and on all occasions.
V. Temptations and Trials.
On temptations and interior trials. Addressed to Sister Anne
Marie-Therese de Rosen, confidante of the inmost thoughts of
Madame de Lesen, through whom the latter communicated
with Fr. de Caussade.
ist Principle. In the eyes of God violent temptations are
great graces for those souls which by them suffer an interior
martyrdom ; they are the great battles in which great victories
have made great saints.
2nd Principle. The keen pain and cruel torment endured by a
soul attacked by temptations is a sure sign that it has not
consented, at any rate, not with that full entire consent, that
advertence and deliberation which constitute a mortal sin.
3rd Principle. During the darkness of these violent tempta-
tions the soul, fatigued and troubled as it must needs be, will
commit many minor faults through weakness or negligence,
surprise or thoughtlessness ; but I maintain that in spite of
these faults it merits more and is more pleasing to God and is
truly better fitted for the reception of the Sacraments than
ordinary persons, who, favoured with sensible devotion, have
hardly any struggles to endure, nor any violence to do to them-
selves. The virtues of the former are much more solid having
passed, and still passing, through such severe trials.
4th Principle. Whatever sins people who are tempted may
have committed in the past, if for some years they have been
firm and have given no voluntary consent, they will make the
more progress in the ways of God the more humble they are
rendered by these temptations, because humility is the founda-
tion of all good.
5th Principle. Most people, not much advanced in the ways
of God and of the interior life, set no value on any operations
but those that are sweet and evident to the senses. It is certain,
however, that those operations that are most humiliating,
afflicting, and crucifying, are most calculated to purify the soul
and to unite it intimately with God. Also, all masters in the
spiritual life are agreed in recognising that more progress is
made in patient endurance than in action.
TEMPTATIONS AND TRIALS 103
6th Principle. As God converts, proves, and sanctifies
seculars by temporal afflictions and adversities, so He usually
converts, proves, purifies and sanctifies religious by spiritual trials
and interior sufferings a thousand times more grievous ; such as
dryness, weariness, loathing, sinkings of the heart, spiritual
despondency, humiliating temptations, violent and continual,
excessive fears of being in mortal sin, terrors about His judgments
and fear of reprobation. If, as spiritual books, preachers,
directors of souls and good Christians aver, incessant afflictions
are necessary for people in the world, and that without them many
would be lost ; why not say the same on interior crosses without
which a multitude of Religious would never arrive at the per-
fection of their state ? Experience shows daily that the most
ordinary way by which God conducts the religious whom He
most loves is that of greater interior trials ; whereas, in regard to
seculars who are dear to God, it is by the way of temporal ad-
versity. Therefore we who preach patience, submission and a
loving resignation in their troubles to seculars, ought in our own
trials to apply the same rule to ourselves that we know so well
how to give others. Do not interior crosses come also from
God ? Are they less mortifying, and, therefore, less salutary ?
Does God demand less submission from us, and is our patience
less pleasing to Him ?
yth Principle. By the effect of His merciful wisdom, and to
keep His elect in a state of dependence on His grace, in a more
complete abandonment to His mercy, and in a state of greater
humiliation, God hides from them nearly all the interior operations
of His divine Spirit, the holy dispositions He accords them, the
good desires He inspires, and the infused virtues with which He
has enriched them. And for this purpose what are the means
He employs ? Let us pause to admire His wisdom and goodness.
He makes use of the continuance and violence of temptations,
of the trouble they cause in the soul, and the fear of having
yielded to them. He hides the great virtues these souls acquire
and the great victories they gain by allowing them to suffer
slight defeats ; and the ardent desire they have to make worthy
communions by the fear of having made bad ones, their fervent
love of God by their fear of being wanting in love for Him.
Whereas they feel the greatest horror at the smallest faults He
allows them to be saddened by the continual imperfections they
imagine themselves to commit. He permits them to think all
their good works badly done, and that they always give way to
the first stirrings of all their passions, while, all the time they
are gaining the victory.
Nevertheless, as God, in keeping them in this state of humilia-
tion and abandonment, does not wish to deprive them of all
104 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
consolation and confidence during their trials, He makes known
their state to enlightened directors, and if these souls are simple
and obedient they may be assured of never being deceived.
From the foregoing principles we can easily derive light in the
doubts which occasionally assail us as regards communion
and the fulfilment of other duties.
First Rule. The fear of communicating should never deter
us, especially if our confessor enjoins it. God does not usually
allow him to be deceived. Even if that should happen the
penitent cannot be deceived in submitting, nor commit sacrilege,
because blind obedience given in good faith to a director can never
lead us astray in the sight of God. Should these sufferings and
temptations become redoubled after communion, instead of
preventing the fruit of it, if endured peacefully and with humble
resignation united to an abhorrence of evil, it does but increase
it. This abhorrence is made sufficiently apparent by the pain
and martyrdom these temptations cause, which those who really
give way never experience. Books that treat of the .effects of
communion addressed to the generality of the faithful only
speak of the ordinary effects, but there are many particular
cases where quite contrary effects are experienced. Then com-
munion produces a much more precious fruit, for, while the
vehemence of the temptation increases with a lively sense of
weakness, it serves to augment our merit and to develop in our
hearts feelings of the most profound humility.
Second Rule. Violent efforts to prepare for Communion
are only pleasing to God in principle, but the result is disappoint-
ing because the soul becomes troubled and harassed. The
intensity of these efforts must be moderated ; everything that
has to do with God, or the things of God should be done sweetly,
tranquilly, and without effort. The best preparation for Holy
Communion in this sad state is to endure patiently and with
resignation this interior martyrdom. Preserve at any cost
the peace in which God dwells and in which He is pleased to work.
It is not grace but self-love that makes you keep away from
Communion in order to escape the tortures and agonies that the
soul endures by God's permission, to destroy in it this same
miserable self-love. Go then without fear and even with a kind
of joy to bear these interior operations that are so purifying and
so sanctifying. The most wonderful good effects will be experi-
enced eventually ; effects that God hides from the soul at the
time for its good. Therefore bear yourself as a criminal in His
presence, and as a victim of His merciful justice. This is the
best attitude for a soul in this state, adopting any other it would
never find peace. This apparent destitution and abandonment
has but one aim, which is to increase self-distrust and to compel
TEMPTATIONS AND TRIALS 105
the soul to cast itself with greater confidence into the arms of
God. It sees no other help and even that it cannot see. Faith
and faith alone must suffice without any other support. The
sensitive part of the soul can do nothing to affect the will, and
God expects nothing from it but the free choice of the will which
has complete mastery over its acts. The best disavowal of the
temptation is the extreme horror of its attacks. No good can be
attained by making a multitude of acts, these would only serve
to trouble and fatigue the soul. It had best keep to the following
act which comprises all that is required of it. " Lord, You
are all-powerful and goodness N itself, it is for You to defend me
and to preserve me from all evil, that is beyond my power. I
accept this suffering for love of You, only keep me from all
sin." Afterwards let it remain in peace in the midst of the storm.
It will find itself strengthened without knowing how by the
hidden hand of God.
Third Rule. The fact of being incapable of sustained thought,
or of producing acts in prayer need not sadden the soul ; for the
best part of prayer and the essential part is the wish to make it
well. The intention is everything in God's sight either for
good or evil ; now this desire it has to the extreme of anxiety
therefore it is only too keen, and has to be moderated. The
soul must be kept peaceful during prayer and end prayer in
peace. Instead of making so many resolutions let it be content
to say : " My God make me perform such and such a good action'
avoid such and such a bad one, because I am unable of myself
to do anything. I feel my weakness too much, and my past
experience teaches me that without You I can do nothing, and
that if You do not act in me by the power of Your grace nothing
will be effected." For directing the intention the soul abandoned
to God need not make many acts, neither is it obliged to express
them in words. The best thing for it is to be content to feel
and to know that it is acting for God in the simplicity of its
heart. This is making good interior acts ; they are made
simply by the impulsion of the heart without any outward ex-
pression, almost without thinking ; just as worldly people with-
out avowing it have but one end in everything which is the
satisfaction of their sensuality, their avarice, or their pride ; God
seeing their intention which is hidden in their own hearts will
punish them for it. The chief principle of the spiritual life is
to do everything, interior as well as exterior, peacefully, gently,
sweetly, as St. Francis of Sales so often recommends. The
moment we desire to form an act, it is already formed and held
as accomplished, because God sees all our desires, even the first
movements of the heart. Our desires, says Bossuet, are, with
regard to God, what the voice is with regard to men, and a cry
106 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
from the depths of the heart, even unuttered, is of the same value
as a cry sent up to Heaven. For the rest, all the acts made
in a state of the greatest aridity are usually better and more
meritorious than those that are accompanied by sensible devo-
tion. Forebodings about the future should not be indulged in
except with due submission and resignation to the holy will of
God, and this practice ought to have for aim, not so much the
making of formal acts as the keeping of our hearts in a certain
habitual state of readiness by which it seems to say to God every
moment and in every circumstance, " Fiat, fiat ! Yes, I desire
and accept all, only preserve me from all sin. Yes, my heavenly
Father, always, yes." This " Yes," uttered with all the heart
contains the greatest acts, and expresses the greatest sacrifices.
Prayer.
Prayer of the Rev. Fr. de Caussade to obtain holy abandon-
ment to the divine will.
Oh my God when will it please You to give me the grace
to remain habitually in this union of my will with Your adorable
will, in which, without uttering a word all is said, in which all is
accomplished by allowing You to act, in which one's only occu-
pation is that of conforming more and more entirely to Your
good pleasure ; in which, nevertheless, one is saved all trouble
since the care of all things is confided to You, and to repose in
You is the only desire of one's heart ? Delightful state, which,
even in the absence of all sensible faith, affords the soul an
interior joy altogether spiritual. I desire to repeat without
ceasing by this habitual disposition of my heart, " Fiat," yes,
my God, yes, all that You please, may Your holy will be done
in all things. I renounce my own will which is very blind,
perverse, and corrupt in consequence of its wretched self-love,
the mortal enemy of Your grace, of Your pure love, of Your
glory, and of my own sanctification.
Prayer to be said in temptation :
Oh my God ! preserve me by Your grace from all sin, but as
for the pain by which my self-love is put to death, and the
humiliations which crucify my pride, I accept them with all my
heart ; not so much because they are the effects of your justice,
but as benefits of your great mercy. Have pity on me then,
dear Saviour, and help me.
icy
Second Part
LETTERS ON THE PRACTICE OF ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE
PROVIDENCE.
FIRST BOOK.
ON THE ESTEEM FOR AND LOVE OF THIS VIRTUE.
LETTER I. Happiness and Peace of Abandonment.
To Sister Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux.
The happiness and peace of a soul entirely abandoned to God.
Perpignan, 1732.
Madame and very dear Sister. You do well to give yourself
up entirely and almost solely to the excellent practice of an
absolute abandonment to the will of God. In this lies for you
all perfection, this is the straight path leading most quickly and
surely to a profound and unchangeable peace ; it is also a secure
safeguard to preserve this peace in the depths of the soul even
in the midst of the most violent storms. Far from doing it
harm, these storms will serve infallibly, not only to increase
its merits, but also to strengthen more and more this union of
the created will, with the divine will, and it is this which renders
the peace of the soul unchangeable. Oh, what happiness ! what
grace ! what a certainty as to the life to come, and what unalter-
able peace does she possess who belongs to God alone, who has
no being out of God ; who has no other support, no other help,
no other hope but God alone.
What a beautiful letter one of your Sisters has written to me
on this subject ! She says that for a whole month this one
thought consoled, sustained and encouraged her so strongly
that instead of reluctance to practise this virtue, she felt it a
source of peace, and of an inexplicable joy. It seemed to her
that God took the place of director, of friend, and willed to be
all things to her Himself. The more we become accustomed to
these thoughts, the. more settled will be our peace ; and the fixed
determination to seek God only, and to unite our will to His,
is, in the best sense of the word, that " goodwill " to which peace
has been promised.
How can created things trouble a soul which neither desires
nor fears them ? Let us endeavour to arrive at this state and
then our peace will be firmly established. Let us imitate the
holy Archbishop of Cambray who said of himself, " I endure all
until the worst comes to the worst, and then, finally, I find
peace in complete self-renunciation."
io8 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER II. A Short Way to Perfection.
This abandonment is the shortest way to arrive at perfect
love and perfection.
Your letter, my dear Sister, put me in mind of the Gospel,,
where we see a young man approaching our Lord to ask Him the
way to eternal life. Our good Master replied that he should
keep the commandments, and when the young man answered
that he had kept them faithfully from his youth, our Lord
said, " If you would be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give
to the poor, and come, follow Me." Your request is exactly
the same as that of the young man. You want me to show you
the shortest and surest way to attain perfection which is the
fulness of life eternal.
If I did not know you as I do I should answer that the first
thing to do is to keep your rule, because the rule is to every Re-
ligious the only sure road to perfection. But I am aware that
you have kept it with scrupulous fidelity for a long time : there-
fore, what you wish to learn at present is by what particular
practice a Religious who faithfully fulfils all her duties can arrive
at a high degree of sanctity. To this question, my dear Sister,
my reply will be exactly similar to that of our good Master. If
you would be perfect, divest yourself of your own views, of all
high notions of yourself, of studied elegance, of all reflexion of
your own conduct ; in fine, of all that you can call your own, and
give yourself up without reserve and for ever to the guidance and
good pleasure of God. Abandonment, yes, entire, blind, absolute
abandonment ; this, for souls circumstanced as you are is the
height and the whole of perfection, because perfection consists
in perfect love, and because for you the practice of abandonment
is another word for the practice of pure love.
It is true that love, even the purest, does not exclude in the
soul the desire of its own salvation and perfection ; but it is
equally incontestable that the nearer the soul approaches the
perfect purity of divine love the more its thoughts and reflexions
are turned away from itself and fixed on the infinite goodness of
God. This divine goodness does not compel us to repudiate
the happiness it destines for us, but it has every right, doubtless,
to be loved for itself alone without any reflexion on our own
interests. This love which includes the love of ourselves but
is independent of it, is what theologians call pure love, and all
agree in recognising that the soul is so much the more perfect
according to the measure in which it habitually acts under the
influence of this love, and the extent to which it divests itself of
all self-seeking, at any rate unless its own interests are sub-
ordinated to the interests of God. Therefore total renunciation
PEACE IN TURMOIL 109
without reserve or limit has no thought of self-interest it thinks
but of God, of His good pleasure, of His wishes, of His glory ; it
neither knows, nor desires to know aught else. Far from making
its own interests a reason for its love, the soul, truly detached,
generously accepts and embraces all that tends to annihilate
them ; darkness, uncertainty, weakness, humiliations ! all these
things give it pleasure directly it perceives that it so pleases the
Beloved, because the pleasure and satisfaction of its Beloved
form all its own pleasure and satisfaction. It neither has a
will, nor a desire, nor a life of its own but is completely lost,
engulfed, and, as it were, annihilated in the depth of the dark
abyss of the will of Him whom it loves.
I could tell you of souls known to me, which, having crossed
this terrible pass of total abandonment, and thrown themselves
into the deep abyss of the incomprehensible will of God, could
not refrain from crying out in a transport of joy and holy con-
fidence, " Oh ! will of my God ! how infinitely holy, just, and
adorable it is, and still more lovable and beneficent. If it be
entirely accomplished in me, I shall infallibly find true satis-
faction in this life and eternal happiness in the next. Infinite
mercy could not permit anything which did not tend to the greater
good of His poor creatures. These only can be lost by the
perversion of their own -will, and by preventing the accomplish-
ment of those designs which are always holy and most merciful.
Give me then, oh my God, the grace to destroy by complete
detachment this foolish resistance, and henceforth be assured
that Your holy will shall be done in me ; while I shall be equally
assured of salvation and perfection."
LETTER III. Peace in Turmoil.
To Sister Marie Therese de Viomenil. To be applied to herself.
Profound peace can be enjoyed in this abandonment even
amidst the bustle of business matters. Perpignan, 1740.
What I have always feared has come to pass. I have no power
to refuse a charge that is contrary to all my predilections and for
which I do not believe myself to have any aptitude. In vain
have I groaned, prayed, implored, and offered to remain all
my life in the vicariate of Toulouse : I have been compelled to
make the sacrifice one of the greatest of my whole life. But
now I see plainly the hand of Providence. The sacrifice having
been made and reiterated a hundred times God has taken from
me all my former repugnance, so that I left the mother-house,
which you know how much I loved, with a peace and liberty of
spirit which astonished even myself. More still ! When I
no ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
arrived at Perpignan I found a large amount of business to
attend to, none of which I understood ; and many people to
see, and to deal with ; the Bishop, the steward, the king's
lieutenant, the Parliament, the garrison staff. You know what
horror I have always entertained for visits of any sort, and
above all for those of grand people. Well ! none of these have
given me any alarm ; in God I hope to find a remedy for every-
thing, and I feel a confidence in divine Providence which enables
me to surmount all difficulties. Besides this I enjoy peace and
tranquillity in the midst of a thousand cares and anxieties, such
as I should have imagined ought naturally to overwhelm me.
It is true that what most contributes to produce this great peace
is, that God has rendered my soul impervious to fear, and I
desire nothing for this short and miserable life. Therefore,
when I have clone all in my power or that I felt before God that
I ought to do, I leave the rest to Him, abandoning everything
entirely and with my whole heart to divine Providence, blessing
Him beforehand for all things and wishing in all, and above all,
that His holy will may be done because I am convinced by faith
and by numerous personal experiences that all comes from God,
and that He is so powerful and such a good father, that He will
cause everything to prosper for the advantage of His dear children.
Has He not proved that He loves us more than life itself since
He has sacrificed His life for love of us ? Therefore, as He
has done so much for love of us, are we not convinced that He will
not forget us ? I entreat you, then, not to worry about me and
my affairs. Do the same that I have constrained myself to
do. Directly I have taken measures before God and according
to His will I leave all the rest to Him, and look to Him for success.
I wait for this success with confidence, but also in peace ; and
whatever takes place I accept, not for the satisfaction of my
impatient desires, but keeping pace with divine Providence,
who rules and arranges all for our greater good, although gen-
erally we do not understand any of His ways. And how can
we dare to judge Him, poor ignorant creatures as we are, and
blind as the moles that burrow underground.
Let us accept all from the hand of our good Father and He
will keep us in peace in the midst of the greatest disasters of this
world, which pass away like shadows. In proportion to our
abandonment and confidence in God will our lives be holy and
tranquil. Also where this abandonment is neglected there can
be no virtue, nor any perfect rest.
You were wrong in being surprised that I was not so at the
views and plans of N., for, besides that nothing surprises me
in this life, you ought to know my way of always looking at the
best side of things, and setting everything in a favourable light
LIBERTY OF SPIRIT in
as St. Francis of Sales advises. This fortunate habit protects
me from danger, and somehow makes it impossible for me to
think badly, to judge harshly, or to speak uncharitably of anyone,
whoever he may be.
I strongly advise you to adopt it ; it will greatly contribute
to the preservation of the peace of your soul, and the purity of
your conscience. Believe me, and sacrifice all human feelings,
consoling yourself for all by abnegation and confidence in God
alone, Who alone can fill the place of all else.
LETTER IV. Liberty of Spirit.
My dear Sister,
I am touched at your wish to share in my trials, but I am happy
in being able to reassure you. It is true that, at first, I felt a
keen pain at finding myself loaded with a multitude of business
affairs and other cares quite contrary to my attraction for
silence and solitude ; but notice how divine Providence has
managed about it. God has given me the grace not to attach
myself to any of these affairs, therefore my spirit is always at
liberty. I recommend the success of them to His fatherly care,
and this is why nothing distresses me. Things often go per-
fectly, and then I return thanks to God for it, but sometimes
everything goes wrong and I bless Him for that equally and offer
it to Him as a sacrifice. Once this sacrifice is made God puts
everything right. Already this good Master has, more than
once, given me these pleasant surprises. As regards having time
to myself, I have more here than elsewhere. Visits are rare now,
because I only go where duty obliges me, or necessity calls me.
The Fathers themselves knowing my tastes, soon left me alone,
and as they are aware that I do not act in this way out of pride
or misanthropy, they do not take exception to my conduct,
and indeed many are edified by it. Nevertheless I am not quite
so dead as you seem to think, but God has given me grace not
to care how discontented people are with me for following my
own bent. It is He alone whom we ought to have any great inter-
est in pleasing ; as long as He is satisfied that is enough for us all,
other things are a mere nothing. In a short time we shall appear
before this great and sovereign Master, this infinite Being. Alas !
of what avail will it be to us then for eternity to have done any-
thing except for Him and inspired by His grace, and His holy
Spirit ? If one became more familiarised with those simple truths,
what repose would not our hearts and souls enjoy during this
present life ? From how many idle fears, foolish desires and
useless anxieties should we not be delivered ; not only concerning
ii2 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
this life, but also the next. I assure you that since my return
to France I begin to look forward more than ever with great
peace and tranquillity to the end of this sad life. How could
I experience aught but joy at seeing the end of my exile
approaching ?
LETTER V. Recourse to Providence.
To the same Sister. Perpignan, 1741.
I am constantly experiencing here the action of divine Provi-
dence, for no sooner do I make a sacrifice of everything to Him
than He rectifies and makes it all turn out for the best. When I
find myself at the last resource I place all my needs in the hands
of that good Providence from whom I hope all things. I have
recourse to Him always. I thank Him without ceasing for all,
accepting all from His divine hand. Never does He fail those
who put their whole trust in His protection. But how do people
usually act ? They substitute themselves, blind and powerless
as they are, for that divine Providence infinitely wise and in-
finitely good. They build on their own efforts and thus with-
drawing themselves from the ruling of divine love they deprive
themselves of the helps they would have received had they kept
within its shelter. What folly ! How can we doubt that God
understands our requirements better than we do ourselves,
and that His arrangements in our regard are most advantageous
to us although we do not comprehend them ? We might make
use of the small amount of sense we possess to decide that we will
allow ourselves to be guided by that sweet Providence even
though we cannot fathom the secret activities it employs, nor
the particular ends it desires to attain. Should you remark
that if it is sufficient for us passively to submit to be led then
what about the proverb, " God helps those who help themselves " ?
I did not say that you were to do nothing without doubt it is
necessary to help ourselves ; to wait with folded arms for every-
thing to drop from Heaven is according to natural inclination,
but would be an absurd and culpable quietism applied to super-
natural graces. Therefore while co-operating with God, and
leaning on Him, you must never leave off working yourself. To
act in this way is to act with certainty and consequently with
calmness. When, in all our actions we look upon ourselves as
instruments in the hands of God to work out His hallowed
designs, we shall act quietly, without anxiety, without hurry,
without uneasiness about the future, without troubling 'about
the past, giving ourselves up to the fatherly providence of God
and relying more on Him than on all possible human means.
ALONE WITH GOD 113
In this way we shall always be at peace, and God will infallibly
turn everything to our good, whether temporal or eternal.
LETTER VI. Alone with God.
To the same Sister. Abandonment ameliorates the weari-
someness of solitude.
My dear Sister,
You are giving yourself unnecessary trouble about me. You
have persuaded yourself that I look upon the isolation in which
I live as a misfortune, whereas this is far from being the case.
Every day I bless God for this happy stroke of His providence. I
learn by it to die to all things in order to live to God alone. I
was not so shut away at . There, many events both within
and without kept me up, and made me feel alive ; now, there is
nothing of that kind. I am in a veritable desert alone with God.
Oh ! how delightful it is ! Great interior desolation is joined
to this exterior solitude. However painful to nature such a
state may be, I bless God for it because I have no doubt that
it is good for me. It is a universal death to all feeling even about
spiritual matters, a sort of annihilation through which I must pass
in order to rise again with Jesus Christ to a new life, a life all in
God, a life stripped of everything, even of consolation, because in
that the senses take part. God wishes to leave me destitute
of all outward things, and dead to all to live only to Him. May
His holy will be done in all things, and for ever ! This is the
strong pillar to which we must remain firmly fastened, this is the
solid immovable foundation of all our perfection. You see,
my good Sister, how little I require your compassion, since the
subject on which you pity me most is precisely the subject of
my joy. I must own, however, that the extreme solitude in
which I found myself here so suddenly did not at first appear
at all pleasant to me except in the superior part of my soul, but
very soon my whole soul participated in it. Once more have I
learnt by experience that we cannot do better than to follow
step by step the course appointed by divine Providence. That
is my great attraction, and more than ever am I resolved to
devote myself to it blindly, without reservations and in all
things, such as places, employments, seasons, in fine for every-
thing. For a long time I have contented myself with asking
God for one single grace, which is that I may have no other
desire than to please Him, and no other fear than to offend Him.
If He gives me this grace I shall be rich indeed both for time and
ii4 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
eternity. I wish for you as for myself, only this. What can
one fear who abandons oneself entirely to God ? Besides the
peace of mind it brings we shall find our perfection therein. If
greater merit is gained in sacrifice what can be more meritorious
than the entire sacrifice of our own will even in those things
that seem to be most reasonable and holy, to the fulfilment of
the will of God alone ? Let us then have no other employment,
no other ambition but that of uniting our will to the most merciful
will of God, and let us be well assured that this will be our
salvation even when we imagine that all is lost.
LETTER VII. A Holy Community.
The happiness experienced by a Community of Poor Clares in
practising abandonment to God.
My dear Sister,
I have made a discovery here that has given me more satis-
faction than anything else could have done. In this town of
Albi there is a convent of Poor Clares of the Great Reform,
entirely separated from the world, who take no dowry and live
on daily alms. The Superior is the most saintly person I have
ever encountered in my life. I felt beforehand a great interior
drawing to have a share in their holy intercourse, and nearly all
of them have told me that they felt the same about me. I
believe that God intends to bestow some great graces on me
through their holy prayers. They lead a very interior life and
practise abandonment to God with a remarkable perfection.
When I assured them that on every occasion that presented
itself I. would try to procure alms for them, they seemed to be
quite scandalised and begged me to think only of their spiritual
needs and to make them more detached and more holy by my
instructions and prayers. You cannot imagine anything more
wonderful than their union, candour, and simplicity. Impressed
by their great austerities I asked them one day if such a hard life
did not affect their health and shorten their lives. They replied
that there were hardly ever any invalids amongst them, and that
very few died young, most of them living to be over eighty. They
added that fasting and mortification contributed to improve
their health and to prolong life, which good cheer usually tended
to shorten. I have never beheld such gaiety and holy joy any-
where else as among these good nuns. To please them I had to
talk continually on spiritual subjects as they could not tolerate
gossip and worldly news, but said " of what use is all that to us " ?
I assure you, you would be edified and very glad on my account of
this fortunate discovery, for, although I have often visited this
OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD 115
place before, I knew the Community only by name, and looked
on the nuns as dead to all ; buried and quite out of sight.
What a favour and consolation for me ! I might add it is
fitting also to praise and magnify God for the wonders He has
worked in these souls.
LETTER VIII. Our Dependence on God.
To Sister Marie- Anne-Therese de Rosen (1724).
Concerning motives for abandonment on account of the
goodness and greatness of the divine Majesty.
My dear Sister,
Do not ask me for new ways of acquiring the friendship of
God, and of making rapid progress in virtue. I know only one
way which I have more than once explained to you, and of which
my daily experience demonstrates more and more clearly the
infallible efficacy. This secret is, abandonment to divine Provi-
dence. Bear with me for calling your attention to it once
again, and do not grow weary, either, of learning what I do not
weary of teaching you. I should like to cry out everywhere,
" Abandonment ! abandonment !" and again " Abandonment !"
unbounded and unreserved ; and for two good reasons.
i st. Because the greatness of God and His sovereign dominion
over all, require that all creatures should bow before Him, that
all should be cast down, and as it were annihilated before His
supreme Majesty. There is no comparison between His infinite
greatness and our nothingness. It is above all things, compre-
hends all things, absorbs all things in its immensity. Or,
rather, it is all things since all things that have a separate exist-
ence from the Divinity have received their being from Him in
creation and still continue to receive it in their preservation
which is creation renewed unceasingly. Thus the existence we
have received from God remains, as it were, in the bosom of the
Divinity and never leaves its service, but remains plunged and
engulfed therein. God, then, is the author of all being, nothing
is, nor lives, nor subsists, nor moves, but by Him, and in Him,
He is Who is, by Whom and in Whom all exists, and Who is in
all things.
Things, compared with nothingness, seem to have an existence,
but, compared with God, they seem nothing ; they only possess
being and substance by the gift of God ; while He alone exists
of Himself, and owes nothing to any other than Himself. There-
fore as everything belongs to Him, necessarily everything will
return to Him that His supreme dominion may be glorified by
all His creatures. Those creatures that have not the gift of
n6 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
reason glorify Him according to their state in following with
complete exactness and perfect obedience the laws of their
nature ; but He has a right to expect from His reasonable
creatures a glory far more worthy of Him ; which results from
their voluntary abandonment. And what more just and noble
use could any reasonable creature make of its liberty than in
rendering to God all it has received from Him, and in offering
Him in advance all that may be added to it in the future ?
Understand me thoroughly ; the homage that God expects from
us He alone can give us power to render Him in giving us the
thought, the desire, and the will. Also if He gives us this grace,
and if we profit by it, far from taking the credit to ourselves we
ought to thank Him for it as the crown of all His other benefits.
The impulsion which prompts us to offer up this last thanks-
giving is yet another grace, as well as the thought that projected
the act. Thus, each of our moments, each of our actions, in
increasing our debt, forms new ties and makes us depend more
entirely on the divine goodness. At this thought, our spirit,
our heart, our soul remain as though engulfed, lost, annihilated
in the profound abyss of this sovereign dominion.
Our merits, regarded in this light, far from inspiring us with
pride will pierce us with the idea of our own utter dependence,
which, as we see more clearly we shall understand better ; and
we shall finish by arriving at the complete annihilation of our
entire being before God. Thus alone shall we be true, and shall
be before God in our proper state that of nothingness. Thus,
also, shall we practise perfect abandonment. To keep oneself
always in this interior disposition is what Holy Scripture calls
" walking in justice in truth," outside this state there is nothing
but falsehood and injustice towards God. Injustice because we
deprive Him of the glory that belongs to Him ; falsehood because
we flatter ourselves in appropriating what can never belong to us.
2nd. The second motive to induce us to abandon ourselves
without reserve is, that, unless God receives from His creatures
the homage due to His infinite Majesty He cannot give free vent
to His infinite goodness. All that His creatures bring to Him
by a total renunciation He wills to return to them by a gratuitous
gift of His mercy ; or rather, He repays infinitely more than they
ave given Him, because in return for the gift of their limited
being He bestows on them His infinite riches. Therefore at the
bottom of this abyss of renunciation where we should expect
to find nothingness we find infinitude. What an exchange of the
divine liberality ! What ingenuity of divine wisdom ! What a
contrivance and surprise of the divine goodness !
THE GOODNESS OF GOD 117
LETTER IX. The Goodness of God.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil.
Another fresh motive for abandoning ourselves to God. His
fatherly providence.
I do not understand your uneasiness, my dear Sister, nor why
you take pleasure in tormenting yourself as you do about the
future, when your faith teaches you that the future is in the hands
of an infinitely good Father Who loves you more than you love
yourself, and who understands what is necessary for you much
better than you. Have you forgotten that everything that
happens is ordained by divine Providence ? And if we recognise
this truth how is it that we are not humbly submissive in every
event both great and small to all that God wills or permits ?
Oh ! how blind we are when we desire anything other than what
God wills ! He alone knows the dangers that threaten us in
the future, and the helps we shall require. I am strongly per-
suaded that we should all be lost if God were to grant us all that
we asked for, and this is why, says St. Augustine, God out of
compassion for our blindness, does not always hear our prayers,
and often gives us the exact contrary to what we asked Him, as
being in truth better for us. Truly it seems to me that in this
world nearly all of us are like people who in madness, or delirium,
ask for exactly what will cause their death, and to whom it is
refused out of charity, or in pity. Oh my God ! if this truth
were but understood, with what blind abandonment would we
not submit to all the decrees of Your divine Providence ! What
peace and tranquillity of heart should we enjoy about all things
and in all things, not only as to outward events but also about the
interior state of our souls. Even if the painful vicissitudes
through which God makes us pass should be in punishment
for our unfaithfulness, we ought to say to ourselves, " God wills
it by permitting it," and humbly submit. We must then
detest the offence and accept the painful and humiliating con-
sequences, as St. Francis of Sales so often recommends. Would
that this principle, thoroughly grasped, could put an end to
the troubles and anxieties that are so useless and so destructive
of our peace of mind and spiritual progress. Shall I never be
able even with the help of grace to introduce into your soul this
great principle of faith, so sweet, so consoling, so tranquillising ?
" Oh my God ! " we ought to repeat, " may Your will be accom-
plished in me and never my own. May Yours be accomplished
because it is infinitely just and also infinitely advantageous to
me. I acknowledge that You can will nothing that is not for
the greatest benefit to Your creatures as long as they are sub-
n8 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
missive to Your commands. May my wishes never be granted
if they do not agree perfectly with Yours, because in that case
they would be disastrous to me. And if ever, my God, it happens
that either through ignorance or passion I should persist in
desiring things contrary to Your will, may I always be refused
or punished, as the effect, not of Your justice, but of Your
compassion and great mercy."
" Whatever happens," said St. Francis of Sales, " I shall always
side with divine Providence, even if human wisdom tears her
hair out with spite." If you were more enlightened you would
judge very differently from the ordinary run of human beings ;
then, too, what a source of peace and strength this way of looking
at things would prove to you. How happy are saints ! and
how peacefully they live ! and how blind and stupid we are in
not accustoming ourselves to think and act as they do, but to
prefer living shut up in thick darkness which makes us wretched
as well as blind and guilty. Let us then make it our study,
aim, and purpose to conform ourselves in all things to the holy
will of God, in spite of interior rebellion. Even about this
rebellion we must acquiesce in the will of God, for it compels
us to remain always before Him in a state of sacrifice as to all
things ; in an interior silence of respect, adoration, self-efface-
ment, submission, love, and an entire abandonment full of
confidence to His divine will.
LETTER X. Continued Troubles.
To the same Sister.
My dear Sister,
I am sorry that your troubles continue, but I should be much
more sorry if you refused to profit by, them, at least in the way
of making a virtue of necessity. Remember our great
principles :
i st. That there is nothing so small, or so apparently in-
different which God does not ordain or permit, even to the fall
of a leaf.
znd. That God is sufficiently wise, and good and powerful and
merciful to turn even the most, apparently, disastrous events
to the advantage and profit of those who humbly adore and
accept His will in all that He permits. Is there anything more
consoling in religion than these two principles ? When we know
too that our natural dislikes and rebellions, far from preventing
the merit of submission, do but increase it as long as this sub-
CONTINUED TROUBLES 119
mission is sincere in the higher part of the soul ; when we know
further that these fits of impatience and vexation which are only
i:alf voluntary, are the effect of frailty, and do not destroy our
submission, but only slightly diminish its merit.
These imperfections are often useful to us by rendering us
more humble, and preventing us from losing all our merit through
a vain self-complacency. Do you recollect this wise saying of
Fenelon ? " It is a great grace of God to be willing to surfer,
not in a grand and heroic way, but quite humbly, and in small
things because in this way we gain patience and become little
and humble at the same time."
As for the grievous trials of which you speak, add them to your
cross as an extra weight that divine Providence allows you to
carry, and instead of one " Fiat," say two, then remain in peace
in the superior part of your soul whatever storms and tempests
rage in the inferior part. The latter resembles the base of a high
mountain where bad weather is usually encountered, however
fine and clear the sky is at the summit. Try then to keep yourself
always on the summit in those serene heights above the thunder-
storms and every disaster.
It seems to me that your thoughts dwell too much on creatures.
As for me, thank God I see only Him in all things. Everything
helps me to Him. Since it is He that has placed us where we
are, dependent on those who afflict us, it is, therefore, on Him
alone that we must depend. It is He alone, I am certain, who
inspires or allows the actions of men. I will accept nothing
that does not come to me from Him, will owe no obligation to
any one but Him, will thank no one but Him alone. If you call
to mind how little men contribute to the existing state of things
you will see that it is divine Providence who manages everything
in a manner singularly adapted for the welfare of those who
submit to Him, and who disposes everything for their best
advantage. God can produce occurrences, and arrange necessary
circumstances as seems good to Him, may He be blessed for all,
in all, and for ever.
I am aware that my direction is considered rather too simple,
but what does that matter ? This holy simplicity hated by the
world is, to me, so delightful that I never dream of correcting
it. Everyone to his taste. I respect those who are wise and
prudent, but content myself with remaining one of those poor,
simple and little people of whom Jesus Christ speaks, and after
His example St. Francis of Sales. Let us be sure that God
arranges all for the best. Our fears, our activities, our urgencies
make us imagine inconveniences where in reality they do not
exist. Let us follow step by step the ways of divine Providence,
and when we realize what is required of us let us desire that and
izo ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
nothing else. God knows much better than we do ourselves
what is most suitable for us, His poor creatures. Our mis-
fortunes and sufferings often result from the accomplishment
of our own desires. Let us leave all to God and then all will go
well. Abandon to Him everything in general : that is the best
way, indeed the only way of providing infallibly and surely
for all our real interests. I say " real " because there are false
interests that lead to our ruin. The abandonment to divine
Providence which I practise and counsel others to adopt is not
so heroic nor so difficult as you seem to imagine. It is the centre
of a solid peace, and in it I find an unchangeable repose, proof
against the most trying events. Oh ! how well repaid we are
for the small and miserable sacrifices we make for God ! And
then, once made, there are no more to make, because we no longer
have any other desires. We cannot entertain even a wish for
ourselves apart from the will of our sovereign Master, nor
without His permission. What a happy state both for this life
and the next !
LETTER XI. Good Wishes.
To the Sisters of the Visitation at Nancy (1732).
Mutual good wishes between souls who seek nothing but God
alone.
My very dear Sisters,
Your good wishes for me are quite heavenly ; they are
evidently dictated by the heart, but what a heart ! One that is
entirely spiritual and interior, which sets no value on anything
but what is divine, and has no interests but those for eternity.
Profiting by such an example I return you a thousand good
wishes of the same sort, and in the same spirit as yours, and
particularly that God will be pleased to preserve and increase
more and more : ist. The love of solitude and silence which
forms the spirit of recollection so necessary for the interior
life ; and. The spirit of peace and charity, of union, and of
detachment and interior abnegation which preserves that sweet
and tranquil peace in the soul, which is the true happiness of
this present life and the foundation of the interior life ; 3rd.
An attraction for the practice of the presence of God, and for
heartfelt prayer, for these are the mainsprings of the spiritual
life ; 4th. The sincere will to be all for God which incessantly
renews the spirit of fervour ; jth. An entire and perfect
union of our wills with the will of God, which will make us
contented with our spiritual poverty because God wills it. Thus
GOOD WISHES 121
we sacrifice our self-love however deep-rooted and hidden it may
be.
These rules are indispensably necessary for certain souls who,
although indifferent to all other things, yet afflict themselves
about their interior miseries. In' the practice of them they
will find peace. In this way all that is wanting to us will be
supplied, all our miseries will be remedied, and our poverty
enriched. For there can be no greater treasure in our souls than
conformity to the will of God, submitting our own wills to His,
even if it should be at the expense of those interests which are
most dear to us and which we regard as most desirable. Since
we ought to desire virtues only to please God, will it not be to
wish to have them all in wishing to conform to the divine good
pleasure, and with so generous and so perfect a conformity
extending to all things with the sole exception of an offence
against God ?
I congratulate you with all my heart on the joy you feel in
celebrating the anniversary of the foundation of your house,
but most of all on the fact that your house was founded in the
poverty of the Crib and in confidence in divine Providence. The
virtues of your saintly first Sisters were built on this rich founda-
tion and have helped to construct the edifice. Your virtues
will, I hope, maintain it and bring it to perfection for the honour
and glory of its divine Master who is its sole proprietor.
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.
ist 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 practised 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 every-
thing 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
SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES 123
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 two-fold 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 ful-
filling 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 advance-
ment 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
124 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 :
i st. 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 busi-
ness, 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."
THE THREE DEGREES OF VIRTUE 125
jth. 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, Saint 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, not 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 IL The Three Degrees of Virtue.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil (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 towards good, and turned
towards evil, but with the help of grace which never fails him,
it is always in his power to strengthen his will towards good,
although naturally so weak ; and to fortify it against evil
towards which it is, unhappily, so much inclined.
There are three degrees of virtue which the liberty of our
enfeebled will can practise only with great pain, and much
difficulty, i st. That virtue essential for salvation, the neglect
of which constitutes a mortal sin. and. 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
fulfil our essential obligations, such as, hate, revenge, anger,
inordinate attachments, avarice, envy, etc., 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 for ever. 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 towards virtue,
and to overcome our inclination towards evil. We have three
means to assure and hasten the success of this undertaking.
iz6 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 Work of God in the Soul.
To Madame de Lesen (1731).
On the first work 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 realise now better than before.
i st. Your soul is like a huge hall, quite bare, or at least
very badly furnished.
znd. 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
THE FIRST WORK OF GOD IN THE SOUL 127
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 colours, 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 favourite 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
of 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 : ist, To be profoundly per-
suaded that nothing takes place in this world either spiritually
or physically, that God does not will, or at least, permit ; there-
fore we ought no less to submit to the permissions of God in
things that do not depend upon us, than to His absolute will,
znd, 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 practise
this submission. Resting on this two-fold 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 of Sales
puts it ; it will then be all the more meritorious.
128 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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, ist, You must desire it ardently, and ener-
fetically will to acquire it, no matter at what cost. 2nd, Believe
rmly 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 dis-
couraged, 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 Saviour.
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 particularising anything, as every being seeks
its centre. 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
RULES FOR GENERAL DIRECTION
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 thai} 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 senti-
ment. 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 forget-
fulness 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-Therese de Viomenil.
General direction.
My dear Sister,
i st. 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.
znd. It is very useful to try and prevent faults by acts of
penance, but it would be better still to endeavour to expiate
them after having committed them, than to multiply your
penances in advance without real necessity.
3rd. Moderate and supernaturalise your affection for those
who are dear to you.
ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
4th. In order to excite yourself to fervour 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.
yth. 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 realising the designs of
God, Who desires you to belong to Him entirely and without
reserve.
8th. Labour 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.
loth. 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 tem-
perament. 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 youf 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 your-
self, but without discouragement, and in peace.
You will derive ever-increasing strength in Holy Communion,
in prayer, in humility, sweetness, patience, obedience, morti-
fication, and above all in interior abnegation.
RULES FOR GENERAL DIRECTION 131
nth. 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 Him-
self, and as we are thus unable to mortify ourselves exteriorly,
we must make up for it by interior mortification, applying our-
selves more earnestly to the destruction of self-love, pride,
fastidiousness, and criticism of others, all of which are its bad
fruits. Finally endeavour 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.
1 2th. According to our advance in the course of our earthly
pilgrimage let us endeavour to increase in solid fervour, 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.
1 3th. 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 neighbours, 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.
132. ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER VII. Rx/es for Direction.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil (1731), on the same
subject. Rules, etc.
My dear Sister and very dear daughter in our Lord, may the
peace of Jesus Christ be always with you.
i st. I thank God for all the good thoughts with which He
inspires you. As long as you keep this good intention of belong-
ing 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.
and. The fear of being mistaken about being at peace in
the midst of interior troubles is very useless. What you un-
wittingly 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 favour 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 pro-
ceeds 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 learnt 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 permisson 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.
ADVICE ON PRAYER 133
LETTER VIII. Advice on Prayer.
To Sister Marie-Anne-Therese de Rosen. Excellent advice
on prayer, to souls called to a life of abandonment.
i st. 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.
5 th. 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.
yth. 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 confi-
dence. 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
134 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 enthusi-
asm 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-Therese de Rosen (1731), on the same
subject. The danger of delusion in the prayer of recollection.
My dear Sister,
Always listen to that great interior Director, w r ho 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 re-enter 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,
DANGER OF DELUSION EXPLAINED 135
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 Revj 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, ist, 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 second hand 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 parlour, 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, ist, To great sinners
at the beginning of their conversion, in order that this work of
their conversion should be more speedily and completely effected,
znd, 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,
136 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
frequent, and recognised, 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 centre, 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, ist, When carried away by this great recol-
lection 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 recol-
lection, but only to give herself up to it when God impels her,
remembering always to fix her attention interiorly on the affec-
tions 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 any-
THE IMPRESSIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 137
thing ? 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 with-
out 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 centre, which is God ;
and by continually dwelling in this centre they gradually in-
crease 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-Fran$oise de Rosen (1735), on the practice
of abandonment in the different states of the soul.
My dear Sister,
Peace in our Saviour 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 re-perusal
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.
138 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
i st. 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 favourable 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 Fenelon 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.
znd. 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 misunder-
stood 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
our soul acts so quietly that you do not perceive your own
Anterior acts of assent and adhesion to the impressions of the
iHoly 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 discon-
tented 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 speak
ing she only requires this one point and this constantly prac-
tised 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 remodelled and transformed.
4th. Your total abandonment to God, constant and universal
as it is, and practised in a spirit of confidence and of union with
Jesus Christ doing always the will of His Father, is, of all practicesl
the most divine and the most certain to succeed : try to instit
it into everyone, especially the good Sister of whom I have jus,
spoken.
5th. The grace and light which enable you to comabt 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
THE IMPRESSIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 139
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 advan-
tage to ourselves. Finally should there be, with regard to your
neighbour, any little reparation to be made, never omit the
opportunity of generously overcoming pride and human respect
by making it.
yth. 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 recognise 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, thes'e oft-repeated feelings, and
frequent personal experiences, that all the saints learnt 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 regu-
lated 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 arrange-
ments of His providence and following the example of Jesus
Christ, suspicions, rash judgments, envy, jealousy, etc., without
attempting to clear yourself, except ki so far as the edification
of your neighbour enjoins. When you are exposed to all sorts
of criticism and unjust accusations go on in your own way without
140 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 con-
tradiction.
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
neighbour seems to many persons a mere trifle ; but it is never-
theless 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.
loth. 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 recognise,
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
PEACE AND SUBMISSION > 141
spirit, and thus to be ready, as she is, to abandon herself com-
pletely 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 princi-
pally 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 practise 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 sub-
missive 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 adn heart in God, receive these gifts with
humility and gratitude, but without attaching yourself to them.
If you Hked 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
142 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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, sub-
mission, and abandonment for as long as it pleases God to permit
them to continue. You know, also, that the only hurtful dis-
tractions 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 towards Him, or by the simple
glance of pure faith ; or better still, by a certain calm fn 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 of Sales
says.
LETTER XIII. Peace and Confidence.
On the same subject.
What you tell me about the peace and tranquillity you ex-
perience 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
PEACE AND CONFIDENCE 143
hasten to extinguish the flames. Read, from time to time, the
treatise on the peace of the soui 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 tran-
quillity 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 con-
fidence 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 regu-
late the thoughts of the mind during the day to which I answer :
i st. 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 reflexions. There-
fore it is more useful to occupy yourself with the affair of belong-
ing to God without reserve ; with the desire to lead an interior
life, with a profound humility, fervour, 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 reflexions 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 towards certain virtues in order
to please God, will do more to help you on than all your reflexions
144 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
and grand reasonings. This is called being led to God by in-
clination, 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 favour ;
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, ac-
quiescing 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 practise in the midst of these spiritual vicissitudes
and changes of the interior state. From this I draw the con-
clusion 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
PEACE AND CONFIDENCE 145
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,t hat 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 exper-
ience of our own weakness becomes the protection of those
virtues that faith makes us practise. From this it happens
that according to the progress we make God gives us correspond-
ing light, and a more lively realisation 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 appro-
priate them by vanity and scarcely perceptible self-satisfaction.
From this great rule it follows that our wretchedness, thoroughly
well recognised and experienced, is worth more to us than an
angelic virtue the merit of which we unjustly attribute to our-
selves. This rule, deeply engraved in the soul, keeps it always
146 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
in peace in the midst of a lively realisation of its misery, since
it regards these feelings as very great graces from God, as indeed
they are.
LETTER XIV. Singular Favours of God.
To Sister Anne-Marguerite Boudet de la Belliere (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 recognises 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 favour. I
conclude from these favours 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 ?
i st. 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.
and. 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 nothing-
ness. 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
SINGULAR FAVOURS OF GOD 147
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 favours 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, obe-
dience, charity, and gentle forbearance with your neighbour.
Know that the devil is not the author of favours 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,
you soul has, so to say, been re-modelled, somewhat in the way
that an old metal or silver pot is re-cast to make an entirely new
one, shining and bright. There will be many other remouldings
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.
yth. 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
148 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 re-enter 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 exper-
iences, 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.
loth. 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.
nth. 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.
1 2th. 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
HEARTFELT PRAYER 149
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 innocen tdescription, 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.
1 3th. 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-Frangoise 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.
i st. 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 accord-
ing to His pleasure. It is the work of the divine Spirit on the
150 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 Him-
self, and to inspire them with a distaste for all else ; so transitory
impressions have their good effect, for which reason we are per-
mitted 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 afterwards to be polished,
is very just. You have only to allow yourself to be shaped and
modelled, 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-Therese 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
to-day 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.
i st. Your great attraction towards 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.
THE OPERATIONS OF GRACE 151
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, follow-
ing step by step the impulse given for that purpose, and stop
directly it ceases, to resume once more the same silent attention.
jth. 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
particularising 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
152 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 every-
thing 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 scrutinise spiritual things so much, but follow
God with simplicity, as St. Francis of Sales says : " To do other-
wise 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 con-
fusion, haste, and anxiety of a self-love that is perpetually eager,
anxious, and impetuous.
yth. 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, accom-
panied 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
THE OPERATIONS OF GRACE 153
tack 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 nor 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 replugging 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.
loth. God carries out His work with any tools He pleases,
and sometimes effects wonderful things with very weak instru-
ments. 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
nil for the glory of your great Master.
154 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER XVII. Attraction to the Interior Life.
To Mother Marie-Anne-Sophie de Rottembourg (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-Therese de Viomenil. 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 neighbour.
When we have learnt to remain in interior peace, God will teach
others by our example without the sound of words to be peace-
able 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
DESIRES TO BE MODERATED 155
has taught you, abide in Him." Follow faithfully and obedi-
ently, when you feel it, this divine unction ; wait for it peace-
fully and with confidence when its impression becomes indis-
tinct ; 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 labours 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 recom-
mend 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 ful-
filment 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 fulfilment
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-Anne-Therese de Viomenil. Advising her
to moderate her desires and fears.
Salutary fear causes neither disturbance, uneasiness, nor
discouragement. If fear produce 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
156 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
of God should be the only rule of all our desires. The most
certain way of arriving at perfection is to submit, and to per-
severe 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 pur-
poses. It is on this account that God often delays their accom-
plishment 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 favour ! 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-Therese 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
HOLY SIMPLICITY 157
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 harbour 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 dis-
orders 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, etc.
LETTER XX. Holy Simplicity.
To Sister Anne-Marguerite Boudet de la Belliere. 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
158 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 centre
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 recognise
in future the results of the divine action in your change of heart.
ist. A holy indifference which resembles a sort of insensi-
bilily 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 neighbour.
3rd. A certain attraction towards 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 behaviour. 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 tranquillity
DIFFERENT ATTRACTIONS OF GRACE 159
possible. During the day do not force yourself to make so many
different acts, and still less to feel fervour 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 Therese Francoise 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. Some-
times, 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 appre-
hension 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 conse-
quently, in which there is more of sacrifice and of perfect abandon-
ment 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 under-
stand 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
fulfil the precept to hear Mass. You may adhere to this decision
without the slightest scruple. And if, further, you wish to have
160 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 opera-
tions 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 of 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 in-
creasing 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.
FIDELITY TO THE CALL OF GOD 161
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 con-
vinced 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
endeavour to preserve in your heart in spite of every obstacle
both exterior and interior, this attraction towards 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 concen-
trate 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 succour.
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 accom-
plished 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 every-
thing and to keep you united to God Who alone should be your
light, your support, your consolation and your strength. Appar-
1 62 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
ently it is to make you practise 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
THE CALL OF GOD A SIGN OF PREDESTINATION 163
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
164 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 ac-
complish 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 im-
pulsiveness, and direct all your efforts to the fulfilment 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.
i st. 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.
GOD ONLY DESIRES WHAT WE ARE ABLE TO GIVE 165
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 post-
ponement 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 the 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 per-
mitting 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.
1 66 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
You could not do better, therefore, than to practise 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 dis-
turbance, and even thank Him for preventing it falling into
greater sins.
LETTER XXVI. On Abandonment as to Employments and
Undertakings.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil.
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 ful-
filment 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 centre 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.
ACCEPTANCE OF DUTIES 167
LETTER XXVII. Acceptance of Duties.
To Mother Marie-Anne-Sophie de Rottembourg (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 re-
joiced 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 neighbour.
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 of Sales. I advise you
to make it yours. Any fresh proof that you are likely to receive
of the visible succour 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
practising a host of virtues. If she had had the simplicity to
submit, she would have practised at the same time the virtues
of obedience, charity and zeal. I do not speak of abnegation
which she would also have practised 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 recognised 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
1 68 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 sacri-
fices, 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 dis-
edification 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 neighbour. 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 ck>, or thought we ought to do according
to the light God gave us, let us remain quiet and peaceful, aban-
doning 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
To LEAVE ALL TO GOD 169
give and abandon myself entirely to divine Providence in every-
thing, 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 sweet-
ness of this hidden manna, which to the true Israelite has the
flavour 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 exami-
nation about the past, and reflexion 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, aban-
doned 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 realise 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 sup-
ported 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.
i yo ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER XXX. designation 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 practised 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 centre 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 sub-
mission, 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 out-
ward 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 sal-
vation 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.
Tobias in his blindness, Job on his dung-hill, 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.
CONDUCT IN SICKNESS 171
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 of 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 towards them
in future. This is how our good God will act towards us, when-
ever He gives us occasion to offer Him some sacrifice.
LETTER XXXII. "Patience with the faults of Others.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On bearing with your
neighbour 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
172 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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 pre-
destination than the actual and continual accomplishment of
the will of God.
LETTER XXXIII. Patience with Oneself.
To the same person. On bearing with herself.
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. Practise 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 humour with yourself, but put up with yourself with the
same gentleness which you should use towards your neighbour.
This is a more important matter than you would imagine, and
just at present is most essential to your sanctification. Keep
PREPARATION FOR THE SACRAMENTS 173
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 towards yourself even more than towards your
neighbour. 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 neighbour 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 ourimperfections, and our faults.
But see wherein the infinite goodness of o\ir 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 bitter-
ness ; 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 Provi-
dence 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
174 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
make use, however specious they may be, and let us go to God
humbly with the simplicity and confidence that St. Francis of
Sales advises, in the uprightness of a heart that sincerely seeks
Him. As to prayer you well know what I have so much recom-
mended 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 of 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 par-
ticular. It is this, and for such easy things that their very
facility will charm you.
i st. 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 phleg-
matic temperament.
2nd. Interior gentleness towards 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.
CONDUCT IN A TIME OF REST. 175
i st. 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 con-
tains 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.
yth. Above all drop all anxious thoughts, abandoning to
divine Providence all that might become a subject of preoccupa-
tion for you.
8th. In raising your heart to God, often say to Him, " Lord
deliver me from so many reflexions 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 co-
ij6 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
operation 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 M. Antionette 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 prefer 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 not 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
ON LIFE AND DEATH 177
rigours 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 of 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 imagi-
nations of self-love often hidden under the most spiritual dis-
guise and the most specious pretexts.
Do not be surprised then, my dear Sister, at being placed by
God in this necessity of practising abandonment. The vicis-
situdes 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 recognising 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, v. 15),.
178 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER XXXVII. Not to Desire Consolations.
To the same person. Nancy, 2ist February, 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). 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 en-
couraged by God whose name of " Father " gives her con-
fidence 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 wretched-
ness 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 par-
ticularly Marie-Anne-Therese, and with especial respect your
Rev. Mother, L. F. de Rosen.
NOTE. This Sister came of a very noble family of Lorraine, and was
professed in the Convent of the Visitation, Sister Marie de Nancy, in the
year 1666, at the age of 21. Her principal attraction was that of abandon-
ment to divine Providence. She was perfectly submissive to the will of
God by a continual " fiat " for every event, saying on all occasions, " If
you, my divine King, my great Monarch, will, or do not will such, or such a
thing, that suffices me. May You be praised and blessed for all and in all."
Her great confidence in God drew down abundant graces upon her soul.
In her last illness she remained always in a state of constant adoration,
contrition, faith, confidence, and union with Jesus Christ crucified, of love
of God, and abandonment to His fatherly goodness, and always wore a look
of peace, joy, and thanksgiving. Her union with God continuing up to her
last breath, she quietly expired of simple weakness at the age of 90, with all
her intellectual faculties unimpaired. (This extract is from the life of this
good Sister, by Rev. Mother L. F. de Rosen.)
i8o ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
THIRD BOOK.
ON THE OBSTACLES TO ABANDONMENT.
LETTER I. About Vanity and Infidelities.
To Sister M. Therese de Viomenil. About feelings of vanity
and frequent infidelities.
My dear Sister and very dear daughter in our Lord. The peace
of Jesus Christ be always with you. You must know that before
curing you of vanity God wills to make you feel all the ugliness
of this accursed passion, and to convince you thoroughly of
your powerlessness to cure it, so that all the glory of your cure
should revert to Him alone. You have, then, in this matter,
only two things to do. Firstly to examine peacefully this
frightful interior ugliness. Secondly, to hope for and await
in peace from God alone the moment fixed for your cure. You
will never be at rest till you have learnt to distinguish what is
from God from that which is your own ; to separate what
belongs to Him from what belongs to yourself. You add,
" How can you teach me this secret." You do not understand
what you are saying. I can easily teach it to you in a moment,
but you cannot learn to practise it until you have been made to
feel, in peace, all your miseries. I say, in peace, to give room
for the operations of grace.
Remember the words of St. Francis of Sales : " One cannot
put on perfection as one does a dress." The secret you ask for
I give you freely ; try to understand it so that it may gradually
work its way into your soul, which is what you hope.
