← Spiritual Conferences/Book 1 · Les Vrais Entretiens spirituels

Chapter 3Entretiens.1.3

Entretien III. De la Fermeté

The Inconstancy of Mortal Life

Reflecting on the flight into Egypt, we are reminded that earthly life is inherently unstable and that we must ground our firmness in the reason God has given us.

We are celebrating the Octave of the feast of the Holy Innocents, the day the Church has us read the Gospel that tells how the Angel of the Lord spoke to¹ Matthew² 2.³ glorious Saint Joseph in a dream—that is, while he was asleep—that he should take the Child and his Mother and flee into Egypt; because Herod, jealous of his kingship, was seeking Our Lord to put him to death, for fear that he would take it from him; and being filled with rage that the Magi kings had not come back to him in Jerusalem, he ordered that all the little children under two years of age be put to death, believing that Our Lord would be found among them.⁴ And by that means he would secure possession of his kingdom.⁵ This Gospel is full of many beautiful thoughts; I’ll be content with a few of them, which will serve us for a conference as pleasant as it is profitable.⁶⁷ I'll start with the first observation made by Hom.⁸ Homily 8 on Matthew.⁹ the great Saint John Chrysostom, which concerns the inconstancy, variety, and instability of the accidents of this mortal life.¹⁰ Oh, how useful this consideration is! for the lack of it is what drives us into discouragement and a fickle mind, anxiety, shifting moods, inconstancy, and instability in our resolutions; for we would not want to meet any difficulty, any contradiction, or any hardship on our way; we would always want consolations without dryness or aridity, goods with no mixture of any evil, health without sickness, rest without labor, peace without trouble.¹¹ Ah! Who doesn't see our folly? for we want what cannot be. Purity is found only in Paradise and in hell: in Paradise, good, rest, and consolation are pure, without any mixture of evil, trouble, or affliction. Conversely, in hell, evil—the multitude one meets there makes me think you may well have left out several points that would be good to make, though I don't want to busy myself hunting for those you might have left aside, any more than treating those you might have drawn on this subject; rather, I mean simply to tell you what God will give me.¹² And just as in a painting where a full-grown man—or rather a giant—is shown fighting or doing some other action, it is much easier to notice the features of the painting than in another where some small figure is shown, or several small ones together in action (for it takes more time to observe all the little turns, twists, folds and refolds, lines, and similar details one must mark in the painting than in the first; for in these smaller ones, each time you look you discover something new, whereas by contrast it is easy to make out at a glance what is in the larger painting); in the same way, with the other mysteries set before us, where Our Lord, Our Lady, Saint Joseph, the shepherds, and the Magi kings who come to adore Our Lord are found, it seems easy to discover at a glance the mysteries hidden under that picture; but it is not so easy to do so in this little foreshortened picture that shows us so great a throng of little children who, all gathered together, seem like a little anthill.¹³ So, no matter how much time we spend considering what is shown to us in this mystery, there is always something new left for us to discover each time we look at it. Despair, trouble, and anxiety are found there in their pure state, without any mixture of good, hope, tranquility, or peace.¹⁴ But in this perishable life, good is never found without evil following after it: riches without anxieties, rest without work, consolation without affliction,¹⁵ health without illness. In short, everything there is mixed and mingled, the good with the evil; it is a continual variety of different happenings. So God wanted to diversify the seasons, and that summer should be followed by autumn and winter by spring, to show us that nothing is permanent in this life, that temporal things are perpetually changeable, inconstant, and subject to change; and the lack of knowledge of this truth is, as I have said, what makes us changeable and shifting in our moods—because we do not make use of the reason God has given us, which reason makes us unchanging, firm, and solid, and therefore like God.¹⁶ When God said, "Let us make man in our likeness,"^✦¹⁷ 1. likeness—he at once gave him reason and the use of it, so he could reason, consider, and discern good from evil,¹⁸ and the things that deserve to be chosen or rejected.¹⁹ Reason is what makes us superior to every animal, and masters over them all. When God had created our first parents, he gave them complete dominion over the fish of the sea and the animals of the earth, and consequently gave them²⁰ .

The Wise Man's Mastery

True wisdom lies in using reason to remain constant amidst life's shifting events, rather than being ruled by our passions.

V. j» 30. knowledge of each kind, and the means of mastering them and making himself their master and lord.²¹ God has not only done man this grace of making him lord of the animals, by the gift of reason He gave him, through which He made him like Himself; He has also given him full power over every kind of accident and event.²² It²³ [see St. Thomas]²⁴ is said that the wise man—that is, the person who²⁵ is guided by reason will make himself the absolute master of the stars.²⁶²⁷ What does that mean, if not that by using his reason, he will remain firm and constant amid the various accidents and events of this mortal life?²⁸ Whether it's sunny or raining, calm or windy, the wise man doesn't trouble himself, knowing full well that nothing is stable or permanent—just as Ecclesiastes teaches.²⁹ And this is not the place of rest.³⁰ In affliction, he doesn't despair at all; instead, he waits for consolation. In sickness, he doesn't torment himself, but waits for health; or if he sees that he is so ill that death is bound to follow, he blesses God, hoping for the rest of the immortal life that follows this one. And if he meets with poverty, he does not distress himself over it, for he knows well that riches in this life never come without poverty; if he is despised, he knows well that honor here below has no permanence, but is ordinarily followed by dishonor or contempt. In short, in every kind of event—whether prosperity or adversity—he remains firm, stable, and constant in his resolution to aim at and strive toward the enjoyment of eternal goods.³¹ But we must not only consider this variety, change, shifting, and instability in the transitory and material things of this mortal life; not at all—rather, we must also consider them still present in the course of our spiritual life, where firmness and constancy are all the more necessary, since the spiritual life stands higher than mortal and bodily life.³² It's a very great abuse to refuse to endure or even feel shifts and changes in our moods while we won't govern ourselves by reason and won't consent to be governed.³³ People often say, 'Look at this child—he's still quite young, yet he already has the use of reason.' In the same way, many possess the use of reason who, like children,³⁴ still don't conduct themselves by the command of reason. God gave man reason to guide him, yet few let it master them; on the contrary, they let themselves be ruled by their passions, which ought to be subject and obedient to reason according to the order God requires of us.³⁵ To put it plainly: most people in the world are ruled and led by their passions rather than by reason, and as a result, they are typically fickle.³⁶ They are inconsistent and moody: if they feel like going to bed early or late, they do it; if they feel like heading out to the fields, they get up at the crack of dawn, but if they feel like sleeping, they do that just the same; when they want to dine or breakfast early or very late, they do that too. They aren't just fickle and inconstant in their habits; they are the same in their dealings with others. They expect people to adapt to their moods, yet they won't adapt to anyone else's. They let themselves be carried away by their own inclinations, affections, and passions, and in the eyes of the world, this isn't even considered a vice—provided they don't greatly disturb their neighbor's peace of mind, no one labels them as fickle or inconstant.³⁷³⁸ You see them; whether they want to be here or there, or to do this or that, they do it.³⁹ for the fickle and the inconstant. And why is that?⁴⁰ For no other reason than that it's a common failing among people of the world. But in religious life, you can't let yourself be carried away by your passions to that same degree. Because for exterior things, the Rule is there to keep us ordered in prayer, eating, and sleep, and likewise in other exercises—always at the same hour, when obedience or the bell signals it. And then we always have only one and the same common life, because we can't separate from one another.⁴¹⁴² So in what, then, can one still be fickle and inconsistent?⁴³ It is in the variety of moods, wills, and desires. Right now I'm joyful because everything is going according to my will; soon I'll be sad because some small opposition I didn't expect will have come my way.⁴⁴ But didn't you know that this is not the place where pleasure is found pure, without any mix of displeasure—that this life is mixed with just such accidents? Today, when you have consolation in prayer, you're encouraged and firmly resolved to serve God; but tomorrow, when you're in dryness, you'll have no heart for the service of God: "My God, I am so languid and cast down," you say.⁴⁵ Now tell me: if you governed yourself by reason, wouldn't you see that if it was good to serve God yesterday, it is still very good to serve him today, and it will be very good to serve him tomorrow?⁴⁶ For it is always the same God, just as worthy of love when you are in dryness as when you are in consolation. Right now we want one thing, and tomorrow we would want another; what I see so-and-so doing at this hour pleases me; soon that will displease me so much that it will be enough to make me take an aversion to it. Right now I like someone better and take great pleasure in their company; tomorrow I'll find it hard to put up with them. And what does that mean? Isn't she just as worthy of being loved today as she was yesterday? If we paid attention to what reason tells us, we would see that we ought to love this person because she is a creature who bears the image of the divine Majesty; then we would find as much sweetness in her company as we used to.⁴⁷ But this happens only when we let ourselves be led by our inclinations, passions, or affections, and in doing so, twist the order God established in us—that everything should be subject to reason. For if reason doesn't rule over all our powers, our faculties, passions, inclinations, and affections, and ultimately everything that belongs to us, what will come of it but constant ups and downs, inconstancy, variety, change, and caprice? These will make us fervent one moment, and a little later soft, negligent, and lazy; joyful one moment, and then melancholy.⁴⁸ We'll be calm for an hour, then restless for two days; in short, our life will pass in idleness and wasted time. So, this first observation urges us to consider the inconstancy and variety of outcomes, in temporal things as much as in spiritual ones. That way, when we encounter things that might startle us as new and unforeseen, we won't lose courage or let ourselves be swept into uneven moods amid the uneven things that happen to us. Instead, submitted to the guidance of the reason God has placed in us, and to his providence, we may stay firm, constant, and unchanging in the resolution we've made to serve God steadily, courageously, boldly, and ardently, without any break at all.⁴⁹

The Holy Family's Example

The Holy Family provides the ultimate model of evenness of spirit and constancy through their trials, teaching us to avoid the unevenness of mood that plagues the unmortified soul.

If I were speaking to people who didn't understand me, I would try as best I could to impress upon them what I've just said; but you know that I've always tried to fix deep in your memory this most holy evenness of spirit, as the virtue most necessary and most proper to the religious life.⁵⁰⁵¹ All the ancient Fathers of religious orders especially aimed to have this evenness and stability of temperament and spirit reign in their monasteries; for that reason they established the Statutes, Constitutions, and Rules, so that religious might use them as a bridge to pass from the continual evenness of the exercises marked out there—and to which they have subjected themselves—to that so lovable and desirable evenness of spirit, amid the inconstancy and unevenness of the accidents that meet us both on the path of our mortal life and of our spiritual life.⁵² As above, p.⁵³ 32.⁵⁴ The great Saint Chrysostom says: O man, you who get angry because everything doesn't turn out as you would like—aren't you ashamed to see that what you want wasn't even found in the household of Our Lord?⁵⁵ Consider, I beg you, the vicissitudes, the changes, and the variety of outcomes that meet us there.⁵⁶ Our Lady receives the news that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit a Son who would be Our Lord and Savior: what joy, what jubilation for her in that sacred hour of the Incarnation of the eternal Word! A little later, Saint Joseph notices that she is with child, and knowing well that it was not by him that she was so—O God, what affliction! What distress he was in! And Our Lady—what extreme pain and affliction did she not feel in her soul, seeing her dear Spouse on the point of leaving her, her modesty not allowing her to reveal to Saint Joseph the honor and the grace with which God had favored her! Once this storm had passed and the Angel had revealed the secret of this mystery to Saint Joseph, what consolation they received!⁵⁷ When Our Lady brought forth her Son, the Angels announce his birth, and the shepherds and the Magi kings come to adore him: I leave you to imagine what joy and what consolation of spirit they must have had through all of that! But wait, because that isn't everything. A little while later, the Angel of the Lord comes and says to Saint Joseph in a dream: Take the Child and his Mother, and flee into Egypt, because Herod wants to put the Child to death.^✦⁵⁸ Oh, without a doubt this was a cause of very great sorrow for Our Lady and for Saint Joseph! How well the angel treats Saint Joseph as a true religious!⁵⁹ "Take the Child," he says, "and his Mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you."^✦⁶⁰ What is this?⁶¹ Couldn't poor Saint Joseph have said, "You're telling me to go—wouldn't it be soon enough to leave tomorrow morning?"⁶² Where do you want me to go at night?^✦ My gear isn't packed; how do you expect me to carry the Child?⁶³ Will my arms be strong enough to carry him the whole way on such a long journey?⁶⁴ What? Do you mean for the Mother to take her turn carrying him?⁶⁵ Alas! Don't you see clearly that she's a young woman, and still so delicate? I have neither a horse nor money for the journey.^✦ And don't you realize that the Egyptians are enemies of the Israelites?^✦⁶⁶ Who will take us in? We would have gladly raised these kinds of questions with the Angel if we had been in Saint Joseph's place; but he didn't say a word to excuse himself from obeying—instead, he set out that very hour and did everything the Angel had commanded him.^✦⁶⁷⁶⁸ There are many excellent observations on this commandment. First, we are taught that⁶⁹ You shouldn't put off or delay anything that requires obedience; procrastination is the way of the lazy, as noted in Confessions.⁷⁰ , 1.⁷¹ VIII—that is, as Saint Augustine says of himself: "Presently—just a little longer," and then I'll convert.⁷² The Holy Spirit wants no delay, but desires great readiness in following his inspirations; our ruin comes from our slackness, which makes us say, "I'll start soon." Why not at this very hour, when he is inspiring us and urging us on? It's because we're so soft on ourselves that we fear everything that seems to take us out of our ease—which is nothing other than our slowness and idleness—and we refuse to be pulled free of them by the urging of certain things that draw us out of ourselves; and we speak almost like the lazy man who, complaining that someone wanted to make him leave his house, said, "How am I supposed to go out?"⁷³ he said, "for there's a lion on the main road, and the bears are on the side paths," which—Proverbs⁷⁴ 22:13—will no doubt devour me.^✦⁷⁵ Oh, how wrong we are to let God be sent and sent back again to knock and strike at the door of our hearts many times before we will open to him and allow him to stay there!^✦⁷⁶ We have reason to fear that we might provoke him and force him to abandon us.⁷⁷ Moreover, we must consider the great peace and evenness of mind of the most holy Virgin and of Saint Joseph, in their constancy amid so great an unevenness of the various things that happened to them, as we have said.⁷⁸ Now, consider whether we have any reason to be troubled or astonished if we meet with similar circumstances in God's house—the religious life—since such things were already present in Our Lord's own family, where firmness and solidity themselves made their home: Our Lord.⁷⁹⁸⁰ We must say it again and again to engrave it deeply in our minds: the unevenness of events must never drive our souls and minds into an unevenness of temper. Unevenness of temper comes from nothing other than our unmortified passions, inclinations, or affections. These must have no power over us when they urge us to do, leave undone, or desire anything—no matter how small—that is contrary to what reason tells us we must do or leave undone to please God.⁸¹

The Ministry of Visible Angels

We must value the spiritual direction and community aids God provides, submitting to them with the same simplicity and humility shown by the Holy Family toward the Angel.

