Salesian Literature

LETTERS OF SFS

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Madame de la Flechere

Patiently accept being less than perfect

Do faithfully all the things you have to do

Indifference

We must hate our faults

 

Do faithfully all the things you have to do

May 19, 1608[1]

 

Madam,

 

[…]  I remember how you told me that all the things you had to do weighed heavily upon you, and I told you that this was a good opportunity for you to acquire true and solid virtue.  Having to attend to so many things is a continual martyrdom; for just as flies are more bothersome and irritating to summer travellers than the travelling itself, so the variety and multiplicity of things you have to do is harder to bear than the actual weight of them.

 

You need patience, and God will give it to you, I’m sure, if you earnestly ask Him for it and if you strive to practise it faithfully.  Prepare yourself to do so every morning, especially by applying some point of your meditation to this, making up your mind to be patient throughout the day whenever you find yourself slipping.

 

Don’t lose any opportunity, however small, of being gentle toward everyone.  Don’t rely on your own efforts to succeed in your various undertakings, but only on God’s help.  Then rest in His care of you, confident that He will do what is best for you, provided that you, for your part, work diligently but gently. I say “gently” because a tense diligence is harmful both to our heart and to our task and is not really diligence, but rather over-eagerness and anxiety.

 

Soon we shall be in eternity and then we shall see how insignificant our worldly preoccupations were and how little it mattered whether some things got done or not; however, right now we rush about as if they were all-important.  When we were little children how eagerly we used to gather pieces of broken tile, little sticks, and mud with which to build houses and other tiny buildings, and if someone knocked them over, how heartbroken we were and how we cried!  But now we understand that these things really didn’t amount to much.  One day it will be like this for us in heaven when we shall see that some of the things we clung to on earth were only childish attachments.

 

I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t care about these little games and trifling details of life, for God wants us to practise on them in this world; but I would like to see us not so strained and frantic in our concern about them.  Let’s play our childish games since we are children; but at the same time, let’s not take them too seriously.  And if someone wrecks our little houses of projects, let’s not get too upset, because when night falls and we have to go indoors – I’m speaking of our death – all those little houses will be useless; we shall have to go into our Father’s house.  Do faithfully all the things you have to do, but be aware that what matters most is your salvation and the fulfilment of that salvation through true devotion.

 

Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself; I mean, don’t be disturbed about your imperfections, and always have the courage to pick yourself up after a fall.  I’m very glad to hear that you make a fresh start each day.  There’s no better way of growing toward perfection in the spiritual life than to be always starting over again and never thinking that we have done enough.

 

Recommend me to God’s mercy.  I beg Him, through that same mercy, to fill you with His love.  Amen.

 

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[1] Oeuvres, XIV, 21-23: Letter CDLV.

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