Salesian Literature

Letters on:

Bearing Your Cross

Love God crucified, even amid darkness   ::   Do not desire mortifications  ::   Practise the mortifications that are given to you

O good Cross, so loved by my Saviour  ::   You only want to bear the crosses that you choose

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3. Practise the mortifications that are given to you

To a woman, on serving God with gentleness and strength

 

Madame, my dearest sister,

 

It is impossible for me to restrain myself from writing to you at all opportunities that present themselves.  Do not worry yourself; no, believe me, practise serving Our Lord with a gentleness full of strength and zeal.  That is the true method of this service.  Wish not to do all, but only something, and without doubt you will do much.

 

Practise the mortifications that most often present themselves to you; for this is the thing we must do first; after that we will do others.  Often kiss in spirit the crosses that Our Lord has Himself placed on your shoulders.  Do not look whether they are of a precious or fragrant wood; they are truer crosses when they are of a wood that is vile, abject, and even stinking.  It is remarkable that this always comes back to mind, and that I know only this song.  Without a doubt, my dear sister, it is the canticle of the Lamb.  This song is a little sad, but it is harmonious and beautiful: “My father, be it not as I will but as Thou wilt” (Mt. 26:39).

 

Magdalene seeks Our Lord even though she is already holding Him; she demands Him from Himself.  She does not see Him in the form in which she wants to see Him; this is why she is not content to see Him as He is, and seeks Him to find Him in some other guise.  She wanted to see Him in His glorious dress, and not in a gardener’s vile dress.  But still at last she knew it was He, when He said, “Mary” (Jn. 20:14-16).

 

Look now, my dear sister, my child, it is Our Lord in gardener’s dress that you meet here and there every day in the occasions of ordinary mortifications that present themselves to you.  You would like Him to offer you other and finer mortifications.  Oh, God, the finest are not the best.  Do you not think He says, “Mary, Mary?”

 

No, before you see Him in His glory, He wishes to plant in your garden many flowers, little and lowly, but to His liking; that is why He is dressed so.

 

May our hearts be ever untied to His and our wills to His good pleasure.  I am, without end and without measure, my dear sister,

 

Your most humble brother and servant,

Francis

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