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42 - Autobiography of Madame Guyon by Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon · Autobiography of Madame Guyon

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  Speaker 1: Volume two, Chapter twelve of the Autobiography of Madame Quillon.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. I had at that time so
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  Speaker 1: ardent a desire for the perfection of Mather la Combe,
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  Speaker 1: and to see him thoroughly die to himself. That I
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  Speaker 1: could have wished him all the crosses and afflictions imaginable
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  Speaker 1: that my conduce to this great and blessed end, whenever
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  Speaker 1: he was unfaithful or looked at things in any other
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  Speaker 1: light than the true one, to tend to this death
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  Speaker 1: of self. I felt myself on the rug, which, as
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  Speaker 1: I had till then been so indifferent, very much surprised me.
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  Speaker 1: To the Lord. I made my complain. He graciously encouraged me,
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  Speaker 1: both on this subject and on that entire dependence on
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  Speaker 1: himself which He gave me, which was such that I
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  Speaker 1: was like a new born infant. My sister had brought
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  Speaker 1: me a maid whom God was willing to give me
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  Speaker 1: to fashion according to his will, not without some crucifixion
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  Speaker 1: to myself. I believe it never is to fall out
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  Speaker 1: that our Lord will give me any persons without giving
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  Speaker 1: them wherewith to make me suffer, whether it be for
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  Speaker 1: the purpose of drawing them into a spiritual life, or
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  Speaker 1: never to leave me without the cross. She was one
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  Speaker 1: on whom the Lord had conferred very singular graces. She
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  Speaker 1: was in high reputation of the country, where she passed
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  Speaker 1: for a saint. Our Lord brought her to me to
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  Speaker 1: let her see the difference between the sanctity conceived and
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  Speaker 1: comprised in those gifts with which she was in doubt,
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  Speaker 1: and that which is obtained by our entire destruction, even
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  Speaker 1: by the loss of those very gifts, and of all
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  Speaker 1: that raised us in the esteem of men. Our Lord
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  Speaker 1: had given her the same dependence on me as I
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  Speaker 1: had in regard to Father la Combe. This girl felt
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  Speaker 1: grievously sick. I was willing to give her all the
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  Speaker 1: assistance in my power, but I found I had nothing
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  Speaker 1: to do but to come demanded her bodily sickness, all
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  Speaker 1: the disposition of her mind. All that I said was done.
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  Speaker 1: It was then that I learned what it was to
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  Speaker 1: command by the word and to pay by the word.
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  Speaker 1: It was Jesus Christ in me, equally commanding and paying She, however,
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  Speaker 1: continued sick for some time. One day, after dinner, I
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  Speaker 1: was moved to say to her, rise and be no
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  Speaker 1: longer sick. She aroused and was cured. The nuns were
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  Speaker 1: very much astonished. They knew nothing of what had passed,
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  Speaker 1: but so her walking, who in the morning had appeared
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  Speaker 1: to be in the last extremity. They attributed her disorder
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  Speaker 1: to a vivid imagination. I had, at sundry times experience
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  Speaker 1: and felt in myself how much God respects the freedom
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  Speaker 1: of men, even demands his free concurrence. For when I said,
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  Speaker 1: be healed, or be free from your troubles, if such
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  Speaker 1: persons acquiescence, the word was efficacious, and they were healed.
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  Speaker 1: If they doubted or resisted. Though under fair pretext saying
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  Speaker 1: I shall be healed when it pleases God, I will
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  Speaker 1: not be healed till he willest or in the way
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  Speaker 1: of despair, I cannot be healed. I will not quit
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  Speaker 1: my condition. Then the word had no effect. I felt
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  Speaker 1: in myself that the divine virtue retired in me. I
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  Speaker 1: experienced what our Lord said when the woman afflicted with
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  Speaker 1: the issue of blood touched him, he instantly asked who
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  Speaker 1: touched me? The apostle, said, Master, the multitude thronged thee
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  Speaker 1: and pressed thee, and sayest thou who touched me? He replied,
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  Speaker 1: it is because virtue hath gone out of me. Look
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  Speaker 1: eight forty five forty six Jesus Christ had caused that
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  Speaker 1: healing virtue to flow through me by means of his word.
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  Speaker 1: When that virtue met not with the correspondence in the subject,
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  Speaker 1: I felt it suspended in its source. That gave me
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  Speaker 1: some pain. I should be, as it were, displeased with
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  Speaker 1: those persons. But when there was no resistance but a
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  Speaker 1: full acquiescence, this divine virtue had its full effect. Healing
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  Speaker 1: virtue has so much power over things inanimate, yet the
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  Speaker 1: least thing in man either restrains it or stops it entirely.
