[B] St. Francis de Sales.
XV.
To Sisters Péronne Marie de Châtel and Marie Aimée de Blonay.
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Annecy, 1616.
My dearest Daughters,
I will begin by answering your last letter, and then go back as far as I am able to the preceding one, saying, please God, what He wishes me to say to you.
First, then, my dear daughter, I'll tell you what Our Lord wants of you and of us all, a humble and tranquil submission to His most holy will in whatsoever happens, for everything is, without question, ordained by divine Providence for His glory, and for our gain; henceforth to be indifferent to health or sickness, consolation or desolation, the enjoyment or privation of what we most cherish, should be our aim. May our hearts have but one desire, that His holy will be accomplished in us and in regard to us. Let us not philosophize on things that happen to ourselves or to others, but, as I have already said, remaining sweetly humble, and tranquil, in the condition in which God has placed us. In pain patient, in sorrow enduring, in action active, without stopping to think whether we commit faults in this way or that, for such reflections are nothing but self-love.