{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_63294/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_63294","id":"gutenberg_63294","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63294","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Meditations"],"text":"THOUGHTS\nOF SAINT TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE\nOF THE CHILD JESUS\n\n\nNihil Obstat\nREMIGIUS LAFORT, S. T. D.\n_Censor_\n\nImprimatur\nJOHN CARDINAL FARLEY\n_Archbishop of New York_\n\n\nNEW YORK, _October_ 22, 1915\n\n\n\n[Picture of Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se]\nSAINT TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE OF THE CHILD JESUS\n_The Little Flower of Jesus_\n\n\n\nTHOUGHTS\nOF SAINT TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE OF THE CHILD JESUS\n\n\nTHE LITTLE FLOWER OF JESUS\nCARMELITE OF THE MONASTERY\nOF LISIEUX, 1873-1897\n\n\nTRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH\n\"PENS\u00c9ES\" BY AN IRISH CARMELITE\n\n\n\n\nNEW YORK \u2022 PUBLISHED BY\nP. J. KENEDY & SONS \u2022 1915\n\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1915\nBY P. J. KENEDY & SONS\n\n\n\nTHE\u2022PLIMPTON\u2022PRESS\nNORWOOD\u2022MASS\u2022U\u2022S\u2022A\n\n\n\nTO\nPETITE TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE\nAND\nM\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nA LITTLE TRIBUTE OF\nREVERENT AND LOVING GRATITUDE\nFROM CARMEL OF KILMACUD\n\n_June_ 9, 1914\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nLOVE OF GOD\nLOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR\nFAITH\nHOPE\nHUMILITY\nDETACHMENT\nMORTIFICATION\nOBEDIENCE\nPOVERTY\nCONFIDENCE\nSELF-ABANDONMENT\nGRATITUDE\nZEAL\nSIMPLICITY\nPRAYER\nHOLY COMMUNION\nSUFFERING\nTHE DIRECTION OF SOULS\nTHE BLESSED VIRGIN\nVARIOUS SUBJECTS\nPRAYER FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF THE SERVANT OF GOD\n\n\n\nTHOUGHTS\nOF SAINT TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE\nOF THE CHILD JESUS\n\n\n\nLOVE OF GOD\n\n\nJESUS! . . . I would so love Him! Love Him as never yet He has\nbeen loved. . .\n\nIV LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n(_Her sister Pauline_.)\n\n\nTHE science of love! Sweet is the echo of that word to the ear\nof my soul. I desire no other science. _Having given all my\nsubstance for it_, like the spouse in the Canticles, _I think\nthat I have given nothing._ [1]\n\nHISTOIRE D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n[1] Cant., viii, 7.\n\n\nWITHOUT love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nONE evening, at a loss for words to tell Jesus how I loved Him\nand how much I wished that He might be everywhere served and\nglorified, I reflected with pain that not one act of love would\never mount upwards from out of the depths of hell. Then I cried\nout that willingly would I consent to see myself plunged into\nthat place of torment and blasphemy, in order that He might be\nloved there eternally. That could not really glorify Him since\nHe desires only our happiness, but love makes one want to say a\nthousand foolish things. If I spoke thus, it was not that I did\nnot long for heaven; but then, my heaven was none other than\n_Love_, and in my fervour I felt that nothing could separate me\nfrom the Divine object of my love. . .\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nSEEING the eternal recompense so disproportionate to the\ntrifling sacrifices of this life, I longed to love Jesus, to\nlove Him ardently, to give Him a thousand proofs of tenderness\nwhile yet I could do so. . .\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nTHE love of God reveals itself in the very simplest soul who\nresists His grace in nothing, as well as in the most sublime.\nIndeed, the characteristic of love being to humble itself, if\nall souls resembled those of the holy Doctors who have\nenlightened the Church, the good God would not seem to descend\nlow enough in coming to them. But He has created the infant who\nknows nothing and can only wail; He has created the poor savage\nwho has but the natural law for guidance, and it is even unto\ntheir hearts that He deigns to stoop.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\nIN order that Love may be fully satisfied it must needs stoop to\nvery nothingness and transform that nothing into fire.