Letters on the
Practice of the Presence
M adame: Since you desire so earnestly that I should com municate to you the methods by which I arrived at the habitual sense of God’s Presence, which our Lord, of His mercy, has been pleased to vouchsafe to me, I must tell you that it is with great difficulty that I am prevailed on by your importuni ties; and now I do it only upon the terms that you show my letter to no body. If I knew that you would let it be seen, all the desire that I have for your advancement would not be able to determine me to it. The account I can give you is: Having found in many books dif ferent methods of going to God, and divers practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me than facilitate what I sought after, which was nothing but how to become wholly God’s. This made me resolve to give the all for all; so after having given myself wholly to God, that he might take away my sins, 7 renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not His, and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world- Sometimes I considered myself before Him as a poor criminal at the feet of his judge; at other times I beheld Him in my heart as my Father, as my God. I worshipped Him the oftenest that I could, keeping my mind in His holy presence, and recalling it as often as I found it wandering from Him. I found no small pain in this exer cise, and yet I continued it, notwith standing all the difficulties that I en countered, without troubling or dis quieting myself when my mind had wandered involuntarily. I made this my business as much all the day long as at the appointed times of prayer; for at all times, every hour, every minute, even in the height of my business, I drove away from my mind everything that was capable of interrupting my thought of God. Such has been my common practice and though I have dorle it very im perfectly, yet I have found great advantages by it. These, I well know, are to be imputed solely to the mer cy and goodness of God, because we can do nothing without Him, and I still less than any. But when we are
faithful to keep ourselves in His holy presence, and set Him always before us, this not only hinders our offend ing Him and doing anything that may displease Him, at least wilfully, but it also begets in us a holy free dom, and, if I may so speak, a familiarity with God, wherewith we ask, and that successfully, the graces we stand in need of. In short, by often repeating these acts, they be come habitual, and the presence of God rendered as it were natural to us. Give Him thanks, if you please, with me, for His great goodness to ward me, which I can never sufficient ly marvel at, for the many favors He has done to so miserable a sinner as I am. May all things praise Him. I am, in our Lord, Yours,------ The Divine Presence Madame: I have taken this op portunity to communicate to you the sentiments of one of our Society, con cerning the wonderful effect and con tinual help which he receives from the presence of God. Let you and me both profit by them. You must know that during the 40 years and more that he has spent in religion, his continual care has been to be always with God, and to do nothing, say nothing, and think noth ing which may displease Him, and this without any other view than purely for the love of Him, and be cause He deserves infinitely more. He is now so accustomed to that divine presence that he receives from it continual succor upon all occasions. For about 30 years his soul has been filled with joys so continual, and sometimes so transcendent, that he is forced to use means to moderate them, and to hinder their appearing out wardly. If sometimes he is a little too much absent from that divine presence, which happens often when he is most engaged in his outward business, God presently, makes Himself felt in his soul to recall him. He answers with exact fidelity to these inward draw ings, either by an elevation of his heart toward God, or by a meek and loving regard to Him; or by such words as love forms upon these occa sions, as for instance, my God, behold me, wholly Thine: Lord, make me THE KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker