Selected Letters of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal — John Shaqi
Selected Letters of Saint Jane Frances de ChantalChantal, Jeanne-Françoise de, Saint
Religion
Selected Letters of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
Chantal, Jeanne-Françoise de, Saint
Chantal, Jeanne-Françoise de, Saint, 1572-1641 -- Correspondence
This woman has an excellent heart. She it is, I am told, who ought to
introduce the ladies to us. Encourage her as much as possible to
establish the Visitation at Grenoble. It is really very wonderful how on
all sides they are asking for us, and we have no desire to settle
ourselves anywhere, except at Grenoble. Everything looks encouraging in
that direction. The ladies there are enthusiastic to have a foundation.
Recommend the affair to Our Lord, for it seems to me that it will be for
His glory. Our dear Sister (Barbe Marie) will tell you everything. She
has written to me three times since the return of his Lordship and I
once to her. This is only fair, for she is not as busy as I am. She is
quite devoted to you. Get a thurible made out of that beautiful cup; we
often need one and have to inconvenience our neighbours by borrowing
from them. Sell our watch, my child, to help to pay for the making of
it. You will have to do this for we are short of money. Good Madame
Colin insists on our keeping her watch, but I shall not do so on any
account unless she consents to take the value of it. It keeps good time
and we have much need of such a one.
My poor dear Sister, I dearly love you. Live solely for God by giving
yourself up entirely to His holy will and letting it act. Indeed, I long
to do likewise and I pray God to let me die if I do not love Him
henceforth with all my strength. Such is the desire of the miserable
little heart of your poor Mother who has the toothache, so she must stop
writing as soon as she has made up her mind what answer to give
Monseigneur of Bourges. Our good Bishop will come for it this evening.
We seldom, I assure you, see him now. But we do not mind so long as he
can get through all his work. Would to God that I could relieve him of
it!
Now this is the answer to the Archbishop of Bourges. Write to the
grand-nephew as from yourself and say that if the matter is urgent we
shall find great difficulty in providing Sisters, not having any yet
sufficiently trained. I believe that Monseigneur intends first sending
Cardinal Bellarmine's letter to the Father Rector, and afterwards to his
Grace of Lyons....
I can understand poor N.'s temptation. Alas! from what I hear the poor
Sister seems quite to have gone astray. God grant she may get into the
right way again. In conclusion, dear daughter, I hope you will not take
too much to heart what I have said about his Lordship's correspondence,
I acknowledge to have written forcibly because it is doing him so much
harm. Yesterday I let him know that I was going to write all round in
the hope of curtailing it, and he told me that I must not do so, for he
could manage very well. You understand, dearest daughter, I am not
addressing myself to you, nor to any of our Sisters, for I don't wish to
stop them from writing to him when they require his advice. Oh, indeed I
do not! not them, nor any one. I only mean that discretion should be
used in this matter.
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