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nIN times of aridity when I am incapable of praying, of\npractising virtue, I seek little opportunities, mere trifles, to\ngive pleasure to Jesus; for instance a smile, a pleasant word\nwhen inclined to be silent and to show weariness. If I find no\nopportunities, I at least tell Him again and again that I love\nHim; that is not difficult and it keeps alive the fire in my\nheart. Even though this fire of love might seem to me extinct I\nwould still throw little straws upon the embers and I am certain\nit would rekindle.\n\nXVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nON _the day of my conversion_ Charity entered into my heart and\nwith it a yearning to forget self always; thenceforward I was\nhappy.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nI DO not will that creatures should possess a single atom of my\nlove; I wish to give all to Jesus, since He makes me understand\nthat He alone is perfect happiness. All shall be for Him, all!\nAnd even when I have nothing to offer Him I will give Him that\nnothing.\n\nII LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nOUR Lord is more tender than a mother, and well do I know more\nthan one maternal heart! I know a mother is ever ready to\nforgive the little involuntary failings of her child.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nI KNOW of one means only by which to attain to perfection: LOVE.\nLet us love, since our heart is made for nothing else. Sometimes\nI seek another word to express Love, but in this land of exile\n_the word which begins and ends_ [2] is quite incapable of\nrendering the vibrations of the soul; we must then adhere to\nthis simple and only word: TO LOVE.\n\nBut on whom shall our poor heart lavish its love? Who shall be\nfound that is great enough to be the recipient of its treasures?\nWill a human being know how to comprehend them, and above all\nwill he be able to repay? There exists but one Being capable of\ncomprehending love; it is Jesus; He alone can give us back\ninfinitely more than we shall ever give to Him.\n\nLETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GU\u00c9RIN\n\n[2] St. Augustine.\n\n\nTHERE is one ONLY THING to do here below: to love Jesus, to win\nsouls for Him so that He may be loved. Let us seize with jealous\ncare every least opportunity of self-sacrifice. Let us refuse\nHim nothing--He does so want our love!\n\nVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nWHEN we really love, we rejoice in the happiness of the loved\none and make every sacrifice to procure it for him.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTRUE love is nourished by sacrifice, and the more the soul\ndenies itself natural satisfactions, the stronger and the more\ndisinterested becomes its tenderness.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHE good God does not need years to accomplish His work of love\nin a soul; one ray from His Heart can, in an instant, make His\nflower bloom for eternity. . .\n\nVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nLOVE can supply for length of years. Jesus, because He is\nEternal, regards not the time but only the love.\n\nV LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nI DESIRE no sensible consolation in loving; provided Jesus feel\nmy love that is enough for me. Oh! to love Him and to make Him\nloved . . . how sweet it is. . .\n\nV LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nO JESUS, I ask of Thee only Peace! . . . Peace, and above all\nLOVE--love without bound or limit. Jesus, let me for Thy sake\ndie a martyr; give me martyrdom of soul or body. Ah! rather give\nme both the one and the other!\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nI HAVE no longer any desire unless it be to love Jesus even to\nfolly! Yes, LOVE it is that draws me. I can say these words of\nthe canticle of our Father, St. John of the Cross:\n\nIn the inmost cellar\nOf my Beloved have I drunk; and when I went forth\nOver all the plain\nI knew nothing,\nAnd lost the flock I followed before.\nMy soul is occupied\nAnd all my substance in His service;\nNow I guard no flock,\nNor have I any other employment:\nMy sole occupation is love.