XI
LIVE JESUS!
TO A NOVICE SISTER MARIE-CHRISTINE BOUTHIER
It is true, my dear Sister, that the affection I have for you often makes me wish that you are a good nun, which you will do easily if you work hard and courageously to the true mortification of your senses, passions and inclinations, in accordance with what the Constitution commands; not living according to the natural mood that would lead us to be sometimes cheerful and saying words of buffoonery about everything that presents itself, and other times so bad mood that everything will annoy us, not making us too great a scruple to see and hear what we want, to say a few words during the time of silence.
Here is my poor child, greater obstacles! to your perfection than you think and love to Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ asks you for a prompt amendment, which will not can only do through this true mortification. And remember that Saint Bernard says that the Words of buffoonery are blasphemy in the mouth of a religious person.
Every time you say it, you will do a penance, like holding a little absinthe in your mouth for the space of five Pater. And when you have made some mistake out of curiosity, you will kiss the earth five times saying: “Miserere mei Deus; » this verse only for the first and second fault; and if you fall a third, you will come and tell me. If it happens that you violate the rule of silence voluntarily, you will deprive yourself of eating your dessert at the first meal. I you admit, my dear Sister, that I would really like to make you a good nun; but if you Don’t work on it yourself, I won’t be able to do it.
Therefore, be humble and gentle to bear the little mortifications that will happen to you, suffering with sweet equality and tranquility of being humiliated and upset, thinking that it is means that the loving Heart of your good heavenly Father has prepared you to perfect yourself according to his desires. Don’t give the freedom for your heart to think so much uselessly about what mortifies and humiliates you: this is of no use than to destroy your spirit and fatten your self-esteem.
This is what I want you to do for the present, by making yourself faithful to our saints observances, if you desire that the sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ recognize you and confess for one of his daughters, and I, your puny and unworthy mistress, will recognize, by the attention you will have to perfecting yourself according to these maxims, if you have friendship for I who cherish you tenderly. Do not doubt it, my dear Sister, and try, according to the meaning of your name, to make you a true imitator of Jesus Christ, to whom I beg to ask for the grace that we may live and die in his holy love, which I beg to consummate all our lukewarmness and cowardice, especially in holy prayer, where I beg you to make yourself faithful, so as not to steal time from God; because it is a good use of this action on which everything else depends, and to do it well, you must be very collected and well mortified and everything will work out GOOD. This is what I recommend to you and to love the sacred Heart of Our Lord, to adore it often giving you and offering everything to him