I turn now to the second point I draw from the words of the Angel of the Lord, who says to Saint Joseph: "Take the Child"—and what follows.^✦ But I pause on this phrase: the Angel of the Lord. On this point, I want us to notice how highly we should value the care, help, assistance, and direction of those God places around us to help us walk securely on the path of perfection. We must first understand that when people say "the Angel of the Lord," we shouldn't take it the same way we do when we speak of someone as so-and-so's angel; that refers to our guardian angel, who cares for us on God's behalf. But Our Lord, who is the king and guide even of the angels, has no need—or had no need during his mortal life—of a guardian angel.⁸² So when people say "the Angel of the Lord," it should be understood this way: the Angel appointed to guide the house and family of Our Lord, and more especially dedicated to his service and to that of the most holy Virgin.⁸³ To explain this in familiar terms: they changed offices and aides these past few days; what do these aides mean that are given to you?⁸⁴ Why are they⁸⁵ given to you?⁸⁶ Saint Gregory says that in this miserable world we must do what people do who walk on ice, so we stay firm and solid in the undertaking of saving ourselves or becoming perfect; for he says they take one another by the hand or under the arms, so that if one of them slips, he can be held by the other, and then the other can be held by him when he is shaken. Doctrine of St.⁸⁷ Gregory.⁸⁸ about to fall in his turn.⁸⁹ We are in this life⁹⁰ ?⁹¹ 2.⁹² as on ice, finding at every turn the very occasions that make us stumble and fall—now⁹³ into frustration, then into complaining, and a little later into strange moods that make it so nothing anyone does can satisfy us; then we fall into a distaste for our vocation, with melancholy whispering that we'll never do anything worthwhile; and who knows what else—⁹⁴ similar things and mishaps that we meet with in our little spiritual world. For a person is a summary of the world—or, better put, a little world—in which you find everything you see in the great universal world: our passions represent the beasts and animals that lack reason; our senses, inclinations, affections, powers, and the faculties of our soul—all of that has its own particular meaning. But I don't want to linger over that; instead, I want to take up the train of thought I had begun. The helps given to us are meant to keep us steady on our path, preventing us from falling—or, if we do fall, helping us get back up. O God, with what openness, warmth of heart, sincerity, simplicity, and faithful trust we ought to deal with these helps given us from God's side for our spiritual progress! Certainly not otherwise than as with our good angels: we should regard them in just the same way. For our good angels are called our guardian angels because they are charged with assisting us by their inspirations, defending us in our dangers, correcting us in our faults, and stirring us on in the pursuit of virtue; they are charged with carrying our prayers before the throne of the majesty, goodness, and mercy of our Lord, and with bringing back to us the granting of our requests; and the graces God wants to give us, he gives us through the mediation or intercession of our good angels. Our helpers are our visible angels, just as our holy guardian angels are our invisible ones: they warn us of our faults and encourage us in our weaknesses and slackness. they spur us on in the pursuit of our undertaking so that we may reach perfection; by their good counsel they keep us from falling, and they help us get back up when we have fallen into some precipice of imperfection or fault. If we are crushed by weariness and disgust, they help us bear our hardship patiently and pray to God that He would give us the strength to endure it, so that we do not give way under temptation. So then, see— m. Consider, then, how we should make use of their help and the care they take for us.⁹⁵ I consider next why Our Lord, who is eternal Wisdom, does not look after his family—I mean,^✦ take care to warn Saint Joseph, or else his most gentle Mother, of everything that was to happen to them.^✦⁹⁶ Couldn't he easily have whispered in the ear of his foster father Saint Joseph, "Let's go away into Egypt; we'll stay there for such-and-such a time"?⁹⁷ It is entirely certain that he had the use of reason from the very instant of his conception in the womb of the most holy Virgin, but he did not want to perform this miracle of speaking before the time had come.⁹⁸⁹⁹ Couldn't he easily have inspired it into the heart of his most holy Mother, or his well-beloved foster father Saint Joseph, the spouse of the most sacred Virgin?¹⁰⁰ Why then did he not do all that, rather than leave the responsibility to the Angel, who was far inferior to Our Lady?¹⁰¹ This is not without mystery. Our Lord would not take anything upon himself that belonged to Saint Gabriel's charge—who, having been commissioned by the eternal Father to announce the mystery of the Incarnation to the glorious Virgin, was from then on like the general steward of Our Lord's house and family, to care for it through the various turns and accidents that were bound to befall it, and to prevent anything from arising that could cut short the mortal life of our little newborn Child. That is why he warned Saint Joseph to carry him promptly into Egypt to escape the tyranny of Herod, who intended to put him to death.¹⁰²¹⁰³ Our Lord did not want to govern Himself; instead He let Himself be carried where they wanted and by those they chose. It seems He did not consider Himself wise enough to guide Himself or His family; rather He lets the Angel govern just as the Angel pleases, even though the Angel has no knowledge or wisdom that can enter into comparison with His divine Majesty. And now, as for us, will we be so bold as to say that we will govern ourselves well, as if we no longer need direction or the help of those God has given us to lead us, not thinking them capable enough for us?¹⁰⁴ Tell me, was the Angel greater than Our Lord or Our Lady? Did he have a better mind and more judgment?¹⁰⁵ Not at all. Was he more qualified, and gifted with some special or particular grace?¹⁰⁶ That cannot be, since Our Lord is both God and man, and Our Lady, being His Mother, consequently has more grace and perfection than all the Angels combined; yet the Angel commands, and he is obeyed. But beyond that, look at the order kept in this holy Family.¹⁰⁷ There is no doubt it was the same as among sparrowhawks, where the females are the mistresses and are worth more than the males.¹⁰⁸ Who could doubt that Our Lady was greater than Saint Joseph, and that she had more discretion and more qualities suited to governing than her spouse?¹⁰⁹ Even so, the Angel never goes to her about anything that needs doing—whether for going or coming, or for any purpose at all. Doesn't it seem to you that the Angel shows a great lack of judgment by going to Saint Joseph instead of Our Lady, who is the head of the household and carries with her the treasure of the eternal Father?¹¹⁰¹¹¹ Wouldn't she have had reason to take offense at this procedure and way of dealing?¹¹² itter?¹¹³ No doubt she could have said to her spouse: Why should I go to Egypt, since my Son hasn't revealed to me that I ought to do it, and the Angel hasn't spoken to me of it either?¹¹⁴ But Our Lady said none of that. She doesn't take offense that the Angel went to Saint Joseph; rather, she obeys quite simply, because she knows God has ordered it so. She doesn't ask why; it's enough for her that God wills it that way, and that He takes pleasure when we submit without weighing the matter.¹¹⁵ But I am greater than the Angel, she could have said—and greater than Saint Joseph.¹¹⁶ None of that. Don't you see that God takes pleasure in dealing with people this way, to teach them most holy and most loving submission? Saint Peter was an old man, rough and coarse, and Saint John, on the contrary, was young, gentle, and agreeable; and yet God wills that Saint Peter lead the others and be the universal Superior, and that Saint John be¹¹⁷ [illegible]¹¹⁸ [illegible]¹¹⁹ one of those who are led and who obey him. What a strange case the human mind is—it refuses to make itself capable of adoring God's secret mysteries and his most holy will unless it has some kind of knowledge of why this or that! "I've got a better mind," people say, "more experience," and other such reasons, which only produce restlessness, strange moods, and grumbling.¹²⁰ On what grounds do they give this charge? Why did they say that? Why would they do such a thing for this person rather than for that one? What a pity, once you've started picking apart everything you see done!¹²¹ What won't we do to lose the peace of our hearts? We don't need any reason other than that God wills it, and that should be enough for us. But who will assure me that it's the will of God? We would want God to reveal everything to us by secret inspirations.¹²² Would we wait for him to send us angels to announce what his will is? He didn't even do that for Our Lady (at least not on this point); instead, he chose to make it known to her through Saint Joseph, to whom she was subject as her superior.¹²³ We would perhaps want to be taught and instructed by God himself, by way of ecstasies or raptures and visions, and who knows what else.¹²⁴ —the same sort of nonsense we invent in our minds, rather than submit to the very lovely and ordinary path of a holy submission to the guidance of those God has given us, and to keeping the direction both of the Rules and of Superiors. It should be enough for us to know that God wants us to obey, without dwelling on the competence of those we must obey; then we will submit our minds to walk simply on the most blessed path of a holy and quiet humility, which will make us infinitely pleasing to God.

Abandonment to Providence

We are called to launch into the sea of divine Providence without self-serving excuses, trusting that God will provide for our spiritual and temporal needs as we seek perfection.