\n\n(_Spiritual Canticle, Trans. D. Lewis._)\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nOH! if souls weak and imperfect as mine, felt what I feel, not\none would despair of reaching the summit of the mountain of\nLove, since Jesus does not demand from us great deeds, but only\nself-surrender and gratitude.\n\n_I have no need,_ saith He, _of the goats of thy flocks . . . If\nI were hungry I would not tell thee . . . Offer unto God the\nsacrifice of praise and thanksgiving._ [3]\n\nSee then, all that Jesus asks of us! He has not need of our\nworks but only of our _love_. This very God who declares that He\nneeds not to tell us if He were hungry, did not hesitate to\n_beg_ of the Samaritan woman a little water . . . He thirsted!!!\nBut in saying: \"_Give me to drink_,\" [4] it was the love of His\npoor creature that the Creator of the universe besought. He\nthirsted for Love!\n\nAnd now, more than ever is Jesus athirst. He meets with none but\nthe ungrateful and the indifferent among the disciples of the\nworld; and amongst _His own_ disciples He finds, alas! very few\nhearts that surrender themselves without any reserve to the\ntenderness of His infinite Love.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n[3] _Cf._ Ps. xlix, 9, 12, 14.\n[4] John, iv, 7.\n\n\nSince ever I have known Love's mighty power\nThus hath it wrought its work within my soul--\nWhate'er it findeth there, or good or ill,\nIt turneth all to gain; its living flame\nTransforms my soul into its very self. [5]\n\n[5] St. John of the Cross.\n\n\nHOW sweet is the way of Love! True, one may fall, one may not be\nalways faithful, but Love, knowing how to draw profit from all,\nvery quickly consumes whatsoever may displease Jesus, leaving\nnaught but humble and profound peace in the innermost soul.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nTHINKING one day of those who offer themselves as victims to the\nJustice of God in order to turn aside the punishment reserved\nfor sinners by taking it upon themselves, I felt this offering\nto be noble and generous, but I was far from feeling moved to\nmake it.\n\n\"O my Divine Master,\" I cried in the depths of my heart, \"shall\nThy Justice alone receive victims of holocaust? Has not Thy\nMerciful Love also need of them? On all sides it is ignored,\nrejected . . . the hearts on which Thou wouldst lavish it turn\nto creatures, seeking happiness in miserable and fleeting\naffections instead of casting themselves into Thine arms, into\nthe ineffable furnace of Thine Infinite Love.\n\n\"O my God, must Thy Love--disdained--remain within Thy Heart?\nMethinks that if Thou shouldst find souls offering themselves as\nvictims of holocaust to Thy Love, Thou wouldst consume them\nrapidly; that Thou wouldst be glad not to restrict the flames of\ninfinite tenderness pent up within Thee.\n\n\"If Thy Justice--the Justice which Thou dost exercise on earth--\nbe pleased to find voluntary victims on which to discharge its\nweight, how much the more must Thy Merciful Love also desire its\nvictims, since _Thy Mercy reacheth even to heaven_. [6]\n\n\"O Jesus, that happily I may be that holocaust consume Thy\nlittle victim in the fire of Divine Love.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n[6] _Cf_. Ps. xxxv, 6.\n\n\nAH! since that day love penetrates me and surrounds me; this\n_Merciful Love_ each moment renews and purifies me, leaving in\nmy heart no trace of sin. No, I cannot fear Purgatory; I know\nthat I do not merit even to enter with the Holy Souls into that\nplace of expiation, but I know too that the fire of Love is more\nsanctifying than the fire of Purgatory, I know that Jesus cannot\nwill needless suffering for us, and that He would not inspire me\nwith the desires I feel if He were unwilling to fulfil them.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nTO offer oneself as a Victim to Divine Love is not to offer\noneself to sweetness--to consolation; but to every anguish,\nevery bitterness, for Love lives only by sacrifice; and the more\na soul wills to be surrendered to Love, the more must she be\nsurrendered to suffering.