Walking with Adèle

Second Path
See with the Eyes of Faith

All her life, Adèle was animated by a deep faith, a faith that had its roots in her Baptism and her Confirmation. It was the faith of a child, simple, without deviation, which went straight to the end; she was careful to nourish this faith with prayer, Communion, and meditation on the teachings of the Church and the writings of the saints. She particularly loved Francis de Sales, Teresa of Avila, and Ignatius. Throughout the course of the liturgical year, she associated herself with the mysteries of Christ, which she contemplated with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Adèle seeks to communicate this faith through her letters. In this way, she hopes to give rise to faith, to keep it alive, and to stimulate it in others.

Faith Allows Us To See as God Sees

In Croire, Father Bernard Sesboüé writes: “The living God is always infinitely beyond what we can think of him. This is why he surprises and disconcerts us. To believe can only be a gift from God, because only God can speak to us of God.” Adèle understands this, she who unceasingly invites us to enter into the way in which God sees things. “Oh, if only we could all rise to a new life of faith and grace. If we could only live less according to our poor nature which makes us lose so much time. Let us be daughters of faith and see things with the eyes of faith.” God has certain designs; it is up to us to penetrate them, and there we will find “a great means of advancement.” To be sure, sometimes in retrospect we have been able to chose the way of faith, against our way of seeing things—but we must have time to discover with Adèle that the difficulties themselves, considered in the light of faith, are “precious treasures.” . . .

Act by Faith

Adèle, who likes to contemplate the faith of Mary at the Annunciation and on Calvary, asks us to make the will of God our own: “What peace would be ours if we possessed that beautiful virtue of conformity to the will of God! With confidence in God, our most bitter anguish can become our sweetest consolation.” Faith, however, is never a light that blinds us. . . .

Jesus, you know living by faith

Is not natural for us.

Come to the help of our lack of faith.

We insist so much on being in charge;

Come take the reins of our lives

So that, walking in faith

With our eyes fixed on you,

After the example of Mary,

Your Mother and ours,

Our lives may sing your love.

Amen.