We must now turn to the third consideration, which is a remark I made on the command the Angel gave Saint Joseph: to take the Child and his Mother, go away into Egypt, and stay there until the Angel told him to return.¹²⁵ The Angel was certainly very brief.¹²⁶ He treated Saint Joseph exactly like a good religious: Go, and don't come back until I tell you. This interaction between the Angel and Saint Joseph teaches us, thirdly, how we must set out onto the sea of divine Providence without supplies, without oars, without paddles, without sails, and without any provisions at all. We are to leave all care for ourselves and the success of our affairs to Our Lord, without second-guessing, without arguing, and without any fear of what might happen to us.¹²⁷ The Angel simply said: Take the Child and his Mother, and flee into Egypt—without telling him which road to take, what provisions they would have for the journey, where in Egypt they should go, much less who would receive them or what they would live on once they arrived.¹²⁸ Wouldn't poor Saint Joseph have had good reason to raise an objection? You're telling me to leave—does it have to be right now?¹²⁹ Yes, this very moment—to show us the promptness the Holy Spirit requires of us when he says: Get up, leave yourself and such-and-such an imperfection.¹³⁰ Oh, how the Holy Spirit is the enemy of postponements and delays! Consider, I beg you, the great patron and model of perfect religious, Saint Abraham; see how God treats him: "Abraham, leave your country and your kindred, and go to the mountain I will show you."¹³¹ What do you say?¹³² Lord, am I to leave the city? But tell me, should I go toward the east or toward the west? He makes no reply; rather he leaves at once, and goes where the Spirit of God was leading him, as far as a mountain that has since been called the Vision of God, because he received great and signal graces on that mountain, to show how pleasing promptness in obedience is to Him.¹³³ Couldn't Saint Joseph have said to the Angel, "You tell me to take the Child and the Mother; so please tell me, what will I feed them with on the way?"¹³⁴ For you know well, my Lord, that we have no money. He said none of that; instead he trusted fully that God would provide—and God did, though sparingly, making them find what they needed to live simply, either by Saint Joseph's trade or even by alms that people gave them.^✦ Indeed, all the religious of old were admirable in this trust—that God would always provide what they needed to sustain their lives—leaving all care for themselves to divine Providence. But I believe we aren't just required to rest in divine Providence regarding temporal things, but even more so regarding our spiritual life and our perfection. Is there nothing?¹³⁵ Certainly, it's the excessive care we take of ourselves that makes us lose our peace of mind and leads us into strange, uneven moods—because as soon as any contradictions come our way, or even when we merely notice a slight sign of our lack of mortification, or when we commit some fault, however small, it feels to us like all is lost.¹³⁶ Is it such a great wonder to see ourselves stumble sometimes?¹³⁷ But I am so wretched, so full of imperfection! Do you know that well?¹³⁸ Bless God that He has given you this knowledge, and don't lament so much: you are truly blessed to know that you are nothing but misery itself. After blessing God for the knowledge he has given you, cut away this useless tenderness that makes you complain of your weakness.¹³⁹ We are overly sensitive about our bodies in ways that work against perfection; but even more so, beyond any comparison, are the sensitivities we have about our minds.¹⁴⁰ My God! I'm not faithful to Our Lord, and so I have no consolation in prayer. A great pity, to be sure! But I experience such dryness so often!¹⁴¹ That makes me think I'm not right with God, who is so full of consolation. Oh yes—well put: as if God always gave consolations to his friends!¹⁴² Has there ever been a pure creature so worthy of being loved by God—and who has been loved by him more fully—than Our Lady and Saint Joseph?¹⁴³ Consider whether they are always experiencing consolation. Can you imagine a more extreme affliction than the one Saint Joseph felt when he realized the glorious Virgin was with child, knowing full well it wasn't his doing?¹⁴⁴ His affliction and his distress were all the greater because the passion of love is more intense than the other passions of the soul; and what's more, in love, jealousy is the extreme¹⁴⁵ of the pain, as the Bride declares in the Song of Songs: "Love," she says, "is¹⁴⁶ uit.¹⁴⁷ , o.¹⁴⁸ strong as death, for love works the same effects in the soul that death works in the body; but jealousy is as hard as hell."^✦ So I leave you to think what the sorrow of poor Saint Joseph was—and of Our Lady as well—when she saw herself in the opinion that the one she loved so dearly, and by whom she knew she was so dearly loved, might have of her: jealousy made him waste away, not knowing what course to take; he resolved.¹⁴⁹ instead of blaming her¹⁵⁰ whom he had always so greatly honored and loved—to leave her and go away without saying a word.¹⁵¹ But you might say, "I really feel the pain this temptation—or my imperfection—causes me." I believe you; but is it comparable to the one we just spoke of?¹⁵² It can't be; and if that's so, consider, I beg you, whether we have any right to complain and lament about it, since Saint Joseph doesn't complain at all, nor shows anything of it outwardly: he isn't any more bitter in his dealings for it, he didn't put on a sour face with Our Lady, he didn't treat her badly; rather he simply bears his pain, and wants only to leave her—God knows what he could have done in this matter.^✦¹⁵³¹⁵⁴ Someone might say, "My aversion toward this person is so strong that I can hardly speak to them without great difficulty—this action displeases me so much!" It’s all the same; you still must not become peevish toward her, as if she could help it. Rather, you must conduct yourself like Our Lady and Saint Joseph: stay calm in your distress and leave it to Our Lord to take it from you when He pleases.¹⁵⁵¹⁵⁶ It was well within Our Lady's power to calm this storm, yet she would not do so; instead, she left the outcome of the matter fully to divine Providence. These are two strings equally out of tune, and equally in need of harmony: the treble and the bass, if you want to play the lute well. Nothing is more discordant than the high with the low; yet, without those two strings in tune, the lute's harmony cannot be pleasing. In the same way, on our spiritual lute, there are two things equally out of tune with each other and equally in need of harmony: taking great care to perfect ourselves, and having no care for our perfection, but leaving it entirely to God. I mean that we must take the care God wants us to take in perfecting ourselves, and yet leave the care of our perfection to Him. God wants us to have a quiet, peaceful care that lets us do what those who guide us judge proper, and always go faithfully forward on the path marked out for us by the Rules and Directories we have been given; and as for the rest, that we rest it in His fatherly care, trying as far as we can to keep our soul in peace—for God's dwelling was made in peace, and in a peaceful, well-rested heart.¹⁵⁷ You know¹⁵⁸ that when a lake is perfectly calm and the winds don't stir its waters, the sky on a clear night is mirrored there so clearly with the stars that, looking down, you see the beauty of the sky just as well as if you were looking up. In the same way, when our soul is well stilled, and the winds of needless care, restlessness of spirit, and inconstancy don't trouble or¹⁵⁹ disturb it, it is well able to bear within itself the image of Our Lord. But¹⁶⁰ when it is troubled, unsettled, and tossed by the various storms of the passions, and when we let ourselves be ruled by them rather than by the reason that makes us like God, then we are not at all able to reflect the beautiful and most lovable image of Our crucified Lord, nor the variety of His excellent virtues; nor can our soul be fit to serve Him as a bridal bed.¹⁶¹ We must leave the care of ourselves to the mercy of divine Providence, while still doing everything in our power—simply and without guile—to amend and perfect ourselves, always watching carefully that we don't let our minds become troubled and unsettled.¹⁶² Finally I notice that the Angel told Saint Joseph to stay in Egypt until he should let him know to return, and that the good Saint did not say to him: And when will it be, Lord, that you will tell me?^✦¹⁶³ —to teach us that when we are commanded to take up some exercise, we must not say: Will this be for a long time? Rather, we must take it up quite simply, imitating Abraham's perfect obedience when God commanded him to sacrifice his son to Him.¹⁶⁴ He offered no reply, no complaint, and no delay in carrying out God's command; and so God favored him greatly, by having him find a ram that he sacrificed on the mountain in place of his son, God being content¹⁶⁵ Genesis 22:1-13.¹⁶⁶ with his will.¹⁶⁷ I conclude with the simplicity Saint Joseph practiced when, at the Angel's command, he set out for Egypt, where he was sure to find as many enemies as there were inhabitants in that country.¹⁶⁸ Couldn't he well have said: You make me take the Child away; you make us flee one enemy, and you're going to put us into the hands of thousands upon thousands of others we'll find in Egypt, since we are from Israel? He didn't give the command a second thought; that is why he went on his way full of peace and trust in God.¹⁶⁹ Likewise, my daughters, when we are given some charge, let us not say: My God! I'm so abrupt—if they give me such a charge, I'll make a thousand rushed, overeager mistakes; I'm already so distracted—if they give me such an office, I'll be far more so; but if they left me in my cell, I would be so modest, so calm, so recollected.¹⁷⁰ Go quite simply into Egypt among the great throng of enemies you'll have there, for God, who is sending you there, will keep you safe there, and you will not die there; whereas, on the contrary, if you stay in Israel where the enemy is your own will, he will no doubt put you to death there.¹⁷¹ It wouldn't be good to take on charges and offices by our own choice, for fear that we might not do our duty in them; but when it is by obedience, let us never offer any excuse, for God is for us, and he will make us advance further in perfection than if we had nothing to do. And don't you know what I have already told you before, and that it is not a bad thing¹⁷² [Source unreadable.]¹⁷³ to say again: that virtue does not require that we be deprived of the occasion of stumbling into the imperfection contrary to it?¹⁷⁴ “It is not enough,” says Cassian (Inst., bk.¹⁷⁵ VIII), in order to be patient and truly gentle within yourself, [merely] to be cut off from the company of men; for it has happened to me, alone in my cell, to fly into a passion when my fire-steel would not catch, so much so that I threw it down in anger.¹⁷⁶¹⁷⁷ Yes, we must finish, and so leave you in Egypt with Our Lord, who—as I believe, and as others also hold—was already beginning then to make little crosses when he had spare time after helping Saint Joseph in some small way, already then showing the desire he had for the work of our redemption.¹⁷⁸

Read the original French

Nous célébrons l'(Ktave de la feste des saints Innocens, auquel jour la sainte Kglise nous fait lire l'Evangile * qui traittc comme l'Ange du Seigneur dit au • Man. n. ij-it. glorieux saint Joseph en songe, c'est à dire en dormant, qu'il prist l'Enfant et la Mère et qu'il s'enfuist m Egypte; d'autant (ju'Herodt^s, jaloux de sa royauté, cherchoit Nostre Seigneur pour le mettre à mort, de cramte qu'il ne la luy ostast, et estant rempli de colère, dequoy les Koys Miiges n'estoient point retournés par devers (**) luy en Jérusalem, il commanda (jue l'on fist mourir tous les petits enfans au dessous de l'âge de deux ans, croyant que Nostre Seigneur s'y trouveroit. et par ce moyen il s'asscureroit de la possession de son royaume. Cet Evangile est plein d'une quantité de Ix'lles conceptions: je me contenteray de quelques unes, qui nous serviront d'un autant agréable que profitable entretien <«>.

32 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels i<^) Je commence par la première remarque que fait ie ♦Hom. viii iuMatt. , grand saint Jean Chrysostome *, qui est de l'inconstance, ^ ■'• variété et instabilité des accidens de ceste vie mortelle.

O que ceste considération est utile! car le défaut d'icelle est ce qui nous porte au descouragement et bijarrerie d'esprit, inquiétude, variété d'humeurs, inconstance et instabilité en nos resolutions; car nous ne voudrions pas rencontrer en nostre chemin nulle difficulté, nulle contradiction et nulle peine; nous voudrions avoir tousjours des consolations sans sécheresses ni aridités, des biens sans meslange d'aucun mal, la santé sans maladie, le repos sans travail, la paix sans trouble. Hé! qui ne void nostre folie? car nous voulons ce qui ne se peut. La pureté ne se trouve qu'en Paradis et en enfer: au Paradis >«) le bien, le repos et la consolation sont en leur pureté, sans aucun meslange du mal, du trouble ni de l'affliction; au contraire, en enfer le mal, la multitude qui s'y rencontre me fait croire que vous eu pourrez bien avoir laissé plusieiu's qui seront bonnes à dire, bien que je ne veuille pas m'amuser à la recherche de celles que vous auriez peu laisser, non plus que de traitter de celles que vous auriez peu tirer sur ce sujet, ains j'entends de vous dire tout simplement ce que Dieu me donnera. Et tout ainsy qu'en un tableau, où un homme fait ou bien un géant est représenté, combattant ou faisant quelque autre action, il est bien plus aysé de remarquer les traits de la peinture,que non pas en un autre où est représenté quelque petit corps, ou plusieurs petits ensemble qui sont en action (car il faut plus de temps pour observer tous les petits tours, entorses, plis et replis, linéaments et semblables observances qu'il faut faire en la peinture, que non pas au premier; car à ceux-ci l'on descouvre autant de fois que l'on les regarde quelque chose de nouveau, où au contraire il est facile de descouvrir du premier coup ce qui est au plus grand tableau); de mesme aux autres mystères qui nous sont représentés, où se trouvent Xostre Seigneur, Nostre Dame, saint Joseph, les pasteurs, les Koys Mages qui viennent adorer Nostre Seigneur, il est facile, ce semble, de descouvrir du premier coup les mj'steres qui sont cachés sous cette peinture; mais il n'est pas si aysé de le faire en ce petit tableau raccourci qui nous représente une peuplade si grande de petits enfants qui, estans tous assemblés, semblent estre une petite formilliere. Pour beaucoup de temps donc, que nous mettions à considérer ce qui nous est représenté en ce mystère, tousjours neantmoins il nous reste quelque chose a descouvrir de nouveau, autant de fois que nous le regardons.

le desespoir, le trouble et l'inquiétude s'y trouve et est en sa pureté '^, sans aucun nieslange du bien, de l'espérance, de la tranquillité ni de la paL\. Mais en ceste vie |)erissable, jamais le bien ne se trouve sans la suite du ni«nl, les richesses sans inquiétudes, le repos sans travail, la consolation sans l'affliction. la santé sans la maladie. Bref, tout y est meslangé et meslé, le bien avec le mal; c'est une continuelle variété d'accidens divers. Ainsi Dieu a voulu diversifier les saisons, et que l'esté fust suivi de l'automne et l'hiver suivi du printemps, pour nous monstrer que rifft n'es* permanent en ceste vie •, * î"-'*-* • '» K que les choses temporelles sont ptrpetuellement inuables, inconstantes et sujettes au changement: et le défaut de la cognoissance de ceste vérité est, comme j'ay dit, ce qui nous rend muables et changeans en nos humeurs; d'autant que nous ne nous ser\ons pas de la raison que Dieu nous a donnée, laquelle raison nous rend immuables, fermes et solides, et partant semblables à Dieu.

Quand Dieu dit*: l'aisons l'homme à nostre sem- • '»rfi. 1. i" blance, il [lui] donna quant et quant la raison et l'usiige d'icelle jx)ur discourir, considérer et discerner le bien d'avec le mal. et les choses qui méritent d'estre e^leuës ou <*>> rejet tées. La raison est ce qui nous rend supérieurs et maistres de tous les animaux. Lors que Dieu eut créé nos premiers parens. il leur donna une entière domination sur les poissons de la mer et sur les animaux de la terre*, et par conséquent leur donna • lud. .

V. j» 30. la cognoissance de chacune espèce, et les moyens de les dominer et s'en rendre ie maistre et seigneur. Dieu n'a pas seulement fait ceste grâce à l'homme, de JIU% 34 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels le rendre seigneur des animaux, par le moyen du don qu'il luy a fait de la raison, par laquelle (») il l'a rendu semblable à luy; mais encore il luy a donné plein pouvoir sur toutes sortes d'accidens et evenemens. Il * Vide s. Thom. , est dit * que l'homme sage, c'est à dire l'homme qui se ar^t^^ivf ad^3. ^^^ ' couduit par la raison, se rendra maistre absolu des astres.

Qu'est-ce à dire cela, sinon que par l'usage de la raison il demeurera fenne et constant en la diversité des accidens et evenemens de ceste vie mortelle? Que le temps soit beau ou qu'il pleuve, que l'air soit calme ou que le vent souffle, l'homme sage ne s'en soucie pas, sçachant bien que rien n'est stable et permanent en *Eccies. ,ubi supra, ccstc vic *, et quc cc n'est pas icy le lieu de repos. En l'affliction il ne se désespère point, ains il attend la consolation; en la maladie il ne se tourmente point, mais il attend la santé, ou s'il void qu'il soit tellement mal que la mort s'en deust ensuivre, il bénit Dieu, espérant le repos de la vie immortelle qui suit celle-cy. Que s'il rencontre la pauvreté il ne s'en afflige pas, car il sçait bien que les richesses ne sont point en ceste vie sans la pauvreté; s'il est mesprisé, il sçait bien que l'honneur icy bas n'a point de permanence, ains est ordinairement suivi du deshonneur ou du mespris. Bref, en toutes sortes d'evenemens, soit prospérité ou adversité, il demeure ferme, stable et constant en sa (J) resolution de prétendre et tendre à la jouissance des biens éternels.

