To Her Brother, the Major
About April, 1687
Nothing could have pleased me more, dearest brother, than
the happy news that the Sacred Heart fill your heart with
such good dispositions. I fear that yours might have grown
cold towards him. That would have pained me very much and I
would not have dared speak to you about the Sacred Heart any
more because piety is never really solid unless it come
spontaneously from the movements of grace. Yours, I am sure,
does, because it produces such good results. I had even
hoped that things would turn out as you propose. But not
believing that your love for this adorable Heart would make
you want to sustain so great an expense as the one you speak
of, I did not dare mention it to you. So I approached the
people I had mentioned, thinking that if a greater number
were involved the deficit could easily be supplied. But we
clearly see now that we must carry out the plan as you
proposed it. We shall not refuse you this. By this you will
give me one of the greatest consolations I can have in this
mortal life. For nothing can make me happy here except to
see this divine Heart of my Lord Jesus Christ loved,
honored, and glorified, and to have the good fortune of
being able to consumed in suffering for His love. O my dear
brother, how fortunate you shall be if He gives you so great
a grace as to enable you to go through this undertaking!
I beg you, then, to be firm in following out the
inspirations He gives you, so as not to frustrate His
designs for making you holy. His grace shall not be wanting.
But He expects faithful cooperation from you and me in
return for His great love for us. I cannot tell you my full
sentiments on this matter just now. I hope my brother (The
priest) will not fail to do everything in his power to
further a plan so much for the glory of this divine Heart as
yours is, and which will draw upon you and your family any
graces.
To Mother Louise-Henriette de Soudeilles, at Moulins
From our Monastery in Paray, May 1, 1687
Most Honored Mother,
You could not make me happier than by sending me news of the
spread of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus
Christ. I am sure the devotion will prove no less useful to
this fine gentleman than it will to all those who practice
it with confidence. I shall beg our adorable Jesus with all
my heart to shower His grace and love upon them. I hope your
heart will be filled more and more with the love of this
loving Heart, in which I am wholly yours.
Mary was conceived without sin.
To Mother Louise-Henriette de Soudeilles, at Moulins
From our Monastery in Paray, June 25 ( 1687)
I beg the loving Heart of Jesus to consume our hearts in the
pure flames of His holy love, so that they may live and
breathe only to love, honor and glorify Him. I assure you,
dear Mother, that I have nothing but pleasure in thinking of
the ardent zeal this Sacred Heart give you to make Him known
and loved. I see in that a great sign of His love for your
Charity . You must never let up in this holy work which
will, I think, bring you a rich reward from God. In His
presence I do not forget you in my unworthy prayers and beg
you not to refuse the help of your prayers to one who is
wholly yours in the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
To Sister Félice- Madeleine de la Barge, at Moulins
June, 1689
Yes, dearly beloved Sister, I did answer, and quite at
length, the letter you mention. But you are not the only who
complains about letter getting lost. I can see clearly that
the best thing is not to write any more, since I think
perhaps the Lord may be letting them get lost only because
they are not pleasing to Him on account of my sins.
Moreover, I must confess I feel repugnance in writing,
seeing myself so far removed from practicing what I advise.
Though your soul is becoming more and more dear to me in the
Sacred Heart of our adorable Savior, I simply cannot repeat
here what I said in my last letters. So I shall merely say a
word on what you remark with regard to the love of your own
abjection. It is what I think I have already said: accept
and suffer in silence everything our divine Master sends you
and never say it is enough, no matter how great repugnance
nature may feel. That is all. Only one thing is necessary:
pure love of God combined with the love of our abjection. We
must abandon ourselves to the loving providence of the
Sacred and lovable Heart of Jesus and let Him guide and rule
us as He wishes. He will be sure to furnish us with all that
is necessary for out sanctification if only we are careful
to receive it according to His designs. That is sufficient.
