To a Catholic maiden. Way to universal love.

The Hundred and Thirty-sixth Letter.

To a Catholic maiden. Way to universal love.

Highly honored friend!

It grieves me that you have taken the trouble to send me so lengthy a letter; yet I can receive the same in all simplicity as a new proof of your sincere affection and love. Through this your love you would gladly warn me of what seems harmful to you, and commend to me that which you esteem good and wholesome.

I would have to be the most thankless person in the world, if I took this your conduct amiss. Believe me, worthy friend! it is sincerely God and the truth that I am about. I am a sinful person, that is true; but I do not love the sin, but wish through God's grace to be freed from it. I can err, that is also true; but I love no error, but as soon as I am convinced of it, I will leave the error and lay hold of the truth: Therefore, though I cannot outwardly do and believe everything as you do; so it seems to me that it is fair that one should have patience with one another therein, and not demand that one assent or believe something against the conviction of his heart, which would indeed be only hypocrisy.

I have heard that Augustine says: That whoever does not defend his opinion, though incorrect, with stubborn firmness — especially when he has not himself brought forth such opinion, but received it from his parents — but who seeks the truth and is ready to amend himself when he has found it, he is by no means to be reckoned among the heretics.

If then, worthy friend, I have an error, as is possible with us all: lo, such is unknown to me, and I am ready to amend it as soon as I have found it; therefore I cannot possibly be a heretic. You have known in what religion I was born; and I have known in what religion you served God; and, notwithstanding this difference, I have without flattery highly esteemed, loved, the love of God in you and in your devout walk, and counted your company edifying to me; and this sincere high regard for the grace in your heart I will constantly keep, even if you should also (which yet I will not hope) no longer think me worthy of your company.

It seems to me our love must be truly Catholic, that is, universal, because I see that God's love is universal. I love and reverence the good which I have found among the many saints and godly of the Roman-Catholic Church: But because I have seen that the man-loving God has His children, yea saints and dear children of God, also under other so-called religions; I would hardly sin if I should also not love those whom God loves. Had you as much acquaintance with such souls as I through God's goodness, I doubt not your love would also become more spread abroad and more universal. You will say: One can deceive oneself, and take for children of God such as yet are not; that is true: But it seems to me there is less accountability therein when one sometimes judges too kindly, than when one condemns such as God yet justifies and has counted worthy of His grace. I so unite myself from the heart with all good that I find in the Roman Church. Ah! is it then not possible, and would it not be pleasing to the man-loving heart of Jesus, if you also did likewise in regard of the good which God's mercy bestows on other hearts?

To deal of religious controversies is not so my work and calling. That we must eat and drink Christ's flesh and blood, I believe with you from the heart; but that such can happen alone and otherwise not, than in the use of the holy Sacrament, I can nowhere find. Father Rosweyde writes that the holy Mary of Egypt lived forty-seven years in the wilderness without seeing a single person or partaking of the Sacrament, save only at last at the end of her life; and of such examples one finds more. Submission under experienced soul-guides I approve greatly; but that such also must have their bounds, says the holy Theresa in the Interior Castle, 6th Dwelling, 9th chapter, where she names a case in which one ought not to follow the counsel of the confessor. And that this blind submission is also subject to great danger when the souls do not meet the right guides, one has still seen in our days, among so many others, in the example of Father G. and Dame C., which is known to all the world.

That otherwise to that which you write of the authority of the Pope, of the Church, of the holy Sacrament, of the various sects, and of the obedience to confessors, the Protestants would have much to answer, you can easily suppose: Only I do not occupy myself therewith. To deny the world, to serve God, to love, honor, and gladly follow Jesus and His saints — that is my concern. With the errors and quarrels arising among us I have nothing to do. The whole Church in France says: The Council is above the Pope; and the other part of the Church says the contrary. Some bishops accept the bull Unigenitus, others not: The Franciscans and Dominicans, and again the Fathers of the Society and Dominicans, have their important controversies: Only my honored friend takes no part in all such and other matters; you let the clergy settle their differences, and meanwhile you busy yourself to serve and to love God: Even so would I also gladly do.

No, in truth, honored friend! we will enter into no dispute; for that I count myself far too unskilled. Let us see how Jesus converses with sinners! In the time of our highly praised Saviour the Jews made up the true Church of God; though they were long not what they ought to be; and the Samaritans were heretics. Nevertheless, when the gracious Friend of men dealt with the sinful Samaritan woman at the well, He did not say to her: You must become a Jewess, and go to church at Jerusalem, or you cannot be saved; but He spoke with her of her sins, of the living water of His grace and sweet love; and how she should worship the Father neither at Samaria nor at Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth. If then you will regard me also only as a Samaritan; we can indeed do it so too, and deal of the inward heart-truths; wherein I do not hope that the least strife or difference will arise between us: Only that I am still far behind in the actual experience.

Do then only continue heartily to pray for me, that I may yet become a fervent lover of Jesus, and may devote and hallow all my heart's inclinations, time and powers to His service; so I live in the humble and firm hope that we shall find one another again above in the blessed eternity, where all that here causes a mediation of love will of itself fall away, and we shall then bring to the Lord our God all honor and all praise. Amen! O Jesus! through whose grace I am and remain

To my highly honored friend, most service-obliged.

German

Der hundertundsechsunddreißigste Brief.

An eine Catholische Jungfer. Weg zur allgemeinen Liebe.

Hochgeehrte Freundin!

Es thut mir Leid, daß Sie sich die Mühe gegeben, einen so weitläuftigen Brief an mich abzulassen; ich kan selbigen aber in aller Einfalt annehmen, als einen neuen Beweis Dero aufrichtigen Zuneigung und Liebe.

— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.

German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).