Extraits des lettres à Mademoiselle de Roannez
The Yoke of Christ
Pascal encourages the reader to view her current suffering as a participation in the merits and the light yoke of Jesus Christ.
I feel for the person you know, in the anxiety I know she's in—and I'm not surprised to see her there. It's a little Day of Judgment, and it can't come without a total upheaval of the person, just as the general Judgment will cause a general one throughout the world—except for those who will already have judged themselves, as she intends to do. This temporal suffering would secure her against the eternal, through the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, who suffers it and makes it his own; that's what should console her.✦12 Our yoke is his as well; without that, it would be unbearable. "Take my yoke upon you," he says.✦ It isn't our yoke; it's his—and he carries it too. "Know," he says, "that my yoke is easy and light."✦ It is light only for him and for his divine strength.3 I would want to tell her to remember that these anxieties don't come from the good that is beginning to be in her, but from the evil that is still there and must be steadily reduced. She must act like a child being pulled by thieves from its mother's arms, when the mother refuses to let go—for the child shouldn't blame the mother who holds him lovingly for the violence he suffers, but rather his unjust abductors.
Courage in the Coming of the Lord
The liturgical season of Advent provides scriptural promises of divine help to strengthen the faint-hearted.
The entire Advent liturgy is well suited to encourage the weak, and it often uses this scripture: “Take courage, you cowards and faint-hearted; here is your Redeemer who is coming.” Today at Vespers they say: “Take new strength and banish all fear from now on; here is our God who is arriving, and comes to help us and save us.”✦✦4 ”5
Read the original Latin
Je plains la personne que vous savez dans l’inquiétude où je sais qu’elle est, et où je ne m’étonne pas de la voir. C’est un petit jour du jugement, qui ne peut arriver sans une émotion universelle de la personne, comme le jugement général en causera une générale dans le monde, excepté ceux qui se seront déjà jugés eux-mêmes, comme elle prétend faire : cette peine temporelle garantiroit de l’éternelle, par les mérites infinis de Jésus-Christ, qui la souffre et qui se la rend propre ; c’est ce qui doit la consoler. Notre joug est aussi le sien, sans cela il seroit insupportable. « Portez, dit-il, mon joug sur vous. » Ce n’est pas notre joug, c’est le sien, et aussi il le porte. « Sachez, dit-il, que mon joug est doux et léger. » Il n’est léger qu’à lui et à sa force divine. Je lui voudrois dire qu’elle se souvienne que ces inquiétudes ne viennent pas du bien qui commence d’être en elle, mais du mal qui y est encore et qu’il faut diminuer continuellement ; et qu’il faut qu’elle fasse comme un enfant qui est tiré par des voleurs d’entre les bras de sa mère, qui ne le veut point abandonner ; car il ne doit pas accuser de la violence qu’il souffre la mère qui le retient amoureusement, mais ses injustes ravisseurs.
Tout l’office de l’Avent est bien propre pour donner courage aux foibles, et on y dit souvent ce mot de l’Écriture : « Prenez courage, lâches et pusillanimes, voici votre rédempteur qui vient ; » et on dit aujourd’hui à Vêpres : « Prenez de nouvelles forces, et bannissez désormais toute crainte ; voici notre Dieu qui arrive, et vient pour nous secourir et nous sauver. »
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.11.31 — But if we examined ourselves, we would not be judged.
- ↩Matt.11.29 — Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
- ↩Matt.11.30 — For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
- ↩Isa.35.4 — Say to the anxious in heart, "Be strong; do not fear! Look, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.
- ↩Isa.35.4 — Say to the anxious in heart, "Be strong; do not fear! Look, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.
Notes
- 1 ↩émotion universelle: 17th-c. émotion means agitation/upheaval of the whole person, not merely modern 'emotion'.
- 2 ↩garantiroit de l'éternelle: conditional 'would protect/secure from the eternal [pain]'; rendered as future-conditional spiritual assurance through Christ's merits.
- 3 ↩qu'à lui: could be read 'only to him' (his capacity) or 'only by him' (his power as cause); both converge on the yoke being light only through Christ's divine force.
- 4 ↩foibles is the older spelling of faibles (‘the weak/feeble’).
- 5 ↩Source sentence is only the closing French guillemet of the Vespers quotation begun in s1; rendered as a closing English quotation mark.
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