CHAPTER IV.^

An exhortation to obey the Rule. Three very important
matters in the spiritual life. One must strive after
sublime perfection in order to accomplish so great an
enterprise. How to practise prayer.

1. The greatness of the work we have undertaken. 2. Prayer. 3. The three
principal aids to prayer. 4. The evils of particular friendships. 5. Special
danger of these in a small community. 6. Precautions against them. 7.
Mutual charity. 8. Natural and supernatural love. 9. How to regard
our confessors. 10. Discretion in our intercourse with them. 11. When a
second confessor is needed. 12. Precautions against worldly confessors.
13. Evils caused by unsuitable confessors.

1. You see upon how great an enterprise you have em-
barked for the sake of the Father Provincial, the Bishop
of the diocese, and of your Order, in which all else is in-
cluded, all being for the good of the Church, for which
we are bound to pray as a matter of obligation. As I
said, what lives are not those bound to live who have
had the courage to engage in this design, if they would
not be confounded, before God and man, for their
audacity ? Clearly we must work hard ; it is a great
help to have high aspirations : by their means we may
cause our actions to become great also, although there are
different ways of doing so. If we endeavour to observe
our Rule and Constitutions very faithfully, I hope that
God will grant our petitions. I ask of you nothing new,
my daughters, but only that we should keep what we

1 Valladolid edition, ch. iv. ; Escorial, ch. v.

CHAP. IV.] PRAYER AND FRIENDSHIP. 25

have professed, as we are bound to do, although there
are very diverse ways of observing it.

2. The very first chapter of our Rule bids us “ Pray
without ceasing ” : we must obey this with the greatest
perfection possible, for it is our most important duty :
then we shall not neglect the fasts, penances, and silence
enjoined by the Rule. As you know, these are necessary
if the prayer is to be genuine ; prayer and self-indulgence
do not go together. Prayer is the subject you have
asked me to speak of : I beg of you, in return, to practise
and to read, again and again, what I have already told
you. Before speaking of spiritual matters, that is, of
prayer, I will mention some things that must be done by
those who intend to lead a life of prayer. These are so
necessary that, with their help, a person who can
hardly be called a contemplative may make great pro-
gress in serving God, but without them none can be a
thorough contemplative : any one who imagined that
she was so, would be much mistaken. May our Lord
give me His grace for this task and teach me what to say
that may be for His glory.®

3. Do not fancy, my friends and my sisters, that I
am going to lay many charges on you : please God we

2 Rule 5 : “ Meditating on the law of the Lord day and night,
and watching in prayer.”

3 Escorial edition. I.H.S. Ch. vi. Urges the nuns to practise
three things. Speaks of the first, that is, the love of our neighbour
and of the evil of particular friendships.

26 THE WAY OF PERFECTION. [CHAP. IV.

may fulfil those that our holy Fathers enjoined and
practised in our Rules and Constitutions, which include
all the virtues and by performing which our predecessors
earned the name of Saints. It would be an error to seek
another road or to try to learn some other way. I will
explain three matters only, which are in our Constitutions :
it is essential for us to understand how much they help
us to preserve that peace, both interior and exterior,
which our Lord so strongly enjoined. The first of these
is love for one another : the second, detachment from all
created things : the other is true humility, which, though
I mention it last, is chief of all and includes the rest.'*
The first matter, that is, mutual charity, is most im-
portant, for there is no annoyance that cannot easily be
borne by those who love one another : anything must be
very out of the way to cause irritation. If this com-
mandment were observed in this world as it ought to
be, I believe it would be a great help towards obeying
the others, but whether we err by excess or by defect, we
only succeed in keeping it imperfectly.

4. You may think there can be no harm in excessive
love for one another, but no one would believe what evil
and imperfections spring from this source unless they
had seen it for themselves. The devil sets many snares

4 Valladolid edition, ch. v. Speaks of the first of these three
subjects, namely, the love of our own neighbour, and of the
evils of particular friendships.

CHAP. IV.

PARTICULAR FRIENDSHIPS.

27

here which are hardly detected by those who are content
to serve God in a superficial way — indeed, they take
such conduct for virtue — those, however, who are bent on
perfection understand the evil clearly, for, little by little
it deprives the will of strength to devote itself entirely
to the love of God. I think this injures women even
more than men, and does serious damage to the com-
munity. It prevents a nun from loving all the others
equally, makes her resent any injury done to her friend,
causes her to wish she had something to give her favourite
and to seek for opportunities to talk to her often, and
tell her how much she loves her, and other nonsense of the
sort, rather than of how much she loves God. These
close friendships rarely serve to forward the love of Gcd ;
in fact, I believe the devil originates them so as to make
factions among the religious. When a friendship has
the service of God for its object, it is at once manifest that
the will is not only uninfluenced by passion but it rather
helps to subdue the other passions.

5. In a large convent I permit such friendships, but
in St. Joseph’s, where there are, and can be, no more than
thirteen nuns, all must love and help one another. Keep
free of partialities, for the love of God, however holy
they may be, for even among brothers they are like
poison. I can see no advantage in them, and matters are
far worse when they exist between relatives, for then
they are a perfect pest. Believe me, sisters, though I may

THE WAY OF PERFECTION.

28

[chap. IV.

seem to you severe in excluding these attachments, yet
this promotes high perfection and quiet peace, and weak
souls are spared dangerous occasions. If we are inclined
to care for one person more than another (which cannot
be helped, for it is but human, and we often prefer the
most faulty if they have more natural charm) let us
control our likings firmly, and not allow ourselves to be
overmastered by our affections.

