I. Do not suppose, my sisters, that because you do not

seek favour with the world, you will be left to starve ;
I can reassure you about that. Never try to sustain
yourselves by any human artifice, or you will perish of
famine, as you would deserve. Look to your Spouse ;
He must maintain you : if He is pleased with you, those
who like you least will give you food, even against their
will, as you have learnt by experience.^ If, when you

1 Life, ch. xxxvi. 25. Rel. ii. 2. Const. 9. Concep. ch. ii, 12 ;
ph. iii.

CHAP. II.] POVERTY OF THE ORDER. 9

have done this, you should die of hunger, happy the
nuns of St. Joseph ! Thus our prayers will be pleasing
to God and we shall have carried out what we pro-
fessed. For the love of God, do not forget this : as you
have given up your revenues, give up the care of your
sustenance as well, or all will be lost. People whom
our Lord wishes to possess incomes are quite right in
looking after such matters, for that is their vocation,
but it is inconsistent in us. To calculate what we shall
receive from others seems to me like reckoning up their
riches, and all your care will not change their minds,
nor make them wish to give you alms. Leave your case
in the hands of Him Who bends all wills. Who is the Lord
of riches and of rich men. We came here at His bidding :
His words are sure and cannot fail ; heaven and earth
will fail first ; let us not forsake Him, and never fear
that He will forsake us. If at any time He did so, it
would be for our greater good, as life forsook the saints
when they were slain and beheaded for our Lord, that
their glory might be increased by their martyrdom. It
would be a good exchange to finish this life quickly, so
as to enjoy eternal satiety.

2. Be certain, sisters, that this matter will be most
important for you when I am dead, therefore I leave it
you in writing. While I live, by the grace of God I will
remind you of it, knowing by experience how great are
its benefits. When I have least, I am most free from

THE WAY OF PERFECTION.

10

[chap. II.

anxiety, and God knows that, as far as I can tell, it
grieves me far more when I am well cared for than when
I have nothing.® I am not sure whether this is because
I have always found that our Lord supplies our wants at
once. We should be deceiving the world if we acted
otherwise ; if, having embraced poverty, we were not
poor in spirit, but only in externals. My conscience
would prick me, as the expression is ; it would seem like
rich people asking for alms : God forbid that this should
ever be done. Those who are so over-anxious about
what will be given them will, some day or other, out of
custom, ask for what they do not want, and perhaps from
people more needy than themselves. Although the latter
will gain rather than lose by this, yet we shall be the
losers.

3. May God prevent this ever happening, my daughters.
If it were necessary, I should prefer your possessing an
income. Never let your minds dwell on the subject : I
ask this as an alms from you. Let the very last in the
community, if she sees such a thing being done, cry out

2 St. Teresa dearly loved poverty. She was about to make
a foundation at Toledo with twelve thousand ducats left
her by a rich merchant, but for certain reasons she was not
able to come to an agreement with the persons responsible for
the payment of this sum, at which she was greatly pleased,
saying ; “ Now that the money-god has been pulled down, I

feel more hopeful that the foundation will be made ” {Fuente,
vol. vi. 284, n. 15). From the Relation of Mother Mary of St.
Joseph.

CHAP. II.] POVERTY OF THE ORDER. II

to God against it, and go to the Prioress, humbly telling
her that she is doing wrong.® This is so important
that, otherwise, little by little, true poverty would be
lost. I trust in God that it will never happen, and that
He will not abandon His handmaids : for this alone, if
for no other reason, this book that you have bidden me
write for you, wretched sinner as I am, may be of use,
by keeping you on the alert. I believe, my daughters,
that it is for your sakes our Lord has taught me some
of the benefits to be found in holy poverty, which those
will discover who practise it, although perhaps not to
the same extent as I have, for not only was I without
poverty of spirit, although I had professed it, but I was
prodigal in spirit.

4. Poverty includes in itself all the world’s goods ;
it is a vast domain. I dare to affirm that he who despises
all earthly goods holds sway over them. What are kings
and lords to me, if I do not want their money, nor seek
to please them, if by so doing I should displease God
in the very least ? What care I for their honours, if
I know that the honour of a poor man consists in true
poverty ? It seems to me that honours and riches
nearly always go together ; he who loves honour never
hates riches, while he who hates riches seeks no honours.

5. You must understand this clearty ; for I think that
a thirst for honour always carries with it some regard

3 Castle, M. i. ch. ii. 21. Visit. 20, 21, 22, 34, 36.

12

THE WAY OF PERFECTION.