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  Speaker 1: There was a good nun, much afflicted, and under a
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  Speaker 1: violent temptation. She went to declare her case to a
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  Speaker 1: sister whom she thought very spiritual and in a condition
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  Speaker 1: capable of assisting her. But far from finding succor, she
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  Speaker 1: was very much discouraged and cast down. The other despised
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  Speaker 1: and repulsed her, and treating her with condemned and rigor.
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  Speaker 1: She said, don't come near me. Since you are that way.
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  Speaker 1: This poor girl, in a frightful distress, came to me,
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  Speaker 1: thinking herself undone, on account of what the sister had
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  Speaker 1: said to her. I consulted her, and our Lord relieved
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  Speaker 1: her immediately. But I could not forbear telling her that
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  Speaker 1: assuredly the other would be punished and would fall into
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  Speaker 1: a state worse than hers. The sister, who had used
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  Speaker 1: her in such a manner came also to me, highly
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  Speaker 1: pleased with herself in what she had done, saying she
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  Speaker 1: abhorred such tempted creatures. As for herself she was proved
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  Speaker 1: against such sorts of temptations, and she never had a
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  Speaker 1: bad thought. I said to her, my sister, from the
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  Speaker 1: frendship I have for you, I wish you the pain
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  Speaker 1: of her who spoke to you, and even one still
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  Speaker 1: more violent. She answered haughtily, if you were to ask
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  Speaker 1: it from God for me, and I ask of him
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  Speaker 1: the contrary, I believe I shall be heard at least
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  Speaker 1: as soon as you, I answered, with great firmness. If
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  Speaker 1: it be only my own interests which I ask, I
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  Speaker 1: shall not be heard. But if it be those of
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  Speaker 1: God only and yours too, I shall be heard sooner
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  Speaker 1: than you are aware that very night she fell into
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  Speaker 1: so violent a temptation that one equal to it has
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  Speaker 1: seldom been known. It was then that she had humble
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  Speaker 1: occasion to acknowledge her own weakness, and that she would
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  Speaker 1: be without grace. She conceived at first the violent hatred
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  Speaker 1: for me, saying that I was the cause of her pain.
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  Speaker 1: But it served her as the clay did to enlighten
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  Speaker 1: him who had been born blind. She soon saw very
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  Speaker 1: well what had brought on her so terrible a state.
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  Speaker 1: I fell sick, even to extremity. This sickness proved a
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  Speaker 1: means to cover the great mysteries which, it pleased, got
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  Speaker 1: to operate in me. Scarce, ever, was a disorder more
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary or of longer continuance in its success. Several times
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  Speaker 1: I saw in dreams of Father la Monk raised in
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  Speaker 1: persecutions against me. Our Lord let me know that this
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  Speaker 1: would be, and that Father la Combe would forsake me.
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  Speaker 1: In the time of persecution. I wrote to him, and
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  Speaker 1: he disquieted him greatly. He thought his heart was united
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  Speaker 1: to the will of God, and two desirous of serving
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  Speaker 1: me to admit such desertion. Yet it has since been
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  Speaker 1: found quite true he was now to preach during land,
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  Speaker 1: and was so much followed that people came five weeks
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  Speaker 1: to pass several days for the benefit of his ministry.
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  Speaker 1: I heard he was so sick that he was thought
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  Speaker 1: to die. I prayed to the Lord to restore his
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  Speaker 1: health and enable him to preach to the people who
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  Speaker 1: were longing to hear him. My prayer was heard, and
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  Speaker 1: he soon recovered and resumed his pious labors. During this
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary sickness, which continue more than six months, the Lord
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  Speaker 1: gradually taught me that there was another manner of conversing
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  Speaker 1: among souls, wholly his done by speech. Thou mayst me
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  Speaker 1: conceive O divine word that as thou art ever speaking
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  Speaker 1: and operating in a soul, though the ring thou appearest
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  Speaker 1: in profound silence, So there was also a way of
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  Speaker 1: communication in thy creatures. In an ineffable silence. I heard
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  Speaker 1: then a language which before had been unknown to me.