All that is good in you comes from God, all that is bad, spoiled
and corrupt comes from yourself. Therefore put on one side
the nothingness, the sin, the evil inclinations, and habits, a
whole heap of miseries, and weaknesses, as your share, and it
belongs to you in truth. All that remains : the body with all
its senses, the soul with its faculties, and the small amount of
good performed, this is God's and belongs to Him so absolutely
that you could not appropriate any part by the least act of
complacency without committing a theft and robbery from God.
That which you so often repeat interiorly, " Lord, You can do
all things, have pity on me," is a good and a most simple act ;
nothing more is required to gain His all powerful aid ; keep
constant to these practices and interior dispositions ; God will
do the rest without your perceiving it.
ABOUT VANITY AND INFIDELITIES 181
I am thoroughly convinced that, without great unfaithfulness
on your part, God will work great things in you by His holy
operation. Count upon this and do not place any voluntary
obstacles in the way ; and if, unfortunately, you recognise that
you have done so, humble yourself promptly, return to God
and to yourself always retaining an absolute confidence in the
divine goodness.
3rd. A lively sense of your misery, and the continual need
you are in of God's help is a very great grace and opens the
way to all good but especially to the prayer of humility and
annihilation before God which is so pleasing to Him. j SU
4th. You do not understand as I do, the effects, and the
operations of grace in your soul ; if you recognised them you
would be too satisfied with them, but your weakness and lack
of virtue do not allow you to bear the knowledge. It is necessary
that this fruit of grace should remain hidden and, as it were,
buried in the abyss of your miseries and beneath a keen sense
of your weakness. Under this heap of refuse God preserves the
fruits of His grace, for such is the depth of our wretchedness
that we compel God to hide from us His gifts as well as the rich
ornaments with which He adorns our souls ; unless He did so
the least little breath of vanity, and of an' imperceptible self-
satisfaction would destroy or spoil these flowers or fruits. When
you are in a state to be able to bear, and to enjoy them without
danger, God will open your eyes, and then you will only praise
and bless Him without any reverting to yourself, and asribe
all the glory of your deliverance to your divine Redeemer. In
the meantime follow the guidance given you now by His Holy
Spirit, and do not let fear enter your heart. Understand that
in all that you actually experience there is no sin, since you
endure it with so much pain and would only be too happy
to put an end to these wretched effects of your sensitiveness.
Maintain yourself in this holy desire, pray for it patiently, above
all, humble yourself before God ; it is for Him to complete the
work He has begun in you, no one else could succeed in it.
Understand that this is the little sacrifice that God demands of
you before filling your heart with the ineffable delights of His
pure love. You will have no rest till this merciful design of
God shall be realised because your heart cannot exist without
love. Let us pray, then, that this thirst may be satisfied by the
love of God alone, that He and He alone may captivate our
hearts, that He may sustain, possess, enlighten, and change
them.
5th. The abyss of misery and corruption in which God
seems to take pleasure in seeing you plunged is, to my judgment,
i8z ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
the chief of graces since it is the true foundation of all self-
distrust, and of an entire confidence in God, the two poles of
the interior life ; at any rate, of all graces it is the one I like best,
and that I find most frequently in souls that are far advanced.
What you think of yourself, therefore, although terrible, is
nevertheless perfectly true and very well founded, for, if God
were to leave you to yourself you would be a heap of all that is
evil and a monster of iniquity. But God makes this great truth
known to very few people, because few are capable of bearing
it properly, that is to say, in peace, in confidence, in God only,
without anxiety or discouragement.
6th. There is no other remedy for these frequent infidelities
than to lament them, peacefully to humble yourself, and to return
to God as soon as possible. We shall carry these afflictions and
humiliations during the whole of our lives, because we shall
always be ungrateful and unfaithful ; but, as long as it is so
only through the frailty of our nature, without any affection
of the heart, that is enough. God knows our weakness, He knows
the extent of our misery and how incapable we are of avoiding
all infidelity ; He sees also that we have need of being reduced
to this state of misery without which we could not resist the
continual attacks of pride, presumption, and secret self-confi-
dence. Be careful not to get discouraged even when you find
that the resolutions so often renewed, of belonging entirely to
God, fail. Make use of these constant experiences, to enter
more deeply into the profound abyss of your nothingness and
corruption. Learn a complete distrust of yourself to depend
only on God. Often repeat : " Lord I can do nothing without
Your help. Enlightened by sad experience I can depend on
nothing but Your all-powerful grace, and the more unworthy
I feel, the more do I hope, because my unworthiness will more
surely draw down Your mercy." You cannot carry your con-
fidence in God too far. An infinite goodness and mercy should
produce an infinite confidence.
yth. It is a very subtle and imperceptible illusion of self-
love to wish to know how you stand with regard to the mystical
death, under the pretext of being able to act so as to render this
death more complete in you. You will never know it in this
life, neither would it be expedient for you to know it, because
even supposing a soul to be entirely dead to self ; if it became
conscious of the fact, it would run a great risk of losing this
state ; because self-love would be so much pleased, and so
satisfied with this assurance that it would rise to life again, and
begin a new existence more sensitive and difficult to destroy
than the first.
ABOUT VANITY AND INFIDELITIES 183
Oh, God ! how subtle is this wretched self-love ! It turns
and twists like a serpent, and is only too successful in preserving
its life in the midst of the most fearful deaths. This is of all
illusions the most specious. Have a horror of this accursed
self-love, but learn that, in spite of all your efforts, it will not
die completely and radically until the last moment of your life.
8th. The impression of the sanctity of God which throws
you into such a state of confusion and pain, without, however,
causing you trouble is, I am assured, a great grace, more precious
and more certain than the consolation by which it is succeeded.
I can, then, only wish for you that it may continue. Do not
resist it, let yourself be abased, humiliated, annihilated. Nothing
is better calculated to purify your soul, and you could not
approach Holy Communion in a disposition more in keeping
with a state of annihilation to which Jesus Christ has reduced
Himself in this mystery. He will not be able to repulse you if
you approach Him in a spirit of humility and as though annihi-
lated in the profound abyss of your misery. If you have not
the impulse, nor the facility to discover your interior state after
habing begged this grace, you must remain in peace and silence.
Your discouragement is a sign of a want of purity of intention
and is a very dangerous temptation, because you must only
desire to improve, to please God, and not to please yourself.
You must, therefore, be always satisfied with whatever God wills
or permits since His will alone should be the rule, and the exact
limit of your desires, however holy they may be. Besides,
you must never get it into your head that you have arrived at a
certain state, or you will become self-satisfied, which would be a
grievous misfortune. The most certain sign of our progress
is the conviction of our misery. We shall, therefore, be all the
more rich the more we think ourselves poor, and the more we
humble ourselves, distrust ourselves, and are more disposed to
place all our confidence in God alone. And this is just what
God has begun to give you, therefore let there be neither anxiety
nor discouragement. Each day you must say to yourself,
'' To-day I am going to begin." I greatly applaud the practice
you have adopted of never upholding your own judgment, and
of allowing yourself to be blamed and criticised even in
circumstances where you believed you had good reasons to
excuse yourself. You sacrifice, you say, the good opinion that
you wish others to have of you, and you keep silence although
until now you would have thought that it would be better to
defend yourself that your conduct might give edification when
that which was said against you was untrue. This is my an-
swer : To endure ever} 7 kind of blame and unjust accusation
in silence without uttering a single word in justification under
184 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
any pretext whatever is according to the spirit of the Gospel,
and in conformity with the example of Jesus Christ and of all
the saints. Your ideas to the contrary were the result of a
pure illusion ; therefore, keep firm to your new and holy conduct.
You are right in saying that we carry a fund of corruption in-
separable from our nature, and that it resembles muddy stagnant
water that gives out an intolerable stench when it is stirred.
That is an unquestionable truth, and God has given you a great
grace in making you feel is so keenly. From this feeling will
come, gradually, a holy hatred and complete distrust of yourself
in which true humility principally consists.
LETTER II. The Defects of Beginners.
On the defects of beginners.
I am not surprised at the calmness of the person of whom you
speak ; it is the fruit of the humility she practised in opening
her heart, in spite of her repugnance to doing so ; and also the,
effect of the words that God never fails to inspire, in such a case,
to those who are acting in His place. Make her thoroughly
understand that God has begun to try her like this to punish her,
and to cure her of a subtle hidden pride which she has been nursing
without noticing it. The greater has been the trouble, the more
it ha's shown the greatness of the vanity which it has discon-
certed, and which rebels at the least humiliation, even that which
is interior. This person, therefore, must try to divest herself
gradually of that self-complacency which is hidden in the most
secret recesses of the heart ; whether it be about natural qualities,
or about those virtues that she may have, or flatters herself that
she possesses. For, without being careful about it, there may be
some foolish self-satisfaction in all that ; and without allowing
it to herself she thinks herself superior to others in many ways.
A subtle self-love feeds on these vanities of the spirit, in the way
that worldly pride is satisfied with the beauties of the body ;
and, as the latter finds pleasure in thinking continually of its
beauty and in looking in the mirror ; so, in the same way, the
former takes interior delight in all the natural and supernatural
gifts which it flatters itself to have received from heaven. The
remedy for this diabolical evil (diabolical, because it is the crime
of the proud angel) is
i st. To imitate modest women who never contemplate
themselves in the mirror, or who drive from their minds all vain
thoughts about their appearance, or exterior accomplishments.
THE DEFECTS OF BEGINNNERS 185
2nd. To force this self-love often to look at its defects,
miseries, and weakness, to enjoy abjection, and to feed on
contempt.
3rd. To consider what we have been, what we are, and what
we should become, if God removed His hand from us. When we
neglect to apply ourselves to these humiliating reflexions, God,
in His fatherly goodness, feels obliged to take other means to
destroy the secret vanity of souls whom He desires to lead to a
high state of perfection ; He allows temptation, or even falls
that throw them into the deepest confusion to cure them of this
inflation of the mind and heart. When God makes use of this
bitter but salutary remedy, we must be on our guard to prevent
our hearts rebelling against it, but submit humbly without
vexation, and without voluntary agitation.
4th. We ought not to imagine that by dint of reflexions we
shall be able to lessen our troubles, but should remain as if
motionless in the bosom of the mercy of God, and let the storm
pass without struggling against it, and without interior disturb-
ance which would aggravate the evil instead of lessening it.
5th. We should never ask to be delivered from our afflictions
since they have been brought about by the favourable action
of Providence, but we must pray for patience with ourselves
and others, and for an entire resignation.
6th. Instead of becoming strong-minded, we must become
like children by a great simplicity, candour, ingenuousness, and
openness of heart towards those who have trie task of guiding
NOTE. This letter was addressed in 1731 to Sister Marie- Anne Therese
de Rosen by Fr. de Caussade, and was about a person who was making a
retreat. There is every reason to believe that it concerned either Madame
or Mademoiselle de Lesen whom God had brought back to Himself by the
trial of the loss of her property, and who had vowed to become a Religious,
but who was obliged to remain in the world for a long time leading a devout
life. She made a retreat in 1731 and another in 1732 in the Convent of the
Visitation at Nancy, and had Sister Marie- Anne Therese de Rosen for her
directress. Shortly after she entered the Order of the Annunciation at
St. Mihiel in 1733.
LETTER III. The Illusions of the Devil.
To Sister Charlotte-Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux (1735).
On interior troubles voluntarily entertained and weakness.
My dear Sister,
For several days past I have had so many letters to write,
either for this country, or for France, that I have not been able
to read your long account. I do not disguise from you that it
seemed to me very useless, because God has given me the grace
1 86 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
to thoroughly understand your state without my . having the
trouble to read all this. However, I have read the most essential
part, that against which you have put a particular mark, and
it has only confirmed the opinion I had formed of you some time
ago. Excuse me, my dear Sister, if I insist on the same direction
that I have always hitherto given you. Until now you have
derived great benefit from having followed it, why then allow
yourself to be misguided by the illusions of the devil ? I am not
speaking to you at random, but with full conviction, do then
believe me, and prove, by your docility, that the confidence
with which you honour me is not a vain pretence. If you really
have a good will, if you are sincerely and earnestly resolved to
belong to God, you ought to make every effort to maintain your-
self in peace in order not to give the lie to the message of the
angels, " Peace to men of good will." But you must expect
that Satan will exert every effort to prevent you acquiring a
peace so desirable. I know that, unfortunately, he has but too
well succeeded up to now. The greatest evil in your soul at
present is that of anxiety, uneasiness and interior agitation.
This malady is, thank God, not incurable, but as long as it
remains unhealed it cannot but be even more dangerous than
painful to you. Interior disturbance renders the soul incapable
of listening to, and following the voice of the divine Spirit, of
receiving the sweet and delightful impressions of His grace, and
of applying itself to pious exercises, and to exterior duties. It
is the same with such sick and afflicted souls as with bodies
enfeebled by fever, which cannot accomplish any serious task
until delivered from their malady. And as there is a certain
analogy between them there is also some resemblance between
the remedies to be used. The health of the body can only be
restored by three means, obedience to the physician, rest, and
good food. These are, likewise, the three means of restoring
peace and health to a soul that is agitated, sick, and almost in
agony.
The first condition for its cure is obedience, a childlike blind
obedience founded on the principle that God, having authorised
His priests to guide us, cannot allow those souls to be deceived
who, on this account, abandon themselves blindly to' their
guidance. Before all things, therefore, make your virtue consist
in the renunciation of your own judgment, and in a humble
and generous intention of believing and doing all that your
director judges, before God, to be expedient. If you are ani-
mated with this spirit of obedience you will never allow yourself
voluntarily to entertain thoughts opposed to what has been
enjoined you, and you will take good care not to give in to the
inclination to examine and scrutinize everything. If, however
THE ILLUSIONS OF THE DEVIL 187
in spite of yourself, some thoughts contrary to obedience enter
your mind, you must reject them, or better still, despise them as
dangerous temptations.
The second remedy for your complaint is rest, and peace for
your soul. To acquire this, you must first of all desire it ardently,
and pray to God earnestly for it, and then work with all your
might to acquire it. If you wish to know how to set about this
task I will tell you.
Be very careful not to allow any thoughts which would bring
about uneasiness, sadness, or depression to remain in your mind.
These thoughts are, in one sense, more dangerous than tempta-
tions to impurity ; you must, therefore, let them alone-, without
dwelling on them ; despise them, and let them fall like a stone
into the sea. Resist them by fixing your mind on contrary
ideas, and above all by making aspirations suitable for the
occasion, with sighs and interior groanings accompanied by acts
of humility. But this struggle while being energetic and generous
must also be quiet, tranquil and peaceful, because if it were to
be restless, unhappy, ill-humoured and wild, the remedy would
be worse than the disease. In the second place avoid in your
actions, whether exterior or interior, all eagerness, hurry, and
natural activity ; accustom yourself, on the contrary, to speak,
to walk, to pray and to read quietly, slowly, without over-
exerting yourself no matter for what, not even to repulse the
most frightful temptations. You must remember that if these
temptations are displeasing to you that is the best sign that you
have not consented to them. As long as the free will feels
nothing but horror at, and hatred for the objects presented to the
imagination in these temptations, it is evident that it does not in
any way consent to them. Keep yourself, therefore, in peace in
the midst of these temptations as you have done in other trials.
i st. It only remains then to cure the weakness resulting from
the fever which torments a soul in trouble. For that a strength-
ening diet is necessary that is to say to read good books, and
to get accustomed to read very slowly with frequent pauses,
more to try and take an interest in what you read than to make
use of the intellect in reflexions on it. Remember the wise
saying of Fenelon, " The words we read are like the bark of the
tree, but the interest we take in them is like the sap which feeds
and fattens the soul." We must act as regards this spiritual
nourishment as gluttons and sensualists act with regard to their
feasts which they taste in remembrance, and enjoy after having
swallowed them.
znd. We must only speak on useful and edifying subjects,
and with those who are most capable of leading us to God by
their holy conversation*
1 88 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
3rd. Never seek consolation from creatures by useless inter-
course. This is an essential matter for those who are suffering
interior trials. God, who sends them for our good, desires that
we should bear them without going elsewhere for consolation,
but to Him ; and He claims the right to settle the moment when
such consolation should be given to us.
4th. We must apply ourselves, each according to his or her
capacity and attraction to interior prayer, but without intense
application or strain, keeping very quietly in the holy presence
of God, addressing Him occasionally by some interior act of
adoration, repentance, confidence, or love. If, however, it is
not possible to make such acts, we must be content with the good
desire of doing so ; for, whether for good or evil, desire is equiva-
lent to an act in the sight of God. Bossuet, somewhere in his
works very truly says : " Desire is, with regard to God, what the
voice and words are with regard to men. We ask, and return
thanks by the desires we have, which say everything, and make
our petitions known to God much more distinctly than any
words could do, or even those interior acts which are called
particular and formal." This is what gave rise to the saying that
a cry uttered only in the depths of the heart is the same in the
sight of Him Who sounds all hearts, as a cry that pierces the
heavens.
5 th. It is necessary to put this manner of praying into practice,
not only at morning devotions, but also during the whole day in a
quiet, easy, tender, and affectionate manner by frequently
raising the heart to God, or by an interior attention to the
divine presence. To gain greater facility you might review in
the morning nearly every event both interior and exterior,
likely to occur during the day, and ask yourself, " If I find
myself in such a circumstance, or such a position, what shall I
say to God, what act should I make ? " and if, when the time
arrives you are prevented from carrying out your good intentions,
you can be content to adhere to them, even if only indistinctly,
and to lay before God your inability. Finally the best food
for the soul consists in willing in all and for all what God wills ;
or, in other words to adhere to all the designs of divine Provi-
dence in every imaginable circumstance whether interior or
exterior, health or sickness, aridity, distractions, weariness,
disgusts, temptations, etc., and to accept all this very heartily,
saying, " Yes, my God, I will everything ; I accept all, I sacrifice
all to You ; or, at any rate I wish to do so, and ask for this
grace, help me and strengthen my weakness." In the most
tearful temptations say to Him, " My God, preserve me from
sin in this matter ; but I willingly accept as much confusion to
INTERIOR TROUBLES 189
my pride, and interior abjection and humiliation as You will and
for as long as You will, I unite my will to Yours."
The most uneasy and enfeebled soul could not fail to recover
its lost peace and joy if it adopted these means for regaining
them.
LETTER IV. Interior Troubles.
To the same person. Interior troubles (1755).
If my letter distressed you, my dear Sister, I will say to you
with St. Paul, that I rejoice not, indeed, at your affliction, but
at the good effect it has produced. It is good to recognise that
one has been culpable in many ways, not in order to reproach
oneself in a hard, bitter, angry, and disturbed manner, but to
humble oneself quietly and peacefully without self-contempt
or bitterness. You do not consider yourself disobedient, you
say, in relating to me quite frankly your fears and doubts.
That is not the question, my dear Sister ; but what is, is that
you continue to cling to your fears and doubts ; you study them
too much, instead of despising them and abandoning yourself
entirely to God, as I have preached to you for a long time past.
Without this happy and holy abandonment you will never enjoy
a solid peace full of absolute confidence in God alone, through
Jesus Christ.
But, I ask you again, what have you to fear in this abandon-
ment, especially after such evident signs of the very great mercy
of God towards you ? You are endeavouring to find help in
yourself and your works, and to satisfy your conscience, as if
your works gave your conscience greater security and stronger
support than the mercy of God, and the merits of Jesus Christ ;
and as though they could not deceive you. I pray God to en-
lighten you, and to give you a change of heart about this matter
so essential to you. You say that I should feel distressed and
surprised if you laid bare to me all that you experience. This
is exactly what people in your state so often say to me, people
with whom I am not so well acquainted as with you. Here is
my answer to you, and to others like you. The keen perception
of faults and imperfections is the grace suitable to this state, and
it is a very precious grace. Why ? First because this clear
view of our miseries keeps us humble, and even sometimes
inspires us with a wholesome horror and a holy fear of ourselves.
Secondly, because this state, apparently so miserable and so
desperate gives occasion to an heroic abandonment into the hands
of God. Those who have gauged the depths of their own
nothingness can no longer retain any kind of confidence in
190 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
themselves, nor trust in any way to their works in which they can
discover nothing but misery, self-love, and corruption. This
absolute distrust and complete disregard of self is the source from
which alone flow those delightful consolations of souls wholly
abandoned to God, and form their inalterable peace, holy joy and
immoveable confidence in God only. Oh ! if you but knew the
gift of God, the value, merit, power, peace and holy assurance of
salvation hidden in this state of abandonment, you would soon
be delivered from all your fears and anxieties. But you imagine
you will be lost directly you think of abandoning yourself; and
yet the most efficacious means of salvation is to practise this
total and perfect abandonment. I have never yet come across
any who have so set themselves against making this act of
abandonment to God as you. Nevertheless you will, necessarily,
have to come to it, at least at the hour of death ; because,
without an express revelation and assurance of eternal salvation,
no one can be free from fear at the last moment, and therefore,
every one is absolutely compelled then to abandon themselves
to the very great mercy of God.
" But," you say, " if I had lived a holy life and performed
some good works I might think myself authorised to practise
this abandonment, and to divest myself of my fears." An
illusion, my dear Sister. Such language can only have been
inspired by your unhappy self-love, which desires to be able to
trust entirely to itself, whereas you ought to place your con-
fidence only in God and in the infinite merits of Jesus Christ.
You have never really thoroughly fathomed this essential point
but have always stopped short to examine into your fears and
doubts instead of rising above them, and throwing yourself
heart and soul into the hands of God, and upon His fatherly
breast. In other words you always want to have a distinct
assurance based on yourself, in order to abandon yourself better.
Most certainly this is anything but an abandonment to God in
complete confidence in Him only, but, rather, a secret desire
of being able to depend on yourself before abandoning yourself
to His infinite goodness. This is to act like a state criminal
who, before abandoning himself to the clemency of the king,
wishes to be assured of his pardon. Can this be called depend-
ing on God, hoping only in God ? Judge for yourself ! And
God has for so long a time been calling you to this state of aban-
donment in filial confidence. And you, instead of responding
to this loving call allow yourself to be tyrannised over, and
martyrised by a slavish fear. I greatly insist on this matter,
because experience has taught me that this is the last battle of
grace for souls in your state ; the last step to take in forsaking
self, and the one that costs the most. But it seems to me that
INTERIOR TROUBLES 191
no one has ever offered so much resistance as you. This pro-
ceeds from a very strongly rooted self-love, from a secret great
presumption and confidence in yourself that, possibly, you may
never have found out ; for, mark well, that directly you are
spoken to about this total abandonment to God you feel a certain
interior commotion as though all were lost, and as if you had
been told to throw yourself, with your eyes shut, into an abyss.
It seems a trifle, yet it is very much the contrary, for the greatest
assurance of salvation in this life can only be obtained in this
total abandonment, and this consists, as Fenelon says, in be-
coming thoroughly tired of, and driven to despair of oneself, and
made to hope only in God. Weigh well the force of these words
which at first sight seem too strong and exaggerated.
However, to bring you to this state of total abandonment God
has imparted to you two great graces. Firstly, a powerful
attraction to induce you to place all your confidence in His
very great mercy and goodness ; secondly, a great knowledge
of, and a very penetrating insight into your miseries, weaknesses,
perversity, powerlessness to act well, etc. ; as if to say to you :
" You see that in this state you neither ought nor can, in any sort
of way, depend on yourself, since you are nothing but a heap of
corruption. Let Me then, have the care of you, and forsake
yourself once for all, to depend only dn Me." " But how shall I
work out my salvation ? " What ! do you not understand
that the most certain way of assuring this is to leave the care
of it entirely to God, and to occupy yourself only with Him ;
as a man in the confidence of a great king leaves the question
of recompense to him, and thinks only of the service and inter-
ests of his master. Do you not think that, in acting in this gener-
ous manner he would be doing better for himself than others who,
more selfish, would think continually of what they might gain
or obtain ? But are we not commanded to think of ourselves,
to enter into ourselves, to" watch over ourselves ? Yes, certainly,
when beginning to enter the service of God in order to de-
tach ourselves from the world, to forsake exterior objects, to
correct the bad habits we have contracted, but, afterwards we
must forget ourselves to think only of God, forsake ourselves to
belong to God alone. But as for you, you wish to remain
always wrapped up in yourself, in your, so-called, spiritual
interests ; and God, to draw you out of this last resource of self-
love, allows you to find nothing in yourself but a source of fears,
doubts, uncertainty, trouble, anxiety and depression, as though
this God of all goodness said by this, " Forget yourself, and you
will find in Me only, peace, spiritual joy, calmness, and an abso-
lute assurance of salvation. I am the God of your salvation, and
you can be nothing but the cause of your own destruction."
192 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
But again you say, " In this forgetfulness of self, far from
correcting myself of my sins and imperfections, I do not even
know them." An error ! an illusion ! ignorance ! Never
can you more clearly detect your faults than in the clear light
of the presence of God. This is like an interior sunshine, which >
without necessitating a constant self-examination, makes us see
and understand everything by a simple impression. In this way
also, better than in any other, all our defects and imperfections
are gradually consumed like straw in a fire. And then how happy
is this state at which you should have arrived a long time ago !
and of which God has given, and still gives me frequent expe-
rience. As the human heart is a bottomless abyss of misery and
corruption, the more the light of God penetrates into it the more
sad and humiliating are the objects disclosed ; but at the same,
time these fresh disclosures, far from grieving the soul, console
it in keeping it in an interior humility which it knows to be the
solid foundation of the whole spiritual edifice. Far from dis-
turbing its holy joy, and casting it down they inspire in it a solid
confidence which it feels is placed in God alone, and that this
confidence, according to Holy Scripture, has never been con-
founded. I have known, and know now many souls that,
following this method, are astonished to find that the more feeble,
poor, and miserable they* realise themselves to be, the greater
becomes their confidence in God. The reason of this is that in
proportion to our insight into our own misery and corruption
will be our distrust in ourselves and our confidence in God. God
then imparts to those souls which have acquired this insight, an
absolute self-distrust joined to an entire confidence in Him, from
which proceeds total abandonment ; these are the two strong
springs of the spiritual life, and as long as you are in this state
you run no risk of your salvation.
In abandoning all to God, therefore, we regain all in Him alone
and with profit to our souls. In this way we are delivered once
for all from these foolish self-examinations, fears, troubles, and
uneasiness ; in one word from these tortures to which those self-
engrossed souls condemn themselves who wish to love God
only out of self-love, who seek salvation and perfection, not so
much to please God and to glorify Him, as for their own interests
and eternal happiness.
But, you will say, God commands us to desire our salvation and
eternal felicity. Yes, without doubt, but according to, and in
submission to the ordaining of His will. Well ! this is God's
rule, which it is necessary for you to understand thoroughly ;
God has created us for His own glory and to do His will, and He
could not have created us for any other purpose, for He owes
his to Himself, and to His own sovereign dominion ; but, as He
INTERIOR TROUBLES 195
is also infinitely merciful He has so arranged that His creatures
find their own interests and eternal happiness in doing His will.
But see how this miserable self-love which seeks itself before all
else, reverses the order of things. We want first and principally
to provide for our own interests, spiritual and eternal, and as for
the glory of God, in our preoccupation we give Him only the
second place. God sees this subversion with a jealous eye in
souls He has loaded with graces, and by which He desires to be
loved with a pure and disinterested affection ! and, in order to
make them return to this right order of things He sends them
troubles, fears and interior agitation, seeking by means of these
secret trials to destroy that self-love so harmful to them. He
desires to induce them by degrees to think less of themselves and
their own interests, and to occupy themselves quietly with Him
alone by abandoning to Him the care and management of their
salvation ; and this is the meaning of those words of Jesus Christ
addressed to many holy souls. " My daughter think of Me and
I will think of you, busy yourself for My glory, and allow Me
to occupy Myself with your interests and eternal welfare."
As for us, what are we doing when we always worry, and are
busied about ourselves ? It is as though we said, " Lord, what
are You saying ? I shall be lost if I do not continually think
about my own soul, if I am not constantly asking myself how
I stand with You, and what is going to become of me. This
is what I am obliged to do without ceasing. As for what con-
cerns Your glory and Your good pleasure I can only think of
them now and then. I hope I shall be able to occupy myself
with them more habitually by the time I have conquered all
my faults, and it is proved to me that I shall risk nothing by
this constant attention to Your divine interests. But first of
all I cannot now decide about it for I should consider myself
lost and You wish me before all things to try and provide for
the safety of my soul." To those of His spouses who address
such language to Him, this is the very clear and concise reply
of our Lord in the Gospel, " Whosoever loveth his life shall
lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto
life eternal." And, in fact, I have never met with souls which
have a greater horror of sin, more strength for the practice of
virtue, or which make greater sacrifices for God when occasions
arise than those souls which seem never to think of themselves
but depend upon Him for everything, including their salvation.
It is in this state that salvation is most certain ; from which I
conclude that not only scruples, but excessive fears, distressing
doubts, spiritual trials and bitterness of heart, are caused by
selfish feelings, a greater preoccupation about personal interests
than about the glory of God and a desire to please Him out of
194 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
pure love and all that should take the first place in our hearts.
Since He is the sovereign good, love of Him should take pre-
cedence of the charity we owe ourselves. And since He has
promised to love those who love Him, and to love most those who
love Him only, we can be assured that in making use of all our
powers to love Him for Himself we shall regain with interest
by this pure love all that we seem to have sacrificed ; therefore,
far from losing, we gain all in abandoning ourselves entirely to
God by love and confidence. The sight of that confused heap
of weaknesses, miseries, unworthiness, and of all corruption
should never distress you. It is on this account that I say boldly,
all is well, for I have never known a soul endowed with this keen
insight, so humiliating to it, to whom it was not a most singular
grace of God ; nor who has not found in it, combined with a
true knowledge of itself, that solid humility which is the found-
ation of all perfection. I have known, and do know many
saintly souls who, for their sole possession, have that profound
co nviction of their misery, and are never so happy as when they
feel themselves, as it were, engulfed in it. They then dwell in
truth, and consequently in God Who is the sovereign truth. If
you but kn ew how to walk before Him, your head bowed in this
spirit of self-effacement, you would find in it all that makes the
spiritual life. It only remains to know how to preserve this
spirit of peace and abandonment. Would to God that you had
the grace to pass all your time of prayer in this holy interior
self-humiliation, engulfed in your misery, but in peace, sub-
mission, resignation and confidence. Then I should say to you :
stay as you are, and all is well ; God will do the rest, and perhaps
without you knowing, or feeling that He is doing it.
You are trembling over your state, and I am blessing God
for it. I only wish you changed in one particular, and that is
that your self-humiliation should be mingled with peace, sub-
mission, confidence, and abandonment, as I have just said.
After that I should have no fear for you not even about the laxness
of which you tell me, which makes you walk like a crab. God
will prevent great laxness and will allow small relaxations to
keep you humble. St. Francis of Sales said it was an heroic
virtue to rise again unceasingly without ever losing courage.
God be praised in all, and for all.
ON THE LOVE OF ONE'S NEIGHBOUR 195
LETTER V. On the Love of One's Neighbour.
To Sister de Lesen. On the love of one's neighbour. Nancy,
1735-
I am not at all surprised at the friendship you have for your
dear relative, and understand that it is due to her for many
reasons. However, because by your own showing this affection
disturbs you, and prevents you giving your whole heart to God,
there must needs be some irregularity about it. If you wish
to sanctify it, and to render it altogether supernatural, this
is what God demands of you.
i st. That you will not allow yourself to think about this
person too often nor to be engrossed by thoughts of her ; there
is moderation in all things.
2nd. That in the illnesses and afflictions she has to endure
you will submit to them as a sacrifice you must make to God, and
abandon yourself to Him so that He may dispose of her, and of
you in all things, and about all things according to His most
holy will and loving good pleasure. You must know that in
abandoning her thus to the will and care of divine Providence
you render her, as well as yourself, the greatest possible service,
since by this sacrifice you place her in the hands of God Who is
infinitely good, and infinitely powerful.
We must certainly make use of our reasoning faculties in our
trials ; but, as a very holy and learned Christian has well said,
we must not depend too much on this feeble faculty which is
stronger in opposition to what is good, than in overcoming evil.
It is religion, and the grace we obtain through humble prayer
which can sustain us. Sadness, depression, interior rebellion
when our relatives suffer from various causes, taking rise in a
too affectionate disposition, will be a grand occasion of virtue
and merit to us, if, endeavouring to raise ourselves by faith above
our natural feelings, we understand that all has to be sacrificed
to the adorable and most holy will of God. Do we not know that
nothing can happen in this world without His permission, and
that He has arranged everything for the greater good of those
who submit to Him, or at least who desire to acquire and to
practise this submission ?
If we could only understand the value of this virtue ! Of all
the means of salvation this is, together with the fulfilment of the
divine precepts, the most universal, and the most infallible.
Nothing more is required to sanctify most people and to lighten
for them the trials of life. A wise pagan thought in this way when
he said, " If one has a sensitive nature, and is accustomed to-
foster in oneself what the world calls refined and generous senti-
196 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
ments, it is no easy matter to cure oneself of thinking too much
about the family honour, and of taking too great an interest in
family affairs, and also of being too much moved by every
incident affecting those to whom we are most tenderly attached."
It is necessary to pray much about this, and also to reflect how
to combat it. Firstly, to reflect on the uselessness of our worries
and our feelings, and on the harm they do ourselves, as much
to the bodily health, as to the welfare of the soul. Secondly,
to combat it by refraining from frequent, lengthy, and earnest
thoughts on the subject, and by sacrificing and abandoning it
entirely to God in spite of the pangs the heart must endure from
the violence of such sacrifices ; consider that, after all, there is
only one thing necessary, and that provided that this great affair
succeeds everything else must be as God pleases. These feelings
are quickly overcome, or rather, they are so trifling and paltry
that they pass like shadows, to return no more. Let us act like
worldly people when they have to attend to business of the
utmost importance on which depend their honour, their life, their
property, in fact everything, as they think. They have nothing
else in their minds day or night but this important business, and
neglect everything else as being nothing in comparison. As
Jesus Christ has said, we must learn from the children of this
world who are " wiser in their generation than the children of
light." Remember that what can help to save us is not exterior
solitude, nor retirement, for these can be had even in the world ;
but an interior withdrawal and solitude of the mind and heart ;
of the mind, by banishing superfluous cares and thoughts and by
endeavouring to make God the absorbing occupation of the
heart, by lamenting its defects, by humbling it and frequently
sighing after God, and by detaching it gradually from the creature
to attach it solely to the Creator. He is the supreme truth, and
nothing has any reality apart from Him. Consequently purely
temporal interests, the business, the honours, pleasures, or
sufferings of this lower world are nought but shadows and
phantoms ; they appear to exist, but, in reality, are nothing.
LETTER VI. On Attachments.
To Sister Anne-Marguerite Boudet de la Belliere. On attach-
ment too keenly felt.
My very dear daughter in Jesus Christ. I cannot thank God
enough for this great desire of giving yourself to Him without
reserve that He has bestowed on you with the courage which
inspires you to make so many little sacrifices, and to moderate
even the most harmless attachments. Oh ! my dear Sister,
PERSONAL ATTACHMENTS 197
how thoroughly God has enlightened you about this, and how
many dangers you will escape if you are faithful in following
this light. We, unhappily, find only too many who, making
profession of piety, are caught in this snare, and thus prevented
from making any progress. With the excuse that there is no
sin in the attachments they allow themselves, they give them-
selves up to them without scruple, and thus place an impene-
trable barrier to the grace, and the communications of God.
He desires to fill and inflame their hearts with His pure love,
but how can He do so as long as those hearts are distracted by
foolish amusements, and filled with a miserable love for some
creature ? You know what a dangerous snare this was for
St. Teresa, and in truth after such an example you cannot be
too much on your guard. Go on then, detaching yourself more
and more, and I assure you that in proportion as your detach-
ment becomes more complete you will feel more drawn to God,
to prayer, recollection and the practice of every virtue ; for,
when the heart is empty in this way God fills it, and then one
can do everything easily and pleasantly, because all is done out
of love, and that, you know, makes all things easy, and sweetens
all bitterness.
LETTER VII. Personal Attachments.
My dear Sister,
Allow me to tell you in all sincerity, a fear that makes me
anxious about you. It seems to me that your too frequent
intercourse with the members of your numerous family, and with
other people from outside, raises a serious obstacle to your
advancement. Take care that, while trying to do good to others,
you do no harm to yourself. Although I am obliged by my
vocation to have more communication with the world than you,
I assure you nevertheless, that I find it very good for my soul to
keep these communications within bounds. Since I came here
I have only made necessary visits, and try as much as possible
to avoid receiving them. To those who come to me I speak
only of God, of salvation, or of eternity. This is the rule laid
down by St. Ignatius and one which he declared suited him well.
If people like this kind of conversation they will profit by it,
and their visit will not have been a waste of time ; if they do
not care for it they will not come again, or, at any rate not so
often, and then I shall have more time left me for my priestly
duties. It is useless to expect to make any progress as long
as your mind is filled with news from outside, and your heart
preoccupied with temporal affairs. The first condition for
198 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
the interior life is recollection. I cannot urge you too strongly
to restrict your communications and to follow the plan of St.
Ignatius about those that you think you ought to retain. This
plan is better suited to a Religious, who is obliged by her vocation
to keep secluded, than to other people. Far from being sur-
prised, people in the world cannot but be edified at the fidelity
with which she conforms her conduct to her vocation. On the
contrary, if by these useless communications with people in the
world she frequented society too much, she would only scandalise
them, and would also lose all those graces which she might have
acquired by her communications with God.
LETTER VIII. On Natural Activity.
To Sister Marie-Henriette de Bousmard. On natural activity.
I wish, my dear Sister, that you were able to understand well
all the harm that the excessive activity of your nature, unless
completely under the rule and direction of grace, will infallibly
cause you. This is one of those defects that the world mistakes
for virtues, but which is none the less disastrous to the soul in
its progress in the path of sanctity. Natural activity is the
enemy of abandonment, without which, as I have often told
you, there can be no real perfection. It prevents, obstructs,
or spoils all the operations of grace, and substitutes, in the soul
which succumbs to it, the impulsion of the human spirit for
that of the divine Spirit. In fact there is no doubt that the
impetuosity with which we give ourselves up to good works
proceeds from a hidden source of self-confidence, and a thought-
less presumption that makes us imagine that we are doing
or can do great things. How much more modest and reserved
we should be if we were thoroughly penetrated with the un-
doubted truth that we have nothing of our own, and are utterly
powerless to do anything good, but only powerful for evil. To
cure, and to tear up by the root an evil so fruitful in imperfections,
and even in sins, requires much time and much trouble. These
are the means I most recommend to you.
i st. To be thoroughly convinced, by past and present
experience, of your own weakness and misery, in order to distrust
more and more your own works even to the length of feeling a
kind of horror of them.
znd. To repress your excessive exterior activity by perform-
ing all your actions without eagerness or hurry, quite gently
and quietly, as St. Francis of Sales advises.
3rd. To do the same in all your spiritual exercises, and always
to mortify the initial eagerness with which you start any good
ON NATURAL ACTIVITY 199
work, no matter what it may be ; to undertake it only under the
influence of the pure Spirit of God, and by the peaceful impulse
of grace.
4th. When you pray and hold intercourse with God interiorly,
try to avoid all sensible ardour, all that fiery fervour, and ex-
citement of the imagination characteristic of beginners. To
effect this, follow the advice of St. Francis of Sales and manage
so that all your interior acts shall flow, and be drawn from, and
distilled by, the highest point of the mind, so that you hardly
feel that you are praying and making acts. Far from these
acts being, on this account, less fruitful, they make a deeper
impression on the soul and penetrate more deeply and more
pleasantly into the heart.
5th. When you feel, however confusedly, that something is
acting in your soul, the stronger this impression is, the more
necessary it is to keep quiet and still, and as though in a state of
inaction, so that you may not spoil all by interfering unseason-
ably.
6th. When God makes you experience certain consolations,
or strong emotions, instead of giving yourself up to them with
a sensual avidity, behave with the reserve and modesty of a
mortified person invited to a great feast.
yth. During the day let the principal interior occupation be
what is called simple interior waiting, silent, peaceful, and
entirely resigned ; and do not think that this is idleness, waste
of time, or in any way useless, because, as a beggar who waits
the whole day long at a rich man's gate, or at the church door,
is by no means idle but much occupied interiorly with his own
misery, his wants and continual necessities ; so, in the same way,
a soul in this simple waiting before God is very much occupied
interiorly, and in this simple manner is making the following
acts ; of faith in the presence of God, of adoration before this
great Gdd whose infinite power and mercy it acknowledges ;
of self-distrust, of profound humility in thinking itself incapable
of anything ; of desire for the holy operations of God, of hope
since one does not wait for what one does not expect to receive ;
and of abandonment to divine Providence in regard to all His
gifts or operations. And although these acts may not be ac-
curately performed, specified, nor sensible, yet they are none
the less there, at the bottom of the heart ; and God, at least, sees
them in our desires, and in our state of preparation. Now, as
you are aware, our wishes and desires, even if only begun to
be formed, are to God what the voice is to our fellow men.
He hears them, in fact, far more clearly than men hear our voices,
and it is enough for Him that we form these desires ; for, as the
Psalmist says, He knows even the mere intention and disposition
200 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
of our hearts from the first moment that they begin to turn, and
to move towards Him. And this, by the way, is very consoling
to you in the present state of your soul. But a still more effi-
cacious way than any other is to bear patiently darkness, dry-
ness, coldness and weakness. This sad state is the specific
remedy employed by God to suppress natural activity by re-
ducing us to our own nothingness. Without this we should
never be able to overcome it, because the inordinate activity
of our powers cannot be regulated until, by constantly reiterated
efforts, we force them to act only under the influence of the
Spirit of God, and by His grace, and never of themselves, or
by themselves. You see in this how blindly and unjustly we
act when we turn the benefits of God into subjects of affliction and
complaint ; for they not only tend to extinguish our natural
activity but to kill our self-love, and to enable us to live the
supernatural life of grace.
LETTER IX. On Excessive Fervour.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On excessive fervour
of good desires.
My very dear Sister,
The desire about which you have consulted me is very good
in itself, but I fear lest it may become too strong. If you wish
that it may not be hurtful to you under the appearance of good,
you must manage to be always submissive and resigned about
it, and consequently, peaceful. You know how, in even our
best desires, nature and passion get mixed, making them violent,
restless, hasty and wild. For this reason, and to preserve us
from this danger, and also gradually to purify our desires, even
those that are most saintly, God defers granting them for a long
time. For the wild desires of our natural inclinations do not
deserve to be answered, only those desires formed by the Holy
Spirit deserve to be heard by God, and these are always quiet,
gentle and peaceful. Keep yourself, as much as possible, in a
state of peace and even of a holy joy in order to be fit to receive
holy impressions. You know that grace more easily makes
way in hearts that are calm and free than in those that are full
of uneasiness and trouble, for the latter are more exposed to be
under the influence of the evil spirit.
INTEMPERATE ZEAL 201
LETTER X. Restraint of Over-Eagerness.
To the same person. On eagerness to read good books.
I send you the book on " Christian Hope " that I promised
you. It will prove a real treasure to you, but if you wish to
derive from it all the fruit that I expect, you must restrain your
eagerness to read, and not allow yourself to be carried away by
curiosity to know what is coming. Make use of the time allowed
by the Rule to read it, concentrate all your attention on what
you are actually reading without troubling about the rest.
I advise you above all, to enter into the meaning of the consoling
and solid truths that you will find laid down in this book ; but
more in a practical way than by speculative reflexions, and, from
time to time, make short pauses to allow these truths time to
flow through all the recesses of the soul and to give occasion for
the operation of the Holy Spirit who, during these peaceful
pauses, and times of silent attention, engraves and imprints these
heavenly truths in the heart. All this, however, without dis-
turbing your attraction, or violent effort to prevent reflexions,
but simply and quietly trying to make them enter into your heart
more than into your mind.
Take particular notice of certain more important chapters,
of which you are in greater need, in order to read them again
when next you have time. In general I advise you strongly not to
overload your mind with readings and outward practices, it
is much better to read little, and to digest what you read. Just
now, too, your soul is in need of unity and simplicity, and all
your readings and practices should tend to a single end, and that
is, to form in you a spirit of recollection. In time God will give
you this grace if you aspire to it with confidence quietly, simply,
and humbly, without eagerness, trouble, or uneasiness. Fre-
quently ask God to detach you absolutely from all things, so
that you may love and enjoy Him only, in Jesus Christ, and
through Jesus Christ, in fine, that He may take full possession
of your heart and make it altogether His. " My God I abandon
myself to You, grant that I may desire only You."
LETTER XI. Intemperate Zeal.
To the same person. On intemperate and indiscreet zeal.
I see, my dear Sister, that a mistaken zeal exposes you to
dangers all the more serious because they are hidden under the
most insidious appearances. Desire for the perfection of our
neighbour is, doubtless, very good ; the pain that is felt interiorly
202 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
at the sight of his defects is good also, provided it proceeds
from a pure desire for his perfection. But with all this there
must needs be mingled much secret self-complacency, confidence
in one's own superior light, and severity towards one's neigh-
bour. Zeal such as this cannot, you must well understand, come
from God ; it is an illusion of the devil, hurtful to yourself and to
others. However, the evil can be easily cured provided you
are sincere enough, and submissive enough to recognise the
gravity of it, and to apply the remedy. That which I am about
to offer you has already produced a very happy result in a soul
which was subject to the same illusion. Let us hope it will not
be less efficacious in your case.
I advise you, therefore, and command you in the most sacred
name of Jesus Christ, and that of His divine Mother, never more
to think of practising the virtue of zeal as long as this prohi-
bition is not expressly removed. I exculpate you before God
absolutely, and I take upon myself the responsibility of all the
ill consequences that may result from this prohibition. If
you should get scruples about it, and the devil should put in your
mind that you could do some good or avert some evil, say to God,
" My God, although charity is the queen of virtues, I may not
practise this zeal until You have made me able to do so without
detriment to the charity I owe to others and to myself. When
I am found to be sufficiently strong, or rather sufficiently humble,
to exercise zeal without disturbing the peace of my soul, and with
all possible sweetness, compassion, and thoughtfulness for my
neighbour, and a helpfulness, kindness and charity which nothing
can embitter, a charity which is scandalised at nothing but its
own shortcomings ; with all that patience and long-suffering
which enables one tranquilly to endure the defects of others,
and for as long as You will suffer them, Oh, my God ; and when
I am neither troubled, nor uneasy, nor astonished that others
are incorrigible, then this prohibition will be removed, and I shall
be able to think that I can glorify You in my neighbour. But
until then, Oh, my God, I must exercise my zeal on myself, in the
correction of my numerous defects."
In fact, my very dear Sister, when humility has dug that deep
foundation indispensable to every virtue, I shall be the first to
urge you to resume the practice of zeal ; until then think only
of yourself. Remember that God, to punish those who have
practised this indiscreet zeal, and to correct them, has often
allowed them to fall into much graver faults than those which
had scandalised them in others.
In the second place I command you never to speak of God, or
of anything good, unless in a spirit of humility and meekness,,
in an amiable and gracious manner, with moderation and en-
ON OBEDIENCE 203
couragement, and never with bitterness and severity, or in
a way to wound and repel those who hear you, because, although
you may only say what is in the Gospel and in the best books,
I believe that in your present state of mind you might say it
very badly and in such a way as only to do harm. Did not
Satan make use of the words of Holy Scripture to tempt our
Lord ? Truth is the proper relation of things. It is changed
when pushed to extremes, or wrongly applied. Your peevish
temper is like a smoked glass, which, if you do not take care will
prevent you seeing things in their true light, or showing them to
others. Keep always on your guard against this fatal influence,
and feed your mind on thoughts and feelings that are contrary
to those inspired by temper. Entertain yourself and others
with conversations on the infinite goodness of God, and on the
confidence we ought to have in Him. Compel yourself to offer
an example in your whole conduct, of a virtue that has no bounds,
and which imposes no restraint on others. If you have nothing
kind to say keep silent, and leave the care of deciding to others.
They can avoid better than you too much laxness, and will be
exact without being severe. If exactitude be praiseworthy,
severity is blamable, it does nothing but revolt people instead of
convincing them, and embitter their souls instead of gaining
them. As much as true meekness, with the help of God, has
power to repel evil and to win to good, so much has an excessive
harshness power to make goodness difficult and evil incurable.
The first is edifying, the latter, destructive.
LETTER XII. On Obedience.
On disinclination to accept the comforts enjoined.
Be careful never to leave off the practice of obedience under
the pretext of mortifying yourself ; and never forget these words
of me Holy Spirit, " I will have obedience and not sacrifice."
Do not, therefore, hesitate to take those little comforts that the
doctors, the superiors, and infirmarians prescribe for you ;
at any rate, you should have much scruple about refusing them.
In this way you will practise a more meritorious self-denial than
any bodily mortification that which consists in the renunciation
of your own ideas, of your own judgment, and of your own will.
Through ignorance or forgetfulness of this truth certain devout
persons, who are strongly attached to their own ideas, commit
many faults in being obstinately determined in their pretended
self-denial, and extremely unmortified in their mortifications.
How can thev delude themselves so far as not to understand
2O4 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
that self-love spoils and corrupts even the most holy practices ?
Those who renounce their own will, their own judgment, and their
own ideas for the love of God will make great progress in the
path of true and solid perfection. Henceforth, do not make any
other use of your mind and of your reason than to know what you
are ordered to do, and to do it promptly, joyfully, with a great
confidence in God, and an absolute abandonment to His mercy.
It will be all the easier to practise this confidence when you no
longer have any other ambition than to do His holy will. And
in fact, could there be a pleasanter task ? Does not this divine
Will sanctify all Its decrees ? Follow It then in all things, as much
in what gives you pleasure, as in that which costs you most ; in
consolations, as well as privations ; working and resting ; in
mental and vocal prayer, in the Office, at Mass, in confession and
Communion ; in all things. Blind obedience makes no ex-
ception, it generally sacrifices its own thoughts, ideas, judgments,
inclinations, repugnances, aversions, tempers, in one word all
its own will. On this account is this sacrifice more pleasing
to God than any other that could possibly be made, and without
this sacrifice all else is of little value, and cannot fail to be harm-
ful. The divine Spirit also assures us in Holy Scripture, that the
obedient man will gain many victories.
LETTER XIII. On being S elf-Opinionated.
On attachment to one's own judgment.
My dear Sister,
At last you are freed from your ties and released from all
those engagements by which the world expected to keep you
always captive. I do not doubt that you understand the full
value of the inestimable grace of a religious vocation, and that
you are disposed to accomplish generously all its duties. The
longer you have waited for this grace, the greater is the gratitude
you owe to Him Who has, at last, bestowed it on you. You
must, however, be prepared to encounter many difficulties in
your new life, difficulties not felt by those who embrace it earlier ;
but humility, renunciation, simplicity, and the holy spiritual
infancy of the Gospel will diminish these difficulties considerably
and will finish by making them disappear altogether. With the
help of these virtues you will be preserved from a very subtle
illusion of pride, to which many novices yield, and which is all
the more dangerous because it is almost imperceptible. With
the excuse of trying themselves better, they always want to do a
little more than the rest, or to deprive themselves of those little
comforts that the charity of the Superiors offers them. All this
ON BEING SELF-OPINIONATED 205
is nothing else but a refined self-love, and a disguised vanity.
As for you, my dear Sister, never, I implore you, have any other
ambition than to follow the ordinary course in all things ; not
one iota beyond that. Accept with simplicity and humility the
little comforts and alleviations that the weak are allowed,
rejoice at seeing yourself reduced to the level of a small child
and treated like one and take good care not to seem strong and
courageous. What profound and meritorious humility will you
not thus exercise ! delightful in the eyes of God, and more
pleasing to His heart than the most austere life chosen by yourself.
What an amount of pride and vanity may be concealed in conduct
contrary to this ! I do not wish to hide from you what a good
long experience has taught me ; that those who were most devout
in the world before entering the religious state, have generally
given the most trouble to their Superiors and Mistresses. This
comes of their having formed certain ideas of virtue for them-
selves which they will not relinquish. Accustomed to be admired
by all who surrounded them, and to be, usually, approved of by
their directors, they cling to their own ideas and their own
spirit without suspecting that this attachment is the very anti-
podes of all true sanctity. Therefore it is far more difficult to
make those persons practise humility and renunciation, to give
up their notions and self-will than in the case of young people of
unformed character ; or even of worldly people who have be-
come converted. Nevertheless if we do not become as little
children we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. I
hope, therefore, that you are treated exactly as if you were a
young person of fifteen or sixteen years of age, equally unformed
physically and mentally, and who is told : " Sister, you must
rest to-morrow ; you are dispensed from such or such a thing ;
you must take some recreation in the garden," or " My dear
Sister, that work is too hard for you, the Mother Superior will
dispense you from it," while you, a formed character, formerly
most devout, should, without replying by a single word or frown-
ing, carry out all you are told to do, to the letter, in a spirit of
humility and simplicity, satisfied to be treated thus, as if
you were the weakest and the least of all. Look upon yourself
as such, and even rejoice at it, or at least, do your best to do so.
Admire the loving charity of the Rev. Mother and the Sisters,
and bless God for it. This is what a true interior spirit, and
a spirituality that is real and good should teach you, and in-
spire you with. But, it must be admitted, it is a most difficult
matter to reduce these pretended devotees to this. Poor
souls ! blinded and deceived, the less they know how to humble
themselves the further they are from real greatness. If they
would but go to Bethlehem, and there contemplate the God
206 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
of Heaven become a little Infant in swaddling clothes, in a manger,
handled, carried, and taken from* place to place, turned and
touched by everyone, it might effect their cure. Let this ex-
ample, my dear Sister, be that which you propose to follow
during your noviciate ; and it is by becoming like this little
Child that you will merit to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
LETTER XIV. On Reserve with a Director.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On a difficulty in
and a dislike to opening one's mind to a director.
Believe me, my dear Sister, it is necessary to struggle with all
your power against the repugnance you feel to open your mind,
and to regard as a most dangerous temptation the jealous suscepti-
bility you experience when you imagine that someone has re-
vealed your fault. It is the devil who inspires such fear and
pain at having your interior miseries made known, because he
knows by countless experiences that those souls that have suffi-
cient courage and humility to disclose themselves thus, simply
and straightforwardly, are speedily cured, or at least very greatly
consoled. He knows, too, that those wounds of the soul most
frequently healed by such a disclosure, can become poisoned
and inflamed if not shown to the physician. In fact nothing
is more evident than that, as long as we are full of self-love, which
only dies when we die, we shall be exposed to deceive ourselves
as to what concerns us, and to make to ourselves a false con-
science. This consideration is calculated to make us tremble,
whoever we are. To avoid this danger there is only one means ;
not to trust to our own light in what regards ourselves, but to
allow our directors to guide our conscience, and to them we must
make known with great frankness all that might serve to en-
lighten them. The misfortune is that even in these revelations
we risk being deceived by our self-love, and also to mislead those
of whom we ask advice. What is to be done to guarantee our-
selves against this fresh danger ? Well ! those who guide us
must be enlightened by others about us ; and this is just what
is so difficult to put up with. There are plenty of people very
much inclined to exercise zeal with regard to others, who find it
very unpleasant when they are subject to it themselves. This
ought not to be. True zeal should say to itself " Think of your-
self, and do not trouble about others who are not under your
care, and be very thankful that some charitable person has made
known to your director what is thought about you, so that he
will be better able to guide you in future." This two-fold
ON DISCOURAGEMENT zoy
feeling is only to be found in the most perfect souls, and, perhaps,
in some persons of an extraordinary natural sincerity if but of
moderate virtue. Usually a zeal for instructing others is accom-
panied by a great sensitiveness with regard to the persons who
desire to render us the same good office by instructing our director
thoroughly as to what is thought and said about us. Here
again we have that two-fold illusion of all ordinary devotees
in the world, and also in the cloister. Examine yourself without
any flattery as to this two-fold matter, and enlighten yourself
with the considerations I have just given you.
LETTER XV. On Discouragement.
To the same person. On discouragement.
My dear Sister,
At this moment you are suffering from one of the most dan-
gerous temptations that could assail any soul of good will ; the
temptation to discouragement. I conjure you to resist it with all
your might. Have confidence in God, and be convinced that
He will finish the work He has begun in you. Your foolish fears
about the future come from the devil. Think only of the present,
abandon the future to Providence. It is the good use of the
present that assures the future. Apply yourself to obtaining
attachment and conformity to the will of God in all things and
everywhere, even to the smallest things, for in this consist all
virtue and perfection. For the rest, God only allows our daily
faults to keep us humble. If you know how to gain this fruit,
and to remain in peace and confidence, then you will be in a better
state than if you had not committed any apparent fault, which
would only have greatly flattered your self-love, and have
exposed you to the extreme danger of being satisfied with yourself.
Nothing, on the contrary, can be more easy than to make use of
your faults to acquire a fresh degree of humility, and thus to dig
more deeply in yourself the foundation necessary for building up
true sanctity. Ought we not to admire, and to bless the infinite
goodness of God who knows how to make our very faults serve
for our greater good ? For this it suffices to dislike them, to
humble ourselves quietly about them, and to raise ourselves
again with an untiring perseverance after each fall, and to work
peacefully to correct ourselves. Submit to the will of God as
to your employments, but do not be uneasy or eager about them.
Do amiably all that you know you ought to do, and depend on
divine Providence for success, without solicitude or anxiety, in
order to have a free mind and a tranquil heart in so far as it is
208 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
possible. If you are faithful in this practice, you will be able to
live in peace even in the midst of disturbances, and the involun-
tary trouble these may occasion you will but increase the merit
that is grounded on the conformity of your will to the will of
God. May He be blessed by all and in all, now and for ever.
LETTER XVI. Fear of Singularity.
To the same person. On the fear of being deceived, and of
appearing singular.
