XCIX To Sister Marie Aimée de Rabutin, Mistress of Novices at AnnecyA
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Paris, 1635.
Daughter dear,
You attribute everything to your negligence! Accept the good that comes to you, and when God withdraws Himself do not run after Him. You are always doing His will provided you keep yourself under His hand without desiring anything whatsoever save to do His will. These doubts against Faith that you tell me of He permits so that you may make frequent acts of this virtue. For you see, my daughter, He only sends temptations to souls whom He intends to raise to high perfection. All the doubts and fears lest you may have consented come from the evil spirit. Pay no heed to them, unless to say, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for I am at peace in God.”
Notes
A Marie Aimée de Rabutin possessed all the caustic wit for which the de Rabutins were distinguished, and had no other thought than of pleasure and of her independence, until St. Jane Frances won her to Christ. “Make haste, my daughter,” she said to her, “for God is the enemy of delay.” From the entrance of Mademoiselle de Rabutin into the Monastery of Annecy (1624) her fervour was without bounds, and were it not for obedience her austerities would have shortened her life. When she was elected Superior at Thonon St. Jane Frances said to the outsister who came to fetch her: “Make the most of the time your new Superior rules you, for you have never had and perhaps never will have her equal.” She governed several monasteries and died in 1678. Her praises are summed up in these words of St. Jane Frances: “When once Mother Marie Aimée returns to Annecy she must not be taken away again, for although she is my relative, I cannot help saying that she has always been a living rule and a model of perfect observance.” (Archives of the Visitation, Annecy.)