CI To Mother Marie Agnes le Roy, Superior of the Second Monastery of Paris
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Valence, 1636.
My well-beloved and dearest Daughter,
For this indeed you are to me in so peculiar and intimate a way that no dearer term can I add to it, and no other feeling than this loving one could my heart entertain towards you, seeing the way in which you look upon the true and solid lights and affections of heart that God has given you. My daughter, I am quite enchanted with your letter.A I cannot keep myself from kissing it and pressing it to my heart, for every word of it from beginning to end has deeply moved me. I shall carefully treasure it. Nothing else have I to say, my true daughter, if not that you ought, in order fully and worthily to correspond with such graces, to keep your heart firmly set on God, and casting out all that is not He, jealously and faithfully preserve the rare treasure which the divine Goodness has confided to your hands. Spread the good odour all you can in the hearts of your daughters, and may everyone who comes in contact with you feel that the virtues of the crucified and despised Saviour go out from you. Recommend my heart with your own to Him and let them be as one in His divine love.
Notes
A This letter, which so charmed St. Jane Frances, contained an account of the intimate feelings of Mother Marie Agnes Le Roy, when she found herself under the calumny spoken of in the preceding letter to the Commander de Sillery. To quote from her letter: “It seems to me,” she says, “that it is a particular grace to have been chosen to bear this humiliation. Our Lord is so good that He gives me very great pleasure and contentment in it, because it shows His special love for me, and seeing that it has all happened to imprint in my heart the spirit of lowliness and humility I am greatly consoled and incited to redouble my little efforts to procure Him glory....
“Ah, my dear mother, how wise such occurrences make us, and what fruit they bear!” (History of the Foundation of the Second Monastery of Paris.)