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  Speaker 1: I gradually perceived, when Father la Combe entered that I
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  Speaker 1: could speak no more, that I was formed in my
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  Speaker 1: soul the same kind of silence toward him as was
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  Speaker 1: forming it in regard to God. I comprehended that God
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  Speaker 1: was willing to show me that men might in this
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  Speaker 1: life learn the language of angels. I was gradually refused
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  Speaker 1: to speak to him, only in silence. It was then
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  Speaker 1: that we understood each other in God. After a manner
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  Speaker 1: unutterable and divine, our hearts spoke to each other, communicating
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  Speaker 1: a grace which no words can express. It was like
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  Speaker 1: a new country, both for him and for me, but
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  Speaker 1: so divine that I cannot describe it. At first. This
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  Speaker 1: was done in a manner so perceptible, that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: God penetrate us with himself, in a manner so pure
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  Speaker 1: and so sweet, that we passed ours in this profound silence,
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  Speaker 1: always communicative without being able to utter one word. It
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  Speaker 1: was in this that we learned, by our own experience,
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  Speaker 1: the operations of the heavenly word to reduce souls into
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  Speaker 1: unity with itself, and what purity one may arrive at
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  Speaker 1: in this life. It was given me to communicate this
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  Speaker 1: way to other good souls. But with this difference I
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  Speaker 1: did nothing but communicate to them the grace with which
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  Speaker 1: they were filled while near me in this sacred silence,
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  Speaker 1: which infused into them an extraordinary strength and grace. But
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  Speaker 1: I received nothing from them. Whereas with Father la combe
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  Speaker 1: that I was aflow, and a return of communication of grace,
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  Speaker 1: which he received from me and I from him in
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  Speaker 1: the greatest purity. In this long malady, the love of
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  Speaker 1: God and of Him alone made up my whole occupation.
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  Speaker 1: I seemed so entirely lost to him as to have
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  Speaker 1: no sight of myself at all. It seemed as if
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  Speaker 1: my heart never came out of that divine ocean, having
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  Speaker 1: been drawn into it through deep humiliations, Oh, happy loss,
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  Speaker 1: which is the communication of bleas though operated through crosses
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  Speaker 1: and through deaths. Jesus was then living in me, and
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  Speaker 1: I lived no more. These words were imprinted in me
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  Speaker 1: as a real estate into which I must enter. The
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  Speaker 1: foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests,
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  Speaker 1: but the son of Man had nowhere to lay his
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  Speaker 1: head Matthew eight, verse twenty. These I have since experienced
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  Speaker 1: in all its extent, having no sure abode nor refuge
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  Speaker 1: among friends who were ashamed of me and openly renounced
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  Speaker 1: me when universally decried, nor among my relations, most of
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  Speaker 1: whom declared themselves my adversaries and were my greatest persecutors,
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  Speaker 1: while others looked on me with condemned and indignation. I might,
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  Speaker 1: as David say, for thy sake, I have borne reproach.
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  Speaker 1: Shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger
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  Speaker 1: to my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children,
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  Speaker 1: a reproach to men, and despised of the people. He
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  Speaker 1: showed me all the word in a rage against me,
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  Speaker 1: without any one daring to appear for me, and assure me,
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  Speaker 1: in the ineffable silence of his eternal word, that he
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  Speaker 1: would give me vast numbers of children, which I should
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  Speaker 1: bring forth by the cross. I left it to him
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  Speaker 1: to do with me whatever he pleased, esteeming my whole
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  Speaker 1: and sole interest to be placed entirely in his divine will.
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  Speaker 1: He gave me to see how the devil was going
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  Speaker 1: to steer up an outrageous persecution against prayer, Yet it
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  Speaker 1: should prove the source of the same prayer, or rather
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  Speaker 1: the means which God will make use of to establish it.
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  Speaker 1: He gave me to see Father, how he will guide
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  Speaker 1: me into the wilderness, where he will cause me to
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  Speaker 1: be nourished for a time. The winks which were to
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  Speaker 1: bear me thither were the resignation of my whole self
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  Speaker 1: to His holy will. I think I am at present
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  Speaker 1: in that wilderness, separated from the whole world. In my imprisonment,
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  Speaker 1: I see already accomplished in part what was then shown me.
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  Speaker 1: Can I ever express the mercies which my God has
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  Speaker 1: bestowed on me? No, they must ever remain in himself,
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  Speaker 1: being of a nature not to be described, by reason
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  Speaker 1: of their purity and immensity. I was often to all appearance.
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  Speaker 1: At the point of death. I fell into convultions from
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  Speaker 1: violent pains which lasted a long time. Father la Combe
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  Speaker 1: administered the sacrament to me the priorities of the ursolence,
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  Speaker 1: having desired him to do it. I was well s
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  Speaker 1: at WISFI to die, as was he also in the
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  Speaker 1: expectation of my departure. For being united in God after
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  Speaker 1: a manner so pure and so spiritual, death could not
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  Speaker 1: separate us. On the contrary, it would have more closely
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  Speaker 1: united us. Father la Combe, who was on his knees
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  Speaker 1: at my bedside, remarking the change of my countenance and
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  Speaker 1: how my eyes faded, seemed ready to give me up.