Mais il ne faut pas seulement considérer ceste variété, changement, mutation et instabilité es choses transitoires et matérielles de ceste vie mortelle; nullement, ains il les faut considérer encor estre aussi dans le succès de nostre vie spirituelle, où la fermeté et constance est d'autant plus nécessaire, que la vie spirituelle est relevée au dessus de la vie mortelle et corporelle. C'est un abus très-grand que de ne vouloir point souffrir ou sentir de mutations et changemens en nos humeurs, tandis que nous ne nous gouvernerons point par la raison, et que nous ne voudrons pas nous laisser gouverner. L'on dit communément: voyez cest enfant, il est bien jeune, mais il a pourtant desja l'usage de la raison; ainsi plusieurs ont l'usage de la raison, lesquels, comme enfans. ne se conduisent pourtant pas par le commandement de la raison Dieu a donne à l'homme la raison pour le conduire, mais pourtant il y en a peu qui la laissent maistriser en eux; au contraire, ils se laissent gouverner par leurs passions, lesquelles devroient estre subjettes et obéissantes à la raison selon l'ordre que Dieu requiert de '^ nous.

je me veux faire entendre plus familièrement: la pluspart des personnes du monde se laissent gouverner et conduire à leurs passions, et non à la raison; aussi sontiLs pour l'ordinaire bijarres. varians et changeans en leurs humeurs S'ils ont une passion de se coucher tost ou bien tard, ils le font; s'ils en ont une d'aller aux champs, ils se lèvent de grand matin, mais s'ils en ont une de dormir, ils le font tout de mesme; quand ils veulent disner et desjeuner tost, ou fort tard, ils le font aussi '. Kt non seulement ils sont bijarres et inconstans en cela, mais ils le sont nu^sme en leur conversation: ils veulent (jue l'on s'accommode à leurs humeurs, et ne se veulent I^)int accommo<ler à celles des ("» autres; ils se laissent emporter à leurs inchnations et particulières affections et passions, sans que f)ourtant cela soit estimé vicieux parmi (" les mondains, et pourveu qu'ils n'incommodent pas JK'aucoup l'esprit du prochain, on ne les tient pas rn rjol une •! tu le fiml; t'ite veu «r Uni ou Uitl, oa ti' lier, tb Vt fimt.

non aux 36 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels pour bijarres et inconstans Et pourquoy cela? non pour autre chose, sinon d'autant que c'est un mal ordinaire parmi les mondains. Mais en la Religion on ne peut pas tant se laisser emporter à ses passions; car pour les choses extérieures, les Règles y sont pour nous tenir réglés au prier, au manger et dormir, et ainsy des autres exercices, tousjours à mesme heure, quand l'obéissance ou la cloche nous le signifie; et puis, nous n'avons tousjours qu'une mesme conversation, car nous ne pouvons pas nous séparer.

En quoy donc peut on exercer la bijarrerie et inconstance? c'est en la diversité des humeurs, des volontés et des désirs. Maintenant je suis joyeux parce que toutes choses me succèdent selon ma volonté; tantost je seray triste parce qu'il me sera arrivé une petite contradiction que je n'attendois pas. Mais ne sçaviez-vous pas que ce n'est point icy le lieu où le plaisir se trouve pur, sans meslange de desplaisir, que ceste vie est meslée de semblables accidens? Aujourd'huy que vous avez de la consolation en l'oraison, vous estes encouragée et bien résolue de servir Dieu; mais demain, que vous serez en sécheresse, vous n'aurez point de cœur pour le service de Dieu: Mon Dieu, je suis si ' alangourie et abattue, dites-vous. Or dites-moy un peu, si vous vous gouverniez par la raison, ne verriez-vous pas que s'il est oit bon de servir Dieu hier, qu'il est encore tres-bon de le servir aujourd'huy, et qu'il sera tres-bon de le servir demain? car c'est tousjours le mesme Dieu, aussi digne d'estre aymé quand vous estes en sécheresse que quand vous estes en consolation. Maintenant nous voulons une chose, et demain nous en voudrions une autre; ce que je voy faire à un tel ou à une telle à ceste heure me plaist; tantost cela me desplaira en telle sorte que cela sera capable de me faire concevoir de l'aversion.

J'ayme mieux maintenant une personne et me plais grandement en sa conversation; demain j'auray peine de la supporter. Et que veut dire cela? n'est-elle pas autant capable d'estre aymée aujourd'huy qu'elle estoit hier? Si nuus regardions à ce que nous dicte la raison, nous verrions qu'il falloit aymer ceste personne parce que c'est une créature qui porte l'image de la di\nne Majesté; ainsi nous aurions autant de suavité en sa conversation que nous en avions eu autrefois.

Mais ceb ne provient sinon dequoy on se laisse conduire à son inclination, à ses p<issions ou affections, pervertissant ainsi l'ordre que Dieu avoit mis en nous, que tout seroit subjet à la raison; car si la raison ne domine sur toutes nos puissances, sur nos facultés, nos passions, inclinations, affections, et en fin sur tout ce qui sera de nous, qu'en arrivera-t'il sinon une continuelle vicissitude, inconstance, variété, changement, bijarrerie, qui nous fera tantost estre fer\'ens, et W peu après lasches, negligens et paresseux; tantost joyeux, et puis mélancoliques? Nous serons tranquilles une heure, et puis inquiets deux jours; bref, nostre vie se passera en fainéantise et perte de temps Donc par ceste première remarque vO^ nous somIno^ mcités et semonds à considérer l'inconstance et variété des succès, tant aux choses temjxirelles qu'aux choses spirituelles, à fin cjue par l'evcnement des rencontres qui i>ourroient effaroucher nos esprits, comme estant choses nouvelles et non preveiies, nous ne perdions jxiint courage, ne nous laissant emporter à l'inégalité tl'humeur parmi l'inégalité des choses qui nous arrivent; ains, que sousmis à la conduite de la raison que Dieu a misi* en nous, et à sa providence, noiLs demeurions fermes, constans et invariables en la resolution que notis avons faite de servir Dieu constamment, courageusement, hardunent et ardemment, sans discontinuation quelconque.

38 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels Si je parlois devant des personnes qui ne m'entendissent pas, je tascherois de leur inculquer le mieux qu'il me seroit possible ce que je viens de dire; mais vous sçavez que j'ay tous jours tasché de vous inculquer bien avant dans la mémoire ceste tres-sainte égalité d'esprit, comme estant la vertu la plus nécessaire et particulière de la Religion. Tous les anciens Pères des Religions ont visé particulièrement à faire que ceste égalité et stabilité d'humeurs et d'esprit regnast dans leurs monastères; pour cela ils ont establi les Statuts, Constitutions et Règles, à fin que les Religieux s'en servissent comme d'un pont pour passer de la continuelle égalité des exercices qui y sont marqués, et auxquels ils se sont assubjettis, à ceste tant aymable et désirable égalité d'esprit, parmi l'inconstance et inégalité des accidens qui se rencontrent tant au chemin de nostre vie mortelle que de nostre vie spirituelle. Ubi supra, p. 32. Le grand saint Chrysostome dit *: O homme, qui te fasches dequoy toutes choses ne te succèdent pas comme tu voudrois, n'as-tu point de honte de voir que cela que tu voudrois ne s'est pas mesme trouvé dans la famille de Nostre Seigneur? Considère, je te prie, la vicissitude, le changement et la diversité des succès qui s'y rencontrent. Nostre Dame reçoit la nouvelle qu'elle concevroit du Saint Esprit un fils, qui seroit Nostre Seigneur et Sauveur: quelle joye, quelle jubilation pour elle en ceste heure sacrée de l'Incarnation du Verbe éternel! Peu après, saint Joseph s'apperçoit qu'elle est enceinte, et sçachant bien que ce n'estoit pas de luy qu'elle l'estoit, ô Dieu, quelle affliction!

en quelle détresse ne fut-il pas! Et Nostre Dame, quelle extrémité de douleur et affliction ne ressentit-elle pas en son ame, voyant son cher Espoux sur le point de la quitter, sa modestie ne luy permettant de descouvrir à saint Joseph l'honneur et la grâce dont Dieu l'avoit gratifiée! Un peu après ceste bourrasque passée, l'Ange ayant descouvert à saint Joseph le secret âe ce mystênquelle consolation ne receurent-ils pas!

Lors que Nostre Dame produit son Fils, les Anges annoncent sa naissance, les pasteurs et les Roys Mages le viennent adorer: je vous laisse à penser quelle jubilation et quelle consolation d'esprit n'eurent-ils pas parmi tout cela! Mais attendez, car ce n'est pas tout. Un peu de temps après, l'Ange du Seigneur, vient dire en songe à siiint Joseph: Prens l'Enfant et la Mère, et fuis en Egypte, d'autant qu'Herodes veut faire mourir l'Enfant ♦. O que ce fut sans doute un sujet de douleur très-grand à Nostre Dame et à saint Joseph! O que l'Ange traitte bien saint Joseph en vray Religieux! Prens l'Enfant, dit-'l, et la Mère, et fuis en Egypte, et y demeure jusques à ce que je te le die. yu'est-ce que cecy? Le pauvre saint Joseph n'eust-il pas peu dire: Vous me dites que j'aille, ne sera-t'il pas assez à temps de partir demain au matin?

où voulezvous que j'aille de nuict? Mon équipage n'est pas dressé; comment voulez-vous que je porte l'Lnfant? auray-je les bras assez forts pour le porter contmutllement en un si long voyage? Quoy? entendez-vous que la Mère le porte à son tour ^*i? helas! ne voyez-vous pas bien que c'est une jeune fille, qui est encore si tendre? Je n'ay ni cheval ni argent pour faire le voyage.

Et ne sçavez-vous pas que les Egyptiens sont ennemis i*) des Israélites? qui nous recevra? Et semblables choses, que nous eussions bien alléguées à l'Ange si nous eussions esté en la place de saint Joseph; le(]uel ne dit pas un mot pour s'excuser de faire l'obéissance, ains il partit à la mesme heure, et fit tout ce que l'Ange luy avoit commandé.

Il y a quantité de belles remarques sur ce commandement. Et premièrement nous sommes enseignés qu'il II, ij.

ne faut nulle remise et délai en ce qui regarde l'obéissance; c'est le fait du paresseux que de retarder, et • Confess. , 1. VIII, dire, comme saint Augustin dit de soy-mesme*: Tantost, *^" ^' « encor un peu, » et puis je me convertiray. Le Saint Esprit ne veut nulle remise, ains désire une grande promptitude à la suite de ses inspirations; nostre perte vient de nostre lascheté, qui nous fait dire: je commenceray tantost. Pourquoy non à ceste heure, qu'il nous inspire et nous pousse? C'est que nous sommes si tendres sur nous-mesmes que nous craignons tout ce qui semble nous oster de nostre repos, qui n'est autre chose que nostre tardiveté et fainéantise, desquelles nous ne voulons point estre retirés par la sollicitation d'aucuns objects qui nous attirent à 1^) sortir de nous-mesmes; et nous disons quasi comme le paresseux, lequel se plaignant dequoy on le vouloit faire sortir de sa maison: Comment sortiray-je? dit-il, car il y a un lion sur le grand chemin, et les ours sont sur les advenues, qui • Prov. , XXII, 13; sans doute me dévoreront *.

O que nous avons grand '^" tort de permettre que Dieu envoyé et renvoyé heurter et frapper à la porte de nos cœurs par plusieurs fois, avant que nous luy vouhons ouvrir et luy permettre d'y demeurer! car il est à craindre que nous l'irritions et contraignions de nous abandonner.

De plus, il faut considérer la grande paix et egahté d'esprit de la tres-sainte Vierge et de saint Joseph, en leur constance parmi l'inégalité si grande des divers accidens qui leur arrivoient, ainsi que nous avons dit. Or, voyez si nous avons raison de nous troubler et estonner si nous voyons semblables rencontres en la maison de Dieu, qui est la Religion, puisque cela estoit en la famille mesme de Nostre Seigneur, où la fermeté XXVI III De la Fermeté 41 et la solidité mesme faisoit résidence, qui est oit Nostre Seigneur. Il nous le faut dire et redire plusieurs fois, à fin de le mieux graver dans nos esprits, que l'inégalité des accidens ne doit jamais porter nos âmes et nos esprits dans l'inégalité d'humeur; car l'inégalité d'humeur ne provient d'autre source que de nos passions, inclinations ou affections immortiftées, et elles ne doivent point avoir de pouvoir sur nous tandis qu'elles nous inciteront à faire, délaisser ou désirer aucune chose, pour petite qu'elle puisse estre, qui soit contraire à ce que la raison nous dicte qu'il faut faire ou délaisser pour plaire à Dieu.

Je passe à la seconde considération que je fais sur ceste parole de l'Ange du Seigneur, qui dit à saint Joseph: Prens l'Enfant, et ce qui s'ensuit. Mais je m'arreste sur ceste parole: l'Ange du Seigneur. Sur quoy je désire que nous remarquions l'estime que nous devons faire du soin, du secours, de l'assistance et de la direction de ceux que Dieu met autour de nous pour nous aider à marcher seurement en la voye de la perfection. Il faut premitrcment s<;avoir que quand on dit l'Ange du Seigneur, il ne faut piis entendre que ce soit comme l'on dit de nous autres, l'Ange d'un tel ou d'une telle; car cela vent dire nostre Ange gardien, qui a soin de nous de la part de Dieu; mais Nostre Seigneur, i\\\\ est le roy et la guide des Anges mesmes, n'a pas bestiin, ou n'avoit pas besoin durant le cours de sa vie mortelle d'un Ange gardien. Quand donc on dit, l'Ange du Seigneur, cela se doit entendre ainsi, à sçavoir. l'Ange destiné à la conduite de la maison et famille de Nostre Seigneur, et plus spécialement deilié |X)ur son service, et de la tres-sainte X'ierge.

