Salesian Literature

Letters on:

Prayer, Faith, and Accepting Your Vocation

1. Thy Will be done   ::    2. Do the will of God joyfully  ::    3. Serve God where you are  ::    4. Let us be what we are, and let us be it well 

5. Our faith should be naked and simple  ::    6. There are two principal reasons for prayer  ::    7. Little virtues prepare for contemplation of God

8. We must remain in the presence of God  ::    9. Never does God leave us save to hold us better

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4. Let us be what we are, and let us be it well

To a wife who thinks marriage hinders holiness

 

Madame my dearest sister,

 

You see me in readiness to write to you, and I know not what to say, except to tell you to walk always joyfully in this heavenly way in which God has placed you.  I will bless Him all my life the for the graces He has prepared for you, prepare for Him, on your part, as an acknowledgement, great resignations, and courageously lead your heart to the execution of the things you know He wants from you, in spite of all kinds of contradictions that might oppose themselves to this.

 

Regard not at all the substance of the things you do, but the honour they have, however trifling they may be, to be willed by our God, to be ordered by His Providence, and to be disposed by His wisdom.  In a word, being agreeable to God, and recognized as such, to whom can they be disagreeable?

 

Be attentive, my dearest child, to make yourself every day more pure of heart.  This purity consists in estimating and weighing all things in the balance of that sanctuary, which is nothing other than the will of God.

 

Love nothing too much, not even virtues, which are lost sometimes by passing the bounds of moderation.  I do not know whether you understand me, but I think so: I refer to your desires, your ardours.  It is not the property of roses to be white, I think – for the red are lovelier and of sweeter smell – but it is the property of lilies.

 

Let us be what we are, and let us be it well, to do honour to the Master whose work we are.  People laughed at the painter, who wishing to represent a horse, painted a perfect bull.  The work was fine in itself, but of little credit to the workman, who had another design, and had done well by chance.

 

Let us be what God likes, so long as we are His, and let us not be what we want to be, if it is against His intention.  For if we were the most excellent creatures under Heaven, what would it profit us if we were not according to the pleasures of God’s will?  Perhaps I repeat this too much; but I will not say it so often again, as Our Lord has already strengthened you much in this point.

 

Do me this pleasure, to let me know the subject of your meditations for the present year.  I shall be consoled to know it, and also the fruit they produce in you.  Rejoice in Our Lord, my dear sister, and keep your heart in peace.  I salute your husband, and am forever, Madame,

 

Your affectionate and faithful brother,

Francis

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