From Sister Marie‑Dosithée to Mr. and Mrs. Guérin. February 23, 1873.
V+J.
From our Mother of Le Mans
February 23, 73
My dear brother and my dear sister
According to your wishes, my dear little sister, I made the novena that you asked of me, and you are quite right to address yourself to me, I will always happily do everything in my little power to come help and make you happy; Please be at ease with me and don't be shy, for I will be totally devoted to you during my life, and if the Lord have mercy on me I will still be so after my death, asking for you all the graces that you will need. All the details you give me about your dear little girls interest me greatly; I hope that the good Lord will bless them and that they will one day be your consolation, but for that raise them seriously without spoiling them, and yet with kindness and gentleness; unfortunately now many mothers bring up their children badly and that is what is ruining society, but you are too fundamentally Christian to act in this way, you rightly regard children as a trust that God entrusts to you and for which He will ask you to account , that will be your joy and crown for all eternity.
Dear brother. I have two letters to reply to you, the first [1v°] that of January contains revelations that surprised me a little; the drugstore (bought in May 1870) I see gives you a lot of trouble and little profit; the Pharmacy which is your main business earns you more, but if out of these 3.000 francs you have to take care of your house, you certainly have nothing to do; finally I see that you will never be very rich with the goods of this world but that is not necessary provided that you are rich with the goods of the grace and the fear of God. This is the essential, although it is not forbidden to take moderate care of one's affairs.
For your 2nd letter you want me to take the stick and throw myself at you, it won't happen, however, please my dear, we don't throw ourselves at people wrongly and through without reason, I don't know of anything reprehensible in your conduct and I assure you that if Zélie told you that I wouldn't tell you, she was very mistaken, because I love you far too much not to tell you. speak frankly believe it well, but if it happened I would tell you as affectionately and politely as I could and that would be the least thing; believe that I love you as much as she does and without a doubt, but to use an expression of our dear mother: we shave people as they have their chins; but with Zélie it's quite another matter, her correspondence with me is without embarrassment and throws at you suddenly and without ceremony everything that is on her heart and that goes through [2r°] her head; you understand that I don't take gloves to answer him and that in my turn I tell him things very roundly and without ceremony. I find that with you it would be neither becoming nor decorous; but not to tell you the truth, by the grace of God it will never be I love you too much for that; thus therefore it is necessary to pay homage to the truth and if it is good to keep the secret of the kings of the earth, it is necessary to give glory to God by revealing his own (Tobit 12, 7); but it is certain that he showed great mercy towards you; naturally you had to lose yourself, all human means were taken away from you, you had just lost your mother, you found yourself thrown into an environment which was all the more dangerous because your age, your experience, your character, your temperament , your inquisitive and reasoning mind made your loss imminent, I shuddered and yet you came out better than you entered it, with religious principles and a conduct that make God's work well admired, and whose eternal I will bless him, because it is he and he alone who did this and he wanted to prove it to us by depriving you, as I said earlier, of all human help so that to him alone may be given glory, and it would be very wrong of us not to do so. So, my dear brother, show him your gratitude by devoting yourself entirely to his service, only there you will find peace and happiness, and when the trial comes it will still be your refuge and your consolation; life is short but yet full of afflictions, God wanting it so in order to aspire more strongly to Him.
[2v°] I am doing well for myself thanks to the care with which I am surrounded. I am certainly the happiest of the family and have no other sorrows than yours; see how the good Lord has provided for us all according to our attractions and dispositions! now remains to correspond to it with fidelity.
Farewell my dear friends, we are going to begin a career of penance (Lent begins on February 26), we will not write to each other until after the joys of the resurrection: let us try to spend our Lent well, for me it will not be hard, however, I am no more exempt than anyone else from the law of penance, abnegation will have to make up for what I cannot do. I embrace you and the dear little ones.
Your devoted sister Sr M. Dosithée
From the Von Ste Marie.
DSB
Today 23 is my birthday pray well for me my patron saint and tomorrow 24 the anniversary of my taking the habit 14 years ago: what graces received!. .
