In Advent, 1657, St. Vincent wrote to St. Louise:
Full Screen Download PDF Download PPT“To spend Advent well, use Father Souffrand’s* book. Have the treatise on this season read during our Sisters’ meals; have them make their prayer on it and put into practice what is contained in it and is suitable for them. Allow them to add some little penitential acts to their usual ones– I mean, the Sisters who ask you to do so. As for yourself, your penance will be to bear your sufferings for the love of God and not to think about doing any others.” (CCD 6:641)
*There was some confusion about the spelling of the author’s name. In St. Vincent’s biographer Coste’s footnote the information pertains to Jean Suffren: “Born in Salon (Bouches-de-Rhône) on November 30, 1571, Suffren entered the Society of Jesus on April 4, 1586, in Avignon. He taught philosophy in Dole and theology in Avignon and became the confessor of Marie de Medicis and Louis XIII. He died in Flushing (Netherlands) on September 15, 1641. Suffren’s work, which Saint Vincent was recommending to Saint Louise, is L’Année Chrétienne (Paris: Claude Sonnius, 1640).”