Salesian Literature

Vol. 2, CONFERENCE 6 : Foundations[1]

 

Among all the praises the Saints have given to Abraham, Saint Paul singles out above all others the fact that he hoped against all hope.  God had promised him that his descendants would be numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of the sand on the seashore (Gen. 22:17).  In spite of this, Abraham was given the order to kill his son Isaac (Gen. 22:2).  Poor Abraham does not, for that matter, lost his hope but he hopes against hope itself that if he obeyed the command that has been given to him to put his son to death, even then, God would never fail to keep His word.  His hope was indeed very great, for he could find nothing whatever on which to base it, except that God’s word that had been given to him.  How solid and true foundation it is, this word of God, for it is infallible.  Abraham sets out to accomplish God’s will with unparalleled simplicity. He makes no reflections nor any objections when God tells him to leave his country and his relatives (Gen. 12:1) and go to a place which He would show him.  God does not give any indications about the place so that he may embark with all simplicity in the vessel of His divine Providence.

 

Abraham walked for three days and three nights with his poor son Isaac who carried the logs of wood destined for the sacrifice.  Isaac asked his father where the sacrificial victim was.  The good Abraham replied to this: My son, the Lord will provide (Gen. 22:6-8).  How happy should we be if we could take to give this answer to ourselves when we are anxious and troubled: The Lord will provide.  Afterwards we would not have any anxiety, disturbance or over-eagerness not any more than Isaac kept silent, believing that the Lord would provide, just as his father had told him.

 

Great indeed is the confidence that God wants us to place in His fatherly care for us and in His Providence.  But why should we not have it since no one has ever been betrayed by Him.  No one can ever trust in God without reaping the fruits of this confidence.  I am saying this among ourselves, for as regards the people of the world, their confidence is often tainted with presumption.  That is why their confidence is worth nothing in God’s sight.  I ask you to reflect on the worlds Our Lord and Our Master addressed to His Apostles to create in them this holy and loving confidence.  I have sent you through the world without wallet, without money and without any provision either for your dress or for your food.  Has anything been wanting to you?  They said: No (Lk. 22:35-36).  Go, he told them, and do not think at all as to what you would eat and drink nor about what to clothe yourselves (Lk. 12:22-29).  You are not even to think of what to say before the great Lords and magistrates of the provinces through which you would pass.  For each instance, your heavenly Father will provide you with what will be necessary for you.  Do not think at all of all that you will have to say (Lk. 12:11; Mt. 10:19-20).

 

But I am uncultured, you say, I do not know how to deal with people in high positions, I am not at all learned.  – It is all the same thing.  Go and put your trust in God, for He has said: Even if a woman forgets her child, yet I will never forget you, for He carries us engraved on His heart and on the palm of His hand (Is. 49:15-16).  Do you think that God who takes so much care for providing food for the birds of the air and the animals of the earth, who do not sow and reap will he ever forget to provide all that is necessary for man who fully relies on his Providence, since man is able to be united with God his sovereign good?

 

This, my dear Sisters, seemed to me good to tell you on your departure; for even though, being women, you are not entitled to hold the dignity of the Apostles, yet you share in the same apostolic task, because of the apostolic merit.  But not to make use of the word “merit” among ourselves as I have a little dislike to make use of this word to encourage ourselves to do good.  I would say that you can do as much service to God in a certain way and increase His glory like the Apostles.  This indeed, my dear Sisters, is a motive that can be of great comfort to you, seeing that God plans to utilize you for such an excellent work.  You should feel justly so honoured before His divine majesty in being chosen for this mission.

 

What does God expect form you if not what he asked his Apostles.  That is why he sent them out to the world.  It was nothing else than that which Our Lord himself came to do in this world, that is, to give Life to men.  And not just that, He says, but that they live a more abundant life (Jn. 10:10) and they receive a better life.  He did it by giving them His grace.  Our Lord sent out his Apostles all over the world for the same purpose and He told them: as the Father has sent me, so I send you: go and give this life to all.  But you should not be satisfied with doing this.  Lead them to a more perfect life through the teaching you will impart to them.  They will find this life by believing in my word which you will explain to them; but they will have a more abundant life by means of the example you will give them.  Do not worry whether or not your work will bear the fruit you intend to produce, for you will not be asked for the fruit.  Well, you will only be asked whether you have occupied yourselves faithfully in cultivating well these barren and arid lands.  You will not be asked whether you have gathered in a harvest, but only if you have taken sufficient care to sow the seed.