When one begins to wish to belong to God entirely and un-
reservedly, He increases, by the interior operations of His grace
this holy desire which He has Himself inspired ; but the more
vehement this desire becomes, the more does the soul feel seized
and penetrated with fear lest it should be deceived. This fear
is a fresh gift of God, and provided the soul knows how to make
good use of it, she will derive great benefit, become more humble,
more self-distrustful, vigilant, and eager to obtain the help of
God. But precisely because, it is a gift of God, the spirit of
darkness does not fail to make use of his ordinary tactics, and if
he cannot prevent these gifts of God, he sets to work to spoil
and corrupt them by every kind of stratagem. This is what he
does with regard to the salutary fear of which I speak ; and for
this he makes use of two kinds of deception. At first he attempts
to make this fear immoderate, excessive, uneasy and vexatious,
to unsettle and weaken the soul, and having effected this, to
cast it into a state of pusillanimity, and depression. For this,
the only remedy is, to turn the laugh against the tempter, and
to address him thus : " He who has begun the work will finish
it, and since of His own goodness He has chosen me even when I
shunned Him, He will take care not to abandon me when I seek
Him with my whole heart." Remember, besides, that a good
beginning is the best guarantee of perseverance. It is very
much easier to continue in the same way than to change it. There
never would have been any conversions if attention had been paid
to foolish fears. These are the first temptations of beginners.
But, another and more dangerous stratagem still is this ; the
tempter seeks accomplices, and too frequently finds them amongst
good people. In the way of our good resolutions he throws
people not wanting in a sort of wisdom, nor in good intention,
who find something to carp at in everything that grace inspires
in our souls to take them out of the ordinary groove. To listen
to these counsellors, who are the more eager to offer their advice
the less they are asked for it, one would think that to aim at
perfection is to make yourself remarkable in a dreadful way.
FEAR OF SINGULARITY 209
We ought never, say they, to exaggerate, nor to undertake a
course of life contrary to nature ; what is out of the common
never lasts, and exaggeration is blamable in everything. I do
not hesitate to say that this is one of the greatest obstacles to
divine grace that souls called to perfection can encounter.
It is human respect in the cloister, which in its way, is as dan-
gerous as that in the world, and no less prevents the conversion
of souls from imperfection to sanctity, than the latter prevents
the conversion from bad to good.
By what means can these dangers be avoided ? By these.
We must overcome, courageously, for the love of Jesus Christ,
the impressions made on us by a false human respect, and make
a generous sacrifice of them to our Lord, begging Him to help
and sustain us that we may despise all these foolish remarks.
It is enough to compare the maxims of the Gospel with the
captious sophisms to which they are opposed, to convince our-
selves that they cannot possibly proceed from the Spirit of God
but only from human reasons, and that carnal spirit which is
reprobated by God. " But those who talk like this are pious
people." That may be, but it only proves that some pious people
do not always judge things by the pure light of the Gospel, but
allow themselves to be deceived by false prejudices, and natural
considerations, by interested self-love, error, blindness, or ignor-
ance. They must, in fact, of necessity, be very ignorant and
very blind not to perceive that there never has been a true con-
version nor real change of heart that escaped notice either in the
world or in religion. And why are these conversions noticeable
when they are real ? It is because they, necessarily, extend to
the regulation of outward conduct, and even if there were nothing
in the outward conduct that required regulating, the perfect
order and heavenly peace restored to the soul would be mani-
fested by infallible signs by which the good would be edified,
but which, perhaps, would irritate the jealous self-love of others.,
One must needs be voluntarily blind not to see that at the be-
ginning of a new life one's conduct may seem constrained and
uneasy, for this reason ; because neither the person who is
changed, nor others, are accustomed to an altered way of acting.
In all things ease comes with habitude. Besides, how can a soul
which is entirely employed in keeping recollected, in fighting
against itself, in compelling itself to do violence in a hundred dif-
ferent ways, both interior and exterior, be expected to appear
gay, free, happy, agreeable, and amusing ? Truly, if I saw it
like this I should have strong doubts as to any interior change
whatever. However there are some people who are very in-
terior, and at the same time appear very gracious outwardly..
This is when a sufficiently long experience has made the exercise,-
210
of interior recollection, in a sort of way, natural to them. But
when they began they were just like you, my dear Sister, and
the same things that are said of you, were said of them. They
went their way without taking any notice of the talk, and God
at last placed them in a state that is called the liberty of the
children of God. Like them you also will attain to this, be
assured : the day will come when your recollection will be with-
out compulsion, constant, sweet, agreeable and good-humoured ;
then you also will be able to add to the pleasure of others by
reflecting exteriorly that abounding peace and joy which is
caused in the soul by the pure love of God, and of your neighbour.
But no one can arrive at this suddenly, or at once : it is the result
of a sufficiently long practice of virtue and of an interior life,
which, at the beginning, seems of necessity uncomfortable and
rather constrained ; but in the end it will become natural.
Then you will be able to resume your light-heartedness and gaiety,
for both will be reformed and spiritualised by the holy opera-
tions of grace. In the beginning, however, it is impossible to do
this without spoiling something.
You see the ignorance of these clever reasoners ? Their
judgments and remarks are to be pitied because it is precisely
in this way that the world judges and reasons when God by His
grace effects one of those great changes that are visible to all.
Can it be possible that Religious talk in this way ? It must be
the work of the father of lies, who alone could make them speak
and reason in such a wrong way. God be praised in all things !
He will procure glory from it in some way or other. As for you,
think only of bearing this trial bravely, and encourage yourself
with the teaching of faith and the evangelical counsels which
these grand reasoners seem to have lost sight of. Rejoice in-
teriorly at this appearance of folly and stupidity which exposes
you to their mockery ; for it is a most sure sign of the change that
has taken place in you. Say to our Lord with the Psalmist :
" I am become like a beast of burden in Your presence, Oh my
God ; no one can separate me from You again." In the service
of so great a Master can any position be without honour ? Act
the part that He has given you at present, of seeming silly and
awkward, as well as you can, and with a joyful heart wait pa-
tiently for the moment when another change will take place
quite different to that which you are going through now. Then
your faculties which now seem in bonds will regain their freedom
of action ; ease will succeed restraint and the holy liberty of the
children of God will drive away excessive fear. The sight of the
imperfection of all your works is a great grace of God Who by
this, wishes to keep you humble, and with a poor opinion of
yourself, but the excessive severity you are tempted to exercise
FEAR OF SINGULARITY 211
towards yourself about it, the sadness, low spirits, and the idea
that you will be lost, are suggestions of Satan who tries in this
way to spoil the gift of God in you, and to turn it into poison.
Cast them away therefore as diabolical imaginations. For a
certain time such thoughts will return again and again without
ceasing and will be matter for combats, for victories, and for
merit ; but, have a little patience, perfection is not the work
of a day. At first do not attempt what is the most perfect ;
that would be trying to fly before you have got your wings, as St.
Teresa says. Be content with what God gives you, and what He
does for you at present, without desiring anything more until
He judges fit to give it to you. In this way you will avoid
interior agitation by which the devil succeeds too well in up-
setting those souls who seek in the practice of virtue, more the
satisfaction of their own self-love than the glory of God. In
fact, it is impossible not to recognise the vexation of injured
pride in the impatience with which they behold their imper-
fections and in the pain they feel in finding themselves at the
foot of the ladder of sanctity when they wished to persuade
themselves that they had arrived at the top.
Do you, Sister, behave in a totally different manner. Love
your abjection, allow the good God to carry out peacefully His
work in you. Allow Him to place there a solid foundation of
humility, and to cement it with frequent experiences of your
misery and weakness. We should run too great a risk of losing
everything by our vain imaginations if God were to give us, at
once, all the perfection we desired. The inordinate love of our
own excellence would carry us to as high a flight as Lucifer, but
only, like him, to fall into the abyss of pride. God, who knows
our weakness in this respect, allows us to grovel like worms in
the mud of our imperfections, until He finds us capable of being
raised without feeling any foolish self-satisfaction, or any con-
tempt of others.
This conduct of God, full of wisdom and goodness, fills with
admiration those who have the guidance of souls, but they cannot
help feeling sad when they see souls who refuse to understand
the object of these merciful trials, getting out of temper when the
ineffable ways of divine Providence are explained to them.
FOURTH BOOK.
THE FIRST TRIALS OF SOULS CALLED TO THE STATE OF
ABANDONMENT.
ARIDITIES, WEAKNESSES AND WEARINESS.
LETTER I. Aridity and Weakness.
There is reason to think that this letter was addressed by Fr.
de Caussade to Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil, who, to enable
her holy director to understand her better, had given him an
account of her vocation, and of her spiritual state from the time
she had embraced the religious life.
On the trials above-mentioned. General direction.
God has indeed granted you what you told me you had asked
of Him, my dear Sister ; for, in reading your letter I seemed to
be reading your soul, and it appeared to me that I understood
your spiritual state as well as if I had been your confessor and
director for a long time. Oh ! what consoling and instructive
things I have to tell you ! I hope that the Holy Spirit will
enable you to understand and to enjoy them ; and that God
will deign by the merits of Jesus Christ, and the intercession
of His most Holy Mother, of St. Joseph, St. Francis of Sales,
and of all the saints of your Order who are now in Heaven, to
grant them His holy blessing.
i st. Your vocation seems to me to have the marks' of the seal
of God ; I see in it manifest signs of His divine will, proofs of
His gratuitous predilection of your soul, and a solid guarantee
of your eternal predestination.
2nd. The attraction you feel to give yourself entirely to Him,
and live a wholly interior life in spite of the dissipation of your
mind, and the rebellion of nature, is a grace the value of which
I would that it pleased God to show you as He has me. It is
all the more real in being less accessible to the senses and more
completely hidden under contrary appearances.
3rd. Why is it, then, that in spite of this attraction, and of
all your pious reading, you seem to remain always at the entrance
of the interior life without the power of entering ? I will tell
you the reason, my dear Sister, for I see it very distinctly ;
it is because you have misused this attraction by inordinate
desires, by over-eagerness, and a natural activity, thus displeasing
ARIDITY AND WEAKNESS 213
God, and stifling the gentle action of grace. Also, because in
your conduct there has been a secret and imperceptible pre-
sumption which has made you rely on your own industry, and
your own efforts. God wishes to humiliate and to confound
you by your own experiences, and in this way to moderate that
natural ardour that carries you beyond the impressions of grace.
Without noticing it you have acted as if you aspired to do all
the work by your own industry, and even to do more. than God
desired. You who would have taken yourself to task for any
worldly ambition, have, without scruple, allowed yourself to be
carried away by a still more subtle ambition, and by a desire
for a high position in the spiritual life. But, be comforted ;
thanks to the merciful severity of God's dealings with you, so
far there is nothing lost ; on the contrary you have gained
greatly. God punishes you for these imperfections like a good
father, with tenderness ; and enables you to find a remedy for
the evil in the chastisement He inflicts on you. To avenge
these infidelities He sends you the sort of trials He is accustomed
to make use of to purify and detach those chosen souls called
to pure love and divine union.
If you understood this fatherly conduct in your regard, and
looked at your trials from the right point of view all your fears
would disappear of their own accord. You would not be sur-
prised, for example, that your aridity and interior trouble have
increased since you entered religion. I am not by any means
surprised, and should have been very sorry on your account
had it been otherwise. Has it not been since then, in fact,
that you have belonged more entirely to God, and that this
divine Spouse has laboured more energetically to purify your
soul, and to render it capable of being perfectly united to Him ?
4th. As for that state of dissipation of which you complain
so much, I agree with you in thinking that it is partly the result
of your natural character, of the liveliness of your imagination
and, above all, of habit. However, God has only allowed this
result to humble and confound you more completely ; and the
keen pain you suffer is not the least part of the merit of this
trial. You see I am very far from believing, as you do, that
there is no remedy for this evil or that it is caused by some secret
sins.
The fear that this dissipation of mind causes you when you
go to prayer, is a temptation, or else simply imagination, and
God gives you a great grace in giving you courage to take no
notice of it, but to approach Him with confidence in spite of this
misleading fear.
5th. In your distaste for your outward occupations and duties
I see only another side of your trials and one which can be very
214 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
meritorious in the sight of God provided that you overcome it
instead of allowing yourself to be overcome by it.
The acts that you make in opposition to this feeling, and of
sacrifice and self-abnegation are very solid and very good.
The merit of these acts is much increased by the renewal of the
interior rebellions by which you are crucified ; this is another
part of the trial.
6th. That which you add about your powerlessness and
apparent idleness in prayer, is a consequence of this trial, and
naturally follows it ; I should have been greatly surprised had
it been otherwise.
Be reassured, therefore, for you will have to continue to waste
your time in prayer, my dear Sister, and although you might
do it more quietly, and this, please God, you will eventually
achieve, you will never make any prayer that would be better,
more useful, or more meritorious ; because the prayer of abnega-
tion and suffering being more crucifying is also more purifying
for the soul, and makes it die to self more quickly in order to
live henceforth in God and for God. Oh ! how much I love
such prayer during which you stand before God like a beast of
burden feeling nothing and bowed down under the weight of
all sorts of temptations ! What could be more calculated to
humble, confound, and annihilate a soul before God ? This
is what the soul requires, and to what its apparent miseries
lead. Ah ! if you only knew how to remain with respect and
submission in this humiliating condition, abandoning yourself
so entirely to the divine will as to take pleasure in your abjection
and annihilation for the love of God, you would become much
more pleasing to Him in your inaction and silence than by
making the most explicit and energetic acts ! No ! there is no
sacrifice more acceptable to God than a broken and humble
heart, this is truly a holocaust full of sweet odours. Prayers
that are full of fervour and devotion, or voluntary mortifications,
bear no comparison because they cannot come near it.
yth. Your terrors about confession and communion are to
be rejected and despised as temptations and imaginations ;
they are another part of your trial. However, should they
continue to trouble you, in spite of your resistance, take no
notice, and be patient in this state as in other things. As to the
wish to get rid of this trying state, it is not the direct, but the
natural result of the trial, and the effect of self-love which cries
out, and struggles rebelliously when it finds itself on the point
of being pitilessly exterminated. You must not be daunted,
nor terrified, but struggle bravely with your free-will against
these desires, and persevere with an unshaken constancy in
choosing always to accomplish the holy will of God. This
ARIDITY AND WEAKNESS 215
point is of the first importance, not only to gather the fruit of
the trial, but also to soften its bitterness and to shorten its
duration. If, in your case, it has lasted a long time, I have
grounds for attributing this to the fact that you have not had
sufficient courage to make the entire sacrifice that God demanded
of you. Hasten then to make it, and say to Him, " Yes, my
God, I accept all, I submit to all without reserve, and for as
long as You please."
From all I have just said you will conclude without difficulty
that there is but one thing for you to do, which is to let God
dispose of you as He pleases, and to keep yourself quietly and
interiorly tranquil as far as you can, but nevertheless without
effort. Abandonment to God is for you just now the one thing
necessary. To effect this thoroughly I give you the following
rules :
i st. When you go to prayer you must be resigned to suffer at
it, to be tormented and afflicted exactly as God pleases. When
distractions, aridity, temptations, and weariness overwhelm
you, say, " You are welcome, Cross of my God ; I embrace you
with a resigned will ; make me suffer until my self-love becomes
crucified and dead." Then remain in God's presence like a
beast of burden weighed down with its load, and almost ready
to perish, but expecting succour and help from its Master. If
you could but throw yourself in spirit at the foot of the Cross of
Jesus Christ, humbly kiss His sacred wounds, and remain there
at His divine feet steadfast and motionless, and do nothing else
but wait patiently in silence and peace as a poor beggar waits
for hours at a time at the gates of a great king, or of a generous
and rich benefactor, hoping to receive an alms. But before all
things do not dream of making any more efforts, either in prayer,
or in anything else, trying to be more recollected than God
wishes you to be.
2nd. Do not therefore, make any violent efforts to preserve
recollection during the day, or to drive away the continual
distractions that make you uneasy ; be satisfied to know that
this state of dissipation displeases you, and that you have a great
desire to be recollected ; but only when it pleases God, and as
much as it pleases Him, neither more nor less.
3rd. If the dissipation of mind should sometimes be so
trying, and the aridity, troubles, fears, and other vexatious feelings
so overwhelming that you cannot make a single interior act, nor
even entertain a good thought, do not be cast down. You have
nothing to fear, but rather, much to gain if, in this deplorable
condition you understand how to remain in the simple interior
silence of respect, submission, and adoration of which I have
zi6 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
already spoken, and to bury yourself in the abyss of your own
nothingness. This nothingness, accepted and loved for the love
of God, is your safe refuge in the midst of these storms. It is
there that you must remain, and it is from thence that you must
take pleasure in beholding the fulfilment within you of the will
of God. You must love to see Him, in imagination, raining
down from the heights of Heaven, distractions, aridity, fears,
anguish, and every species of trouble and humiliation on your
soul ; as if He would make of you the plaything of His pleasure
and of His divine love ; just as one sees sometimes, how great
princes will amuse themselves with splashing one of their
favourites with mud.
4th. As to the sacraments take good care never to omit
receiving them. " But," you say to me, " how can I prepare
for confession and communion when my mind is obsessed with
all sorts of fears and difficulties ? " You must despise them,
take no notice, and go straight to God without ever disputing or
reasoning with them either for or against, and having done the
little you could, or knew how to do, quietly, and without effort,
remain tranquil in the perfect interior silence of faith, respect,
submission and confidence often saying, but without words :
" May my sovereign Lord and Master do with me whatever He
pleases. Amen ! Amen ! "
jth. As in all that you tell me there is no sin, or at any rate,
nothing voluntary although it often seems otherwise to you,
keep yourself in a constant state of calmness and tranquillity.
I do not speak of the lower part of the soul, which is all in trouble
and desolation : but of the superior part, of that profound depth
of your soul, which, with God's help, can remain tranquil and
peaceful in the midst of these storms and commotions. Agitation
is, so to speak, only outside the soul in the exterior senses, to
mortify them and cause them to die, as they must in order to be
able to attain to pure love and union with God. It is for you
to prevent this trouble from penetrating to the interior ; and it
is in this, that, up to now, you have not been sufficiently en-
lightened, nor faithful enough.
6th. In fact, although I can discover no particular sin in
your conduct, yet I perceive a whole host of defects and imper-
fections in it which might do you great harm if you did not apply
a strong remedy. These are uneasiness, foolish fears, depression,
weariness, and a discouragement not quite free from deliberation,
or at least not combated with sufficient energy, all of which tend
to diminish that interior peace the necessity for which I am
endeavouring to inculcate. " But what can I do to prevent
them ? " This : first, never retain them wilfully ; secondly,
never parley with them, nor yet combat them with effort, or
ARIDITY AND WEAKNESS 217
violence, because that would make them doubly hurtful ; but
drop them, like one drops a stone into the water ; think of some-
thing else, speak to God of other things, as St. Francis of Sales
advises, then take refuge in the interior silence of respect, sub-
mission, confidence, and a total abandonment. " But," you say,
" supposing that in these, or in other matters I commit faults,
how ought I to behave ? " Well ! then you must bear in mind
the advice of St. Francis of Sales ; do not trouble yourself about
your troubles, do not be uneasy about your uneasiness, do not
be discouraged because you are discouraged, but return immedi-
ately to God without violence but humbling yourself quietly and
tranquilly, even thanking Him for having prevented you from
falling into greater faults. This sweet and gentle humility
united to confidence in the divine goodness will tranquillise
and pacify your soul, and this is, at present, your greatest
spiritual need. I forgot to tell you that your great desire of
divine love in spite of what you undergo afterwards, is certainly
not an imagination, nor a chimera, on the contrary it is very
real, very solid and most excellent, and must be preserved, but
quietly and gently without giving way to those feelings of fervour,
to those transports of the imagination, or to that natural activity
that spoils everything. That which you experience, after having
been all on fire with these ardent desires, when you try to return
to yourself, need not surprise you. I will try and make clear by
a comparison what then takes place within you. When you
throw a very dry piece of wood that will burn easily, on the fire,
the flame seizes it at once and consumes it quietly and noise-
lessly ; but if you throw green wood on the fire the flame does
not affect it except for a moment, and then the heat of the fire
acting on the green wet wood makes it exude moisture and emit
sighing sounds, and twists and turns it in a hundred different
ways with great noise, until it has been made dry enough for the
fire to take hold of it ; then the flame spreads and consumes it
without any effort or noise, but quietly.
This is an image of the action of divine love on souls that are
still full of imperfections and the evil inclinations of self-love.
These must be purified, refined, and cleared away and this cannot
be achieved without trouble and suffering. Look upon yourself
then, as this green wood acted on by divine love before it is able
to enkindle it, and to consume it with its flames. Or else as a
statue under the hands of a sculptor, or like a stone which is
chipped and cut with the chisel and hammer to make it the right
shape to take its place in a beautiful building. If this stone
could feel, and if, while it thus suffered it asked you what it
should do in so much pain, you would, without doubt, reply,
'* Keep perfectly quiet in the hands of the workman and let him
2i 8 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
proceed with his work, otherwise you will always remain a rough
common piece of stone." Take this advice yourself, have
patience and let God do the work, because there is really nothing
else for you to do, only say, " I adore and I submit. Fiat ! "
LETTER II. On Different States of the Soul.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On interior vicissitudes..
My dear Sister,
The different states that you depict in your letter to me
are nothing more than interior vicissitudes to which we
are all subject. These perpetual alternations of light and dark-
ness, of consolation and desolation, are as useful, I should say,
as indispensable for the growth and ripening of virtue in our
souls, as the atmospheric changes are necessary for the growth and
ripening of the harvests. Let us learn, therefore, to resign
ourselves to them, and to accept with equal love trials and con-
solations, for all trials, even the most painful, are equally just,
holy and beneficial, whether they proceed from the justice, or
the mercy of God. Often they are sent to us both by justice
and mercy, but while we are on earth justice is never exercised
without mercy. I am delighted to hear that your usual occu-
pation during prayer is the contemplation of your weakness,
and the realisation of your nothingness ; this is the way to
acquire, by degrees, an entire distrust of self, and a perfect
confidence in God only ; also in this way you will become per-
fectly grounded in interior humility, which is the firm and solid
foundation of the spiritual edifice, and the principal source
of all the graces of God in the soul. You need neither be sur-
prised nor pained at the destruction of all that is dear to self-
love ; it would not be self-love if it did not fear this. Only
those souls that are already detached from self are free from the
fear of this death ; and not only do they not fear it, but they
desire and beg it of God without ceasing. For us it is enough
if we endure in peace, and with patience the successive blows that
are effecting it. It often happens that during the day we ex-
perience certain feelings and desires for God or divine things,
which do not occur during prayer. God arranges it thus so that
we may recognise that He is absolute Master of all His gifts and
graces ; that He bestows them when and where it pleases Him.
In receiving them thus, at times when we least expect them and
in being disappointed at other times when we expect them,
we shall no longer be able to persuade ourselves that they are
the result of our own disposition, work, or industry ; this is
what God intends to prove to us. Therefore if He is prodigal
ABANDONMENT DURING TRIALS 219
of His gifts He expects to receive all the glory of them, and
would be compelled to withdraw them if He found that we
appropriated any part of them through self-satisfaction.
LETTER III. Abandonment During Trials.
To Mile, de Serre who afterwards became Sister Catharine -
Angelique. On the same subject. Abandonment during trials.
Keep steadfast my dear daughter, in the midst of your
violent interior afflictions, and never relinquish the practice of
entire abandonment to God, and of perfect confidence in His
goodness. Encourage yourself with these two obvious and
invariable principles : first, that God will never abandon any
who have abandoned themselves entirely to Him, and who trust
completely in His infinite mercy. Secondly, that nothing
happens in this world that is not according to the decrees of
Providence who turns all things to the advantage and greater
profit of souls that are submissive and resigned. Contrary
thoughts and interior combats will only serve, if you remain
faithful, to strengthen in your mind, and to root more firmly in
your heart, the truths and feelings so necessary for your sancti-
fication. The perfection of the state to which God calls you is,
no doubt, beyond your power to attain, neither can you depend
on yourself in the very slightest degree for its attainment ; on
the contrary you must beware of doing so, and rely on God only,
grounding yourself on His succour and the power of His grace,
with the help of which so many others weaker than yourself have
been able, and are still able to do what seems to you so difficult.
You ought, therefore, to repeat continually, " Yes ! considering
my weakness and misery, this would be as impossible as flying
in the air. But that which is impossible to man becomes pos-
sible, pleasant and easy with the assistance of the all-powerful
grace of Jesus Christ, and I hope to obtain this grace from His
goodness, and through His infinite merits." In this way have
many young people, who were naturally feeble and timid,
triumphed over cruel tyrants, and braved the most terrible
sufferings and outrages and shed their blood in imitation and
love of a crucified God.
The weariness, distaste, and dryness from which you fre-
quently suffer are the usual vicissitudes through which all those
souls, aiming at union with God, are accustomed to pass. What
merit should we gain, and how should we prove our fidelity to
God if we were always supported, helped, and consoled in a
sensible manner by interior grace ? What is essential is to be
faithful in the fulfilment of all our duties, and of those interior
220 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
and exterior practices that belong to our state, as much during
dryness and distaste as in sweetness and sensible devotion.
Although then we do nothing without effort and repugnance, the
merit is none the less great. In this way only is our love of God
completely free from that unhappy self-love which thrusts itself
everywhere, mixes with everything, and spoils everything, as
St. Francis of Sales says. As there is a sweet and delightful
peace to be felt during prayer, so also is there a dry, bitter, and
sometimes a suffering peace by which God operates more freely
in the soul than by the former which is more subject to the in-
roads of self-love. Therefore one must abandon oneself to God
in this as in all other things. We must allow Him to work,
because He knows better than we do what is good for us. Let
us fear only one thing, and that is to allow our self-will to lead us
astray. To avoid this danger it only needs to will exactly what
God wills, always, at every moment and for everything. This
is the safest, the shortest, I even dare to say the only road to
perfection ; any other is subject to illusion, pride and self-love.
For the rest, drop gradually but quietly the lengthy reasonings
which absorb your mind during prayer, and aim, rather, at
affections, aspirations, desires for God, and a simple repose in
Him. This will not prevent you, however, from pausing a little
over good thoughts, if they are simple, quiet and peaceful, and
seem to come and go of their own accord.
LETTER IV. Darkness and Doubts.
To a Postulant. On obscurity and weakness.
NOTE : " This Postulant is Madame de Lesen, about whom
Rev. Mother Marie-Anne-Therese de Rosen had consulted Fr.
de Caussade, and had undertaken to place in direct communi-
cation with him. She entered the Convent of the Annunciation
at St. Mihiel."
My dear Sister,
All that you describe to me in your letter appears to me so
easy to decide, that God must have kept you in very great
darkness if you have not been able, with the help of His grace,
to find a clue for yourself. Besides, as you tell me, God does,
occasionally, send you some rays of light to illuminate your soul,
and disperse the darkness of your doubts. These gleams of
light which enkindle your heart, filling it with a sweet peace and
great courage in the .service of God, can come only from Heaven.
Therefore you can follow these lights without fear, and the recol-
lection of them will suffice to sustain and guide you in moments
of darkness. However, since God has inspired you to apply
to me again, it will be quite easy to satisfy you in each particular^
DARKNESS AND DOUBTS 221
i st. The snares and subtleties of self-love render you, you say,
incapable of seeing things in their proper light. Then why
do you attempt to do so ? Have you not, in holy obedience,
an infallible guide, and in humility and docility sure guarantees
that you are not misled in following the decisions laid down for
you.
2nd. After having consulted your Superior or your Mistress
with the simplicity of a little child, remain in peace, for this is
your security. If you do not submit to this rule, you will be
much to be pitied, and it will be your own fault.
3rd. To feel so keenly your weakness, and need of sensible
support, and as it were, always on the edge of a precipice is, in
truth, a very humiliating trial, but a very salutary one, since
it leads infallibly to a total distrust of self, and to the most perfect
confidence in God. This is the only way to leave the region of
the senses, and to enter the life of pure faith and love which is
wholly spiritual.
4th. The dark dungeon in which you find yourself is a prison
into which, I will not say the justice of God, but His very great
mercy throws you from time to time to purify you like gold in a
crucible. You have only to stay there as quietly as you can.
" But how then shall I practise virtue ? " In this case virtue
consists in suffering, in silent endurance and abandonment, and
in humble and loving submission. You know the great maxim
that more progress is made during suffering than in action.
" But," you will say, " I commit sin while in this state." No,
there is no sin, the Master of the prison will prevent that. " But
it seems to me that I look upon hell with indifference." This
is a strong way of expressing yourself, but, thank God, I can
understand the meaning of it better than you do. It only ex-
presses the result of that interior operation by which God weakens
your self-love. Take courage, the day will come, and perhaps
soon, when you will be able to realise the great good effected in
this dark prison ; for the present you must live in this hope
without other light than that of faith.
5th. No doubt, there occur, in your state of interior fever,
paroxysms which seem to devour and consume you. These are
caused by what is impure and earthly in the depths of the soul,
which is thus consumed and devoured, like the evil humours
of the body during the paroxysms of certain fevers. This is a
symptom of cure not of illness. " But at these times I can neither
pray, nor have recourse to God." No, perhaps not, at any
rate not in a perceptible manner ; but the heart prays without
ceasing by hidden desires known only to God. Your conclusion
really made me laugh ; " Judge therefore," you say, " how I
acquit myself of the obligation of reciting the Office, assisting
222 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
at Mass and the rest." Very willingly, my dear Sister, would I
take upon myself all the evil you commit in these circumstances,
if you would concede me all the good that God is effecting in you.
That little word, " therefore," has given me an insight into a
certain temptation which the subtlety of the evil spirit tries to
introduce into your soul. But let us follow your letter, and the
thread of my reply. You begin to think, say you, that you were
very rash in making a vow to become a Religious, and that the
observances of the religious life are far beyond your powers.
If I had not had a long experience of the progress made by even
the most manifest temptations, when they are given the least
encouragement under pretext of examining them, I should
never have imagined you capable of succumbing so foolishly to
this one. To cut it short I must tell you firstly, that I knew by
the drift of your letter that this was the temptation the devil
aimed at by all the changes he has rung in your soul. If he can
only make you relinquish your prize, what a victory he will
gain ! what a triumph for all hell ! Secondly, I forbid you in
the Name of God and by all the authority He has given me over
you, either to listen to, or examine into this subject in any way ;
and I command you to act about it in the same way as if the devil
suggested that you should throw yourself into a well or poison
all the Religious. Thirdly, God wills you to embrace the religious
life ; this then ought to take place, and will take place in spite
of all hell let loose to prevent it. " But the spiritual afflictions !
the bodily infirmities ! " If necessary God will perform miracles
about them, and you must expect these miracles when they
are required. Now humble yourself, my dear Sister, annihilate
yourself profoundly before God, confess to Him that you are
weakness and inconstancy itself. This experience should serve
for the future to make you feel how necessary it is to distrust
self in our boasted courage and apparent firmness in good reso-
lutions which come to nothing without God's ceaseless support.
How poor, weak and miserable beyond all expression are we
not, and liable to go wrong in every imaginable way, and in
things we should never have thought possible !
6th. The sensitiveness you feel when being corrected, in this
state of trouble, ought to be a subject of humiliation, but not
of discouragement ; because it is true that at such times sensi-
tiveness is so keen that St. Teresa herself was obliged to be on
her guard against a spiteful and fretful temper which she was
tempted to vent on the Sisters. It would take too long to tell
you the great good God produces in our souls by these feelings
and rebellions, provided they are borne patiently.
yth. God makes you feel that Satan is laying traps for you,
and that, at the same time His invisible hand bears you up, and
DISTRACTIONS IN PRAYER 223
holds you back ; what could be more encouraging ? Keep firm,
all this will turn to your very great good, and above all will serve
to make you thoroughly convinced of your own weakness which
you have never hitherto understood such as it is. You require
all these temptations and trials to convince you of it, and to tear
from your heart every fibre of foolish self-confidence. It is only
when we begin to be cured that we recognise the evil.
I finish by repeating that your state, although, in truth, very
crucifying, is nevertheless, and indeed on that account, very safe,
very purifying and very sanctifying. You need fear no danger,
as long as you hold by Fenelon's great rule : despair entirely of
yourself, and put not an atom of confidence in anything but God
alone, Who, from the very stones can raise up children to Abra-
ham.
LETTER V. Distractions in Prayer.
To Sister Marie-Henriette de Bousmard. On weakness and
distractions (1734).
My dear Sister,
i st. Do not regret the consolations and sensible devotion
that God gave you formerly, and has now taken away. With
the consolations that you experienced were mingled a thousand
imperfections. It is true that by the very fact that these con-
solations were felt they were extremely pleasant to nature
which always desires to see, know, and feel ; but the more
according to nature is the state, the less is it adapted for the
requirements of divine love. This is the reason that God quickly
withdraws a soul from this state ; and the more quickly, the
more faithfully it responds to His grace. If He did not act
towards us, in this respect, with a fatherly strictness, we should
always remain feeble, subject to all sorts of defects, and incapable
of protecting ourselves against the allurements and illusions of
self-love. The soul that has not been enlightened and set free
by trials, indulges, almost without perceiving it, in continual
self-examinations, and makes its satisfaction and peace depend
on feelings, the most unstable things in the world ; if it loves
God, it is not only for Himself but much more on account of the
consolations it expects from Him, and it remains in a vain self-
satisfaction occasioned by the spiritual riches it supposes itself
to possess, and God grant that it may not end by worshipping
its own imaginary excellence. However, even if the soul avoids
this criminal excess, it is to be greatly feared, that being full
of itself it remains empty of God. Rather than expose the souls
that He loves with a love of predilection to such a fearful mis-
fortune, God sends them all sorts of trials. He strikes them,
224 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
humiliates them and makes them contemptible in their own eyes.
But how superabundantly does He not compensate those who
remain faithful during trials, for the privations they have
endured ! When, by a complete destruction of one's whole
spiritual fortune, one finds oneself reduced to nothing, then one
suddenly discovers that one has neither vanity, presumption,
nor self-esteem, but is filled with distrust, humility, confidence
in God and love for Him ; and this love is then absolutely-pure
because self-love has nothing to lean upon, and, consequently,
nothing to become attached to, or to corrupt. Therefore I set
more value on your present poverty than on all those former
beautiful feelings that seemed to you so perfectly pure, but of
which your self-love secretly made its most delicious pasture.
2nd. It seems, sometimes, as if one had neither faith, hope,
nor charity, and as if one were without religion, without any
virtue, as if one had lost all knowledge of God. This happens
when He is pleased to withdraw all delight, all unction, and all
that is sensible to make it reside in the essence of the soul, and
to enable it to advance by the practice of pure faith. Then it
is that God is served and adored in spirit and in truth, as Jesus
Christ said to the woman of Samaria. This state is even further
removed from the senses, and is, therefore, more valuable,
higher, more purified and more solid. In it can the pure delights
of the spirit be enjoyed ; but this is only to be attained by the
privation of all sensible pleasure, as sensible devotion can only
be enjoyed by the privation of sensual and earthly pleasure.
In this state, however, there is always peace, because the soul
is then established in God and feels just as you feel ; I mean a
secret and hidden power proceeding from the inmost presence of
God, and this support, imperceptible though it is, makes a soul
stronger than when it believed itself ready to endure martyrdom.
So remain in peace, and bless God.
3rd. As for the innumerable acts of offering, resignation, etc.,
without doubt they are suitable for beginners to form a habit
of making them ; but in your present, state they are made by,
and in your heart, and almost without your thinking of it. Does
not God see all your intentions, even the most secret, without
having them explained to Him by what are called formal and
express acts ? When, in the midst of your good works some
secret intention of self-love, pride, or human respect insinuates
itself into your heart, far from making express acts you would
endeavour to hide from yourself these perverse intentions,
convinced that God sees, and will punish them; do you not
believe then that He also sees your secret good intentions and that
He is as liberal in rewarding as He is strict in punishing ?
DISTRACTIONS IN PRAYER 225
4th. The wandering of your thoughts is but another trial from
God, an occasion of suffering, of humiliation, and an exercise of
patience and of merit, and the anxiety it causes you is a proof of
the desire you have of being always occupied with God. Besides,
God sees this desire, and, in His sight, desires are equal to acts,
whether for good or evil. Suffer, therefore, humoly and pa-
tiently all the involuntary wanderings of your mind, and take care
not to trouble about them, nor to examine anxiously what could
have caused them ; this would be a simple curiosity of self-love
which God would punish with still greater darkness. Remember
what St. Teresa said on this subject, " Let the clapper make a
noise, provided the mill grinds the corn." She compares the
wandering mind to the clapper, and the will tending to God to
the mill that grinds the corn. A will fixed on God is what we
should hope for above all things. What do you think takes
place in the heart of a worldly woman during a fine sermon ?
Doubtless a hundred good thoughts pass through her mind and
imagination while her will and her heart are fixed on the object
of her passion ; is she any holier for that ? With you it is exactly
the contrary ; why then do you distress yourself ? Otherwise
what signifies this tranquillity and peace of the soul in the midst of
these attacks, these pains, and this torment, and the little desire
you have to refer to them ? Is not this a great gift of God, and
an evident sign that it is He Who, so delicately, and so peacefully
wounds the heart ? Remain then tranquilly in your state of
total abandonment to God, and do not trouble yourself to find
out how you form acts ; they are formed by the secret and im-
perceptible movements of your heart that God touches interiorly,
and which He moves as He pleases.
jth. I am not surprised at the fatigue and emptiness you
experience in making efforts to multiply and reiterate your
interior acts. This is because in this way you withdraw yourself
from the operation of God to act for yourself, as if you wanted to
anticipate grace and to do more than God wished. This is
indeed natural activity ! Be content to remain at peace in your
soul, and keep yourself there as in a prison where God is pleased
to immure you, without bethinking yourself of making unseason-
able escapes. Thus you will be in that state of holy and fruitful
idleness that the saints describe, and thus also you will have many
and great occupations without labour. It is self-love only that
complains and is in despair at having nothing to do, to see, to
feel, nor to hear ; but let it groan as much as it likes, by dint of
worrying and despairing it will rid you finally of its presence.
By cutting off supplies we shall starve it out. Oh ! what a
fortunate release ! I wish it for you as for myself with all my
heart.
226 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
6th. The way in which you keep in the presence of God by a
simple glance of faith without mental images, figures, or any kind
of representation, in a total surrender of your whole self, is the
most pure and most perfect way of treating with God. It is
the true prayer of the heart, a quite interior prayer, the sincere
prayer of spirit to spirit, and the more simple, free, imperceptible,
and removed it is, from all that can be felt so much the more
solid, sublime, penetrating and efficacious it becomes, says the
holy Mother de Chantal.
LETTER VI. Fear of Wasting Time.
To Sister Marie-Henriette de Mahuet. On the same subject,
and interior rebellion and spiritual poverty. Alby, 1732.
My dear Sister,
Nothing is more common with souls who have not yet acquired
much experience in the ways of the spiritual life, than the fear
about which you have consulted me ; I mean the fear of wasting
time in the prayer of the simple presence of God. But it is easy
to reassure such souls, and to reassure you also. For this it
suffices to recall to your mind the principle laid down by the
divine Master : " the tree is known by its fruits." That which
produces only good effects cannot but be good. Besides, your
own experience teaches you, that since you applied yourself to
this kind of prayer you have become, interiorly, greatly changed
for the better. You have, then, only to thank God for the
favour He has granted you in substituting as He has, the peace-
ful action of His grace for the agitation of your natural activity.
I wish you could accustom yourself always to judge of your
progress and the state of your soul by the infallible rules of
faith and the counsels of the Gospel. When you find that your
ways, your ideas, and your conduct agree with the teachings
of faith, and with the practice of the saints, you may hold
them to be good, and perfectly safe. In this no illusion is pos-
sible, as it is when one judges oneself by sensible impressions,
which are always deceptive. To guide one's conduct by these
impressions is to take a weathervane, which turns with every
wind, for a mariner's compass. It is impossible to navigate
safely unless guided by the sure and infallible rules of faith which
make us turn away from sin, love God and our neighbour,
detach us from creatures, and lead us to obedience, self-forget-
fulness, complete submission to the will of God, abnegation and
mortification. The kind of prayer which produces these effects
is, without doubt, the best.
FEAR OF WASTING TIME 227
2nd. As those spiritual books which treat of prayer might
fall into the hands of all sorts of persons, and consequently not
be well understood, authors and preachers do wisely in making
use of general terms and in laying down only general rules, in
order to avoid giving any handle for illusion ; but directors,
in speaking to persons they are well acquainted with, make use
of a different method to reassure those under their direction who,
without cause, would be terrified in reading or listening to ser-
mons. It is because of my knowledge of your state and of God's
designs on your behalf that I do not hesitate to reassure you.
Go forward without a shadow of fear. No one can experience
the fruit of the blessing of God, unless he follow the attraction
of God. The deceptions and illusions of the spirit of darkness are
made known by their effects and fruits which are contrary to
those produced by grace. If I saw you exposed to these illu-
sions I should not fail to tell you of it ; and in default of me there
are others who would render you this service on condition that
you laid bare your mind to them with sincerity.
3rd. The rule of faith must be also taken, by which to form a
judgment about the stupidity you have experienced for some
time past. If it be only a question of being stupid, dull, and
slow, and even insensible to all the things of this world, faith
teaches us that this stupidity is true wisdom. But even if this
same stupidity should seem to extend, sometimes, to things of
salvation, that is no proof that it is a sign of your being at a
distance from God if it does not prevent you from fulfilling your
duties, keeping the Rule, and carrying out your exercises of
piety. You should, therefore, regard it as a trial from God
which you have in common with nearly all the saints. Be
faithful, and while accepting this apparent stupidity you will find
in it a very meritorious exercise of patience, submission, and
interior humility. It can only be prejudicial to self-love, which
dies gradually and is thus destroyed and annihilated more
efficaciously than by any exterior mortification.
4th. When we have to make great sacrifices, nature and self-
love, reluctant to do so, excite rebellions in the heart which seem
to overthrow the whole soul. Did not Jesus Christ Himself
experience the same in the Garden of Olives ? It is enough
therefore for the superior part of the soul to remain firm and to
say with Jesus Christ, " Fiat voluntas tua." These are the
interior combats of which St. Paul speaks, and after him all the
masters of the spiritual life : this is how the just man truly lives
by faith and escapes from the rule of the senses : these are the
great victories which will be crowned in this world by peace, and
the submission of the lower nature ; in the next by the
possession of a God.
228 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
5 th. The last and most efficacious of all the remedies I have
to offer you is an entire and total abandonment into the hands of
this God of goodness, Who has not ceased for a long time in being
beforehand with the blessings of His very great mercy. You
must throw yourself into this abandonment with the same courage
with which you would cast yourself into the sea if God asked this
sacrifice of you ; in the same way as, in times past, a holy
martyr by a particular attraction, and an especial inspiration
threw herself into the midst of the flames without waiting for the
executioners. It is this courage, and this holy abandonment
founded on faith and love which charms the heart of God,
and establishes in the soul a peace that nothing can disturb.
6th. Your conduct in avoiding useless visits, waste of time,
and distractions, seems to me excellent. Know that exterior
solitude is the rampart of that which is interior which, without
it, can with difficulty be preserved. I advise you to add, with
regard to the people in the house, the greatest possible silence,
never speaking without a reason, nor without some holy motive
such as for a necessary recreation, to refresh yourself a little,
for the sake of charity, or religious condescension ; or to over-
come yourself about certain persons towards whom you may feel
some antipathy. Finally I recall to your mind a maxim that I
wish I could engrave on every heart, and especially on the hearts
of Religious, and devout persons who are distressed and uneasy
at seeing how poor, miserable and destitute they are ; as they
say with sighs and groans. This maxim alone can make them
tranquil, contented, and even exceedingly rich in their spiritual
poverty. You understand what I mean beforehand, that true
perfection and consequently the real wealth of the soul consists
in conforming our will to the will of God. Consequently every
time that, overcome by the sense of your weakness and interior
misery, you think that, while avoiding by the grace of God,
everything that could offend Him, you are, at the same time
very devoid of those gifts and graces by which the saints were
enriched, you can and ought to say : " My God, I will all that
You will and for as long as it pleases You." " But," you will say,
" what resource shall I have if God takes me at my word, and
keeps me always in this state of spiritual poverty ? " You will
have, my dear sister, only the Will of God, and this resource will
take the place of every other. This divine and adorable Will
will supply you with all the gifts in which you are wanting, it
will become your treasure, and will constitute a spiritual fortune
in the very midst of your poverty ; for how can anyone be more
rich in the sight of God than by conforming in all things to His
most holy will even in those things that are most afflicting ?
Can anyone be more certain of possessing pure love, than those
ON DARKNESS AND WANT OF FEELING 229
who resign themselves willingly to all that is most mortifying to
that most sensitive form of self-love, spiritual self-love ? Believe
me, my dear Sister, the soul that regards its poverty in this light
need not envy even those souls which are most greatly enriched
with the gifts of God.
LETTER VII. On Darkness and Want of Feeling.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On darkness and want
of feeling.
My dear Sister and very dear daughter in our Lord.
May the peace of our Lord be always with you. By what
you tell me I understand that you are in a state of obscurity ;
but far from sharing the alarms that this state a very ordinary
one in persons of your sex causes you ; I believe it to be, un-
questionably, the most safe because it is less exposed to the
delusions of self-love, to attacks of vanity, and therefore, even
this obscurity is a grace of God ; for, during this life the way that
leads most directly to God is the way of bare faith which is
always obscure. In spite of this obscurity you are able to
understand your state and to explain it clearly enough to enable
any director with a little experience to guide you. I will tell you
what I think about your general state and take your difficulties
one by one.
i st. You say you do not know how to pray. Experience
has taught me that persons of good will who speak in this way
know better than others how to pray, because their prayer is
more simple and humble, but, on account of its simplicity it
escapes their observation. To pray like this is to remain by
faith in the presence of God, with a hidden, but constant desire
to receive His grace according to our needs. As God sees all
our desires, and as, according to St. Augustine, to desire always
is to pray always, so in this consists our great prayer. Follow
the leading of simplicity in prayer, there can never be excess
of it, for God loves to see us like little children in His presence.
2nd. As to Holy Communion, the increasing hunger that is
felt for this divine Food, and the strength it imparts are great
reasons for receiving It frequently. Therefore fear nothing,
but rest on the assurance I give you.
3rd. Insensibility towards all created things, and detachment
even from relations, are greater graces than you imagine ; it only
remains to become detached from self by renouncing all interior
self-seeking. Frequent union with Jesus Christ and prayer
will gradually achieve this task, provided you do your share of
230 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
the work in forgetting yourself to think only of God, abandoning
to Him all your interests, both spiritual and temporal.
4th. It is right that you should realise that all God requires
of you is submission and resignation. Ah ! my dear daughter,
in that is comprised all perfection. To look for it elsewhere
would be only error and illusion. Therefore a spiritual person
inclined to an interior life, has, truly, but one thing to do, which is
to submit with hearty concurrence, to all imaginable circum-
stances, whether interior or exterior, in which God wills to
place him. Therefore when you are ill say " God wills it, very
well, I will it also as He wills it and for as long a time." " But
what if it should incapacitate me from fulfilling my duties and
being of use to the community ? " Well, if God wills it, will
it also, and accept beforehand, with the pain you suffer, the
holy abjection and humiliation which accompany it. " But
in this state, perhaps, I give in to myself a little, and do not make
all the efforts that I could and should make." If, even so after
having consulted your superior and your confessor you follow
their judgment blindly, you are then doing the will of God which
is also your will. Then rest satisfied in having acquiesced in
the divine will in all this, and preserve that interior peace in
which God dwells and works. This, my dear Sister, is a clear and
.safe way ; follow it faithfully, and constantly reject all con-
trary thoughts and ideas as suggestions of the devil, who desires
at least to disturb the interior peace in which your soul should
be settled, and which forms the solid foundation of the spiritual
life.
5th. You have committed a grave fault of disobedience and
imprudence in exposing yourself to three months of fever. Hold
for certain that to refuse a dispensation in such circumstances
is, by no means, an act of virtue, but stubbornness, and an ob-
stinate attachment to your own judgment, and your own will
under a pretext of piety. Many devotees and spiritual persons
are to be pitied when they act in this manner, and great patience
is required to put up with them. Their blindness and illusion are
sometimes so strong that an angel from heaven would find a
difficulty in making them see clearly. As for you, submit to
everything, listen to every advice, suffer with all peace, gentle-
ness, and patience, and do the will of God in all things, in the
same spirit, this will be of great benefit to you.
6th. They were quite right to forbid you to think of giving
up your post, or of even wishing to do so. I, also, forbid you
most strictly. Be very careful not to attempt to escape from the
commands of God. " But I am not strong enough." God
can very easily make you strong enough. " I am not clever
enough." Well ! the power of making you clever enough is
ON DARKNESS AND WANT OF FEELING 231
not wanting to God, and He has already given you the principal
qualification, which is, a distrust of your own powers. To know,
and to feel one's incapacity is the essential thing, because then
one depends entirely on God, applies to Him for everything, and
attributes nothing to oneself, but all to God alone ; and these
graces will by themselves make everything prosper. In fine
be at peace, and place your confidence in the God of all goodness ;
after that you can despair of yourself as much as you like.
This humble feeling of your incapacity, weakness, and imbecility
is exactly the instrument made use of by God to exalt His glory,
and to make it shine forth more visibly.
To have no feeling about the truths of religion is not a bad sign
in certain souls ; on the contrary, it is often a sign that God
desires to lead them by the safest way, that of simple, bare faith
without those feelings of devotion that He can give when He
pleases. In the ways of God the only violent efforts to be used
must be employed against sin, but with regard to everything
else there must only be peace and tranquillity. When you find
you cannot succeed in making acts say to yourself : " Very
well ! they are all made in the sight of God since He has seen
my desire ; He will enable me to make them when He pleases,
He is Master. His most holy will shall always be my rule ;
to accomplish it is the reason I am in the world. It is my wealth,
my treasure. May God grant to others all the light, talent,
grace, gifts and sensible and spiritual sweetness that are pleasing
to Him. As for me I desire nothing but to do His holy will.
That is my wealth." This, my dear daughter, is your path,
walk in it continually in peace, confidence, and abandonment of
your whole self ; you are in perfect safety.
yth. In order to advance, endeavour to suffer peacefully
all that God wills or permits to happen to you, without going to
creatures to complain, or to seek consolation ; neither try to find
distraction in useless conversations, nor amusement in frivolous
thoughts and idle projects for the future, as all this would with-
draw you from God, and prevent the operations of His grace
in you ; so take great care.
8th. To help you to occupy yourself with God easily and
uninterruptedly according to your wishes and requirements
this is what you ought to do. Firstly, love solitude and silence,
for this will do much towards forming an interior spirit of
recollection. . Secondly, read only choice books that are solid,
and full of piety, and read them slowly, with frequent pauses,
trying more to enjoy, than to understand or remember them.
Thirdly, during the day make frequent aspirations after God,
espexially those that occur to you in sufferings, temptations,
weariness, disgust, sadness of heart, contradictions, etc.
232 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
9th. The prayers you make to God for detachment from all
things, are inspired by grace ; continue them, and be assured
that sooner or later they will be answered. It is but just that we
should wait God's time, since we have kept Him waiting so
long, and the great graces we ask of Him deserve to be desired
and waited for with patience and perseverance.
LETTER VIII. On Dryness and Distractions.
To Sister Jeanne-Elizabeth Gaury (1735). On dryness and
distractions during prayer.
My dear Sister,
i st. Your method is very simple, and that which is simple
is always best. It goes straight to God, and you must continue
it ; but do so quietly, without effort, and without eagerness
either to preserve it, or to regain it when the perception of it has
been lost ; that would be to wish to appropriate to yourself the
gift of God. In this method of prayer distractions and dryness
are pretty frequent, but all the same if these are endured patiently
and with abandonment to the will of God, it is an excellent
prayer. Besides, although these distractions and this aridity
are painful, they do not prevent the constant desire to pray
which remains in the depths of the heart, and it is in this desire
that heartfelt prayer consists.
If you have been praying in this excellent manner for a con-
siderable time, say for two or three years, it would serve no
purpose to take a book ; but if these times of powerlessness and
aridity have lasted only for seven or eight consecutive days,
then make use of a book, but read with frequent pauses ; and
should you find that this reading distracts you still more, or
troubles your soul, leave it off, and try as well as you can do
remain peacefully and silently in the presence of God.
You need not be surprised, nor still less troubled that the very
same things that used to touch you deeply at one time, should
now make not the slightest impression on you ; this is one of the
vicissitudes that have to be put up with interiorly just as the
exterior vicissitudes of weather and seasons have to be borne ;
and it is only the very inexperienced who do not expect this.
2nd. In this method of prayer resolutions are seldom made,
but virtue is practised much more easily than when resolutions
were made in meditation ; because by the previous operation
of the Holy Spirit the heart is disposed to do so when the occa-
sion arises. The interior dispositions of persons following this
method might be expressed in the following manner which
ON DRYNESS AND DISTRACTIONS 233
would be of more value than any resolutions. " Lord make
me do good and avoid evil on such occasions, or in such circum-
stances, otherwise I know by personal experience that I shall
do exactly the reverse of what I ought."
The sweetness and efficacy of holy recollection are often the
prize and recompense of former sacrifices ; but this sensible
pleasure does not, at first, take away all repugnance and interior
rebellion, though it gradually diminishes them until, in time, a
sensible joy is felt even in the most bitter trials.
3rd. God permits your slight infidelities to give you a deeper
conviction of your weakness, and gradually to destroy in you
that unhappy self-esteem, presumption and secret self-con-
fidence which would never otherwise allow you to acquire true
humility of heart. As you know nothing pleases God more
than a complete contempt of self, accompanied by an absolute
confidence in Him alone. This God of all goodness, therefore,
does you a great favour in compelling you, often against your
will, to drink from this chalice so much dreaded by your self-
love and corrupt nature. And to know how to appreciate this
favour at its proper value, and to realise your own happiness,
are feelings so supernatural that they can only be attributed
to the operation of the Holy Spirit. Another operation of grace
is to feel happy in bearing some resemblance to Jesus Christ,
but this feeling is not to be greatly depended on, have a fear of
meeting with difficult circumstances, and distrust your own
weakness.
4th. There are never any illusions to be feared in repugnance
and involuntary rebellion, as they are incompatible with holy
prayer by which they are vanquished and overcome. You are
wrong in persuading yourself that you will never be able to
acquire true humility nor perfect mortification on account of
feeling in yourself such a strong opposition to these virtues.
If you had only your own powers to rely upon it would indeed be
impossible, but as you very justly add yourself, with the help
of God's grace merited for you by Jesus Christ, all becomes
easy. It might happen that even this truth should make no
impression on you and I should not be surprised if such were the
case, but your remark to me on the subject proves plainly that
like all beginners, you attach much too much importance to
feelings of devotion. Nevertheless, it is an understood fact that
in the order of supernatural operations of grace what is most
sensible is least perfect and least safe, while that which is most
spiritual and most hidden is by far the best. When God de-
prives you of His sensible presence, and of devotion in recollec-
tion, content yourself with having a holy desire and wish to
234 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
retain it ; this will suffice, as it is most pleasing to God and
very meritorious.
5th. Any disquiet is an injury to the soul, therefore you
should exert all your energy to repel that which you experience
on the subject of the divine Office, especially as there is no reason
for it, the desire to say it well and the will to do so always re-
maining in spite of involuntary distractions, and yours are all of
this kind. The proof of this is manifest, which is, that you feel
a real pain at heart whenever you notice this wandering of the
mind. What more certain, or better sign could you have that
you have not consented ? If you are afraid of distractions, it
shows that they are not voluntary in their origin, and especially
if you try to practise recollection during the day. Therefore
be at peace and accept submissively these involuntary miseries.
6th. You have shown me another subject of uneasiness ;
one which is of no consequence, and which has its foundation
in various illusions, and of which you must cure yourself. The
first is the great desire you have of sensible pleasure in Com-
munion, and is an effect of spiritual self-love. The second is the
belief that this sensible pleasure is a necessary condition of a good
Communion. Alas ! my dear daughter what would become of
so many holy souls who usually feel nothing but dryness, callous-
ness, and often distaste ? In all our spiritual exercises we must
approach God by pure faith which is scarcely felt. The less
feeling you have in your communions and prayers the more
likely they are to be purer and more pleasing to God. This
is the way of bare faith and pure love which is never self-seeking.
St. Francis of Sales used to say, " Our miserable satisfactions
do not satisfy God." Pure love consists in being content with
all that pleases God, and will not permit us to will anything
contrary to the will of God, even as to our holiest desires and
actions ; nor, consequently, to act against His holy permissions,
even should the cause of certain occurrences be the result of our
own fault. This principle is either ignored, or, at least, obscured
by the subtlety of our self-love, so ingenious in making out every-
thing that satisfies it, or gives it pleasure, to be good and holy.
A good Religious speaking on this subject said that God had
gradually taken away all her pleasure, and all the spiritual
attractions and feelings in whatever she did, to purify her love,
which the first sweetness had left so imperfect and impure.
For communion and the spiritual exercises of the morning and
evening follow the method that most attracts you. One short
act of your own is worth more than all the long prayers you read.
The indifference you feel as to what is thought or said about you
is an effect of the operation of the Holy Spirit. Continue as you
PASSIVE RECOLLECTION 235
are doing, never excusing nor justifying yourself, unless you are
ordered to do so ; it is the most perfect way of acting. God be
praised for all, and in all. Amen.
LETTER IX. Passive Recollection.
To Mother Louise-Fran9oise de Rosen. On distractions,
weariness, and impulses.
My dear Sister. To all the anxieties you express in your letter
to me, and to all the doubts you lay before me, I have but one
answer. I will say to you in the words of our good Master :
" Peace be with you, fear not." What troubles you, ought, on
the contrary, to be a subject of joy. Where you believe you see
symptoms of laxness I see undoubted signs of solid progress.
i st. This inattention, almost perpetual, this weariness and
distaste that you experience at prayer, at the Office, at Con-*
fession and Communion, etc., are nothing else but the natural
effect of the apparent absence of God. The divine Spouse of
your soul, in order to put it to the test and to purify it, withdraws
His sensible presence, and then the poor soul suffers acute grief
which sometimes affects the bodily health. In this way it is
a martyr of grace, and of the Holy Spirit ; for, now that there are
no longer any tyrants to make the blood of the martyrs flow in
testimony of their faith, the Holy Spirit knows how to make
martyrs of divine love by the suffering caused by His apparent
absences, and by many kinds of crucifying operations. Those
who submit to this spiritual torture do so by practising resig-
nation, blind abandonment, and the same unwearied patience
that the martyrs of old practised in the midst of their torments.
