XXXIV To Mother Marie Jacqueline Favre, Superior at Lyons
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Paris,
September 29, 1619.
What a great consolation for you, my very dear daughter, to have the joy of a little visit from our dearest Father! It is such a relief that he is out of Paris, where the epidemicA is so bad that his departure was a delight to me. Although it surrounds us do not fear for us, daughter, only pray earnestly that we may accomplish the most holy will of our good God. I have every confidence that nothing will happen but what is His good pleasure, and what pleases Him pleases us. So if it is His will I shall often write to you, and I will address all my letters to his Lordship, who has desired me to keep him well acquainted with our news. I wish you could find out the best address for our letters and tell me also how you will send yours. It would be well to take advantage of M. Rousselet when he returns to this town, for he has a brother at Lyons.
I do not give you any news, dear daughter, for I have commissioned my nephew de Boisy to do it; and besides, you know it is a thing which is distasteful to me. One thing only is necessary—to possess God, and for this I have a burning desire. This alone is happiness. All the rest is mere smoke. Cling then with constancy to this holy aim. Write to me of your interior state: you will be reviewing it now.B O God, how I love that heart of my great and dear daughter! I long to see it generous, pure, perfect, in a word united in a holy union with the Heart of its amiable and adorable God. Adieu, my daughter, a thousand good mornings to you and to your dear flock. I do not know if his Grace of Lyons has returned: he will mayhap want to delay the change of your congregation into a monastery.C It is, however, expedient that it should be done before you are taken away. His Lordship will speak to you of this. But it must be managed very tactfully. One word in conclusion. Test your daughters well before their profession.
Adieu, my daughter. I am always yours in Our Lord. You know this. May He be blessed! St. Michael’s Day.
Notes
A We read in the inedited “Foundations of the First Monastery of Paris”: “In the years 1619 and 1620 God permitted a terrible plague to break out in Paris. Terror drove away not only the court but almost the entire population, who sought safety in flight. So deserted did this great city become that we are told the grass grew in the streets. As might be expected in such circumstances, the alms upon which our newly established Community subsisted entirely ceased, and to add to our misfortunes we were surrounded by infected houses. All day long we could hear the tinkle of the little bell that announced the passing of the death waggon in front of the house.”
B The autumn has always been the season appointed for the annual Retreats of the Sisters of the Visitation.
C The Archbishop of Lyons, Mgr. de Marquemont, although the first to urge that the Visitation should have enclosure and solemn vows, was the last to put in force the Bull erecting it into a Religious Order. He held back in the hope of inducing the house at Lyons to undertake the reciting of the great Canonical Office.