Salesian Literature

LETTERS OF SFS

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Madame de Chantal

Desire to attain fullness of Christian life

The bond of friendship

Do all through love, nothing through constraint

Let us always belong to God, unreservedly and without interruption

Humility and charity are the master ropes; all others are attached to them

Staying in God’s presence

Throw yourself into God’s arms

 

Throw yourself into God’s arms

Chambéry, March 28, 1612[1]

 

Well, now, my very dear and only daughter, it is about time I answer your long letter – if I can.  Unfortunately, my very dear, most truly very dear daughter, I must answer it in haste for I have very little leisure, and if the sermon which I have to give shortly had not pretty well taken shape in my mind, I wouldn’t be writing you anything but the little note enclosed.

 

Now let us talk about the interior trials of which you have written me.  It is clearly a total absence of feeling that keeps you from enjoying not only consolation and inspirations, but even faith, hope and charity.  You do possess them, however, and very much so, only you do not derive any enjoyment from them.  You are like a child whose guardian does not allow him to spend all his fortune, and so, although the money belongs to him, he cannot touch it, nor does he seem to possess anything but his very life.  As St. Paul says, “though he is master of all his possessions, his condition is no different from that of a slave” (cf. Gal. 4;1).  And so, my dearest daughter, God does not want you to have control over your faith, your hope, and your charity, nor to have use of them, except just enough to live on and to draw from in times of absolute necessity.

 

My dearest daughter, how fortunate we are to be thus constrained and held back by our heavenly Guardian!  All we have to do, undoubtedly, is nothing more than what we are already doing, which is to adore the lovable providence of God and to throw ourselves into His arms and into His keeping.  “No, Lord, I want no more delight from my faith, my hope, or my charity than to be able to say in very truth, though without taste or feeling, that I would rather die than give up my faith, my hope and my charity.  Lord, if it is Your good pleasure that I take no delight in practising the virtues which Your grace has granted me, I accept this most willingly, even though it goes against what my will feels.”

 

It is the peak of holy resignation to be content with naked, dry, unfelt acts made only by the higher will, as it would be the highest level of abstinence to be satisfied with eating, not simply without enjoyment or savour, but with distaste and aversion.

 

You have described your suffering very well and need do nothing more than what you are already doing to remedy your situation.  Assure Our Lord, even aloud or sometimes in song, that you are willing to endure a living death and be nourished as though you were dead, that is, without taste or feeling or awareness. In short, our Saviour wants us to be so entirely His that we have nothing left and may be totally and unreservedly surrendered to the mercy of His providence.

 

Therefore, my dearest daughter, remain thus in the darkness of the Passion.  Is say “in the darkness” for I leave you to ponder this: when our Lady and St. John stood at the foot of the Cross in the strange and frightening darkness that surrounded them, they no longer heard nor saw our lord and felt only bitterness and distress; and although they had faith, this too was in darkness, for it was necessary that they should share in our Saviour’s sense of abandonment.  How fortunate we are to be the slaves of this great God who became a slave for our sake! (cf. Phil. 2:7)

 

But it is time now for my sermon.  Goodbye, my dearest mother, my daughter in our Saviour. Long live His divine goodness!  I have the greatest concern for the progress of our heart, for which I surrender all my other joys into the hands of His supreme and fatherly providence.

 

Good night once again, my very dear daughter.  May Jesus, our gentle Jesus, only heart of our heart, bless us with his holy love.  Amen.

 

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[1] Oeuvres, XV, 197-199: Letter DCCLXIV. Our last sample of this unique and extensive correspondence was written more than two years (and sixty letters) later.  Madam is now Mother de Chantal of the first Visitation community in Annecy, and Francis is away preaching the Lenten series in Chambéry.

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