The same Holy Spirit who filled the souls of the martyrs with
divine peace and joy, while their bodies were suffering the most
frightful torments, will in the same way preserve the peace of
your soul in spite of all the agitation of your mind and senses.
But you must, faithfully, co-operate with His action by giving
no voluntary consent to the anxieties which assail you. To
regain recollection when you think you have, to some extent,
lost it, make no violent efforts. Resign yourself with a good
grace to being deprived of sensible and active recollection, and
be content with passive recollection which subsists at the bottom
of your heart, even when the mind seems all astray, for this is
the inalienable right of souls that are free from all inordinate
love for the things of this world. It is true that in this state
God is not always the distinct object of our thoughts, but He is
the principle of our life, and the rule of our actions. There is
a kind of abstraction during which it seems to us that we do not
think of anything, because, on the one hand visible objects do
z$6 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
not occupy us, and on the other we have such a general idea of
God, a notion so dim and obscure, that the mind cannot grasp
it, and loses itself, seeming to have no consciousness, and to
escape control. In this state all that has to be done, being
suggested by the Spirit of God gently, is carried out in peace,
without eagerness or uneasiness. But, directly the activity of
self-love begins to meddle, the Holy Spirit, jealously desirous
of being the only guide of the soul He has raised to this state,
puts a limit to its action, and then there is nothing to be done but
to drop this activity, and to resume and re-enter the state of
passive recollection. This recollection, you must know, is
nothing else but the fruit and the extension of the prayer of quiet
and of silence, which consists in holding one's peace interiorly,
and in leaving off all thoughts rather than in combating those
that come, or in seeking for those that do not present themselves.
2nd. The occasional outbursts to which you give vent, some-
times, lasting for a lengthy period, are trials that should prove
equally fruitful. While causing you interior suffering they bring
you infinite riches, purifying, humiliating and diminishing you
so much in your own eyes that you will gradually become like
those little children whom Jesus Christ desires us to resemble
if we wish to enter into His kingdom. You are quite right in
saying that we have a great rieed of patience and gentleness in
bearing with ourselves ; perhaps more than in putting up with
others, following out the thought of St. Francis of Sales.
3rd. The continual vicissitudes that take place in the soul
are a good sign. By them the Holy Spirit renders us pliant to
all His movements ; for, by dint of these constant changes
nothing of self remains, and we are prepared to take any shape
that is pleasing to this divine Spirit who breathes where He will
and as He pleases. It is, as Fenelon says, like a continual
melting and recasting of the soul, which, in this process, becomes
liquid like water having neither form nor shape but taking any
form or shape according to that of the vessel into which it is
poured.
4th. It will be quite easy for you to guide yourself in these
different situations. You have but one thing to do, and that is
quite simple, it is to notice in what direction the deepest bias of
your heart inclines you, without consulting the mental attitude
which would spoil all. Always act with the same simplicity, in
good faith and uprightness of heart, without looking back or
about you, but straight in front at the present time and moment,
and I will answer for everything. Do you not see that such a
way of acting is to die to self perpetually by the most complete
abnegation, and a true sacrifice of abandonment to God in the
darkness of faith.
THE USE OF FAULTS 237
jth. You say that you do not experience any interior re-
proach, nor any feeling either for good or evil, and that this
silence seems to you terrible. It is part of your state. All
feeling ought to be taken from you : it is so in the state of pure
faith. Again, fear nothing, go on in peace, in simplicity, in total
abandonment, without self-examination or particular reflexions :
when any should be made God will give them to you, or supply
the want of them by an interior feeling or a hidden attraction
which will guide you in everything more surely than your own
miserable reflexions. Are these, then, so precious that you need
regret their loss and the deprivation of them ? Blessed are the
poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Love this
spiritual poverty which strips us interiorly of self, as exterior
poverty strips us of goods. It is thus that the kingdom of God
is formed within us.
LETTER X. The Use of Faults.
To the same person. On weariness and idleness.
My dear Sister,
I see nothing in your present state that should alarm you.
This weariness, idleness, and indolence that we experience oc-
casionally in spite of ourselves has no culpability about it,
provided we suffer it with resignation, and do not curtail any of
our exercises of piety in spite of the disinclination we feel to
perform them. If, with this want of feeling about everything
else we experience a strong desire for the Sacraments and a great
contrition for our faults, it is a sensible effect of the mercy of God
Who makes use even of our faults to make us increase in fervour
and humility.
There are two kinds of interior peace ; one is sensible, sweet
and delightful, and this kind does not, in any way, depend on
ourselves, and is not at all necessary. And there is another
which is almost imperceptible, which dwells in the depths of
the heart in the most hidden recesses of the soul. It is usually
dry and unfelt, and can be retained in the midst of the greatest
tribulations. To recognise it would require the most profound
recollection, you would say it was hidden in a deep abyss. It
is there that God dwells, and He fashions it Himself in order to
dwell there as in an atmosphere of His own in the inner chamber
of our hearts from whence He works marvellous but inscrutable
things. These can only be recognised by their effects, as, when,
by His beneficent influence you feel yourself capable of remaining
firm in the midst of trials, violent shocks, great pain, and un-
foreseen misfortunes. If you find that you possess this dry
238 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
peace and a sort of quiet sadness, you ought to thank God for
it ; this is all that is necessary for your spiritual progress. Guard
it as a most precious gift. As it gradually increases it will one
day become your greatest treasure, but this will not be till after
many battles and many victories.
I congratulate you on having adopted my favourite motto,
" God wills it ! God be praised in all things." Oh ! what
consolation there is in these few words ! St. Francis of Sales said
it was a tonic for the heart by virtue of which it would never
give way ; a strong potion which would enable us to digest iron,
steel, and any other hard or revolting object that we were obliged
to swallow, a balsam that could soothe and heal the most poison-
ous wounds. Oh ! my dear daughter ! let us make use of this
remedy against the weakness of nature which opposes everything
that is contrary to our inclination. By the use of this simple
recipe you will find bitter things become sweet and everything
will seem good and pleasant ; nothing could better cheer the
heart.
LETTER XI. Remembrance of Past Sins.
To Sister Marie-Antoinette de Bousmard. On weakness,
remembrance of past sins, fatigue, and fears. Nancy, 1734.
My dear Sister,
ist. The calmness you enjoy in solitude, and the peace of
mind and heart which, emptied of all created things, is no longer
occupied with them in any way, are signs of true interior recol-
lection. God deprives you of feelings of devotion during prayer,
to prevent the desires and eagerness they give rise to. While
you are at prayer remain exactly as you are in solitude. I do
not exact from you an atom more of application or attention.
Continue in this thoughtful pensive state without allowing your
thoughts to dwell on created things and then you will be in God
without understanding how, without feeling His presence, nor
even knowing how this can be. This is a mystery which you will
only be able to recognise by its happy effects which are death
to self, and unconsciousness of the things of this world.
2nd. To believe that you do nothing for God, and that the
little you try to do is spoilt by an admixture of self-love, is nothing
but the truth, and a truth so self-evident that it is extraordinary
that it is not seen by everyone, and that we are not all trembling
and annihilated before God. On the other hand, however, this
truth is so shrouded in darkness for us, so completely hidden in
the folds of our self-love, that we cannot be too grateful to God
when He is pleased to allow us to grasp it.
REMEMBRANCE OF PAST SINS 239
When it pleases God to grant us by His holy grace, this clear
knowledge of ourselves, accompanied by feelings of humility ;
then we no longer expect anything more from self, but everything
from Him alone. No longer do we count on our good works,
but solely on the mercy of God and the infinite merits of Jesus
Christ ; this is that true Christian hope which will be our salvation.
Every other state, every other spiritual condition is full of
risks to our salvation ; but, to hope only in G.od, to depend only
on God, in and through Jesus Christ, is that solid and immovable
foundation that neither illusion, self-love, nor temptation can
affect.
Oh ! how I congratulate you on having arrived at this state !
Hold to it firmly, it is the anchor of the vessel in the harbour of
salvation.
3rd. I am glad to find, by your letter, how completely the
good God in His mercy is keeping you in the dark. You attri-
bute to your wickedness the recollections of the past which fill
you with horror of yourself ; but it is as clear as day that this
is one of the most salutary impressions that grace can produce
in you ; there is, in fact, nothing better calculated to sanctify
you than this holy hatred of yourself occasioned by these recol-
lections, and the deep humiliation in which they keep you before
God. These feelings are given you suddenly when you least
expect them or are thinking of them, to make you understand
that they are an effect of grace. " But why used you formerly
to experience exactly contrary feelings when recalling the past ? "
It is because formerly you would not have been able to endure
the sight of your imperfections without great despondency. It
was necessary then that hope should predominate in you, but
now you require a holy horror of yourself which is a true change
of heart. When God gives you these feelings, receive them
quietly and with gratitude and thanksgiving, and allow them to
pass away when God pleases, abandoning yourself entirely to all
He wishes to effect in you, and do not attach yourself to any of
the interior conditions in which He places you, nor regret any of
which He deprives you.
4th. I understand the difficulties of the duty about which you
speak, and the strain to tired lungs of sustaining the chant,
especially on great feast days. All this is very painful it is true,
but what is also true and extremely consoling is that such is the
will of God, and permitted by Him that you may overcome your
own will. In a few words I will suggest to you how to act in
this, and in any similar case. Prayers, frankness, sacrifice,
abandonment. I will explain my meaning. Having implored
light from God, go and explain clearly to your Superior how you
feel, and in w r hat state you are, then wait to hear from her
240 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
mouth what God is pleased to arrange for you, being resolved to
sacrifice to Him by perfect abandonment your dislikes, your
health, and even your life, never doubting that God Who has
never been known to forsake those who abandon themselves to
Him, will inspire her who is charged to manifest to you His
will, to tell you what is necessary. One of three things will
infallibly happen ; either you will be relieved of your office,
or God will sustain and preserve you in it, or else He will allow
you to succumb and will take you to Himself out of this wretched
life. Then, I ask you, my good Sister, if you could end your
life in a better manner than by a sacrifice so generous, and an
act of abandonment so perfect ? Whatever happens, then,
keep firm after making your attempt. Live or die in peace.
We will not speak about it any more, it is God's affair, and no
longer yours. He well knows how to make everything turn to
your advantage, and to His own greater glory. Oh ! my dear
Sister ! in what a saintly, happy, and generous manner you will
be able to act ! How good it is to have chosen, once for all,
the part of obedience and abandonment in all things ! What
peace ! what a sacrifice ! what a grace ! what certainty of sal-
vation ! and above all, what merit in the eyes of God ! What
a consolation for me, in such a case, to learn that you have died a
martyr to holy abandonment, and that God has permitted you
to immolate yourself as a holocaust on the altar of His most
holy, most adorable, and divine Will.
5th. Make yourself, therefore, a partaker of the contentment
of God ; place your happiness in the knowledge that His good
pleasure is always accomplished in you ; in this way even when
you have occasion to be dissatisfied with yourself, you will reflect
the satisfaction of God who, as St. Augustine remarks, is never
so pleased with us as when we are displeased with ourselves.
In this way it is that we constantly practise without even ad-
verting to it the virtue of pure charity which consists in loving,
in satisfying, and in willing in all things the good pleasure of
God, preferring His holy will to everything that we could possibly
wish, however holy our wishes might appear to be. You have
chiefly two ways of exercising this meritorious abandonment.
The first is, to say to God, " Lord I hate and detest my sins
and imperfections, and I will make every effort to correct my-
self with the help of Your divine grace ; as for the pain and ab-
jection they bring me I accept this with all my heart for the
love of You." The second way is to say, " My God, I desire
to please You, I desire my own salvation and sanctification,
the gift of prayer, of mortification, and of all virtues. I ask
them of You, and I will exert all my powers to acquire them,
whenever You show me an occasion of doing so ; nevertheless
REMEMBRANCE OF PAST SINS 241
in this as in all other things I prefer Your holy will to my own
wishes, I only desire to possess that degree of grace and virtue
that You are pleased to bestow on me, and at the time appointed
by Your divine wisdom even should that be the last moment
of my life ; for Your most holy will is the rule and measure
of my desires, even of those that are most holy and lawful."
These acts, made with the whole heart, are the fruit of that
pure charity which, according to the Doctors of the Church,
is as efficacious as baptism and martyrdom for blotting out all
our sins ; as Jesus Christ said about Mary Magdalen, " Many sins
are forgiven her because she has loved much." Could any-
thing be more consoling, fortifying and encouraging ? You say
that you live in a mean and poor way. " Blessed are the poor
in spirit." By this is intended interior humility and a holy
self-contempt. You live without assistance, that is to say that
you live in spirit, and in pure faith. Oh ! what a happy state !
Yes, happy indeed although this happiness is hidden from the
soul. You go on blindly from day to day. This is perfect
abandonment, you do not feel it, and hardly realise it, but if
you felt and understood it, it would no longer be abandonment,
but the strongest assurance of your salvation that you could
possibly desire. For, what assurance could you have more
satisfactory than the knowledge of being completely abandoned
to God both for time and eternity ? Abandonment is a virtue
the entire merit of which cannot be acquired unless the possession
of it is unrealised. Go on in peace, then, in the midst of your
fears, pains, and obscurities, and put your whole trust in God
above all knowledge, and all feeling, in, and through Jesus Christ.
May He be with you for ever.
LETTER XII. How to make use of trials.
On the use of trials and how to act about them.
Before anything else, my dear Sister, I think I had better
explain what thought was suggested to me by your anxious
doubts, and eagerness to consult me about your soul. I cannot
help thinking that, if we were more attentive to the light given us
by the Holy Spirit, better disposed to receive His holy impress-
ions, and more faithful in following the impulsion of His grace,
nothing more would be required to enable us to attain that
perfection to which we are called ; for I have noticed that even in
the midst of the most profound spiritual darkness, there is ever in
the centre of the soul a certain light of pure faith which is a most
safe guide. Besides this, there are certain moments when the
242 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Holy Spirit makes known to us by a brighter, but very rapid light,
that we are in the right way. Add to this a certain settled peace,
even during interior storms, a right way of acting, and a regu-
larity in the performance of duties, which, in spite of the frailty
of nature, we never deliberately set aside, but follow with
perseverance the maxims of the Gospel and the rules of perfection.
An obedient and faithful soul ought to find in this a sufficient
guarantee for confidently trusting herself with entire abandon-
ment to this interior Spirit who guides her so well. It is often a
sign of weakness, and an effect of the workings of self-love that
we hanker after more complete assurance. However, there are
exceptions to be made, such as the beginning of the spiritual
life when the Holy Spirit has not yet acquired full dominion over
us, and some extraordinary occasions when the tumult of the
storm prevents us hearing His voice. I might content myself
with this general reply but will, however, answer you in detail.
i st. This fresh condition of obscurity, dryness and distaste,
into which God has permitted you to enter, does not surprise
me. This good Master always begins by making Himself known
and loved in sensible devotion, and afterwards deprives the soul
of these consolations to withdraw it from the earthliness of the
senses, in order to unite it to Himself in a far more excellent way,
more intimate and solid, by pure faith entirely spiritual. To
make this purification complete, suffering has to be added to
privation, at least interior suffering, interior rebellion, diabolical
temptations, anguish, weakness, and repugnance for all that is
good which sometimes rises to a sort of agony. All this serves
marvellously to deliver the soul from self-love and to give it
some trace of resemblance to its crucified Spouse. All these
trials are so many blows that are inflicted on us by God to make
us die to self. The more strongly self-love struggles against
these blows the harder they seem and the more cruel the agony.
Divine love is a two-edged sword, and strikes self-love until it
is killed and destroyed. Great sorrow in these trials proceeds
from the strong resistance of our cursed love of self which is
loth to relinquish the empire it has gained over our hearts, and
to allow the love of God to reign in its stead. This love produces
only sweetness and delight as long as it finds no obstacles to its
divine influence, nor any enemy to resist it.
Do not regret, then, in any way those days that you pronounce
happy because you enjoyed sensible devotion in prayer and
communion, and because your union with your Beloved was so
charming and delightful. How much more precious and of in-
estimable value are your present days of agony and martyrdom !
These are days of the purest love, since in them you are loving
God at your own cost, and for Himself alone. You need not
HOW TO MAKE USE OF TRIALS 243
fear any mixture of self-love in your intercourse with Him,
since there is nothing in this intercourse but what is crucifying
to self-love. In such a state our will is united to the will of
God, and it is this that we love, and with a love so pure that the
senses have no share in it. It is most difficult indeed to love
God in happiness without any admixture of self, or of vain self-
complacency, but in the time of crosses, and of interior spiritual
privations, all that is needful in order to be certain of the purity
of our love, is to endure them patiently, and to abandon ourselves
sincerely. How truly consoling and encouraging is this cer-
tainty for those who understand the value and advantages
of pure love. When God makes you understand this you will
also understand why so many of the saints preferred privations
and sufferings to consolations and joys, how they so passionately
loved the former that they could hardly put up with the latter.
God may possibly allow you to think that this painful state is
going to last you your life-time, in order to give you an oppor-
tunity of making Him a more complete sacrifice. Do not waver,
do not hesitate for a single moment, sacrifice all ! abandon
yourself without reserve, without limitation to Him, by Whom
you imagine yourself abandoned, and keep yourself always in
this interior state which is, at present, the most essential for
you. I would almost say it is the only one for you during prayer,
at Holy Communion, at Mass, during the Office, and all the day
long ; but attend to this quietly without effort, and do not even
attach yourself to the frequent repetition of formal acts, it will
suffice to keep your soul in this habitual condition of total aban-
donment without any reserve. I forbid you, therefore, volun-
tarily to desire anything but the accomplishment of the most
holy will of God. Ask neither for more nor less pain, God knows
better than we do the right measure that is necessary for us.
It is very often nothing but presumption and illusion that makes
us wish to imitate certain saints who, in their sufferings were
especially inspired to say, " More, Lord, more ! " We are too
little and too weak to dare to speak thus unless we have a moral
conviction that God requires it of us. I forbid you also, all
voluntary scruples, troubles, or doubts on the subject of the
Office, of Holy Mass, etc. To act with a pure intention, and in
simple good faith is enough ; in this respect God asks no more
of us, and I daresay you would not be able to do more at present,
znd. Oh ! how glad I am to hear you say that you are in-
supportable to yourself, that at every moment you are on the
point of falling into a state of despondency and trouble, without,
by God's grace, actually doing so. That is to say that God,
in making you understand all your weakness upholds you in-
visibly, thus giving you the victory, while at the same time
244 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
preserving you in humility. You might very likely lose this
virtue, either entirely, or to some extent, if you found yourself
possessed of courage, or felt some spiritual strength. Learn
from this a most important lesson inculcated by Fenelon. It is
a pure grace from God, and one of the greatest to suffer in a petty
way, to conquer in a feeble manner, that is to say with a sort of
spiritual feebleness, humbly and with self-contempt, and to be
so discontented with ourselves that we do not believe that we
ever do anything well. This discontent with ourselves is very
pleasing to God, and His content should be the basis of our own.
Nothing could give us any further anxiety if we found our sole
satisfaction in pleasing and satisfying God.
3rd. God gives you a great grace also in enabling you while
in your present state to faithfully fulfil all your duties and rules.
I greatly commend you for having sought no consolation from
creatures and for having made no mention of your troubles to
anyone even in confidence. Your silence will sanctify you more
than any conversation or advice.
4th. Another great grace is to feel neither trouble, nor fear
nor anxiety about your present state, nor about the future, just
as though you had become callous about everything. This is
the fruit and happy effect of your entire abandonment. As you
have abandoned all to God, He takes charge of everything,
banishing all trouble, fear, and anxiety from your soul. He
takes from it all feelings of self-interest, and leaves it alive only
to His interests. This disposition is the solid foundation of the
most absolute security that a soul could possibly enjoy, it is the
greatest happiness this life contains for us, and a sure sign of the
friendship of God.
5th. The words that were spoken to you interiorly, and that
you heard so distinctly were assuredly from God. I recognise
this by the good and immediate effects they produced in you.
Only God can impress souls to such a profound extent with what-
ever He pleases. You see that the divine goodness does not
refuse you occasional scraps of comfort and strength to fortify
you during the journey He makes you take through the desert.
6th. There is no reason to be surprised that your spiritual
afflictions have no influence with regard to your conduct towards
your neighbour, nor deprive you of your patience and equable
temper, and kindness. As a rule while in this state of trial one
is generally more able to help, to console, to comfort, and to
serve others.
THE USE OF TRIALS CONTINUED 245
LETTER XIII. The Use of Trials continued.
To Sister Anne-Marguerite Boudet de la Belliere (1734).
The use of trials continued.
My dear Sister,
i st. Your present state of obscurity is a real grace from God,
Who desires to accustom you to walk in the darkness of pure
faith which is the most meritorious way, and the most certain
road to sanctity.
2nd. Dryness and powerlessness are graces equally precious,
and make you participate very meritoriously in the sufferings of
Jesus Christ. " But," say you, " this powerlessness prevents
me asking God for necessary helps." At any rate, it does not
prevent you wishing to ask for them, and you ought to know that
with God, our desires are real prayers, according to St. Augustine.
This made Bossuet say that a cry pent up in the depths of the
heart was of the same value as a cry that reached the skies,
because God sees our most secret desires, and even the first simple
movement of the heart. Apply these 1 principles to your own
case, whether at prayer, or before and after Communion.
Nothing more is required to make our intercourse with God
safe, easy and efficacious in spite of aridity, involuntary distrac-
tions and powerlessness, because none of these things prevent the
desire to pray well, or to sigh and lament before 'God. His all-
seeing eye detects the pure intention and preparation of heart,
with all those acts that we should wish to have made ; as He
sees the fruits of the trees before the buds of springtime have
formed on the branches ; this is the beautiful comparison made
by the Bishop of Meaux.
In God's name, my dear Sister, try to enter into this maxim
and to make it your own ; it will console and sustain you on a
thousand occasions when you feel that you are doing nothing,
are incapable of making any effort. The good will is always
there, and that is everything in the sight of God even when you
imagine it to be absolutely idle.
3rd. Acquiescence in and submission to the will of God and
the union of our will with His are so essential to perfection that
it may be said to consist entirely in adhering firmly to them in
all things, everywhere, and for everything. To do this is to do
all, and without this, prayers, austerities, and works of even the
most heroic nature, and all our sufferings, are nothing in the sight
of God, because the only way in which we can please Him is by
conforming our wills to His. The more involuntary opposition
to this complete resignation we feel in ourselves, the more merit
shall we gain on account of the greater effort required, and of
the more complete sacrifice exacted.
246 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
4th. The knowledge and fear of the traps that are laid for us
in all quarters both outside and within our own souls is exactly
the grace that will enable us to avoid them, especially if, with this
humble fear a great confidence in God is united ; then we can
rely on being always victorious, except perhaps in matters of
minor importance where God permits us to fall for our greater
good. These lesser falls are very salutary for us, in keeping
us always lowly and humbled in the presence of God, distrustful
of our own powers, and as it were, nothing in our own eyes.
5th. You must accustom yourself to seek, and to find the
peace of your soul in the higher part, that which is furthest
removed from the senses ; and disregard the troubles, revolts,
and uneasiness of the lower and animal part which should be
accounted of no importance because God pays no attention to
what takes place there. St. Teresa says that it is like the court-
yard of the castle of the soul. Take advantage of this teaching
which is that of the saints, and behave as a person who, finding
the courtyard of her castle full of unclean animals and hideous
reptiles does not stop there a moment, but mounts at once to the
upper rooms which are well furnished and filled with an honour-
able company. Do you also mount into the sanctuary of the
soul, and endeavour always to remain there, because it is there
that God makes His permanent dwelling.
6th. Yes, you were right to abandon yourself to God in all
things, and to cease disturbing your mind voluntarily with the
recollection of the frequent experiences you have had of your
misery and weakness ; in this way the foundation of true
humility and a complete self-distrust is laid and consolidated.
These valuable dispositions draw down upon us all the graces
of God and bring them to us clothed with His power ; especially
if He finds us convinced of our own powerlessness to do any
good. This it was that made St. Paul exclaim, " When I am
weak, .then am I powerful."
yth. I assure you on the part of God, that usually, indeed
nearly always, when you think you are praying your worst,
that is the very time when you are praying best. Why ? Be-
cause on the one hand the will, and the firm desire to pray is a
real prayer of the heart ; and because, on the other hand, you
pray then without any self-complacency, without any of those
vain reflexions which spoil everything ; you pray by your pa-
tience, your silence, your self-effacement, your submission and
abandonment to God ; and you leave off praying greatly humil-
iated and cast down, and without any of those sensible feelings
of satisfaction to your self-love that made St. Francis of Sales
say that our own miserable satisfactions were not those of God.
REMEDIES FOR TROUBLES 247
You may judge by this with what contempt you ought to repulse
the fears by which the enemy tries to disgust, and to weary you,
or at least to throw you into a state of anxiety.
8th. The great and sincere desire you have to be all for God
without reserve, and whatever it may cost, St. Francis of Sales
calls the firm pillar of the spiritual edifice. This pillar ought to
sustain the whole weight. Fear nothing as long as it remains, and
it will remain, by the grace of God, in the superior part of the
soul ; as for the inferior or sensitive part, think nothing about it.
9th. It is quite true that we can conquer self-love, but not
without great trouble, and remember that this is far more the
work of God than our own. Take advantage of little occasions
for combats and victories, and be well assured that when God
sees that, in good earnest, you are doing the little that is in your
power with the help of ordinary graces, He' will at last set His
own hand to the task, and finish and perfect the work you could
not accomplish. It is on this account that I advise you always
to beg of God without ceasing the gift of His divine Spirit with
all His holy operations, without which it is possible to spend
a life-time in great defects and considerable imperfections
from which there is great risk of never rising, but rather of falling
ever lower, and even of being lost.
loth. Holy Communion is the true daily bread of our souls.
In it alone can we find subsistence, power, remedy, and support.
What a difference there is between those who communicate
frequently, and those who do so but rarely ! Oh ! how little
do the latter realise the riches, and the treasures of grace of
which they deprive themselves !
LETTER XIV. Remedies for Troubles.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil (1734). The use of
trials continued.
My dear Sister,
To apply a remedy to the trouble that makes you so unhappy,
it will suffice for me to indicate the causes of it, in order to oppose
it with the contrary principles. The origin of the evil is first an
ignorance of your attraction. It seems to me that you have
forgotten that divine grace makes different souls experience
different attractions, some sweet, and some exceedingly cruci-
fying. Among people in the world there are those whom God
conducts by the way of prosperity ; but a far greater number
whom He compels to walk in the thorny path of the Cross, of
afflictions and difficulties. Thus He apportions, according to
248 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
His wisdom, spiritual joys and tribulations to those who lead
a spiritual life. The work of salvation and perfection consists
in following faithfully the path allotted to us according to the
attraction God has given us, whatever this may be.
i st. You seem equally ignorant of this great principle,
that usually more progress is made by suffering than by acting,
and that to take things patiently is to do a great deal, and es-
pecially to be patient with oneself.
znd. You forget, at any rate in practice, this other incon-
testable truth, that perfection does not consist in receiving great
gifts from God such as recollection, prayer and the spiritual
taste for divine things, but simply in fulfilling the will of God
in every possible circumstance whether exterior or interior,
and in whatever situation Providence may be pleased to place
you.
3rd. Your troubles proceed from this ignorance and forget-
fulness together with those anxieties and that interior depression
which have embittered and doubled your pains, and have de-
prived you of the peace of your soul which is the foundation
of the spiritual life, and have often led you to seek consolation
in creatures by confiding your troubles to them when it was
God's will that you should have no consolation but that which
He was pleased to give you Himself. You must correct this by
other rules of conduct and a totally different way of acting.
ist Principle. Often say to yourself, " My way is painful,
it is true ; it is hard and bitter, but as it is the will of God
I must submit, no matter what it costs ; firstly, because God is
my sovereign Master who has a right to dispose of me absolutely
as He pleases. Secondly, because He is my father, and so
tender, good, and merciful a Father that He can will nothing
that is not for the benefit of the children whom He loves, and
makes all things turn to the benefit of those who are submissive
to Him. Thirdly, because I shall never find peace, calm, nor
repose of heart, nor any solid consolation except in resigning
myself humbly and patiently to all that He is pleased to ordain.
Fourthly, because I cannot take a single step in the spiritual
life unless I follow the path marked out, and decided for me
in the eternal decree of my predestination. Can I mark out a
path for myself ? And if I could, would it not be like the path
of a blind man, leading to destruction ?
2nd Principle. I ought to desire only that progress and per-
fection which God wills for me, and to wish to attain them only
by those means He wills me to employ." Such a desire can only
be calm and peaceful, although at the same time, full of power
and energy. There is, however, another kind of desire for
perfection, born of pride, and of an inordinate love of one's
REMEDIES FOR TROUBLES 249
own excellence. This does not rely upon God for support, and
besides, is restless and always in a state of turmoil. The more
we have to give ourselves up to the first of these desires, the more
strenuously we must resist the second. Therefore every desire
for our progress, however holy it may seem, must be suppressed
directly it shows signs of eagerness, disquiet or anxiety. These
effects can only proceed from the devil, while everything that
comes from God leaves the soul tranquil. Why then, my dear
Sister, do you desire with such fiery eagerness those lights of the
soul, those feelings, interior joys, and that facility of recol-
lection and prayer, and other gifts of God, if it does not please
Him to bestow them on you yet ? Would not this be to make
yourself perfect for your own pleasure, and not for His ? To
follow your own and not the divine will, to have more regard
for your own inclination than for that of God, to wish to serve
Him according to your own caprice, and not according to His
good pleasure ! " Ought I then to be resigned to spending my
whole life in this state of poverty, weakness and misery ? " Cer-
tainly, if such is the will of God. Your poverty, weakness and
misery ought from henceforth to be pleasant to you, and prefer-
able to any other state since it is willed for you by God. Hence-
forth this poverty will be converted into wealth, for to be exactly
what God wills is to be very rich indeed, and all perfection
consists in this alone. Moreover are you not aware that there
is heroic virtue in the patient endurance of misery, weakness,
spiritual poverty, darkness and callousness, of fickleness, folly,
and extravagance of mind and imagination ? It was this that
made St. Francis of Sales say that those who aspired to per-
fection required to exercise as much patience, kindness, and
endurance towards themselves as towards others. Let us then
bear our own burdens of misery, imperfection, and defects in the
same way that God wills us to bear one another's burdens.
It often happens however that, in this spiritual tumult the will
endures strange commotions, and is on the point of giving way
out of all patience. Let us keep firm for in this new battlefield
fighting for patience and making fresh sacrifices we shall find
fresh subjects for merit and triumph. And if during the first
moments the poor will should escape, it must be made to try to
regain possession of itself in humbling itself quietly and peace-
fully before the infinite mercy of God.
" But all these spiritual vicissitudes take off my attention
from prayer, Holy Mass, the Office, and Holy Communion, and
my spiritual exercises seem useless." No ! No ! none of them
are useless, because merely the will to acquit yourself well of
these duties, which you formed at the beginning, will be valid
throughout, unless nullified by long continued and altogether
2jo ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
voluntary distractions, in a word, by deliberate venial sin.
Far from losing anything, you will have gained doubly, because
combined with the merit gained by your spiritual exercises will
be that of having made them in a most penitential and cruci-
fying manner, and also with much humiliation ; in this way,
very far from having spoilt these holy exercises by foolish self-
examination, and a thousand satisfactions of self-love, to which
you would have been exposed in making them with feelings of
devotion, you will have fulfilled these duties well by the practice
of holy humility which is the foundation and guardian of every
virtue. " But this will prevent me from feeling contrite."
The efficacy of contrition is not in the feeling of it, it is entirely
in the higher part of the soul in the will. Sensible contrition
very frequently serves only as food for self-love and can never be
reassuring, since it is not what God requires. " But supposing
I have no contrition of the will ? " You should believe and hope
firmly that God has given it to you ; but if you should only have
had contrition once after having already confessed your sins
it would be enough to remit them all, both past and present
sins, so great is the mercy of God.
My dear Sister, I will conclude with this consoling assurance ;
if it had pleased God to make your state known to you as it is
to me, you would be thanking Him for it instead of afflicting
yourself about it. Remain in peace then in whatever condition
you may possibly find yourself: when you have achieved that
you will have done all that is necessary. Repeat constantly
" Blessed be God for all and in all. I wish only what He wills
and nothing more. May His holy will be done in me, and by me.
May none of my wishes be accomplished ; they are all blind and
perverse. I shall be lost if they are accomplished."
LETTER XV. Trials to be Endured Peacefully.
. To the same person. Trials to be endured peacefully.
i st. We are entirely of one mind, my dear Sister, now that
you admit with me that your activity and eagerness are defects.
Strive against them with all your strength, that is all that I ask.
You say that I want you to be faultless and quite perfect. That
is true, and has always been the object I had in view for you.
. At the same time I do not consider it a crime that you have not
yet attained this perfection. I realise that this can only be
achieved gradually by a great confidence in God, and a great
fidelity to His grace. He alone can accomplish in you the work
He has begun ; what you have to do is simply to abandon your-
self to Him, and to allow Him to act. Do not be one of those
of whom Jesus Christ said, speaking to St. Catherine of Siena,
TRIALS TO BE ENDURED PEACEFULLY 251
that they made hardly any progress in perfection because they
talked so much themselves, that they could not listen to Him,
and would act themselves, and gave Him no opportunity of
acting in them.
2nd. I am delighted to hear that you feel that God supports
you in your afflictions ; continue to endure them as peacefully
as you can, and 'in a perfect interior silence. This practice alone
will cause you to advance in a calm and peaceful way. God has
given you courage and energy ; these are talents that you must
profit by. This divine Master asks that, for the present, you
"will make your courage consist in patient endurance and resig-
nation ; but it is in the depths of your soul, not in feeling, that
He wishes to find this abandonment, and, in His infinite goodness,
at the same time that He requires it of you, He bestows it upon
you. For this grace unite with me in returning thanks to Him,
for He could not have bestowed upon you a more precious gift.
Perhaps a day will come when this resignation will become
sensible, and then it will be as sweet, as now it is bitter, and you
will enjoy that heavenly unction which Jesus Christ has attached
to His Cross. This is what makes the peace and joy of the saints
unchangeable, and it is what those experience who follow gener-
ously the path of perfection and a spiritual life, in sacrificing
everything for God. You tell me that with your character and
temperament it seems to you impossible to acquire a taste for
the interior life. So it is, truly : but what is impossible to man
is easy to God, and it is on Him alone, and on His grace through
Jesus Christ, that you have to depend. In order to compel you
to lay a foundation of humility in your soul this God of goodness
begins by making you feel most keenly your own weakness ;
but, when this feeling depresses you, encourage yourself to hope,
for God, as you know, is pleased to make His grace triumph
most in our greatest weaknesses.
3rd. The petition you so often make interiorly, " Lord, have
pity on me, You can do all things," is the best and most simple
prayer that you could possibly make. Nothing more is required
to draw down His powerful aid. Keep steadfastly to this practice
and to the habit of never expecting anything from yourself
but of hoping to obtain all from God. He will do the rest,
without your perceiving it, and I feel assured that this will be
visibly shown by the result. I am interiorly convinced that
unless prevented by great infidelity on your part, God, by His
holy operation, will perform great things in your soul. You
may count upon this, if you do not voluntarily oppose any
obstacle. If you become aware of having unfortunately done
so, humble yourself immediately, and return to God and to
yourself with a perfect confidence in the divine goodness.
252 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
4th. We must only attach ourselves to God and to His holy
will by acquiescing in all His arrangements which cannot fail
to be for our happiness and profit. If, on our part, there should
be aothing else but this blind submission to His good pleasure,
we ought to be contented, because in this alone consists all
perfection, and the true love of God.
jth. It is a great grace to realise the folly and extravagance
of the pleasures that worldly people pursue so eagerly. From
this you will derive great good for your soul which, in this
contempt for the world, will find a powerful motive for giving
itself entirely to a spiritual life. Perhaps you will say that you are
still but a novice in this life. I acknowledge that, but you
admire it, desire it, ask for it, and are tending towards it ; here
are so many different degrees of grace ; the rest will follow in
due time. Meanwhile moderate your spiritual vehemence, and
your holy ambition.
6th. You are beginning, you say, to be indifferent as to
whether people behave well or badly towards you. This is
a greater grace than you imagine. But there are times, you say,
when sadness and discouragement seem to overwhelm you.
This you must put up with as well as you can, and accept the
annoyance of finding yourself so weak, for this is most irritating
to our spiritual self-love. This is the most meritorious of all the
sacrifices by which we must immolate it, as it is the most humili-
ating., It is quite permissible to expect some sensible help and
support in the spiritual life, but we must hope for it with modera-
tion, seek it without excitement, and make use of it without
becoming too much attached to it, and lose it when God wishes to
deprive us of it, I do not say, without pain, but without being
voluntarily cast down and troubled. Above all it is necessary
to make God our principal help, to count on Him in default of
others, to trust in Him unreservedly, to have recourse to Him
in all dangers and for everything, as little children do with their
loving mothers. This holy simplicity, this humble and child-
like conduct towards God will touch and move His paternal
heart, and obtain sooner or later all that we ask, or something
else better for us, which is often given us even without our
knowledge.
yth. The complaints made by our Lord to St. Catherine of
Siena of the exaggerated activity of those souls in saying and
doing so much themselves, that they left Him not one moment in
which to effect anything, should be understood in this sense ;
that in working and accomplishing our duties, we should do so
without excitement, and natural impetuosity, and that, during
the day we should listen to the voice of divine Wisdom to hear
TRIALS TO BE ENDURED PEACEFULLY 253
Him who speaks in the centre of our hearts without sound of
words, because His operation is His word. Moreover, that in
all our prayers, readings, examens, and thoughts of God we should
act quietly, gently, without confusion or effort, seeking only
the union of our hearts with God, and for that making use of
frequent pauses to give the Holy Spirit of God time to work in
us what He pleases, and as He pleases.
8th. All that you tell me about your fear of your faults being
rendered greater on account of your realisation of the presence of
God is an illusion of the devil who, in this way tries to withdraw
our attention from this divine Presence, and to diminish our
devotion while we are before the most Holy Sacrament. Con-
tinue to follow this exercise without fear ; I see the fruits of it,
and they will become so sensible that you will see them yourself
in course of time.
9th. I congratulate you that God has taken away some of
your natural vivacity. The loss of your gaiety will only be
temporary. It will return, but completely changed, or rather
transformed into spiritual joy, quiet, tranquil and peaceful,
because it will be like that of the saints, in God and coming
only from God.
loth. I greatly approve of your method of prayer; continue
the same, and make acts when you feel inclined. When, during
pauses, or interior silence some good thought or inclination
should be suggested to you, receive it quietly ; and do the same
with interior repose, whether sometimes greater or less, as God
pleases. In a word, tend always towards that sovereign Lord,
more by the affections and desires than by the mind and intellect ;
and no matter what He gives you be always satisfied. God knows
better than we do what is necessary for us ; let Him act, but let
us be absolutely convinced that the least repose of heart we
enjoy in His holy presence is worth more than anything we could
say or think ourselves. May this conviction impel you ever
more strongly to tend with all your heart towards this holy
repose ; and when God gives it to you do not interrupt it, for
these are the precious moments when the King of Kings admits
those souls Whom He honours with His predilection to a friendly
audience.
254 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER XVI. Sensitiveness about Defects.
To Sister Charlotte-Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux.
Sensitiveness about defects a sign of self-love.
My very dear Sister,
i st. I thank you for your good wishes, and above all for
your prayers. I also pray for you every day at the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass. I thank our Lord for the good effect produced in
your soul by my letters, but you must allow me to remark
that I find you still very sensitive about the state of misery,
poverty, and spiritual weakness to which you find yourself re-
duced. This can only come from a great amount of self-love
which cannot endure a state of nothingness, and abhors the
necessity of self-effacement. Nevertheless you must necessarily
pass through this trial because your mind has to be emptied of
self before it can be filled by the Spirit of God, and He will make
you die to your old life, before you are able to begin a new one.
What you want is to acquire the one without losing the other ;
this cannot be : have patience and preserve a certain peace
in the centre of your soul during these interior tempests. Your
state of obscurity and callousness, to whatever degree it may
attain, need not alarm you ; all that is necessary is to submit,
and to abandon yourself entirely to God. Do not worry yourself
to try and feel submissive ; feeling has nothing to do with this
business ; it is enough if you are willing to submit, for this is
practised by the higher part of the soul.
2nd. You are wrong in finding your weakness a subject for
anxiety. As long as you have confidence in God, He will sustain
you as He has done hitherto on the brink of the precipice.
Possibly it will be by an imperceptible thread, but, in the hand
of God, this slight thread is like a thick rope.
3rd. In the painful positions of which you speak there are
only two things to be clone ; either to throw yourself in spirit
at the feet of Jesus Christ, and to kiss those sacred feet, or, if you
cannot do that, keep an interior silence of submission and adora-
tion, and content yourself with an exterior sign, such as, raising
your eyes to heaven, and then lowering them and bowing your
head, remaining thus for a little while in union with Jesus
Christ in the Garden of Olives. If possible, remain ever there,
by the side of Jesus Christ humiliated, cast down, and annihi-
lated before His Father. I love to see you in prayer taking the
position of a beggar, of a beast of burden ; but still more do I love
that indescribable something which inwardly draws you on
without any distinct aim, but with a certain dry repose full of
aridity. When you get so far, hold on to this state contenting
SENSITIVENESS ABOUT DEFECTS 255
yourself with waiting in that peaceful expectation of which I
have so frequently spoken to you. Again at other times try
to make some acts, or to read something as quietly as possible
and with frequent pauses to give room for the interior attraction
to act. But always remember that you ought to follow the least
attraction that draws you interiorly, and to retain it peacefully
without too much exertion, and without seeking out distinct
thoughts. This repose in the presence of God, this slight recol-
lectedness is of even greater value, and will cause you to make
more progress than the most sublime thoughts.
4th. I congratulate you in having, by the help of the grace
of God, overcome the rebellion and repugnance you felt with
respect to your office. It is by these difficult victories that solid
virtue is acquired. All the details you give me about your
painful feelings and distastes make me see the goodness of God
Who desires to destroy in the centre of your heart that pre-
sumption of which you could never be cured without this bitter
medicine. These truly diabolical feelings that God allows the
devil to produce in your soul are an antidote to that much more
diabolical feeling of pride. Learn from this to allow God to
act, and to abandon yourself, if it so please Him, to much
greater miseries and interior humiliations. If He should con-
demn you to these, He knows well how to draw you out of them,
with great profit to your soul, provided always that you are
faithful in calling upon Him with confidence out of the depths
of your nothingness.
5th. I think that what you say is true ; God wills your
humiliation ; love this state for yourself because it forms some
resemblance between you and your divine Spouse. This love
for and desire of humiliations will make you progress more in
the ways of God than all the other practices together. Try,
therefore, to profit by every little occasion, and feed your mind
on the thought and desire of abjection, just as worldly people
feed their minds on thoughts and desires of vanity. The pro-
found peace that you have begun to experience in the midst of
humiliations, contempt, and rebuffs, is one of the greatest graces
of which you have ever spoken to me. If you continue thus a
great change will be effected in your soul by this means alone.
6th. As to what regards exterior mortification, follow in
everything the rules of moderation, discretion and obedience,
but make up for what they refuse to allow you to do, by interior
abnegation in refusing yourself the least little desire, the least
little pleasure, and the least thought which is not of God and for
God, rejecting all that is useless in order to occupy yourself
exclusively with Him. Oh ! what a joy and triumph for me
when I shall see my dear daughters abject like Jesus Christ,
256 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
humbled and annihilated ! Do you, therefore, follow the grace
of this attraction ; it will lead you on. I cannot repeat often
enough that I will never cease praying that God may give you
this holy love of abjection. About evening devotions ; I have
neither time nor inclination to enter into the subject. Believe
me you already have too many practices, and must try to
simplify matters that relate to the soul. Just the presence of
God, abandonment to God ; just the desire to love God, and
to be united to Him. These are the most simple exercises, and
more definite for souls a little advanced in spiritual matters,
and of far greater importance than any exterior practices.
LETTER XVII. Confidence in God.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. Confidence in God is
the cure of self-love.
My dear Sister,
When you have neither time nor inclination to read, try to
keep yourself simply in peace in the presence of God, and do not
trouble to practise works of supererogation unless by His special
intimation and impulse, and if they are done with facility. If
you seem to be wanting in courage for many things, compel
yourself at any rate to retain in your heart a determination to be
all for God. Humble yourself with the consideration of the
inefficacy of your own resolutions, and look upon yourself as
having so far done nothing. The less confidence you place in
yourself, the more easy will it become to have entire confidence in
the mercy of God alone, through the merits of Jesus Christ.
This is that solid and perfect confidence which completely
annihilates self-love by withdrawing all those resources upon
which it was accustomed to rely. There could be nothing more
salutary for some souls than this kind of martyrdom.
You say that some sort of sacrifices lead to God while others ^
do not, but rather lead to revolts against Him. This idea is
a mistaken one, caused by judging of good and evil in matters of
devotion, by the senses. Some sacrifices which do not touch
the heart in a vulnerable spot, always afford consolation, and
thus lead us sensibly to God ; but those that wound the heart,
poignantly cause so much pain that we are greatly troubled,
and inclined to break down completely. To the sorrow these
sacrifices entail is joined another very painful suffering ; namely,
the fear of being unable to bear it, and of gaining nothing by it.
This it is that produces the false idea that these sacrifices turn
us away from God. Nevertheless it is an assured principle
that the more these sacrifices touch us to the quick, and the more
CONFIDENCE IN GOD 257
they make us die to ourselves, and detach us from all consola-
tion, and sensible support, the closer they draw us to God and
unite us to Him. This union is all the more meritorious in being
hidden and further out of the range of the senses. Self-love,
therefore, has no share in it, since it cannot feed on what it can
neither know nor feel. May God deign to convince you of the
truth of this consoling assurance, which is the teaching of all
the Doctors of the Church, and is confirmed by every experience.
In order to understand it thoroughly you must remember that
in almost everyone there is such a depth of self-love, weakness
and misery, that it would be impossible for us to recognise
any gift of God in ourselves without being exposed to spoil and
corrupt it by imperceptible feelings of self-complacency. In
this way we appropriate as our own the graces of God, and are
pleased with ourselves for being in such or such a state. We
attribute the merit to ourselves, not, perhaps, by distinct and
studied thought, but by the secret feelings of the heart. There-
fore, God, seeing the innermost recesses of the heart, and being
infinitely jealous of His glory, is obliged, in order to maintain
it, and to protect Himself against these secret thefts, to convince
us, by our own experience, of our utter weakness. It is for this
purpose that He conceals from us nearly all His gifts and graces.
There are hardly more than two exceptions to this rule ; on the
one hand beginners who require to be attracted and captured
through their senses, and on the other hand great saints who,
on account of having been purified of self-love by innumerable
interior trials are able to recognise in themselves the gifts of
God without the least feeling of self-complacency, nor even a
glance at themselves. For my part I can bear witness to this
constant action of divine Providence. God has so completely
hidden from those who have appealed to me, the gifts and graces
with which he has loaded them, that they cannot see their own
progress, nor their patience, humility and abandonment, nor
even their love of God. Then, too, they can hardly help weeping
at the supposed absence of these virtues and at their want of
generosity in their sufferings. However, the more afflicted and
full of fear are their souls, the less need have their directors to
fear and to be afflicted on their account. This ought to cure
you of making so many difficulties for yourself. You would
understand this still better, perhaps, if you were to consider
what Fenelon said on this subject. " There is not a single gift
so exalted but that after having been a means of advancement,
cannot become, in the sequel, a snare and an obstacle to the
soul, by the instinct of possession, which sullies it." On this
account God withdraws what He had given, but He does not
take it away to deprive us of it absolutely. He withdraws it to
258 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
give it back in a better way, after it has been purified from this
malicious appropriation made by us without our perceiving it.
The loss of the gift prevents this feeling of proprietorship, and
this gone, the gift is returned a hundredfold. All this seems to
me to be of such great importance for you that I think you
would do well to read it over often although it is rather lengthy.
By dint of impressing it on your mind you will, I hope, relinquish
those false prejudices, and the many errors that so frequently
disturb and destroy the peace of your soul. Without this peace,
as you know, it is impossible to make any progress in the spiritual
life.
I am acquainted with a spiritual person who is so con-
vinced of the truth of this rule that I have heard her say many
times, that after having prayed for certain spiritual favours for
a very long time, and after having had innumerable novenas
and prayers offered for the same intention she often said to God,
" Lord, I consent to be for ever deprived of the knowledge as
to whether it has pleased You to grant me these graces, because
I am such a miserable creature that when I know I possess a
particular grace I immediately convert it into a poison. It is
not that I wish to do this, Lord, but such is the corruption of
my heart that this accursed self-complacency spoils all my
works almost without my knowledge and almost against my
will. I feel that it is I who tie Your hands, Oh my God ! and
who oblige You to hide from me in Your goodness those graces
that Your mercy induces You to bestow upon me."
You, my dear daughter, have more need than anyone else to
understand these feelings, for I have never hitherto met with
anyone who depended so much on what is called the sensible
help of direction under the specious pretext of spiritual need.
I have always thought, without mentioning it to you, that the
time would come when God, desiring to be the only support
of your soul, would withdraw from you these sensible props
without even allowing you to learn in what way He could supply
all that of which He had deprived you. This state I must own
is terrible to nature, but in this terrible state, one simple " Fiat,"
uttered very earnestly in spite of the repugnance experienced
in the soul, is an assurance of real and solid progress. Then
there remains nothing but bare faith in God, that is to say, an
obscure faith despoiled of all sensible devotion, and residing
in the will, as St. Francis of Sales says. Then it is, also, that are
accomplished to their utmost extent the words of St. Paul when
he said, " We draw near to God by faith," and " The just man
lives by faith." All this ought to convince you that it is not
in anger but in mercy and in very great mercy that God deprives
you more than others. It is because He is more jealous of the
SACRIFICE AND FIDELITY 259
possession of your whole heart and all your confidence, and for
this reason He is obliged to take away everything and to leave
nothing sensible either exterior or interior. Therefore, my dear
Sister, a truce to reflexions on present or future evils. Abandon-
ment ! Submission ! Love ! Confidence !
LETTER XVIII. Sacrifice and Fidelity.
To Madame de Lesen after she had become a Religious in
the Order of the Annunciation. Sacrifice and fidelity are the
death of self-love.
My dear Sister,
You ask me several questions, but what can I say in answer
that holy books, meditations, preachers, directors, and above all
the interior spirit have not told you hundreds and hundreds of
times ?
i st. Do you not know that it is only very gradually that
self-love dies, and that we learn to live only in God and for God ?
This is effected by a constant fidelity in carrying out those sacri,
fices demanded by the interior spirit ; sacrifices of the mind,
of the will, of every passion and caprice, of every feeling and
affection, in fine and above all, the sacrifice of an entire sub-
mission in every trial, in the perpetual vicissitudes of the soul
and in those sometimes very painful states through which we
have to pass in order to be entirely united to God.
2nd. Do you know that the state of pure faith excludes
all that can be sensibly felt ? In this state of deprivation progress
is made without assistance from anything created, but the
bare light of faith remains always in the highest point of the soul,
and by this light we can not only see what we ought to do, and
what to avoid, but we know also that, by the grace of God, we
live in horror of evil and fly from it, and in the love and practice of
virtue. Therefore it is well to say, " I am living in perfect
confidence, and am not risking my eternity." " But suppose
I am mistaken, and deceiving others without knowing it ? ""
If you do not know it, then you are in good faith, and this will
excuse you in the sight of God Who is as merciful as He is just.
" But in spite of all this I still feel very much alarmed." Yes >
that cannot be helped ; our condition in this life is one of fear,
because no one can be perfectly sure. God wills that we should
glorify Him by an abandonment full of love and confidence.
This is the tribute He most particularly exacts, and as He gives
us the means of offering it with greater merit, why should we be
alarmed ? We should have more reason to be afraid if we had
ceased to fear. There is no state that is more suspect than
260 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
that which is devoid of fear, even if it should be accompanied
by love and confidence. When, on the contrary, the fear of
offending God is the prevailing sentiment, the considerations
I have explained ought to be sufficient reassurance. They are
perfectly solid, because they rest on the immutable principles
of faith- In default of sensible devotion we should attach our-
selves to this bare faith preserved by God always in the centre of
the soul, or the higher point of the spirit.
3rd. Do you not know that the sensible presence of God
is often by its sweetness an occasion of satisfying our self-love,
and that in order to prevent it being dangerous to us God de-
prives us of it leaving us only bare faith devoid of sweetness,
or any kind of mental images, figures, or representations ?
" But," you say, " I do not know if I have this faith." Well !
at any rate you know that you aspire to it continually. This
desire is, in fact, perhaps too vehement in you, since you are so
prone to get excited and vexed when you are disappointed.
Therefore you have, at least, the continual and habitual desire
of this divine presence. This desire is known to God Who sees
the slightest movement of the heart. That ought to be enough
for you. Remain then in peace, confidence, submission, and
abandonment, and in grateful love.
4th. Do you not know that the best preparation for Holy
Communion is that operated in the soul by God Himself?
Approach then with confidence, with complete abandonment to
the state of poverty and deprivation in which it has pleased God
to place you. Remain in it as though sacrificed, annihilated
and unseen like Jesus Christ in His Sacrament, because He
is there in a kind of annihilation. Unite yours to His. Where
there is nothing left that is created, or human, there is God.
The more destitute of all things, and divested of self you become,
the more will you be possessed by God. Make for yourself a
spiritual treasure of this very poverty by a continual adherence
to the will of God. From the time you begin this practice you
will become richer than any of those who possess the greatest
gifts of joy and consolation. You will possess the riches of
the holy will of God without fear of self-complacency, since this
holy will is bitter to nature and humiliating to pride. Sweet and
salutary bitterness which serves as an antidote to the poison
of self-love and the sting of the serpent of pride !
GOD GLORIFIED BY SUFFERINGS 261
LETTER XIX. God Glorified by Sufferings.
To Mother Louise-Frangoise de Rosen. On the use of trials
even if they be punishments.
Reverend Mother,
I do not presume to find excuses for the imperfections of the
good Sister about whom you ask my advice, and since God has
taken upon Himself the punishment of them by sending her the
most cruel trials, she seems to me more to be envied on this
account than to be blamed for her faults. There is much in
these faults that deserves the verdict of the church on the sin
of Adam. " Happy fault which merited so glorious a Redeemer ! "
This good Sister, you tell me, has acknowledged her faults,
and now, overwhelmed by the weight of her trials, is much more
inclined to depression than to obstinacy. Therefore you only
have to revive her courage and to console her gently. Tell her
that she has lost nothing, and that far from being abandoned by
God she is much nearer to Him than when all was prosperous
with her, and she seemed to succeed in everything. I authorise
you to tell her from me that I consider her more happy than before
in consequence of her sufferings by which God is purifying her
more and more, like gold in the crucible, to unite her more
closely to Himself. For you must both take into consideration
this great principle : the extent to which the soul is purified in
its most secret recesses, is the measure of its union with the God
of all holiness. By this you can judge if this poor Sister should
not be considered the happiest of all, if she could be persuaded
to look upon her state of suffering from this point of view.
However, if the violence of this trial prevents her seeing clearly
the value and use of it, let her rely on her faith, and let her glorify
God by patience and an unreserved submission, abandoning
herself entirely to His adorable permissions without relaxing
in the least degree any of her spiritual exercises, especially as
regards prayer and Holy Communion ; and without giving way
to a secret desire suggested by self-love, to shake off the yoke
of the cross of God. " But," she will answer, " this comfort
would be just if my state were a trial only, but I have every
reason to believe that it is a punishment inflicted by God."
I acknowledge this, but in this life no punishment is inflicted
by divine justice without a loving intention of divine mercy.
This is particularly the case with those souls whom God most
loves. God often permits their faults in order to be enabled to
derive glory from them, and to make them serve for the salvation
of these souls. The chastisements He inflicts sanctify while
humiliating them, and dispose them to unite themselves more
262 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
closely to God, at the same time as they become more detached
from self. Therefore they are chastisements as well as trials ;
chastisements inasmuch as they atone for the past evil and satisfy
divine justice ; and trials because divine mercy makes use of them
to prevent future danger, and for the exercise of many very
meritorious virtues. You cannot insist too strongly on these
truths with souls in trouble and affliction no matter what may
be the cause of their anguish. Let all such remember that
nothing happens except by the ruling of divine Providence, and
by His adorable permission. Give this dear Sister who is so
full of pain the most deeply spiritual reading ; this is the only
means she has to soften and relieve her continual torment, and
to make it bearable ; to convert her pain into profit, and to
recover from it at the time arranged by divine Providence.
God has given me in her behalf, all the interest and charity of a
spiritual father, and the thought never leaves me that the day
will come when she will be my joy and my crown in the presence
of God, and even now visibly before men by a most edifying
life. I hope she will always keep before her mind the memory
of the past in order to humble herself before God, and thus to
establish firmly a solid foundation for the spiritual life in which
even her faults may prove a guarantee of her perseverance and
progress.
The Religious in question seems to be Sister Anne-Marguerite
de la Belliere towhom Fr. de Caussade had wr ittenseveral times.
For having taken too much time and pains to prepare a little
oratory where she made her Retreat she became deprived of
all that light and consolation that God usually lavished upon -her
during prayer.
LETTER XX. The Fruit of Trials.
To the same person on the fruit of trials, Profound Peace.
i st. The deep calm you experience, the profound inner peace
with which you are filled and which you find so sweet, is not an
illusion but a true operation of the Holy Spirit Who speaks in
the centre of your soul. Peace and love, says St. John of the
Cross, are one and the same. Peace can be felt, but love cannot
be perceived in the same manner, but is very real, nevertheless.
I am not surprised that when God deigns to bestow these precious
gifts upon you, you no longer feel your usual infirmities. The
interior grace in your soul reflects itself in your body, and causes
your pains to cease. I know many who find no more efficacious
THE FRUIT OF TRIALS 263
means for the cure of their maladies than this quiet recollection
in God, when He is pleased to bestow it upon them ; for, as you
truly say, it does not proceed from ourselves
znd. To remain simply in the presence of God, quite aban-
doned to His love and mercy is also an effect of the Holy Spirit
in the soul. You have but to remain humbly and simply in the
hands of God, adhering to Him, and giving yourself up to His
love, so that He may do with you, and in you all that He pleases.