 

In the same way, my dear Daughters, you are now directed to go here and there to different places so that all have life and they lead a better life.  For what are you going to do but try to share the knowledge of the perfection of your Institute.  By means of this knowledge, you are to attract many to follow all the practices contained and included in it.  Is it not giving life to men and women without exercising the ministry of preaching, administering the sacraments and forgiving sins as the Apostles did?  To speak more clearly, is it not giving life to the girls because, following your example, probably hundreds of girls would withdraw themselves into your religious congregation?  Remaining in the world, they would have been lost.  Now they would go to rejoice in heaven for all eternity with eternal happiness.  Is it not through you that this life is bestowed on them.  Moreover, is it not because of you that they will live a life more perfect and pleasing to God.  this life will enable them to enter into a deeper more perfect union with the divine goodness, since they will receive all the necessary instructions from you for gaining the true and pure love of God; and this is exactly the life in abundance which Our Lord himself came to bring to all.

 

Our Lord said: I have brought fire on earth.  What do I ask or intend except that it burns (Lk. 12:49) unceasingly on my altar (Lev. 6:12) and for this, it should never be extinguished.  He said this to show with what earnestness He desires that the fire of His love should always burn on the altar of our hearts.  What grace it is that God has given you!  He makes Apostles of you, not by way of dignity, but by way of service and merit.  You will not preach, because being women you are not permitted to do it, even though Saint Mary and Saint Martha, her sister, have done it, but you will nonetheless exercise an apostolic function in sharing the way of life of your Institute as I have just told you.

 

Go ahead, then, filled with courage to do what you are called upon to do; but go in simplicity.  If ever you are filled with fear say to yourself: The Lord will provide (Gen. 22:8).  If the consciousness of your weakness disheartens you, throw yourselves immediately into God’s arms and entrust yourselves to Him.  Most of the Apostles were ignorant fishermen.  Yet God made them saints to the extent as this was necessary for them to fulfil the mission He wanted to confide to them.  Trust in God, lean on His Providence and have no fear about anything.  Do not say: I have no talent, to speak well.  That does not matter.  Go ahead without worrying and without turning back, for God will give you what you have to say and to do at the proper time. Do not be troubled by thinking that you are not virtuous at all or you do not find any virtue in you; for if you take up for God’s glory and in obedience the spiritual guidance of persons or any other work, whatever it be, God will always take care of you and he will be bound to provide you with everything that is necessary for you as well as for all those he has placed in your care.

 

It is true that what you undertake is a matte of very great importance it would all the same be wrong if you do not hope for great success since you are not undertaking it on your choice but out of obedience.  Without doubt we have always to beware of the craving after responsibilities and positions whether it be in Religious Life or elsewhere.  We should be afraid of these being offered to us on account of our seeking after them.  But apart from this, let us humbly bend our neck under the yoke and willingly accept the burden.  Let us humble ourselves, for that is what we should always do, but let us also remember to practise generosity together with acts of humility, for otherwise these acts of generosity alone would be worthless.

 

I have a very great desire to engrave on your heart and in your spirit, a maxim of incomparable utility, and it is this, Ask for nothing, refuse nothing: Accept what one offers you and do not ask for what one does not like to give you.  In this practice, you will experience a great sense of peace (Mt. 11;29).  Yes, my dear Sisters, hold your hearts in this holy indifference to receive all that is given to you and never to desire what would not be given to you.  I say this in brief: Desire nothing, but leave yourselves and all your preoccupations fully and perfectly in the care of divine Providence.  Let Him do with you in the same way children let their nurses guide them: Whether she carries you on the right arm or on the left, let her do it, for children rarely insist; whether she puts you to bed or lifts you out of it, let her do it for she is a good mother who knows better than you.

