Letter 29 of Saint-Cyran

Mother Marie des Anges, I dare to tell you that if God does not breathe in the soul, everything we toss into our souls is useless and perhaps harmful. For in spiritual matters, it is easier to be lax about virtue than to progress towards it. If we do not take advantage of the spiritual food that we receive, it results necessarily that we become more wicked. In bodily sickness, when the sick have not well digested the food they have eaten, they have to be purged with bitter medicines and be forced to follow a long diet. Thus God makes us see visibly in the way we treat weak bodies the way we ought to act towards souls. Because they do not recognize their sickness, they want to eat as if they were healthy. There is however this difference which results only in deceiving us, the fact that we know very well when bodies are sick and we do not know when souls are. There are ten thousands of disguises that cover souls and they always have the power to perform the same external practices whether they are sick or healthy. This condition is worthy of being cried over and I do not see that there should be any charity greater than that given to persons worthy of crying over it.

Translated from the French by Daniel McNeill

The United States of the World, The End of All Beginnings, The Theater of the Impossible, books by Daniel McNeill, are for sale at:
amazon.com/author/graceisall