Fr. La Colombière (3)

Sketch of a Spiritual Journey (Continued)

From Paray-le-Monial to London – The 1677 Retreat 

These dispositions, combined with a very sure discernment, make him an instrument of choice to guide St. Margaret Mary and propagate devotion to the Sacred Heart, which invites nothing other than generosity in reparation, humility and infinite confidence in divine mercy.

To measure the progress accomplished during the years following the 30-day retreat, one must read the notes from his 1677 8-day retreat. We find the same characteristics there, but in a more peaceful, more flexible soul. His interior life had simplified. The habit of holiness that he had worn is more fitted to him… The Sacred Heart has passed through there.

First, his tendency towards vainglory had faded: “I no longer feel as much passion for vainglory. It is a miracle that only God could do. Brilliant jobs no longer touch me as they used to.” Even if he admits that he is still “only too sensitive” to it (otherwise it would not be his dominant fault!)

His generosity has been directed in a particular way towards the cult of the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Sacrament. He burns to convert Anglicans, to turn them towards the Holy Eucharist, and to spread devotion to the Heart of Jesus.

“I have made it a law to procure by all possible means the execution of what was prescribed to me by my adorable Master, with regard to His precious Body in the Blessed Sacrament, where I believe Him to be truly and really present. Touched with compassion for these blind people who do not want to submit to believing this great and ineffable mystery, I will willingly give my blood to persuade them of this truth that I believe and that I profess. [1]"

Speaking of the Paray-le-Monial message that he has to divulge, he cries out: “ My God, why can I not be everywhere and publish what You expect from Your servants and Your friends? [2]"

His distrust of himself is still there, which keeps him in humility: "I have still had feelings of great confusion about my past life; a very strong and very clear persuasion of the little, of the nothing that we contribute to the conversion of souls, a very distinct view of my nothingness. [3]"

But now, no more trouble in this humility: "I have great pity for myself, but I do not get angry, I do not get impatient. What will I do about it? I ask God to make me know what I must do for His service and to purify myself. [4]"

This peace that he enjoys comes from his stronger sense of Hope: "It seems to me that I have found a great treasure, if I know how to make the most of it. It is a firm trust in God, founded on His infinite goodness, on the experience that I have that He does not fail in our needs.… This is why I am resolved to give no limits to my trust and to extend it to all things. [5]" This is a whole long passage that should be quoted here as a cry of Hope.

Generosity, humility, and trust; he himself summarizes these dispositions of soul towards the end of this retreat: "Here are words which never present themselves to my mind without light, peace, freedom, gentleness, and love, it seems to me, entering there at the same time: simplicity, confidence, humility, complete abandonment, no reserve, will of God, my Rule. [6]"

The Act of Trust in God

The London years also date the famous Act of Trust in God, which is in fact the peroration of a sermon; reading it, one will recall the temptations of despair to which Fr. La Colombière was subject: his trust had nothing to do with blissful optimism.

“Others can expect their happiness either from their wealth or their talents; others rely either on the innocence of their life, or on the rigor of their penances, or on the number of their alms, or on the fervor of their prayers: Tu, Domine, singulariter in spe constituisti me.[7] For me, my trust is Trust itself. This Trust never deceives anyone: Nullus, nullus speravit in Deo et confusus est.[8]

"I am therefore assured that I shall be eternally happy, because I firmly hope to be so and it is from You, O my God, that I hope: In te, Domine, speravi, non confundar in aeternum.[9] I know, alas! I know only too well that I am fragile and changeable. I know what temptations can do against the most firmly established virtues. I have seen the stars of heaven fall and the columns of the firmament.”

“But all this cannot frighten me while I have hope; I keep myself safe from all misfortunes; and I am assured to always hope, because I still hope for this invariable hope. Finally, I am sure that I cannot hope too much in You and that I cannot have less than what I will have hoped from You.”

"So I hope that You will hold me in the most rapid inclinations, that You will support me against the most furious assaults, and that You will make my weakness triumph over my most formidable enemies. I hope that You will love me always, and that I will love You also without ceasing; and so as to carry my hope all at once as far as it can go, I hope for You Yourself from Yourself, O my Creator, and for time and for eternity." 

The Act of Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

We do not know exactly when his act of offering to the Sacred Heart dates from. In his Spiritual Writings, it is placed at the end of the 1677 retreat. In any case, we still find this triple attitude there. He begins by explaining the reasons for this consecration: his ardent zeal to give himself may be found there. 

"To make reparation for so many outrages and such cruel ingratitudes, O most adorable and most loving Heart of my lovable Jesus, and to avoid as much as it is in my power to fall into a similar misfortune, I offer You my heart, with all the movements of which it is capable, I give myself entirely to You. [10]”

While we cannot quote everything, it is impossible to ignore the end of this consecration, where - at the risk of repeating ourselves - generosity, humility, and trust come together in a single particularly moving burst:

"Sacred Heart of Jesus, teach me perfect forgetfulness of myself, since this is the only way by which one can enter into You. Since all that I will do in the future will be Yours, see to it that I do nothing that is not worthy of You. Teach me what I must do to attain the purity of Your love, for which You have inspired me to desire.”

"I feel in myself a great desire to please You and a great inability to achieve it without a great light and a very special help that I can only expect from You. Do Your will in me, Lord; I oppose it, I feel it well; but I would like very much, it seems to me, not to oppose it.

"It is up to You to do everything, divine Heart of Jesus Christ; You alone will have all the glory of my sanctification, if I make myself a saint; this seems to me clearer than day; but it will be a great glory for you, and it is for this reason alone that I desire perfection. Amen."