 

What I wish to say is this: If divine Providence permits that you pass through trials and conflicts or humiliations, do not refuse them, but accept them willingly, lovingly and with serenity.  If it does not send you any, or if it does not allow that such trials happen to you, do not desire them, and do not at all ask for them.  In the same way, God sends you consolations, accept them with a spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude towards the divine goodness; but if you have none at all, do not yearn after them, but try to keep your heart ready to receive all events from the Divine Providence, and as far as possible with an even mind.  For you should always remember that there are two wills and non-wills.  You should ignore one of these, that is, the one that attracts you towards sensual delights.  If you are offered as a matter of obedience in religious life, for example, the post of a superior, which you think is dangerous, do not refuse it; if your are not offered, do not seek after it and similarly regarding all other things.  You have no idea, being still inexperienced in these thins, how much this practice will benefit the spirit.  For instead of wasting our time desiring now one means of arriving at perfection and then another, we will give our full attention, quite simply and faithfully to those things we shall encounter on our way.

 

Turning my attention to your departure and to the unavoidable feelings of sorrow which all of you have as you are to be separated from another, I felt I ought to tell you something which could lighten this pain.  I do not wish to say that you should not shed tears, for you have to do it especially since you cannot contain them.  You have lived together her for a long time in gentleness and in love.  You were together to practise the same spiritual exercises which has united your hearts to such an extent that they cannot, without doubt, allow any division or separation.  But hen, my dear Daughters, you will not be separated, nor divided; for all of you go [along with those who are going] and all of you stay [with those who are remaining back].  Those who go remain and those who remain go.  Those who stay, go not in their own persons but in the persons who are going away; similarly those who are going, stay back in the persons of those who remain behind.

 

One of the main fruits of the Religious Life is this holy union which is forged by charity.  This union is such that many hearts are formed into only one heart.  It unites many different members and forms them into one body (acts 4:32).  In Religious Life all are made into one in such a way that all the members of the same Religious Congregation form but one Religious.  For example: All are Superiors in the person of the Superior; similarly all are cooks in the person of the cook; all the Sisters of this house are sacristans in the person of the sacristan and so also about all other offices.  The lay Sisters sing the divine Office in the persons of those whose duty it is to sing the Office, and those who sing the Office prepare the dinner in the person of those who prepare it.  And why so?  The reason is quite clear: if those Sisters who have to say the Office were not present, others would take their place; if there were no lay Sisters to prepare the dinner, the choir Sisters would take their place; if this particular Sister were not a Superior, there would be another in her place.  Similarly, t hose who are going away, stay and those who stay go; for if those who are appointed to go could not go, the others who are staying behind would have to go in their place.

 

But what should give us the courage to go or to stay willingly, my dear Daughters, s the quasi infallible certainty that we ought to have that this separation affects only the body, for we remain forever very specially united.  This physical separation means very little, really, for we shall all have to separate one day, whether we like it or not.  What we have to fear above all things is the separation of the hearts and the disunion of the spirits.

 

As for us, not only shall we all remain always united together, but much more, our union will continue to grow more perfect and stronger in the gentle and loving bonds of charity, and it will grow more and more intimate as we go on making progress in the way of our own perfection (Eph. 4:2-3; Col. 3:14).  For the more we are able to be united to God, the more shall we be united to one another.  And at every Communion that we receive, our union will become more perfect, for being united with Our Lord, we shall also remain united to one another.  That is why the holy reception of this heavenly Bread and of this most adorable sacrament is called Communion, that is, common union.

 

Oh, God! How wonderful is the union which exists among the Religious of the same Congregation!  This union is such that the spiritual good are so mixed and shared in common as the material goods.  The Religious have nothing of their own because of the sacred vow they have taken to practise voluntary poverty.  Due to the holy profession they make practise the most holy charity, all their virtues are common to all, all share in the good works of one another and all enjoy their fruits, provided that they remain always in charity and in the observance of the Rules of the Religious Life to which God has called them; in such a way that the one who is working in the kitchen or performs some other work, contemplates in the person of the one who is at prayer; the one who is resting shares in the work that another is doing at the command of the Superior.

