Extraits des lettres à Mademoiselle de Roannez
On Spiritual Reading and Ecclesial Unity
Pascal encourages his correspondent in her spiritual reading and affirms the necessity of remaining in communion with the Church and the Pope.
To address all your points and write well, even though I have so little time.1 I'm delighted that you're savoring M. de Laval's book and the Méditations on grace; I draw great consequences from them for what I hope for.2 I'm sending you the details of that condemnation that frightened you; it's nothing at all. Thank God—and it's a miracle they don't do worse, since the enemies of the truth have both the power and the will to crush it. Perhaps you are among those who deserve that God not abandon it, and not withdraw it from the earth, which has made itself so unworthy of it; and it is certain that you serve the Church by your prayers, if the Church has served you by hers.3 For it is the Church that, together with Jesus Christ, who is inseparable from her, merits the conversion of all who are not in the truth; and then it is those converted people who come to the help of the mother who delivered them. I praise with all my heart the little zeal I saw in your letter for union with the pope. The body is no more alive without the head than the head is without the body. Anyone who separates from either one is no longer part of the body, and no longer belongs to Jesus Christ. I don't know whether there are people in the Church more attached to this unity of the body than those you call ours.4 We know that all virtues, martyrdom, austerities, and all good works are useless outside the Church, and outside Communion with the head of the Church, who is the pope. I will never separate myself from his Communion—at least, I pray God to give me the grace for that; without it, I'll be lost forever.5 I'm making a kind of profession of faith to you, and I don't know why; but I won't erase it, and I won't start over.
The Constant Flow of Grace
Pascal reflects on the nature of grace as a continuous, life-giving stream and discusses the practicalities of their ongoing correspondence.
M.6 Du Gas spoke to me this morning about your letter with as much astonishment and joy as anyone could feel. He doesn't know where you got what he reported to me of your words; he told me surprising things about them, though they don't surprise me quite as much anymore. I'm starting to get used to you and to the grace God is giving you, yet I confess it still feels new to me, just as it is always new in reality. For it is a continual stream of graces, which Scripture compares to a river, and to the light the sun ceaselessly sends out from itself, and which is always new, so that if for a single moment it stopped sending any, all that one had received would vanish, and one would be left in darkness. He told me he’d started his reply to you, and that he’d copy it out to make it more legible and expand on it at the same time. But he just sent it to me with a short note saying he wasn't able to copy or expand it; that makes me think it’ll be poorly written. I can vouch for how little free time he has, and for the desire he had to have some for you.
Devotion to the Mother Church
Pascal urges his correspondent to take the Church's concerns to heart, recognizing her long-standing intercession and the call to offer one's life in return.
I share in the joy that the business of the… will give you, for I can clearly see that you take the Church's concerns to heart; you are deeply indebted to her.7 For sixteen hundred years, she has been groaning for you. It's time to groan for her, and for ourselves together, and to give her all that remains of our life, since Jesus Christ took his only to lose it for her and for us.
Read the original Latin
… Pour répondre à tous vos articles, et bien écrire malgré mon peu de temps.
Je suis ravi de ce que vous goutez le livre de M. de Laval et les Méditations sur la grâce ; j’en tire de grandes conséquences pour ce que je souhaite.
Je mande le détail de cette condamnation qui vous avait effrayée ; cela n’est rien du tout. Dieu merci, et c’est un miracle de ce qu’on n’y fait pas pis, puisque les ennemis de la vérité ont le pouvoir et la volonté de l’opprimer. Peut-être êtes-vous de celles qui méritent que Dieu ne l’abandonne pas, et ne la retire pas de la terre, qui s’en est rendue si indigne ; et il est assuré que vous servez l’Église par vos prières, si l’Église vous a servi par les siennes. Car c’est l’Église qui mérite, avec Jésus-Christ qui en est inséparable, la conversion de tous ceux qui ne sont pas dans la vérité ; et ce sont ensuite ces personnes converties qui secourent la mère qui les a délivrées. Je loue de tout mon cœur le petit zèle que j’ai reconnu dans votre lettre pour l’union avec le pape. Le corps est non plus vivant sans le chef, que le chef sans le corps. Quiconque se sépare de l’un ou de l’autre n’est plus du corps, et n’appartient plus à Jésus-Christ. Je ne sais s’il y a des personnes dans l’Église plus attachées à cette unité du corps que ceux que vous appelez nôtres.
Nous savons que toutes les vertus, le martyre, les austérités et toutes les bonnes œuvres sont inutiles hors de l’Église, et de la communion du chef de l’Église, qui est le pape. Je ne me séparerai jamais de sa communion, au moins je prie Dieu de m’en faire la grâce ; sans quoi je serai perdu pour jamais.
Je vous fais une espèce de profession de foi, et je ne sais pourquoi ; mais je ne l’effacerai pas ni ne recommencerai pas.
M. du Gas m’a parlé ce matin de votre lettre avec autant d’étonnement et de joie qu’on en peut avoir : il ne sait où vous avez pris ce qu’il m’a rapporté de vos paroles ; il m’en a dit des choses surprenantes et qui ne me surprennent plus tant. Je commence à m’accoutumer à vous et à la grâce que Dieu vous fait, et néanmoins je vous avoue qu’elle m’est toujours nouvelle, comme elle est toujours nouvelle en effet. Car c’est un flux continuel de grâces, que l’Écriture compare à un fleuve, et à la lumière que le soleil envoie incessamment hors de soi, et qui est toujours nouvelle, en sorte que, s’il cessoit un instant d’en envoyer, toute celle qu’on auroit reçue disparoîtroit, et on resteroit dans l’obscurité.
Il m’a dit qu’il avoit commencé à vous répondre, et qu’il le transcriroit pour le rendre plus lisible, et qu’en même temps il l’étendroit. Mais il vient de me l’envoyer avec un petit billet, où il me mande qu’il n’a pu ni le transcrire ni l’étendre ; cela me fait croire que cela sera mal écrit. Je suis témoin de son peu de loisir, et du désir qu’il avoit d’en avoir pour vous.
Je prends part à la joie que vous donnera l’affaire des… car je vois bien que vous vous intéressez pour l’Église ; vous lui êtes bien obligée. Il y a seize cents ans qu’elle gémit pour vous. Il est temps de gémir pour elle, et pour nous tout ensemble, et de lui donner tout ce qui nous reste de vie, puisque Jésus-Christ n’a pris la sienne que pour la perdre pour elle et pour nous.
Notes
- 1 ↩French « articles » here means the numbered points or questions in her letter, not journalistic pieces; rendered as “points.”
- 2 ↩« j'en tire de grandes conséquences »: not mere practical results, but large theological implications Pascal draws from her relish of these works, oriented toward what he hopes for her.
- 3 ↩Feminine l'/la most naturally picks up la vérité from the previous sentence (truth not abandoned or withdrawn from the earth); some readers may hear the Church as the sustained object. Rendered with a neutral 'it' to preserve the French anaphora.
- 4 ↩'ceux que vous appelez nôtres' is party language (our people / our side), likely the writer's circle as named by the correspondent; kept as 'ours' to preserve the French deictic.
- 5 ↩"sa communion" refers to communion with the pope as head of the Church (ecclesial communion), not Eucharistic Communion.
- 6 ↩Source is the bare abbreviation “M.” (likely Madame/Mademoiselle as a letter address). Left unexpanded to avoid inventing a form the French text does not spell out.
- 7 ↩Source has an ellipsis after « l'affaire des… »; the unfinished phrase is preserved as given.
Lettres à Charlotte de Roannez companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit