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Words of St. Vincent Detachment and Obedience.—You must form no
attachment to persons, places, or employments,
but be disposed to leave all, when obedience requires, for you must be well convinced that God
Himself demands the sacrifice. My dear Sisters,
be on your guard, lest some secret attachment
should insinuate itself among you, and prevent
you from being pliant in the hands of God.
Oh! if you knew how necessary obedience is,
for the Sisters of Charity! It is more essential
in your Community than in any other. What,
besides a spirit of obedience, could sustain you in
your vocation, and in the service of God?
Obedience is a vessel, in which you can cross the
sea of life, and reach the desired port; but even
as a vessel dashed against a rock would be shattered and lost, or as one that sinks in the open
sea would deliver its passengers to destruction,
so, my Daughters, if your wills are withdrawn
from obedience, you will be lost, but if you obey
your Superiors faithfully, observe your Rules, and
resign yourselves into the bosom of Divine Providence, you will be conducted directly to the bosom
of God.
Holy Indifference.—Indifference is so necessary
in your Company, that if you were to be wanting
in it, one might presage the approaching and certain ruin of your Company. Therefore, if you
wish to be true Sisters of Charity, you must be
perfectly indifferent to all God may require of
you. Be equally indifferent about being sent to
one place rather than to another, to the Sisters
appointed to be your Companions, or to what employment may be assigned to you. You must not
choose between parishes, villages, cities, nor hospitals, for all circumstances, persons and things,
must be alike to you.
Oh! my dear Sisters, shall it ever be said that
soldiers are more willing to face death than you
are to labor for God's glory? Oh! my dear Sisters, the thought that such a thing may ever happen is far from me. If God as a punishment,
should permit any of the members of your Company to be wanting in this holy indifference, you
must raise your hands and hearts to Heaven, and
exclaim: What evil have we done in God's
presence, that He punishes us so severely as to
permit some among us to be rebellious to His
holy will? You must pray, do penance, take the
discipline (if you have permission), weep, and
implore mercy; in fine, you must omit nothing in
order to appease the wrath of God, since such a
withdrawal of His grace would clearly indicate
His displeasure. Would it not be a deplorable
state of things, to see Sisters doing wonders in
a place of their choice, and then afterwards losing their time in another, because there was something disagreeable to their inclinations in it? Murmuring.—Murmuring in a Community will
destroy both soul and body. When a Sister yields
to the temptation of taking amiss what is done
by the Superior under whose care she is, some
one in charity should say to her: O my Sister,
what are you talking about? Surely, you cannot
reflect when you speak thus, for we must all of us
believe that our Superiors do the best they can.
Perhaps a Sister will murmur because another
is recalled from a place by the Superiors, and
sent to another. To find fault in this manner, or
to criticise your holy Rules in conversation when
two or three are together, and try to find out why
and how everything is done, would indeed be a
very great evil, and a greater one, if an old Sister
commit this fault before younger ones. She would
perhaps destroy the souls of her poor Sisters,
who would never have thought about such things,
yet will in consequence of her words conceive
feelings of antipathy against their Superiors, the
Officers or their Sister servant. What happens to murmurers, though? I will tell you: God abandons them, because they have rendered themselves
unworthy of His graces. Their thoughts wander
back to the world, their country and their relatives; as they find no pleasure in their vocation,
sooner or later, they will forsake it; if they do
not, it is so much the worse for the Company, for,
as they experience no satisfaction in what they
do, they will be of no service. Therefore, it were
much better for the Company that the dissatisfied
should quit it, than continue going on so. |
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