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nIN order to love Jesus, to be His victim of love, the more weak\nand miserable we are, the more fitting are we for the operations\nof this consuming and transforming Love . . . The sole desire to\nbe victim suffices; but we must consent to remain always poor\nand without strength, and there lies the difficulty, for _where\nshall be found the truly poor in spirit? He must be sought afar\noff_, [7] saith the author of the _Imitation_ . . . He did not\nsay that we must seek him amongst great souls, but afar off,\nthat is to say in lowliness, in nothingness . . . Oh! let us\nkeep _afar off_ from all that glitters, let us love our\nlittleness, and be satisfied to feel nothing, then shall we be\ntruly poor in spirit, and Jesus will come to seek us how far\nsoever we may be; He will transform us into flames of Love! . . .\n\nVI LETTER TO S\u0152UR MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n_(Her sister Marie.)_\n\n[7] _Cf._ Imit., II, xi, 4.\n\n\nTO be truly a Victim of Love requires absolute self-surrender.\n_The soul is consumed by Love only in so far as she surrenders\nherself to Love._\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIT appears to me that for Victims of Love there will be no\njudgment, but rather, that the good God will hasten to\nrecompense with eternal delights His own Love, which He will see\nburning in their hearts.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nAT any cost I will cull the palm of Saint Agnes; if not by\nshedding my blood then it must be by Love. . .\n\nIV LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nO MY God, Thou knowest I have never desired but to love Thee\nalone. I seek no other glory. Thy Love has gone before me from\nmy childhood, it has grown with my growth, and now it is an\nabyss the depths of which I cannot fathom.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nLOVE attracts love, mine rushes forth unto Thee, it would fain\nfill up the abyss which attracts it; but alas! it is not even as\none drop of dew lost in the Ocean. To love Thee as Thou lovest\nme I must borrow Thy very love--then only, can I find rest.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nJUST as a torrent sweeps along with it unto the depths of the\nsea whatsoever it encounters on its course, even so, my Jesus,\ndoes the soul which plunges into the boundless ocean of Thy Love\ndraw after her all her treasures. Lord, Thou knowest that for me\nthese treasures are the souls it has pleased Thee to unite to\nmine.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nCHARITY gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the\nChurch being a body composed of different members, the most\nessential, the most noble of all the organs would not be wanting\nto her; I understood that the Church has _a heart_ and that this\nheart is burning with love; that it is love alone which makes\nthe members work, that if love were to die away apostles would\nno longer preach the Gospel, martyrs would refuse to shed their\nblood. I understood that love comprises all vocations, that love\nis everything, that it embraces all times and all places because\nit is eternal!\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nO MY Well-Beloved! I understand to what combats Thou hast\ndestined me; it is not on the battle field that I shall\nfight . . . I am prisoner of Thy Love; freely have I riveted\nthe chain which unites me to Thee and separates me for ever\nfrom the world. My sword is LOVE; with it _I shall chase the\nstranger from the kingdom, I shall make Thee to be proclaimed\nKing_ in the souls of men.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, APPENDIX\n\n\n_LOVE!_ . . . that is what I ask . . . I know but one thing\nnow--_to love Thee_, O Jesus! Glorious deeds are not for me, I\ncannot preach the Gospel, shed my blood . . . what does it\nmatter? My brothers toil instead of me, and I, _the little\nchild_, I keep quite close to the royal throne, _I love_ for\nthose who fight.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nHOW shall I show my love since love is proved by deeds? Well,--\n_the little child will strew flowers_ . . . she will embalm the\nDivine Throne with their fragrance, will sing with silvery voice\nthe canticle of love.\n\nYes, my Beloved, it is thus that my life's brief day shall be\nspent before Thee. No other means have I of proving my love than\nto strew flowers; that is, to let no little sacrifice escape me,\nnot a look, not a word, to avail of the very least actions and\ndo them for Love. I wish to suffer for Love's sake and for\nLove's sake even to rejoice; thus shall I strew flowers. Not one\nshall I find without shedding its petals for Thee . . . and then\nI will sing, I will always sing, even if I must gather my roses\nin the very midst of thorns--and the longer and sharper the\nthorns the sweeter shall be my song.