L E T T E R S

666led to expect, we might be evicted from our house on rue Vavin. Maybe even,have our property sold at auction! Though these are only suppositions, the worstpossible, ready to submit to any punishment for my sins, I have not lost hope thatsuch a situation might be averted.However, if the landlord, basing himself on certain articles of Law andunwilling to allow for any delay, wished to press his demands immediately, eforethe 15 th , I would naturally return to Paris. Perhaps I could obtain the money tosatisfy him, and perhaps not! In the later case the House on rue Vavin would,naturally, close. I would then rent some small house in the same section, and takeup residence there with just the closest and most strongly united brothers.Although this himiliation would be a scandal to the people and an occasionto despair about all our undertakings for many of those whose spirit is weak,surely as a humiliation it could turn out to be for our good. I add this for yourinformation and to reassure you. Even in the event of a catastrophe I do not intendto abandon our work, or to remain in complete dispersion even a while! Onemore, in God there is hope! May God’s will be done!After you have established the closest and most perfect possible spiritualunity, you are undoubtedly negotiating for funds. It is necessary to present thismatter in the best possible light, yet very truthfully in a word, in the spirit inwhich the whole work was undertaken, explaining the what and the how of oursituation till now. And secondly, our plans for the future, on which we base ourrequest for funds.From the very beginning we were convinced that, if our own conversion aswell as that of the brothers who were turning to God was to be effective, for theones who were being converted, for God and for the people, it was most properand even necessary to withdraw from the company in which we were living, andcome together in a single community in which each individual could find supportin all the others while strengthening them by his own spirit and by hisparticipation in common practices. Thus the individual became, in a sense, boundbefore himself, God and men, and was led onto the right way. We decided tobegin leading a common life, and we established a House at the beginning of