"When they declare a crime in such a manner that you may perceive they are in trouble how to speak, interrupt them, by letting them know, that their sin is not altogether so great as they may think; that by God's assistance you can heal the most mortal wounds of the soul; bid them go on without any apprehension, and make no difficulty of telling all. You will find some of them, whom either the weakness of their age or sex will hinder from revealing to you their most shameful sins. When you perceive that bashfulness has tied their tongue, be before-hand with them; and, by the way of a charitable prevention, let them know, that they are neither the first, nor the only persons, who have fallen into disorder; that those things which they want the confidence to tell you, are little in comparison of what you have heard from others on the same subject. Impute some part of their offence to the corruption of nature, to the violence of the temptation, and to the unhappiness they had to be engaged in such occasions and pressing circumstances, where their fall was almost unavoidable. In fine, I must advertise you, that to remove from such persons that unseasonable shame-facedness which keeps them silent; from such persons, I say, whom the devil has made as bashful after a crime as they were impudent before it, it may be necessary sometimes to discover to them, in general, the frailties of our own past lives. For what can a true and fervent charity refuse, for the safety of those souls who have been redeemed with the blood of Jesus Christ! But to understand when this is proper to be done, how far to proceed, and with what precautions, is what the interior spirit, and your experience, must teach you, in those particular conjunctures. "You will ordinarily meet with some Christians who believe not the truth of the holy sacrament of the altar, either by not frequenting it, or by their conversation with Pagans, Mahometans, and Heretics, or by the scandal which is given them by some Christians, and principally (which I speak with shame and sorrow) by such priests whose life is not more holy than that of the people. For beholding some of them approaching the altar without any preparation, assisting at it without modesty and reverence, they imagine that Jesus Christ is not, as we say he is, in the sacrifice of the mass; for if he were there present, he would never suffer such impure hands to touch him. Make it your business, that those misbelieving Christians should propose to you all their doubts, and discover to you all their imaginations, which being known, then prove to them the real presence of Jesus Christ, by all those reasons which are capable of establishing it; and shew them, that the surest means for them to come out of their errors, and leave their vices, is often to approach that sacrament, with suitable preparations to it.