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nS\u0152UR Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de l'Enfant J\u00e9sus often spoke of a well-known toy\nwith which in childhood's days she had amused herself: a\nkaleidoscope; in form somewhat like a small telescope; on\nlooking through, one sees an endless succession of pretty and\nmany-coloured designs, varying at each turn of the kaleidoscope.\n\n\"This toy,\" she said, \"aroused my admiration and I used to\nwonder what could produce so pleasing a phenomenon; when one\nday, after serious examination, I saw there were simply a few\ntiny scraps of paper and of wool cut no matter how, and thrown\nhere and there. I pursued my investigation and discovered three\nmirrors inside the tube: I had there the key to the problem.\n\n\"This was for me the image of a great mystery. As long as our\nactions, even the least of them, remain within the focus of\nLove, the Blessed Trinity, which is figured by the three\nmirrors, reflects them, and endows them with a wondrous beauty.\nJesus, looking at us through the little lens, that is to say, as\nit were through Himself, finds all our actions pleasing to Him.\nBut if we leave the ineffable centre of Love, what will He see?\nMere straws . . . actions sullied and nothing worth.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHIS little prayer which includes all my desires I ask you to\nsay for me each day:\n\n\"Merciful Father, in the name of Thy sweet Jesus, of the Blessed\nVirgin and of the Saints, I pray Thee that my sister be fired\nwith Thy spirit of love, and that Thou wilt grant her the grace\nto make Thee greatly loved.\"\n\nIf God should take me soon to Himself, I ask you to continue\neach day this same prayer, for in Heaven my desire will be the\nsame as upon earth; to love Jesus and to make Him loved.\n\nIII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nSHE was looking at the sky one day when some one remarked to\nher:\n\n\"Very soon you will dwell beyond the blue sky; with what love\nyou contemplate it!\"\n\nShe merely smiled, but afterwards said to the Mother Prioress:\n\n\"Mother, our Sisters little know what I suffer! Looking at the\nblue sky I was thinking only of the beauty of the material\nheavens; _the other is more and more closed to me_ . . . I was\nat first distressed by that remark, then an interior voice\nanswered: 'Yes, through love thou didst look at the heavens.\nSince thy soul is wholly consecrated to Love, all thy actions,\neven the most indifferent, bear the impress of this divine\nseal.' I was instantly consoled.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nUNTIL two days before her death she wished to be alone at night,\nhowever, notwithstanding her entreaties, the Infirmarian used to\nrise several times to visit her. On one occasion she found our\nlittle invalid with hands clasped and eyes raised to Heaven.\n\n\"But what are you doing?\" she asked; \"you should try to sleep.\"\n\n\"I cannot, dear Sister, I suffer too much! then I pray. . .\"\n\n\"And what do you say to Jesus?\"\n\n\"I say nothing, _I love Him!_\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA SISTER was speaking to her of the happiness of Heaven: Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\ninterrupted, saying:\n\n\"It is not that which attracts me. . .\"\n\n\"What is it then?\"\n\n\"Oh! it is LOVE! To love, to be beloved, and _to come back to\nearth to make_ LOVE _loved_.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nLOVE alone have I ever given to the good God, with love He will\nrepay me.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nALL that I have written regarding my desire of suffering is most\ntrue; oh! I do not repent of having surrendered myself to Love.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nJESUS! Jesus! if it be so sweet to desire Thy Love, what will it\nbe to possess and to enjoy it for ever!