Love, then, of our own abjection in the love of Our Lord
Jesus Christ is sufficient for us, in order to honor the
mysteries of His holy Passion and death. These He wishes us
to honor. And we must observe a holy silence, as He did, in
all humiliations and sufferings. I assure you that nothing
appeals to me so strongly as the silence He kept so
perfectly during the whole course of His Passion. In
imitation of Him, we should not open our lips except to pray
for those who cause us suffering.
You ask me which of the mysteries of His holy passion I like
the best. Bearing in mind what I have just told you I would
say that it is the Crucifixion. I like to stand with the
Blessed Virgin at the foot of the Cross, or rather under the
foot of the Cross, in order to attach myself to it and unite
myself to all He did for us. But right now, dear friend, we
must always find a place for ourselves in His adorable Heart
and never leave it no matter what happens. It is a strong
fortress and our place of refuge. He will not abandon us as
I hope and beseech Hi, with all my heart. How indebted we
are to this most loving Heart of Jesus for conducting us
along a road as safe as that of humiliations and the love of
our own abjection! Let us neither look for not desire any
other, for none is more conductive to our sanctification. In
the love of this Sacred Heart I am wholly yours.
To Mother Louise- Henriette de Soudeilles, at Moulins
From our monastery at Paray.
July 4,1686
I beg the Sacred Heart of our adorable Savior to vouchsafe
to unite our hearts so intimately by the bonds of His pure
love that they may never be separated for a single moment. I
assure you, beloved Mother, that He has given me so great an
esteem and friendship for your Charity that I think you are
doing me a great injury when you cast any doubt on it by
thinking I forget you. How could I ever do that, since you
are so dear to the loving Heart of Jesus, love Him, and want
to be entirely His so as to give Him, and to win for Him,
and to win for Him, all the honor, love and glory you can.
It is this I think He most of all desires of you, so that
later on He may make you feel abundantly the effects of His
liberality.
I do not know, dear Mother, whether you understand the
nature of this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord
Jesus Christ f which I am speaking. The devotion produces
rich fruit and makes a great change in those who are devoted
to it and earnestly practice it. I earnestly hope that the
members of your community may be among this number, perhaps
this desire and my too great liberty with you displease you;
but it is the love of my poor heart that makes me treat in
this way one who, I flatter myself, loves me. I have even
taken the liberty of sending you a little picture of this
Sacred Heart to wear over your own. We found this devotion
in the retreat book of Reverend Father la Colombière who is
venerated as a saint. I do not know whether you have heard
of it, or have the book of which I am speaking. But it would
give me great pleasure to send it yo you. So do me a favor
beloved Mother, of telling me what you think simply and
frakly , so that I may do the same and talk to you openly of
the devotion and love of this divine Heart. It is all I
desire and aspire for myself and for those who do me the
honor of loving me. In him I am completely and respectfully
yours.
Most dearly beloved Mother, I beg the help of your holy
prayers, so that Our Lord may convert me and not abandon me
to my own devices, as I might oblige Him to do because of a
life that is criminal and full of sin. All unworthy though I
be. I shall not forget you in His holy presence. Once does
not forget what one loves.
