Daughter dear,
You attribute everything to your negligence! Accept the good that comes to you, and when God withdraws Himself do not run after Him. You are always doing His will provided you keep yourself under His hand without desiring anything whatsoever save to do His will. These doubts against Faith that you tell me of He permits so that you may make frequent acts of this virtue. For you see, my daughter, He only sends temptations to souls whom He intends to raise to high perfection. All the doubts and fears lest you may have consented come from the evil spirit. Pay no heed to them, unless to say, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for I am at peace in God."
[A] Marie Aimée de Rabutin possessed all the caustic wit for which the de Rabutins were distinguished, and had no other thought than of pleasure and of her independence, until St. Jane Frances won her to Christ. "Make haste, my daughter," she said to her, "for God is the enemy of delay." From the entrance of Mademoiselle de Rabutin into the Monastery of Annecy (1624) her fervour was without bounds, and were it not for obedience her austerities would have shortened her life. When she was elected Superior at Thonon St. Jane Frances said to the outsister who came to fetch her: "Make the most of the time your new Superior rules you, for you have never had and perhaps never will have her equal." She governed several monasteries and died in 1678. Her praises are summed up in these words of St. Jane Frances: "When once Mother Marie Aimée returns to Annecy she must not be taken away again, for although she is my relative, I cannot help saying that she has always been a living rule and a model of perfect observance." (Archives of the Visitation, Annecy.)
C.
To M. Noël Brulart, Commander de Sillery, at Paris.
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Valence,
2nd July, 1636.
My most honoured, beloved, and dearest Father,
I certainly have no wish to delay in answering your kind and cordial letter, which gives such a lucid account of the finale of this wicked affair[A], and above all of the good odour of those little servants of the Lord, our Sisters of the Faubourg, and of the reparation made to them. Oh! how good God is! and how prompt in coming by ways which confound the prudence of the worldly-wise to the succour of the innocent. For the greatness of His mercies may He be for ever blessed! You must have been deeply moved in the goodness of your heart on witnessing such a marked and fatherly interposition of Providence in this grave crisis. Truly happy are the souls who repose entirely in the pitying and loving bosom of this heavenly Father. You cannot think what this grace has wrought in my heart towards God, whom we can never sufficiently thank for it, and towards you, my very dear Father, for the incomparable assistance which you have given these poor daughters of mine. It is quite impossible to express to you what I feel, and always shall feel, for the succour and the support in all our necessities which God has given us through you is a priceless treasure from which we draw both spiritual and temporal profit. May the sweet Saviour bless you with His richest graces and recompense you with His divine love. My poor Sisters needed this experience so that they might learn to trust themselves entirely to your paternal care. They have written to me expressing their gratitude and begging of me to help them to return you fitting thanks. It is a sweet Providence, I cannot but think, that has permitted the evil act of that miserable man, so that by means of it a more complete union should be established between our two monasteries (of Paris), and that Our Lord should have made use of you as the bond of union, for they themselves recognize this and write of it to me. God be blessed! This story deserves to be recorded for posterity. But if it is possible I should be glad to know every circumstance of it in detail, for from certain things that have been written to me, it seems as if this man took the money to invest it for the benefit of our Sisters. I want to know the truth about this, and for what object it was confided to him. My Sister, the Superior of the Faubourg, tells me that on Sunday evening when I had said adieu to her, M. de Lamoignon took fifty-four thousand francs of it to buy an office for his son. I am asking Sister to write to me about this matter, for you must not trouble to do so....
We have visited our houses of Pont-Saint-Esprit, Avignon, Montpellier, Arles, Aix, and Marseilles, where certainly everything is blessed, and in all of which the observance is kept with great exactitude. It is most consoling to see on all sides how the Sisters love and esteem their vocation. All these houses have excellent Superiors. When at Aix we saw those of Digne, Draguignan, Grasse, and Forcalquier. The four are invaluable Mothers capable of putting their hands to anything in which divine Providence may employ them, and of rendering all manner of good service to God and the Institute.