The Autobiography of Madame GuyonGuyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Religion
The Autobiography of Madame Guyon
Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Catholics -- France -- Biography; Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte, 1648-1717
This girl then knew my affection for the holy sacrament, where, when I
could have liberty for it, I passed several hours on my knees. She took
it in her head to watch me daily. When she discovered me going, she ran
to tell my mother-in-law and my husband. There needed no more to
chagrin them. Their invectives lasted the whole day. If a word escaped
me in my own justification, it was enough to make them say that I was
guilty of sacrilege, and to raise an outcry against all devotion. If I
made them no answer at all, they still heightened their indignation,
and said the most grating things they could devise. If I fell sick,
which often happened, they took occasion to come to quarrel with me at
my bed, saying, my communion and prayers were what made me sick. They
spoke as if there had been nothing else could make me ill, but my
devotion to Thee, O my Beloved!
She told me one day that she was going to write to my director to get
him to stop me from going to the communion. When I made no answer, she
cried out as loud as she could, that I treated her ill and despised
her. When I went to prayers, (though I had taken care to arrange
everything about the house) she ran to tell my husband that I was going
and had left nothing in order. When I returned home his rage fell on me
in all its violence. They would hear none of my reasons, but said,
"they were all a pack of lies." My mother-in-law persuaded my husband
that I let everything go to wreck. If she did not take the care of
things he would be ruined. He believed it, and I bore all with
patience, endeavoring, as well as I could, to do my duty. What gave
most trouble was the not knowing what course to take; for when I
ordered anything without her, she complained that I showed her no
respect, that I did things of my own head and that they were done
always the worse for it. Then she would order them contrary. If I
consulted her to know what, or how she would have anything to be done,
she said that I compelled her to have the care and trouble of
everything.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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