But never make this sweet repose your object ; always go further
and aim at the possession of Him Who bestows it upon you,
and value it only as a means of uniting you more closely to God
Who is your centre, your life, and your all. Never forget that
you may, possibly, find yourself bereft of everything in the most
complete spiritual poverty, and left to the simple practice of bare
faith for the extinction of self-love. This death of self hardly
ever occurs without a deprivation of all things, and at the mere
thought of this one's very nature shudders. It is then that one
seems lost indeed, without any support, and left in the most cruel
abandonment.
3rd. I am glad that God has lessened the fear of reprobation
by which you were tormented. Now you can, without so much
difficulty, abandon yourself, by making the following act. " May
God do with me whatever He pleases, I wish to belong entirely
to Him by loving and serving Him as well as I can. He is the
God of my heart, the God of my salvation, and my salvation
cannot be left in more secure keeping. I abandon it to Him
with the greatest confidence." Abandonment by itself can
give us an assurance of security that self-love seeks unsuccess-
fully from creatures or from self. Our weakness and blindness
are much more calculated to make us tremble ; and, when we
enter into ourselves we find what would cause us to despair unless
we remembered with confidence the infinite goodness of God.
Therefore we can only be reassured through Jesus Christ, in
Him ; and we find Him proportionately to the measure in which
we abandon ourselves.
4th. The simple " Fiat " you pronounce comprises every-
thing, and the feeling of your continual dependence is one of the
greatest of God's graces. The thought of His paternal love
and all-powerful aid is the reward of it. When the heart is
animated by filial confidence it becomes easy to receive no matter
what from the hands of this most merciful Father.
5th. Pure love without any admixture of interest or self-
love can only come to you from God, but to acquire a gift of such
infinite value the soul is obliged to endure many deprivations
and trials. These are so many operations necessary for its
purification, because we are always prone to become attached
264 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
to the pleasure that God allows us unless taught by sad expe-
rience to love Him even in the most terrible state of privation.
I am delighted to hear that the interior spirit reigns in your
community. If holy recollection does not comprise everything
it is, at any rate, the way to acquire all. You are quite right to
leave out all those compliments and ordinary good wishes for
the New Year as far as I am concerned. God sees that they are
in your heart where they form a continual prayer on my behalf,
just as my wishes for your welfare are as a prayer in the sight of
God. " Our desires," says St. Augustine, " are as regards God,
what our speech and words are with regard to men." He hears
them, and, we may hope, will answer them.
LETTER XXI. Things Painful to Nature.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil (1731). Things painful
to nature are good for the soul.
You need not to remind me to pray for you. I never forget
to do so, especially since I became aware that you are in a state
so painful to nature, although so good for your soul. However,
I assure you I have never thought of asking God to grant you
anything but patience, submission, resignation to His holy will,
and total abandonment to His kind providence ; and I do this
through the conviction I have of the great grace God is giving
you, and of the great need you are in of these virtues ; a need all
the greater because you do not acknowledge it. When this
storm is past you will understand these two things so keenly
and distinctly that you will not know how, sufficiently, to thank
God for having been so good as to put His own hand to the work,
and to operate within your soul in a few months, what with the
help of ordinary grace would have taken you, perhaps, twenty
years to accomplish, namely, to get rid of a hidden self-love, and
of a pride all the more dangerous in being more subtle and more
imperceptible. From this poisonous root grows an infinite
number of imperfections of which you are scarcely conscious ;
useless self-examinations, still more useless self-complacency,
idle fears, fruitless desires, frivolous little hopes, suspicions
unfavourable to your neighbour, little jokes at her expense,
and airs full of self-love. You would have run a great risk of re-
maining for a long time subject to all these defects, filled, almost
without suspecting it, with vanity and self-confidence without
either power or will to sound the profound abyss of perversity
and natural corruption that you had within your soul. It is
THINGS PAINFUL TO NATURE 265
this collection of miseries that God now makes you feel, not in
particular, for if you experienced them in this way one by one,
it would not affect you, but by viewing them in general, in a
heap, and in a confused manner. This mass of imperfections
is like an overwhelming weight. Do not search your conscience,
therefore, for the great sin that you imagine must be there;
what is actually there is still more alarming, and this is a chaotic
mass of interior miseries, weakness, imperfections, and little
faults which are almost imperceptible and continual and are
produced by that amount of self-love of which I am speaking.
God has given you a great grace in giving you light to recognise
this, for never would you have been able to discover it yourself,
not even from its consequences, being in this respect as blind
and callous as are vicious men in regard to certain gross sins
the habit of which renders them hardened to their gravity.
You also were unconscious of that kaven of corruption that was
within you and which spoilt and poisoned all your works, even
those which had their origin in grace.
The heavenly Physician has therefore treated you with the
greatest kindness in applying an energetic remedy to your
malady, and in opening your eyes to the festering sores which
were gradually consuming you, in order that the sight of the
matter which ran from them would inspire you with horror.
No defect caused by self-love or pride could survive a sight so
afflicting and humiliating. I conclude from my knowledge of
this merciful design that you ought neither to desire nor to hope
for the cessation of the treatment to which you are being SUD-
jected until a complete cure has been effected. At present you
must brace yourself to receive many cuts with the lancet, to
swallow many bitter pills, but go on bravely, and excite yourself
to a filial confidence in the fatherly love which administers these
remedies. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God,
annihilate yourself without ceasing and allow this work to be
accomplished. Do not lose sight for one moment of the con-
tempt and horror of yourself with which your present state
inspires you. Think only of your infidelities and ingratitude.
When you look at yourself let it not be in the flattering mirror
of self-love, but in the truth-telling one that God, in His mercy,
presents to your eyes to show you what you really are. This
sight so frequently presented produces a forgetfulness of self,
humility, and respect for your neighbour. " Come and see," the
Holy Spirit says to you, which means, come to our Lord and
behold by that new light with which He has enlightened you
what you have been, what you are, and what you would, infallibly,
have become. Be careful never to give up prayer and Holy
Communion, for it is in these that you find help and defence.
2.66 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE I-ROVIDENCE
As for sin, you do not commit any, at any rate, none that are
serious. As long as you fear, as you do now, to offend God,
this fear should reassure you ; it is a gift from that same hand
which invisibly supports you in your trials. Have patience !
you will be consoled in good time, and your consolation will last,
while the time of trial passes very rapidly. Poor human nature
in its dislike of suffering looks longingly for the end. The
important matter is to gather the fruit of the Cross. Let us
pray, then, and sigh for that power which we do not possess and
should never find within ourselves. This is a fundamental
truth of which you have an entire conviction based on your own
experience ; and it is for this reason that God prolongs your trial
until you become so thoroughly convinced that the memory of
it may never be effaced from your mind. You speak of pure
love ; no soul has ever yet attained to it without having passed
through many trials and great spiritual labour. In order to
arrive at this much-desired goal you must learn to love those
labours which alone can lead you to it. The more generous you
are the sooner the end of these trials will come and the more
fruit will they produce.
Continue your way, then, courageously. Rejoice every time
you discover a new imperfection. Look forward to the happy
moment in which the full knowledge of this abyss of misery
completes within you the destruction of all self-confidence and
foolish self-satisfaction. Then will it be that, flying in horror
from the putrefaction of this tomb you will enter with joyful
transports the bosom of God. It is after having completely
cast off self that God becomes the sole thought, the only joy ;
that on Him alone you will rely, and that nothing will give you
any pleasure out of Him. This is the new life in Jesus Christ,
this is the life of the new man after the old has been destroyed.
Hasten then to die like the caterpillar, so that you may become
like a beautiful butterfly, flying in the air, instead of crawling on
the ground as you have hitherto done.
FIFTH BOOK.
FRESH TRIALS, SUFFERINGS AND PRIVATIONS.
LETTER I. Rules to be Observed in Illness.
On illness and its uses. Rules to be observed. To Sister
Marie-Therese de Viomenil.
My dear Sister and very dear daughter in our Lord,
The peace of Jesus Christ be always with you. Do not fear
that your illness will be a danger to your soul, but, on the con-
trary, be reassured that you will derive great profit from it,
because :
i st. To suffer peacefully and patiently without any resistance
is to suffer well, although you may not make any express and
energetic acts of acceptance. The heart by submitting, and by
a humble and simple acquiescence offers them passively.
2nd. Also, my dear Sister, you ought to thank God as for a
grace, in that you suffer in a feeble and small way ; that is to
say without feeling much courage and as if you were overwhelmed
by your illness and on the point of losing patience, of complain-
ing, and giving way to the revolts of nature. Yes, it is a grace
and a signal grace, because to suffer thus is to suffer with humility
and lowliness of spirit ; whereas, if one felt a distinct courage
and strength, a conscious resignation, the heart would swell
with satisfaction, and one would become filled with self-
confidence and spiritual pride and presumption. In your state,
on the contrary, you feel weak before God, humbled and con-
founded at suffering in so feeble a manner. This is a certain
truth, very consoling, very spiritual, and very little recognised.
Remember it, then, on all occasions when, feeling more keenly
the weight of the Cross and of your sufferings you feel at the same
time your weakness, and submit in peace and simplicity in the
centre of your soul to all that God wills. This way of suffering
is most sanctifying, and is what Fenelon calls becoming little in
your own eyes and humbling yourself with the knowledge of
how wanting you are in courage to suffer. If all people of good
will understood this truth they would be able to suffer in peace
and simplicity, without being distressed and wounded in their
self-love by rinding themselves so helpless and with so little
courage to bear their sufferings. You should apply this rule
to all your afflicting trials, and especially to those daily annoy-
ances you experience from the person who worries you, and also
when you have feelings of antipathy towards anyone else.
268 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
3rd. As regards the alleviations you might find beneficial;
certainly those officious persons who imagine they cannot do
better to show their charity to the sick than by raising in their
minds all sorts of longings are, as you remark, not to be accounted
charitable ; their flattering conversations are so many snares ;
at the same time you ought to take, without scruple, humbly
and in holy simplicity, all that the doctors, superiors, and
infirmarians order. Obedience and giving up our own will which
we practise in acting thus are much more agreeable to God than
any bodily mortification. This is another truth that many
devout persons lose sight of, and are consequently very unmorti-
fied even in their mortifications. Do not forget this, because
self-love and following your own will would spoil everything,
corrupt everything, even in practices that are very holy in them-
selves. Oh ! how happy should we be if we could once for all
renounce our own will, judgment and ideas for the love of God 1
LETTER II. On Different Sufferings.
On sufferings of different kinds.
My dear Sister,
The sufferings about which you ask my direction are of
different kinds. There are great trials, and the vexations of daily
occurrence. These, on account of their multiplicity, form the
chief part of our treasure if we only know how to take advantage
of them. Believe me, inasmuch as it depends on our own efforts
it is necessary to bear the little crosses we encounter every day,
for by them God will enable us to destroy our self-love. Oh !
how happy should we be if we could but get rid of this accursed
vanity which embitters us and irritates us about every trifle,
makes us commit a thousand faults, and do ourselves great harm
by the constant annoyance and interior trouble it causes us.
Even should the occasion present itself of having to endure still
greater sufferings, remember that they will pass like everything
else, and that when they are over we can have no consolation
in having borne them badly, and in having derived no advantage
from them. On the other hand what a great satisfaction it
will be to have made a virtue of necessity. To do this do not
speak more than is necessary about them, and then in as few
words as possible ; do not make a fuss about them, or about
the pain they cause you ; abandon all to divine Providence who
will make everything conduce to your profit if you live by faith.
I pray God to make you well understand the great spiritual
fruit, and the temporal blessings derived from the holy practice
ON PUBLIC CALAMITIES 269
of entire resignation to the holy will of God in all things, and
from total abandonment to all that He permits, recognising that
without this divine permission not a hair can fall from our heads,
nor a leaf in Autumn from all the innumerable trees of the forests.
This is of faith. Could Jesus Christ have more clearly expressed
than by these words, that there is no event, great or small, in
the world which has not been expressly arranged by the sovereign
providence of God ? Oh my God ! how consoling this is, and
how easily we could cast off all our cares if, according to Your
own words we could learn to look upon You as a loving Father,
and upon ourselves as Your children, and to remember that You
never show us more love than when You make us take bitter
remedies for our cure ! Have pity, Father of infinite goodness,
on those who are sick, who, in their delirium turn against You,
their good Physician, and refuse the medicine which is intended
to procure them health and life.
Oh my God ! how many blind and senseless people there are
in the world who will not even listen to these truths although You
have revealed them in the sacred Scriptures for our present
consolation and our future salvation !
LETTER III. On Public Calamities.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On public calamities
and disasters.
The disaster of which you speak is, as you say, a most visible
scourge of God ; happy will they be who take advantage of it
to save their souls. These punishments, borne well, as from the
hands of God, are of more value than all worldly prosperity.
At the same time they may be made, by a bad use, the occasion
to some of eternal reprobation. This will be, however, entirely
by their own fault, and their very great fault, for what could be
more reasonable, or easier in a sense than to make, as I said
before, a virtue of necessity ? Why make a useless and criminal
resistance to the chastisements of God, who is our Father and
Who strikes us only to detach us from the miserable pleasures of
this world ? Could He do us a greater favour than to deliver
us from attaching ourselves to that which would cause us to lose
eternal happiness and our own souls ! On such occasions it
is well to think often and attentively of this passage in the writings
of one of the Fathers of the Church. " Such is the goodness
of our heavenly Father that even His anger proceeds from His
mercy, since He only strikes us to withdraw us from sin, and to
save us." Like a wise surgeon He cuts the mortified flesh away
from that which is sound to save the life of the patient, and to
27 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
prevent the infection from spreading. We should accustom
ourselves to see everything in the light of faith ; and then no
event of this life, nor desires, nor fears will have any effect on
us. Those strong hopes that so frequently upset the peace
of the soul and the tranquil course of life, even those will make
very little impression on us. How blind men are ! and how
much attached to their own ideas ! How rarely one meets with
anyone who will own that he has been obliged to seek and to take
good advice ! St. Francis of Sales had good reason to say that
we are all wanting in sense. At least let us understand the depth
of the misery and blindness into which sin has caused us to fall.
Let us learn from this to be always distrustful of ourselves, and
to guard against our own judgments and perverse ideas. St.
Catherine of Siena was so convinced of the truth of this that she
wished she could cry out constantly in a way to be heard by
everyone : " Lord help me, come to my assistance and have
pity on me ! " Do not forget in future that a simple " Fiat "
with regard to your present pains, and to those which you fear
in the future either for yourself, or for others, will suffice to
amass for you a treasure of peace even on earth. If this practice
does not bring perfect peace immediately, it will, at least, fill
your soul with joy and enable you to taste a solid consolation
in all your pains and fears.
LETTER IV. Opportunities for Practising Charity.
On contradictory tastes and characters.
Far from pitying you I consider that you are more to be con-
gratulated on having, at last, an opportunity of practising true
charity. The antipathy you feel towards the person with
whom you have such continual intercourse, the difference in
your ideas and tastes, the offence she causes you by her manners
and conversation are so many infallible signs that the charity
you show her is purely supernatural and without any admixture
of human feeling. This will be a way of amassing pure gold,
and it depends entirely on yourself whether or not you will heap
up an immense treasure. Be grateful, therefore, to the good God
and in order to lose nothing of the inestimable advantages of
your present position follow out exactly the rules that I will now
give you.
i st. Bear patiently the involuntary feelings of disgust
that this Sister's behaviour causes you, just as you would bear
a sudden attack of fever or megrim. Your antipathy is really,
OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRACTISING CHARITY 271
in fact, an interior fever, with its shivering and paroxysms.
This is very crucifying, humiliating and painful, consequently
it is more meritorious and sanctifying.
2nd. Never speak, as perhaps the others do, about this Sister
unless to speak kindly about her, remembering that she has her
good qualities. And which of us is without bad ones ? Who is
perfect in this world ? It is possible that without your will or
knowledge you are as great a trial to her as God allows her to be
to you. God often polishes one diamond by friction with
another, says Fenelon.
3rd. When you have committed some fault in this matter
do not distress yourself but humble yourself quietly without
voluntary vexation either with her or yourself, without anxiety,
annoyance or uneasiness. If we treat our faults in this way they
will be to our profit and advantage. God keeps us in a state of
true humility by these miseries, and the daily faults by which we
discover our own pettiness.
4th. For the rest, unless your duty obliges you, do not meddle
in anything that is said or done, let everything go on without
speaking or thinking about it. Abandon all to divine Providence.
What does it matter if everything goes, if everything perishes,
provided that we belong to God and save our souls ? But,
I almost hear you say, if such or such a thing should happen
what shall I do ? This ! I will take no notice, I will have
nothing to do with it, because I should be sorry to lose this happy
state of abandonment which makes me live in complete and
absolute dependence on God from day to day, hour to hour,
moment to moment, without a thought of the future, nor even
of to-morrow. To-morrow will take care of itself. He who
sustains us to-day with His invisible hand, will sustain us to-
morrow. The manna in the desert was only given from day to
day, and whoever, through want of confidence, or a false wisdom,
gathered it up for the next day, found it spoilt. Let us not
in our anxious and ignorant foresight make unnecessary pro-
vision for ourselves, when God in His wisdom and fore-
knowledge provides for us. Let us depend entirely on His
fatherly care and abandon ourselves to it utterly both for our
temporal concerns and our spiritual and eternal interests. This
is true and total abandonment which binds God to take all under
His care with respect to those who abandon all and thus pay that
honour to His sovereign dominion, His power, wisdom, goodness
and mercy that is due to all His infinite perfections. Amen.
Amen.
272 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER V. Profit to be gained by Patient Endurance.
You have reason to bless God, my dear Sister, for having
preserved in your heart peace, gentleness, and charity for the
person whose place it is to wait upon you. He has given you a
great grace. Perhaps He may still allow that, either through
ignorance, thoughtlessness, or even, if you will, out of caprice,
or bad temper, she may give you occasion to practise patience.
Then, Sister, try to profit well by these precious occasions which
are so adapted to gain the heart of God. Alas ! we offend
this God of all goodness not only through ignorance and thought-
lessness, but deliberately and maliciously. We want Him to
forgive us, and this He most mercifully does, and then we will
not forgive others like ourselves. And we recite every day the
prayer our Lord taught us, " Forgive us, Lord, as we forgive."
We must remember also the words of our God, telling us that He
would act towards us as we act towards our neighbour ; there-
fore we ought to bear with our neighbour, and to show him
consideration, charity, gentleness and condescension ; and God
Who is faithful to His promises will treat us in like manner. I
am enlarging on this subject a little because it will give you
occasion to practise the greatest and most solid virtue every day ;
charity, patience, meekness, and humility of heart, benignity
and the renunciation of your own ideas ; and these little daily
virtues faithfully practised will procure you a rich harvest of
graces and merits for eternity. It is in this way better than in
any other that you will be able to obtain the great gift of interior
prayer, peace of mind, recollection, the continual presence of
God, and His pure and perfect love. This simple cross borne
patiently will draw down upon you an infinitude of graces, and
will enable you more efficaciously to become detached from
self than trials, in appearance much more grievous, and to
attach yourself unreservedly to God.
LETTER VI. Difficulties.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On different kinds
of difficulties.
My dear Sister,
How can you still feel surprised at that of which your expe-
rience ought to have convinced you for a long time past ? As
long as we live upon earth, and do not live among saints we shall
always require patience to put up with each other. It is a good
thing for us that such is the case, so that we may have more
DIFFICULTIES 273
frequent opportunities of practising the most meritorious virtues ;
charity, humility, and self-renunciation. Let us then resign our-
selves with a good grace to this necessity, let us try to profit by the
faults of our neighbour and be indulgent towards them, and by
our own faults and rise speedily from them. This is the only
way to keep peace. I acknowledge that your habitual position
is extremely hard, but then what a fund of merits for Heaven !
what a magnificent opportunity of doing penance, and of prac-
tising heroic virtue ! You can hardly fail, if it lasts, to attain in
a short time, the grace of an interior Ufe, if you continue to prac-
tise abnegation, and self-renunciation by charity, humility, resig-
nation and abandonment to God. These acts of virtue will
soon make your heart ready to receive the sweet infusion of
divine love ; and therefore I should feel very much disappointed
on your account if you were given an easier and more agreeable
post. These trials of which you complain were valued and sought
for by the saints with eagerness, because they understood their
worth and advantages for the reformation of the soul, and for
arriving at true union with God. You have, for a long time
past, been attacked by a temptation all the more dangerous
the less you suspected its danger. This comes from never having
rightly understood this truth, which is an article of faith, that
everything that happens in the world, with the sole exception
of sin, comes directly from God, and the ordinance of His will.
Also further, although it is certain that God never wills sin, nor
consequently the calumnies, persecutions and injustices of
which His elect are the victims, He wills the consequences
nevertheless ; that is to say, that He wills that His elect should
endure calumny, persecutions, humiliations, and often martyr-
dom in a thousand different ways. I say the same of the con-
sequences of our own sins. A man, by his own imprudence, or
even by more culpable means, falls into poverty, illness, and all
sorts of severe afflictions. God, while detesting the sin, wills
its consequences, such as poverty, illness and misfortune. This
man then can, and ought to say, " Lord, I have thoroughly
deserved this, You have permitted it, it happens by Your will,
may Your holy will be done, I acquiesce in all. I adore and
submit."
It was the knowledge of 'this great principle which made holy
Job say, " The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away,
blessed be the Name of the Lord." He did not say, " The Lord
hath given, and the devil hath taken away," because the devil
has no power to do so without the permission of God, and it
was from this principle that he drew his perfect submission
constancy, and peace of mind.
274 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
For want of being thoroughly imbued with this great principle,
you have never known how to submit to certain conditions and
events, nor, consequently to remain in them firmly and tranquilly
according to the will of God. The devil has always tempted you,
made you uneasy and deceived you by a hundred illusions and
false arguments about them. Try then, I beg of you in the
interests of your salvation and peace of mind, to put an end to
such a mistake ; you will, at the same time put an end to the
vexations you feel, and to all the rebellious feelings of your
nature. For this end accustom yourself to make acts' of faith
and submission about every event that happens either through
the agency of men or the malice of the devil or your own fault,
and even your sins. God has permitted it thus. He is Master,
may He be blessed in all, and may His holy will be accomplished
in all things.' Fiat ! Fiat !
Your situation is very painful, it is true, but on that account
it is very sanctifying and is the best penance you could possibly
perform, being assured that it is imposed on you by God Himself.
All that the devil presents to your mind to the contrary is an
evident illusion to deprive you of the peace of God, to make you
sad, uneasy and vexed ; always discontented with your present
state, and sighing for some other. This is why so many in the
world are as unhappy as they are culpable, for want of being able
to understand this truth, so important and so consoling, of which
I have just reminded you. How many torments would they not
spare themselves, and how much merit would they not amass in
the midst of their trials if they could but persuade themselves
that God makes use of all things for His glory and for the benefit
of His creatures ; and that it remains for them to derive profit
from all by a blind submission which must be total, general,
without exceptions and without contrary arguments, at any rate,
none that are deliberate. If I could but inscribe this truth on
your mind and heart even with my blood ! But God will do so
Himself gradually I am sure, if you will but co-operate with
His grace by rejecting at once all thoughts contrary to it. Once
more I entreat you to submit in spite of all repugnance and disgust
to the secret decrees of this adorable Providence, and you will
become holy and pleasing to God.
RULES FOR DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES 275
LETTER VII. Rules for Difficult Circumstances.
To the same person. On the same subject. Rules to be
followed.
I own, my dear Sister, that there is nothing more difficult
than to keep a perfect evenness of temper and an immovable
patience amid domestic difficulties and intercourse with those
persons of different character by whom we are surrounded.
The constant friction makes it almost impossible for us not to
forget ourselves occasionally ; but if one falls one moment,
one can rise immediately. To fall is a weakness, to rise, a virtue.
If one loses hold on oneself it is but to gain a firmer hold without
feeling annoyed, and little by little God gives all to those who
know how to wait patiently. But you want everything with
impetuosity and imagine you are going to become perfect at
once. You must try to moderate by degrees the turbulence and
agitation of these desires which clash with each other at the risk
of being broken. However, if you cannot altogether prevent
this collision you must try to endure it quietly and humbly,
and not increase the misery uselessly by tormenting yourself
because you are tormented. The difficulties that are caused you,
and the injustice of certain people towards you are, I own, the
most revolting thing in the world, my heart is troubled with
only reading about it ; but what other remedy is there than the
one we have already made use of for the cure of many other
ills ? to raise our eyes to heaven and to say, " Lord, it is Your
will, You permit this to happen, I adore and I submit. May
Your holy will be done. Your divine permission will help me
to carry this cross in expiation of my sins, and to make me
merit heaven. Fiat ! fiat ! "
If I knew a better remedy I would impart it to you, but as I
am certain that this is the most efficacious you must excuse me
trying to find others. I own that it is next to impossible not
to give way on such occasions to some slight movements of
impatience, revolt, and bitterness, at any rate, interiorly ;
but you must return as quickly as you can to God and to yourself
by humbling yourself quietly without too much trouble, and
asking earnestly of God the necessary patience.
zj6 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER VTII. Annoyances caused by Good People.
To the same person. On annoyances caused by good people.
i st. The annoyances you have experienced must have been
all the more painful as coming from people from whom you
would least expect them ; but be assured that you will have
gained great merit for heaven by them. Men's ideas are so
different ; they vary according to their interests or temper, and
each is convinced of his own sense, and that he has right on his
side. Oh men ! men ! To what have we come ? What an
abyss of humiliation for the whole human race ! It is a good
thing to have arrived at the bottom of this abyss, for it will be
more easy to place all one's confidence in God. The mind,
enlightened by faith, disposes the heart to submit to the decrees
of divine Providence who permits good people to make each
other suffer to detach them from each other. On occasions
such as these we can only resign ourselves, and abandon ourselves
to God who will support us. These dispositions will enable us
to turn a deaf ear to arguments that might tend to disturb us.
Whether we consider ourselves, or the conduct of others towards
us there will never be wanting specious reasons for becoming
vexed and uneasy. But there is never any reason for depression
and worry. These irregular emotions are always contrary to
reason as well as to religion ; and the peace of which they deprive
us is of incalculably more value than that for which we sacrifice it.
2nd. For the rest it is always allowable to speak in confidence
to a director, to obtain consolation, strength, and instruction,
but always do so with charity and discretion. Nevertheless it
is better and more perfect to keep silence. It is to God alone
that we should confide our vexations, and tell all as to a friend,
or director worthy of our entire confidence. This is an ex-
cellent and easy way of praying, and is called the prayer of
confidence, and the outpouring of the heart before God. By it is
gained great spiritual fortitude, and from it proceeds consolation,
peace and courage. If you continue to live as you are doing now,
very imperfectly no doubt, but with a sincere desire to improve,
and with efforts proportioned to your weakness, your salvation
is certain. Even the fear you feel about it is a gift of God pro-
vided it does not go so far as to trouble you, and to prevent you
frequenting the Sacraments, practising virtue, or continuing
your spiritual exercises. As for the hardness of heart and want
of feeling that you complain about, be patient and offer this
affliction to God in a spirit of penance as you offer Him your
illnesses and bodily infirmities. Those of the soul are much
harder to bear and consequently more meritorious.
How TO BEAR THESE TRIALS 277
LETTER IX. Hon> to Bear these Trials.
To the same Sister.
I feel keenly, my dear Sister, the painful nature of the trial to
which God has subjected you, and the sadness of your heart at
receiving these daily wounds. It is true, I own, that it is neces-
sary to be very holy to be able to let such things pass unnoticed,
without feeling any kind of resentment ; but, if you cannot
attain such perfection yet, try at least during these times of
trial, first to dismiss as far as you are able, all those thoughts,
feelings and that language likely to embitter your mind ; secondly
if you cannot succeed in doing this, at any rate, say interiorly
in the superior part of your soul, " My God, You have permitted
this, may Your adorable will and divine decrees be accomplished
in all things. I sacrifice to You this affliction and its conse-
quences according to what pleases You. You are the Master,
may You be blessed by all and in all things." Then add, " I
forgive, Lord, from the bottom of my heart for the love of You
the persons who cause my sufferings, and to show the sincerity
of my feelings about them I ask for them all sorts of graces and
blessings, and every happiness." When the heart is inclined to
resist say, " My God, You see my misery, but at least I desire
to have all these feelings and I beg this grace of You." Having
done this think no more about it, and if uncharitable feelings
still molest you be resigned to endure this torment in confor-
mity to the divine Will which permits it, contenting yourself
with renewing the offering in the higher part of the soul. This
is one of the ways by which we can share the chalice of Jesus
Christ, our good Master.
LETTER X. To see God in our Trials.
To the same Sister. On seeing God in our trials.
I am surprised, my dear Sister, that with the help of the rules
I have so often given you, you are not even yet able to recognise
the hand of God in the misunderstandings that arise among
people with the best intentions. " God," you say, " does not
inspire anything that brings trouble." That, in one sense, is
true, but is it not also true that God has permitted, and often
permits His servants to be given to mistakes and illusions which
are intended to try them, to exercise them, and, in this way to
sanctify them by the trouble they cause each other? We see
hundreds of examples of this in the lives of the saints, and again
278 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
quite recently in the lives of St. Francis Regis, and the venerable
Sister Marguerite-Marie Alacoque.* Try to judge, not by
human judgment, weak, narrow, and blind as it is, but by divine
judgment which alone is upright, sure, and infallible. In this
way you will improve, and not have the peace of your mind and
heart disturbed.
*N.B. Canonised in 1921.
LETTER XI. To Seek God's Help Alone.
To the same Sister. On the deprivation of human assistance.
You think yourself greatly to be pitied, my dear Sister,
because God has deprived you of the helps that up to now He
has contrived for you. You are indeed to be pitied, but only
on account of your want of resignation to the arrangements of
divine Providence. Is it not deplorable that a soul chosen by
God, and which He had taken into His service and overwhelmed
with graces, instead of being contented with Him, ardently
sighs after the little helps it receives from fellow creatures ?
These helps are all very well if God allows them, but when He
takes them away, how much better it would be to rely upon Him
alone ! With what joy a soul that truly loved Him would repeat
over and over again, " My God, You are my all ! Lord ! I have
only You, but You are enough for me, and I desire nothing but
what You give me." The almighty hand of God will then take
the place of a weak and worthless reed in regard to this soul.
With this certainty how can you possibly consider yourself
unhappy and abandoned ? That which terrifies you is, that
in future you can have no advice until too late. For my part I
must say that, after so much advice and so many letters from the
most enlightened directors you ought to be able to advise others.
Besides, even though in certain circumstances you should have a
serious doubt, is that any reason to despair ? Raise your heart
to God and He will not refuse to guide you when all other
guidance is taken away from you ; and then choose, unhesi-
tatingly, what you believe, in good faith, to be the most suitable,
the most useful to souls, and the most in conformity with the
Will of God. Whatever may be the result, you must believe that
you have acted rightly because, under the circumstances, you
could not have done better. Do you really think that God de-
mands impossibilities ? No ! God, Who is infinitely good, loves
straightforwardness and simplicity, and is satisfied when we have
done all in our power after having asked with confidence for
His divine light.
GOD ALONE 279
You tell me that in your isolated condition you can see nothing
that is not a subject of trouble and affliction. Oh ! what a
grace is this ! It should have produced, or will necessarily
produce in you, a complete detachment from all created things
Does not God give such a grace only to those souls He most
loves ? Oh ! daughter of little faith, but daughter beloved of
God, complain after this if you dare ! " Only God," you say
again, " can know all that I suffer." If you are not exaggerating,
I congratulate you with all my heart. It was thus that the blessed
Mother St. Teresa spoke during her great spiritual difficulties.
It is a good sign to find life sad and bitter. Death is terrifying
because of the judgment that follows : but unless this terror
causes disquiet, it comes from the Holy Spirit. I should fear
much for anyone who did not feel this salutary dread.
LETTER XII. God Alone.
To the same Sister. On the absence of a director.
My dear Sister, I am neither angry nor surprised at what you
feel about the departure of your director. If, instead of allowing
yourself to be cast down by this feeling, you could master it,
it would be the occasion of the most meritorious acts of abandon-
ment to God. Thus you would gradually become detached from
creatures, and unite yourself to Him, Who alone is your sovereign
good. Oh ! what a joy ! what safety as to the future life, and
unchangeable peace for the present to be in God alone, to have
no other treasure, no other support, no other help or hope but
God alone ! I wish I could send you a beautiful letter that one
of your Sisters has written to me on the subject. She says that,
for a whole month this thought, " God alone, I have only God,'*
gave her so much consolation and support, that instead of regret,
she felt full of peace and an inexplicable joy. It seemed to her
that God took the place of director, and that in future He would
correct and instruct her Himself. It was to Him I recommended
you when I left, and continue to do so. This is the farewell
that Mother . . . ! bid me on the eve of my departure," Father,
I bid you farewell as this is the will of God." That same evening
she went to console the other Sisters, and the next day held the
conference as usual. Since then she has had much to suffer,
but has done so with a resignation that was worth more than any
gratification, even spiritual.
i The Religious of whom Fr. Caussade speaks here seems to have been
the Superior of the Refuge at Nancy, founded by Mdme. de Ranfaing.
280 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER XIII. Reliance on God Alone.
To the same Sister.
I acknowledge that a visible guide endowed with all the
requisite qualities for so difficult a position, is a grace of God,
and a powerful help to the soul. But if Divine Providence
should refuse us this assistance, or should take it away from us,
if we could say with our whole heart, " My God, I have only
You, You are all that I desire," what we should obtain by doing
so, would be worth all that we could obtain by means of a director.
It is an undoubted fact that God often deprives us of all outside
help in order that we may give Him our sole confidence. Oh !
if we would but give it entirely to Him without sharing an atom
of it with anyone, whoever it might be ! how well repaid we
should find ourselves ! For the want of any help from creatures,
we should experience a great liberty of spirit. If, however,
you have such contrary feelings it is because you are still very
far from having that purity of love which makes us seek God for
Himself alone. In fact this is evident, because the extreme
sorrow and trouble to which a soul deprived of exterior help
abandons itself, can only proceed from an immediate attachment
to these human helps.
This attachment excites the jealousy of God, particularly if
souls that have been favoured behave in this way, as He desires
all their confidence and affection. But take courage ! as God
has made you endure the severe trial arising from such an attach-
ment, He wishes in this way and by means of this very pain to
moderate it gradally, until finally you are freed from it alto-
gether. Allow Him to effect in you this desirable purification,
arid compel yourself to fulfil His designs faithfully. This will
be an operation of grace as salutary as it is painful. You must
endure it patiently as you would endure the suffering of some
painful remedy intended to cure certain serious complaints.
However, if you cannot at once succeed in becoming completely
detached, at least desire with all your strength to become so, and
moderate as much as you possibly can, the sorrow of which
you cannot entirely rid yourself. God will do the rest when He
thinks fit. Offer yourself to Him to do with you as best pleases
Him, and show Him simply and humbly all your misery and
weakness ; that will suffice ; this good Master asks no more at
present, because this is all that you can do. Rise quickly from
your frequent falls, which, as far as this matter is concerned are
not sins but merely imperfections. For the rest, be satisfied
to go to confession for the sake of absolution, then go to Com-
munion as usual ; in other respects your only help will be God.
ABANDONMENT IN TRIALS 281
The rules which have been given you on former occasions will
suffice to guide you, provided that you allow God to animate
them with His spiritual unction. The more you wish for some-
thing fresh, the more tormented will you become, and to no
purpose ; and you will also commit many imperfections which
will impede your spiritual progress just as much as real sins
prevent others entering the way of salvation. The fear of not
knowing, or of passing over many interior sins is another tempta-
tion of the enemy to deprive you of peace, and to disturb you.
I command you for God's sake to make yourself quite easy in
this respect, contenting yourself with mentioning in confession
that which your conscience tells you is the most important.
Leave all the rest to the very great mercy of God without worrying
yourself at all about it. Thus your confessions will be uncon-
strained and peaceful, and in this way will also be very fruitful.
If we give way to trouble, we derive hardly any fruit from our
confessions, and this the devil knows very well. If you have
any difficulty in finding positive sins that you know to be such,
just mention some particular sin of your past life, and after
that be at peace. This is the usual practice of well-intentioned
persons, and you will lose nothing by following it.
LETTER XIV. Abandonment in Trials.
To the same person. On abandonment in trials of this nature.
My dear Sister,
i st. I always exhort you to be patient and to abandon
yourself to God because you have need of these virtues. God
alone is all, everything else is nothing. Attach yourself to Him
therefore strongly, entirely and resolutely. He has intentions
and designs which are not for us to fathom. For all our ills
there is no other remedy ; for all our sufferings no other con-
solation than submission, and complete abandonment. This
is the most certain way of amassing a fortune for eternity and
of gaining that true life which will never end.
2nd. Look upon your ills and infirmities as a very advantage-
ous exchange for purgatory where you would have to suffer
much more severely in the next life, if you did not pay your
debts while here on earth.
One simple " fiat " during your exterior and interior pains
"will be enough to make you acquire true sanctity. Remind
yourself of what St. Francis of Sales said to one of his penitents,
" My daughter, repeat often during the day, ' Yes, my heavenly
Father, yes, and always yes.' ' It is a very short and easy
282 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
practice ; nothing further is required to attain perfection. We
need not go far to attain it, since we can easily do so without
seeking it outside our own souls.
3rd. I am much edified by your holy reflexions about the
very small amount of consolation you find in creatures, and I
strongly approve of your taking this as a merciful punishment
for your over great tenderness and excessive affection for your
relations and friends. A trial endured in such a manner cannot
fail to contribute powerfully to recall your affections to Him for
Whom alone we are created, and apart from Whom we can find
no repose.
4th. But I perceive that now, as formerly, the most afflicting
trial you have to endure is the deprivation of all outward help
for your soul. I have often told you, and again repeat, that
although it is true that this help is a grace from God, yet, I
maintain that, with regard to some people and certain char-
acters, the withdrawal of this support is in the end a still greater
grace, and a most efficacious means of sanctification. Listen to
me without interruption. When God honours a soul by being
jealous of its love, the greatest favour He can confer upon it is
to gradually deprive it of everything that could turn its love away
from Him ; because never would it have sufficient courage and
strength to detach itself. Now, God has seen that for a long
time past, after having become detached from all other creatures,
you still kept an attachment for and a confidence in your
spiritual guide. This attachment was in no way wrong, most
certainly, but it was the same sort of feeling that the Apostles
had for their divine Master before His Resurrection. This
jealous God Who aims at being loved purely and solely for
Himself, cannot endure this sort of division, and therefore He
has taken away from you the one who shared with Him the
affection of your heart. This is truly your heaviest cross, because
by it you have been attacked in that most sensitive spot, your
heart, which formerly discovered so many ingenious pretexts
to render its sorrow justifiable. I can hear you say to yourself
that you do not regret this deprivation on account of the con-
solation of which it has robbed you, but because of the assist-
ance it has given you for your spiritual progress and which is
now taken from you. A mistake ! an illusion of self-love !
One " fiat " uttered in this sort of privation gains more merit
in the sight of God than could be acquired by the most beautiful,
the most worthy, the most consoling direction in the world.
" But," say you, " if one were guided by a connected course of
advice one would not commit so many faults." I answer that
these faults are less displeasing to God than the smallest little
attachment, however pure and innocent it may seem, and really
THE USE OF AFFLICTIONS 283
be fundamentally. Therefore, I cannot sufficiently admire the
goodness of God Who for many years past has led you by this
sort of privation to break off in you all, even the least attach-
ment. At present He is attacking your body by illness to
detach you from yourself. He attacks the soul by weariness,
disgust, callousness, and other troubles to detach you interiorly
from all sensible help and consolation. If you will but allow Him
to act freely in you, you will come at last to adhere only to Him
by pure faith and in spirit, or, as St. Francis of Sales puts it,
by the higher faculties of the soul. Let this God of all goodness
act then, for He desires all your confidence. I cannot help adding
that the longer I live, the more clearly I see and understand that
everything depends solely on God, and that if everything is
left to Him, all will go well. No sooner do I make the sacrifice
of everything to Him, than all goes perfectly.
5th. You do well to think that there are others who have
much heavier crosses than yours, but be careful that the thought
of the weight of yours does not prevent you being resigned to
God. We might very likely be deprived of a sensible and
consoling submission, but that which comes from pure faith
and is simply spiritual can never be wanting to us. That which
is not spoilt by any sort of vain self-complacency is very much
more meritorious. This is why God gives only this last sort of
submission to most people, leaving the soul groaning and humbled
under the weight of its afflictions. God's gifts are according
to our requirements. He bestows especial graces to enable us
to bear extraordinary troubles. What we cannot help, patience
makes bearable. This is what a pagan philosopher said, enlight-
ened only by human reason ; what, then, may not faith and
religion make us think and say when we look at the crucifix and
think of the eternal happiness in store for us ?
LETTER XV. The Use of Afflictions.
On the usefulness of these afflictions.
My dear Sister,
When I consider the infinite value of your present trials I dare
not wish them to cease ; what I do wish is that you should keep
yourself in a perpetual state of sacrifice and abandonment, or
at least to tend that way, and to desire and implore it incessantly
of God. With this disposition, and by making good use of
crosses and afflictions, you will advance your eternal interests
much more rapidly than you would by consolations and success.
In a short time everything will have an end for us, and we shall
284 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
have a boundless eternity in which to rejoice and to return thanks.
This thought should completely console us for all our pains both
interior and exterior, for these will procure us the joys of paradise.
Let us remember that we have but little time to attain to this
infinite happiness, and let us try to render ourselves worthy of
it, at no matter what cost.
To continue, my dear Sister, I have already pointed out the
fruit obtained by your soul in the great trial through which God
has made you pass. In spite of the violent tempests it raised in
your soul, I have no doubt that it greatly contributed to your
spiritual progress. You learnt by it how to remain interiorly
crucified, to be wearied of everything earthly, to make many
painful and frequent sacrifices to God, to overcome yourself in
many ways, to be patient and submissive and to abandon yourself
to God. " But how," you will ask, " has all this been done ? "
It has been done by means of troubles, reverses, and feelings
of utter repugnance ; by the higher faculties of the soul, and often
without your knowledge, and without your being able to under-
stand how you had this submission which you possessed without
being aware of it. At other times you were persuaded that you
did not possess it, and hardly desired to have it, while all the
time there it was at the bottom of your heart ! Oh ! how
admirable are the ways of God ! If you had known as I did, the
depths of your soul, you might, perchance, have spoilt all by
secret reflexions and vain self-complacency. Let God do His
work. It is through our ignorance, blindness, and obscurity
that He can act as He pleases, without having His work spoilt
by us. We acknowledge this, even by our humiliation when we
believe that all is going wrong, that all is lost ; but it ought to
suffice for you to know that I see clearly enough the progress
you have made to re-assure you, to answer for you, and to
encourage you. Oh ! how I wish that you would have more
confidence in God, more complete abandonment to His all-
wise and divine Providence which arranges even the smallest
events of our lives ! He turns them all to the advantage of
those who confide themselves to Him, and who abandon them-
selves unreservedly to His fatherly care. What peace does not
this confidence and entire abandonment produce in the soul !
and from what uneasy and vexatious cares without end does it
not deliver us ? But as we cannot attain to this all at once, but
gradually and by imperceptible degrees, we must aspire after
it without ceasing, ask it of God and make frequent acts of it.
Occasions for doing so will not be wanting ; let us avail our-
selves of them, and repeat constantly, " Yes, my God, since it is
Your will and You permit it thus to be, I also will it for love of
You, help and strengthen me." All this quietly, without
THE USE OF AFFLICTIONS 285
effort, with the higher powers of your soul, and in spite of interior
repugnance of which you need take no notice, except to bear it
patiently and so make a sacrifice of it. Let us even wish to make
these acts in the midst of these repugnances and revolts, since
God wills or permits it thus to happen. If we should fail in this
respect, let us act as we should after any other fault, try to regain
what we have lost by interior humility, but a humility that is
sweet and tranquil, without self-contempt, or annoyance with
ourselves or others. I repeat, without despondency or volun-
tary vexation, for the first involuntary movements do not
depend upon ourselves, and provided that we do not give our
consent to them, they will make us exercise more meritoriously
the virtues of patience, meekness and humility. In this miser-
able exile we find everywhere continual and unavoidable dangers,
and there is no other way of safe-guarding oneself, than to
take quietly, and without over-eagerness, those precautions
that prudence suggests, and then to trust everything to divine
Providence. Throw yourself into the arms of God and re-
main there peacefully and without care, like a little child in the
arms of a good and loving mother. Whoever knows how to
make use of this practice will find in it a treasure of peace and of
merit. Try to act thus about everything and at all times, and
to adopt somewhat of this interior spirit. Nothing could be
more calculated to pacify and to moderate impulsiveness and
natural impetuosity ; nothing could better prevent or soften
a thousand bitter annoyances, and a thousand uneasy forebod-
ings. The state of P.P. is to be lamented. God wills to sanctify
her indeed, since He afflicts her so grievously at the end of her
life. At that time it is doubly hard to nature to be neglected,
but what a consolation to be able to suffer so much for God before
going to appear before Him. Consolations are in truth a great
blessing, but not to be compared to sufferings and trials. God
preserve me from that sort of blessing. I have no doubt I
should like it and find comfort in it. A middling virtue could
make good use of the first grace, but it would require heroic
virtue to practise, with God's help, the second. I remain yours
in our Lord until death and even after, if God will do me this
favour. I sincerely hope that He will.
286 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER XVI. Detachment.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. Bitterness mingled
with pleasure to detach the soul.
i st. I am not surprised, my dear Sister, at the trouble which
the grievous trial to which our Lord has subjected you, has
caused. This sort of events affect us all the more keenly in
that they wound us in our most intimate affections. But if I
am not surprised at this involuntary trouble, at the same time
I urge you to supersede it in your heart by an entire resignation
to the will of God. How great will be the treasures of grace,
of merit, and of peace which such an act will bring to you !
It is on this account that I have so constantly inculcated the
virtue of perfect abandonment, and still preach it incessantly,
wishing you to become as tranquil and as happy as I wish you
to be holy. You have not yet attained to this, but with God's
help you will.
2nd. God allows my sick relation to remain in the same
state, to prove, and to convert the whole family. If they avail
themselves of this opportunity, as I have every reason to believe
they will, I shall bless God from the bottom of my heart for this
happy occurrence which is worth more than all the fortunes in
the world.
3rd. I am about to lose the best and dearest friend I had left,
one whom I most esteemed, and on whom I could thoroughly
rely. God has willed it thus. His holy will be done ! Fiat ! I
commend him to your prayers.
4th. Blessed be God in all, and for all, but especially in this,
that He knows so well how to make everything serve for the
sanctification of His elect by one another. On this subject the
holy Archbishop of Cambray has well said that God makes use
of one diamond to polish another. What a useful thought for
our consolation ! and one that will prevent us ever being scanda-
lised at the little persecutions of one another that good people
are given to.
5th. Hail and rain have caused great havoc in many provinces
as well as in your neighbourhood. May God grant us grace to
derive profit from all these disasters for the expiation of our
sins. A simple and sincere " fiat " is worth more than all the
superfluities that we desire, because it adds to our treasure for
eternity. Once filled with these high thoughts and hopes, we
shall feel much less the occurrences of this short and miserable
life.
6th. By dint of constantly thinking of death, we shall gradu-
ally come to contemplate it without shrinking. Fr. Bourdaloue
CONDUCT DURING TRIALS 287
has very well expressed this when he said, " the thought of
death is indeed a sad one, but by dint of considering it as salutary,
it will at last appear almost pleasant " ; and a Jesuit theologian,
Fr. Francis Suarez, said when his last moment came, " I did not
know it was so sweet to die."
yth. Sometimes one hears it said, " I have no longer either
help to fortify me, or instruction to encourage me." This is
an occasion for sacrifice, " fiat, fiat." All instruction, however
much it may strengthen us, does not equal in value what we
gain by one simple " fiat " uttered in the lack of all extraneous
help. The high road to all perfection is pointed out in the " Our
Father." " Fiat voluntas tua." Say this with your lips as
well as you can ; and still more perfectly in your heart, and be
assured that, with this interior disposition nothing is wanting
to you, nor ever will be. Learn by this to find repose in no
matter what difficulties and troubles, because all will come right
when God pleases, and according to our desires, if He should will
it so, or permit it. Crosses and afflictions are such great graces
that the wicked are rarely converted without them, and good
people are only made perfect by the same means.
8th. God can easily make up for all, and really does so if we
wish for nothing but Him, and expect to receive all from Him
alone. It is in order to lead us gradually and by a happy
necessity to this beautiful and desirable condition that He fre-
quently deprives us of all human aid and consolation, and in the
same way He mingles bitterness with worldly pleasures to disgust
and detach the souls of worldly people from them, in order to
save them. Fortunate disappointments ! happy privations !
which come from the goodness of God rather than from His
justice. It is thus that we ought to regard them.
LETTER XVII. Conduct during Trials.
To the same Sister. On conduct during trials.
My dear Sister,
Ought you not to be able to overcome your fears, and to check
your tears after all the experience you have had of the way in
which your mind creates phantoms when anything affects it
keenly, making you indulge in idle terrors ? If it is impossible
to prevent these tiresome wanderings of the imagination, at least
endeavour to gain some profit by them, and to make of them
matter for interior sacrifice, and an occasion for the exercise of
a complete abandonment to all the decrees of divine Providence
whatever they may be. I am of your opinion, and have never
288 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
desired, and still less, prayed for pains and contradictions.
Those sent by Providence are quite enough without wishing
for more, or inflicting them on oneself. We must wait and
prepare ourselves for these ; that is the best way to gain strength
and courage to receive them, and to bear them properly when
God sends them. This is one of my favourite practices, and
suits me both for this life and the next. I offer to God, before-
hand, all the sacrifices that occur to my mind without any effort
of my own. It is to enable us to acquire the merit of this offering
that God tries us by these ideas, and these fears of future evil
that He does not intend to send us. When, on the other hand,
He sends us consolations whether spiritual or temporal, we ought
. to accept them simply, with gratitude and thanksgiving, but
without clinging to them or taking too much pleasure in them,
because all joy that is not in God only serves to feed our self-
love. Your solitude in the absence of the person on whom you
could most rely, in spite of her having been very tiresome, cannot
fail to be very good for you. How many acts of resignation will
you not have made in your illness and weakness ! How often
will you not have raised your heart to God ! How many holy
affections and good resolutions will you not have made ! You
will be saved by the good will which God sees in your heart.
Each of us has a particular path to follow, according to his
light. Try to make use of your present circumstances and of
your sadness, to place your whole confidence in God, both for
time and eternity. The present calamities of which you paint
so sad a picture, will, if only for the sake of your own peace,
place you under the necessity of making incessantly, very
meritorious sacrifices to God. Public misfortunes are great, but
the part you can take about them is great also. The lives of
sinful men, and that we all are, ought to be passed entirely in
works of penance and mortification, and God shows His mercy
by giving us this remedy with His own hand. The chalice is
bitter, it is true, but how infinitely more bitter would be the pains
of hell, or of purgatory ; and since we must drink this chalice
whether we like it or not, let us, as the proverb says, make a
virtue of necessity. In this way all our difficulties will be
smoothed away. As you say, interior sufferings are much harder
to bear, but they are also more meritorious and purifying, and
after having been made to endure these purifications and
detachments, everything else seems easy. Then it will be much
more easy to give oneself up to a perfect abandonment and a
filial confidence in God through Jesus Christ. The reflexions
you make on this subject are reasonable and true, but too human.
We should always revert to abandonment and hope in divine
Providence, for what can man do, exposed as he is to continual
THE WILL OF GOD TO BE PREFERRED 289
vicissitudes ? Let us depend then on God alone, for He never
changes, and knows better than we do what is necessary for
us, and, like a good father, is always ready to give it. But He
has to do with children who are often so blind that they do not
see for what they are asking. Even in their prayers, that to
them seem so sensible and just, they deceive themselves by
desiring to arrange the future which belongs to God alone.
When He takes away from us what we consider necessary, He
knows how to supply its place imperceptibly, in a thousand
different ways unknown to us. This is so true that bitterness
and heaviness of heart borne with patience and interior silence,
make the soul advance more than would the presence and in-
struction of the holiest and cleverest director. I have had a
hundred experiences of this, and am convinced that, at present,
this is your path, and the only things that God asks of you are
submission, abandonment, confidence, sacrifice, and silence.
Practise these virtues as well as you can without too violent
efforts.
LETTER XVIII. The Will of God to be Preferred.
To the same Sister.
Believe me, my dear Sister, and put an end to all your fears
and entrust all to divine Providence who makes use of hidden
but infallible means of bringing everything to serve His ends.
Whatever men may say or do, they can only act by God's will
or permission, and everything they do He makes serve for the
accomplishment of His merciful designs. He is able to attain
His purposes by means apparently most contrary, as to refresh
His servants in the midst of a fiery furnace, or to make them
walk on the waters. We shall experience more sensibly this
fatherly protection of Providence if we abandon ourselves to
Him with filial confidence. Quite recently I have had exper-
ience of this, therefore I have prayed to God with greater fervour
than ever to grant me the grace never to have my own will
which is always blind, and often dangerous, but always that His
which is just, holy, loving, and beneficent may be accomplished.
Ah ! if you only knew what a pleasure it is to find no peace or
contentment except in accomplishing the will of God which
is as good as it is powerful, you would not be able to desire any-
thing else. Never look upon any pain, no matter of what kind,
as a sign of being far from God ; because crosses and sufferings
are, on the contrary, effects of His goodness and love. " But,"
say you, " what will become of me if . . . ? " This is indeed
290 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
a temptation of the enemy. Why should you be so ingenious
in tormenting yourself beforehand about something which per-
haps will never happen ? Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.
Uneasy forebodings do us much harm ; why do you so readily
give way to them ? We make our own troubles, and what do
we gain by it ? but lose, instead, so much both for time and
eternity. When we are obsessed in spite of ourselves by these
worrying previsions let us be faithful in making a continual
sacrifice of them to the sovereign Master. I conjure you to do
this, as in this way you will induce God to deal favourably with
you and to help you in every way. You will acquire a treasure
of virtue and merit for Heaven, and a submission and abandon-
ment which will enable you to make more progress in the ways
of God than any other practice of piety. It is, possibly, with
this view that God permits all these troublesome and trying
imaginations. Profit by them then, and God will bless you.
By your submission to His good pleasure you will make greater
progress than you could by hearing beautiful sermons, or reading
pious books. If you only understood this great truth thoroughly,
you would enjoy great peace of mind, and advance rapidly in
the ways of God. Without this submission to His good pleasure
no spirituality counts for much. As long as people restrict them-
selves to exterior practices, they can but have a very thin veneer
of true and solid piety which consists essentially, and in reality,
in willing in everything what God wills, and in the manner
in which He wills it. When you have attained to this, the Spirit
of God will reign absolutely in your heart, will supply for all
else, and will never fail you in your need if you call with humble
confidence for His help. This is of faith, but is known to very
few souls who are otherwise pious. Thus, for the want of this
disposition we see them kept back and obstructed in the ways of
God. What a pitiful blindness ! All the business and com-
plicated affairs in which we are immersed by God's will and by the
decrees of His divine Providence, are equal to the most delightful
contemplation, if one says from the bottom of one's heart,
" My God, this is Your will, and, therefore, also mine." Al-
though this is said only in the higher part of the soul without the
will seeming to take any share in it, still the sacrifice is no less
agreeable to God, and meritorious for oneself. Keep with a firm
determination to this practice and you will soon experience its
excellent results. If you could also combine with it a certain
peace and quietness of mind, a certain gentleness of manner
towards others and also towards yourself, without ever showing
signs of annoyance, worry, or vexation, what great and meri-
torious sacrifices you will have made ! At least humble yourself
gently after all your faults, and return to God with confidence
THE HAPPINESS OF RESIGNATION 291
as if nothing had happened, as the " Spiritual Combat " teaches.
As we can never enjoy happiness or peace in this miserable
world except in proportion as we blindly submit to the decrees
of divine Providence, I shall continue to speak to you about it
untiringly. Believe me and rely on divine Providence alone,
and abandon everything to His care absolutely and without
reserve. Do with simplicity what you believe you ought to do
under the circumstances, so as not to tempt God, but do it
gently, quietly, and without effort, trouble, excitement, or eager-
ness ; as St. Francis of Sales advises. Of how many anxieties,
disappointments and forebodings should we not rid ourselves,
if we could only act in this reasonable and Christian manner.
LETTER XIX. The Happiness of Resignation.
On the happiness of souls that abandon themselves to God
in their afflictions.
It does not astonish me, my dear Sister, that you find it
difficult to understand the ways of divine Providence. Neither
do I understand them any better than you, but what I know
and what you know as well as I, is that God arranges and dis-
poses of all things as He pleases, and makes use of whom He
will to carry out His designs at the time and moment He has
decided upon. Let us learn then to resign .ourselves in all and
everything with submission and confidence in Him Who can do
all things, and Who disposes of all things according to His own
plans. If we could only attain to this state of holy submission
we should wait patiently for things to happen at the appointed
time, instead of at the time that, in our impatience, we expect
them. Abandonment to God's holy providence binds Him,
in a way, to find a remedy for everything, and to provide for and
console us in all our needs. Remind yourself of this great saying,
" Everything passes away, God alone remains." Abandon
yourself and all who are dear to you, therefore, to His loving care.
In public disasters as in all others we should, by our confidence,,
glorify His infinite goodness, and then we shall be able to say
with David, " We have rejoiced for the days in which thou hast
humbled us ; for the years in which we have seen evils." Suffer-
ing patiently endured, is the lot and the seal of the elect ; let
us say also with the same prophet, " I was dumb, and I opened
not my mouth, because thou hast done it." There is no greater
consolation in our trials than a lively faith in the goodness of Him
Who sends them, an expectation of that eternal happiness these
trials have merited for us, the remembrance of our sins that they
292 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
help to expiate, and the contemplation of the sufferings that Jesus
Christ underwent for love of us. Impatience would only serve
to aggravate the evil, while patience has the great power of
lightening them. God has different chastisements for each
country and these are like so many different rods with which He
threatens us and punishes our sins, but always with a fatherly
love, since He only threatens and punishes us in this world in
order to be able to save us with greater certainty. May He be
blessed for ever !
