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self, it is an act of love of God. Consequently, everything that is of the nature of prayer is to the soul the assurance of chastity, the defence of chastity.

"My daughter, chastity is a gift of God. Man of himself is not chaste. If he has chastity it is because God has given it to him. It is necessary, therefore, to ask chastity of God if a man has it not; that is, he must pray. It is necessary to commend it to God, to commit it into His hands to preserve it, that is, to pray; because man is no more able to preserve it than to obtain it of himself.

"Prayer is the sole defence, the sole support, of chastity; and, if there are several kinds of prayer, recourse may be had to each of them, as for the preservation so also for the increase of chastity.

"The best of prayers, that which is most efficacious, My daughter, is prayer dictated by love, it is a cry of love sent up to Me. Ah! My daughter, never has a soul tempted to sin against purity said to Me, My Saviour Jesus, I love Thee with my whole heart,' without My having given it the victory. Never has a soul tempted to sin against purity sought refuge in the Wounds of My Body without My having enabled it to triumph over the temptation. Never has a soul entered into the Wound in My Heart without My Heart having been to him an impregnable defence. Never has a soul fixed its gaze upon My Passion in the hour of temptation without having seen it disappear like a flash of lightning; or, if the temptation has continued, without its having repelled all its darts to the very last and the very keenest.

"Never has a soul which loves chastity turned its eyes on the Divinity, and contemplated His justice or His mercy, the omnipotence of His love, His holiness,

or His infinite perfection, without having felt its love for that admirable virtue increase within it.

"Never has a soul acknowledged its misery, its baseness, its nothingness, its powerlessness, and said to God at the moment of temptation: 'My God, save me,' without its having been delivered by Him.

"In fine, My daughter, never has a soul worthily approached the Sacrament of My Love without its having found that marvellous table which I have prepared for My friends an impregnable fortress against those who persecute it.

"To communicate in My Body and Blood is to pray to Me, and even to address to Me the prayer which is most pleasing to Me; it is to say to Me: 'O Saviour Jesus, Thou art the Bread of Life, deliver me from death. O Lord, Thou art God Thrice-Holy, deliver me from sin. O Lord Jesus, Thou takest Thy delight among the lilies of purity,* preserve me from every stain. O Lord Jesus, I am nothing but sin, weakness, and impotence, strengthen me, sustain me, sanctify me.' I do not remain deaf to that prayer, and I permit the soul to draw from My Heart as from an inexhaustible fountain 'the wine which germinates virgins.' +

"Such, My daughter, are the assured means by which you will preserve chastity. Be mortified and be vigilant; pray, that is to say, confess your weakness, and full of confidence abandon yourself to God: you will remain chaste, you will remain pure, and in vain will the spirit of darkness lay snares under your feet, never will he catch you in his nets."

This, Monsieur le Curé, is what I ought to add to

*

'Comp. Canticle of Canticles ii. 16, vi. 3.

+ Zach. ix. 17.

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that which I have already written in my papers or in my letters respecting chastity. I commend myself to your fervent prayers, that I may acquire a new means of remaining chaste and far removed from all that might offend God.

Receive, I pray you, the assurance of my respectful sentiments, and all my gratitude for the exceeding charity you show me.

Some days ago I spoke to you of the virtue of chastity; I reported to you my thoughts on this virtue according as the Saviour had instructed me. I will now submit to you a communication which I received from the Saviour respecting thoughts against chastity and the acts opposed to it. He instructed me several times thereon to make me clearly understand and distinguish between what is evil and what is not so. Here is what I am able to add to that which I set down in my papers.

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"Lord Jesus," I said one day to the Saviour, "teach me what I ought to do so as not to offend against the virtue of chastity either in thought or act." 'My daughter," He replied, "I will do what you ask. First, I lay it down as a principle, that acts opposed to

virginity are not bad in themselves, that the knowledge of what is contrary to virginity and to chastity is not bad in itself any more than thoughts concerning what sullies virginity or chastity are bad in themselves.

"The act contrary to virginity is a sin only when there is an abuse in the doing of it, and in circumstances and in cases in which it is not permissible. But this act, in the marriage state, when the laws fixed by God are observed, becomes a religious act.*

"The knowledge of things opposed to virginity or to chastity is bad only by reason of the bad use which is made of it; but it is often useful to one who labours for the salvation of souls and the increase of My glory. How would it be possible for any one to give direction and counsel as to doing or abstaining from these acts if he had no knowledge of them? It would be impossible; this knowledge, then, is good, considered in itself.

"Thoughts contrary to chastity are bad only when a person lets his mind dwell upon them with complacency and does not endeavour to put such thoughts from him. It is sometimes necessary to think of these things; for example, when it is a question of instructing a person and pointing out to him where the evil lies. For this, it is necessary to know that which forms the subject of the instruction which is given. Now, in such cases, you will understand neither the knowledge nor the thoughts are evil.

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Thoughts contrary to purity come from four differ

* "Si enim ad actum matrimonialem virtus inducat, vel justitice, ut debitum reddat, vel religionis, ut proles ad cultum Dei procrectur, est meritorius." Summæ, Supplem. P. iii., Q. xli., A. iv.

ent sources.

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They come from the devil, who shoots them into hearts like arrows dipped in the poison of impure desire. These thoughts are very distressing and very difficult to overcome. Nevertheless, if a man asks the aid of God, if he puts his trust in Him, he always comes off victorious, for no one is ever tempted above his strength.

Again, they come from the inferior part of the soul, which is called corrupt nature. There is the focus of concupiscence, the root of all the passions, especially of the passion of impurity. This part of the soul is fruitful in bad thoughts and bad desires. It affects the body, to which it imparts movements in accordance with the inclination to impurity. The body, which in itself is only matter, being thus moved by the influence of the inferior will of the soul, is closely leagued with it in waging a cruel and obstinate war against the superior will. Now, My daughter, all that passes in the inferior part of the soul and in the body, whether it be thoughts or movements, or impure delectations, is not sin if the superior will does not give its consent; but no sooner does it give its consent, in however small a degree, and take pleasure in these thoughts, movements, and delectations, than there is sin.

"Hence, My daughter, whatever a person may experience, be they the most disorderly movements and the most obscene ideas, so long as the superior will of the soul does not give its consent, there is no sin, because it is consent only which constitutes sin in its reality. All the rest is but the matter of sin, the movement towards the commission of sin; it is not sin. It is consent which makes sin when the subjectmatter is sinful. These impure ideas, these irregular