\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nO JESUS! could I but tell all _little souls_ of Thine ineffable\ncondescension! . . . I feel that if it were possible to find one\nmore weak than mine Thou wouldst take delight in showering upon\nher greater favours still, provided that she abandoned herself\nwith entire confidence to Thine Infinite Mercy.\n\nBut why these desires, O my Beloved, to impart the secrets of\nThy Love? Is it not Thyself alone Who hast made them known to me\nand canst Thou not reveal them to others? Yes, I know it and I\nimplore Thee to _do_ so: _I beseech Thee to let Thy divine gaze\nrest upon an immense number of little souls, I beseech Thee to\nchoose in this world a Legion of little victims worthy of Thy\nLove!_\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nHER last words--looking at her crucifix:\n\n\"OH! . . . I LOVE HIM! . . . MY GOD, I . . . LOVE . . . THEE!!!\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nO MY God, Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to love Thee and to\nmake Thee loved, to labour for the glory of Holy Church by\nsaving souls still on earth and by delivering those who suffer\nin purgatory. I desire to accomplish Thy Will perfectly, and to\nattain to the degree of glory which Thou hast prepared for me in\nThy Kingdom, in one word, I desire to be a saint, but I know\nthat I am powerless, and I implore Thee, O my God, to be Thyself\nmy sanctity.\n\nSince Thou hast so loved me as to give me Thine only Son to be\nmy Saviour and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits\nare mine, to Thee I offer them with joy, beseeching Thee to see\nme only as in the Face of Jesus and in His Heart burning with\nLove.\n\nAgain, I offer Thee all the merits of the Saints--in Heaven and\non earth--their acts of love and those of the holy Angels; and\nfinally I offer Thee, O Blessed Trinity, the love and the merits\nof the Holy Virgin, my most dear Mother; it is to her I entrust\nmy oblation, begging her to present it to Thee.\n\nHer Divine Son, my well-beloved Spouse, during His life on\nearth, told us: \"_If you ask the Father anything in My Name He\nwill give it to you._\" [8] I am then certain that Thou wilt\nhearken to my desires . . . My God, I know it, the more Thou\nwillest to give the more dost Thou make us desire. Immense are\nthe desires that I feel within my heart, and it is with\nconfidence that I call upon Thee to come and take possession of\nmy soul. I cannot receive Thee in Holy Communion as often as I\nwould; but, Lord, art Thou not Almighty? . . . Remain in me as\nin the Tabernacle--never leave Thy little Victim.\n\nI long to console Thee for the ingratitude of the wicked and I\npray Thee take from me the liberty to displease Thee! If through\nfrailty I fall sometimes, may Thy Divine glance purify my soul\nimmediately, consuming every imperfection--like to fire which\ntransforms all things into itself.\n\nI thank Thee, O my God, for all the graces Thou hast bestowed on\nme, and particularly for making me pass through the crucible of\nsuffering. It is with joy I shall behold Thee on the Last Day\nbearing Thy sceptre--the Cross; since Thou hast deigned to give\nme for my portion this most precious Cross, I have hope of\nresembling Thee in Heaven and seeing the sacred stigmata of Thy\nPassion shine in my glorified body.\n\nAfter exile on earth I hope to enjoy the possession of Thee in\nour eternal Fatherland, but I have no wish to amass merits for\nHeaven, I will work for Thy Love alone, my sole aim being to\ngive Thee pleasure, to console Thy Sacred Heart, and to save\nsouls who will love Thee for ever.\n\nAt the close of life's evening I shall appear before Thee with\nempty hands, for I ask not, Lord, that Thou wouldst count my\nworks . . . All our justice is tarnished in Thy sight. It is\ntherefore my desire to be clothed with Thine own Justice and to\nreceive from Thy Love the eternal possession of Thyself. I crave\nno other Throne nor other Crown but Thee, O my Beloved! . . .\n\nIn Thy sight time is nothing, one day is as a thousand years.\n[9] Thou canst in an instant prepare me to appear before Thee.\n\nThat I may live in one Act of perfect Love, I OFFER MYSELF AS A\nVICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO THY MERCIFUL LOVE, imploring Thee to\nconsume me without ceasing, and to let the tide of infinite\ntenderness pent up in Thee, overflow into my soul, that so I may\nbecome a very martyr of Thy Love, O my God!