To Mother Louise- Henriette de Soudeilles at Mouslins
September 15, 1686
It gives me great pleasure, dearest Mother, to be able to
make this little sacrifice for you and send, with the
consent of our most honored Mother, the book with the
Retreat of Reverend Father La Colombieré and the two
pictures of the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ
someone gave us as a present. I assure you, my dear Mother,
that I must love you very much and be very much impressed by
your goodness, to be able to act thus with you. But I cannot
help doing so, thinking as I so that this divine Heart
wishes to be absolute Master of yours, in order that you may
have it honored, loved and glorified in your community. I
trust He intends by this means to pour with greater
abundance His graces, and the blessings of love and union,
into your hearts , and sanctification into your souls. For
He is the inexhaustible source of every good, which wants to
diffuse and communicate itself, especially to faithful souls
like those in your community. Moreover, I assure you that I
am convinced that persons consecrated to this Sacred Heart
will never perish. Neither will they fall under Satan´s
dominion by mortal sin if, after having given themselves
completely to the Sacred Heart, they strive to honor, love
and glorify Him as much as they can, by conforming
themselves completely to His holy maxims in everything. You
would not believe the good results it produces in souls who
have the happiness of knowing Him through the medium of this
holy man (Father de la Colombière). He himself was
completely dedicated to Him and lived only to make Him
loved, honored and glorified. I think it is indeed which
brought him to such high perfection in so short a time. O my
dear Mother! How happy you make me by wanting to render
special homage to this loving Heart. It has loved men so
much that It utterly spend Itself on the tree of the Cross
to prove Its love, and continues to so in the Blessed
Sacrament. But your Charity knows all this better than I. I
confess sincerely that I am very much wanting in humility to
speak to you this way. I am really such a wicked and poor
sinner, a mere composite of every kind of misery, capable
only of drawing down the wrath of God and of stopping the
flow of His Mercy. See, then , how much I am in need of the
help of your holy prayers with this adorable Heart. He is my
only hope. Do not refuse them to me, I earnestly beg, and I
assure you that I shall not forget you when in His presence.
If you wish our union and friendship in Him to continue, do
not think of sending me any money for the book or the
pictures. It is great enough reward to know that you want to
love and belong completely to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Christ.
In short, Jesus, His love, and His cross are all my
happiness in this life. I feel so great a desire that my
life remain buried in eternal oblivion that I earnestly
begged our dear Mother not to have to write any more to
anyone except now and then to Your Charity. I must tell you
something that causes me great joy: our community has
devoutly determined to place itself in a special manner
under the protection of the Adorable Heart of Jesus. A
chapel dedicated to its honor is being built. You would not
believe how great devotion. Those who delight in honoring
the Sacred Heart choose the first Friday of the month to
show him some special honor, each one according to her own
devotion. I think, my dear Mother, and I cannot help telling
you, that those communities which render Him some special
homage will enjoy special protection, love and fraternal
charity. I must say I feel ashamed to tell you my thoughts
so simply. You must give credence only to what Our Lord
inspires you to.
In closing I pray that all of us may belong completely to
the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live only with
His love, act and suffer only according to His holy designs,
letting Him act in us and do with us as He chooses. I hope
you may be completely consumed in His love. I cannot help
thinking that the longing I felt to send you this picture of
the Sacred Heart came from His desire to establish His
kingdom in your community and His reign of love in our
hearts. The hearts, my dear Mother, which are in the crown
of thorns which encircles this loving Heart are the ones
that love it and follow it in suffering. Those in the crown
o love-knots ( Lacs d´amour) are the ones that love It with
a joyous love.
To Sister Fèlice –Madeline de la Barge, at Moulins Short Act
of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ
I.N.N., give and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord
Jesus Christ my person and my life, my actions, trials and
sufferings, so that I ay no longer wish to make use of any
part of my being except to honor, love, and glorify Him.
This is my irrevocable will, to belong entirely to Him and
to do everything for His love, and I renounce with all my
heart anything that can be displeasing to Him. I take Thee,
then, O sacred Heart, as the sole object of my love, the
protector of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy
of my infirmities, the reparation for all the sins of my
life and my sure refuge at the hour of my death. Be, then, O
Hear of Goodness, my justification with God the Father, and
turn aside the blows of His just wrath. O Heart of Love, I
place all my confidence in Thee. I fear everything from my
malice but hope everything that can displease or resist
Thee. May Thy pure love impress Thee so deeply in my heart
that I can never forget Thee, nor never be separated from
Thee. I conjure Thee by Thy boundless goodness to write my
name in Thy Sacred Heart, for I wish to live and die as Thy
slave. Amen.
