1. To Don Bernardo Fusari at Rovereto Stresa, 3 January 1847 . This evening I find myself shut in by the snow in the Casa Bolongaro, and I want to write a few lines to my beloved Don Bernardo. Do not think that you are idle while you find yourself there at Rovereto relieved of the care of the college; for you are doing very much - indeed you are doing everything that matters in this world - as long as you are doing the most loveable and holy will of God. It is certain that divine wisdom always has its reasons for whatever it does or allows. Sometimes we are unable to see those reasons, because of our defective sight; but God’s reasoning is in reality both brilliant light and life-giving pure fire. So be happy! Keep up a holy cheerfulness, and give thanks without ceasing. Remember our dear Don Giulio [Todeschi], ever with ‘Deo Gratias’ [Thanks be to God] on his lips. Our beloved and faithful Don Angeli has gone before us to his heavenly dwelling; he will pray for us, and we for him. It may be that before long we shall meet, since the Verona foundation will call me there. The imperial decree for it has come. I commend this work to your prayers and those of Don Antonio Gasperini - whom I ask you to greet for me. I wish you both every blessing in this New Year. Your affectionate servant and friend, A. ROSMINI p. 2. To Don Pietro Bertetti atTortona Stresa, 2 January 1847 My dear brother in Christ, I approve of your idea of waiting until the coming holidays, and then detaching yourself from everything. Meanwhile, be constant in prayer; fulfil with the greatest perfection the duties of your present position; make your meditation on the Rules of the Institute; recite daily if possible the short offering of St Ignatius, Receive, O Lord, all my liberty etc.; and open your heart to a boundless charity embracing the whole world. This charity means a desire to do good to all, especially spiritual good; and to do this at the cost of any sacrifice and suffering, with the aim of being conformed to Jesus Christ, crucified for mankind; and all this according to the order of charity and the supreme rule of following the will of God. Then, cultivate simplicity, constancy, and generous-hearted joy. I run in the way of your commandments, for you enlarge my understanding. Goodbye until I can welcome you in person; in the meantime, I embrace you I spirit. Your affectionate servant in Christ, A. R. 3. To Don Giovanni Battista Pagani at Ratcliffe College Stresa, 12 January 1847 My dear brother in Jesus Christ, to whom be love and eternal glory. Amen. I have received the collection of reports you sent me, and felt consolation in reading them. For now I will only reply to a few points. The most important one concerns the person of the Provincial. You lament, my dear brother, over the fact that ‘you no longer enjoy the fervour, the light and the love which you felt during the first years you were in England.’ But you must disabuse yourself (as God would have you do) of a mistaken notion. What matters is not what we look for but what we ought to look for. That one thing above all consists in this: solely to do the most holy and loveable will of God. ‘He who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother; My food is to do the will of him who sent me, so that I may carry out his work; My judgement is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of him of who sent me.’ Here is wholesome and solid teaching; here is our example; here is the one object of our desires - the will of the Father, so that we may do his work. To tell the truth, it seems to me that you attach too much importance to sensible devotion. So you must study to be content to be without this sweetness, and prefer before all else the will of God, who destined his Son to endure desolation, the agony in the garden, and the torments of the cross. If you so act, you will lose nothing and gain immensely - for this is the only way to profit much. It is true that there is a vast difference between the state of a soul glowing with sensible affection, light and joy, and a soul plunged into darkness and sadness, feeble and disheartened. But what of it? If this is the will of God, then it is really a good so great that there is no other to be compared with it. It is as great as God himself; for the will of God is God. What must we do then? We have to be on our guard against the temptations of the enemy and against his false counsels; and especially against those hasty resolutions that the devil loves so much. And such would be the thought (which you tell me has sometimes crossed your mind) of freeing yourself from the cross which the Lord has laid on your shoulders with his own hand. In face of that temptation you have to say: Shall I not drink the chalice which the Father has given me? And again: Get behind me, Satan, for you are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things. You should rather be grateful to the divine mercy for having put you at the head of his little flock there, and so taking on the obligation to help you whenever necessary - as he does in fact help you continually in a way that we could say is marvellous. What if you feel bodily weakness and are harassed and enfeebled? Again, what of it? Does God stand in need of your strength? Or must you experience consolations for his glory? Does he not rather know how to show his glory by choosing the weak things of this world, things which are not, to reduce to nothing things that are? The greatest of his blessings for you is that he makes you see with your own eyes that it is not you but he who does everything. And this lesson is particularly precious, and must be a cause of great joy for you, when you consider that in this way all the glory belongs to the Creator, and that the creature cannot attribute any to himself. This is a happy necessity, a thought dear to anyone who loves God! For one who loves God rejoices in nothing so much as to see that he is incapable of glorifying himself in anything, but that the Lord alone is glorified in all things. If then you are infirm in the flesh, if you feel depressed in spirit, pray. Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Say too, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. But do not fail to add: but not my will but yours be done. Unbosom your feelings to God; but let your conclusion always be ‘may his holy will be done.’ And do not make the slightest move to rid yourself of the cross which he imposed on you. He sees how heavy it is, and he weighed it before he gave it to you to bear. Do you wish to have recourse to a higher superior than your General? Here he is: God himself. He hears you, and if he wishes he can free you. To believe anything else is to show lack of faith in the goodness of the Lord. We are of the number of those who can say: ‘We believed in his love’! So put all your faith in this love. Faith such as this sustains us, strengthens us, makes us greater than ourselves. Of it was said: ‘In it lies our hope’. Again we are not like those who say to the Lord: ‘You are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed.’ Rather we say: ‘We have left all things and followed you: what shall be our reward?’ For the Lord is pleased that we look to him for our reward, and ask it of him, and (so to speak) claim it); since in this too he is greatly glorified, as he crowns his gifts in us. What then? Do you think you have lost or are wasting all the work you have done for God, and in particular what you are doing now, bearing such a cross? No, not at all. These things were not done in vain; they are all recorded in heaven. You must recognize this, and not wrong yourself, not think they amounted to nothing (although they are nothing in relation to what God deserves.) You must allow them their due worth, so as to open your heart to feel boundless and inexhaustible gratitude, and infinite hope in God who has worked in you, who in you and with you suffers. It is he who will also rejoice in you, and will be glorified in due course. So it would be a great mistake, and show much temerity, if you persuaded yourself that you were losing out as regards spiritual gains, after so many years in which you have laboured for God and his kingdom.