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Vive ✠ Jésus!

Annecy, 1615.

… I think you have received both the letters that I have written to you since our arrival. Now to answer yours, which has been a joy beyond words to me: so is it in your power, my dearest Sister and friend, to give me true pleasure. You are indeed happy in serving our Lord and His holy Mother: give your service, my beloved friend, with boundless joy and courage. Our very good Father, whom as yet I have hardly seen, wrote you the other day an excellent and beautiful letter.[A] Ah! how blessed are they who hide themselves in the sacred breast of the Saviour, and elsewhere find no delight. But I really must answer your letter. I am writing during the Sisters' supper, and I have had no time as yet to converse with any of them. Keep firm to the line you have adopted with M. de Saint-Nizier, that is all I have to say on that point. I must answer Père Théodose, but it is you who ought to do this. Yes, I told Sister—— that you would give her a little book on perfection, but she must not let her imagination run away with her, so as to think she possesses all the good qualities she desires and which she hears discussed. Keep her gently and cordially humble, and believe me, my love, she will, please God, do very well.

There are countless things, my dearest Sister, that I long to say about the true and sincere affection I have for you, and this because I verily believe that we are not separated, but more united than ever, for our mutual intercourse by letter brings home to us, it seems to me, all the more forcibly our affection. O God! may this love be eternal: our life here is too short to suffice for the enjoyment of so great a good! But to answer your little questions. God be praised for the zeal of our good Sisters in holy obedience. Oh! but it is sweet and pleasant news to me, and for them an inestimable treasure. I beseech these dearest daughters, whom I truly love, to give all the consolation possible by following after perfection holily and faithfully. Oh, my God, we have only, my dearest one, my Sister, to die or to love our good Saviour. Amen.

His Lordship has, through the chaplain, acceded to the desire of Madame Colin. You have answered N. right well; no thanks are needed in such matters. If I can I will write to M.; if not, do it yourself, my love, for these are our affairs. Believe me, I pray much, and will continue to do so for you, and still more for your dear Father and Mother. …

[A] In this letter, having consoled her for the departure of Sister J. F. de Chantal, Saint Francis addresses these sweet words to her: "We need never part from one another, we whom the very blood of Our Lord—that is to say, His love, through the merits of His blood—binds and unites together. Indeed, as for me, I am in very truth so entirely yours that in proportion to the distance that these two or three days of journeying seem to separate us corporally the more strongly and with the more affection am I united spiritually to you as to my very dear daughter. You will be the first after our Mother (de Chantal) in my prayers and my solicitude, a solicitude, however, which is more sweet through the extreme confidence which I have in the heavenly care of divine Providence for your soul."—(M. S. Lives of the First Mothers, by Mère de Chaugy.)