Melancholy

Do you know why a vague sadness sometimes  weighs upon your hearts and makes you find life so bitter? It is your spirit, which aspires to happiness and freedom, and which, bound to the body that serves as its prison, exhausts itself in vain efforts to escape. However, seeing that such efforts are useless, it falls into despondency, and the body, bearing the spirit’s  influence, sluggishness, dejection and a kind of apathy, seizes you and you find yourself unhappy.

Believe me and strongly resist these feelings that weaken your willpower. The yearnings for a better life are innate in the spirit of all humans, but do not seek them in this world. And nowadays, as God is sending his Spirits to instruct you about the divine happiness reserved for you, patiently await the angel of deliverance, who will help you break the bonds that hold your spirit captive. Remember that, during your trial on the earth, you have a mission that you cannot doubt, whether in dedicating yourself to your family or whether in fulfilling the various obligations that God has entrusted to you. If during the course of this trial, and while performing your task, you see worries, troubles and vexations fall upon you, be strong and courageous in order to bear them. Face them resolutely. They are of short duration and will lead you to the friends for whom you weep. They will rejoice at your arrival amongst them and will extend their arms to you to lead you to a place where the afflictions of earth have no access.

François de Geneve (Bordeaux)