Letter 81

From Quebec, to her son, 30 August 1644
She gives him important advice for advancing in the way of perfection. Praise of the Order and Rule of St.  Benedict. The Foundation in Canada and the Union of the two Congregations. Jesus, Mary Joseph.

My dear and well beloved son,

May the Life and Love of Jesus be always your strength and your all! If receiving my letters brought you joy, do not doubt that I experienced the same on getting yours, which let me see God’s Providence, Love and Mercy for you, for which I will praise Him eternally. Yes, He wants you to love Him. Begin then and believe today that you did not truly love Him yesterday, for the degrees of this holy torment are such that nothing is perfect except what lies ahead, the past is always defective. Be vigilant and you will see it my dear son. You will perhaps say to me “How is it that you walk in the footprints and live in the cells of so many saints and do not follow their example”? Good works follow the saints and are always in front of you. Run then without relaxation to reach the King of Saints who is more desirous to have you for Himself than you are to have Him. The Saints are holy in their persevering determination which made them forget all and disregard self in order to attach themselves to this divine Prototype. Sometimes I have been curious to know if your heart is moved by that sweet emotion which makes us quit all exterior occupations to converse with our Sovereign Good, in the degree He wills, for we must follow the way He attracts us. At least I ask this favour of you as I find it conducts to perfection. It is good to begin here below what we desire to do for all eternity and to set neither bound nor limit to the Master of the angels, for we know our Saviour Jesus, who has first loved us and taught us this lesson. Follow Him then in following your saints, who followed Him completely to become saints and to attain to a divine resemblance to this Divine Spouse, for unless He draws them none will be saints. You ask me how it is possible to be so close to God physically and in spirit so far from Him? It is indeed a great misery and the real mark of our infidelity, and the way to draw ourselves out of it is the gentle, voluntary submission of heart, by unremitting attachment which draws the whole mind after it by a gentle and loving violence which does not kill the body but rather nourishes it with good things.

You ask how the mind can draw itself so unjustly from God. Only too easily, given our miserable self-love. It is said that once a heart is broken it loves fully, but that applies only if it keeps alive the wounds of divine inspiration and does not treat them with the medicines of reasoning and self-love, which change the heart permitting it to live and breathe only for self. This miserable living for self draws the mind after it withdrawing it from its true and unique Good so that it lives contrary to its nature. Hence the violence we must do ourselves, when pricked by conscience, we are called to return to Him for whom we were born.

Since you wish it, I ask God to give you the gift of prayer, and above all that of humility and true self-abnegation. Without that virtue there is no true prayer or true interior spirit. Prayer and self-abnegation go hand-in-hand, otherwise all devotion is suspect and that is the lesson our true exemplary cause teaches us in order that we may entirely possess His Spirit as He said so often. You have holy masters, they will tell you what to do beyond that reproachful spirit that follows us everywhere suggesting to us thousands of times things we never do.

I have read and reread your letter and what you say about your Holy Order, my dear son. I could not tell you how edified I have been by it, and how deeply indebted I feel to God for calling you to it. You ask what I think of it. I say it contains the epitome of perfection, that no order in the Church has borrowed more of what is holiest in St. Benedict and his followers, and your holy reform recalls and embodies the original spirit. My son you would be inexcusable if after so many favours from our Divine Saviour, you had a heart for any other. Give yourself entirely to Him, and by your submission, make yourself capable of receiving His Principal Spirit which is that of your Holy Order. If it has passed or is passing through the crucible of affliction and persecution, it will be all the more illustrious. Always if obedience permits, give me the consolation of its progress or its difficulties. I am so much interested that I seem to be incorporated into it, so don’t be surprised at my request. I am grateful to your Rev. Fr. Prior for allowing you to give so much inside information. I seem to be in your house and seeing your observances. At present for spiritual reading I am reading your rules and spiritual exercises. I see that those who drew up our Constitutions and regulations have drawn much from yours. Let us bless God for everything and use the treasure He has given us through His saints.

I too offer your sore throat to God. I think it comes only from too great heat of the blood. I sympathise with you because it interferes with your choir functions and your studies. I am going to ask God not to let it hinder your service of Him. Suffering in itself is a special gift from His majesty to you. As for me, He gives me no corporal infirmity, except a slight headache from time to time, a relic of my former concentration on embroidery, but it is not worth mentioning. All my infirmities are spiritual and so are more difficult to cure. Offer them in a particular way to God, with other responsibilities His majesty has given me as part of my Canadian vocation. They often cause me to pass through difficult and thorny situations but in the end I find peace in their midst.

You ask if our community is big. We have only eight choir sisters and one converse sister, but it is enough. There is the question of uniting the two congregations, and a multitude of persons would mean diversity of opinions. That is why it is important to try to get approval for the union that has been agreed and thanks be to God, signed by the two congregations and by us, by an extraordinary disposition of Grace. The great peace and union in which we live here has touched many devout people in France, and cause them to hope for a general union of all the Ursulines in France, who are divided into different congregations with different Constitutions, but with the same rule and the same functions It is a little seed that God will fructify in His own time, as they write to me here from all sides; in my answering letters I try to drop a hint about this great good to all those I think in a position to cooperate in any way. As this is of great importance for the Glory of God and the good of many, I beg you to recommend it, and I make the same request of your good Fathers. Nevertheless all this is confidential my dear son.

We are expecting our bull from Rome by the first fleet. We already have those of our two congregations, but we need a special one in this country, as we have our own regulations. There are things that cannot be arranged in the French way, as climate, food and other things are entirely different. It is not that we cannot do things according to circumstances, as perfectly as in France and in the spirit of the Order. My son, my main concern since I came to Canada has been our foundation and our Union. As for learning the language and instructing the Indians and teaching my sisters what I have been able to learn with the grace of God, that has been such a joy that I have sinned rather by loving it too much than by considering it painful. That is about me, my dear son, another time I’ll tell you more.

My niece wrote to me and sent me a message by the two sisters from Tours that she intends to join me here. Say nothing to her about it for fear the mothers in Tours would think I want to send for her. Recommend the matter to God. If she writes to you about it, answer as God inspires you, without mentioning me, though I love her as if she were my own daughter. The vocation to Canada is not a question of natural affection or hasty decision but of true and solid perseverance, otherwise those who come will be dissatisfied, finding no fulfillment of their expectations, and soon return to France. That is why we have as yet received no novices. Others have been sent home and this is unpleasant for the sisters. That is why I am afraid this child is moved by natural affection for she loves me as her mother. They wrote to me that in the height of her trouble she called out to me as if I were present. She’d find her mistake if she were here with me. I’d mortify her more than anyone else, though I have not the spirit of mortification.

It is time to end. We are praying for you. Fr. Poncet is writing to you also Sr. St. Joseph. Our foundress is endlessly good to us [send greetings]. I salute your Fathers as their most humble daughter and beg a share in their Masses and prayers. Adieu.

From Quebec. 30 August 1644.
Kelly, Sr M. St. Dominic, O.S.U. Marie of the Incarnation 1599 - 1672 Correspondence, (translated from the French edition by Dom Guy Oury Monk of Solesmes), Irish Ursuline Union, 2000, p. 83 - 85.