It is the role of the harvest’s grand Master to send workers in his vineyard ; all our human industry and our eager care does not carry forth God’s work.
Book of passages from various letters and documents written by François de Laval.
We must place all our trust and our strength in God…We must let ourselves be guided by Providence.
May they try to avoid two extremities that are to be feared in those who apply themselves to the conversion of souls : to hope too much or to despair too much. Those who hope too much are often the first to fully despair once confronted to the great difficulties that are to be found in the undertaking of converting the Infidels/unfaithful, that is rather the work of God than the industry of men. May they remember that it is through patience that the seed of God’s word bears fruit. Those who do not have that patience are in danger, after having thrown much fire in the beginning, to lose courage in the end and leave the enterprise.
The Spirit of God asks for a peaceable/peaceful, collected heart, not a worried, drifting heart. We should have a joyful and modest face, avoid mockings and up settings and as a general rule all that is contrary to a saint and joyful modesty. May your modesty be known to all men.
All that the hand of God performs serves us, though the result may not be immediately evident. For many years Providence has lead this church, and therefore us, by tiresome and crucifying paths for both the spiritual and the temporal. As long as this saint will be done, we do not mind. It seems to be my entire peace, my happiness in this life to not (wish) for another paradise. The Kingdom of God is found within our soul, which is our centre and our all. His Blessed Mother, His Holy Husband, pray to Him well.
(…) all the saint Angels and Blessed spirits, may he (give) me the grace to never want anything other than the accomplishment of this divine and amiable will per infamiam et bonam famam.
Let nothing in our lives or in our moral conduct contradict what we say.
But in the heart of all this turmoil, we must not be demoralized ; if men have the power to destroy, Our Lord’s hand has infinite more powerful to build. We need only be faithful to Him and let Him work.
All sorts of reasons should hold you back, my dear Father (Ménard), but God, stronger than all our reasons, wants you in the country where you are heading.
I cannot write with my own hard, being barely recovered from on illness that was believed to be lethal. It is in this state that we recognize that there is only God and that all the rest is pure nothingness.
A nasty word, an impatient act or an unwelcoming face can often, in one moment, destroy all that we have built up.
I pray to Our Lord and to His Blessed Mother that the entire land may acknowledge His grace and that the interests of God shall be their sole interest for all time.
Prayer was more effective than the strength of arms (during the war against the English).
Our Lord is kind in all and by taking all with His divine hard we will always enjoy a peace that no man can take from us.
Rest assured that being sent to work for the conversion of the world, you have the most important task in the Church, which obliges you to be worthy instruments of God.
For a long time now, God has given me the grace of seeing all that happens to me in this life as a result of His Providence.
We must not have another centre than the pleasing
of Our Lord.
It is as a result or our gentleness, patience and kindness that we are truly loved.
It is only fair…that we should live out of life only pure abandon in all that concerns us inside and out.
May they (the missionaries) remember that through patience the seed of God’s Word bears fruit.