SIXTH BOOK.
ON THE CONTINUATION OF TRIALS, AND FEAR OF THE ANGER OF
GOD.
LETTER I. On Temptations.
On temptations and the fear of giving way to them.
I acknowledge, my dear Sister, that the trial to which our
Lord is subjecting you at this moment, is worse than any through
which you have hitherto passed. To a soul that loves God,
the fear of offending Him is worse than any other. Nothing is
more frightful than to have the mind filled with bad thoughts,
and to feel the heart carried away to some extent, against one's
will, by the violence of the temptation ; but that which is, to
you, a subject of cruel anguish is, to your directors, a subject
for satisfaction. The stronger are your fears, and the greater the
horror these temptations cause you, the more evident is it that
your will has given no consent to them, and that, far from doing
you harm they only serve to increase your merit. In this even
more than in other things you ought blindly to follow the advice
of those who direct you. Besides, and I say it without the least
hesitation, all these fearful temptations, these interior revolts
which agitate you, the discouragement which makes you despond,
that kind of despaif which seems to separate you from God
irreparably ; all this takes place in the inferior part of your
soul without any express and formal consent of the superior
part. The latter also, it is true, is often so troubled, and so
blinded that it cannot discern what it has, or has not, done ; or
whether or not it has consented. It is this that makes this trial
so painful ; but take courage ! it is then that you must cast
yourself, as well as you can, at the feet of Jesus Christ crucified,
humbling yourself and being overcome at the extent of your
weakness, but quietly and without vexation, imploring the help
of God through His divine Son our Saviour and our Advocate,
through the intercession of Mary our sweet mother, and firmly
believe that He Who pursues us when we flee from Him will
never permit us to be separated from Him against our will.
294 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER II. The Fear of Temptation.
To Sister de Lesen, a Religious of the Annunciation. On the
fear of temptations.
My dear Sister,
It is an illusion to have too great a fear of combats. Never
shrink from the occasions afforded you by God of acquiring
merit, and of practising virtue, under the pitiful pretext of avoid-
ing the danger of committing sin by avoiding the struggle. Do
soldiers who fight for their king act in this way ! and do we not
know that we are soldiers of Jesus Christ and that our whole
life is nothing but a continual struggle, and that only he who has
fought valiantly will win the crown. Blush for your cowardice,
and when you find yourself contradicted or humiliated say that
now is the time to prove to your God the sincerity of your love.
Put your trust in His goodness and the power of His grace, and
this confidence will ensure you the victory. And even should it
happen that you should occasionally commit some fault, the
harm it will do you will be very easily repaired. This harm,
besides, is almost nothing compared to the great good that will
accrue to your soul either by your effort to resist, or the merit
resulting from victory, or even by the humiliation these slight
defects occasion you. And if your temptations are altogether
interior ; if you fear to be carried away by your thoughts and
ideas, get rid of that fear also. Do not resist these interior
temptations directly ; let them fall, and resist them indirectly
by recollection and the thought of God ; and if you are not able
to get rid of them in this way, endure them patiently. The
distrust that makes you try to avoid temptations that are sent
to you by God, will cause others more dangerous of which you
have no suspicion, for, what temptation could be more evident
and plain than the thought which you express when you say
that you will never succeed in the spiritual life. What ! Are
not all Religious called to this life and you in particular ? Even
this weakness so clearly revealed to you by your trial, and your
inability to make any serious progress in perfection, or of en-
joying any peace except in this way of life, is not this a mag-
nificent sign that God calls you to it more especially than others ?
Open your eyes then and recognise the fact that all these thoughts
that discourage, trouble, and weaken you, can only emanate
from the devil. He wishes to deprive you of that spiritual
strength of which you have need in order to overcome the re-
pugnance that nature feels. I implore you not to fall into this
trap, and not to continue to look upon the revolt of the passions
' *. sign of being at a distance from God. No, my dear daughter ,
THE STATE OF ONE TEMPTED 295
it is, on the contrary, a greater grace than you can imagine.
Becoming persuaded of your own feebleness and perversity, you
will expect nothing from anyone but God and will learn to depend
upon Him entirely. God alone ought to suffice to the soul who
knows Him.
LETTER III. The State of One Tempted.
An explanation of the state of a soul in temptation and of the
designs of God in regard to it.
One would imagine, my good Sister, that you had never medi-
tated on those numerous texts of holy Scripture in which the
Holy Spirit makes us understand the necessity of temptation,
and the good fruit derived from it by souls who do not allow
themselves to become disheartened. Do you not know that it has
been compared to a furnace in which clay acquires hardness,
and gold is made brilliant ; that it has been put before us as a
subject of rejoicing, and a sign of the friendship of God ; an
indispensable lesson for the acquirement of the science of the
saints ? If you wer^e to recall to mind these consoling truths
you would not be able to give way to sadness. I declare to you
in the name of our Saviour that you have no reason to fear.
If you liked you could unite yourself to God as much or more
than at the times of your greatest fervour. For this you have
but one thing to do in your painful state, and this is to suffer
in peace, in silence, with an unshaken patience, and an entire
resignation, just as you would endure a fever or any other bodily
ailment. Say to yourself now and then what you would say
to a sick person to induce him to bear his pain with patience.
You would represent to him that by giving way to impatience,
or by murmuring he would only aggravate the evil and make it
last the longer. Well ! this is what you ought to say to yourself.
I greatly approve of the order you have received to go to Holy
Communion without taking any notice of your temptations.
Your confessor is right, and would have made a great mistake
if he had listened to what you said on the subject. " But,"
you will say, " if I have consented to the temptation, and have
committed a mortal sin, what a misfortune ! " It is not for
you to judge about it, but to obey blindly ; and this opinion is
founded on the great principle that even should the confessor
be mistaken, the penitent cannot be misled in obeying in good
faith in the sight of God, those who are in the position of guides.
" But," you say again, " I should like to know how my confessor
can understand better than I what takes place in my soul during
296 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
temptation ? " Useless curiosity ! It is not a question of
knowing how this or that but it is so, and you must obey
without reasoning or replying. Nevertheless, as I wish to be
kind and gentle towards souls but little accustomed to the
spiritual warfare, I will reply to your unexpressed question, and
this reply will teach you some important things. You must
know first that in each of us there are, as it were, two souls, or
two persons ; one, animal, sensitive and earthly which is called
the inferior part, the other spiritual, in which the free will resides,
and this is called the superior part. Secondly, that all that takes
place in the inferior and animal part, such as imaginations,
feelings, disorderly movements, are in us, but not of us, and by
their own nature are indeliberate and involuntary. All these
can tempt us, but cannot compel the will to give free and
voluntary consent without which there can be no sin. When the
temptation is not strong it is easy to recognise for oneself and
to feel that, far from giving consent to it, one rejects it ; but
when God permits the temptation to become strong and violent
then, on account of the great involuntary agitation taking place
in the inferior part, the superior has great difficulty in discerning
its own movements, and remains in great perplexity and fear
of having consented. Nothing more is waiting to occasion in
these good souls the most terrible trouble and remorse which is a
further trial permitted by God to prove their fidelity. Confessors
who judge calmly and without difficulty, easily discern the truth ;
and the great distress the poor soul experiences, and its excessive
fear of having consented, are to the confessor proof positive that
there has been no full and deliberate consent. In fact we know
by experience, that those who consent and give way to tempta-
tion do not suffer from these troubles and fears. The greater
the temptation and the pain and fear that result, the more certain
is the verdict in favour of the person tempted. I join therefore
in the opinion of your confessor, and this is the rule I lay down.
i st. Neither examine, nor accuse yourself as a rule about
these things.
2nd. Bear peacefully your humiliation and interior martyr-
dom which, I assure you, is a great grace from God, but a grace
which you will not be able to understand properly till after the
trial is over.
3rd. This is the interior petition which you ought to make
incessantly to God. " Lord, deign to preserve me from all
sin, especially in this matter ; but, as for the pain which mortifies,
and ought to cure my self-love, and the humiliation and holy
abjection which gall my pride and ought to destroy it, I accept
them for as long as You please, and I thank You for them as
for a grace. Grant, Lord, that these bitter remedies may take
THE STATE OF ONE TEMPTED 297
effect and that they may cure my self-love and vanity, and help
me to acquire holy humility and a low opinion of myself which
will form a solid foundation for the spiritual life, and for all
perfection." I find you very ignorant on the subject of tempta-
tion. It is true that it does not come from God, Who does not
tempt anyone, as St. James says. It comes, therefore, either
from the devil, or our own temperament and imagination ;
but since God permits it for our good, we ought to adore His
holy permission in all things except sin which He detests, and
which we also ought to detest for love of Him. Be careful,
then, not to allow yourself to get troubled and harassed by
these temptations, for this trouble is much more to be feared
than the temptations themselves.
You tell me that you are travelling along the path that is very
dark. That is exactly what is meant by " the way of pure faith."
It is always obscure, and necessitates a complete abandonment
to God. What could be more natural or more easy than to
abandon yourself to so good and merciful a Father Who desires
our welfare more than we do ourselves ? " But," you add, " I
am always in trouble and extremely afraid of having sinned ; this
makes life very miserable, and prevents me possessing the
peace of the children of God." It is so for the present, I know,
but I also know that by these continual terrors the salutary fear
of God takes root in the soul, and is followed by love of Him.
It is thus that God endeavours to make us disgusted with this
life and with its false goods in order to attach us to Himself
alone. Know that none can enjoy the peace of the children of
God who have not shared their trials. Peace is only purchased by
war, and is only enjoyed after victory. If you could only see as
I do the advantages and good to be derived from the state in
which God has permitted you to be, instead of repining as you
do about it you would be making continual acts of thanksgiving.
You are, you say, as deeply involved as the greatest sinners.
Oh ! my dear daughter, this is just what galls your pride. And
what are we in truth but great sinners ? Do we not carry about
with us an amount of misery and corruption, which, without God's
grace, would lead us into the gravest disorders ? This is what
God wishes to make us understand by personal experience
without which we might live and die without ever attaining to a
knowledge of our nothingness, the foundation of humility. Let
us thank God for having solidly laid this foundation, necessary
for the salvation of our souls, and also for the perfection of our
state.
The thought and fear of the justice of the judgments of God is
a great grace, but do not spoil it by carrying this fear so far as to
be troubled and rendered uneasy by it ; because the true and
298 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
right fear of God is always peaceful, quiet, and accompanied with
confidence. When contrary effects are produced, reject them
as coming from the devil who is the author of trouble and despair.
" If I had made myself," you say, " I would have done it in
such a way that " Oh ! what are you saying here ? One
must never wish to be other than what God wills. Do you
not know that to be able to bear one's miseries, weaknesses,
caprices, spiritual defects, follies, and extravagancies of the
imagination, is the effect of heroic virtue ? What treasures have
not these same miseries enabled a crowd of saints of both sexes
to acquire ! In using them as subjects and matter for interior
combats they have served for victories and for the final triumph
of grace. You say again, " Of what use can it be to me for my
heart to be emptied of one object if it becomes filled by another,
and God has no place in it ? " Know, daughter, that the heart
is so full that it cannot be emptied all at once. It is a work of
time, and as the space is enlarged God fills it gradually ; but we
shall not experience what St. Paul calls the plenitude of God until
we are completely empty of all else. This will take a long time,
and will require many trials to accomplish the work. Be patient
and faithful. Have confidence and you will see the gift of God,
and will experience His mercy.
LETTER IV. On Different Temptations.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On different tempta-
tions.
I see clearly by your letter, my dear Sister, that in the midst
of your interior troubles and trials you have made unknowingly
very solid progress.
i st. To understand the value of the interior life, and of peace
of mind, and to endeavour to acquire them through all your
perplexities and drawbacks, is a good step in advance, the rest
will follow in time and will be the result of your gentleness
towards yourself and others. Let us accustom ourselves to
accept everything in a right spirit from the hand of divine
Providence, and to bless Him in all things, and for all things,
whatever they may be. If we do this we shall find that what
causes us most grief will, in the end, be most advantageous
to us. Let us trust God and never be wanting in confidence ;
if necessary let us make more sacrifices, and thus we shall obtain
continually fresh graces from Him, and shall increase our riches
in Heaven.
ON THE FEAR OF BEING WANTING IN SUBMISSION 299
2nd. Thoughts and feelings against our neighbour, if not
consented to interiorly, nor shown outwardly, are matter for
merit, and are not sinful. Guard carefully the virtue of charity
and gradually all this will subside and come to an end. If some
interior or exterior fault should escape you, be content to humble
yourself before God without trouble, but peacefully, and gener-
ously repair whatever pain you may have caused, or bad example
you may have given. You will gain more by this apology than
you have lost by the fault.
3rd. Hardness and want of feeling in the reception of the
Sacraments is certainly very painful ; bear it with patience and
humility ; do what is in your power gently in the spirit of pure
faith ; it is the greatest penance that God allots to any soul to
purify it from self-seeking and the satisfactions of self-love.
4th. Try during the day to make of everything a help for
raising the heart to God, but without effort or eagerness.
Observe the most filial submission to the different arrangements
of divine Providence about everything ; you will gain more by
doing so than by all the spiritual exercises that you perform to
please yourself. Above all make your perfection consist in
willing exactly what pleases God, and in the way it pleases Him.
His good pleasure is, in fact, the rule of all good will, and the
principle of all perfection whether in Heaven or on earth.
LETTER V. On the Fear of Being Wanting in Submission.
To Sister Charlotte-Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux (1734).
On the fear of being wanting in submission to God.
God grant me sufficient grace, I do not say, to cure you, but
to help you to make your trouble salutary ; and may He give
me the necessary light to properly understand it. This trouble
is not a fresh one, and I do not perceive any particular change
in the state of your soul. Also I have no new remedy to give
you. All that I can do is to repeat in a different way what I have
said to you before. I have reduced my advice to rules and
practices, and I beg of you in the name of Jesus Christ to read
this letter, from time to time, in the presence of God and in a
spirit of recollection. The most suitable time for reading it will
be when you are a prey to darkness and mental agitation ;
for, during the time when the storm rages, no other reading can
be of any use. An angel from Heaven himself could not succeed
in giving you either light or consolation. There is no intelli-
gence nor power in the world capable of wresting from the hand
of God a soul He has seized in the rigour of His mercy to purify
it by suffering. I
300
First rule. Be convinced that all the trials that God sends
us in this life are sent in mercy more than in justice ; this is
why the prophet says that God remembers His mercy even when
He is angry with us.
Second rule. Even as God, for the conversion and sanctifica-
tion of people in the world often sends them purely temporal
afflictions such as illness, loss of goods, reverses of fortune, etc.,
so, likewise, for the purification and sanctification of the souls
that belong to Him more entirely, especially in the Religious life,
He sends spiritual trials and purely interior afflictions. It is
thus that He acts with regard to you, for, although you are suf-
fering from a bodily illness, your principal sufferings arise from
the tortures of your mind which react on your body, and re-
double and augment your illness, rendering it more painful.
Third rule. As we help people in the world to sanctify them-
selves in temporal adversities by preaching patience, submission,
and continual resignation, so also to souls in pain and interiorly
crucified we preach nothing else but abandonment into the hands
of God.
Fourth rule. It is a certain and known fact that when one
no longer commits either mortal or deliberate venial sin one
makes more progress in the ways of God by suffering than by
action ; from which I conclude that all you need do to ensure
your salvation, and even to attain perfection is to endure as
patiently as you can, and with peace and interior resignation,
the painful state in which you are, imploring the aid of divine
grace with an unshaken confidence in the merits of Jesus Christ.
This is your principal difficulty, you say. I admit it, but I have
no doubt that this practice will become easy enough in time if
you try to accustom yourself to it, and follow the rules I will give
you.
i st. To take, as you already do, the word " fiat " for your
favourite act, and constant exercise.
znd. To despise and treat as nothing the continual rebellions
you feel in your heart during your troubles, and not to attempt
to resist them directly but to content yourself with pronouncing
the word " fiat " ; or, better still, simply to form an interior
act. " But," you will say to me, " how can I despise or count as
nothing these rebellions of the heart which prove to me that my
submission to the will of God is neither interior nor real ? "
Listen to me, I beg of you, to the end. I feel that God inspires
me for your good, and possibly for your consolation. You
deceive yourself, Sister, and it is, no doubt, the most cruel of
your trials to think that because of these violent, and to all
appearances, voluntary rebellions of the heart, your submission
is not real. In this respect you are by the divine permission
ON THE FEAR OF BEING WANTING IN SUBMISSION 301
rather like persons in the world with violent temptations to
impurity, hatred, aversion, vengeance, or any other unruly
impulse, that makes a strong impression but is indeliberate and
involuntary. In these poor souls temptation is sometimes so
violent, the accursed pleasure which is called precedent and
involuntary seizes them so strongly, the tempter raises such
a disturbance and causes so much trouble in the sensitive and
inferior part, that it becomes impossible for them to discern if
they have consented or not in the superior part. Only the con-
fessor can know and discern by certain signs that they have not
consented. In the same way God, for your greater trial does not
allow you to distinguish that true submission which resides
almost unknown to yourself, in the higher part of the soul as in
a hiding place. But, thank God, I recognise, see, and feel that
you have this true submission which is purely intellectual,
spiritual, and well-nigh imperceptible. " But," you say, " how
can you recognise, see, and feel in the depths of my soul what I
cannot perceive in the slightest degree myself ? " I will tell
you, but possibly God may not allow you to understand it, or
else only for a single moment so that the knowledge of it may
not diminish in any way the pain by which He wishes to purify
you by crucifying you.
Let us return to the comparison of the other temptations.
A person will tell me of the great interior trouble that these
temptations to hatred, impurity; etc., cause her, and will add
that the fear of having given way to them makes her feel troubled,
saddened, and downcast. Here, I say to myself, is proof positive
of a great fear of God, of a great horror of sin, and of a great wish
to resist. Besides, theology as well as a knowledge of the human
heart teaches me that a soul in this interior condition could not
give a free, whole, entire and what is called deliberate consent ;
that if it did, it would immediately lose that interior state and
habitual condition in which it is, and which I recognise in it.
At the same time it might happen that on account of the violence
and frequency of the temptations there may have been some
negligence, some momentary surprise. For example : some
slight desire for revenge begins, some feeling of pleasure half
voluntary, as theology teaches, but, in this condition of the
soul, full, entire and deliberate consent is not possible. Also we
find by experience that those who really consent to sin are very
far from feeling these pains and troubles, this despondency and
fear ; they feel no uneasiness whatever. You have only to
apply this reasoning to your own state and you will see, as I do,
when your soul has regained its calm, that the more you fear and
are in trouble about your want of interior submission the more
certain it is that you possess it in the depths of your soul. But
302 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
God does not allow you to see it as I do, because the assurance
of this submission, by consoling you and delivering you from
your greatest trouble, would put an end to the state of trial in
which God wishes you to remain for a certain time, the better to
purify your soul in the crucible of affliction. From this I deduce
a third rule ; you must say the same " fiat " about the apparent
absence of this submission that you so much desire, as you do
about your other trials, because it is probably the most useful
of all. You have perhaps some reason to fear lest this keen desire
may be a seeking of self-love, which would find consolation for
feeling convinced of having endured them well. Do not be
surprised then that God, wishing to purify your soul from all
the ingenuities of self-love, refuses you this consolation ; and
doubt not that by so doing He confers upon you a great grace.
Therefore when you feel the greatest sadness on account of your
supposed want of submission or the greatest terror at the
idea of the judgments of God, the only thing to do is to say
" Lord, You do not even wish me to know in what state I am,
whether I have the submission I ought to have, or am deprived
of it. As You will, fiat, I submit to this also." You can then,
with the intention of regaining interior peace, and to encourage
yourself, say, " At least I feel that by the grace of my God I
desire this submission with a desire that is, perhaps, only too
great and too strong since the fear of not possessing it throws
me into a state of agitation and despondency, and distresses me
more than anything else. Therefore, as I have a sincere desire
for it, I must have all the effect and the fruit of it, because a
sincere desire is of equal value to the thing desired and makes
the merit or demerit of our good works."
When nature and the inferior part are thus distressed and
despair of any remedy, or of any consolation for its interior
miseries, then it is that self-love is in its agony and on the point
of expiring. Ah ! let it die, then, this wretched love of self,
let it be crucified ! this domestic enemy of our poor souls, this
enemy of God and of all good ! I add some advice which will
form the fourth rule. Practise a blind submission to those
who guide you, and beware in future of omitting a single com-
munion you have been ordered to make. " But," say you,
" what about this frightful indifference towards God ? " This,
Sister, is only superficial and in the inferior part. The superior
part desires God, and He is satisfied, but does not wish you to
know it. An evident sign that I am right is that you acknow-
ledge to being upset and saddened during all your exercises to
feel that you do not love God, and that you can only pity your-
self and tell Him, " My God, I do not love You ! " Oh ! how
violent must be that profoundly interior desire if you are so
FEAR CAUSED BY SELF-LOVE 303
deeply afflicted at the mere idea of not loving Him ! This is a
sure sign that in the midst of your apparent coldness, insensi-
bility and indifference God has enkindled in your soul the fire of
a great love which will go on increasing and becoming stronger
and more fervent even by the fears themselves of not loving Him.
" But," you say, " why does He remain so hidden that I can
neither feel His presence, nor know that He is there." This,
Sister, is the simple effect of God's goodness to purify you and
to make you merit a more perfect love. If you understand it
at present you would be so satisfied with your love of God as to
think more of this love than of God Himself Who ought to be its
sovereign and sole object. It would happen to you to the
injury of this love what Fenelon said about the sensible presence
of God, that often by its sweetness it makes us forget God Him-
self ; that is to say that we .attach ourselves to the sweetness and
enjoyment more than to God until we actually forget the object
of it, which is, God realised by faith. You cry out and exclaim,
" What, must I then abstain from asking for this love ? " Your
heart asks for it without your knowledge ; your fears, troubles
and alarms about it are petitions and prayers most powerful
with God Who beholds to what these fears and your most secret
desires tend, and even sees the most hidden recesses of your heart.
Remain, therefore, in peace and fear nothing. If you are in need
of a director God Himself will direct you, or will find you a suit-
able person. Sacrifice, abandonment, peace and confidence
in all things ! In the meanwhile leave everything to God. He
will care for and provide for all. Amen ! Amen !
LETTER VI. Fear Caused by Se/f-Love.
To Sister Marie-Henriette de Mahuet (1731). How the fear
of displeasing God may be caused by self-love.
My dear Sister,
On re-reading your letter to which I have not been able to
reply sooner, I remarked two things in it : many graces of God,
and many very evident marks of self-love. Your pain and dis-
tress are, you say, made worse by your uneasiness. Pain and
distress are graces from God which serve to purify and to elevate
the soul ; uneasiness is an effect of self-love which is agitated
and complaining under this interior cross by which God desires
to put an end to it in order that you may live a new life in Him.
You experience a miserable inability to make your mind act,
so that all reasoning and reflexion are a weariness to you.
Another sign that God would have you feel that He wishes to do
304 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
away with your own petty and miserable operations and to sub-
stitute the divine operation without which your progress would
be very slow and painful. But, at the same time, you are very
much afraid of wasting time. Another effect of self-love always
seeking for certainty on which to place reliance, while God wills
you to rely entirely upon Him. Books and directors say enough
to reassure you completely as concerns those foolish fears of
wasting time, suggested by self-love or the devil', in the position
you hold. You always feel confused and in a state of abstraction
that makes you seem stupid, and on account of this you believe
yourself to be under an illusion. God grant that it may not be a
mistake to believe that you are in that state of abstraction which
is one of the greatest graces that God could bestow on a soul. If
you are actually, as you say, in this state I congratulate you ; far
from being an illusion, what you call abstraction can be nothing
else but a profound recollection leading to everything good by the
constant feeling of the presence of God, and by an intimate union
already formed, or about to be formed in your soul. You are in
great peace : another grace ; but you do not dare to think so :
another effect of self-love. Do you not know that the solid peace
established by God in a soul subject to trials, is always without
sensible sweetness ? and besides, does not God necessarily
deprive a soul of sensible sweetness when it would only make use
of it to nourish its self-love ? Could He do us a greater favour
than to kill this domestic enemy by depriving it of its most
essential sustenance, such as sensible spiritual sweetness. It
would indeed be very unjust to complain of this God of infinite
mercy, Who alone knows how to purify your soul, a thing you
would never have been able to do yourself. Your very complaints
prove that you would never have had the courage to put an
end to your self-love which alone impedes the reign of divine
love in your heart. Bless our Lord then for sparing you the
trouble and because He only asks you to allow Him a free hand
to accomplish this work in you. You fear, you say, that your
past unfaithfulness may prevent the operations of God in your
soul. No, my dear Sister, neither your past infidelities, nor yet
your present miseries, darkness, and weakness ought to terrify
you. The only obstacles to the divine operations are your want
of submission and your voluntary annoyance in times of spiritual
poverty, obscurity and weakness. Poverty, darkness and weak-
ness patiently endured without anxiety would, on the contrary,
only facilitate the divine action. You have nothing to fear
but your own fears. However, if you wish to know how you
ought to act during these interior trials I will tell you. You ought
to keep an attitude of peaceful silent waiting, submissive, and
entirely abandoned to the divine will, as one would wait under
THE WANT OF GOOD-WILL 305
shelter until the storm had passed, leaving to God the task of
calming the elements let loose. The difference between outward
and inward storms is that patience in the former case could
not prevent the greatest disasters resulting, while in the latter
case it would produce the greatest good in the soul.
Your excessive fears about your past confessions are another
result of self-love which desires certainty about everything.
God, on the contrary, wills that we should be deprived of the
absolute certitude so pleasing to our self-love. We must then
make a sacrifice of it to our sovereign Master Who has willed it
so to keep us in humiliation and complete dependence. When
you do violence to yourself you imagine that it does not please
God on account of the imperfection of your interior dispositions.
Another very dangerous illusion of the devil by which he hopes
either to prevent you from doing good, or else to throw you into
a state of uneasiness and trouble after having done so. In the
one case, as in the other, he would deprive you of a great deal
of your merit. Do not, I beg of you, be trapped in such a
palpable snare.
What causes me pleasure is, that in spite of mistakes caused by
your inexperience I find in your soul, by the grace of God, the
two dispositions most essential to the divine operations, namely,
a firm resolution to belong to God without reserve whatever it
may cost you, and a firm and constant will to avoid the smallest
deliberate fault. Persevere in these dispositions, keep more
on your guard than you have done hitherto against the secret
seekings of self-love, and you will find that the reign of God will
be re-established within you.
LETTER VII. The Want of Good-Will.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viome'nil (1838). On the fear
of being deficient in good-will.
Yes, my dear Sister, in spite of the fears which haunt you and
cause you ceaseless agitation you should apply yourself with all
the energy of which you are capable to the practice of an entire
and filial abandonment into the hands of God.
i st. Your greatest mistake as well as your deepest affliction
is the conviction that you are wanting in that good-will which is
the essential condition of the friendship of God. Yes, doubtless
you are wanting in a good-will that you can feel and know that
you possess ; but there is a certain settled will that God pre-
serves in the centre of your soul, and which I clearly perceive
in you in spite of your contrary opinion. Therefore let my
decision tranquillize you. Return thanks to God that in de-
306 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
priving you of those gifts which are sensible, and which would
only serve as food for self-love, He preserves in you, by a singular
effect of His grace, the far more precious gifts of the Spirit.
Your abandonment in the midst of the apparent absence of
good-will should serve in a powerful way to purify and to aug-
ment this imperceptible good-will which is in your soul. This
is quite certain. Keep firmly to this belief and in the end you
will be convinced of its truth by your own experience.
znd. What I have just said about the absence of good-will
I say also about the lack of power which forms the other subject
of your fears. What is this want of power about ? It prevents
you from making recognized acts in turning towards God. These
acts would give you pleasure ; but, from the moment that God
does not require them you would do wrong to force yourself ot
make them. This is an infidelity for which you pay dearly by
a great increase of lassitude and desolation. What then is to
be done ? What you can do, and for which you will never lack
power. This is to form a simple desire of good, for God sees
all the actions you would wish to perform in this sincere dis-
position to act rightly. Cease then to distress yourself and to
lament over your weakness. Rather say " Fiat, fiat." This
will be of infinitely more value than anything that you could say
or do according to your own ideas, or to please yourself. I allow
you, however, on account of your weakness, to say to yourself
from time to time, " I know that usually I must wish to turn to
God, but I am not able to do so. I know also that God sees this
desire, and that this desire is all that He requires of me even
though it be at once arrested, and as it were, stifled. I ought
then to remain in peace and to depend on His love." " But,"
I hear you say to me, " sometimes it seems as if I had lost this
desire," and my answer to this is, " why do you experience so
much anxiety about this supposed deficiency ? " The privation
of an object causes pain only in proportion to the affection you
entertain for it ; if you had no desire for it you would experience
no pain at being deprived of it. Are you in great distress about
the want of riches, honours, beauty, etc. ? No, because these
things do not affect you, and you simply do not think about them.
It would be the same about the desire for God if the desire itself
were, in truth, absent from your mind. If then this apparent
absence afflicts you it shows plainly that it is not a real absence.
You are only suffering from this dearth of strength and grace
because at present God requires no more from you ; but you do
not experience any want of good desires, since you feel so much
sorrow at being unable to form them. Remain therefore in
peace in your great spiritual poverty. It is a real treasure
if you know how to accept it for the love of God. I see plainly
THE WANT OF GOOD- WILL 307
that you have never understood in what true poverty and the
nudity of the spirit consists, by which God succeeds in detaching
us from ourselves and from our own operations to purify us more
completely, and to simplify us. This complete deprivation
which reduces us to acts of bare faith and of pure love alone,
is the final disposition necessary for perfect union. It is a true
death to self; a death very inward, very crucifying, very diffi-
cult to bear, but it is soon rewarded by a resurrection, after
which one lives only for God and of God through and with Jesus
Christ. Understand then your blindness in grieving for what is
the surest guarantee of your spiritual progress. After the soul
has mounted the first steps in the ladder of perfection, it can
scarcely make any progress except by the way of privation and
nudity of spirit, of annihilation and death of all created things,
even of those that are spiritual. Only on this condition can it be
perfectly united to God Who can neither be felt, known or seen.
Oh ! daughter of little faith, of little intelligence, and of little
courage, who afflict yourself and are in despair about what
ought to console and rejoice you ! Despise your self-love, tell
it that it may despair as much as if it found itself struck to the
heart, but that your soul will rejoice in God over its despair, even
should it be torn with vexation.
3rd. As to the violent desire you sometimes feel to belong
entirely to God, and as to what you feel directly after, as though
you were being repulsed by an invisible hand, assuredly you have
no reason to conclude from this that you are cast away. These
spiritual vicissitudes ought to inspire you with an absolutely
contrary conviction because this two-fold feeling is an infallible
sign of the action of the Holy Spirit who works in us by this
inward crucifixion the death of self. But what am I saying ! if
God allowed you to understand it as I do this would cease to be
a trial, but would be changed into an ineffable joy. Happy
daughter that you are without knowing it, cease to increase your
distress by reflexions quite contrary to the truth of God.
4th. But what can be done you ask when you can no longer
make an act of abandonment ? Abandon then even this aban-
donment by a simple " fiat " which then becomes the most
perfect abandonment. Oh ! grand idea ! how it will charm the
heart of God, and what an act of the most perfect love it contains !
Earthly lovers sometimes come to this through the excess of
their insane love. It is your state of privation and sacrifice
which has gradually led you to this holy excess of despairing
love, and is precisely what God intends to effect by these priva-
tions, sufferings and interior weaknesses.
5th. God almost always allows a soul to imagine that this
sort of affliction will never end. Why? In order to give occasion
308 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
for a more complete abandonment without end, without limit,
without measure ; it is in this that pure and perfect love consists.
6th. Once more ; you are only powerless to do those things
that God does not wish you to do and that it would not be ex-
pedient for you to do if you were able. God effects then within
you something so excellent that if you could understand it you
would fall prostrate in thanksgiving. Fortunate weakness
which prevents you interfering by your wretched and petty
operations with those which the Holy Spirit effects in you almost
invisibly, but which I can plainly perceive, and for which I
return thanks to God for you, poor blind creature that you are.
yth. It is quite unnecessary to explain your troubles and
doubts ; they are not sins, but simply spiritual crosses, which
it is only necessary to bear with unlimited submission. It is
on this account that God has made it impossible for you to
speak about them, or even to have distinct ideas about them
because nothing sanctifies pain so much as silence both exterior
and interior. What a great sacrifice the " fiat " becomes then,
especially if it is hidden in a simple desire that can scarcely
be discerned ! God, however, sees all the greatness and extent
of this sacrifice. This desire tells Him all that we wish Him to
know without allowing us to enjoy the least consolation, nor
giving us any certainty. From this there results a terrible
agony which drives self-love to despair and assures in us at the
same time the triumph of divine charity.
LETTER VIII. The Love of Creatures and of God.
To the same Sister. On the fear of loving creatures more
than God.
I am delighted, my dear Sister, that God has made use of my
letter to reassure you and to make you understand the reason of
the difference between the love that we have for God and that
which we feel for creatures, about which you have been so terri-
fied. It is true that if we were more holy our love for God
would be more ardent, and more tender. The want of this
sensible tenderness is well calculated to humiliate us but ought
not to trouble us. It is another misery in addition to so many
others which will become for us a source of grace and merit when
we understand how to endure it in peace without any vexed
feelings of self-love and pride. For, to regard all these miseries
in peace and humility, trying all the time to diminish them with
the help of God's grace by perpetual vigilance and tranquil
prayer is, so to say, no longer to have them, in the sight of God.
ON DISPLEASING GOD 309
Allow yourself to become thoroughly imbued with this truth, as
certain as it is but little known. But I add, this coldness we
feel towards God ought not to trouble us, because it by no means
proves that we are deficient in real love. Recall the words of
our Lord to St. Catherine of Siena : " My daughter, I leave to
you and all creatures the love which is tender and sensible,
and reserve for myself the love of preference which is purely
spiritual." This love resides in the apex of the soul ; that im-
pregnable citadel, the key of which is held by free will which
governs the whole. As long as charity has not been driven from
this citadel, even if the greatest indifference invades the feelings,
nothing is yet lost ; and should this sensible coldness be only
a painful trial and not an effect of your own negligence, it will
help to increase the merit of this genuine love. As an instance
a Christian mother would weep and be inconsolable at the death
of her beloved children ; but how great soever her sorrow she
would not have them return to life at the price of one single
venial sin ; do you not see that for this mother the horror of
sin is the more heroic in being in opposition to a love that is more
sensibly felt ? It is the same with contrition, and all acts of the
love of God. These acts are produced in the higher faculties of
the soul, and are spiritually accomplished as if without our know-
ledge, and it is a great advantage to us that it should be so.
During this life we are such miserable creatures that every gift
that we recognize is changed into poison by our self-love. This
is what in a measure compels God to hide the graces He bestows
upon us. If we understood our own interests properly we should
look upon this salutary blindness as the most precious of all
graces, and like holy Job we should never kiss His hand more
lovingly than when it seems to weigh most heavily upon us.
LETTER IX. On Displeasing God.
To Sister Marie-Antoinette de Mahuet. On the fear of dis-
pleasing God, and deceiving others.
Madame and very dear Sister,
I can only bless God for prolonging your trial, and for renewing
those interior sufferings that you experienced in prayer because
I find you are acquiring so much profit therefrom and practising
so well the virtues I recommended to you, namely, the complete
sacrifice of everything, and a total abandonment to the good
pleasure of God.
Far from wishing to see you lose these occasions of amassing
invaluable merit, I can only congratulate you and exhort you
to persevere. Prayer made under such circumstances is indeed
3io ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
very painful, but at the same time it is the most fruitful and
meritorious. If this great fear of displeasing God were anything
else but a trial I could very easily dispel it. It will suffice to
ask you from whence comes this fear, as your conscience is free
from any serious matter, and as you feel and even know that
usually to please God you would not hesitate to undertake
things that are hardest to nature. You clearly perceive that
your terrors, are nothing but idle imaginations. Therefore if
God does not wish you to be entirely delivered from them, you
have nothing to do but to drop them like a stone in the water.
Take no more notice of them than flies that pass backwards
and forwards buzzing in your ears. Despise them and have
patience. It is very surprising that after all I have said to you,
and all that you have read you still recur to the interior changes
and vicissitudes that you experience. It is just as if you imagined
yourself obliged to note down all the variations of the atmosphere,
and to make known to me that after a few fine days the weather
had become stormy and that a hard winter had followed a very
beautiful autumn. It is the rule established by God, and these
are merely the vicissitudes of a life in which nothing is stable ;
it is what all the saints have experienced. In fine weather you
must prepare for bad times, and when they come as they in-
fallibly will, you must bear them patiently and let the storms
blow over and wait for the return of better weather. Instead
of all the violent and forced acts you compel yourself to make
it would be much better, as I have already told you, to keep
yourself in the presence of God in an interior silence of respect,
humility, submission, and abandonment. But self-love is
always anxious to feel and to enjoy ; this cannot be, however,
God does not wish it, so you must give in with a good grace.
It occurs to your mind, I am aware, that you are deceiving
everybody, but you know perfectly well yourself that you do
not intend to deceive, and that ought to be enough for you. If
it came into your head to kill yourself or to throw yourself from a
height you would say at once, " What folly ! I know well that
I shall not do it." Put a stop then in the same way to the follies
and absurdities of the human mind and particularly of the
imagination. These thoughts are like tiresome flies ; put up
with them patiently. When these have gone others will come
and must be endured in the same spirit of patience and resig-
nation.
I bless God for the holy interior dispositions of sacrifice,
abandonment, death to self, and complete annihilation with
which He inspires you. How can you for one moment imagine
that God, Who is so good, would abandon you, when by such a
singular change He accomplishes in you such wonderful opera-
FEAR OF MAKING NO PROGRESS 311
tions, and favours you as He favours the saints ? Indeed,
what could He give you more in conformity with the holy Gospel ,
more sanctifying, or in any way better. Ecstasies and revelations
are nothing compared to these interior dispositions of abjection,
because it is precisely in these that sanctity and perfection
consist. I can only urge you to let nothing be lost of these
precious gifts by contrary acts, but when God is pleased to
deprive you, apparently, of them, in taking away all these feelings,
allow Him to do it. Let Him give, take away, and give again.
Is He not Master of His gifts ? His holy name be always equally
praised.
LETTER X. Fear of Making No Progress.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On the fear of making
no progress, and of not doing enough penance.
Do not be astonished, my dear Sister, at making apparently
so little progress. One does not ever advance in spiritual as
one does in visible works. The business of our sanctification and
perfection ought to be the work of our whole life-time. I notice
that your natural vivacity and eagerness intrude into everything,
and from this proceed anxieties, discouragement, and troubles
which lead you astray in causing you distress. Here is the
remedy ! As long as you feel a sincere good- will to belong to
God, a practical appreciation for everything that leads you to
God, and a certain amount of courage to rise after your little
falls, you are doing well in the sight of God. Have patience with
yourself then ; learn to bear with your own weaknesses and
miseries gently, as you have to put up with those of your neigh-
bour. Be satisfied to humble yourself quietly before God, and
do not expect to make any progress except through Him. This
hope will not be disappointed, but God will realise probably by
a hidden operation which will take place in the centre of your
soul, and this will cause it to make considerable progress without
your knowledge.
You are uneasy about your penance. Oh ! my dear daughter,
how could you perform a better penance, and one in which there
is less of your own will, than to bear patiently the crosses that
come from God ? Besides, all our crosses come certainly from
Him when they are the necessary, natural, and inevitable con-
sequences of the state in which divine Providence permits us
to be settled. These are the heaviest crosses, but also the most
sanctifying because they all come from God. Crosses from our
heavenly Father, crosses from divine Providence, how much
3i2 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
easier to bear they are than those we fashion for ourselves, and
embrace voluntarily. Then love yours, my dear Sister, since
they have been prepared for you by God alone for each day.
Let Him do this ; He alone knows what is suitable for each one
of us. If we remain firm in this, submissive and humbled under
all the crosses sent by God, we shall find in them, at last, rest for
our souls. Thus we shall enjoy an unshaken peace when, by our
submission, we shall have merited from God to be made to feel
that divine unction which belongs to, and is a part of the cross
since Jesus Christ died upon it for us. But you ask how the
spiritual life can be compatible with this state of trouble and
darkness. Ah ! my dear daughter, how many are mistaken
about this ! Do not you share their delusion. The spiritual
life, gentle, and tranquil as I have always described it to you to
inspire you with a taste for it, is only to be found in two sorts of
persons ; first, in those who are entirely separated from the world
and have nothing to do with its affairs ; secondly, sometimes,
but more rarely, in persons living in the world, when by dint of
having overcome themselves, and detached themselves from
everything, they live in the world, but are not of it ; that is to
say they belong to it outwardly, but not in mind and heart.
But this absence of business and of care is far from constituting
the essential part of the spiritual life, or from forming its merit.
There is another sort of interior life, which, devoid of sweetness,
is on this account all the more meritorious, and it is to this that
you must conform yourself; the other may follow later. This
interior life may also be divided under two heads, first, the
generous fulfilment of the divine will whenever manifested to us
either by the precepts it has itself laid down for us, or by our
Rule, or by the commands or desires of our Superiors ; secondly,
to receive everything as coming from the hand of God, whether
business affairs, adversity, illness, difficulties, or annoyances.
Sometimes, however, one forgets oneself. You must expect
this to happen. What is to be done then? You know what,
return quietly to yourself, regain your tranquillity with submis-
siveness, humble yourself gently before God, never be discouraged
nor disheartened, and above all take good care, according to the
teaching of St. Francis of Sales, not to be grieved at having
been grieved, nor to be angry at having been angry, nor worried
at having been worried, because this would be to go from bad to
worse, and would augment still more the interior trouble. This
is the rock ahead of lively persons.
ON FEARS ABOUT CONFESSION 313
LETTER XL On Fears About Confession.
I can only repeat to-day, my dear Sister, what I have so often
told you before. God wishes to make you do penance and to
sanctify you by the endurance of personal offences that wound
you, by interior crosses, and more especially by troubles of con-
science. I only ask you in all these trials for a little submission
and resignation such as you practise in the different circumstances
of life, such as losses, illnesses, infirmities, etc. I forbid you to
dwell voluntarily on the uneasiness that torments you with
regard to your confessions. Be at peace. Blind obedience
can never deceive you. As for contrition which is the only thing
that you might have some reason to fear about ; if you mention
in each confession a sin of your past life without going into details
you will have absolutely nothing to fear. The best sign of having
true contrition is to fall no more into grave sins, and to do your
best to get rid of those that are lighter. Therefore remain in
peace' on this point, enduring patiently the different returns of
these troubles. As you are infirm these troubles will do instead
of fasting or taking the discipline, or wearing a hair shirt, but
with this difference, that whereas in these latter penitential
exercises self-love can be met with again and satisfied, in the
former penances sent by our heavenly Father to men and women
for whose salvation He has a special desire, there is only the
pure will of God.
LETTER XII. Rales to Free Oneself from these Fears.
It depends on yourself, my dear Sister, to free yourself once
and for all from the fears which torment you on the subject of
your confessions. It only requires a grain of faith and of docility
in following the perfectly safe rules that I will outline for you.
i st. Never ask to be freed from this trouble, because God has
made it perfectly clear to you why He permits it. It is because
He wishes to be your only support, your sole consolation, and to
have your complete confidence so that no other sensible motive
may interfere to spoil the singleness of your love. Finding that
you had not the courage to attain to this purity of love by making
heroic sacrifices like the saints, He leads you gradually to it by
less painful means. Return thanks to Him for so much conde-
scension, and compel yourself to submit to His merciful designs.
znd. Prepare for your confessions in the following manner.
314 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
After a quarter of an hour at the very utmost for the examen,
and without taking too much trouble but doing it as you best can,
you will say to yourself, " By the mercy of God I live in a state
of habitual contrition since I would not commit a mortal sin
for anything this world could give me. I even feel a horror of
venial sin, although, unhappily, I have not yet left off committing
it ; therefore I only have to make an act of contrition as best I
can, and as He has put it into my heart by His grace." That will
not take long, a few minutes will suffice, and the best way to
make acts of contrition is to pray that God will Himself produce
them in you. , '
3rd. " But what if it should be impossible to remember any
distinct fault ? " This is what you must say : " Father, I have
not light enough to see my ordinary faults but I accuse myself
in general of all the sins of my past life, and particularly of such
and such a sin of which I ask pardon of God from the bottom of
my heart." After that accept tranquilly the penance that your
confessor gives you, and do not have any doubt whatever that the
absolution he pronounces confers on you all the graces attached
to this sacrament.
What on earth, I ask you, could be easier or more consoling ?
If you adopt this method you will be delivered from all the
anxieties that have so much harassed you up to now. I should
like this little rule to be known and practised by most of the
members of your community who experience the same difficulty
as yourself, and who, like you, could so easily be set right.
LETTER XIII. On Fears About Contrition.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil.
You desire the impossible, my dear Sister, you want to feel
what is not perceptible by the senses, and to enjoy a certainty
that we cannot possess during this life. True contrition which
remits sin is, of its nature, entirely spiritual and consequently
above the senses. It is true that with certain persons and on
certain occasions it becomes sometimes sensible, and then it is
much more consoling to self-love, but is not on that account
either more efficacious, or more meritorious. This tenderness of
feeling does not in any way depend upon us, neither is it by any
means essential for obtaining the remission of our sins. A great
number of souls truly devoted to God hardly ever experience this
tenderness, and the fear inspired in them by this deprivation is the
best proof that they are not responsible for it. The coldness
they feel, far from depriving them of true repentance is, on the
contrary, one of the best penances they could offer to God.
ON GENERAL CONFESSION 315
What I now say on the subject of contrition in general, I say in
particular about the sovereignty of this sorrow, a quality that
is usually the one least felt. It must be asked of God and you
must wait till He produces it Himself in your heart by His grace.
To persist in tormenting yourself after this would be to allow
yourself to fall into the devil's trap. Nothing should astonish
us less than to be sometimes touched and affected, and at others
to find ourselves callous and insensible to everything. This is
one of the inevitable vicissitudes of the spiritual life. Fiat !
fiat ! resignation is the only remedy. It is certain that God
always gives what is necessary to those souls who fear Him.
The gifts He bestows on them are not always the most apparent
to the senses, nor the most agreeable, nor the most sought after,
but the most necessary and solid ; all the more so, usually, in
being less felt and more mortifying to self-love ; for that which
helps us most powerfully to live to God is what best enables
us to die to self.
LETTER XIV. On General Confession
To Sister Marie-Antoinette de Mahuet. On general confession.
My dear Sister,
Your fears have no reasonable foundation, and you ought to
reject them as dangerous temptations. When, in the course of
one's life one has made a general confession in good faith ; all
the ideas and anxieties that follow are so many idle scruples
which the enemy makes use of to trouble the peace of the soul,
to make one lose time, and to weaken and diminish one's con-
fidence in God. Do not let us foolishly fall into this trap ; let
us abandon all the past to the infinite mercy of God, all the future
to His fatherly Providence, and think only of profiting by the
present. The " fiat " formed in the mind by repeated acts and
gradually reduced to an habitual disposition, leads to all that
perfection which ignorant and mistaken people seek far and wide
in all sorts of ways. For the rest, do not imagine that you tire
me by speaking of your miseries. By dint of seeing nothing but
poverty and misery in oneself, one is not surprised at finding
the same in others. But if, in peace and humility they anni-
hilate themselves before God and ask for grace, working with His
assistance to diminish their faults and to overcome themselves,
they may be considered, in a way, not to have these faults.
This is what Fenelon thought. May it sink deeply into your
heart as well as this sentence which I find in the same author,
and which I copy for you because I think it is exactly what will
316 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
console and encourage you. " We are obliged to live and to die
in the deepest uncertainty, not only as to the judgments of God
about us, but also as to our own dispositions." " We must,"
says St. Augustine, " have nothing of our own to present to
God but our own miseries, but then we have His very great mercy
which is our only title to His love, .through the merits of Jesus
Christ." Often reflect on these beautiful sayings in which you
will find peace for your mind, abandonment, confidence, and the
greatest certainty in the very midst of doubt.
LETTER XV. Different Fears.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On the same subject-
Different fears.
My dear Sister,
As neither my advice nor my efforts can deliver you from your
fears about your confessions I can see nothing for you but to
resign yourself to them. Regard these troubles as a penance
sent you by your heavenly Father, but never stop to think about
them voluntarily because I am convinced that in your general
confession you mentioned everything ; or, at any rate, you had
a sincere desire to say everything ; that is enough. I do not
hesitate to assure you, before God, that in this confession no
omission of any importance could have been made, therefore
remain in peace about it.
You are still distressed that certain sublime states that you
admire in others, you can neither dare to ask for, nor even to
desire for yourself. Here are two remedies to alleviate your
trouble and to make you derive advantages from your weakness.
Firstly, to humble yourself, and to lament interiorly, but without
vexation, at beholding yourself so far from such holy dispositions.
Secondly to desire interiorly to have the wish for them. This
desire to desire is the first degree from which one passes gradually
to a real desire, and this in its turn by dint of being renewed and
of dwelling in the heart gets stronger and finally takes root.
Try to recall often to your mind this great rule : God has placed
me in this world only to know, love and serve Him, and could
not have created me for any other purpose, therefore I will
attain this end to the best of my power. For the rest He may
do with me what best pleases Him, I abandon myself entirely
to His holy will which can only will my salvation and eternal
happiness in the life to come. It is for this only that He makes
me endure so many interior and exterior afflictions. May He
be blessed for ever !
HATRED OF SIN 317
LETTER XVI. Hatred of Sin.
On the same subject. Different fears.
My dear Sister,
In all that forms the subject of your letter I see no reason for
alarm. You are not pleased, you say, about your want of sub-
mission and of patience during suffering. Provided that this
discontent does not turn to vexation, trouble, or discouragement,
it will inspire you with a sincere interior humility, a profound
self-contempt which will please God better and enable you to
make more progress than a patience and submission that you
felt that you possessed, which would perhaps have only served
to feed self-love by almost imperceptible satisfactions. You
cannot yet, you say, make known to me anything else but miseries.
I can well believe it, since as long as we are in this life we cannot
find anything in ourselves but what is imperfect and miserable.
Do you want a remedy for all these miseries ? It is this : While
detesting the sins that are the cause of them, love, or at least
accept their consequences which are the feeling of abjection and a
contempt for yourself ; but do so without trouble, vexation,
uneasiness or discouragement. Remember that God, without
willing sin, has made of it a very useful instrument for keeping
us always in a state of abjection and self-contempt. Without
this bitter remedy we should succumb to the enticements of
self-love. Believe me, you must always keep cheerful, steadfast
and tranquil in the midst of your miseries, making at the same
time efforts to diminish them ; as you advance further you will
constantly discover fresh ones. It was this clear knowledge of
their own weakness and nothingness, which, becoming ever more
distinct, increased the humility of the saints ; but this humility
by God's grace is always joyful and peaceful. It goes so far as
to make them love spiritual poverty which in this way becomes
a real treasure. Learn that under this heap of refuse God hides
the gifts He bestows on us to conceal them from the satisfactions
of self-love and foolish esteem. I do not blame your tears
but I wish that while you are shedding them over your pains
you would do so before God and for His sake. In this way
instead of feeling their bitterness you would discover in them a
hidden sweetness which would tend to increase interior peace
by producing an entire submission to the divine will.
As for the supposed want of contrition which distresses you,
you need see in it only a trap laid for you by the devil to destroy
your peace. Do you not know that an apparently bitter con-
trition accompanied by torrents of tears is not the best, and that
God by no means exacts such from you ? With all these beautiful
318 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
signs true contrition may be wanting ; and, on the contrary,
without any feelings of the sort one can have the contrition that
justifies. This consists in the will to hate and to avoid sin, and
resides in the superior faculties of the soul and consequently
is not to be felt as it is purely spiritual. Remain then in peace
and do not attend to your self-love which wants to feel and
to enjoy this contrition so as to be certain of possessing it.
God does not desire this for several reasons, but above all to
keep us always in holy humility, and in a certain fear which helps
towards our salvation. Enter into His designs, and when you
feel no regret for your sins humble yourself profoundly. Offer
to God in a spirit of penance this keen dread of not possessing the
requisite sorrow ; make a sacrifice of this trouble of mind to God,
and abandon yourself entirely to His mercy ; He intends to lead
you by the way of obscurity and fear, to Heaven. The greatest
saints themselves have no exemption from this law but, more
faithful than we, they abandoned themselves entirely to God
and, by placing their whole confidence in Him, kept themselves
always in peace. As for the review of conscience that souls
careful of their state are in the habit of making at least every
year, one must remember that it is not a matter of obligation
but a work of devotion and humility. Each person gives to
this examination as long a time as he desires, with the advice
of the confessor, and one can always be certain of saying more
than is necessary. At the hour of death there is no necessity
to make a general confession. One can accuse oneself of the
graver sins in a general way out of compunction, or in a spirit
of penance, but without too much introspection. It is much
better to occupy the time in making more meritorious acts
of religion, of faith, hope, contrition and love of God, of resigna-
tion, abandonment, and confidence in the merits of Jesus Christ,
and of union with Him. Finally the most solid preparation for
death is that which we make every day, by a regular life, a spirit
of recollection, of annihilation, of abnegation, patience, charity,
and union with our Lord.
I do not like to find you attaching so much importance to the
little comforts that are given you in your illnesses, such as getting
up a little later, having your bed warmed, eating a little more at
the collation. Follow in all this, with the greatest simplicity,
discretion and obedience and without thinking too much about
yourself, what you feel and judge to be necessary. Provided
also that the interior passions are thoroughly overcome, and that
you are not wanting in patience, submission and a total abandon-
ment to God, in gentleness and humble forbearance with your
neighbour, for these are the most essential virtues and more
sanctifying than any exterior mortifications. People who are
REMORSE AND REBELLION 319
rather pious are not wanting in outward practices ; usually,
their great mistake is to make their whole sanctity consist in
external works, leaving the enemy, namely, self-love and the
passions, alone. They make a great to-do about having eaten
a few mouthfuls extra on a feast-day but will not attend to these
essential things. Such piety is like that of the Jews who had a
scruple about entering Pilate's house because he was a pagan,
yet thought nothing of putting Jesus to death. Would to God
that these deplorable illusions were never found among Religious.
At any rate do you, my dear Sister, avoid them, and without
neglecting what is external, give your principal attention to the
interior.
LETTER XVII. Remorse and Rebellion.
To Sister Marie-Anne-Therese de Rosen. On remorse of
conscience and the rebellion of the passions.
Do all you can to calm your soul on the subject about which
you have consulted me, first because the motives which you
believe you have to make you uneasy have no foundation in
fact. The only danger lies in the uneasiness itself.
When the reproaches of your conscience, however well merited
they may be, throw you into a state of trouble and depression ;
when they discourage and upset you, it is certain that they come
from the devil who only fishes in troubled waters, says St. Francis
of Sales. The first care of a soul experiencing these troubles
ought to be to prevent them, to stifle them, or better still to
despise them. Let it say with St. Teresa, " What my weakness
finds impossible, will become easy with the help of the grace of
God, and this He will give me in His own good time. For the
rest, I desire neither perfection, nor to lead a spiritual life, except
as far as it should please God to give them to me and at the time
He has appointed to do so." You must try to acquire a habit
of making these two acts by a constant repetition of them in your
heart. The second will contribute marvellously to reproduce
entire abandonment, which is the special attraction of souls
desiring to belong unreservedly to God.
2nd. The rebellion of the passions, and that excessive sensi-
tiveness which causes one to be put out beyond measure on the
slightest provocation ought not to disquiet, nor to discourage
anyone suffering from them, nor to make her think that her
desire of sanctification is not sincere. This mistake and the
discouragement it occasions are more harmful than all the other
temptations. To get rid of them, or to overcome them we must
320 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
be well persuaded that these rebellions, and this extreme sensi-
tiveness are sent to us by God to be the ground of our combats
and victories ; -and that these little falls are permitted to help
us to practise humility. Looked upon in this light our falls will
be incomparably more useful to us than victories spoilt by vain
self-complacency. This is a very certain and a very encouraging
truth. We must be convinced, thoroughly convinced that our
miseries are the cause of all the weakness we experience, and that
God, in His mercy, allows them for our good. Without them
we should never be cured of a secret presumption and a proud
confidence in ourselves. Never should we be able to rightly
understand that all that is bad is ours, and that all that is good
is from God alone. To acquire a habit of thinking thus it is
necessary to pass through a great number of personal experiences,
and there is a greater necessity for this the more deeply rooted
these vices are, and the greater the hold they have on the soul.
3rd. You must never feel surprised at finding that a day of
great recollection is followed by one full of dissipation ; this is
the usual condition in this present life. These changes are
necessary, even in spiritual things, to keep us in humility, and a
state of dependence on God. The saints themselves have passed
through these alternations, and others still more troublesome.
Only try not to give rise to them yourself; but should this,
unfortunately, happen, then humble yourself peacefully and
without vexation, which would be a worse evil than the original
one ; then endeavour to regain self-control, and to return to
God ; doing so quietly without over-eagerness, and by means of
a total holy abandonment to God's ways.
4th. Your present method of prayer is good ; continue to
practise it. The humble feelings of the heart, the submissive
attitude of the soul before God are worth more than a multitude
of formal acts constantly reiterated ; they are acts straight from
the heart, stronger and more efficacious with God although not
always so sensibly felt, nor as clearly perceived, nor as consoling
as the former. God takes from us this multiplicity to give us
instead something better, more simple and better calculated to
unite us to Him.
5th. The person of whom you speak is not wanting in the
love of God. She has as much as is necessary, but God has
deprived her of the knowledge of it for fear that she should pride
herself on it, and in order to prevent her preferring the sensible
pleasure of it, to Him who ought to be its sole object. Let her be
consoled about this, while at the same time she should always
desire to love Him more without wishing to know it, or to be
able to be certain of it.
