XXXVI.
To the Sisters of the Visitation of Bourges.
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Paris,
October 3, 1619.
My beloved Daughters,
The affection I bear you is my only motive in striving to serve and console you: I need no other spur, for that one is boundless. But God does not intend that we should see each other for the present, and we willingly submit our desires to His holy will. Meanwhile, let us prepare ourselves by a greater fidelity to observance to profit by the occasion should He arrange a meeting for us.
Above all things, dear daughters, dwell together, I beseech of you, in a great and magnanimous love of His holy will, and a gentle mutual support of one another, which will ravish the Heart of the sovereign Goodness: for our good Saviour has said that it is by our love for one another that we shall be recognized as His disciples.
No leisure for more—I recommend myself to your prayers. May God dwell habitually in your midst and heap upon you His choicest graces!
Yours always in Him. May He be blessed!