 

You see, then, my dear Daughters, how those who are going away are also remaining and those who are remaining are also going, and how all of you have to embrace obedience, lovingly and courageously as much on this occasion as on all other occasions.  In fact, since those who remain will share in the work and the fruit of the journey of those who are going and these will have a share in the peace and tranquillity of those who are staying back.  All of you, my dear Daughters, certainly need to have many virtues or have care to put them into practice, both for going or and for remaining.  Those who are going will need much courage and confidence in God in order to undertake with love and in a spirit of humility what God wants from them.  And thus, in spite of the little feelings of sadness that may arise in leaving the House where God welcomed them initially, the Sisters they have loved so much, and their conversations which brought them so much comfort and their relatives and acquaintances.  They feel sad at leaving many things to which human nature feels attached as long as we live and the peace of this solitude which was so dear to their hearts.

 

Those who remain here also have the same need of courage, just as much to persevere in the practice of holy obedience, humility and tranquillity, as also to prepare themselves to leave this House when they are commanded to do so.  For, as you see, my dear Daughters, your Institute is going to spread far and wide an in many different places.  In the same manner, you  have to work to increase and multiply your acts of virtues and to gain more courage to render yourselves capable of being available, in answer to God’s will.

 

When I look back and reflect over the beginning of your Institute, it seems to me that it illustrates the history of Abraham.  For God gave him His word of honour that his race would multiply like the grains of sand on the seashore (Gen. 22:17).  He all the same commanded him to sacrifice his son, through whom God’s promise was to be fulfilled.  Abraham hoped and became strengthened in his hope even against hope and his hope was not at all useless but fruitful.  Similarly, when the first three Sisters came together and embraced the way of life you live today, God had decided from all eternity to bless their generation and to increase it greatly (Ps. 111;2).  But who could ever have dreamt that this was going to happen, since in enclosing them in their small house, we did not think anything else than to make them die to the world?  They were sacrificed, but they also sacrificed themselves willingly.  God was so happy with their sacrifice, that he not only gave them a new life for themselves, but a life in abundance which they can now communicate, with God’s grace, to many others (Jn. 10:10) as we see it happening today.

 

It appears to me that these first three Sisters, resemble well the three grains of wheat which were found lying amidst the straw in the chariot of Triptolomeus which was used to conceal his weapons.  These grains of wheat were taken to a country which produced no wheat and they were taken and thrown into the ground.  There they produced grains in such a quantity that in a few years that whole country was sown with wheat.  The Providence of your good God cast from his holy hand these three good Sisters in the land of the Visitation.  After remaining hidden from the eyes of the world for a while, they produced the fruit (Jn. 12:24-25) which we now see.  Thus, it seems to me that in a short time all the countries will be made sharers of the blessings, of your Congregation.

 

Happy, indeed, are those who give themselves up totally to the service of God, for God will never let them remain barren and unfruitful!  Even though they give up for God only a little yet God will shower abundant blessings upon them both in this life and in the next.  What a great blessing it is to be at the service of His own people whom He loves so dearly and to save whom He suffered so much.  This, indeed, is an incomparable honour and you my dear Sisters have to be aware of this great calling.  To devote yourself faithfully to this task, do not complain about suffering, nor care, nor work; for you will be abundantly rewarded for everything, though you are not to use this motive to encourage yourselves except that of becoming more pleasing to God and increasing all the more His glory.

 

Go ahead, then, and remain courageously in the practice of your spiritual exercises and do not waste your time in examining whether you possess the necessary qualities, that is, the virtues, required to accomplish your mission. It is much better that we do not at all see these qualities in us, for then it will keep us humble and give us greater reason not to trust in our own abilities. It enables us to place all our confidence more absolutely in God.  So long as we are not in need of the practice of a certain virtue it is better that we do not have it.  When we shall need it, let us be certain that God will give us each thing in its own time and place.