[chap. II.

for property and money ; it is strange to see a poor man
honoured by the world, for, however much he may deserve
it, he generally remains unnoticed. True poverty, under-
taken for the sake of God, bears with it a certain dignity,
in that he who professes it need seek to please no one
but Him, and there is no doubt that the man who asks
no help has many friends, as events have taught me.
So much has been written on this matter which I cannot
even understand, much less explain, that I will not
depreciate it by my praise and will now say no more
about it. I have only told you what my experience
has been ; I confess that I have been too preoccupied
to notice at what length I w^as WTiting, and now I will
cease.

6. Since, then, our badge is holy poverty, so highly
esteemed and strictly practised at the foundation of our
Order by our holy Fathers, that, as I was told by one
who knew, they kept no provisions from one day to the
other, let us, now that it is no longer observed so per-
fectly in exteriors, strive to practise it interiorly. Life
lasts but two hours : the reward is immense, but, even
without that, by following the counsels of our Lord, the
very imitating His Majesty in any way would be an
ample recompense.

This must be the motto embroidered on our banners,
which we must try to follow in our house, our clothes,

CHAP. II.] POVERTY OF THE ORDER. T3

our words, and, what is far more, in our hearts. While
this is done, no fear lest religious observance should decay
here, by the help of God, for, as St. Clare used to say,
poverty is a strong wall.® With this, and with humility,
she wished to surround her monasteries. True enough,
if poverty is real it guards purity and all the other virtues
better than do fine buildings. Keep to this, I beg of
you, by the love of God and by His Blood. If, with
a good conscience, I could wish that the day you build
a costly dwelling it may fall and kill you all — I say, if
I could do so with good conscience — I would wish it and
beg God to grant it. It looks very ill, my daughters, to
build fine houses with needy men’s alms ! God forbid
it ! ours should be poor and mean in every way. Let
us to this extent at least resemble our King. He had no
home except the stable of Bethlehem where He was

^ “ St. Clare often taught the sisters that the Order would
be pleasing to God while endowed with poverty, and that it
would always prosper as long as it was fortified by the tower
of strictest poverty ” {Acta SS., Aug. 12). While founding
the convent of St. Joseph at Avila, St. Teresa tells us : “ St.
Clare appeared to me in great beauty and bade me take courage
and go on with what I had begun ; she would help me. I began
to have a gre3,t devotion to St. Clare ; and she has so truly
kept her word, that a monastery of nuns of her Order in our
neighbourhood helped us to live ; and, what is of more import-
ance, by little and little she so perfectly fulfilled my desire,
that the poverty which the blessed Saint observes in her own
house is observed in this and we are living on alms ” {Life,
ch. xxxiii. 15).

THE WAY OF PERFECTION.

14

[chap. ii.

born, and the Cross where He died. Within these houses
few luxuries could be found ! ^

7. Those who build large houses have their reasons for
doing so, and are led by religious motives, but any little
corner does for thirteen poor women. If there should
be any grounds (as there must be, on account of the
enclosure and because they are a help to prayer and
devotion), by all means let there be hermitages in which
to retire for prayer, for weak human nature requires
some indulgence ; but let the convents be neither large
nor handsome.® God deliver us from such things !
Remember, they must all fall down at the Day of Judg-
ment, and who knows how soon that may be ? It would
not look well if the house of thirteen poor women made
much noise when it tumbled, for the real poor make no
commotion — they must be silent, or none will pity them.

8. How happy you wall feel if some one should be
saved from hell by means of the alms he gave you ! ^
This is quite possible, for you are bound to pray con-
stantly for the souls of those who maintain you.® It is

® On Hermitages, Rule 2. Const. 34. Found, ch.

xiv. 4. Life, ch. xxxvi. 31.

This happened in the case of Don Bernardino de Mendoza,
brother of the Bishop of Avila, and founder of the convent of
Valladolid {Found, ch. x. 2).

® Const. 24. Mother Agnes of Jesus says : “ Our holy Mother
was so grateful that she told me she had never, till that day, for-
gotten to pray for a man who, in some poor village, had given her
a cup of water when she was very thirsty ” {Fuente, vol. vi, 271).

CHAP. III.]

EVILS OF THE TIMES.

15

the will of God that, although all we have comes from
Him, yet we should show gratitude to those through
whom He gives it, and by no means must you neglect
to do so. I cannot remember what I first began to speak
about, for I have wandered from my subject. I think
it must have been our Lord’s wish, as I never intended
writing as I have done. May His Majesty always uphold
us with His hand, so that we may never give up holy
poverty. Amen.