Salesian Literature

8.   The Perfection of Motherhood

 

Dear Francis de Sales,

 

I thought you would like to know that my little girl is now two months old and as good as gold.  I am able to feed her myself and this makes me very happy. Please pray for us both.

 

Yours sincerely,

Mrs. A. Christine

 

Dear Mrs. Christine,

 

Thank God that you are enjoying the perfection (shall we call it the “vintage”?) of motherhood’s fruitfulness and can nourish your baby on the wine of life. “wine cannot ravish the senses like that embrace, nor the fragrance of rare perfume match it for delight,” murmurs the bride to her divine Bridegroom in the Song of Songs.

 

The Heart of our Lord, the Lover of our souls, is filled with ardent longing for our salvation. He embraces us with his grace and his promise. His grace flows into our souls hour by hour, minute by minute; we cannot fail to be aware of this, if only we stop and think.

 

His promise is the promise of eternal life. With his grace he feeds our love; with his promise he feeds our hope. In our Saviour’s embrace we are nourished and contented like children at their mother’s breast, an embrace more ravishing than wine.

 

Wine is normally made by pressing the juice from grapes. The wine of the spirit is made by pressing out God’s grace and his promise. We press out God’s grace by frequent fervent ejaculatory prayers. We press out his promise by increasing our acts of charity. These acts condition the fulfilment of that promise, for he wills ay at the judgement: “I was sick, and you cared for me.”

 

“Everything must be done by turns.”  In both the natural and the spiritual order wine is produced by pressure. This pressure, to be effective, needs to be unhurried and gentle, not restless and violent. We are to be careful but not anxious.

 

The Heart of Christ was pierced on the cross. That cross was a twisted branch, but a fruitful one. It bore only one bunch of grapes, but no amount of others could equal it. The saints have never come to the end of the supply of graces and virtues which flowed from the Heart of the world’s Redeemer.

 

I hope you will be able to feed your child well and happily. May you find in the natural vintage a stepping-stone to the spiritual. St. Francis of Assisi loved lambs and sheep because they reminded him of his Saviour. You ought to love your natural fruitfulness in feeding your child, not only because your care in this symbolises the answer to the request we make each day for our daily bread, but more so because it prepares you for the fruitfulness of the spirit.

 

God be with you. Be happy, since you have given yourself to God who is our eternal happiness. He wants to live and reign in our hearts for ever.  I am in him and through him,

 

Your faithful servant,

Francis de Sales

(Source:  Annecy, 12 October 1608.  Annecy Edition, XIV, 77-79)

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