The Consummation of the Sacrifice

Fr. La Colombière has thus offered himself totally... All that remains for God is to take him and ratify his sacrifice. A few years before his imprisonment, when there was no indication of what was going to happen to him – it was a few weeks after the 30-day Retreat, on December 3, 1674, the feast of St. Francis Xavier – he had a premonition, which could be described as prophetic:

“Suddenly, a great day dawned on my mind; I seemed to see myself covered in chains, and dragged into a prison, accused, condemned, because I had preached Jesus crucified and dishonored by sinners. At the same time, I conceived a great desire for the salvation of the wretched who are in error; it seemed to me that I would willingly give up the last drop of my blood to save a single soul from hell!”

“I do not know if I am mistaken, but it seems to me that God is preparing evils for me to suffer. Send them these evils, my loving Savior [11]!” These were not empty words: the trial will always keep him in peace and joy.

We know what he would have to suffer in the “Land of Crosses” (as he called England – may our friends across the Channel not hold it against us for recalling this name!): betrayal, imprisonment and illness. A letter written a few weeks later shows us with what peace he went through this ordeal:

“I would be very long… if I told you all the mercies that God has shown me at every point and almost at every moment. What I can tell you is that I have never been as happy as in the midst of this storm.”[12] Back in France, there was humiliation, uselessness, and then death. In a letter from March 1679, sent from Lyon, we learn what his sacrifice was:

“I have been here since the eleventh of this month.… If Providence calls me back to the land of crosses, I am quite ready to leave; but our Lord has been teaching me, for some days now, to make an even greater sacrifice to Him, which is to be resolved to do nothing at all, if it is His will, to die on the first day, and to extinguish, by death, the zeal and desire that I have to work for the sanctification of souls, or else to drag out in silence an infirm and languishing life, being nothing more than a useless burden in all the houses where I find myself. [13]"

In a letter from the summer of 1680, to St. Margaret Mary, we read her recognition that illness still allows her to purify herself: "Thank God, if you please, for the state in which he has put me. Illness was absolutely necessary for me; without it, I do not know what would have become of me; I am convinced that it is one of the greatest mercies that God has exercised on me.” [14]

In another letter, probably dating from 1682, he confides: "Since I have been ill, I have learned nothing else except that we are bound to ourselves by many small imperceptible bonds; that if God does not put His hand to them, we can never break them. We do not even know them; it is up to him alone to sanctify us; it is not a small matter to sincerely desire that God do all that must be done for this; for we have neither enough light nor enough strength. [15]"

It is difficult not to see in this confession an echo of his act of offering where he entrusted to God the work of his sanctification; God's response was therefore not lacking.

We cannot resist reporting this exchange between saints, whose candid heroism makes us smile… St. Margaret Mary confided to Fr. Claude that she was on the point of no longer praying for his healing, seeing that the more she prayed, the worse he became.

Hoping all the same for a return to health, the Father replied: “God could well give me back my health to punish me for the bad use I make of illness. [16]” However, God did not “punish” him by restoring his health… A few months later, Fr. La Colombière returned his beautiful soul to God. There is no doubt that his sacrifice largely contributed to the irresistible spread of devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Harmony of the Saints 

In their own way, the saints have all performed the evangelical score composed by Our Lord. Nevertheless, there are currents, schools, and influences, and it is interesting, to conclude these few considerations, to underline certain harmonics and, through them, the profound unity that exists between the saints. 

Undeniably, Fr. La Colombière is a son of St. Ignatius. The Spiritual Exercises have a preponderant place in his spiritual progress, and he follows with rigorous fidelity, both the rule of the Society of Jesus (which he even made a vow) and the retreat annotations.[17] 

The Jesuit Fr. André Ravier, in his Introduction to the Spiritual Writings, gives this praise: "The texts of Fr. La Colombière, which we publish, are, without a doubt, one of the purest expressions given to us of Ignatian spirituality. [18]” One can find in Fr. La Colombière the fiery soul of his founder. 

Let us evoke the close proximity with St. Margaret Mary, and through her, his link with the Visitation order. We could here compare the advice and the letters of direction of St. Francis de Sales and Fr. La Colombière, but it would be necessary to know them both better. Without doubt we would see more than one resemblance, as much in the unction of the form, as in the prudence and discretion of the substance. 

Finally, there is a deep affinity that we are pleased to note: that between Fr. La Colombière and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. It is based on their profound humility and their unwavering Hope. Let us be content, in conclusion, to quote a sentence from both of them whose author it is not easy to recognize, so similar are they: 

"I do not taste such joy as that of discovering in myself some new infirmity which had been hidden from me until this hour." 

"I do not grieve when I see weakness itself. On the contrary, it is in it that I glory, and expect each day to discover new imperfections in myself. I confess that these lights on my nothingness do me more good than lights on the Faith.” 

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[1] Ibidem, p 164. 

[2] Ibidem, p 165. 

[3] Ibidem, p 169. 

[4] Ibidem, p 170. 

[5] Ibidem, p 163. 

[6] Ibidem, p 170. 

[7] You, Lord, have firmly established me in hope.

[8] No one has hoped in God and has been confounded. 

[9] In you, Lord, I hope, and I will not be confounded for eternity. 

[10] Ibidem, p 174. 

[11] Ibidem, p 139.

[12] Letter to a Jesuit, January 1879, quoted by Guitton, p 574. 

[13] Letter to Mother de Saumaise, quoted by Guitton, p 603. 

[14] Letter to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, quoted by Guitton, p 633. 

[15] Quoted by Guitton, p 649. 

[16] Reported by Guitton, p 647. 

[17] Regulations for the Exercises of Saint Ignatius. 

[18] Spiritual Writings, Introduction, p 7.