Salesian Literature

16.   The Throne of God's Love

 

Dear Francis de Sales,

 

My prayers are causing me some difficulty just now.  I want to talk to God, but as soon as I get on my knees everything goes blank, and I feel so helpless.

 

God always seems to be so very far away.  No matter how hard I try, I just can’t reach him.  I know it’s my unworthiness, and it makes me very miserable because I don’t seem to be able to do anything about it.

 

Yours sincerely,

Mrs. A. Christine

 

 

Dear Mrs. Christine,

 

Your difficulty, which is simply a question of aridity or dryness, cannot be straightened out by letter.  I should need to see you to become acquainted with your symptoms.

 

Still, when all is said and done, patience and resignation is the only cure.  The winter’s cold will pass eventually and then summer will come to gladden our hearts.

 

I’m afraid we keep our hearts set on contentment, serenity and cheerful comfort, but the bitterness of aridity will do us more good.

 

Although St. Peter loved Mount Tabor and shrank from Mount Calvary, Calvary was the greater grace and blessing; the blood that was shed on Calvary was of greater value than the splendour that shed its rays over Tabor.

 

Our Lord has begun to treat you as one of his sensible children; try to behave like one, just a little.  Bread an no jam is better for you than jam and no bread.

 

The feeling of uneasiness and melancholy arising from the consciousness of your nothingness has no business to be there.  The cause may be good, but the effect is bad.  On the contrary, instead of being upset on realising our nothingness we should become more tolerant, submissive and lowly.

 

Self-love is the sole reason we grow impatient at seeing ourselves insignificant and contemptible.  I implore you in the name of Jesus Christ, whom we both love, to take comfort and remain unruffled by your frailty.

 

“I delight to boast of the weakness that humiliate me,” said the great St. Paul, “so that the strength of Christ may enshrine itself in me.”  Our wretchedness, to be sure, serves as a throne to offset our Lord’s unparalleled loving kindness.

 

I wish you a thousand blessings.  May our Lord bless your heart and set it afire with love of him!  May he alone be your heart’s delight; may your sole comfort be the seeking of his glory in all you do.  May he make his home in your heart, and may you find your refuge in his.

 

I am, in him, more sincerely yours than you could believe.

 

Your most devoted servant,

Francis de Sales

(Source:  1609 or 1610.  Annecy Edition, XIV, 235-236)

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