Letter XXII.—Fidelity to the Call of God.

To a Postulant. On abandonment in the trials to which vocation is subject.

All that you have told me, and written to me, makes me convinced that God calls you to religion, and, in particular to the Order of the Visitation. Your interior attraction to this Order, and the reasons you allege for it do not leave a doubt of this double vocation; for, as there is one for religion in general, there is also one for this or that community in particular. It only remains for you to be faithful to the call of God and thus to make sure your predestination.

Now, this fidelity requires three things of you; first you must endeavour to preserve in your heart in spite of every obstacle both exterior and interior, this attraction towards God with the sincere desire to follow it when He Who has given it to you will Himself provide the means by which you will be able to concentrate yourself to His service in reality, as you have already done beforehand in your mind and heart. Your second duty is to hope against hope as Abraham did; that is, to believe firmly that, as God is all-powerful and that nothing in the world can resist Him, He will know how to overcome all the obstacles and oppositions of men in His own time. All minds and hearts are in His hands and He can turn them as He will without effort. It was by His simple “Fiat” that He created all things out of nothing. Therefore, when the time arrives, He has but to say “Fiat” and all the obstacles to your vocation will be removed. At present He allows these obstacles to try your patience, your faith in Him, and your firm reliance on His powerful succour. Therefore, do not be alarmed, but continue to trust firmly in God. Do not trouble yourself nor torment yourself at all, but submit to God generously; accept all the trials He sends you, saying to Him without ceasing, “Lord may all that You will be accomplished in me, at the time, and in the way that pleases you; I accept all and sacrifice my own interests, my wishes, and all the desires of my heart to have none other than to obey and please You in all things.” Your third duty is a great fidelity to all your exercises of piety; prayers, readings, meditations, masses, confessions, Communions, examens, and interior recollection; frequent raising of the heart to God without ever giving up in the slightest degree any of these practices, either through grief, trouble, disgust, weariness, dryness, or for any other reason whatever. These trials are necessary to detach you from everything and to keep you united to God Who alone should be your light, your support, your consolation and your strength.

Apparently it is to make you practise this abandonment better that God has permitted you to be forbidden to enter the Visitation, so that, receiving no consolation except from Him directly, you should attach yourself purely and solely to Him and thus gain great merit.

You must, therefore, obey His orders in obeying those who have the right from Him to command you. If the command should prejudice the welfare of your soul God will not allow it to persist. He can easily put aside the obstacle when it is necessary, therefore rest quietly and without the slightest anxiety in the arms of His merciful providence as a little child rests on the breast of its mother.