Pour expliquer cecy fiunilierement: l'on changea d'offices et d'aydes ces jours passés; que signifient ces aydes que l'on vous donne? pourquoy vous les (!) c«* iouf» pmttét: — qu'cAt tr que cr« «VfW que Ton von* tkaw* Vitmm 42 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels donne-t'on? Saint Grégoire dit que nous devons faire en ce misérable monde ce que font ceux qui cheminent sur la glace, pour nous tenir fermes et solides à Feutreprise que nous faisons de nous sauver ou de nous perfectionner; car il dit qu'ils se prennent par la main ou par dessous les bras, à fin que si quelqu'un d'entre eux glisse, il puisse estre retenu par l'autre, et puis que l'autre puisse estre retenu par luy quand il sera esbranlé • Doctrina s. Greg. pour tomber à son tour*. Nous sommes en ceste vie i^^Eccîes",i\vo? ?

2.' comme dessus de la glace, trouvant à tous propos des simiiitudo sancti occasious proprcs pour faire trébucher et tomber, tantost Auctons? r r r au chagrin, ores en des murmures, un peu après en des bijarreries d'esprit qui feront que l'on ne pourra rien faire qui nous puisse contenter; et puis nous entrons en degoust de nostre vocation, la mélancolie nous suggérant que nous ne ferons jamais rien qui vaille; et que sçay-je? semblables choses et accidens qui se rencontrent en nostre petit monde spirituel. Car l'homme est un abrégé du monde, ou, pour mieux dire, un petit monde, auquel se rencontre tout ce que l'on void au grand monde universel: les passions représentent les bestes et les animaux qui sont sans raison; les sens, les inclinations, les affections, les puissances, les facultés de nostre ame, tout cela a sa signification particulière; mais je ne me veux pas arrester à cela, ains je veux suivre mon discours commencé.

Donc, les aydes que l'on nous donne sont pour nous ayder à nous tenir fermes en nostre chemin, à fin de nous empescher de tomber, ou si nous tombons, qu'elles nous aydent à nous relever. O Dieu, avec quelle franchise, cordialité, sincérité, simphcité et fidelle confiance ne devons-nous pas traitter avec ces aydes qui nous sont données de la part de Dieu pour nostre avancement spirituel! Non certes autrement que comme avec nos bons Anges: nous les devons regarder tout de mesme, car nos bons Anges sont appelles nos Anges gardiens parce qu'ils sont chargés de nous assister de leurs inspirations, de nous défendre en nos périls, de nous reprendre en nos défauts, de nous exciter en la poursuite de la vertu; ils sont chargés de porter nos prières devant le throsne de la majesté, bonté et miséricorde de Nostre Seigneur, et de nous rapporter l'interinement de nos requestes; et les grâces que Dieu nous veut faire, il nous les fait par l'entremise ou intercession de nos bons Anges. Nos aydes sont nos bons Anges visibles, ainsi que nos saints Anges gardiens le sont invisibles: nos intérieurement; car elles nous advertissent de nos défauts, elles nous encouragent en nos foiblesses et laschetés, elles ne jus e. xcitent à la poursuite de nostre entreprise pour parvenir à la perfection, elles nous empeschent par leurs bons conseils de tomber, et nous aydent à nous relever quand nous sommes cheus en quelque précipice d'imperfection ou défaut. Si nous sommes accablés d'ennuy et de degoust, elles nous aydent à p>orter nostre peyne patiemment, et prient Dieu qu'il nous donne la force de la porter comme il faut pour ne point succomber en la tentation *. Or, voyez donc • Mait, vi. m.

Testât que nous devons faire de leur assistance et du soin qu'elles ont pour nous.

Je considère en après pourquoy Nostre Seigneur, qui est la Sapience éternelle, ne prend pas soin de sa fimiille, je veu. x dire d'avertir saint Joseph, ou bien sa tres-douce Mère, de tout ce qui leur devoit arriver. Ne jxjuvoit-il pas bien dire à l'oreille de son beau-pere saint Joseph: Allons nous en en Egypte, nous y serons <^') tel temps? puisque c'est une chose toute asseurée qu'il avoit l'usage de raison dés l'instant de sa conception aux entrailles de la tres-sainte Vierge; mais il ne vouloit pas faire ce miracle de parler devant que le temps fust venu O. Ne pouvoit-il pas bien l'inspirer au cœur de sa tres-sainte Merc ou de son bien-aymé l'ère putatif saint Joseph, Ksjxjux de la tres-sacréc Vierge? pourquoy donc ne ht -il pas tout cela plustost que d'en laisser la AA Les vrays Entretiens spirituels charge à l'Ange, qui estoit beaucoup inférieur à Nostre Dame? Cecy n'est pas sans mystère. Nostre Seigneur ne voulut rien entreprendre sur la charge de saint Gabriel, lequel ayant esté commis de la part du Père éternel pour annoncer le mystère de l'Incarnation à la glorieuse Vierge, fut dés lors comme économe gênerai de la maison et famille de Nostre Seigneur, pour en avoir soin dans les succès et accidens divers qui s'y dévoient rencontrer, et (^') empescher que rien ne survinst qui peust abréger la vie mortelle de nostre petit Enfant nouveau né: c'est pourquoy il advertit saint Joseph de l'emporter promptement en Egypte pour éviter la tyrannie d'Herodes, qui faisoit dessein de le faire mourir.

Nostre Seigneur ne voulut pas se gouverner luy-mesme, ains se laisser porter où l'on vouloit et par qui l'on vouloit; il semble qu'il ne s'estimoit pas assez sage pour se conduire luy-mesme, ni sa famille, ains laisse gouverner l'Ange tout ainsi qu'il luy plaist, encor qu'il n'ayt point de science ni de sapience pour entrer en comparaison avec sa divine Majesté.

Et maintenant nous autres, serons-nous si osés de dire que nous nous gouvernerons bien nous mesmes, comme n'ayans plus besoin de direction ni de l'ayde de ceux que Dieu ncus a donnés pour nous conduire, ne les estimant assez capables pour nous? Dites-moy, l'Ange estoit-il plus que Nostre Seigneur ou Nostre Dame? a voit-il meilleur esprit et plus de jugement? Nullement. Estoit-il plus quahfié, et doué de quelque grâce spéciale ou particulière? Cela ne se peut, veu que Nostre Seigneur est Dieu et homme tout ensemble, et que Nostre Dame, estant sa Mère, a par conséquent plus de grâce et de perfection que tous les Anges ensemble: neantmoins l'Ange commande, et il est obéi. Mais de plus, voyez l'ordre qui se garde en ceste sainte famUle. Il n'y a point de doute qu'il en estoit de mesme qu'en celle des esperviers, où les femelles sont maistresses et valent mieux que les masles.

Qui p>ourToit entrer en doute que Nostre Dame ne valust mieux que saint Joseph,et qu'elle n'eust plus de discrétion et de qualités propres pour le gouvernement que son Espoux? Neantmoins, l'Ange ne s'adresse point à elle de tout ce qui est requis de faire, soit pour aller ou pour venir, ni en fin pour quoy que ce soit. Ne vous semble-t'il pas que l'Ange commet une grande indiscrétion de s'adresser plustost à saint Jtjseph qu'à Nostre Dame, laquelle est le chef de la maison, portant avec elle le thresor du Père éternel? n'eust-elle pas eu raison de s'ofîencer de ceste procédure et façon de tr? itter? Sans doute elle eust peu dire à son Espoux: Fourquoy iray-je en Egypte, puisque mon Fils ne m'a jxîint révélé que je le deusse faire, ni moins l'Ange ne m'en a parlé? Or Nostre Dame ne dit rien de tout cela, elle ne s'ofïence point dequoy l'Ange s'adressa à saint Joseph, ains elle obéit tout simplement parce qu'elle sçait que Dieu l'a ainsi ordonné; elle ne s'informe point pourquoy, ains il luy suffit que Dieu le veut ainsi, et qu'il prend plais'r que l'on se sousmette sans considération '. Mais je suis plus que l'Ange, pou voit-elle dire, et que saint Joseph.

Rien de tout cela. i« Ne voyez-vous pas que Dieu prend plaisir de traitter ainsi avec les hommes, pour leur apprendre la tressainte et tres-amoureuse sousmission } Sanit Pierre est oit un vieil homme, rude et grossier, et saint Jean, au contraire, estoit jeune, doux, agréable; <'"' et neantmoins Dieu veut que saint Pierre conduise les autres et soit le Supérieur ^i universel, et que saint Jean soit K«*ntUhominc, dcMtx. «ffrr4blr,. ul Plarra, IcDorant:

l'un de ceux qui sont conduits et qui luy obéissent. Grand cas de l'esprit humain, qui ne veut point se rendre capable d'adorer les secrets mystères de Dieu et sa tres-sainte volonté, s'il n'a quelque sorte de cognoissance pourquoy cecy ou cela! J'ay meilleur esprit, dit-on de soy, plus d'expérience, et semblables belles raisons qui ne sont propres qu'à produire des inquiétudes, des humeurs bijarres, des murmures. A quelle raison donnet'on ceste charge? pourquoy a-t'on dit cela? à quelle fin fait-on une telle chose à celle cy plustost qu'à l'autre? Grande pitié, dés qu'une fois on s'est laissé aller à esplucher tout ce que l'on void faire! Que ne faisons nous pas pour perdre la tranquillité de nos cœurs?

Il ne nous faut point d'autres raisons sinon que Dieu le veut ainsi, et cela nous doit suffire. Mais qui m'asseurera que c'est la volonté de Dieu? Nous voudrions que Dieu nous révéla st toutes choses par des secrettes inspirations. Voudrions nous attendre qu'il nous envoyast des Anges pour nous annoncer ce qui est de sa volonté? Il ne le fit pas à Nostre Dame mesme (au moins en ce subjet), ains voulut la luy faire sçavoir par l'entremise de saint Joseph, auquel elle estoit subjette comme à son supérieur. Nous voudrions, par adventure, estre enseignés et instruits par Dieu mesme, par la voye des extases ou ravissémens et visions, et que sçay-je, moy? semblables niaiseries que nous forgeons en nos esprits, plustost que de nous sousmettre à la voye très aymable et commune d'une sainte sousmission à la conduite de ceux que Dieu nous a donnés, et à l'observance de la direction tant des Règles que des Supérieurs.

Qu'il nous suffise donc de sçavoir que Dieu veut que nous obéissions, sans nous amuser à la considération de la capacité de ceux à qui nous devons obéir; ainsi nous assujettirons nos esprits à marcher tout simplement en la très heureuse voye d'une sainte et trainquille humilité, qui nous rendra infiniment agréables à Dieu.

11 faut maintenant passer à la troisiesme considération, qui est une remarque que j'ay fait sur le III I)E LA Fermeté 47 commandement que l'Ange ftt à saint Joseph de prendre l'Enfant et la Mère, et s'en aller en Egypte, et y demeurer jusques à tant qu'il l'advertist de s'en retourner. \'rayement l'Ange parloit bien briefvement. et traittoit bien saint Joseph en bon Religieux: Va, et n'en reviens point que je ne te le die. Far ceste façon de procéder entre l'Ange et saint Joseph nous sommes enseignés, en troisiesme lieu, comment nous nous devons embarquer sur la mer de la divine Providence, sans biscuit, sans rames, sans avirons, sans voiles, et en fin sans nulle sorte de provisions; et ainsi laisser tout le soin de nous-mesmes et du succès de nos affaires à Nostre Seigneur, sans retours ni répliques, ni craintes quelconques de ce qui nous jx)urro't arriver. Car l'Ange dit simplement: Prens l'Enfant et la Mère, et t'enfuis en Egypte; sans luy dire ni par quel chemin, ni (|uelles provisions ils auront pour passer leur chemin, ni en quelle part de ri£g>7îte, ni moins qui les recevra, ni de quoy ils se nourriront y estans. Le pauvre saint Joseph n'eust-il pas eu raison de faire quelque réplique? Vous me dites que je parte; est-ce si promptcment? Tout à ceste heure: pour nous monstrer la promptitude que le Saint Esprit requiert de nous lors qu'il nous dit: Levé toy, sors ^') de toy-mesnic et de telle imperfection.

O que le Saint Esprit est ennemy des remises et délais! Considérez, je vous supplie, le grand patron et modèle des parfaits Religieux, saint Abraliam, voyez comme Dieu le trait te: Abraham, sors de ta terre et de ta parenté, et va à la montagne que je te monstreray •. yue dites-vou-s. Seigneur, que je sorte de la ville? mais dites moy donc si j'iray du costé de l'orient ou de l'occident? Il ne fait nulle réplique, ains part de là tout promptement, et s'en va où l'Esprit de Dieu le conduisoit, jusques en une montagne qui a esté appellée depuis Vision de Dieu, d'autant qu'il receut des grâces grandes et signalées en ceste montagne, pour monstrer combien la promptitude en l'obéissance luy est agréable. Saint Joseph n'eust-il pas peu dire à l'Ange: Vous me dites que je meine (^') l'Enfant et la Mère; dites-moy donc, s'il vous plaist, de quoy les nourriray-je en chemin? car vous sçavez bien, mon seigneur, que nous n'avons point d'argent.

