The Spiritual Confrerences of SFS

LIVE + JESUS

To our dear Sisters in Our Lord, our Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary

Dearest Sisters,

These are the Conferences which our Holy Founder gave to us at various times, and on different occasions. We listened to them most attentively, and wrote them down after he had finished delivering them; and as they were then fresh in our memory, and each of our sisters contributed a portion, we tried by collecting all these portions together, and arranging them as well as we could, to form a perfect whole. We confess, however (and this will easily be believed of a work which has passed through hands so unworthy as ours), that in spite of the care and diligence which we brought to the task, it has been impossible for us to be so exact as not to have allowed some valuable remarks to have escaped us; and even those which we have retained, lose much of the force and effect which they had when they came direct from such precious and venerable lips. At the same time, we may be permitted to say, with perfect truth, that a great part of the teachings which he left us are in this collection so simply and faithfully reproduced, that whoever had the happiness of listening to thorn, or who is well versed in his books, will at once recognise in it his spirit, and will find no difficulty in placing these Conferences, if not in the rank of those works which issued straight from his hands, yet at least among those which have in some sense the honour of be­longing to him. Indeed, if they are not so fully elaborated as the rest of his books, if the argument is not so close, if there is anything in them which strikes a reader as less worthy of his eminent doctrine and the high reputation which his other writings have won for him, it is not surprising, seeing that he never saw or read them. You know that children weaned too soon from their mother's breast are never so strong and healthy as those who are suckled for the proper time, and we always pity children born after their fathers' death.

Certainly the beloved Father of our souls never thought that his familiar Conferences would see any other light than that of our parlour, in which, with such incredible simplicity and familiarity, he answered our little questions; neither was it our intention to communicate them to the public, but only to preserve them in manuscript for the consolation of our Houses in particular, for the use of which they were destined. It happened, however (we cannot say how), that they were printed without our knowledge, with a great number of very serious mistakes, and under very poor conditions. His Lordship the Bishop of Geneva, the worthy brother and successor of our own beloved prelate, having seen this, obtained the license for printing, and feeling that the reputation of his holy brother was at stake, commanded us to promptly publish a true text, which should repair the harm done by this bad edition, and give correctly what had been taken down in this convent. Certainly, we are willing to believe about our neighbour that it was holy zeal rather than any consideration which induced him to publish these instructions, but we must not push our indulgence too far. We cannot refrain from charitably complaining of him, not for having deprived us of what seemed to be ours (for we have nothing of our own, and spiritual goods are less so than any others, because they ought to be more freely communicated), but for having extracted these Conferences from us in such a way that, finding himself in difficulties, he was forced to break them up and to publish them piecemeal, as he had got hold of them. It must be noted particularly that these copies have been recopied several times by young persons, who have added all sorts of little things picked up here and there – which had, indeed been said to particular individuals, but which, for want of memory, had not been written down as our beloved Father had said them. Consequently, he who carried them off was obliged to fill up the blanks and correct the sense by much foreign matter. This so completely altered the work that it is scarcely recognizable, as may easily be seen by comparing the two editions. It has therefore been necessary, dearest sisters, to lay these Conferences, in the first place, before those on whom we depend and whose advice we are bound to take. They have carefully corrected the defects which they had contracted under our hands, and have given them to the public in the form which was requisite for enabling them to justly bear the name of the Conferences of our blessed Father. Perhaps you may find in them some things so specially proper to our own Houses, that you will not consider it expedient to publish them so openly, the spirit of the world not being always disposed to receive works of piety with that simplicity and reverence which is their due. Nevertheless, as it was always one of the salutary counsels and desires of our blessed Father and Founder, declared to us in one of his Conferences, that the spirit of our Houses should be communicated to our neighbour, therefore, that we may not deprive our neighbour of the fruit of the holy instructions which we have received, obedience and charity require us to impart them to the public; obedience also adding that they should be particularly dedicated to us. as for those to whom they specially belong, our blessed Father having addressed them to us.

Let us, then, together enjoy these useful and delightful Conferences; let us, by frequently and attentively reading them, keep ourselves in the spirit of our Rule, and not only by reading them, but, still more, by faithfully practising the holy lessons with which they are filled; and while we are giving outward expression to them, let us imprint them deeply on our hearts, so that they may never be effaced, and that we may not have one day to give account of a precious talent wasted. We hope that our blessed Father who gave this talent to us from Our Lord will obtain for us, from His divine Goodness, grace to employ it well, and to make use of it for his glory and the salvation of our souls. This is our constant desire for you and for ourselves, who are in Jesus Christ,

Dearest Sisters,

Your very humble and affectionate Sisters and Servants,

THE RELIGIOUS OF THE MONASTERY OF THE VISITATION OF HOLY MARY OF ANNECY

Blessed be God!