1686
You could find no surer bond, beloved Sister, to draw me
into a more intimate union with Your Charity than to love
the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I do not doubt
that the sacrifice which you want to make yourself to Him so
that you may be wholly His, to do and suffer everything for
His love, so that you may be able to live completely unto
Him according to His desires- I do not doubt , I say, that
this sacrifice is very pleasing to Him. It is a life of
sacrifice, of abandonment , and of love. Of sacrifice of all
is most dear to you and of what will cost you the most. Of
complete abandonment of yourself to His loving care, taking
Him as your guide on the way of salvation. You will do
nothing unless you ask Him for the help of His grace. And
this I am sure He will give you to the measure in which you
trust Him. Moreover, we must live the life of love. By our
humble submission and complete self-effacement it will unite
us with Him and make us altogether like Him in His life of
sacrifice, abandonment, and love in the Blessed Sacrament.
Love keeps Him there as a victim completely and perpetually
our salvation. Unite yourself with Him, then, in all that
you do. Refer everything to His glory. Set up your abode in
this loving Heart of Jesus and you will there find all the
good desires He inspires in you, and to avoid every
deliberate fault. Place un this Heart all your sufferings
and difficulties. Everything that comes from the Sacred
Heart is sweet. He changes everything into love.
Let us love Him, then dear Sister, with all our might and
strength. Let us belong to Him without reserve, because He
wants all or nothing. And after we have once given Him
everything, let us take nothing back. He will be sure to
sanctify us in proportion as we are careful to glorify Him.
It is for love of Him, beloved Sister, that I bed you to
pardon this proud and wicked sinner the liberty your
humility has asked her to take, in your letter to our dear
Sister Cordier. That is why I have said quite frankly what I
think. I have said it simply, too, asking this adorable
Heart of Jesus to consume you in His pure love and to grant
you my complete conversion. I beg you with all my heart to
ask this of him.
To sister (Francoise- Lucrèce ) de Thélis, at Lyond
September, 1687
I beg the adorable Heart of Jesus, mot honored Sister, to
make you fell the powerful effects of His merciful charity,
and to give you Himself what you are seeking and cannot find
in me, the most wicked and unworthy sinner imaginable. That
is why, I did not answer you, and why I would not answer
anyone else if obedience, an inviolable law with me, did not
order me to tell you simply what I think. This I am going to
do quite plainly, since you wish it.
In all that Your Charity tells us I find that the best and
most important sign is the strong importunity of grace you
fell even in spite of so many relapses. This shows God’s
burning desire to save your soul. But He will not save us
without cooperation. So we must not be presumptuous. For if
we think we can go on resisting grace, it will at length
tire of pursuing us and leave us so imperceptibly that we
will not even be aware of our loss. That is why if today you
hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your heart. Try to
profit by this retreat which you are going to make for this
purpose by a strong and efficacious determination to conquer
yourself by doing continual violence to yourself, whether it
be by detachment or by removing the other stumbling-blocks
you well know to be in your path. There must be no more
deliberate faults if you wish to enter again into the good
graces of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise you will seek him
in vain, for He will treat us even as we have treated His
grace. May His goodness preserve us from this unspeakably
great evil! For what goof can a soul possess that has lost
its God?
I have no doubt that it was by the spirit of God that this
virtuous priest dealt with you as he did, for I consider him
as holy man. There is no use, of course, in calling a
physician if we do not want to be cured or use the remedies
he prescribes or of we are not willing to abstain from the
things that make us sick. Since a disease once known is
already half cured, all one needs is a firm “ I will” and
everything will be all right. After all, there is question
here of the salvation of your soul , so very dear to Our
Lord Jesus Christ. I can assure you that there is nothing I
would not be willing to do and suffer for it, sin apart, in
order to make it wholly devoted to Him Who created it for
His glory. No one, however, can work more efficaciously for
this end than you yourself. This you will do by following
the lights He gives you to do good and avoid evil. Do not,
then , I urge you by the love of the Sacred Heart of Our
Lord Jesus Christ, resist grace any longer.