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  Speaker 1: When God inspire him to lift up his hands and
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  Speaker 1: with a strong voice, which was heard by all who
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  Speaker 1: were in my room at that time, almost full to
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  Speaker 1: command death to relinquish its hold. Instantly it seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be stopped. Thus God was pleased wonderfully to raise me
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  Speaker 1: up a again. Yet for a long time I continue
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  Speaker 1: extremely weak, during all of which our Lord gave me
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  Speaker 1: new testimonies of his love. How many times was he
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  Speaker 1: pleased to make use of his servant to restore me
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  Speaker 1: to life. When I was almost on the very point
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  Speaker 1: of expiring. As they saw that my sickness and pain
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  Speaker 1: did not entirely end, they judged that the air of
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  Speaker 1: the lake on which the convent was situated was very
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  Speaker 1: prejudicial to my constitution. They concluded that it would be
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  Speaker 1: necessary for me to remove during my disposition. Our Lord
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  Speaker 1: put it into the heart of Father la Combe to
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  Speaker 1: establish a hospital in this place for the poor people
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  Speaker 1: seized with maladi. Is to institute also in a committee
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  Speaker 1: or congregation of ladies to furnish such as could not
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  Speaker 1: leave their families to go to the hospital with the
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  Speaker 1: means of subsistence during their illness. After the manner of France,
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  Speaker 1: there have been yet no institution of this kind in
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  Speaker 1: that country. Willingly did I enter into it, and without
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  Speaker 1: any other fund. That providence and some useless rooms which
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  Speaker 1: a gentleman of the town gave us. We begun it
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  Speaker 1: we dedicated to the Holy Child Jesus, and he was
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  Speaker 1: pleased to give the first beds to it from my pension.
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  Speaker 1: He gave us such a blessing that several other persons
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  Speaker 1: join us in this charity. In a short time, there
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  Speaker 1: were nearly twelve birds in it, and three persons of
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  Speaker 1: great piety gave themselves to this hospital to serve it,
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  Speaker 1: who without any salary, consecrated themselves to the service of
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  Speaker 1: the poor patients. I supplied them with ointments and medicines,
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  Speaker 1: which were freely given to such of the poor people
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  Speaker 1: of the town as had need of them. These good
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  Speaker 1: ladies were so hearty in the cause, that through their
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  Speaker 1: charity and the care of the young women, this hospital
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  Speaker 1: was very well maintained and served. These ladies joined together
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  Speaker 1: also in providing for the Sikh who could not go
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  Speaker 1: to the hospital. I gave them some little regulations, such
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  Speaker 1: as I had observed when in France, which they continued
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  Speaker 1: to keep up with tenderness and love. All these little
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  Speaker 1: things which caused but little and which own all the
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  Speaker 1: success to the blessing which God gave them, drew upon
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  Speaker 1: us new persecutions. The Bishop of Geneva was offended with
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  Speaker 1: me more than ever, especially in seeing that these small
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  Speaker 1: matters rendered me beloved. He said that I won over everybody.
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  Speaker 1: He openly declared that he would not bear me in
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  Speaker 1: his diocese, though I had done nothing but good, or
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  Speaker 1: rather God by me. He extended the persecution to those
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  Speaker 1: good religious women who had been my assistance. The priors
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  Speaker 1: in particular, had his own share to bear, though it
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  Speaker 1: did not last long, as I was obliged on account
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  Speaker 1: of the earth, to remove after having been there about
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  Speaker 1: two years and a half, they were there more in
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  Speaker 1: peace and quietness. On another side, my sister was very
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  Speaker 1: wary of this house, and as the season for the
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  Speaker 1: waters approached, they took occasion from thence to send her
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  Speaker 1: away with the maid whom I brought with me, who
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  Speaker 1: had molested me exceedingly in my late illness. I only
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  Speaker 1: kept her, whom Providence had sent me by means of
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  Speaker 1: my sister. I have ever thought that God had ordered
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  Speaker 1: my sister's journey only to bring her to me, as
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  Speaker 1: one chosen of Him and proper for the state which
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  Speaker 1: it was his pleasure to cause me to bear. While
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  Speaker 1: I was yet indisposed. The Ursulins with the Bishop of
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  Speaker 1: Versails earnestly requested the Father General of the Barnabites to
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  Speaker 1: seek among the religious a man of merit, piety and
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  Speaker 1: learning in whom he might place confidence, and who might
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  Speaker 1: serve him for a prepend and a counselor. At first
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  Speaker 1: he cast his eyes on Father la Combe, Yet before
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  Speaker 1: he absolutely engaged him with the said bishop, he wrote
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  Speaker 1: to him to know whether he had any objection there too.
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  Speaker 1: Father la Combe replied that he had no other will
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  Speaker 1: but that of obeying him, that he might command him
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  Speaker 1: herein as he should think best. In the case, he
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  Speaker 1: gave me an account of this, and that we were
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  Speaker 1: going to be entirely separated. I was glad to find
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  Speaker 1: that our Lord would employ him under a bishop who
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  Speaker 1: knew him and would be likely to do him justice.
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  Speaker 1: Yet it was some time before he went, matters not
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  Speaker 1: being all arranged. End of Chapter twelve Athens Breeze, March
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  Speaker 1: of two thousand nine.