Heavenly Birthday of a Friend of Mother Mectilde

Today is the dies natalis of Saint John Eudes, whom we’ve written about before here and here, a great friend of Mother Mectilde. Mother Mectilde, in fact, adopted a practice common to all those that considered themselves the spiritual children of Saint John Eudes: she had her community recite his prayer, Ave Maria, Filia Dei Patris, daily after the Act of Reparation. This prayer concludes our collection of Mother Mectilde’s meditations on the Rosary.

Last year, we posted two selections from Saint John Eudes’ Marian masterpiece The Admirable Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are available here and here.

The relationship between Saint John Eudes and Mother Mectilde is historically documented through their surviving correspondence. We have letters Saint John Eudes addressed directly to Mother Mectilde. They demonstrate a mutual exchange of spiritual counsel and encouragement. Seven letters of Saint John Eudes to Mother Mectilde are contained in the book Saint Jean Eudes. Textes choisis (Published in Namur by Éditions du Soleil Levant, 1958). To our knowledge, these letters are, sadly, unavailable in English.

Saint John Eudes to the Abbess of the Royal Monastery of the Blessed Trinity at Caen

Although the letters of Saint John Eudes to Mother Mectilde are unavailable, we heard a striking letter of the Saint to a Benedictine Abbess when reading his life in the refectory last year.

The letter follows:

Jesus, Maria

“I see only Jesus, only His goodness and love”

Madame, may the grace and peace of Jesus Christ our Lord be with you for ever!

I am filled with compassion for you at the sight of your incessant pain and weakness and I should be filled with sorrow too, if I did not perceive Jesus in your weakness and pains. In them I see only Jesus, only His goodness and love.

He is there, Madame; He abides within you. He is present in your anguish and sufferings. He is there, all love and completely transformed into love for your sake. He is there, preparing and ordaining these sufferings through love of you.

He is there, guiding and leading you along the paths of His love, and drawing you toward the perfection of love by means of those trials and severities.

He is there, bearing with you through His love all the anguish of mind and body that is yours to bear. Even though you may often be unaware of it, He is nevertheless infallibly present, for if He were absent, you would find it impossible to support even the least of the infirmities you are suffering.

He is still there, purifying and sanctifying you and preparing great things for you, provided you, on your part, give the cooperation He asks; He is there for the purpose of filling you completely with love for Him, and much more so than you are filled with suffering. I will say even more: not only does He wish to imbue you with His love, but also to transform you entirely into love for Him through crosses and sufferings, as His Cross and sufferings transformed Him into love for us.

“He is there to perfect and consummate you in Himself”

He is there, finally, with a most ardent desire to draw you to Himself, to perfect and consummate you in Himself, along the path of these same sufferings. St. Paul says that it was fitting that Jesus Christ should be consummated by suffering: “For it: became Him . . . to perfect the author of their salvation by His passion.”

O dignity, O holiness, O admirable excellence of suffering to be used for the honour and consummation of a God, for the perfection of Jesus, God and Man, for the consummation of Him Who is the consummation and perfection of all things! Great was the humiliation of Jesus, Who humbled Himself to a state in which He was capable of being perfected and consummated! But immense was the dignity of suffering, chosen and used by Him and His Eternal Father to achieve this perfection and consummation!

“May Christ Crucified be forever blessed”

Is it not a great honour for you, Madame, is it not a great favour and should it not be a great comfort to you to be consumed and perfected through suffering, as Jesus was consumed by suffering? Does not Jesus show a rare and singular love for you by using the same means for your fulfilment and consummation as He employed for His own? May Christ Crucified be forever blessed, for so giving you a share in the blessings of His Cross! I implore Him to crucify you completely with Him, and to do so through the same love which nailed Him to the Cross for your sake.

“Some are crucified by self-love, blessed are they who live and die on the Cross with Jesus”

I see a countless number of crucified persons in the world, but few who are crucified by the love of Jesus. Some are crucified by their self-love and inordinate love of the world, but happy are they who are crucified for the love of Jesus; blessed are they who live and die on the Cross with Jesus. You will be numbered among these, Madame, if you bear your cross lovingly, like Jesus, accepting, embracing and cherishing it with all your heart in honour of and in union with the same love with which He accepted and bore it for you.

To achieve that end, cast your eyes frequently upon Jesus Who is always with you, Who penetrates and pervades you much more than do the pains and sufferings which seem to take complete possession of you. See only Jesus in your pains and sufferings; see only His goodness and love, which are responsible for all that happens to you. Adhere only to Him; be attentive only to Him.

“Turn to Jesus, Who is turned toward you”

Forsake your weariness and displeasure; disregard them utterly; ignore them entirely. Turn your mind gently and firmly from all thoughts and objects which may cause you worry. Turn to Jesus, Who is turned toward you, and always has His eyes fixed lovingly upon you. Cling closely to Him and His divine love, as to One Who is your all and outside of Whom you wish nothing. Let there no longer be anyone but yourself and Him in the world, and let yourself be entirely unaffected and unclaimed by anything at all that is not He. Lose every thought and consideration of your own interests, of yourself and everything else. Yes, lose yourself holily and happily in the abyss of this goodness and love of Jesus which encompasses, penetrates and possesses you and is always considering you, always watching over you and what concerns you; which is more zealous, more attentive, more preoccupied to an infinite degree in procuring your welfare and advantage in all things than you yourself are.

“Surrender yourself frequently to Him”

O love! O bounty! O Jesus, God of love and bounty! Adore, love, bless this Jesus so full of love and kindness toward you. Adore, cherish, glorify all His attentions, all His plans and all His desires in your regard. Surrender yourself frequently to Him and offer Him your whole state of spiritual and bodily sufferings, in homage to the sufferings of His body and divine soul. Adore, too, the peace and tranquillity of that holy soul in the midst of its pains and torments, and pray Jesus to let you participate in that same peace and tranquillity, as well as in all the other dispositions with which He suffered.

These, Madame, are the practices and duties which Jesus asks of you now. They are the allegiance and the honour you must render Him in your present condition. I pray that He Himself may impress these thoughts and sentiments on your heart. I entreat Him to honour and glorify Himself in you. I implore Him, finally, to carry out all His plans and desires for you, allowing not even the slightest hindrance on your part.

And as for you, Madame, I beg only one thing of you, which is that you remember and put into practice something you said to me the last time I had the pleasure of seeing you. You told me that you no longer wanted anything except what God willed: and that you were submitting yourself unreservedly to all that it pleased Him to ordain for you. You spoke these words with a certain strength and energy which consoled me a great deal. I beseech you, therefore, not to contradict this statement, but to prove, whenever God may afford you occasion to do so, that you spoke those words not with your tongue alone but also with your heart and will.

You see, Madame, how freely I speak to you? But it is prompted by my zeal for your soul and my trust in your goodness. Let me say just one more thing, and that is to beg you to continue—for I believe that you are doing so now—to have something devotional read to you from time to time. I think that the acts of love for Jesus which were recently sent to you will serve the purpose. Have them read to you now and then, and dwell tenderly on them, without strain or exertion.