When I spoke to you of devotion to this Heart I meant rather
the devotion of perfect conformity with His perfect virtues,
and not prayers only. As for your Communions, they must
produce in you such good effects that you will no longer
commit deliberate sins. If they do not, you must follow in
this matter the advise given you. With regard to your being
afraid, I think Our Lord will be pleased with you if you go
to Him with the dispositions of the prodigal son, not
letting fear destroy your confidence. It is not said,
however, that this boy, once returned to his father, left
him a second time! But forgive me! What will you say of the
liberty your humility is causing my pride to take? I beg you
not to be angry. I can add nothing more now, except to say
that you will have a big share in my unworthy and feeble
prayers. But because I am so wicked, my prayers will be
useless for you.
These the are my thoughts simply presented. You do not have
to agree with them, much less follow them. Follow them only
in so far as Our Lord inspires you to do so. With all my
heart I beg Him to make you ever faithful in doing the good
He asks of you and in offering Him the sacrifice of
everything of everything that costs you the most, as He
shall make it known to you. There is no middle way, He wants
everything or nothing. If only you knew the graces you are
doing to receive from Him you would not refuse Him what He
asks of you. For your whole peace of soul and all your
happiness consists simply in this.
O, my dear sister, if only we could appreciate the great
wrong we do our poor soul in depriving it of so many graces
and by exposing it to such evident peril by our frequent
voluntary faults! These make it lose the friendship of its
God. He cannot hear it , nor even those who pray for it, as
long as it itself refuses to listen to Him and to be
completely converted to Him. He closes to it the entrance to
His Sacred Heart because it casts Him out of its own heart.
Let us make good use of the time He gives us, Let us delay
no longer, And yet we ought not to worry, for all our
worrying serves only to increase the difficulty. The spirit
of God does everything peacefully. Let us have recourse to
Him with love and confidence. He will receive us mercifully
and with open arms. But after that let us try not to leave
Him any more, for so many voluntary relapses are very
dangerous, especially to the soul of a religious.
To Her Brother, the Major
End of June,1689
Would that time permitted me, beloved brother, to express my
sentiments in your regard. You would see that the Sacred
Heart of Jesus Christ gives you these holy inspirations only
because of the ardent love He bears you, which makes Him
want to possess your heart unreservedly and completely. See
to it that He can, in so far as your calling permits it. He
asks no more. But although you are unable to carry out all
these good desires. He is going to reward you just as though
you had put them all unto effect. O, how this divine Heart
loves you, my dear brother! And how far removed He is from
what you say! I think He wants me to assure you that. You
must never lose confidence in His goodness until you have
exhausted His mercy. He is surrounding you with it on every
side. What should you feat, then except the loss of this
confidence in Him, which constrains and follows Him even to
the throne of His omnipotence, and gets it bow down and help
our weakness?
You would not believe what consolation you give me by having
celebrated so well the feast of this adorable Heart. It is
marvelous how people everywhere are celebrating it. Truly ,
dear Brother, it seems to me that this feast of the Sacred
Heart is a day of salvation and eternal blessings for all
those who honor It with a sincere and humble heart. So let
us love this divine Heart, and try to conform ours to It in
everything.
Ah, dear brothers, what returns shall we make to the Lord
for the great blessings He gives us! It is not His fault
that you are not a saint and that our family is not holy. I
dare to say He wishes it, and we should spare no efforts on
our part to second His designs. That is why He has revealed
to us the devotion to His Sacred Heart. It contains
treasures beyond comprehension which He wishes to
communicate to all well-disposed hearts. For this is a last
effort of the Savior to draw sinners to repentance and to
give them abundantly efficacious and sanctifying graces to
work out their salvation. By this means many will be saved
from eternal damnation. Woe to those who do not want to
profit by it! Let us contribute to that as much as be
established in all hearts. Let us contribute to that as much
as we can. Let us spare neither our goods nor our energies.
To Mother de Saumaise, at Dijon
December 22, 1689
With regard to what you say about my speaking frankly to
you, I think the lovable Heart of Jesus would not permit me
to do otherwise. Yet just at present He has quite
annihilated and silenced everything within me, so that He
permits me to see and know only in order that I may love and
adore Him. I am reduced to nothingness and lost in Him. That
is all I can say as to the condition in which HE has now
placed me.