6. Let us love virtue and holiness and always try to
( prevent ourselves from being attracted by externals.

0 my sisters, let us not permit our will to become the
slave of any save of Him Who purchased it with His
Blood, or, without knowing how, we shall find ourselves
caught in a trap from which we cannot escape ! Lord have
mercy upon us ! the childish nonsense that comes from
this is untold, and is so petty that no one could credit
it who had not witnessed the thing. It is best not to
speak of it here, lest women’s foibles should be learnt by
those who know nothing about them, so I will give no
details, although they astonish even me at times. By
the mercy of God, I have never been entangled in such
things myself, but perhaps this may be because I have
fallen into far graver faults. However, as I have said,

1 have often seen it, but as I told you, in a Superior it
would be ruinous. In order to guard against these
partialities, great care must be taken from the very
first, and this more by watchfulness and kindness than

CHAP. IV.] MUTUAL CHARITY. 2g

by severity. A most useful precaution is for the nuns,
according to our present habit, never to be with one
another nor talk together except at the appointed times,
but as the Rule enjoins, for the sisters not to be to-
gether but each one alone in her cell.® Let there be no
common work-room in St. Joseph’s, for although this
is a praiseworthy custom, silence is better kept when
one is alone. Solitude is very helpful to persons who
practise prayer, and since prayer is the mortar which
keeps this house together, we must learn to like what
promotes it.®

7. To return to speak of our charity for one another.
It seems superfluous to insist on this, for who would
be so boorish as not to love those with whom they asso-
ciate and live, cut off as they are from all conversation,
intercourse and recreation with any one outside the
house, whilst believing that they bear a mutual love for
God, as He has for all of them, since for His sake they
have left everything ? More especially as goodness
always attracts love, and, by the blessing of God, I trust
that the nuns of this convent will always be good. There-
fore, I do not think there is much need for me to persuade
you to love each other. But as regards the nature of
this love and of the virtuous love that I wish you all to
feel, and the means of knowing whether we possess this
greatest of virtues — for it must be a very great virtue

^ Rule 5.

Rule 14. Const. 5.

30

THE WAY OF PERFECTION.

[chap. IV.

since our Lord so often enjoins it on us, as He did most
stringently upon His apostles — of this I will speak to
you for a short time as well as my inaptitude will allow.
If you find the matter explained in any other books, you
need not read mine, for I very frequently do not under-
stand what I am talking about, unless our Lord enlightens
me.^

8. I intend treating of two kinds of love ; one which
is entirely spiritual, free from any sort of affection or
natural tenderness which could tarnish its purity, and
another which is spiritual but mingled with the frailty
and weakness of human nature. The latter is good and
seems lawful, being such as is felt between relatives and
friends, and is that which I have mentioned before. The
first of these two ways of loving, and the one that I will
discuss, is unmixed with any kind of passion that would
disturb its harmony. This love, exercised with modera-
tion and discretion, is profitable in every way, particu-
larly when borne towards holy people or confessors,
for that which seems only natural is then changed into
virtue.® At times, however, these two kinds of love
seem so combined that it is difficult to distinguish them
from one another, especially as regards a confessor.

Castle, M. v. ch. iii. 12. Escorial edition, ch. vii. Speaks
of two kinds of love and the importance of understanding
what constitutes spiritual affection.

® Life, ch. xxxvii. 6 ; ch. xl. 24. Rel. ii. 8.

CHAP. IV.]

LOVE EOR CONFESSORS.

31

When persons who practise prayer discover that their
confessor is a holy man who understands their spiritual
state, they feel a strong affection for him ; the devil
then opens a perfect battery of scruples on the soul, which,
as he intends, greatly disturb it, especially if the priest
is leading his penitent to higher perfection. Then the
evil one torments his victim to such a pitch that she
leaves her director, so that the temptation gives her no
peace either in one way or the other.

9. In such a case it is best not to think about whether
you like your confessor or not, or whether you wish to
like him. If we feel friendship for those who benefit
our bodies, why should we not feel as great a friendship
for those who strive and labour to benefit our souls ?
On the contrary, I think a liking for my confessor is a great
help to my progress if he is holy and spiritual, and if I
see that he endeavours to profit my soul. Human
nature is so weak that this feeling is often a help to our
undertaking great things in God’s service.

10. If, however, the confessor be a man of indifferent
character, we must not let him know of our liking for
him. Great prudence and caution are necessary on
account of the difficulty of knowing his disposition : it
is best, on this account, to conceal our feelings from him.
You should believe that your friendship for him is harm-
less and think no more about it. You may follow this
advice when you see that all your confessor says tends

32 the wav oe perfection. [chap. IV.

to profit your soul and when you discover no levity in
him, but are conscious that he lives in the fear of God :
any one can detect this at once unless she wilfully blinds
herself. If this be so, do not allow any temptation to
trouble you about your liking for him — despise it, think
no more about it, and the devil will grow tired and leave
you alone. If, however, the confessor appears worldly-
minded, be most guarded in every way ; do not talk
with him even when he converses on religious subjects,
but make your confession briefly and say no more. It
would be best to tell the Prioress that he does not suit
your soul and to ask for some one else ; this is the wisest
course to take if it is possible, and can be done without
injuring his reputation. I trust in God that it may be
feasible for you.