Il ne dit rien de tout cela, ains se confia pleinement que Dieu y pourvoiroit; ce qu'il fit, quoy que petitement, leur faisant trouver de quoy s'entretenir simplement, ou par le mestier de saint Joseph, ou mesme par des aumosnes que l'on leur faisoit. Certes, tous les anciens Religieux ont esté admirables en ceste confiance qu'ils ont eue, que Dieu leur pourvoiroit tous jours de ce qu'ils auroyent besoin pour l'entretien de leur vie, laissant tout le soin d'euxmesmes à la divine Providence.

Mais je considère qu'il n'est pas seulement requis de nous reposer en la divine Providence pour ce qui regarde les choses temporelles, ains beaucoup plus pour ce qui appartient à nostre vie spirituelle et à nostre perfection. Il n'y? certes que le trop grand soin que nous avons de nous-mesmes qui nous fasse perdre la tranquillité de nostre esprit et qui nous porte à des humeurs bijarres et inégales J'), car dés que quelques contradictions nous arrivent, voire quand nous appercevons seulement un petit trait de nostre immortification, ou quand nous commettons quelque défaut, pour petit qu'il soit, il nous semble que tout est perdu. Est-ce si grande merveille de nous voir broncher quelquefois (*^')? Mais je suis si misérable, si remplie d'imperfection! Le cognoissez-vous bien? bénissez Dieu dequoy il vous a donné ceste cognoissance, et ne vous lamentez pas tant: vous estes bien-heureuse de cognoistre que vous n'estes que la misère mesme. Apres avoir béni Dieu de la cognoissance qu'il vous a donnée, retranchez ceste tendreté inutile qui vous fait plaindre de vostre infirmité.

Nous avons des tendretés sur nos corps qui sont grandement contraires à la perfection; mais plus, sans comparaison, celles que nous avons sur nos esprits. Mon Dieu! je ne suis pas fidelle à Nostre Seigneur, et partant je n'ay point de consolation en l'oraison. Grande pitié, certes! Mais je suis si souvent en sécheresse! cela me fait croire que je ne suis point bien avec Dieu, qui est si plein de consolation. Voire, c'est bien dit: comme si Dieu donnoit tousjours des consolations à ses amis! A-t'il jamais esté * pure créature si digne d'estre aymée de Dieu, et qui l'ait esté davantage, que Nostre Dame et saint Joseph?

voyez s'ils sont tousjours en consolation. Se peut-il imiiginer une affliction plus extrême que celle que saint Joseph ressentit lors qu'il s'apperceut que la glorieuse Vierge estoit enceinte, sçachant bien que ce n 'estoit pas de son fait? Son affliction et sa détresse estoit d'autant plus grande que la passion de l'amour est plus véhémente que les autres passions de l'ame; et de plus, en l'amour, la jalousie est l'e. xt remité de la peine, ainsi que le déclare l'Espwusc au Cantique des Cantiques*: L'amour, dit-elle, esi «cap. uit. , o. fort comme la mort, car l'amour fait les mesmes effets en l'ame qu'au corps la mort; mais la jalousie '"**) est dure comme l'enfer. Je vous laisse à penser donc quelle estoit la douleur du pauvre saint Joseph, et de Nostre Dame encore, quand elle se vid en l'estime que pou voit avoir d'elle celuy qu'i*lle aymoit si chèrement et duquel elle sçavoit estre si chèrement aNTnëe: la jalousie le faisoit languir, ne sçachant quel parti i") prendre; il se resolvoit.

plustost que de blasmer celle (!') à — cmiz qu'èl arnM I Y ••t*U )amai> m (aii')«MM — k tda, la imtomiiê, tUe qu'il avoit tousjours tant honorée et aymée, de la quitter, et s'en aller (<>') sans dire mot.

Mais, direz-vous, je sens bien la peine que me cause ceste tentation ou mon imperfection. Je le croy, mais est-elle (p') comparable à celle de laquelle nous venons de parler? Il ne se peut; et si cela est, considérez, je vous prie, si nous avons raison de nous en plaindre et lamenter, puisque saint Joseph ne se plaint point, ni n'en tesmoigne rien en son extérieur: il n'en est point plus amer en sa conversation, il n'en fit pas la mine à Nostre Dame, il ne la traitta point mal; ains simplement il souffre sa peine, et ne veut faire autre chose que la quitter: Dieu sçait ce qu'il pouvoit faire en ce sujet. Mon aversion, dira quelqu'un, est si grande envers ceste personne, que je ne luy sçaurois presque parler qu'avec une grande peine, ceste action me desplaist si fort! C'est tout un, il n'en faut point pourtant entrer en bijarrerie contre elle, comme si elle en pouvoit mais; ains il se faut comporter comme Nostre Dame et saint Joseph: il faut estre tranquille en nostre peine, et laisser le soin à Nostre Seigneur de nous l'oster quand il luy plaira. Il estoit bien au pouvoir de Nostre Dame d'apaiser ceste bourrasque, mais elle ne le voulut pourtant pas faire, ains laissa pleinement l'issue de ceste affaire à la divine Providence.

Ce sont deux cordes également discordantes et nécessaires d'estre accordées que la chanterelle et la basse, à fin de bien jouer du luth; il n'y a rien de plus discordant que le haut avec le bas: neantmoins, sans l'accord de ces deux cordes, l'harmonie du luth ne peut estre agréable. De mesme, en nostre luth spirituel, ce sont deux choses également discordantes et nécessaires d'estre accordées, d'avoir un grand soin de nous perfectionner, et n'avoir point de soin de nostre perfection, ains le laisser entièrement à Dieu: je veux dire, qu'il faut avoir le soin que Dieu veut que nous ayons de nous perfectionner, et neantmoins luy laisser le soin de nostre perfection. Dieu veut que nous ayons un soin tranquille et paisible, qui nous isisse faire ce qui est jugé propre par ceux qui nous conduisent, et aller fîdellement tousjours avant dans le chemin qui nous est marqué par les Règles et Directoires qui nous sont donnés; et •') quant au reste, que nous nous en reposions en son soin paternel, taschant tant qu'il nous sera possible de tenir nostre ame en paix, car la demeure de Dieu a esté faite en paix *, et au cœur paisible et bien reposé. Vous sçavez • P»- «-xxv, a. que quand le lac est bien calme et que les vents n'agitent point ses eaux, le ciel, en une nuict bien sereine, y est si bien représenté avec les estoiles, que regardant en bas l'on void aussi bien la beauté du ciel que si on la regardoit • en haut: de mesme, quand nostre ame est bien accoisée, et que les vents du soin superflu, inegahté d'esprit et inconstance ne la troublent et. inquiètent point *', elle est fort capable de porter en elle l'image de Nostre Seigneur. M. lis quand elle est troublée, inquiétée et agitée des diverses bourrasques des passions, et f" ' que l'on se laisse gouverner par elles et non par la raison qui nous rend semblables à Dieu, lors nous ne sommes nullement capables de représenter la l)elle et tres-aymable image de Nostre Seigneur crucifié, ni la diversité de ses excellentes vertus, ni nostre ame ne peut pas estre capable de luy servir de lict nuptial.

Il nous faut donc laisser le soin de nous-mesmes à la mercy de la divine Providence, et faire neantmoins tout Ixjnnement et simplement ce qui est en nostre pouvoir pour nous amender et perfectionner, prenant tousjours soigneusement garde de ne point laisser troubler et inquiéter nos esprits.

(•*) ton 9oié — U nMMnc beauté du drl que quand oa rfante «j2 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels Je remarque en fin que l'Ange dit à saint Joseph qu'il demeurast en Egypte jusques à ce qu'il l'advertist de revenir, et que le bon (v') Saint ne luy dit point: Et quand sera-ce, Seigneur, que vous me le direz? pour nous enseigner que quand on nous fait commandement d'embrasser quelque exercice, il ne faut pas dire: Sera-ce pour long temps? ains il le faut embrasser tout simplement, imitant la parfaite obéissance d'Abraham, lors que Dieu luy commanda de luy sacrifier son fils. Il n'apporta nulle réplique, ni plainte, ni delay à exécuter le commandement de Dieu: aussi Dieu le favorisa grandement, en luy faisant trouver un bélier qu'il sacrifia sur la montagne, au lieu de son fils, Dieu se contentant •Gen. , XXII, 1-13. de sa volonté *.

Je concluds par la simplicité que pratiqua saint Joseph en s'en allant, sur le commandement de l'Ange, en Egypte, où il estoit asseuré de trouver autant d'ennemis qu'il y avoit d'habit ans en ce païs-là. Ne pouvoit-il pas bien dire: Vous me faites emporter l'Enfant; vous nous faites fuir un ennemy, et vous nous allez mettre entre les mains de mille et mille autres que nous trouverons en Egypte, d'autant que nous sommes d'Israël. Il ne fait point de reflection sur le commandement, c'est pourquoy il s'en alla plein de paix et de confiance en Dieu. De mesme, mes filles, quand on nous donne quelque charge ne disons pas: Mon Dieu! je suis si brusque, si l'on me donne telle charge je feray mille traits d'empressement; je suis desja si distraite, si l'on me donne un tel office je le seray bien plus; mais si l'on me laissoit dans ma cellule, je serois si modeste, si tranquille, si recueillie. Allez tout simplement en Egypte parmi la grande quantité d'ennemis que vous y aurez, car Dieu qui vous y fait aller vous y conservera, et vous n'y mourrez point; où au contraire, si vous demeurez en Israël où est l'ennemy de vostre propre volonté, sans doute il vous y fera mourir. Il ne seroit pas bien de prendre des charges et offices par sa propre élection, de crainte que nous n'y fissions pas nostre devoir: mais quand c'est par obéissance, n'apportons jamais nulle excuse; car Dieu est pour nous, et nous fera profiter davantage en la perfection que si nous n'avions rien à faire. Et ne sçavez-vous pas ce que je vous ay desja dit autrefois ♦ et qu'il n'est pas mauvais •cf.

EotreUmXVi.

de redire, que la vertu ne retiuicrt pas que nous soyons prives de l'occasion de trébucher en l'imjx^rfection qui luy est contraire? «Il ne suffit pas,» dit Cassian •, • insut, lib. viii, • pour estre patient et bien doux en soy-mesme, d estre privé de la conversation des hommes; car il m'est îirrivé, estant en ma cellule tout seul, de me passionner (juand mon fusil ne prenoit pas feu, » tellement que je le jettois par colère.

Certes, il faut finir, et par ce moyen vous laisser en Eg>'ptc avt^ Nostre Seigneur, lequel, comme je croy, comme aussi d'autres tiennent, commençoit dés lors à faire des petites croix, quand il avoit du temps de reste après avoir aydé en quelque petite chose à saint Joseph, tesmoignant dés lors le désir qu'il avoit de l'œuvre de nostre rédemption <**).

Scripture echoes

↩Gen.1.26 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
↩Matt.2.13 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him."
↩Matt.2.13 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him."
↩Matt.2.13 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him."
↩Matt.2.13-Matt.2.14 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him." Matt.2.14 — So when Joseph got up, he took the child and his mother by night and withdrew to Egypt,
↩Matt.2.13-Matt.2.15 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him." Matt.2.14 — So when Joseph got up, he took the child and his mother by night and withdrew to Egypt, Matt.2.15 — And he remained there until the death of Herod, in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'
↩Matt.2.13-Matt.2.14 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him." Matt.2.14 — So when Joseph got up, he took the child and his mother by night and withdrew to Egypt,
↩Prov.22.13 — The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the public squares."
↩Rev.3.20;Song.5.2 — Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to them and eat with them, and they with me. Song.5.2 — I am asleep, but my heart is awake. The voice of my beloved knocks: "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one. For my head is drenched with dew, my locks with the drops of night."
↩Matt.2.13 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him."
↩1Cor.1.24 — but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
↩Matt.2.13 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him."
↩Matt.2.13-Matt.2.15 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him." Matt.2.14 — So when Joseph got up, he took the child and his mother by night and withdrew to Egypt, Matt.2.15 — And he remained there until the death of Herod, in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'
↩Song.8.6 — Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion is fierce as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a flame of Yah.
↩Matt.1.19 — And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly.
↩Matt.2.13 — Now after they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him."

