To the same Sister. Abandonment ameliorates the wearisomeness of solitude.
My dear Sister,
You are giving yourself unnecessary trouble about me. You
have persuaded yourself that I look upon the isolation in which
I live as a misfortune, whereas this is far from being the case.
Every day I bless God for this happy stroke of His providence. I
learn by it to die to all things in order to live to God alone. I
was not so shut away at----. There, many events both within
and without kept me up, and made me feel alive; now, there is
nothing of that kind. I am in a veritable desert alone with God.
Oh! how delightful it is! Great interior desolation is joined
to this exterior solitude. However painful to nature such a
state may be, I bless God for it because I have no doubt that
it is good for me. It is a universal death to all feeling even about
spiritual matters, a sort of annihilation through which I must pass
in order to rise again with Jesus Christ to a new life, a life all in
God; a life stripped of everything, even of consolation, because in
that the senses take part. God wishes to leave me destitute
of all outward things, and dead to all to live only to Him. May
His holy will be done in all things, and for ever! This is the
strong pillar to which we must remain firmly fastened, this is the
solid immovable foundation of all our perfection. You see,
my good Sister, how little I require your compassion, since the
subject on which you pity me most is precisely the subject of
my joy. I must own, however, that the extreme solitude in
which I found myself here so suddenly did not at first appear
at all pleasant to me except in the superior part of my soul, but
very soon my whole soul participatin it. Once more have I
learnt by experience that we cannot do better than to follow
step by step the course appointed by divine Providence. That
is my great attraction, and more than ever am I resolved to
devote myself to it blindly, without reservations and in all
things, such, as places, employments, seasons, in fine for everything
For a long time I have contented myself with asking
God for one singe grace, which is that I may have no other
desire than to please Him, and no other fear than to offend Him.
If He gives me this grace I shall be rich indeed both for time and