Unity of spirit and administration

E II, 1179

Religious observance and regularity, unity of spirit and administration

Turin, April 1868

To my beloved sons and confreres of the Society of St Francis de Sales.

The month of May that we usually dedicate to Mary is about to begin and I wish to profit from this occasion to speak to my dear sons and confreres and put some things before them that I could not do in the Conference of St Francis de Sales.

I am convinced that you all have the firm desire of persevering in the Society and so acting with all your strength to win souls for God and firstly saving your own. To succeed in this great endeavour as a general basis we must have the general concern of putting the rules of the Society into practice, because our Constitutions would be of no help to anyone if they were like a dead letter just to be left lying on the desk. If we want our Society to go ahead with the Lord’s blessing it is essential that every article of the Constitutions is a norm for our activity. Nevertheless there are some practical and very effective matters for achieving the purpose proposed and amongst them I note unity of spirit and unity of administration.

By unity of spirit I mean the firm, constant decision to want or not want those things that the Superior considers to redound to the greater glory of God. This decision should never waver however serious the obstacles that oppose spiritual and eternal good, according to the teaching of St Paul: “Caritas omnia suffert, omnia sustinet” [1 Cor 13:7]. This decision leads the confrere to being punctual in his duties not just because of the command given him, but for the glory of God it is his intention to promote. This is where his readiness comes from to put the established time in for meditation, prayer, visit to the Blessed Sacrament, examination of conscience, spiritual reading. It is true that the Rule prescribes these things, but unless there is a supernatural motive for observing them, our rules are forgotten.

What contributes powerfully to preserving this unity of spirit is making frequent use of the holy Sacraments. Let priests do whatever they can to celebrate holy Mass regularly and devoutly; those who are not priests should try to go to Communion as often as possible. But the fundamental issue lies in frequent Confession. Let everyone try to observe what the Rule prescribes in this regard. Then, special confidence is necessary with the Superior of the House in which each one lives. The great defect is this: many people seek to misrepresent the dispositions of the Superior, or judge them to be of little importance, and meanwhile they waver in their observance of the Rule, damaging themselves, causing annoyance to the Superiors, and omitting or at least neglecting things that would have powerfully contributed to the good of souls. So let each one strip himself of his own will and renounce thinking of his own good; seek only what redounds to the greater glory of God and then go ahead.

The following difficulty then arises: in practice we encounter cases where it seems better to do differently from what was commanded. That is not true. The best thing is always to be obedient, never changing the spirit of the Rule as interpreted by the respective Superior. Henceforth, let each one try his best to interpret, practise, recommend the observance of the Rule amongst his confreres; and do for his neighbour everything the superior judges to be for the greater glory of God and the good of souls. I regard this conclusion to be the fundamental basis of a Religious Society.

Unity of administration must go with unity of spirit. A religious proposes to put into practice the Saviour’s saying: it means renouncing what he has or could have in the world in the hope of a better recompense in Heaven. Father, mother, brothers, sisters, house, all kinds of things, all offered for the love of God. Except that even if the soul is united with the body it still needs the material means for being nurtured, covered and to act. Therefore while he renounces all he had, he tries to join a Society in which he can provide for the necessities of life without having to worry about temporal administration. So how should a Society arrange matters to deal with temporal things? The rules of the Society provide for all; so by practising the Rule every need is satisfied. One garment, a slice of bread are enough for a religious. When there is need for more, he indicates this to the superior and it will be provided. But this is where everyone’s efforts have to focus. Whoever can procure some advantage for the Society should do so, but never make himself the focus. Efforts should be made to see that there is a single purse, just as there should be a single will. Whoever seeks to sell, buy, change or keep money for his own use ... whoever does that is like a farmer who is throwing wheat away and tossing it amongst the husks while the threshers are threshing it. In regard to this I must urge you never to keep money under the false pretext of it being useful for the Society. What is most useful for the Society is observance of the Rule.

Clothes, your room, its furniture should be far from being amongst the finest. The religious must be ready at any moment to leave his cell and appear before his Creator without anything that might accuse him once he has left it and without giving the Judge any reason to reproach him.

Let everything proceed then, guided by obedience, but humbly and confidently. Nothing should be hidden from the Superior, nothing. Let each one be as open as a child is to his father, with complete sincerity. This way the Superior himself will be able to know the state of his confreres, provide for their needs and take the decisions which will make it easier to observe the Rule and that will be of advantage to the whole Society.

One could say many things about this. That can be done in another letter, through appropriate conferences and especially in the next retreat at Trofarello, if God in his great mercy preserves us, as I hope he will. This will help us next September to bring all this together.

May the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with us always and grant us the spirit of fervour and the precious gift of perseverance in the Society. Amen.

Yours affectionately in Jesus Christ,

Fr John Bosc