REMORSE AND REBELLION 321
6th. The opposition and perpetual contradiction between
your thoughts and feelings is nothing else than that inner strife
spoken of by the Apostle when he says, " the spirit wars against
the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit." None of the saints
have been exempt from this rule. It is true that this interior war
is more violent with some people, and about some things more
than others, and also at a certain age, or time or occasion, but
whether more or less violent, no harm is done to a soul that fights
with a determination never to be beaten nor discouraged. On
the other hand, the greater the violence of the attacks the more
serious are the combats, and consequently, the more glorious
the victories. The greater the merit, the higher the sanctity,
and the grander the recompense. These happy results are all
the more certain the less they are felt, and especially if a more
profound humiliation is experienced.
Oh ! if only this interior abjection were accepted, loved and
valued, no one would consent to be without it, because it brings
the soul nearer to God. This great God has, in fact, declared
that He draws near to those who humble themselves and who
love to be humiliated. If it is good for us to be humbled in the
sight of others tfis no less useful to be annihilated in our own eyes,
in our pride and self-love which are put an end to in this way.
It is thus, in fact, that they are gradually extinguished in us,
and for this purpose does God permit so many different subjects
for interior humiliation. It only remains to know how to profit
by them, by following the advice of St. Francis of Sales, and
practising acts of true humility, gently and peacefully ; and this
will drive out false humility which is always in a state of vexation
and spite. Vexation and spite under humiliation are so many
acts of pride, just as worry and irritation during suffering are
so many acts of impatience. Let us not forget this, and let us
take good care not to look upon the want of feeling we experience
for the things of God as callousness ; it is simply dryness, and a
trial as inevitable and ordinary as distractions. If it is constant
it is a still better sign, because it is in this way that God prepares
the soul to proceed by pure faith, the most sure and meritorious
way.
One should repeat continually to anyone in this state," Peace,
peace, remain in peace, and keep retired within your soul."
Preserve a constant desire of the interior life. This single
attraction ought to suffice to make you live within yourself, and
in constant communication with God. The results will follow
in their own time. Guard above all against anything likely
to withdraw you from this good disposition ; avoid all occasions
of losing it ; humble yourself when you have failed about it, but
322 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
do not ever worry yourself, nor distress yourself about anything
whatever, nothing could harm you more than that.
LETTER XVIII. God Alone can Remove These Trials.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. God alone can remove
these trials.
i st. To alleviate your troubles and regrets, my dear Sister,
I have only two things to say to you. Everything comes from
God, and, on our part, all merit consists in acquiescing in the
will of God. Whether willingly or by compulsion it will always
be accomplished ; let us unite ourselves to it with all the strength
of our own will, and thus we shall have nothing to fear. Anguish
of the heart, and involuntary rebellion only augment the merit
of submission. If you fear lest you do not possess this virtue,
ask God to grant it to you, saying to Him interiorly, " Lord, I
desire and will to have this entire submission and I offer you the
anguish by which I am tormented in union with the agony of
Jesus Christ Your beloved Son in the garden."
2nd. Try to avoid all useless reflexions which only embitter
the heart. When, in spite of yourself, you feel irritated, bear
this trouble patiently, and when you feel impatient, then is
the time to make greater efforts to have patience in enduring
this impatience itself, and' to resign yourself to the want of
resignation.
3rd. Read in the book of the " Holy Ways of the Cross,"
the chapters which bear upon your present state. You will find
therein all ,the instruction, support, and consolation which you
can possibly require, but do not expect to find in them what
no one on earth can possibly give you. God alone can remove
this trial from you, wait His time with patience. You have
always counted too much on human help ; God has taken
it away from you to compel you no longer to depend on anyone
but Him alone, by abandoning yourself entirely to His paternal
care. The more painful and violent your trial is, the more
certain do I become about your salvation and perfection. You
will be able to understand this later just as I do.
4th. As Jesus Christ crucified is our only model, and as He
wishes to save us by making us like to Himself, He strews crosses
in the path of each one of us in order to keep us in the way of
salvation. If we are faithful the reverses that cross our lives
will form our riches. And see how great is the mercy of our lov-
ing Saviour ; after having passed through the most severe trials,
and accomplished the most painful sacrifices, what is left seems
ON RELAPSES 323
hardly to count, and the heaviest crosses begin to seem quite
light. Oh ! happy experience, as sweet in its effects as, at
first, it appeared difficult to nature.
LETTER XIX. On Relapses.
To the same Sister. On the same subject and on relapses.
My dear Sister,
The recital you have given me of your troubles, and, above all
of your faults and interior revolts, has inspired me with the most
lively compassion ; but, as to a remedy I really know of no other
than that which I have so often pointed out to you ; each time
you have a fresh proof of your misery to humble yourself, to
offer all to God, and to have patience. If you fall again do not
be any the more disquieted or troubled the second time than the
first, but humble yourself yet more profoundly and do not fail
to offer especially to God the interior suffering and confusion
caused by the revolts and faults to which your weakness has given
rise. Even if fresh occasions occur, return each time to God with
an equal confidence, and endure as patiently as possible the re-
newed remorse of conscience and these interior trials and re-
bellions, and continue to act in this way. If you always do so
you must understand that you will hardly lose anything, there
will be much even gained in these involuntary interior rebellions
from which you are suffering. Whatever faults occur, provided
you endeavour always to return to God and also to yourself in
the manner I have just explained, it is impossible that you
should not make great progress. Oh ! how little are solid
virtue and true interior abnegation known ! If once for all you
would learn to humble yourself sincerely for your least faults, and
would rise directly by confidence in God with peace and sweetness,,
that would prove to you a good and certain remedy for the past,,
and a powerful help, and efficacious protection for the future.
I greatly approve of your keeping away from discussions and
arguments, and of your dislike of them. There certainly is,
as a rule, a great amount of petty illusions and self-love about
such things, for this wretched self-love, says St. Francis of Sales,,
mixes with everything, intrudes everywhere, spoils everything.
This is the effect of human misery to which we are all more or
less subject. When we recognise it in others there are two
things we have to do ; first we must find excuses for those whom
we notice to have been led away by it, and secondly to fear for
ourselves and watch over our own conduct so that we may not
in our turn be subjects of scandal to our neighbour.
324 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
LETTER XX. Depression under Trials.
To the same Sister (1738). On depression during trials,
distractions and resentment.
i st. You would be mistaken, my dear Sister, to reproach
yourself too much for your want of resignation, because I do
not consider it at all voluntary. Great afflictions are inevitably
followed by a certain depression ; but those souls that are faithful
to God rise again quietly by their confidence and filial abandon-
ment to divine Providence. It seems, sometimes, as if it were
impossible to do this, or at any rate to do it properly, but one
must not be discouraged on this account. Better indeed to make
of this weakness itself a subject for renewed acts of resignation
to the divine goodness and to remain peacefully and patiently
in one's own nothingness. Thus we shall fulfil the designs of
God who permits us to fall into this state of depression and weak-
ness to make us better understand and feel our misery. He
wills that there should not be in us the least atom of confidence
in ourselves, but that we should rely solely on His all-powerful
grace.
znd. I ought to tell you that for a long time past I have
remarked in you a great grace to which you pay no attention.
You seem to me to become ever more deeply convinced of your
miseries and imperfections. Now that happens only in pro-
portion to our nearness to God, and to the light in which we live
and walk, without any consideration of our own. This divine
light as it shines more brightly makes us see better and feel more
keenly the abyss of misery and corruption within us, and this
knowledge is one of the surest signs of progress in the ways of
God and of the spiritual life. You ought to think rather more
of this, not to pride yourself on it, but to be grateful for it.
Nothing more is necessary at present but to strive to love holy
abjection, poverty, and horror of yourself which begins in this
deep knowledge experienced by you. When you have attained
this you will have taken a fresh step still more decided towards
your spiritual advancement. See then how great is the goodness
of God ! He makes use of the sight that you have of your
poverty to enrich you. This poverty becomes a treasure to those
who understand, accept, and love it, because it is the will of God.
This joyful acquiescence in our misery does not exclude, however,
the desire of finding a remedy for it, because, if we ought to love
the abjection which is the result of our defects, we ought at the
same time to hate the defects themselves, and to make use of
the most energetic means of getting rid of them.
ON HUMBLE SILENCE AND PATIENCE DURING TRIALS 325
3rd. Urgent occupations and the interruptions of worldly
business are, in the sight of divine Providence who wills and
permits them, of equal value as quiet recollection and silence.
Instead of the prayer of quiet you then make a prayer of patience,
of suffering and of resignation. " But one sometimes loses
patience " ; well, this is the distraction of this prayer, and you
must try to regain it, and to get calm with the thought that
God wills or permits what upsets you, and causes you pain ;
but above all take great care not to lose your temper at feeling
impatient, or to get worried at being upset. By humbling
yourself quietly you will gain more than you have lost.
4th. I need not enter into minute details as regards the keen
pain you describe. I understand all the different distressing
thoughts that fill your mind and all the heart-ache they cause,
but here again, my dear daughter, is an excellent prayer more
sanctifying than any ecstasies, if you know how to make use of
it. How can you do' so ? In this way. (i) Often pray for the
person who is the cause of your trouble. (2) Keep perfectly
silent, do not speak about it to anyone to relieve your pain.
(3) Do not voluntarily think about it but turn your thoughts
to other subjects that are holy and useful. (4) Watch over your
heart that you may not give way in the very least bit to bitter-
ness, spite, complaints, or voluntary rebellion. (5) Try to speak
well of the person, cost what it may, to regard her favourably,
to act about her as if nothing had happened. I realise, however,
that you will find it difficult in future to treat her with the same
confidence without being a saint, which you are not yet. (6) But
at least do not fail to render her a service when occasion arises
and to wish her all possible good.
LETTER XXI. On Humble Silence and Patience During Trials.
Take courage, my dear Sister, and do not imagine that you are
far from God ; on the contrary you have never been so near Him.
Recall to your mind the agony of our Lord in the Garden of
Olives, and you will understand that bitterness of feeling and
violent anguish are not incompatible with perfect submission.
They are the groanings of suffering nature and signs of the hard-
ness of the sacrifice. To do nothing at such a time contrary
to the order of God, to utter no word of complaint or of distress,
is indeed perfect submission which proceeds from love, and love
of the purest description. Oh ! if you only knew how in these
circumstances to do nothing, to say nothing, to remain in humble
silence full of respect, of faith, of adoration, of submission,
abandonment and sacrifice, you would have discovered the great
326 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE .
secret of sanctifying all your sufferings, and even of lessening
them considerably. You must practise this and acquire the
habit of it quietly, taking great care not to give way to trouble
and discouragement should you fail, but at once return to
complete silence with a peaceful and tranquil humility. For
the rest, depend with unshaken confidence on the help of grace,
which will not be refused to you. When God sends us great
crosses and finds that we sincerely desire to bear them well for
the love of Him, He never fails to support us invisibly, and in
such a way that according to the greatness of the cross will be
the amount of resignation and interior peace, sometimes indeed
even greater, so immense is the bounty of Jesus Christ, our Master,
and of the spiritual graces He has merited for us. Let us con-
clude with this that nearly everything consists in having a good
will ; and to make our spiritual progress assured God will merci-
fully do the rest. Knowing the full extent of our weakness,
misery, and incapacity for doing anything good, He sustains
and fortifies us, working this good in us Himself by His divine
Spirit. The practice of accepting at each moment the present
state in which God places us, can keep us in peace of mind and
cause us to make great progress without undue eagerness.
Besides this it is a very simple practice. We should adhere to
it strongly but nevertheless with an entire resignation to whatever
God requires about it.
A great sign that we are not deceived about our love of God is :
Firstly, when we desire all that pleases Him, and secondly when
we have a great horror of sin, even the least, and strive never to
commit any deliberately. Since God has given you the grace
to take my favourite maxims to heart concerning submission,
abandonment and sacrifice, be assured that He will enable
you to practise them, however imperfectly. But as you are so
impetuous about everything, you want to attain at one bound
to the highest perfection in these virtues. That cannot be, you
must attain to them gradually and even while committing many
small faults which will serve to humble you, and to make you
realise your great weakness before God. Interior rebellion in
these circumstances does not prevent submission in the higher
part of the soul. Read often the 5 yth letter in the third book
by St. Francis of Sales. This letter has always charmed me.
It will make clear to you the distinction between the two wills
in the soul, the exact knowledge of which is an essential point
in the spiritual life.
To BEAR WITH ONESELF 327
LETTER XXII. To Bear with Oneself.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On the realisation of
her misery and on exterior difficulties.
I might say to you, my dear Sister, what our Lord said to
Martha ! Why so much solicitude and trouble ? How can you
still confound, as you do, the care that God commands you to
take about your salvation, with the uneasiness that He reproves ?
As you try to abandon your temporal affairs to divine Providence
while taking care at the same time not to tempt God ; do the same
for your spiritual progress, and, without neglecting the care of it,
leave the success to God, hoping for nothing except from Him.
But do not ever dwell on such diabolical thoughts as : I am
always the same, always as little recollected, as dissipated, as
impatient, as imperfect. All this afflicts the soul, overwhelms
the heart and casts you into sadness, distrust and discourage-
ment. This is what the devil desires ; by this pretended humility
and regret for your faults he is delighted to deprive you of the
strength of which you have need for the purpose of avoiding
them in future, and of repairing the harm they have done you.
Bitterness spoils everything and on the contrary gentleness and
sweetness can cure everything. Bear with yourself therefore
patiently, return quietly to God, repent tranquilly, without
either exterior or interior impetuosity but with great peace.
If you act thus you will gradually become calm, and this practice
will cause you to make more progress in the ways of God than
all your agitations could possibly effect. When one feels a little
peace and sweetness interiorly it is a pleasure to enter into oneself
and one does so willingly, constantly, without any trouble,
almost without reflexion.
Believe me, my dear Sister, and place your whole confidence
in God through Jesus Christ ; abandon yourself more and more
entirely to Him, in all, and for all, and you will find by your
own experience that He will always come to your assistance when
you require His help. He will become your Master, your Guide,
your Support, your Protector, your invincible Upholder. Then
nothing will be wanting to you because, possessing God, you
possess all, and to possess Him you have but to apply to Him
with the greatest confidence, to have recourse to Him for every-
thing great and small without any reserve, and to speak to Him
with the greatest simplicity in this way : " Lord, what shall I
do on such an occasion ? What shall I say ? Speak, Lord, I am
listening ; I abandon myself entirely to You ; enlighten me,
lead me, uphold me, take possession of me."
328 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
I am sorry for the difficulties and worries of which you tell me,
but recollect that patience and submission to God in the midst of
annoyances that are permitted by His providence will enable you
to make more progress than the quietest and most recollected
life. The latter always tends to flatter self-love ; the former,
on the contrary, afflicts and crucifies it, and thus makes us attain
true peace of mind by union with God. When you find yourself
in such utter dejection that you cannot make a single act of
any virtue whatever, beware of tormenting yourself by violent
efforts but keep simply in the presence of God in a great silence
of utter misery, but with respect, humility and submission like
a criminal before his judge who sentences him to a chastisement
he has well merited : and understand that the interior silence
of respect, humility and submission are worth more and purify
better than all the acts that you, uselessly, force yourself to
make, and which only serve to increase the trouble of the soul.'
The character of the person to whom you allude is very good, I
own ; but while praising God for all the good gifts He has
bestowed upon her you ought not to despise the share He has
given to you. On the contrary, by your submission to, and
respect for the designs of God you must wish to be such as He
wishes you to be, without, however, neglecting to correct your-
self. The greatest improvement I desire to see in you is, that
your mind may never get embittered for any reason whatever, and
that you always treat yourself gently. Is it not true that you
behave thus towards your neighbours ? You are not always
reproaching them bitterly and continually about their characters,
but you try gently to induce them to reform. Do the same to
yourself, and if gradually this spirit of gentleness should take root
in your heart you would soon make progress in the spiritual life
and without so much trouble. But if the heart is continually
filled with feelings of harshness and bitterness, nothing much can
be achieved and everything costs great effort. I insist greatly
in this matter because it is an essential one for you, and in your
place I should apply myself seriously to acquire a great interior
and exterior gentleness in all things just as if there were no other
virtue to practise ; for this will, in your case, bring all the others
in its train. I appeal to your own experience about it. After
having worked at it for some time very quietly, without the
interruption of those impetuosities and hurries which drive away
all sweetness and prevent you gaining the victory, you should
be able to recognise the fact, that in this way much more is
gained without half the fatigue. I
ON PAST SINS 329
LETTER XXIII. On Past Sins.
To the same Sister. Alby, July the 23rd, 1733.
My dear Sister, and very dear daughter in our Lord.
May the peace of Jesus Christ be always with you !
i st. I have never said anything with the meaning that you
impute to me, but have only written as to a poor beginner whom
God is afflicting in His mercy, in order to purify her and to pre-
pa.re her for union with Him. The terrible ideas you have
about your past disorders are at present what you are called to
and you must bear with them as long as God pleases, just as one
keeps to attractions that are full of sweetness. This keen
realisation of your poverty and darkness gives me pleasure,
because I know it is a sure sign that divine light is increasing
in you without your knowledge and is forming a sure foundation
of true humility. The time will come when the sight of these
miseries which now cause you horror, will overwhelm you with
joy, and fill you with a profound and delightful peace. It is not
till we have reached the bottom of the abyss of our nothingness,
and are firmly established there that we can, as Holy Scripture
says, " walk before God in justice and truth." Just as pride,
which is founded on a lie, prevents God from bestowing favours
on a soul that is otherwise rich in merit, so this happy condition
of humiliation willingly accepted, and of annihilation truly
appreciated, draws down divine graces on even the most wretched
of souls. Therefore do not desire any other condition either
during life or at the hour of death. It is in this state of voluntary
annihilation that you should have taken refuge, to escape the
fears that assailed you during your recent illness. Do not fail
to do so if Satan ever tries to catch you in the same trap. Self-
love desires to have, at the last hours, some sensible support in
the recollection of past good works ; let us, however, desire no
other support than that given us by pure faith in the mercy of
God and in the merits of Jesus Christ. From the moment
that we wish to belong entirely to God this support will be enough
for us, all the rest is nothing but vanity. ,
2nd. I approve, for the rest, of your interior and exterior
conduct during your illness. I perceive that God, in His wisdom,
hid what little good He enabled you to gain from it because
unless He had done so, a thousand vain thoughts of self-com-
placency would have spoilt all. I know better than you all that
took place and I bless God for it. He supported you well in
your weakness ; you have only to thank Him for doing so without
330 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
reflecting so much as to whether everything has really been
supernatural. Leave that to God ; only try to forget yourself
and to think only of Him.
3rd. What business have you to find so many excuses for
your melancholy disposition ? Let everyone think what he
likes about it, you have only to please God and whatever He
permits others to think or to say about you is of no moment to
you ; therefore do not indulge in reflexions on the subject.
All that sort of thing only serves to increase self-love and vanity.
4th. I am charmed that you find peace where you would
least expect it ; it is a sign that God wills you to enjoy peace
only in the accomplishment of His holy will, which is a very great
grace. If I have not been able to pity you in your illness it is
because I do not look upon the sufferings of the body as real
evils since they procure so many blessings for the soul.
5th. You are convinced that you do nothing, that you merit
nothing ; and thus you are sunk in your nothingness. Oh !
how well off you are ! because from the moment you are con-
vinced of your own nothingness you become united to God
Who is all in all. Oh ! what a treasure you have found in your
nothingness ! It is a state that you must necessarily pass through
before God can fill your soul ; for our souls must be emptied
of all created things before they can be filled with the Holy
Spirit of God ; so that what troubles you and makes you uneasy
is the very thing that ought to pacify you and fill you with a
holy joy in God.
6th. Accepting everything without reserve, both present and
future, is one of the most perfect sacrifices we could offer to God.
This habitual act alone is worth all else that you could possibly
do, therefore your best and only practice must be to adhere
constantly to all the imaginable arrangements of Providence,
whether exterior, or interior. Do nothing but just this, and God
will, gradually, operate all the rest in your soul. This is a most
simple practice, and exactly in accordance with your attraction.
yth. I am not much affected about the reserved manners of
your companion. You must also make this sacrifice to God.
She was not so much to blame as you in what put you out so-
much ; but God has permitted this to humble you by making
you understand what you really are when He leaves you to your
own devices. Humble yourself without vexation or worry.
You know what St. Francis of Sales says about such circumstances.
8th. God requires of us the fulfilment of our duties, but He
does not require us to find out if there has been any merit in
this or not. You think too much about yourself, and under the
pious pretext of advancing in the ways of God you are too much
occupied about yourself. Forget yourself to think only of Him,.
RESULTS OF IMPRUDENCE 331
and abandon yourself to the commands of divine Providence,
and then He will Himself lead you on, purify you and safely
raise you, when and as it pleases Him, to the degree of sanctity
He wills for you. What have we to do except to please Him,
and to desire in all things and everywhere what He wills ? We
search far and wide after perfection, and yet it is almost within
our grasp. It is to unite our will in all things to the will of
God and never to follow our own inclinations. But to arrive
at this we must renounce ourselves and sacrifice, if needs be,
our dearest interests. This is what we have no wish to do ; we
want God to sanctify and make us perfect according to our own
ideas and tastes. What folly ! What pitiable blindness !
LETTER XXIV. Results of Imprudence.
To the same Sister. On the vexatious results of imprudence.
I have already told you very often, my dear Sister, that nothing
should trouble you, not even your faults, and certainly far less
should you allow yourself to be cast down by those trying
consequences of acts which are not sins, although they imply
some imprudence on your part. There is hardly any trial more
mortifying to self-love, and consequently hardly any more sancti-
fying than this. It does not cost nearly so much to accept
humiliations that come to us from without and that we have not
had any hand in drawing upon ourselves. One can resign
oneself much more easily to the confusion caused by faults
very much graver in themselves provided they do not appear
outside. But one simple imprudence that entails annoying
results that everyone can see ; this is decidedly of all humiliations
the very worst ; and therefore, as a natural consequence, an
excellent occasion for the mortification of self-love. Then it is
that we can say over and over again the " fiat " of perfect aban-
donment ; we must even go further and make an act of thanks-
giving, adding for this purpose a " Gloria Patri " to our " fiat."
One single trial, accepted thus, causes a soul to make more
progress than any number of acts of virtue. I hope I have made
this clear to you and that you will no longer distress yourself
about the consequences that are likely to follow the mistake of
which you have been the innocent cause. Remain in peace with
the intention of taking what steps are necessary at a convenient
time to bring about peace, and a union of hearts ; then abandon
to God all the success, whatever it may be. It is well to get
accustomed to act in this way in all the troublesome events of
this miserable life ; thus we shall enjoy peace, and shall have
332 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
made merit in the sight of divine Providence. Without this
submission and total abandonment we can expect no rest during
the course of our sad pilgrimage. Think only of pleasing God,
of satisfying God, of sacrificing all to God. Let all the rest go,
and keep nothing back. Provided that God dwells within you,
you will never lose anything. Take good courage and all will
go well ; do not be so uneasy, nor so surprised at these rebellions
of your nature : I assure you that they will be no impediment to
the submission of your higher faculties, and that God only hides
this submission for your own good. In the most violent attacks
try just to say these few words, " It is but just that a creature
should be submissive to her Creator, therefore I desire and pray
to become so." Read the chapter on " Progress " in the
" Interior Life " by Fr. Guillore ; it is an inspired chapter, and
I hope you will derive great benefit from it.
For God's sake do not sadden yourself, and try to preserve
peace during even the most terrible tempests. If you do this
all will go well. In fact I see nothing but good in everything that
you have confided to me, but a good that would cease to be so
if you saw it as plainly as I do.
When a number of different thoughts enter my head which
makes the least thing assume monstrous proportions, I recall
to mind the advice I have given to others in similar circumstances.
I abandon myself to divine Providence in all things and about
all things. When the worst comes to the worst, I defy it like
St. Paul, to separate me from the charity of Jesus Christ. I
know that without the grace of this divine Saviour I could do
nothing ; but I know also that with His grace I can do all
things ; I beg Him therefore to keep me in all my temptations
from all sin, from all that could displease Him ; but as for the
bitterness of soul, the interior crucifixion, the holy abjection
and even the confusion before others, I accept them with all
their consequences for as long as it pleases His sovereign Majesty.
I desire the accomplishment of His holy will, and not my own
in all things, and I implore Him not to allow me either to say or
to do anything that might place any obstacle to the least thing
that He wills. And if, through weakness, error, or malice I
should undertake anything of the kind, I implore Him not to
allow it to succeed.
I recognise the fact that His holy will is, in all things, not only
holy and adorable, but infinitely salutary and beneficent towards
those who are humbly submissive ; and that mine, on the con-
trary, is always either blind or ill-regulated. Therefore I sub-
scribe to all that the eternal Father decrees, and would do so a
hundred times no matter at what cost to myself. This dear and
good Father has commanded it. that is enough, and what have
INTERIOR SUFFERING 333
I to fear ? From this, two conclusions can be drawn, firstly
that during these tempests and storms often raised by trifles
I retain such a profound peace that I am surprised at it myself.
Secondly that I consider myself very fortunate to have to
endure these interior tortures, temptations and trials. Then I
say to myself, this is worth more than all my own miserable
arrangements. I feel my soul becoming stronger by this abandon-
ment to divine Providence, so much so, that all my personal
desires and attachment to my own will are consumed and anni-
hilated.
LETTER XXV. Interior Suffering.
To Sister Marie- Anne Therese de Rosen. Rules to follow
during trials.
You know as well as I do, my dear Sister, that in order to
raise souls to a state of perfection God is wont to make them bear
all kinds of crosses and interior pains to prove their fidelity, to
purify them, and to detach them from all created things. The
most grievous of these crosses are those in which we may have
been to blame ourselves, and where the poor soul severely repri-
manded by others, and even more severely by itself, does not hear
either outwardly or inwardly anything but a sentence of death.
The person of whom you speak is in this state, therefore there is
nothing to fear about her ; all that you tell me proves on the
contrary that God has particular designs with regard to h er.
When you write to her speak of nothing but patience, s ub-
mission to God, and total abandonment to divine Providence,
as one does to people in the world who are afflicted with temporal
necessities. Above all make her try, by means of the most filial
confidence in God, to repulse energetically all trouble and vol-
untary uneasiness. I repeat, voluntary, because the poor
souls to whom God sends this trial cannot master the troubles
and anxieties by which they are obsessed. This is the subject
of their greatest pain, and the most afflicting part of that state
of humiliation in which for a certain time God retains them.
Therefore they have nothing else to do but to submit to God
about these paroxysms of interior suffering as well as about all
the rest. Say to this poor soul that her best prayer will be to
remain always in silence at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ,
repeating like Him, and with Him, " Fiat." Oh heavenly
Father, may Your will, not mine, be done in all things. It is
You who arrange all our afflictions for the good of our souls.
You would not act thus unless it were for my greater good and
334 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
eternal salvation. Do with me what You will ; I adore and
submit. I think that your friend does quite right not to examine
her thoughts ; an examination of that kind would only confuse
her mind still more. She must leave all to God and despise these
thoughts and the pretended cries of her conscience, and go forward
without taking any notice of them, directly there is nothing
absolutely bad in the act she wishes to perform. These vain
scruples are a device of the devil to deprive her of peace, and thus
to prevent her making progress in virtue ; for trouble is to the
soul a most dangerous malady which makes it too languid for the
practice of virtue, as a sick person who is weak and languid
is incapable of bodily exertion.
If she succeeds in preserving peace of mind she will gradually
recover, just as an infirm and languid person recovers health by
taking rest and good nourishment. I will give three methods
by which to hasten her recovery.
i st. To repulse quietly from her mind all that troubles her
and makes her anxious, looking upon this sort of thought as
coming from the devil ; because all that comes from God is
peaceful and sweet, and helps to establish confidence in Him.
It is in peace that He dwells and that He infuses those different
virtues that bring souls to perfection.
2nd. Frequently to raise the mind and heart to God, with acts
of submission, abandonment, and confidence in His paternal
goodness, which only afflicts her at present to sanctify her.
3rd. To choose for her reading those books most likely to
contribute to calming her mind and to inspiring her with con-
fidence in God ; such as " The Treaty," by Mgr. Languet, the
book on " Christian Hope," the " Letters " of St. Francis of
Sales. For the rest let her go on as usual without making any
change in her conduct, making her confessions and communions
as she is accustomed to, because the devil, to deceive her, and to
weaken her still more, will very likely use every artifice to inspire
her with dislike and an excessive fear of confession, of com-
munion, and of all other spiritual exercises. She ought not to
lend an ear to these evil inspirations but always to follow the
light of faith and the holy practices of the Christian religion like
a true and good daughter of holy Church. Amen.
ON DIFFERENT STATES OF RESIGNATION 335
LETTER XXVI. On Different States of Resignation.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On the same subject
Alby, 1733.
My very dear Sister,
i st. I cannot do otherwise than congratulate you on the
efforts you are making to keep always in a state of perfect
resignation and of entire abandonment to the will of God. In
this, for you, consists all perfection. But on this point as on
all others you must learn how to distinguish between the appear-
ance and the reality, the feeling of consent and the working
of the will. There are two kinds of resignation ; one that can
be felt and that is accompanied by sensible pleasure and a quiet
repose ; the other unfelt, dry, without pleasure, even accom-
panied by feelings of repugnance, and by interior revolt. It
is this latter that I understand you to possess. The first is
good, very agreeable to nature, and for this reason rather dan-
gerous, because it is natural to become strongly attached to that
which one enjoys. The second, which to self-love seems abso-
lutely painful and unpleasant, is more perfect, more meritorious,
and less dangerous since there is no pleasure to be found in it
except through bare faith and perfect love. Compel yourself
to act with these solid motives. When you have succeeded in
doing so your union with God will be proof against every vicissi-
tude, but if you accustom yourself only to act according to
sensible attractions you will do nothing when these come to an
end. Besides, we cannot prevent them from often failing us,
while the motives of faith never fail. It is only in order to induce
us to act, gradually, from these spiritual motives that God so
often takes away sensible devotion and pleasure. If He were
not to act thus we should always remain in a state of spiritual
infancy. You should not therefore be surprised at the weariness
and the revolts of which you speak ; God permits them for your
good. Nevertheless, if you fear that human motives are mixed
with the mortifications you inflict on yourself say these two
things to yourself (i) "I am not at present in a fit state to
judge but will reflect about it when I feel peaceful and calm.
(2) If there is still some human element in it, God allows it that
He may help my weakness. When it shall have pleased Him
to render me less imperfect I shall be able to act in a more perfect
manner." On this matter be calm, and do not indulge in the
least voluntary trouble.
336 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
2nd. I can easily understand how your dislike of your duty
should materially add to your trials ; but consider how the
martyrs won their crowns by enduring much worse tribulations
than yours.
3rd. In this state it is usual to feel an inclination for a solitary
life, but a life of obedience is of greater value, it is a continual
sacrifice, and even if there is more cause for being bored, there
are also many subjects for meriting. Continue as you are with
great fortitude and even scruple to utter a word against your
state, or that could detach you from the cross of Jesus Christ.
4th. The best way of bearing these disagreeables is to look
upon them as crosses sent by God, just as you do illness and other
misfortunes of life. If God were to send you exterior afflictions
that you could feel, you would bear them patiently ; bear then
with equal patience your interior trials.
jth. Look upon all these miseries of our earthly existence as
so much treasure for the spiritual life, since they afford you such
powerful means of acquiring humility and self-contempt. With
this aim in view love every humiliation, and its consequent
abjection, as St. Francis of Sales counsels. You ask me if it
would not be better to hide your miseries for fear of causing
disedification. With all my heart. Try simply and very
quietly to manage so that these feelings may not appear exter-
nally, but if they should appear and you are not greatly to blame
for it, try to accept this little humiliation pleasantly. Even
should it occur by your own fault, then embrace the abjection
which it brings you. In this way you will mortify your self-
love very meritoriously, for this seeks to avoid outward faults,
not because they are an offence against God, but on account of
the humiliation they entail. Do not dwell on the pain that
the difficulty you experience in concentrating your thoughts
causes you. Remind yourself that the habitual desire of re-
collection alone will serve equally well, and that all that is
necessary is to desire unceasingly to think of God, to please God,
to obey God, in order to please and to obey Him in reality.
6th. You say that the more you desire to learn to pray the
less you know how to do so. This may very possibly be because
your desire is not accompanied by a sufficient submission and
purity of intention. Always -have the intention of pleasing God
when you pray, and not of enjoying sensible devotion. Pray
in a spirit of sacrifice and accept all that God pleases to send you
during your prayer ; and I must tell you that the prayer of
recollection is one of those things that leaves you if you are
eager to retain it, and remains if you learn how to keep yourself
in a state of indifference about it ; this is the doctrine of St.
Francis of Sales.
ON DIFFERENT STATES OF RESIGNATION 337
yth. Often recall to mind this great rule, that spiritual
poverty recognised, felt, and loved on account of its abjection,
is one of the greatest treasures that a soul can possess here below ;
because this feeling keeps it in a state of profound humility ;
but to imagine yourself lost because you do not find in yourself
lively enough feelings of faith and charity, and to be distressed,
uneasy, or discouraged about it, is a dangerous illusion of self-
love which always wants to see things plainly, and to take
pleasure in itself. When you experience this temptation you
must say to yourself, " I have been, I am, and I shall be whatever
God pleases, but according to my reason and the higher faculties
of my soul I desire to belong to Him and to serve Him no matter
what happens to me in this world and the next."
8th. You cannot describe to me what you are suffering ; but
I will tell you what it is ; it is for one thing all kinds of rebellions,
pains, and temptations in the inferior part of your nature, and a
perpetual confusion of feelings excited by the devil and your
own self-love. On the other hand, in the superior part, a little
ray of light and of faith that is almost imperceptible on account
of the tumultuous emotions in the inferior part. And with only
this slender support you are immovable, because the finest
thread in the hands of God is as strong as a cable, and a mere
hair is stronger than an iron chain.
9th. It is a temptation and a false humility to keep away from
the sacraments. What others do ought never to affect you who
know nothing about their ideas nor motives, nor the cause of
their keeping away.
loth. You say that God often deprives you of the feeling of
being in a state of grace. To whom among His dearest friends
has He given continually this sensible support ? Do you aspire
by any chance to be more highly privileged than so many saints
whom He has deprived of it for a much longer time than you ?
What had they to depend upon then save only the light of faith,,
and of a faith the same as ours which seems like darkness r
And amidst the darkness of their temptations and the tumult,
of their passions they knew no more than we do whether God was
satisfied with them. Faith teaches us that, unless by particular
revelation, the saints themselves were not able to be perfectly
certain about it ; and you complain because you do not possess
this certainty. See how far this unhappy self-love goes. To
satisfy it God would have to work miracles. Of all the miseries,
that humble you so much this is certainly the greatest, and the
best calculated to humiliate you.
i ith. To wish to be occupied with God and not with yourself,
and then to fall back continually on yourself is, I must own, a
temptation as troublesome as the flies in autumn ; but then you
338 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
must drive away this temptation as you have continually to
drive away the flies, without ever leaving off this work ; quietly
however, without distress or annoyance, humbling yourself
before God as you do in other miseries. It is we, ourselves,
who compel God to overwhelm us with miseries to make us
humble and to increase our self-contempt. If, in spite of this,
we have so little humility and so much self-esteem, what would
it be if we found ourselves free from these trials ? Believe me,
you have appeared to be for some time past so penetrated with
the knowledge of your miseries that I believe this feeling alone
is one of the greatest graces that God could bestow upon you.
Love then everything that helps to preserve it.
I remain yours in our Lord.
I feel very tired of so much writing and before reading to the
end of your letter I had the same idea as you, to divide my
answers. I do not, however, regret having now placed you in a
condition to understand at a single glance the general drift of
the direction you ought to follow in order to gather all the fruit
of the trial to which God is subjecting you.
SEVENTH BOOK.
THE LAST TRIALS. AGONY AND MYSTICAL DEATH. THE FRUIT
THEREOF.
LETTER I. Temptations to Despair.
To Sister Charlotte-Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux. On
spiritual nakedness. Annihilation. Temptations to despair.
Alby, 1732.
My very dear daughter in our Lord. The peace of Jesus
Christ be always with you.
Of all your letters the last is the one that has given me most
consolation before God. You understand nothing about how
you are circumstanced. I, however, by the grace of God, see it
as clearly as daylight.
i st. The state of stupidity and dullness that you depict, the
chaotic mass of misery and weakness, what else can this be
but the gift of God, and this is what has gradually produced in
your soul different spiritual operations of grace. It would be
in vain to attempt to explain them to you, because God would
not enable you to understand them in the state to which He
has brought you, and the knowledge you might gain from reading
my letter would vanish at once. But I can, at least, give you
an assurance which ought to satisfy you.
I acknowledge that, at first, I was somewhat astonished that
God should treat you like one advanced in the spiritual life,
because this state is usually the fruit of long years of combat
and effort. The soul finds itself entering it when God, satisfied
with the diligence with which it has laboured to die to all things,
sets His own hand to the work to make it pass through that death
to which the total privation of all things created leads. He
strips it thus of all pleasure, even to that which is spiritual, of
all inclination,, of all light, to the end that, thus, it may become
freed from the senses, dull, and as though annihilated. When
God bestows this grace on a soul, it has hardly anything else to
do than endure in peace this harsh operation, and to bear this
gift of God in the profound interior silence of respect, adoration
and submission. This is your task ; in one sense a very easy one,
since it means nothing more than to act as a sick person confined
to his bed, and in the hands of his doctor and surgeon. He will
suffer quite patiently in the expectation of a complete cure.
You are in the same kind of position, in the hands of the great
and charitable Physician of our souls, and with a better founded
certainty of a cure.
ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
znd. The violent and almost continual assault of all your
passions is the result of the same mortifying and vivifying
operation. On the one hand, it causes all these movements to
give occasion to repel them and to acquire the opposite virtues ;
and, on the other hand, by means of these same attacks it lays a
solid foundation of perfection which comprises the most profound
humility, contempt, and hatred of self.
3rd. Temptations to discouragement and despair are another
consequence of the' same state, and possess still greater power of
purifying us. I know that there is never any consent because I
see that all your voluntary intentions are the exact contrary to
those of a soul that would offend God. No, my dear Sister, you
do not offend Him at these painful times ; your soul, on the
contrary, is then like gold that boils in the crucible ; it is purified,
and shines with an added lustre. Never are you upheld in a
more fatherly way by the hand of God, and if you were able to
see your state as it really is, far from being afflicted about it,
you would return thanks to the God of mercy for His ineffable
gift.
4th. Your method of prayer is good and will always be so as
long as you continue it peacefully in an entire abandonment,
and, as St. Francis of Sales expresses it, in a simple peaceful
waiting quite resigned to the will of God.
jth. As each ought to follow his attraction in prayer and
at other times, do not be afraid to keep yourself always in this
great destitution which you find within your soul. Remain
therein without any formed thought, quite dull and insensible
to all things. Love this state, because with regard to you it
is the gift of God, and the beginning of all good. I have never
come across any chosen souls whom God has not made to pass
through these dry deserts before arriving at the promised land
which is the terrestrial paradise of perfection.
6th. Interior reproaches about the slightest faults are an
evident sign of the especial care taken by the Holy Spirit for
your advancement. With certain souls He allows nothing to
escape notice, and about them He has a most fastidious jealousy ;
and it is a sure truth that souls which are the objects of this
jealousy, cannot, without infidelity, allow themselves to do what
other persons can do without imperfection. The fastidiousness
and jealousy of divine love are more or less great according to the
degree of its predilection. Consider if you have any occasion
to pity yourself about the merciful rigour it uses towards you.
yth. You are right to have no particular desire to make a
Retreat ; you are no longer in a position to desire, but rather
in that of having to abandon yourself unreservedly to all that
the Holy Spirit wishes to effect in you. It is for Him to determine
TEMPTATIONS TO DESPAIR 341
the time, the duration, the manner, and the results of His
operations, and for you to endure with submission, love and
gratitude. Some of these results are extremely severe ; but the
most humiliating, the most bitter, are always the most sanctifying.
Keep yourself, therefore, very quiet, and allow this good physician
who has undertaken your cure to act as seems best to Him.
8th. You can apply to yourself all that I wrote last year to
Sister Marie-Antoinette de Mahuet, and derive profit for your
own needs ; but you must not be surprised that while you are
suffering from this spiritual upsetting neither my letters nor
any books will be of any use. God wills it otherwise ; at present
He extinguishes all light, all feeling, to operate alone in the depths
of your soul whatever He pleases. Now I ask you, is not what
God does of infinitely more value than all you could effect by
your own industry ? Beg Him to treat you like a beast of burden
that allows itself to be led without resistance ; or like a stone
which receives the blows of the hammer, and takes what form the
architect desires.
9th. The loss of hope causes you more grief than any other
trial. I can well understand this, for, as during your life you
find yc turself deprived of everything that could give you the least
help, so you imagine that at the hour of your death you will be
in a siate of fearful destitution. Ah ! this is indeed a misery,
and for this I pity you far more than for your other sufferings.
Allow me, with the help of God's grace, to endeavour to set this
trouble in its true light and so to cure you. What you want,
my dear Sister, is to find support and comfort in yourself and
your good works. Well, this is precisely what God does not
wish, and what He cannot endure in souls aspiring after per-
fection. What ! lean upon yourself ? count on your works ?
Could self-love, pride, and perversity have a more miserable
fruit ? It is to deliver them from this that God makes all chosen
souls pass through a fearful time of poverty, misery and nothing-
ness. He desires to destroy in them gradually all the help and
confidence they derive from themselves, to take away every
expedient so that He may be their sole support, their confidence,
their hope, their only resource. Oh ! what an accursed hope it
is, that without reflexion you seek in yourself. How pleased I
am that God destroys, confounds and annihilates this accursed
hope by means of this state of poverty and misery. Oh ! happy
poverty ! blessed despoilment ! which formed the delight of
all the saints and especially of St. Francis of Sales ! Let us
love it as they loved it, and when by virtue of this love all con-
fidence and hope, all earthly and created support has been
removed, we shall find neither hope nor support in anything
but God, and this is the holy hope and confidence of the saints
34 2 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
which is founded solely on the mercy of God and the merits of
Jesus Christ. But you will only attain to this hope when God
shall have completely destroyed your self-confidence, root and
branch ; and this cannot be effected without retaining you for
some time in the utmost spiritual poverty.
loth. " But," you will argue, " of what use are our good works
if they may not be for us some ground for confidence ? " They
are useful in attaining for us the grace of a complete distrust of
ourselves and of a greater confidence in God. This is all the
use that the saints made of them. What, in fact, are our good
works ? They are frequently so spoilt and corrupted by our
self-love that if God judged us rigorously we should deserve
chastisements for them rather than rewards. Think no more,
then, of your good works as of something to tranquillize you
at the hour of death, do not reflect on anything but the mercy
of God, the merits of Jesus Christ, the intercession of the saints,
and the prayers of holy souls, but on nothing, absolutely nothing
that might give occasion to reliance on yourself, nor to placing
the least degree of confidence in your works.
nth. That which you say to others, or rather what God
gives you to say for their consolation while you yourself are in a
state of extreme dryness, does not, in the least, surprise me.
God acts thus, often enough, when He wishes to console others,
and at the same time to keep oneself in a state of desolation and
abandonment. You then say what God inspires you to say
without any feeling yourself, but with much sympathy for others ;
I do not see any sign of hypocrisy in this.
i zth. To avoid relaxation during the fulfilment of the duties
you have undertaken through obedience, it is only necessary to
do everything quietly, without either anxiety or eagerness, and
to do them in this way you have but to do them for the love of
God and to obey Him, as St. Francis advises. " Therefore,"
continues the same saint, " as this love is gentle and sweet, all
that it inspires shares the same spirit." But when self-love
interferes with the wish to succeed and to be satisfied, which
always accompanies it, it first introduces natural activities
and excitements and their anxieties and troubles. " Whatever
these duties are," you tell me, " I feel sure that they prevent
me making any progress." My dear Sister, when one loves
God, one does not wish to make greater progress than God wills,
and one abandons one's spiritual progress to divine Providence,
just as wealthy people in the world abandon to Him all the success
of their temporal affairs. But the great misfortune is that self-
love thrusts itself everywhere, meddles with everything and
spoils all. It is because of this that even our desire of advancing
is food for self-love, a source of trouble, and consequently an
obstacle to our prayers.
GOOD SYMPTOMS 343
1 3th. Another foolish terror! "You fear," you say, "that
your want of feeling is the principle of your peace." Yes, cer-
tainly this is true, and it is for this reason that I look upon it
as a gift of God. I hope that the operations of the Holy Spirit
will lead to a still greater insensibility so as to render you with
regard to all created things like a block of wood, or the trunk of
a tree. This is what I have already told you, and you ridiculed
the idea. We are getting to it, by degrees, God be praised !
Without this kind of insensibility we should have neither the
strength, nor the courage necessary in many circumstances to
keep peaceful. We should require the virtue of blessed Margaret
Mary Alacoque of whom it was related with admiration that in
the midst of all her tenderness she was always mistress of herself.
As for your taste for solitude among all your occupations, I will
say to you what St. Ignatius said to Fr. Laynez in similar cir-
cumstances : " Father, if at court where obedience retains
you, you feel this great desire for solitude, it shows that you
are in safety ; if this desire should vanish and you should come
even to love your distracting duties it would be a bad sign."
Preserve, therefore, this love and desire of solitude, but as long
as God keeps you in the midst of the cares and distractions of
your occupations, try to love them for the sake of obedience.
LETTER II. Good Symptoms.
To the same Sister. Alby, 1^32.
My dear Sister and very dear daughter in our Lord.
The peace of Jesus Christ be always with you. Your letter
reminded me of a saying of Fenelon : " One does not begin to
know and to feel one's spiritual miseries until they begin to be
cured." It is, therefore, a very good symptom to feel over-
whelmed with miseries, provided that this feeling be exempt from
voluntary uneasiness, and joined to a complete interior resignation.
i st. During this state of obscurity, dryness, coldness, and
spiritual destitution, retain in your soul a firm and sincere will
to be all for God ; this is all that you can do under such circum-
stances. Then be comforted and remain in peace in the higher
part of your soul.
2nd. It is true that this state of which I spoke to you in my
last letter is a great gift of God, and that usually it is kept for
chosen souls who have been tried for a long time in the inferior
degrees of the spiritual life ; but it is also occasionally accorded,
out of pure goodness, to imperfect souls, because God is in no way
subject to laws. He bestows such graces as He pleases and to
344 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
whomsoever He pleases. This is your case I can assure you.
You only have, therefore, on your side, to keep yourself con-
tinually submissive to the interior dispositions that you ex-
perience at each moment, only willing what God wills, and for as
long as He wills it. If you are faithful in bearing this trial to
the end, you will see in time what will be the result. I rejoice
beforehand at the good fruit of which I guarantee you before
God.
You are suffering and without merit, without real
fidelity. You believe this and it is good for you to think so
since God permits it. Remain as long as you like in this belief,
but let it be subject to the will of God, and I will answer for you.
3rd. You can see nothing in your present state and still
less since you received my last letter than you did before. All
the better ! I hope that your darkness will increase day by day,
for, by the grace of God I see clearly through this darkness, and
that ought to be enough for you. Go on therefore through this
dark night by the light of blind obedience. This is a safe guide
which has never led anyone astray and which conducts with
more certainty and more quickly than even acts of the most
perfect abandonment.
4th. These acts, however, are excellent, but it may sometimes
happen that you find it impossible to make them, and then you
will be able to put yourself into a still more perfect condition,
which consists in keeping an interior silence of respect, adoration
and submission, about which I have so often spoken. This
silence says more to God than all your formal acts, and that
without reverting to self-complacency, without sensible con-
solation. This is the true mystical death which ought necessarily
to precede the supernatural life of grace. You would never
arrive at that entirely spiritual and interior life to which you
aspire with so much ardour, if God did not find in you this
second death ; death to spiritual consolations. These con-
solations are, in fact, so delightful, that if God did not detach us
from them by severe trials we should become more attached to
them than to' any worldly pleasures, and that would be an in-
surmountable obstacle to perfect union.
jth. In this state God knows about what you are occupied,
and I know also ; let that be sufficient for you. It is good for
you to believe yourself reduced to complete destitution. Appar-
ently you will never arrive at the happy state of one servant of
God who could no longer hold any intercourse with men as he
had forgotten the common language. Learn for your support
in this trial that what forms your great pain and martyrdom to-day
will one day become your greatest delight. When will this
happy time arrive ; Only God knows ! it will be when He pleases
GOOD SYMPTOMS 345
6th. The slight distraction and diminution of peace that you
experienced directly you left this state of stupidity for a short
time ought to have shown you what occupied you without your
knowledge in your apparent want of occupation, and what it is
that fills this fearful void.
yth. Do not expect to be able to explain this matter to your-
self more clearly. With God's grace I see it as plainly as mid-
day. You, yourself, feel at certain moments the fortunate
effects of this kind of stupidity. No ! No ! it is neither melan-
cholia, nor eccentricity, it is the operation of the Holy Spirit.
8th. There are times when everything irritates and wearies
you ; so they should. Saint Teresa even said that at these times
she did not feel that she had strength enough to crush an ant for
the love of God. Never could anyone attain to an entire dis-
trust of self and to a perfect confidence in God unless he had
passed through these different states of complete insensibility,
and absolute powerlessness. Happy state which produces such
marvellous effects.
9th. That which you experienced in Retreat was a slight
increase of your ordinary state, resembling the paroxysms of a
fever. This increase of trouble cannot but have been very
salutary for you from the moment you accepted it, as you say
you did. Keep quiet ; God leads you, His grace works in you,
although in a severe and crucifying manner, as is experienced
in all violent remedies. Your spiritual maladies had need of
remedies such as these ; let your good Physician act as He best
knows how ; He will proportion the strength of the remedy to
the power of the malady. Oh ! how ill you were formerly with-
out being aware of it ! It was then that you ought to have taken
the alarm, and not now that your convalescence is secured.
loth. What you experience at prayer is a very good thing
although very bitter. Do nothing more, however, than keep
firmly an entire resignation in the higher faculties of your soul,
as St. Francis of Sales advises.
nth. In the way you made your retreat formerly there was
infinitely more sensible devotion, and consequently, more satis-
faction for self-love ; but your present want of feeling is of
incomparably more value, and you will have felt this already
by its effects ; for you are very different now to what you used
to be after those delightful retreats. If you do not recognise
this fact I do so instead of you. If you were able to reflect a
little you would, yourself, notice how little foundation there is
for your fears. How can you explain without a particular
operation of grace, that although you passed the whole time of
retreat so sadly, yet, nevertheless, the time passed very rapidly
X
346 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
and without weariness ? Ought you not to find in this a manifest
proof that you were very well occupied while it lasted, without
knowing it ?
1 2th. The terror caused by your past sins is the most hurtful
and dangerous of your temptations, therefore I command you
to dismiss all these diabolical artifices, in the same way as you
would drive away temptations to blasphemy, or impurity.
Think only of the present time in order to conform your thoughts
to the holy will of God alone. Leave all the rest to His pro-
vidence and mercy. No ! your stupidity and want of feeling
are, by no means, a punishment for some hidden sin, as the devil
would like to make you imagine, to disturb the peace of your
soul. They are real graces ; bitter, it is true, but which have had,
and will continue to have very good effects. Who tells you this ?
It is I who assure you of it by the authority of God.
1 3th. I should have been very sorry to have had the foolish
satisfaction of hearing your general confession ; it would have
been to allow you to be caught in the devil's trap. What
ought you to do then to free yourself from these fears ? To
obey simply and blindly him who speaks to you on the part of
God who sent him ; and think no more, voluntarily, about it.
1 4th. Your callousness and indifference towards everything
that hitherto gave you the greatest pleasure, is, in truth, one of
the greatest graces that God could bestow upon you. But how
can this be ? By this frightful void, by this lasting state of
stupidity and callousness which seems so bitter to you. Yes,
indeed, this remedy is painful, but what fortunate effects are
produced by it when you accept it lovingly from the hand of the
kind Physician of your soul. Here in a few words is an abridg-
ment of the whole of this letter. Your only spiritual practice
will be to continue, as now, in the hands of God like a rough
stone to be shaped, cut, and polished, with heavy blows of the
hammer and chisel, waiting patiently until the sovereign Architect
arranges in what part of the building you are to be placed after
you have been cut and shaped by His hand.
Yours always in the Lord.
P.S. That which you relate to me about the Duke of Hamilton
is really wonderful, but does not surprise me at all. We are
accustomed to see similar effects of the power and mercy of God.
That little conversation was a grace for you. Never forget it.
INTERIOR OPPRESSION 347
LETTER III. On Inferior Oppression,
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil.
My dear Sister,
For the crushing and overwhelming weight which remains ever
on your spirit, I have but one remedy : a simple acquiescence,
a humble " fiat," which you will perhaps say without feeling it,
but which God will hear distinctly, and which will be sufficient
to sanctify you and to make of you a martyr of Providence.
Besides this, you would never be able to believe how many ex-
cellent acts are comprised in the feeling of oppression that this
heaviness of heart occasions. It is a much greater grace for
you than you can imagine. You will find it a most efficacious
means of acquiring a true spirit of penance ; that compunction
so much valued by all the saints, and of which God has fre-
quently made you feel the need. Take up your cross, then, and
with submission and gratitude, repeat often to God that even
in your most holy desires, and those that are most salutary,
you wish to take His adorable will for rule and measure, desiring
only that degree of virtue and eternal happiness which He
intends you to have. Communicate as frequently as you are
permitted, and endure with peace and submission all the
trials that the reception of this Sacrament will occasion you.
Your humility and interior abasement will supply for all the
dispositions that you lack ; and the privation of all sensible fruit
will be amply compensated for by the courage and abandonment
with which you bear yourself in the ways by which God leads you.
Your illness and the rule of life it compels you to follow are the
best penance you could have. You are afraid of pleasing yourself
in this state of suffering by not fasting ? Foolish fear ! rather
be afraid of being wanting in interior abnegation while following
your own ideas. Obey your doctor blindly : God requires this
of you, whereas He certainly does not ask you to fast. Offer
Him, as often as you are able, your illness, its consequences, and
your fears ; but only in your heart, quietly ; recollecting that
you must will all that God wills. Just a thought of, a look at
our Lord will be enough.
LETTER IV. "Purification of the Heart.
From the bottom of my heart I bless God, my dear Sister, for
carrying on His work in you. The crushing weight that you feel
on your heart is one of the most salutary operations of that
crucifying love which does in your heart what fire does to green
348 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
wood. Before the flame can make its way the wood crackles,
smokes, and gives out all the damp with which it is saturated ,
but when it is perfectly dry it burns quietly, diffusing all round
it a brilliant light. This will be the case with you after your
heart has been purified by many crosses, and particularly by
these crucifying spiritual operations. You must therefore
endure these operations with courage, with sweetness, avoiding
as much as possible worrying, or distressing yourself interiorly.
This is the good and sufficient penance that God requires of you.
It is of more value than any corporal austerities, although every-
one ought to practise the latter according to his strength and
health. In what you add I see an evident sign of the good effect
produced by your present trial. It seems to you, you say, that
you are always waiting for something that is wanting to you.
This is because your heart, tired of creatures, and unable to exist
without joy and love, feels more keenly than ever a longing for
that sovereign good which can alone satisfy it. The greater the
void left in the heart by its withdrawal from all earthly affections,
the greater is the ardour with which it sighs after the enjoyment
of God, and of His holy love. This it is for which you are
waiting ; and it is precisely by this waiting and these secret sighs
that at last you will obtain this divine love. The waters of life are
given to those who thirst for them. Ardent desires are the
money with which to buy this sublime and exquisite enjoyment of
God ; that heavenly food which alone can appease the hunger and
thirst of the soul ; whereas the love for, and even the possession
of all created goods does nothing but inflame and irritate, without
ever satisfying them.
LETTER V. On Emptiness of Heart.
On Emptiness of heart.
I greatly approve, my dear Sister, of the patience with which
you endure the great emptiness you experience in your soul.
By this you will make more progress in one month than you would
in several years of sweetness and consolation. About this I can
only exhort you to go on in the same way. It is necessary to
traverse this desert to reach during this life the promised land.
I am not at all surprised that this great emptiness seems like
a support to you. This is what, in fact, it is, because God is
present therein, but in an almost imperceptible manner, just as
He was in your trials. Look upon this distaste for all things,
and apparent want of feeling towards all that is not God, as a
great grace to be carefully guarded and preserved. God will
come at the time fixed by His grace to fill the void which He has
ade in your heart, and the ineffable sweetness of His presence
FRESH SUFFERING 349
will create a fresh distaste for the miserable pleasures of this
world. From this time, therefore, bid a general and final fare-
well to all creatures ; and rejoice when they forsake you of their
own accord ; God permits this as a help to your weakness. As
for me, I am delighted at what has happened, and that you have
been treated with so little consideration. This conduct has
certainly been as salutary for you as it was humiliating. Oh !
if you could gradually become accustomed to love this abjection
what progress would you not make !
LETTER VI. Fresh Suffering.
To Sister Marie-Therese de Viomenil. On the same subject
and the renewal of pain.
My dear Sister,
Since you find my letters consoling and useful, I promise you
that, wherever I may be, to the last moment of my life, I will
continue to reply to yours faithfully.
i st. The imperfections and even the faults we may commit
contrary to entire submission to the will of God, do not prevent
that submission from dwelling in the heart, and do not destroy
the merit of it. To make up for the harm these faults occasion
us, it is sufficient to humble ourselves about them, and to return
as quickly as possible to a filial abandonment into the hands of
God.
2nd. I understand better than you imagine your anguish
of heart and the weight that seems to crush it. For several years
I was in the same state and about something, in itself very
insignificant, that hurt my pride. I committed many faults,
but I tried at once to recover the ground I had lost. Some time
elapsed before I recognised the advantages I had derived from
this trial. They appeared, eventually, so great and so numerous
that I continue to thank God daily for having thus struck me
in His mercy by making me pass through this spiritual cleansing.
