Salesian Literature

Letters on:

Overcoming Fear, Temptation, Failure and Discouragement

 

1.  We must be patient as we seek perfection

To a young woman who is discouraged by spiritual failures

Letter 190 to Mademoiselle de Soulfour, July 22, 1603

     

2.  Have courage, for you have only just begun

To a young woman, on how to benefit from affliction

Letter 459 to Mademoiselle Claudine de Chastel, late May or early June 1608

   

3.  Be gentle and charitable to your soul

To a woman distressed by her sins

Letter 458 to Madame de la Flechere, May 28, 1608

   

4.  God loves greater infirmity with greater tenderness

To a superior of the Visitation nuns, on accepting imperfections

Letter 1402 to Sister de Blonay, February 18, 1608

   

5.  We must bear ourselves until God bears us to Heaven

To a woman struggling with spiritual problems

Letter 277 to Madame Brulart, March 1605

   

6.  Self-love can be mortified, but never dies

To a nun, on the masks that self-love wears

Letter 948 to an unnamed nun of the Visitation, 1613 or 1614

   

7.  We must attain holy indifference

To a woman, on struggling against self-love

Letter 1675 to Madame de Herse, July 7, 1620

   

8.  Lean on the mercy of God

To a woman wondering whether she has done her duty

Letter 517 to Madame de la Flechere, March 1609

   

9.  To change the world, we must change ourselves

To a woman angered by sinfulness in the world

Letter 512 to Madame de la Flechere, January 20, 1609

   

10.  In patience shall you possess your soul

To Jane de Chantal, on patience and bearing temptations

Letter 273 to Jane de Chantal, February 18, 1605

   

11.  Do not worry yourself about temptations

To Jane de Chantal, on dealing with temptations

Letter 306 to Jane de Chantal, August 28, 1605

   

12.  We must not be fearful of fear

To a man fearful of judgement after death

Letter 1974 to an unnamed man, undated

   

13.  Constrain yourself only to your serving God well

To Jane de Chantal, on calming the troubled spirit

Letter 436 to Jane de Chantal, March 7, 1608

   

14.  True simplicity is always good and agreeable to God

To Jane de Chantal, on charity and humility

Letter 385 to Jane de Chantal, February 11, 1607

   

15.  We must do all by love and nothing by force

To Jane de Chantal, on temptation and spiritual liberty

Letter 234 to Jane de Chantal, October 14, 1604

   

16.  Be then all for God

To a young woman, on giving oneself to God

Letter 1548 to an unnamed young woman of Paris, September 7, 1619

 

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