XCVII. Extract from a letter to M. Noël Brulart, the Commander de Sillery, at Paris.[A]
London Visitation Nuns (Harrow translation
XCVII. Extract from a letter to M. Noël Brulart, the Commander de Sillery, at Paris.[A]
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Annecy, 1634.
The state of your mind, which you narrate with so much simplicity, is incomparably better and safer than if you were overflowing with consolations and sensible love of God. This interior peace, this stability in God, these lights, which although slight, transient, and devoid of definite reasoning, yet retain the soul in the state in which God has placed her, are all infallible marks that He reigns in you, and give great hope that His goodness desires to lead you in a wholly intellectual way to a state of great purity and simplicity; hence you should, I think, my dearest brother, seek no other devotion than looking unto God purely and simply, and letting Him accomplish His will in you. This Divine Saviour being the only object of your affections and desires, the solitary pleasure of your heart, all that He will accomplish in you will be for His greater glory, and for your own sanctification. Be, then, as content to be powerless, idle, dry, and arid before God, as if you were actively at work, and in the enjoyment of His gifts of devotion and contentment. As all consists in union with God one state ought to be as pleasing to you as another. Age and health no longer permitting you to be active, you will apparently have to spend the remainder of your days in this heavenly exercise by which your mind will be renewed. So will you be uninterruptedly employed in the love and repose of God, and I believe that the fruit which will result therefrom will enrich your soul, give glory to His divine Majesty, and even edification to your neighbour, for this salutary exercise teaches contempt of all earthly things, and is a great proof to the world of the true piety and happiness that are to be so completely found in God.