Vive ? JÉsus!

Annecy,
28th Jan., 1626.

I see quite well, good dear daughter, that nothing will satisfy that heart of yours unless you make clear to me the holy affection it has for my miserable little heart, and I reciprocate your love to a degree that I cannot express. Oh God! what will it be to love each other with a love that is ever present and beyond all earthly love, for such is the gift the great Lover of our souls will bestow on us! Let us try, my daughter, to grow in this divine love from moment to moment. Alas! I desire it, but you—you possess it. For this may God be praised and also for the good order of your house, which our dear Father M. Vincent[A] tells me is a matter worthy of great thanksgiving and consolation.

Believe me, it is a true delight to me to know that our Rules are so faithfully kept. Now observe from this how Mother Superiors should see that the Rule is carried out in regard to Ecclesiastical Superiors, and how the Mothers themselves should faithfully observe what is prescribed for them, so that by example we may instruct and strengthen those whom God has committed to our care. Pray continually, I beg of you, for our dear Father, Dom Juste, and for the affair of the Beatification of our Blessed Father. Our Holy Father the Pope has issued a Decree about beatifications which causes me some apprehension.[B] But in all things we must conform our wills to that of God.

Yours, etc.