Notes

1 ↩Normalized OCR corruptions: Ktave→Octave; Kglise→Église/Church; traittc→traite (treats of / tells how). Trailing 'Man.' appears to be a broken biblical citation fragment (likely Matt.), not part of the narrative syntax.
2 ↩Raw fragment 'n.' is almost certainly residual of a biblical locus marker (with s3), most plausibly Matt. / Matth., matching the Holy Innocents Gospel from Matthew 2.
3 ↩Raw 'ij-it.' read as early-modern roman chapter 'ij.' (2), i.e. Matthew 2, with trailing OCR noise '-it.'
4 ↩Corrected OCR: m Egypte→en Égypte; (ju'Herodt^s→qu'Hérode; cramte→crainte; Koys Miiges→Rois Mages; (jue→que. 'en songe, c'est à dire en dormant' kept as clarifying paraphrase already present in the French.
5 ↩asscureroit read as s'assurerait ('would secure / make sure of').
6 ↩Ix'lles conceptions read as belles conceptions ('beautiful thoughts / insights'). Trailing print mark '<«>' ignored as non-lexical.
7 ↩'entretien' is the work's own genre-word (spiritual conference/conversation), not a casual chat; rendered 'conference' to match Les Vrais Entretiens spirituels.
8 ↩Normalized past OCR noise and a running header ("32 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels"); "ie" read as "le". "Hom." is the start of a citation continued in the next sentence, not part of the spoken clause itself.
9 ↩Source fragment "viii iuMatt." corrected to the citation form Hom. viii in Matt. (Homily 8 on Matthew), completing the "Hom." begun in the previous sentence.
10 ↩"accidens" here means the contingent events and circumstances that befall us, not mishaps alone; kept as "accidents" in the traditional spiritual sense.
11 ↩bijarrerie d'esprit read as bigarrerie d'esprit: motley/fickle changeability of mind; rendered 'a fickle mind'.
12 ↩After 'au contraire, en enfer le mal,' the supplied text appears to splice an unrelated conference-preface passage onto the Paradise/hell purity argument. Neighboring section Entretiens.1.3.4 continues the hell-purity theme (despair, trouble, anxiety in their purity). Translated the supplied French as readable sense, not reconstructed from the neighbor.
13 ↩Sentence content (Nativity figures, Magi, throng of little children like an anthill) belongs to a Holy Innocents / infancy-mystery meditation and sits oddly under Entretien III De la Fermeté. Translated the supplied French; placement may be a sectioning error.
14 ↩OCR garbles corrected from context of the previous section on purity in Paradise vs. Hell: nieslange → meslange; paL → paix; stray marks around pureté dropped.
15 ↩OCR corrected: |)erissable → perissable; ni«nl → mal.
16 ↩Heavy OCR damage restored by sense and chapter theme (De la Fermeté): rifft n'es* permanent → rien n'est permanent; ptrpetuellement inuables → perpétuellement muables; ne nous ser\ons pas → ne nous servons pas. Seasonal pairings follow the source wording, not a forced four-season sequence.
17 ↩Source OCR is badly broken (l'aisons / sem-…rfi). Reconstructed as the Genesis creation formula Faisons l'homme à nostre semblance, completed by the following sentence's residual blance.
18 ↩Opening i" blance is residual of semblance from the broken quote in s1; usiige→usage; jx)ur→pour. Bracketed [lui] kept as the natural object of donna.
19 ↩e^leuës → esleuës/élues (chosen); rejet tées → rejettées (rejected).
20 ↩Trailing '• lud.' is unreadable OCR (possibly a cut-off word or marginal note). Sense of the intact clause follows Gen 1:28; the gift continues into the next section (knowledge of each species and means to master them).
21 ↩Normalized s'en rendre ie maistre as s'en rendre le maistre (OCR for le).
22 ↩Stripped running header intrusion JIU% 34 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels between de and le rendre; read de le rendre seigneur des animaux.
23 ↩Vide s. is a marginal cross-reference (see…), continued in the next segment as Thom.
24 ↩Thom. almost certainly abbreviates Thomas Aquinas as the authority for the following maxim about the wise man and the stars.
25 ↩Trailing OCR garbage ar^t^^ivf ad^3 discarded; the verb continues in the next sentence as conduit.
26 ↩Normalized couduit as conduit; leading OCR noise ^^^ ' removed.
27 ↩Master of the stars echoes the scholastic maxim sapiens dominabitur astris: the wise person is not ruled by fortune or astral fate. The next section explains it as remaining firm through life's changing accidents.
28 ↩Source reading 'fenne' is almost certainly a typo/OCR error for 'ferme' (firm), confirmed by the parallel 'ferme, stable et constant' in s6.
29 ↩Trailing '*Eccies' is treated as a corrupted citation to Ecclesiastes (Ecclés.), not as a place-phrase; sense aligns with the book's teaching that nothing under the sun is lasting.
30 ↩Source is badly corrupted: ',ubi supra, ccstc vic *, et quc cc n'est pas icy le lieu de repos.' Reconstructed as continuation of s2: 'et que ce n'est pas icy le lieu de repos,' with 'ubi supra' and 'ceste vie' as editorial/cross-reference debris.
31 ↩Parenthetical '(J)' in the source is treated as a residual note/marker, not part of the spoken sentence.
32 ↩Older French succès here means course/progress/outcome, not modern 'success' or achievement.
33 ↩Clause ends without an explicit agent (by reason / by it); sense completed from the parallel with 'par la raison' in the same sentence and the following context.
34 ↩Sentence is deliberately incomplete and continues in s4; trailing comma retained as a bridge into the next sentence object.
35 ↩Supplied text runs 'raison Dieu' without punctuation; read as two clauses: '...command of reason. God has given...' Also normalized 'donne' → 'donné' and stripped residual OCR noise after 'de'.
36 ↩bijarres = early modern bizarres: whimsical/capricious rather than merely 'strange'; paired in this chapter with inconstancy of mood.
37 ↩Heavy OCR damage corrected: Kt→Et; nu^sme→même; (jue→que; I^)int→point; accommo<ler→accommoder; inchnations→inclinations; f)ourtant→pourtant; JK'aucoup→beaucoup. Ending 'on ne les tient pas rn rjol une' completed as 'on ne les tient pas pour bizarres et inconstans' from residual words after the page break (page furniture '36 / Les vrays Entretiens spirituels' stripped); that continuation is also echoed at the start of Entretiens.1.3.10.
38 ↩conversation here is 17th-c. social intercourse/dealings, not merely talk.
39 ↩Source reads only unrecoverable OCR at a page break: «tu le fiml; t'ite veu «r Uni ou Uitl, oa ti' lier, tb Vt fimt.» No clean French witness remains in this sentence slot; likely residual of the damaged page edge after s3 and before the running header/page number that opens 1.3.10. Left empty rather than invent meaning.
40 ↩Source line is polluted with page furniture (page number 36 and running title “Les vrays Entretiens spirituels”). Translated the residual sense “pour bijarres et inconstans. Et pourquoy cela?” as the rhetorical lead into s2.
41 ↩“Religion” (capitalized) rendered as “religious life,” i.e. the vowed/common religious state, not generic religion.
42 ↩Early modern “conversation” here means shared manner of life/company, not mere talk; rendered “common life” because of “nous ne pouvons pas nous séparer.”
43 ↩bijarrerie: period French for odd, capricious, or whimsical temper (cf. earlier bijarres); rendered as fickleness to pair with inconstance.
44 ↩contradiction: early modern spiritual French for a reverse, check, or thing contrary to one's will—not necessarily verbal dispute.
45 ↩Normalized stray apostrophe in "si ' alangourie" as "si alangourie" (so languid).
46 ↩Source reading "s'il est oit bon" treated as corrupt for "s'il estoit bon" (if it was good).
47 ↩Normalized reading: 'nuus' → 'nous'; line-break corruption 'di\nne Majesté' → 'divine Majesté'.
48 ↩Normalized corrupt OCR: 'ceb'→'cela'; 'p<issions'→'passions'; 'fer\'ens'→'fervens'; 'W peu'→'un peu'/'peu'; 'bijarrerie'→'bigarrerie' (motley variety/caprice).
49 ↩Normalized corrupt OCR: 'vO^ nous somIno^ mcités et semonds'→'voilà, nous sommes incités et semonds'; 'temjxirelles'→'temporelles'; 'cjue'→'que'; 'evcnement'→'événement'; 'i>ourroient'→'pourroient'; 'preveiies'→'preveües'; 'jxiint'→'point'; 'tl'humeur'→'d'humeur'; 'ains' kept as adversative 'but rather'; 'misi*'→'mise'; 'noiLs/notis'→'nous'; 'hardunent'→'hardiment'.
50 ↩Opening page furniture '38 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels' treated as a running header, not part of the spoken sentence.
51 ↩Religion (capitalized) rendered as 'the religious life' in the Salesian/monastic sense, not abstract 'religion'.
52 ↩Pères des Religions / Religieux: founders and members of religious orders (not 'religions' in the modern plural sense).
53 ↩Latin apparatus fragment 'Ubi supra, p.' (see above, page …), not continuous French discourse; paired with following page number '32.'
54 ↩Isolated page number completing the preceding 'Ubi supra, p.' citation.
55 ↩Source marks a citation asterisk (*); exact Chrysostom locus not supplied in this section payload.
56 ↩succès here means events/fortunes/outcomes (early modern sense), not modern 'success' as triumph.
57 ↩Normalized reading of corrupt source 'le secret âe ce mystênquelle' as 'le secret de ce mystère: quelle' (the secret of this mystery—what).
58 ↩Source has OCR corruption 'siiint Joseph' and a trailing diamond mark (♦); translated as 'Saint Joseph' and the diamond dropped as a non-lexical artifact.
59 ↩Religieux here means a religious under obedience (as in religious life), not merely a devout person; kept as 'religious' to preserve the monastic analogy the preacher is drawing.
60 ↩Source has 'dit-'l' (read as dit-il) and older subjunctive 'die' for 'dise'.
61 ↩Source reads 'yu'est-ce que cecy?'; corrected as 'Qu'est-ce que cecy?' (What is this?).
62 ↩'n'eust-il pas peu dire' is older French for 'n'eût-il pas pu dire' (couldn't he have said / might he not have said).
63 ↩Source 'l'Lnfant' corrected to 'l'Enfant' (the Child).
64 ↩Source 'contmutllement' read as 'continuellement' (continuously / the whole way).
65 ↩Trailing printer mark '^*i' treated as a footnote siglum, not part of the spoken text.
66 ↩Source has OCR/print debris 'i*)' after 'ennemis'; translated as the plain reading 'ennemis des Israélites'.
67 ↩Source 'le(]uel' corrected to 'lequel' (who/he who).
68 ↩Middle French 'ains' rendered as 'instead' (adversative 'but rather'). 'faire l'obéissance' rendered as 'obeying' rather than the stiffer 'perform the obedience'.
69 ↩Source ends abruptly with the corrupt trailing tokens «II, ij.», almost certainly a garbled edition or note marker, not continuous prose. The following section (Entretiens.1.3.20.s1) continues mid-thought with «ne faut nulle remise…», which would complete «qu'il ne faut…»; that completion is not supplied in this section and was not invented here.
70 ↩Source ends mid-citation with « et • Confess. »; treated as a pointer into Augustine's Confessions, continued in the following sentence fragments.
71 ↩Sentence is only a bare citation fragment (« , 1. »), almost certainly part of the Confessions/Book VIII reference spanning s1–s3.
72 ↩Normalized through OCR debris (*^" ^') around the quoted span « encor un peu ». « Tantost » rendered as Augustine's dilatory « presently / soon ».
73 ↩Normalized « à 1^) sortir » to « à sortir ». « objects » kept as inviting things/prompts that solicit us, not modern "objections."
74 ↩Citation broken across s7–s8 as « qui • Prov. / , XXII, 13 »; English preserves the split reference while translating the proverb sense.
75 ↩Bibliographic fragment « , XXII, 13 » completed into Proverbs 22:13 from the preceding Prov. cue; trailing « * » treated as print noise.
76 ↩Normalized OCR noise: discarded print artifact `'^"` after grand; read vouhons as voulons. Envoyé et renvoyé is taken as God being made to go back and forth (sent and re-sent) to knock.
77 ↩Read irritions as irritions (provoke/irritate).
78 ↩Source surface egahté read as égalité (evenness/equality of mind).
79 ↩Removed page-header intrusion XXVI III De la Fermeté 41 from the running sentence; restored qui est oit to qui estoit.
80 ↩Religion is rendered as the religious life (consecrated/religious house), not generic religion, matching Salesian usage of la Religion for the vowed life.
81 ↩Source surface immortiftées read as immortifiées (unmortified).
82 ↩Normalized OCR corruptions: premitrcment→premièrement; s<;avoir→sçavoir; piis→pas; vent dire→veut dire; i\\\\ est→qui est; bestiin→besoin.
83 ↩Normalized OCR corruptions: deilié |X)ur→dédié pour; X'ierge→Vierge.
84 ↩Source 'fiunilierement' read as 'familierement' (familiarly). 'Aydes' = community aides/companions assigned for mutual support in the Visitation house, not abstract 'helps' alone.
85 ↩Source is a truncated fragment ('pourquoy vous les'); continuous sense with s3 is 'why are they given to you?' An apparatus marker '(!)' and corrupted footnote text intervene in the OCR.
86 ↩Only recoverable French is the tag-question 'donne-t'on?'. The rest of the line is severe OCR garbage mixed with a running page header ('42 Les vrays Entretiens spirituels') and a destroyed critical-apparatus footnote. Continuous reading with s2: 'pourquoi vous les donne-t'on?'
87 ↩'Feutreprise' corrected to 'l'entreprise' (the undertaking). Closing 'Doctrina s.' is the start of a marginal citation 'Doctrina s. Greg.' (Doctrine of St. Gregory), continued in s5–s6.
88 ↩Abbreviation completing the marginal citation 'Doctrina s. Greg.' (Doctrine of St. Gregory).
