Dear Miss,
[…] From there (Tientsin) I receive pessimistic news about the fundamentalist movement, I will have the resource to limit my “writings” to the unassailable field of facts. But you can be sure that no force in the world will be able to change the direction and intensity of all the influence I am capable of. Let us only ask the Lord to help us keep this attitude without bitterness by showing us that his action can be embodied even in the most unpleasant maneuvers of some obtuse or pharisaical minds. All my inner life is oriented and confirmed more and more in the union with God found in “all the interior and exterior forces of this World”. But, for this attitude to be effective, nothing must be excluded from these forces: neither death, nor “persecution” in the field of ideas. Everything is transformable in our Lord, if we believe. I have already told you, perhaps, that the general formula of the Christian life had taken for me this statement: “Communicate by fidelity with the World consecrated by faith”. I believe this proposal is comprehensive, and unassailable.
You know what a great joy it will be for me to meet you again in a few months. I regret that the Collège de France affair does not work*. But let yourself be led by events, as long as they are stronger than you. You have a great influence on many minds around you. Don’t worry about finding this action a bit scattered, a bit discontinuous. It is not essential that we absolutely, distinctly understand our life for it to be beautiful and successful. Often an existence is fruitful by the side that one would be inclined to disdain. […]
* Of this affair, which seems to concern Miss Zanta, no trace remains. Perhaps it was for her to give some lectures at the Collège de France.
Letters to Léontine Zanta, Édition Desclée de Brouwer, 1965, p. 73
Excerpt of correspondence proposed by Robert Bowman