 

Let us not waste time in desiring or fearing anything, but let us place ourselves entirely in the arms of divine Providence.  Let Him do with us what it pleases Him.  For why should we desire one particular thing rather than another?  Should not everything leave us indifferent?  So long as we belong to God His divine will, this is enough to be pleasing to him.  As for me, I wonder how it happens that we have a greater liking to be put in charge of a particular task rather than another.  In religious life, especially, one office, one duty or another work is pleasing to God as a thousand others because it is obedience which gives value to all the practices of religious life.  If we are given the choice of performing contemptible works and which are most unpleasant to us, it is these latter that we have to accept with a loving heart.  But since these things are not left to our choice, let us accept one or the other with the same equanimity of heart.  When the charge that is confided to us is honourable in the eyes of others, let us keep ourselves humble in the sight of God.  When it is contemptible in the eyes of people let us consider ourselves more honoured in the sight of God.  Finally, my dear daughters, keep all these things I have spoken to you with love and faithfulness both as regards the interior and the exterior.  Do not desire anything except what God wishes for you.  Accept lovingly all the events and the different situations which are manifestations of God’s will.  Do not waste time on anything else.

 

What else can I tell you after all this, my dear Sisters, since it seems that all our happiness lies in all these loving, practices?  I will now give you the example of the Israelites (1 Sam. 8:5-13) and with it end my talk.  The Israelites lived for a long time without a king and one day they longed to have one.  What a human way of thinking.  It was as if God had left them without guidance, or that he had not taken any care to rule, govern and defend them!  So they approached the Prophet Samuel who promised them to speak to God about it which he did.  God was displeased with their request. But he gave a warning, that the King whom they would appoint, would have such power and authority over them that he would take away their children.  As to their sons, he would make some of them cooks, some soldiers and officers.  As to their daughters, he would appoint some cooks, others bakers and some as perfumers.  Our Lord, my dear Daughters, does the same with those who devote themselves to his service; for as you see, in  Religious Life there are various duties and responsibilities.  But what do I want to say?  Nothing else except that it seems to me that Our Lord has chosen those who are going away as perfumers: yes surely, because you certainly are entrusted with the task of spreading the sweet smelling perfume of virtues practised in your Institute.  And since young maidens are fond of these sweet smelling scents, so the Bride of the Song of Songs tells us (1:2) when she says that the name of her Beloved is oil or a balm which spreads very pleasant fragrance far and wide, everywhere that is why she adds, the maidens, have followed the attraction of these divine perfumes.  My dear Sisters, be like these perfumers of divine goodness spreading around wherever you go, the incomparable scent of very sincere humility, of gentleness and charity, so that many will be attracted by the odour of your perfume, and thus embrace your way of life.  In doing so they will also enjoy like you in this life a holy, loving peace and tranquillity of heart and after that go to enjoy the eternal happiness in the life to come.

 

Your Congregation is like a holy beehive (this is what was preached to you so eloquently the other day) which has already been formed into different swarms; but with this difference nevertheless that the bees leave the hive to go and make another hive.  There they form a new family and in each hive they always choose a king and they remain subject to him, whether they go out or remain inside.  As for you, my dear Sisters, even though you are now going to form a new hive, that is, to start a new Community of your Order, you have only one King, Our Crucified Lord, and you will live under His authority in confidence wherever you will be.  Do not fear that you will be lacking in anything for he will be with you always as long as you do not choose any other King.  Have but one concern; and that is, to grow in your love and fidelity to His divine goodness remaining as close to Him as possible, and everything will turn out well for you.  Learn form him all that you are expected to do.  Do nothing without asking for His advice, for He is the faithful friend who will lead, govern and care for you.  It is for this that I pray to Him with all my heart.

 

May God be praised!

 

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[1] St. Francis de Sales gave this conference on the occasion of the departure of Mother Claude-Agnes de la Roche along with several other Sisters of the Visitation of Annecy, who were sent in July 1620 to found the Monastery of the Visitation of Orleans, France.

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