89 ↩Continues s4's ice image: the companion is held 'when he is shaken, about to fall in his turn' (quand il sera esbranlé pour tomber à son tour). Asterisk likely an apparatus marker.
90 ↩Readable stem is 'Nous sommes en ceste vie'. Following characters are OCR wreckage of a marginal Ecclesiastes citation (surface 'Eccîes') plus bleed from the next section's opening ('comme dessus de la glace'). Continuous intended sense, recovered from context, is likely 'We are in this life as on ice'.
91 ↩Orphaned punctuation left by OCR/segmentation after the corrupted Ecclesiastes citation; no independent lexical content.
92 ↩Source is only the fragment "2.'", almost certainly a broken footnote or page mark left by OCR, not a sentence. No independent content to translate; the thought continues from the previous section into s2.
93 ↩Corrected OCR: "occasious proprcs" → "occasions propres"; stripped the intruded Latin side-note "simiiitudo sancti" (similitudo sancti); "tantost Auctons?" read as the start of "tantost au…", completed in the next sentence. Continues the previous section's thought: "Nous sommes en ceste vie…" / "We are in this life…".
94 ↩Stripped leading OCR noise "r r r". Read "bijarreries" as "bizarreries" (odd whims of mind). "ores…tantost" treated as the old correlative pair now/then. "degoust" = dégoût; "sçay-je" kept as the open-ended "who knows what else," linking into s4.
95 ↩Source opens with likely corrupt 'Testât'. Read as an introductory 'see / this is what' before 'que nous devons faire de…', continuous with the preceding 'Or, voyez donc' and the discussion of spiritual aides.
96 ↩Opening 'x dire' reconstructed as the continuation of 'je veux dire' from s1.
97 ↩Reconstructed 'jxjuvoit' as 'pouvoit'; discarded OCR junk '<^')' before 'tel temps'.
98 ↩Salesian teaching that the incarnate Word possessed the use of reason from the first instant of conception.
99 ↩Trailing 'O' treated as OCR/footnote debris, not part of the sentence.
100 ↩Reconstructed: 'Merc'→'Mère'; 'l'ère putatif'→'père putatif'; 'Ksjxjux'→'Époux'; 'sacréc'→'sacrée'.
101 ↩Reconstructed 'ht' as 'fit'; removed running header intrusion 'AA Les vrays Entretiens spirituels' between 'la' and 'charge'.
102 ↩'économe gênerai' read as 'économe général' (general steward). OCR marker '(^')' before 'empescher' omitted.
103 ↩Old French 'succès' rendered as 'turns' (events/outcomes), not modern 'successes'.
104 ↩Source reading «Dieu ncus a donnés» treated as «Dieu nous a donnés» (OCR corruption).
105 ↩Source reading «a voit-il» treated as «avoit-il» (split/OCR form of avoit-il).
106 ↩Source reading «quahfié» treated as «qualifié» (OCR corruption).
107 ↩Source reading «famUle» treated as «famille» (OCR corruption).
108 ↩Salesian natural-history analogy (éperviers/sparrowhawks): females larger/superior, used to prepare the claim that Our Lady outranks Joseph yet still keeps household order under Joseph’s headship (developed in the next section).
109 ↩Source shows OCR garble «Qui p>ourToit»; read as «Qui pourroit» (Who could).
110 ↩Source «saint Jtjseph» corrected to «saint Joseph».
111 ↩«le chef de la maison» and «le thresor du Père éternel» keep the source's claim of Mary's preeminence and of Christ as the Father's treasure; rhetorical, not a denial of Joseph's household headship in the next sentences' argument about obedience.
112 ↩Sentence is split by line break: «façon de tr» + following «itter?» reconstructed as «façon de traiter». «s'ofîencer» read as «s'offenser».
113 ↩Standalone OCR fragment «itter?» completes «traiter» in Entretiens.1.3.31.s4; no independent clause.
114 ↩«Fourquoy» read as «Pourquoy»; «jxîint» read as «point»; «eust peu» as «eust peu» (could have).
115 ↩«s'ofïence» read as «s'offense»; «plais'r» as «plaisir»; trailing stray quote mark ignored. «sans considération» rendered as submission without further deliberation or argument.
116 ↩«pou voit-elle dire» read as «pouvoit-elle dire» (she could have said).
117 ↩OCR repaired for body sense: «i«»/trailing junk dropped; «traitter» → traiter; «tressainte et tres-amoureuse sousmission }» → très sainte et très amoureuse soumission; «Sanit Pierre est oit» → Saint Pierre estoit; «neantmoins» kept as «and yet»; «Supérieur ^i universel» → Supérieur universel. Closing garble «K«*ntUhominc, dcMtx.» is critical-apparatus pollution, not body text; the clause continues in Entretiens.1.3.33.s1 («l'un de ceux qui sont conduits et qui luy obéissent»).
118 ↩Source ««ffrr4blr,.» is unreadable OCR of critical-apparatus footnote text (Annecy edition apparatus mixed into body by page OCR), not continuous French prose of the Entretien.
119 ↩Source «ul Plarra, IcDorant:» is unreadable OCR of the same critical-apparatus block as s3; not part of the continuous body sentence completed in Entretiens.1.3.33.s1.
120 ↩Source "bijarres" read as "bizarres" (strange/odd).
121 ↩"esplucher" (éplucher): rendered as "picking apart" — critical scrutinizing rather than mere examining.
122 ↩Source reading "révéla st" is treated as corrupted spacing for imperfect subjunctive "révélât" ("that God would reveal").
123 ↩"ains" (rather/instead) marks the contrast: not direct angelic disclosure to Mary in this matter, but knowledge mediated through Joseph as her superior.
124 ↩"que sçay-je, moy?" is a colloquial shrug: "and what else, for all I know?" / "and I don't know what else."
125 ↩OCR bleed and corruption cleaned: leading '11' read as 'Il'; 'ftt' as 'fit'; and the interpolated running head/page fragment 'III I)E LA Fermeté 47' dropped as non-text.
126 ↩Leading '\'rayement' read as 'Vrayement' (vraiment).
127 ↩'Far' read as 'Par'; trailing 'jx)urro't' read as 'pourroit'.
128 ↩'(|uelles' read as 'quelles'; 'ri£g>7îte' read as 'l'Égypte'.
129 ↩'promptcment' read as 'promptement'.
130 ↩'Levé toy' read as 'Lève-toi'; 'toy-mesnic' as 'toy-mesme' (toi-même); footnote marker '^')' treated as non-text.
131 ↩Source has 'Abraliam' and 'trait te'; read as Abraham and traite (treats). The command also names a 'montagne' rather than the more familiar 'land' of Gen 12:1; translated as given.
132 ↩Source 'yue dites-vou-s.' is corrupt; most plausible reading is Que dites-vous? as Abraham's imagined reply.
133 ↩'ains' = rather/but instead (early modern French). 'Vision de Dieu' is kept as a place-name; traditional identification (e.g., Moriah / theophany site) is left unresolved.
134 ↩Source 'peu' read as 'pu' (could have); 'meine' as 'mène' (take/lead). Parenthetical '(^')' treated as editorial/footnote artifact and omitted.
135 ↩Source is truncated/corrupt: 'Il n'y?'. Most plausible reconstruction is the start of 'Il n'y a rien' ('There is nothing'), which would join the following sentence ('certes que le trop grand soin...'). Translated as a fragmentary rhetorical question pending source repair.
136 ↩Normalized text contains print/OCR debris 'J')' after 'inégales', omitted as non-lexical. 'bijarres' treated as 'bizarres' (bizarre). Sentence likely continues the truncated s2 ('Il n'y a rien, certes, que...').
137 ↩Parenthetical debris '(*^')' after 'quelquefois' treated as non-lexical print noise and omitted.
138 ↩'Le' is a pronominal object: most naturally the misery/imperfection just confessed, or that very knowledge of it. Rendered as 'that' to keep the deictic open.
139 ↩'tendreté' here is soft, self-pitying sensitivity toward one's own frailty (not affectionate warmth). Kept as 'tenderness' to match the chapter's later contrast with 'tendretés' of body and spirit.
140 ↩French tendretés: soft, self-pitying regard for oneself (Salesian usage), not mere physical delicacy; continued from the previous section's tendreté inutile.
141 ↩sécheresse: spiritual dryness / aridity of prayer, not physical drought.
142 ↩Voire here is ironic assent (not mere 'indeed'), as the director undercuts the speaker's complaint.
143 ↩Source has a stray asterisk before pure (esté * pure); treated as print noise and omitted. A-t'il normalized as A-t-il.
144 ↩Normalized source has OCR form «imiiginer»; read as «imaginer» (imagine).
145 ↩Sentence ends mid-word in the source («l'e.»); completed with the following fragment as «l'extrémité» (the extreme / utmost pitch).
146 ↩Reconstructed from OCR: «xt remité»→«extrémité»; «l'Espwusc»→«l'Épouse»; «esi»→«est»; trailing ««cap.» treated as OCR debris before the continuation of the Song quotation.
147 ↩Source fragment «uit.» has no recoverable independent French sense; treated as residual OCR debris inside the Song of Songs quotation between «est» and «fort».
148 ↩Source fragment «, o.» has no recoverable independent French sense; treated as residual OCR debris inside the Song of Songs quotation before «fort comme la mort».
149 ↩OCR repairs in continuous reading: «pou voit»→«pouvoit»; «qu'i*lle»→«qu'elle»; «aNTnëe»→«aymée»; stray «i")» before «prendre» ignored so as to yield «quel parti prendre».
150 ↩Continues the previous section's close: 'il se resolvoit' ('he resolved'). The section break splits one clause; this fragment is the 'rather than…' half of that resolution.
151 ↩Opening of the supplied French is severe OCR corruption ('à — cmiz qu'èl arnM… la imtomiiê, tUe'); translated from the clear recoverable close: 'qu'il avoit tousjours tant honorée et aymée, de la quitter, et s'en aller sans dire mot,' as complement to 'plustost que de blasmer celle' (s1) under 'il se resolvoit' (prior section).
152 ↩Source has a printer's note marker (p') after est-elle; omitted as non-lexical apparatus.
153 ↩conversation rendered as dealings (manner of living/relating), not mere talk; common early-modern French sense.
154 ↩la quitter refers to Joseph's resolve to leave Mary quietly, not to abandon pain itself.
155 ↩bijarrerie (bizarrerie): peevish, cross, ill-tempered oddness; rendered peevishness.
156 ↩comme si elle en pouvoit mais: old idiom 'as if she could help it / do anything about it'.
157 ↩Source reading «qui nous isisse faire» taken as «qui nous laisse faire» (lets us do); «fîdellement» as «fidèlement». Decorative/footnote marks «•')» and «*» ignored in the English surface.
158 ↩After «Vous sçavez» the source is corrupt: «• P»- «-xxv, a.» looks like a mangled page/scripture note, not continuous prose. Sentence continues in s5 with «que quand…».
159 ↩«inegahté d'esprit» read as «inégalité d'esprit» (restlessness/unevenness of mind). Sentence is cut mid-phrase and completed in s6.
160 ↩Source is only «M.»; with s8's leading «lis», the intended word is almost certainly «Mais» (But).
161 ↩Leading «lis» treated as OCR remainder of «Mais» (with s7). «l)elle» read as «belle»; «lict nuptial» as «lit nuptial» (bridal/nuptial bed); stray marks «f" '» ignored.
162 ↩Source reading "Ixjnnement" is corrupt OCR/print garble; rendered as ingénument ("without guile" / ingenuously), the most plausible 17th-c. French form pairing with simplement in this Salesian register. Alternative candidate: innocemment ("innocently").
163 ↩Leading OCR/page-header garbage before 'Je remarque' was ignored; translation follows the clear French from 'Je remarque en fin…'.
164 ↩Early modern French 'ains' rendered as 'Rather' (adversative corrective to the forbidden question in s2).
165 ↩Sentence is truncated mid-phrase at 'Dieu se contentant •Gen.'; sense completes across s5–s6 as 'God being content with his will (Gen. 22:1-13).'
166 ↩Fragment is the continuation of the Gen. citation begun in s4 ('•Gen.'); rendered as a complete English scripture reference.
167 ↩Completes s4's unfinished 'Dieu se contentant … de sa volonté': God was content with Abraham's willing obedience. Trailing asterisk left as a possible editorial/note marker.
168 ↩Normalized reading takes OCR-split "d'habit ans" as "d'habitants" (inhabitants).
169 ↩"reflection" rendered as "second thought": not mere thinking, but pausing to weigh or question the command.
170 ↩"mille traits d'empressement": restless hurry/overeagerness in action, not mere enthusiasm.
171 ↩"l'ennemy de vostre propre volonté" taken as equative genitive: self-will as the enemy (not merely an enemy opposed to the will).
172 ↩Source breaks off at "•cf."; following citation/clause is missing from this section payload.
173 ↩The printed reading supplied for this section is the non-French string «EotreUmXVi.» with no recoverable sense. Neighboring sections read continuously as: «…et qu'il n'est pas mauvais de redire, que la vertu…» (roughly: ‘…and that it is not a bad thing to say again that virtue…’). That continuous sense is owned by Entretiens.1.3.47 / 1.3.49 and is not assigned here.
174 ↩OCR-corrupted French restored as: «de redire, que la vertu ne requiert pas que nous soyons privés de l'occasion de trébucher en l'imperfection qui luy est contraire?» (retiuicrt→requiert; imjx^rfection→imperfection).
175 ↩Citation restored from OCR «insut, lib.» as Cassian, Institutiones (Institutes), book…; book number continues in the next sentence (viii).
176 ↩Normalized from OCR: îirrivé→arrivé; juand→quand; d estre→d'être; soy-mesme→soi-même. Closing quote marks in the source are misplaced around the fire-steel clause.
177 ↩fusil here is the steel used to strike fire (flint-and-steel), not a firearm—standard monastic sense in early modern French.
178 ↩Source OCR is corrupt at «en Eg>'ptc avt^ Nostre Seigneur». Read as «en Égypte avec Nostre Seigneur» (“in Egypt with Our Lord”), which fits the Holy Family / St. Joseph carpenter scene that follows.

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