I feel convinced that in due time God will grant you very nearly
the same ideas, and that then you will never tire of returning
thanks to Him for that which so much afflicts you at present.
I have also had similar experiences on innumerable occasions
of the increase of trouble about which you speak ; exactly like
the paroxysms of a fever.
3rd. At such times, as in severe illness, you can only try
to remain as much as possible in silence and peace ; because,
as regards express acts, and especially such as are sensible
and consoling, one is not then in a fit state to make them. How-
350 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
ever, God sees the submission that has its foundation in the heart,
and that is enough for gaining merit. In this state the less
the consolation you enjoy so much the more the spiritual profit
you will derive from it.
4th. It is not forbidden to ask God to take away these
troubles, especially if they violently afflict the heart. Jesus Christ
acted thus in the Garden of Olives ; but you must add as He did
and in union with Him, " Nevertheless not my will but Thine
be done," and although you may feel very great repugnance
to adding these words and do so with much interior rebellion,
it does not matter. It is the lower nature that resists and is
afflicted. This resistance does not, however, destroy the resig-
nation of the superior part ; on the contrary, it does but increase
the merit and hasten the progress of the soul in the paths of
solid virtue.
5th. They are doing quite right in making you frequent the
sacraments ; you would commit a serious fault if you were to
stay away, and nothing could be more dangerous for you.
Neither depression, nor discouragement, nor trouble, nor con-
fusion, nor any interior difficulty should ever prevent you going
to Holy Communion. Such painful conditions, endured and
accepted for God, are worth more than fervour and sensible
consolation. The latter often only serve to feed and encourage
spiritual self-love, the most subtle and evasive of all the forms of
self-love, while the other dispositions tend to its gradual extinc-
tion. It is in this destruction of self-love that all true piety and
all spiritual progress consist, while for want of real abnegation
most devout people have only the appearance of piety. In the
unsettled state of your health you should find only another
subject for daily sacrifice that is very meritorious. You must
submit to all the remedies and even resign yourself to give up
fasting, even for a single day. Your worries and scruples about
this matter have no foundation. You must make a sacrifice,
for the sake of obedience, of these troubles and disinclinations
however spiritual them seem to be. If you do otherwise it will
be a real illusion which your own good sense should lead you to
avoid, but to which I have seen many people, even Religious,
give in.
SUPERNATURAL FEARS 351
LETTER VII. Supernatural fears.
To Sister de Lesen of the Annunciation. Supernatural fears
and pain. (1736)
In spite of the great natural compassion, and the great affection
in our Lord that I feel towards the afflicted person of whom you
speak, I cannot feel either alarmed at her state, or even pity
her very much about it. I have frequently told her that, after
the signal favours she has received from God, I was astonished
at one thing only, which was, that having received a high degree
of the gift of simple recollection she has not been sooner sub-
mitted to the usual trials of that state. It will suffice to inform
you that when I became aware of the beginning of this trial
I could feel neither surprise nor annoyance. Now that I perceive
a fresh access of suffering I can but repeat what she already
knows, and what God has given her grace to put in practice,
in fact, what you yourself have told her. This you know as well
as I do. As long as God keeps her in this suffering state an angel
from Heaven could not draw her out of it, nor impart to her
the slightest consolation. Nevertheless I will, for your satis-
faction, willingly explain a few little details.
i st. That which enables me to judge that the state of this
dear soul is, at one and the same time, a trial and an effect of
her progress in the supernatural life is, first, that this sad con-
dition is the outcome of a sense of faith, of a lively fear of the
judgments of God, of death, of eternity, etc. Secondly, that
she has been much consoled for a long time by abandoning herself
into the hands of God, and uniting herself to Jesus crucified.
Thirdly, that this painful access of suffering has come upon her
now without any sensible or apparent cause, and without being
preceded by any reflexion. Fourthly, even if her natural
temperament, character, disposition, and other causes have
contributed to produce it, as sometimes happens, the pain,
in the end, is none the less supernatural ; because it is beyond
nature to produce such an effect without sensible or apparent
cause. Therefore have no fears on her account for she is cer-
tainly in the state that mystical authors call " suffering the
crucifying gift of God." As for the fear she has of losing her
reason, she is not the only one who has been tormented by such
fears. I have known numbers of people who have been impelled
to make this great and last sacrifice with an entire abandonment,
and full confidence. She will have the whole merit of it
without its realisation, I hope, being required of her by God.
These are the ways of God with souls. He only asks in in-
352 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
numerable similar cases, the sacrifice of the heart without its
completion, as He acted formerly with regard to Abraham.
Therefore let her hope against all hope. Every trial, borne well,,
will turn out for her very advantageous ; be consoled and in
peace about her. As for the Retreat, I am inclined to think
it would be well to defer it. But if, however, she wishes to
continue it she has only to do what you have advised her ; her
only meditation to be on confidence in God ; her only reading
such as will nourish her soul with the essence of pure recollection,
almost without thought or reasoning, at any rate none that
requires effort.
and. She should reflect as little as possible about her suffering
and interior distress. Such reflections while detracting from
the merit only tend to embitter and increase the evil. Let
her try to forget herself and to think only of God, but gently
and simply without any violent effort. She should not speak of
her afflictions any more, not even to God in prayer. Let her
intercourse with Him be on quite different subjects as much as
possible.
3rd. If solitude has the effect of plunging her more deeply
into anguish in spite of herself, then I advise her to converse about
holy things with you, or any of the other Sisters. The Rev.
Mother is right to cut off the annual confession. I forbid it
on the part of God, and prohibit the mere thought of it.
4th. As you, very rightly, remark, it is certain that this state
of suffering has already produced very good results in this soul.
Nothing ever has, nor ever could do her so much good. Even
when the extreme pain should have altogether ceased, I foretell
that there will remain for a long time a certain impression of
interior humiliation which will continue to produce marvellous
after-effects. The fear that this miserable state will return will
make her depend on God with a profound and continual confi-
dence, which will prove for her a very great blessing.
5th. For the rest, if these supernatural troubles find no
human remedy, nothing is more easy than to point out a way
to derive great profit from them, and to soften them considerably.
Submission, abandonment, peace, patience, confidence in God r
and to allow God to act without interruption by too frequent
interior acts ; in a word, there should only be a humble and
simple interior disposition produced in the soul by the grace of
Jesus Christ, with which it co-operates somehow, but more
passively than actively, or to speak correctly, by making its
activity submissive to the action of God. Amen.
ON VIOLENT TEMPTATIONS 353
LETTER VIII. On Violent Temptations.
To Sister de Lesen. (1736)
i st. My dear Sister. Each ought to make her prayer, her
spiritual exercises, and consequently, her Retreat, according to
her attraction, and her needs. Take therefore a spiritual book
which suits the attraction which grace gives you at the moment ;
and in all your interior occupations let your soul tend above all to
a total abandonment to God. Rest an unlimited confidence in
the divine mercy, and be strengthened in this feeling with the
more energy the more subjects for fear you believe yourself to
have. What most delights the heart of God is that you should
hope against all hope ; that is to say, against the apparent
impossibility of seeing what you hope for realised.
and. As to the horrible temptation you have spoken about
in your letter to me, I declare that it would be difficult to imagine
any more fearful, whether in itself, or in its circumstances. Be
very careful not to allow yourself to be overcome by it. To
begin with you must know that these trials, which are more
grieVous than any others, are those which God usually makes
those souls whom He most loves undergo. At this time I have
under my direction some who, in this respect, are in an indes-
cribable state, the mere account of which would horrify you.
The entire interior nature is encompassed with darkness, and
buried in mud. God retains and upholds the free will, that
higher faculty of the soul, without affording it the slightest
feeling of support. He enlightens it with the entirely spiritual
light of pure faith in which the senses have no part ; and the
poor soul, abandoned, as it appears, to its misery, delivered over
as a prey to the malice of devils, is reduced to a most frightful
desolation, and endures a real martyrdom. On this subject
read that Chapter in Guillore where he speaks of very great
temptations. It is true that we should always fear, but without
being anxious or depressed, and always with a tendency to
confidence. Never forget that the Almighty who has His plans
in these hidden matters, takes possession in the depths of the
soul, and sustains it divinely, without allowing it any perception
of His presence. In this state God bestows on you a grace that
He often refuses to many others ; that of feeling, or at least
of knowing and discerning, that you would prefer to be torn
in pieces rather than give the least consent.
3rd. Do not be embarrassed as to the way you ought to
confess the thoughts and suggestions of the enemy. You must
354 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
never mention them at all. As to the manner of resisting them,
the best, the easiest, and the most efficacious for persons following
your way, is that which you have adopted already ; I mean a
simple look of the soul at its God ; an interior movement by
which without agitation or anxiety, it turns away from creatures
and from itself to turn to its Creator. It is a true conversion
of the soul to God. Make use of it always and for everything,
whenever in His goodness He gives you this grace. However,
you can occasionally form a deliberate act of resistance, but
without feeling yourself obliged to do so, and without violent
effort. " My God preserve me from all voluntary consent ;
may I rather die than consent freely to offend You in any way
whatever. Yes, death rather than sin, Oh my God ! But as
for the pain, anguish of heart, spiritual desolation, humiliation,
and abjection, I accept them for as long a time as You please.'*
4th. The terrifying idea of the justice of God, the anguish and
interior bitterness which ensue are evidently another trial sent
you by God. It is not less evident that the peace and tran-
quillity which accompany these dreadful feelings arise from the
submission that God establishes in the depths of your soul.
This peace, with the interior conviction that everything you
do is useless for gaining Heaven, is not so difficult to understand
as you imagine ; not, at any rate, to directors who have had some
experience. The peace comes from God, it dwells in the recesses
of the soul, or according to St. Francis of Sales in the highest
point of the mind. This alarming conviction is nothing else than
a vivid impression which the devil is allowed to produce in the
lower nature, or, as it were, in the exterior and sensitive part
of your soul. It is this diabolical impression which makes a
martyr of your soul, and it is the submission which God gives
it that produces the peace which is above all feeling. This is
certain, I assure you. If you could see it as plainly as I do it
would no longer be a trial to you. Be satisfied therefore with
the almost imperceptible sight of it which God allows you, and
with what I must call some sort of confused feeling which keeps
you in peace. For the rest, even if this feeling is lacking obedi-
ence ought to suffice you ; obedience and abandonment. Repeat
without ceasing by a firm, actual disposition of your will : " May
God do with me whatever He pleases, but, meanwhile, I wish to
love and to serve Him to the best of my power, and to hope in
Him. I should continue to hope in Him even if I found myself
at the gates of hell." It is of faith that God never abandons
anyone who gives himself to Him, and who places all his con-
fidence in Him. Say then, " He is the God of my salvation,
never could my salvation be more assured than when placed
in His hands, and when confided entirely to His infinite goodness.
ON VIOLENT TEMPTATIONS 355
If left to myself I could do nothing but spoil everything and
lose my soul."
jth. The torment of the lower nature during these attacks
would not be able to destroy your peace of mind if your sub-
mission to God were perfect. This is called having a solid and
not an imaginary peace. With regard to troublesome thoughts,
foolish imaginations, and other temptations you must first, as
soon as possible, let them fall like a stone in the water. Secondly,
if you cannot succeed in doing this, as frequently happens in
times of trial, you must allow yourself to suffer as God pleases
the maladies of the soul, just as you would those of the body ;
in patience, peace, submission, confidence, and a total abandon-
ment, willing only to do the will of God in union with Jesus
Christ.
6th. Your " fiat," with regard to things of which you dis-
approve, taking care not to show what you feel, out of charity,
is all that God asks of you. Oh ! my dear Sister, how happy
would be many souls that I know, if God were to give them all the
consoling advantages He bestows upon you.
yth. A profound desire for recollection is a very real recol-
lection in itself, although unaccompanied by pleasure. If less
consoling than sensible recollection, it is all the more disinterested,
and consequently more meritorious. In such a state one appro-
priates nothing to oneself because one seems to possess nothing
at all.
8th. The impatience caused by the feeling of your own
nothingness, is only a slight vexation of pride and self-love, and
would be a serious imperfection if consented to, because we ought
to deplore our misery with a tranquil humility. " Learn," says
St. Francis of Sales, " to bear your own miseries as you ought to
bear those of your neighbour."
9th. I am not surprised at the increase of your trials and
temptations since your Retreat. If you understood, as I do,
the good effects they ought to produce in purifying the most
secret recesses of your heart, you would bless God for them
without ceasing ; for this is a great grace, and one that God
reserves for those souls whom He wishes to lead to pure love,
by detachment from all created things, and especially from
themselves.
loth. It is a good thing to do some exterior penance, provided'
it be done with discretion, but you must not do too much. As,
long as your present trial lasts you should first of all make your
renunciation consist in accepting it with perfect submission.
You still have a great deal to do to reach this perfect abandon-
ment, and I should be sorry if you were to lose sight of this
kind of mortification to practise others much less necessary,
356 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Your spiritual troubles will only subside when yqu abandon
yourself to all that God wills for you without reserve, without
limit, and for ever.
God be praised for all and in all. Amen.
LETTER IX. Death of Se/f-Love.
To Sister Marie-Anne-Therese de Rosen. Annihilation and
spiritual agony.
My dear Sister,
i st. Such a lively impression of your nothingness in the
sight of God is one of the most salutary operations of the grace
or the Holy Spirit. I know how much suffering this operation
entails. The poor soul feels as if it would become utterly
annihilated, but for all that, it is only nearer the true life. In
fact the more we realise our nothingness the nearer we are to
truth, since we were made from nothing, and drawn out of it
by the pure goodness of our Lord. We ought therefore to
remember this continually, in order to render by our voluntary
annihilation a continual homage to the greatness and infinity
of our Creator. Nothing is more pleasing to God than this
homage, nothing could make us more certain of His friendship,
while at the same time nothing so much wounds our self-love.
It is a holocaust in which it is completely consumed by the fire
of divine love. You must not then be surprised at the violent
resistance it offers, especially when the soul experiences mortal
anguish in receiving the death-blow to this self-love. The suffer-
ing one feels then is like that of a person in agony, and it is only
through this painful agony and by the spiritual death which
follows it that one can arrive at the fulness of divine life and an
intimate union with God. What else can be done when this
painful but blessed hour arrives, but imitate Jesus Christ on the
Cross ; commend one's soul to God, abandoning oneself more and
more utterly to all that this sovereign Master pleases to do to
His poor creature, and to endure this agony for as long as He
pleases.
znd. For the time that these crucifying operations continue,
the understanding, the memory and the will are in a fearful
void, in nothingness. Love this immense void since God deigns
to fill it ; love this nothingness since the infinitude of God is
there. Take good courage, my dear daughter, and agree to
everything with that holy abasement ,of spirit of Jesus crucified.
It is from Him that we should look for all our strength. When
these agonies begin, accustom yourself to repeat, " Yes, Lord, I
DEATH OF SELF-LOVE 357
desire to do Your holy will in all things, in union with Jesus
Christ." What is there to fear in such company ? In the midst
of the strongest temptations, cast yourself simply at the feet of
your Saviour-God, and your troubles will cease ; He will render
you victorious, and aided by His strength your weakness will
triumph over all the artifices of the tempter.
3rd. The revolt of the passions without any occasion being
given them by you, the interior excitement and involuntary
trouble this and a hundred other miseries cause in you, are per-
mitted for two reasons. First, to humble you in an extraordinary
degree, to make you realise what a heap of misery, what an abyss
of corruption is yours, in allowing you to see what would become
of you without the great mercy of God. Secondly, in order
that by the interior supervention of fresh operations all these
germs of death, hitherto hidden in your own soul, can be uprooted
like noxious weeds, which only appear above ground that they
may be more easily taken up by the skilled hand of the gardener.
It is only after having completely cleared the ground that he can
cultivate wholesome plants, sweet smelling flowers, and choice
fruits. Let Him do this, give up to Him entirely the task of
cultivating this rough ground, which left to itself could bring
forth nothing but thistles and thorns. Do not be anxious. Be
content to feel yourself greatly humbled and much confounded,
remain profoundly abased in this heap of mire, like Job on his
dung-hill ; it is your right place ; wait for God to draw you out
of it, and meanwhile allow yourself to be purified by Him.
What does it signify so long as you are pleasing to Him ? Some-
times princes take pleasure in splashing their favourites with
water, then the favourite is happy to be thus treated since it
gives his prince pleasure.
4th. When you feel pusillanimous and filled with fears,
humble yourself, and say to yourself, " My weakness is so extreme
that left to myself I could do nothing, but with the grace of
Jesus Christ everything becomes possible and easy. In Him
alone will I hope, He will give me all that is good for me."
5th. But what is most trying, but most in conformity with
the rules by which privileged souls are guided, is the piercing
thought that God rejects you, that He abandons you as for ever
unworthy of His favours. Oh ! my dear Sister, you would be
only too happy now if you could understand as I do what is
even in this, the kind conduct of God in your regard. All that
I can say to you about it, and I say it without knowing whether
in your state of trial, it will please God to make you understand
it, is that never have you loved God so purely as now, and that
never have you been so much loved by Him. But this love is
so hidden away in the midst of your torments and apparent
358 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
miseries that your director has need of a certain amount of
experience to be able to recognise it. But have patience, this
fearful darkness will be succeeded by a clear light, the brilliance
of which will delight you. Yes, my dear Sister, you can believe
me, even though at present you may not be able to understand,
because I do not tell you anything of which God has not given
me a certitude. The bitterest part of your trials, those ideas of
being separated from God, which plunges you into a kind of
hell, is the most divine of all the operations of divine love in you ;
but the operation is completely hidden beneath altogether
contrary appearances. It is the fire which seems to destroy
the soul while purifying it of all self-love, as gold is refined in the
crucible. Oh ! how happy you are, without knowing it ! how
dear you are without understanding it, what great things God
effects in your soul in a manner so much the more certain the
more it is hidden and unrecognized. It is our weakness, oh my
God, it is our wretched self-love, it is our pride that prevent
You giving us great graces without hiding them from us, or,
in other words, without our knowledge, for fear that we should
corrupt Your gifts by appropriating them to ourselves in foolish,
secret, and imperceptible self-satisfaction. This, my dear
Sister, is the whole mystery of the obscure dealings of God in
your regard. In brief, my dear Sister, fear nothing, keep firm,
take courage ; God is with you and in you, you have nothing
to fear even if you were in hell in the midst of unchained devils.
Nothing can happen to you save by the permission of God, and
He will permit nothing that will not turn to your advantage ;
therefore you are perfectly safe as long as you confide in the
goodness of so faithful a friend, so tender a Father, so powerful
a protector, so passionate a lover and spouse. For these tender
and loving titles are those which He deigns to give Himself in
Holy Scripture, and the significance of which He so perfectly
fulfils in your regard.
LETTER X. On Mystical Death.
To Sister Charlotte-Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux.
Luneville, 1733. On mystical death. Its use.
My very dear daughter,
I well understand that the state in which it pleases God to
place you is very painful to nature, but am rather surprised that
you should not yet comprehend that in this way God desires to
effect in you a death that will make you live henceforth a life
wholly supernatural and divine. You have asked Him a hundred
ON MYSTICAL DEATH 359
times for this mystical death, and now that He has answered you,
the more your apparent misery increases, the more certain you
may be that God is effecting that nudity and poverty of spirit
of which mystics speak. I recommend to you the works of
Guillore in which you will find your present state very well
explained. But you are going to ask me what you should do.
Nothing, nothing, my daughter, but to let God act, and to be
careful not to obstruct by an inopportune activity the operation
of God ; to abstain even from sensible acts of resignation,
except when you feel that God requires them of you. Remain
then like a block of wood, and you will see later the marvels
that God will have worked during that silent night of inaction.
Self-love, however, cannot endure to behold itself thus completely
despoiled, and reduced to nothing. Read and read again what
Guillore says about this nothing, and you will bless God for
putting you in possession of this treasure. As for me, I also
bless Him for it, and consider yours an enviable lot, for you must
know that there are very few whom God gives the grace of
passing through a state of such great deprivation. The fear of
aridity, of which you tell me, is the ordinary consequence of this
extreme nudity. God upholds you insensibly as you experience
yourself; and it is proved that this state is from God because
of the peace that you possess in it apart from the senses, and
because you would be vexed to be deprived of it. You only
require patience, resignation, and abandonment, but these
dispositions should not be felt. Remember that God sees in
the depths of your heart all your most secret desires. This
assurance should be sufficient for you ; a cry hidden is of the
same value as a cry uttered, says the Bishop of Meaux. Leave
off these reflexions and continual self-examinations about what
you do, or leave undone ; you have abandoned yourself entirely
to God, and given yourself to Him over and over again ; you
must not take back your offering. Leave the care of everything
to Him. The comparison you make is very just; God ties
your hands and feet to be able to carry on His work without inter-
ference ; and you do nothing but struggle, and make every
effort, but in vain, to break these sacred bonds, and to work
yourself according to your own inclination. What infidelity !
God requires no other work of you but to remain peacefully
in your chains and weakness. As for your duties, do outwardly
as well as you can, and I will answer for the interior, for God is
there in an imperceptible manner to draw you from all that can
be perceived by the senses. Just the feeling of your own misery
and corruption demonstrates the presence of God, but of God
hiding Himself to remain more truly present, and withdrawing
Himself to give Himself more completely. About this read
360 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Guillore again. God has permitted your preliminary imprudence
to allow you, without your thinking of it, a necessary consolation,
and at the same time to mortify and humiliate your self-love.
Oh ! happy imprudence ! God, no doubt, permitted the second
to take you from your occupation. Since you neither spoke, nor
acted with this intention, have no scruple about it, and think
of it no more, but allow divine Providence to act. Is it not on
His side a truly fatherly care which has arranged for you to
escape from a false position, with the result that you have been
at one and the same time consoled and humiliated, and left to
the satisfaction of the thought that you have not contributed
in any way to your relief ?
Allow your terror of death and of judgment to increase as
much as God pleases ; do nothing positively either to encourage,
or to deliver yourself from it ; in a word put yourself in God's
hands as if you were a dead body that can be handled, turned,
and moved as He pleases.
Finally I see nothing more simple, nor more easy than what
you should do at present, since it consists in letting God do
everything, and remaining passive yourself. It must be owned,
however, that this state of inaction is the most cruel torment
for our accursed nature which, living only for itself, fears the
loss of its activities as much as death and annihilation.
LETTER XL For the Time of Retreat.
To the same Sister. Before the Retreat. Nancy, 1734.
The way in which you should make your Retreat is most
simple, but cannot fail to be painful on account of the interior
state in which God is pleased to keep your soul at present.
i st. Do not forget, my dear Sister, that after having passed
through the first degrees of the spiritual life our further progress
is effected entirely by the way of losses, destruction, and anni-
hilation. To arrive at a spiritual life it is necessary, by the grace
of God, to die to all created things, to all things sensible and
human. Consequently you must expect during this Retreat
not to enjoy either sensible lights, or spiritual pleasures, or an
increased desire for God, and for divine things ; but, on the
contrary, to fall into a state of greater darkness, an increased
distaste, and a more complete apathy. Do not then occupy
yourself in any other duty than that of receiving whatever your
sovereign Lord and Master chooses to give you ; since, after
having abandoned yourself entirely to Him, you should regard
your soul as ground that no longer belongs to you but to Him
alone in which to sow whatever seed He pleases ; light or dark-
FOR THE TIME OF RETREAT 361
ness, pleasure or disgust, in a word, all that He pleases ; or nothing
at all if such should be His will. Oh ! how terrible to self-love
is this nothing ! but how good and profitable for the soul is this
grace, and the life of faith. God does not complete His work
in us perfectly, unless we become firmly established, by our will,
in the conviction of our own nothingness, because the measure
of our resistance, and the impediments we place to the divine
operations, is the measure also of the acquiescence of our will
in this state.
znd. In this state of despoilment you should never force your
inclination by means, or about subjects that do not suit you.
Simply meditate, as far as you are able, on the life and mysteries
of Jesus Christ. Read the v/orks of St. Francis of Sales, and a
few of St. Jane de Chantal's letters ; those which treat of states
of suffering and privation. Read especially some of the lives
of saints of both sexes that are to the point, or an account of the
virtues of your holy Rev. Mother or Sisters. You will derive
instruction and consolation from such reading.
3rd. During the day keep yourself spiritually united to God,
receiving and accepting from His fatherly Providence all the
different circumstances that occur with an entire abandonment
and total surrender of yourself. In this way you will practise
true recollection in which there is no fear of slothfulness.
When you feel more attraction or facility in forming acts or
colloquies with God or our Lord, quietly follow these impressions
of grace, but without effort or eagerness. Follow the advice of
St. Francis of Sales, who desires that these acts should flow,
or be as though distilled by the higher faculties of the soul.
The moment it becomes necessary to make some effort to continue
these acts leave them off at once and humbly resume your former
state.
Keep yourself in repose in the depths of your heart, detached
from all thoughts of exterior things, as Fenelon advises ; I mean
voluntary thoughts ; as for those that pass through the mind,
take no notice of them ; however, if you find that you are
obsessed by them in spite of yourself, then have patience, be at
peace, and abandon yourself.
Unquestionably you must be very faithful and particular in
accomplishing the exercises marked out for the time of Retreat.
If you observe these rules you need not fear wasting your time ;
fear only that miserable terror which is the outcome solely of
self-love. Do not allow yourself to be distracted from simple
recollection by this trouble, but guard and preserve it as a precious
treasure however slight, dry, and barren it may be. For with
regard to you nothing could be more important than this recol-
lection in God, without which it would be impossible for Him to
ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
accomplish in you His divine work. If you keep yourself
united to Him you may be assured that He will act in you,
although it may be in an imperceptible manner, and the result
of His action should be, at this time, to impoverish and despoil
you more and more, rather than to enrich and replenish you.
When you become, by grace, insupportable to yourself, and find
not the least satisfaction in your good works, nothing remains but
to put up with yourself and to use towards yourself the same
kindness and charity that you employ towards your neighbour ;
it is St. Francis of Sales who gives us this advice. Happy is
he who by dint of having destroyed self-love, which is the false
love of oneself, no longer retains any estimation of himself,
nor any love except that of pure charity, the same that he has
for his neighbour, or even his enemies, in spite of a sort of con-
tempt and horror that he feels towards himself. Many more
trials will be necessary before arriving at that degree of per-
fection in which self-love ceases to exist, and is replaced by the
real love of pure charity. I pray God with all my heart to give
you this grace.
LETTER XII. After the Retreat.
To the same Sister. After the Retreat. November 4th, 1734.
i st. I must begin by telling you frankly that, although
naturally compassionate, I cannot pity you, but even rejoiced
interiorly in God while perusing your letter. What I had the
temerity to predict when you began your Retreat has come to
pass.
znd. You know what I think about a keen feeling of your
weakness and powerlessness. Fenelon says that this is a grace
to make us despair of ourselves in order that we may hope only
in God. It is then, he adds, that God begins to work marvels
in a soul. But usually He performs His work in a hidden manner
and without the soul's knowledge, to preserve it from the snares
of self-love.
3rd. The way in which God made you pass the feast of All
Saints was very hard to nature, but by grace very wholesome.
Blind that we are ! we must let God act. If He allowed us to
follow our own desires and ideas, even those that are, appar-
ently, very holy, instead of making progress we only go back.
4th. You feel as if you had neither faith, hope, nor charity ;
this is because God has deprived you of all perception of these
virtues, and retained them in the highest part of the soul. He
AFTER THE RETREAT 363
thus affords you an opportunity of making a complete sacrifice
of all satisfaction, and this is better than anything. Of what
then do you complain ? It is disconsolate nature which grieves
because it feels nothing but troubles, dryness, and spiritual
anguish. These are its death, a necessary death to order to
receive the new life of grace, a life altogether holy and divine.
I am acquainted with some whose souls frequently pass through
the most terrible agonies, so that it seems to them, as to you, as
if every moment would be their last ; just as a criminal on the
rack expects the finishing stroke which, while depriving him
of the miserable remnant of his life, will put an end to his torments.
Courage, patience, abandonment, and confidence in God ;
these are the virtues you must practise. He accords you a great
grace, a signal favour, in allowing you from time to time some
slight perception of His help. The different shocks this good
Master allows you to experience, the vivid recollection of your
sins and miseries, are divine operations, very crucifying, and
intended to purify you like gold in the crucible. Why. then
should I pity you ? I have far more reason to congratulate you,
as the holy martyrs in ancient times were congratulated, who
considered themselves happy in the midst of their torments and
cruel tortures.
5th. The regret that you are tempted to feel as regards the
consolations you enjoyed in previous Retreats is only an illusion
which you must carefully guard against. Never have you,
with God's grace, made such a useful Retreat. This He has
made you feel by giving you strength sufficient to enable you
to sacrifice sensible pleasure and consolation. " But," you add,
" God has rejected this sacrifice." Here again is temptation
and illusion. God permits it in order to try you in every way.
Fiat ! Fiat ! If God takes away your peace of mind, very well,
let it go with the rest ; God remains always, and when nothing
else is left to you, you will be able to love Him with greater
purity. He alone it is, then, who works in a divine way at our
perfection through these spiritual deprivations which are so
abhorrent to nature, for they are its death, its annihilation, and
final destruction. Have patience. Fiat ! Fiat ! You cannot
follow -the path of perfection in reality except through losses,
abnegation, despoilment, death to all things, complete annihi-
lation, and unreserved abandonment. We need not be astonished
when we experience afflictions, when even our reason totters,
that poor reason so blind in the ways of faith ; for it is a strange
blindness which leads us to. aspire after perfection by the way of
illumination, of spiritual joy and consolation, the infallible
result of which would be to revive ever more and more our self-
love and to enable it to spoil everything.
364 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
6th. Just the keen feeling of your own frailty has been one
of your greatest helps, because by making you realise that you
are exposed to the clanger of falling at every step it inspires you
with an absolute self-distrust, and makes you practise a blind
confidence in God ; in this sense the Apostle says, " When I
feel myself weakest, then it is that I am strongest, because the
keen feeling of my weakness invests me, through a more perfect
confidence, with all the power of Jesus Christ."
yth. There is nothing more simple than the conduct you
ought to follow in order to derive great profit from your painful
and crucifying state ; an habitual consent from your heart, a
humble " fiat," a complete abandonment, and perfect confidence,
that is all. From morning to night you have nothing else to
do. It will appear to you that you are doing nothing, but all
will be done ; and so much the better, the more profound the
humility with which you remain without the help of those
miserable satisfactions which do not satisfy God, but your self-
love, as our very dear father, St. Francis of Sales, repeats.
LETTER XIII. The Fear of Reprobation.
On the purification of the soul.
My dear Sister,
While reading your letter I had no sooner arrived at the part
where you depicted your suffering state than an involuntary
impulse led me to cast myself interiorly at the feet of Jesus Christ
to thank Him for it. A thousand experiences convince me more
thoroughly every day that interior trials purify a soul in its
very essence, and penetrate to its most hidden recesses, and
sanctify it more efficaciously than any exterior crosses, morti-
fications, or penances. I can but bless God, therefore, for the
great goodness He shows you, and encourage you to correspond
faithfully thereto. For this purpose you have only to observe
the following points.
i st. Neither in the present circumstances, nor during the
whole time that your trial lasts must you expect to receive any
other consolation than it pleases God to give you ; for not even
an angel from Heaven could draw a soul out of the crucible
in which God keeps it, to purify it more and more.
2nd. Moreover, it is certain that the interior crucifixion is
so much the greater the greater the degree of love and union
with Him to which God intends to raise the soul.
THE FEAR OF REPROBATION 365
3rd. The fear of being lost does not seem to me at all ex-
traordinary, in fact it is common enough with those good souls
whom God designs to raise to a state of perfection.
4th. In this matter God seems to me to give in to your
weakness by giving you an abandonment and confidence in Him
which He even renders perceptible to you occasionally. How
many souls in this state are deprived of such a consolation !
5th. In this matter, as in all others, God teaches you by the
spiritual impressions of His grace, that He brings you to practise,
exactly, and continually, all that He requires of you, so that I
can content myself with saying just two things ; first, your
present state seems to me the best that you have ever been in
during your whole life, and the greatest grace that you have
hitherto received. Secondly, God teaches you all that is necessary
about it ; go on, and be at peace.
However, let us see if, in re-reading your letter God will enable
me to clear up, by some explanation, the already perfectly
sufficient direction that I am giving you in His name. First,
all those thoughts by which God is represented as having ceased
to extend to you that infinite mercy which is His attribute, are
but the groundwork of your .trial. They are the distinctive
features of that deep fear of reprobation that God wills you to
endure. This suffering is your martyrdom, and these different
suggestions of the enemy are the different arrows that he lets
fly by the divine permission. Instead of wounding your body
they pierce your heart and your soul, and are none the less
meritorious on that account. Secondly, that idea and con-
viction that the measure of your sins is filled up is decidedly
inspired by the father of lies, and not by the Holy Spirit ; how-
ever, although God is not the author, He nevertheless permits
you to be tormented by it, and permits it for your good. Besides
this trial being very humiliating, the suffering it causes is like a
fire, which cannot fail to purify you the more completely the
more intense are its flames, and the more frequently your soul
is plunged into the crucible. Thirdly, your supposed lukewarm-
ness, your dryness, and want of feeling, are the results and effects
of this unhappy persuasion impressed on your mind ; these are
the flames which are intended not to consume, but to purify
the victim in order to render it more capable of being consumed
by the fire of divine love. Fourthly, I say the same of those
efforts of your heart to rush towards God ; those efforts to which
God seems to make no other reply than to repulse you. These
are, in some souls, so violent and painful that they produce what
Bossuet calls despairing love or the despair of love. This
movement which is only despairing in appearance is, in reality,
the most vehement form of love. This, says this great Bishop,
366 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
i
is the way that grace sometimes imitates the effect of the profane
love of creatures on those who are carried away by it. Fifthly,
it is an additional grace to be able to make the heroic act of St.
Francis of Sales, and to say, " If I must be separated from my
God for all eternity, at any rate while I live I will love Him
and serve Him." This is a help of which many souls are de-
prived ; make use of it then, but do not depend upon it, because
God may take it away from you, or prevent you being aware of it.
6th. It is very wise to multiply your communions in a state
in which this support is most necessary. You ought to con-
sider yourself very fortunate in being able to avail yourself
of this help.
yth. Faith, abandonment, confidence, hope against hope ;
these are the most powerful aids you can have. However if
God should deprive you of the consolation of feeling these
virtues, nothing remains but to abandon yourself entirely, without
limitation, and even without any help that you can feel or
perceive. Then will God sustain you in the depths of your soul
in an incomprehensible manner ; but the poor soul, being unable
to feel any kind of support, and imagining itself completely
forsaken, experiences a kind of grief that makes this state a kind
of hell. You, however, are, as yet, only in purgatory, but this
Purgatory is so purifying, and so filled with treasures of grace,
that I pray God not to take you out of it until He has enriched
you with treasures for eternity, and rendered you as pure and
bright in His sight as so many saintly souls have become by
virtue of these same trials.
8th. The peace that you enjoy in suffering is the true peace
of God, without fear of any admixture of illusion. Instead of
fidelity, courage, strength, and fervour in prayer, you find in
yourself nothing but infidelity, weakness, tepidity, and in-
devotion. This must be. It is what will effect your annihilation
before God. Oh ! happy state of annihilation ! A holy person
told me some days ago that she would be afraid to be taken out of
a certain fearful state. " Why so ? " I asked her. " Because,
Father," she replied, " I am afraid that I might lose my state of
nothingness before God, which is, to me, more delightful than
those other sensible, sweet and consoling graces." Here are a
few words for your dear Sister, for I notice that with regard to
both of you God leaves little for the director to do ; from which
I conclude, by the way, that neither of you requires to consult
him often. To do so would be a sort of infidelity to the great
spiritual Master who wishes to lead you both entirely Himself.
To return to the point.
i st. It seems to me that God has, hitherto, made the most
of the weakness of this dear Sister. Darkness and aridity are
EXPLANATIONS AND DIRECTION 367
trials in a less painful sense, and yet they are , very fruitful
because the soul, being unable to perceive anything, has no power
to spoil anything, and consequently is led to a more perfect
abandonment. Hers increases, she says, in an astonishing
manner. This is the acme of grace, because all perfection is
to be found in the most perfect abandonment in which our
will is lost in the will of God. Love practised like this is the
most pure, and is sheltered from all illusion and from all vain
recourse to self-love.
znd. The ineffable consolations experienced by this good
Sister before she fell into this state of obscurity and dryness,
was only a merciful kindness of grace, intended to gain the
foundation and centre of the soul in which God wished to
establish His dwelling and from thence to work insensibly.
These consolations were a great grace, but the present want of
feeling is a much greater one.
3rd. The good Sister should therefore remain as well as she
can, in this state of simple surrender, or simple waiting, and not
leave it except under the impulse of a movement of interior
grace, and only so far as this movement allows : for one must
never either forestall attractions, or go beyond them.
LETTER XIV. Explanations and Direction.
To Sister Charlotte-Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux.
Explanation of certain trials. Direction. Nancy, 1734.
My dear Sister,
As long as you continue abandoning yourself to God as you
are doing at present, I assure you in His name that He will
never abandon you. The experiences of the past and the
present are your guarantee for the future. I acknowledge that
the path by which our Lord conducts you is very hard to nature ;
but, besides the fact that He is the Master, He allows you
to reflect from time to time on the advantages and security of
this way, also to consider its necessity. It is the usual way by
which God conducts His chosen spouses to the perfection He
destines them to attain ; and I have known very few whom He has
not judged it necessary to guide along this path when they give
themselves up entirely to Him. Why then are there such painful
states ? Why this heaviness of heart which takes the pleasure out
of everything ? and this depression which makes life insupport-
able ? Why ? It is to destroy, in those souls destined to a perfect
union with God, a certain base of hidden presumption ; to
368 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
attack pride in its last retreat ; to overwhelm with bitterness
that cursed self-love which is only content with what gives it
pleasure ; until at last, not knowing where to turn, it dies for
want of food and attention, as a fire goes out for want of fuel
to feed it. This death, however, is not the work of a moment ;
a great quantity of water is required to extinguish a great con-
flagration.
Self-love is like a many-headed hydra, and its heads have to be
cut off successively. It has many lives that have to be destroyed
one after the other if one wishes to be completely delivered.
You have, doubtless, obtained a great advantage by making it
die to nature and the senses ; but do not dream that you are
entirely set free from its obsessions. It recovers from this
first defeat and renews its attacks on another ground. More
subtle in future, it begins again on that which is sensible in
devotion ; and it is to be feared that this second attempt,
apparently much less crude, and more justifiable than its pre-
decessor, is also much more powerful. Nevertheless, pure love
cannot put up with the one any more than with the other.
God cannot suffer sensible consolations to share a heart that
belongs to Him. What then will happen ? If less privileged
souls are in question, for whom God has not such a jealous love,
He allows them a peaceful enjoyment of these holy pleasures,
and contents Himself with the sacrifice they have made of the
pleasures of sense. This is, in fact, the ordinary course with
devout persons, whose piety is somewhat mixed with a certain
amount of self-seeking. Assuredly God does not approve of
their defects ; but, as they have received fewer graces, He is
less exacting in the matter of perfection. These are the ordinary
spouses of an inferior rank, whose beauty needs not to be so
irreproachable, for they have not the power to wound His divine
heart so keenly ; but He has far other requirements, as He has
quite other designs with regard to His chosen spouses. The
jealousy of His love equals its tenderness. Desiring to give
Himself entirely to them, He wishes also to possess their whole
heart without division. Therefore He would not be satisfied
with the exterior crosses and pains which detach from creatures,
but desires to detach them from themselves, and to destroy in
them to the last fibre that self-love which is rooted in feelings
of devotion, is supported and nourished by them, and finds
its satisfaction in them. To effect this second death He with-
draws all consolation, all pleasure, all interior help, insomuch
that the poor soul finds itself as though suspended between
Heaven and earth, without the consolations of the one, nor
the comforts of the other. For a human being who cannot
exist without pleasure and without love, this seems a sort of
EXPLANATIONS AND DIRECTION 369
annihilation. Nothing then remains for him but to attach
himself not with the heart which no longer feels anything,
but with the essence of the soul to God alone, whom he knows
and perceives by bare faith in an obscure manner. Oh ! it is
then that the soul, perfectly purified by this two-fold death,
enters into a spiritual alliance with God, and possesses Him in
the pure delights of purified love ; which never could have
been the case if its spiritual taste had not been doubly purified.
But this carries me too far. Let us return to your letter.
What a number of false steps ! you say. But do you not
know the remedy ? To humble yourself gently, rise again, and
to take courage. " But," you add, " I do this with so much
repugnance, trouble, weariness, and sadness." This is precisely
what increases the merit, and makes you acquire solid virtue,
because it is only by gaining it at the point of the sword that it
is so, says St. Francis of Sales. " Our surroundings are very
depressing." I understand that perfectly, and it is precisely on
this account that God attacks your heart in its weakest point.
" Indeed, my daughter," said St. Francis of Sales, " this is to
gain it all for Himself, this poor heart." Well then, give it to
Him, at first, perhaps, against your inclination, but later more
amiably, when that grace that He has taken away, which was
so sweet and alluring, returns again but without being felt.
" But I am not sure that I do love, all that I know is that I try
to love." Well, that is all that God requires of you. It is a
received axiom in theology that God never refuses grace to him
who does all that is in his power to acquire it. Try then to love
Him, and if these efforts are not the fruit of love, they will obtain
for you the grace of charity. God already gives you a great
favour in inspiring you with the desire to love Him. Some day,
I hope, He will lead you further, and satisfy this desire. Say
to yourself, " I should be consoled, even overwhelmed with
consolation if I felt towards God what I try to feel, but at
present God wishes to take from me all interior consolation,
to make me die the second death which should precede that
completely supernatural and divine life of His Holy Spirit, of
His grace and pure love."
Now I come to a beautiful part of your letter which rejoices
my heart before God. You say, " I should like, very humbly,,
to remonstrate, but instead I will remain on my cross through:
obedience even if I have to die there." Here indeed the good
God gives and inspires you with a great courage. He holds
you, therefore, always in His hand ; what have you to fear ?
No, you will not die of it, my dear daughter, except only by a
spiritual death more precious than any earthly life. " Yes/'
you add, " but all the same I should be very glad and much,
37 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
relieved if God would take me out of this state, or these cir-
cumstances." The saints in a thousand similar cases would say
the same, but the more one would like to be relieved of a position
or duty, the more merit there is in being willing to remain in it
if such is the will of God. Be consoled, therefore, put your mind
at rest and remain in peace. God is with you and a God all
goodness, who bears with the weakness, miseries, and frailties
of His good friends with a tender compassion even to the extent
of forbidding them to distress themselves ; and why ? Because
He wishes all whom He loves to enjoy an unalterable peace.
Frequent acts of the love of God, or even of a holy desire to love
Him, are an excellent remedy for the fear of divine judgments,
and for the terrors about predestination. I am not at all sur-
prised at the happy results of this remedy. I much approve,
also, of the reply you made to the person who told you that she
did not love God with sufficient disinterestedness. This is
a visible illusion of the devil, who, under pretext of I know not
what self-love, wants to keep this soul back, and to retard its
progress. Tell her that self-love (I allude to spiritual self-
love which, although not sinful, tarnishes the perfect purity of
divine love) is only found in those souls who make of the gifts
of God, or of his rewards, a motive to love Him for their sakes.
To love God for Himself, and because He is God, and inasmuch as
He is our own God, our great reward, our sovereign good, in-
finitely good to us, is the pure and practical love of the saints ;
for to love one's supreme happiness, which is God Himself, is to
love God alone. These two terms express the same thing, and
it is impossible to love God otherwise than as He is in Himself.
Besides, in Himself He is our supreme good, our last end, and
our eternal happiness. But, some will say, supposing that God
were not our eternal happiness, ought we not to love Him just
the same, for Himself ? Oh ! what a strange and pitiable
supposition ! It is as much as to say : If God were not God.
Do not let us split hairs so much, but go on in a direct and simple
manner, broad-mindedly, as St. Francis of Sales advises. Let
us love God with simplicity and as well as we can, and He will
raise and purify our love ever more and more according to His
own good pleasure. As for you, keep to the spiritual condition
in which God has been pleased to place you. The fear of death
and terrors about the judgments of God and about eternity,
were endured by St. Jerome for a longer time and much more
.severely than by you. Let us be willing to retain these strong
impressions for as long as God pleases. Our own will should be
ready to die, to be extinguished, and happily lost in that of God,
which is always equally loving, perfect and adorable.
PERFECT DETACHMENT 37 j
LETTER XV. Perfect Detachment.
To Sister Marie- Antoinette de Mahuet. Nancy, 1735.
My dear Sister,
In sending you what is necessary to prosecute the work of
charity which I recommended to you, the thought occurred to
me to lay before you some of the certain and very consoling
truths concerning souls who give themselves up to an interior life.
First Principle. Union with God, the source of all purity, can
only be attained according to the degree in which the soul is
detached from all things created, which are the source of con-
tinual corruption and impurity.
Second Principle. This detachment, which, when it has
attained perfection, is called mystical death, has two objects ;
the exterior, that is to say, creatures other than ourselves ;
and interior, that is to say, our own ideas, satisfactions, and
interests in one word ourselves. The proof and sign of the
death of all that is external is a sort of indifference, or rather
of insensibility with regard to exterior goods, pleasures, reputa-
tion, relations, friends, etc. This insensibility becomes, by the
help of grace, so complete and so profound that one is tempted
to imagine it purely natural ; and God permits this to prevent
the artifices of self-complacency, and to make us in all things,
walk in the obscurity of faith, and in a great abandonment.
Third Principle. Interior privation, or death to self, is the
most difficult renunciation of all ; it is as though we were torn
away from ourselves, or were flayed alive. The excruciating
pain experienced by self-love, and the cries it utters, are an index
to the power of the links which attach us to the creature, and
to the necessity of this renunciation ; for, the deeper the knife
of the surgeon penetrates to the quick, the keener is the pain ;
and the greater the vitality one has, the stronger is the resistance
to this death. The soul, therefore, cannot arrive at this happy
death and perfect detachment except by way of privations and
interior renunciation. It requires a proved and heroic virtue to
acquire a stripping of the heart in the midst of abundance : and
renunciation in the midst of pleasures. It is therefore, on the
part of God, a favour and mercy to strip us of all sensible gifts
and favours ; just as it is an effect of His mercy to despoil worldly
people of temporal goods to detach their hearts from them.
What is to be done then while God is effecting this denuding ?
This to allow oneself to be deprived of everything without
any resistance, as if one were a statue. But what about interior
37* . ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
rebellion ? It must be put up with and no attention paid to it.
But if one feels that one is not bearing this state of deprivation
properly ? This additional trial must be endured like that of
despoilment, peacefully without voluntary trouble. But what
if you are not certain that this deprivation comes from God ?
As it is now a question of cutting off self-love, which for its own
consolation seeks impossible certitude in everything, this is the
answer that should be given.
Fourth Principle, ist, It is certain that without a special
revelation God does not let us have any assurance about that
which concerns our eternal salvation. Why so ? To make us
walk in darkness, and thus to render our faith more meritorious on
account of the obscurity in which it leaves the reason. 2nd, To
keep us always in a state of the deepest humiliation as a counter-
poise to the natural and strong inclination to pride. 3rd, To
exercise over us His sovereign dominion, and to keep us in the
most absolute dependence and the most complete abandonment
to His will, not only with regard to our temporal existence, but
also as regards our eternal destiny. This is what makes religion
apparently most terrible, but it has another aspect that is sweet
and consoling : no sooner do we submit, while trembling, to
the sovereign dominion of God, and to His incomprehensible
judgments, than we experience the greatest consolation. This
is because in His mercy He gives us, instead of certainty, a firm
hope which is of equal value, without depriving us of the merit of
abandonment, so glorious to God, and for us deserving of so
great a reward. On what then is this firm hope founded ? On
the treasures of the infinite mercy and infinite merits of Jesus
Christ ; on all the graces that have hitherto been heaped upon us ;
on the judgment of the directors whose office it is to judge of our
state and disposition ; on the clear light of faith which cannot
deceive, and which we follow in our conduct ; at any rate, in
what is essential, such as overcoming sin, and practising virtue.
We see, in fact, that by the grace of God we habitually practise
these virtues, and that if we do so very imperfectly we at least
desire to practise them better. But in spite of all this there is
always some fear remaining. If it is that fear which is called
chaste, peaceful, and free from anxiety, then it is the true fear
of God which must always be retained. Where there is no fear,
there will assuredly be an illusion of the devil ; but should this
fear be uneasy and wild, it must then be caused by self-love,
and for this we must lament and humble ourselves.
But when one has accomplished this total destitution, what
then?
Remain in simplicity and in peace, like Job on his dung-hill,
often repeating " Blessed are the poor in spirit, he who has
EXPLANATION OF APPARENT DESPAIR 373
nothing, in possessing God possesses all things." " Leave all,
strip yourself of all," said the celebrated Gerson, and you will find
all in God. God, felt, enjoyed, and giving pleasure, is truly God ;
but He bestows gifts for which the soul flatters itself ; but God
in darkness, in privations, in destitution, in unconsciousness, is
God alone, and as it were, naked. This, however, is a little
hard on self-love, that enemy of God, of our own souls, and of all
good ; and it is by the force of these blows that it is finally put
to death in us. Shall we fear a death that produces within us
the life of grace, that divine life ? But it is very hard to have to
pass one's life in this way ! What does it matter ? A little
more or less of sweetness during the short moments of life ?
It is indeed a small matter for one who has before his eyes an
eternal kingdom. But I suffer all this destitution so imperfectly,
so feebly ! Another unfelt grace ; God preserve you from
suffering with great courage, and a strength that can be realised.
What an amount of secret complacency, of idle reflexions about
yourself, would result to spoil the work of God ! An invisible
hand supports you enough to render you victorious, and the keen
sense of your weakness makes you humble even in victory.
Oh ! how advantageous it is to endure feebly and patiently
rather than to suffer grandly, powerfully, and courageously.
We are humiliated and feel our weakness and littleness in this
sort of victories, while in the other kind we feel that we are be-
having grandly, strongly, and courageously, and without per-
ceiving it we become inflated with vanity, presumption, and
self-satisfaction. Let us admire the wisdom and the goodness
of God, who so well knows how to mix and proportion all things
for our profit and advantage ; whereas if He arranged matters
to our liking all would be spoiled, corrupted and, possibly, lost.
LETTER XVI. Explanation of Apparent Despair.
To Mother Louise-Fran5oise de Rosen (1735). Explanation
of apparent despair.
My dear Sister,
One must never take the extreme expressions made use of by
orthodox writers quite rigidly, but enter into the meaning and
thought of the authors. One ought, without doubt, to prevent
good souls from making use of expressions, coolly and with pre-
meditation, which seem to savour of despair ; but it would
be unjust to condemn those who, driven almost out of their
senses by the violence of their trials, speak and act as if they had
no hope of eternal happiness. It does not do to feel scandalised
374 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
at their language, nor to imagine it actuated by a real despair.
It is really rather a feeling of confidence hidden in the depths of
the soul which makes them speak thus ; just as criminals have
been sometimes known to present themselves before their
sovereign with a rope round their neck saying that they gave
themselves up to all the severity of his justice. Do you imagine
that it was despair that made them speak in this way ? or was
it not rather an excess of confidence in the prince's goodness ?
And, as a rule, they obtain their pardon by the excess of their
sorrow, repentance, and confidence. Will God then be less good
with regard to souls who abandon themselves to Him for time
and for eternity ? Will He take literally expressions which,
in the main, only signify transports of abandonment and con-
fidence ? It is for want of a just appreciation of these ideas
that you thought it necessary to erase similar expressions in
the book " Interior Christian" For my part when I find such
expressions in good authors' books, far from being scandalised,
I feel much edified. I admire the strength of abandonment and
discover an excess of confidence, so much the more meritorious
as it is less perceptible, in a soul which utters these sentiments
in a moment of excitement. These extraordinary states are,
in the order of grace, what miracles are in the order of nature.
They raise the soul above ordinary laws, but without destroying
them. Far from appearing to me contrary to the wisdom of
God, they make me admire His power.
LETTER XVII. Abandonment in Trials.
To Sister Charlotte-Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux.
On the practice of abandonment in the midst of trials. Nancy,
1734.
My dear Sister,
I must thank you for the charming letter of which you have
been so good as to send me a copy. I have read and re-read it
frequently with great edification. My experience regarding
yourself is something that has hardly ever occurred to me
before ; it is, that after having read your letter several times and
implored the help of God, I cannot remember either what you have
said, or what I have written to you in reply. About this, three
considerations have presented themselves to me. Firstly, if God
wishes to withdraw from a soul all sensible support, He does not
permit it to find any, even in its director, unless in a very passing
way. Thus He reduces it to find help in this thought alone ;
my state is a good one, since the guide appointed for me by God
FRUIT OF DEATH TO SELF 375
finds it so. Secondly, what does God find it necessary for me to
say after the letter which I judged before God to suit you per-
fectly, and to fully suffice ? Thirdly, in spite of your darkness,
want of feeling, and stupidity, your faith does not lack an im-
movable, although unfelt, support ; since, following the example
of Jesus Christ, you have a great desire to abandon yourself to the
very One by whom you believe yourself to be abandoned and
forsaken. This is an evident sign that in the midst of your sup-
posed destitution and apparent abandonment, you recognise by
pure faith interiorly that you have never been, in the main, less
forsaken, nor less friendless than now. Does not the spiritual
affliction which the fear of not being able to abandon yourself in
all things, nor as well as you desire, occasions you, prove the deep
and hidden intention which is rooted in your heart, of practising
this total abandonment and abnegation that are so meritorious ?
Does not God behold these desires, so deep and so hidden, and do
they not speak for you to God more powerfully than any words
you could utter ? Yes, certainly, these desires are acts, and better
acts than any others, for if you were allowed to practise abandon-
ment in a manner that you could feel, you would find consolation,
but would lose, at least somewhat, the salutary feeling of your
misery, and would be again exposed to the imperceptible snares
of self-love, and to its fatal satisfactions. Remain therefore in
peace and wait for our Lord. This peaceful and humble ex-
pectation ought to keep you recollected, serve as subject for
meditation, and occupy you quietly during your exercises of
piety.
LETTER XVIIL Fruit of Death to Self.
To Mother Marie-Anne-Sophie de Rottenbourg. On the
fruit of complete death to self. 1739.
May God be praised, Reverend Mother, for the signal graces
He has been pleased to bestow upon you ! Henceforth your
principal care should be to guard with a vigilant humility these
precious gifts.
i St. Your rest in God during prayer comes, without any
doubt, from the Holy Spirit. Be careful not to forsake, by any
inopportune multiplicity of acts, this simplicity, which is the
more fruitful the more closely it resembles the infinite simplicity
of God. This way of uniting yourself to Him by a total self-
abnegation is based on the great principle that God, who is
Almighty and goodness itself, gives to His children on all
376 ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
occasions and always what He knows will be best for them ; and
that all perfection consists in a constant adhesion of the heart to
His adorable will. By this simple and humble behaviour all our
desires are gradually absorbed by the will of God into which it
becomes completely transformed. When we have reached this
point we shall have attained perfection.
2nd. If God does not permit you to derive any other fruit
from your illness than the recognition of the continual loss of
grace sustained by a soul which pays but scant attention to its
interior movements, I should still cry, " Oh ! happy, thrice
happy illness ! "
3rd. Speak then to your dear daughters without ceasing of
the great duties imposed upon them by the divine love, and of
the priceless advantages of the spiritual life. Oh ! how few
there are who understand this, and fewer still who practise it.
Now-a-days hardly any exercises are understood and valued but
those that are exterior, yet God is a pure spirit whom we must
adore, as Jesus Christ teaches, in spirit and in truth. Where
then, Oh my God, are to be found those who fulfil this precept ?
4th. To feel no surprise at one's miseries is a good beginning
for a humility founded on self-knowledge ; but to feel no trouble
at the keen and habitual recollection of them is a very great
grace, and the source of a complete distrust of self, and of a true
and perfect confidence in God.
jth. Your devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, and
the practices you have adopted with regard to it, are a real
spiritual treasure which will serve to enrich yourself, and your
dear daughters. The more you draw on this treasure the more
there is left for your enrichment, for it is inexhaustible.
6th. What you have learnt from the venerable Fr. de Condran
about the spirit of sacrifice is indeed a most excellent practice ;
but it cannot be continual, nor constant, except in the spiritual
life, which alone enables us to attend to, and to be faithful in
everything.
yth. The humbling of the heart and soul concerning all faults,
known and unknown, appeases God, and draws down fresh
light and renewed strength, so that the whole subject resolves
itself into knowing how, thoroughly, to humble oneself, that is to
say, how to remain before God always in a state of spiritual
humiliation, with a contrite heart, and sorrow for sin. Then it
is that we walk before God in truth and justice, according to the
holy Scriptures. In any other state we should be in error and
falsehood, and, consequently, far from God who is the sovereign
truth.
FRUIT OF DEATH TO SELF 377
8th. It is a beautiful gift of heaven to be able to govern in a
spirit of meekness and moderation ; this will prove more effi-
cacious and salutary both for yourself and others, and make you
avoid those faults into which- a bitter, indiscreet, and too active
zeal would make you fall. When you have to direct the aged,
your conduct ought to be full of wisdom and humble charity ;
and with young Religious of good will, but still rather weak
and not sufficiently courageous, you should be doubly gentle
and condescending, and act with moderation and prudence.
I end where I began, by blessing God for the graces He has
bestowed upon you, and by begging Him to continue them to
you. On no account, Reverend Mother, leave off this total
self-forgetfulness to which I have so often exhorted you, and
which the divine goodness has effected in you. In fact, why
should one be so much engrossed in oneself? The true self
is God, since He is more completely the life of the soul than the
soul is the life of the body. God created us for Himself alone ;
let us think then of Him, and He will think of us, and provide
for us much better than we can for ourselves. When we fall,
let us humble ourselves, and rise again, and go on our way in
peace, and think always of our true self which is God, in whom
we should lose ourselves and be engulfed, in the way in which
we shall find ourselves absorbed and engulfed in Heaven during
the infinite duration of the great day of eternity. Amen !
Amen !
Printed at
The Catholic Records Press
Exeter, England
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