Do no let up, dear Mother, in your work. I am confident He
will make it succeed for His glory in His own good time. For
thins that pertain directly to God’s glory are much
different from the things of this world. In these latter one
must work hard. But in the things of God, one must be
content to follow His inspirations, then let grace work and
follow it will all one´s strength, as I see you are doing.
The devotion to the Sacred Heart must not be forced. He
wants to insinuate Himself into hearts gently and sweetly
through charity, like oil, or, rather, like a precious balm,
whose perfume and unction spread gently. Let us not worry if
we do not see our desires for the glory of his divine Heart
accomplished at once. He permits delay only because of the
pleasure He takes in seeing our eagerness and longing for
that increase. Also so that the fervor which comes from this
holy devotion may last longer, by His granting us little by
little the things we desire. Non the less, He urges me
constantly to make Him known and loved. I offer myself to
Him for this, so that He may sacrifice and immolate me as
His victim for the accomplishment of all His designs
according as His love and good pleasure dictate.
Ah my dear Mother, why are we not aflame with the divine
fire He came to cast upon the earth? Yes , we must be
consumed with it. I want to make a practice of loving Him
and of being consumed in these holy flames. Let us love this
Sacred Heat which will be the altar on which we offer our
sacrifices. Oh, how powerful is this Heart to appease the
wrath of God aroused against us by our many sins! They have
drawn down upon as all these calamities that afflict us. We
must pray let still worse things befall us. Prayer in common
has great power with this Sacred Heart, which will turn
aside the rigors of divine justice and place itself between
God´s wrath and sinners and obtain mercy for them.
To Sister Jeanne- Madeline Joly, at Dijon
April 10, 1690
You would not believe, dear Sister, how delighted the
adorable Heart of our good Master makes me with the zeal you
show in making Him known and loved, and at the pains you
take in doing so. He will never forget it , I am sure , but
will Himself be your eternal reward. Eventually this divine
Heart shall reign in spite of all those who oppose Him.
Satan and all his followers will be confounded. Fortunate
shall they be whom He uses to establish His empire! It seems
to me He is like a king who does not think of giving rewards
while he is making his conquests and overcoming his enemies,
but only then indeed when he has come to reign victoriously
on his throne. The adorable Heart of Jesus wishes to
establish His reign of love in the hearts of all, to destroy
and bring to ruin the kingdom of Satan. It seems to me He
has so great a desire of doing this that He promises great
rewards to men of good will who work for it with all their
heart according to the strength and lights He gives them. Do
not be afraid, then, of the difficulties and sufferings you
will have to put up with in this holy undertaking. Rather we
ought to think ourselves fortunate that He considers us
worthy to work for so noble a cause. Yes, I say we ought to
be willing to bear every kind of trial, contradiction,
calumny, and suffering. The more of these I find the more
encouraged I feel and the greater is my hope that this
enterprise will succeed for the glory of this lovable Heart
and the salvation of many souls. But this is the kind of
devotion that cannot be forced or imposed on anyone. It is
enough to make it known and then leave to this divine Heart
the work of entering the souls He has prepared by His grace.
Fortunate indeed are these.
We must love this divine Heart, beloved Sister, in such a
way that we no longer live except for Him and through Him. I
always say I do not want to write any more, but I cannot
help doing so when there is question of speaking of the
Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. I must confess that,
outside of this, everything torture. But in this divine
Heart everything, even the bitterest suffering, is changed
into love. Let is make there our real and continual
dwelling. If only we abandon ourselves entirely to Him,
nothing will trouble us any more. Let us not interfere with
His acting in us and for us just as He wishes.
Ask of Him for me that He hide me so carefully in His heart
that I remain forever forgotten and despised. Every torture,
even death itself, will be a pleasure to me if only He may
reign. I find no consolation in this life except in the
progress and happy success of this devotion to the Sacred
Heart, and in hearing news of it.
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