\n\nMay this martyrdom, having first prepared me to appear before\nThee, break life's thread at last, and may my soul take its\nflight, _unretarded_, into the eternal embrace of Thy Merciful\nLove.\n\nI desire, O Well-Beloved, at every heart-beat to renew this\nOblation an infinite number of times, _till the shadows retire_\n[10] and I can tell Thee my love eternally face to face!\n\n[_Signed_]\n\nMARIE-FRAN\u00c7OISE-TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE\nDE L'ENFANT J\u00c9SUS ET DE LA SAINTE FACE\n_Rel. Carm. ind._\n\nFeast of The Most Holy Trinity.\nThe 9th of June in the year of grace, 1895.\n\n\n[8] John, xvi, 23.\n[9] _Cf_. Ps. lxxxix, 4.\n[10] Cant., iv, 6.\n\n\n\nLOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR\n\nTHERE are moments when we are so wretched within, that we must\nneeds hurry away from ourselves. The good God does not oblige us\nto remain at such times in our own company; indeed He often\npermits that it should be displeasing to us just that we may\nleave it. And I see no other means of going out of ourselves\nthan by going to visit Jesus and Mary, that is, hastening to\ndeeds of charity.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nI APPLIED myself above all to practise quite hidden little acts\nof virtue; thus I liked to fold the mantles forgotten by the\nSisters, and sought a thousand opportunities of rendering them\nservice.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VII\n\n\nHAD I been rich I never could have borne to see a poor person\nhungry without giving him to eat. It is the same in my spiritual\nlife: knowing there are souls on the point of falling into Hell,\nI give them my treasures according as I earn anything, and I\nhave never yet found a moment to say: \"Now I am going to work\nfor myself.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nI FEEL that when I am charitable it is Jesus alone who acts in\nme; the more I am united to Him the more do I love all my\nSisters. If, when I desire to increase this love in my heart,\nthe demon tries to set before my eyes the faults of one or other\nof the Sisters, I hasten to call to mind her virtues, her good\ndesires; I say to myself that if I have seen her fall once, she\nmay well have gained many victories which she conceals through\nhumility; and that even what appears to me a fault may in truth\nbe an act of virtue by reason of the intention.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nTRUE Charity consists in bearing with all the defects of our\nneighbour, in not being surprised at his failings, and in being\nedified by his least virtues; Charity must not remain shut up in\nthe depths of the heart, for _no man lighteth a candle and\nputteth it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may\nshine to all that are in the house._ [1] It seems to me that\nthis candle represents the Charity which ought to enlighten and\nmake joyful, not only those who are dearest to me, but _all who\nare in the house_.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n[1] _Cf_. Matt., v, 15.\n\n\nTHERE is no artist who does not like his work praised, and the\nDivine Artist of souls is pleased when we do not stop at the\nexterior, but penetrating even to the inmost sanctuary which He\nhas chosen for His dwelling, we admire its beauty.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nI OUGHT to seek the company of those Sisters who according to\nnature please me least. I ought to fulfil in their regard the\noffice of the Good Samaritan. A word, a kindly smile, will often\nsuffice to gladden a wounded and sorrowful heart.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nOH! what peace inundates the soul when she rises above natural\nsentiment. No joy can compare with that known to one who is\ntruly poor in spirit. If he ask with detachment for some\nnecessary thing, and it is not only refused him, but an attempt\nmade besides to deprive him of what he already has, he follows\nthe counsel of our Lord: \"_And if a man will contend with thee\nin judgment and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto\nhim._\" [2]\n\nTo yield up our cloak means, I think, to renounce our last\nrights, to consider oneself as the servant, the slave of others.\nWhen we have abandoned our mantle it is easier to walk, to run;\ntherefore Jesus adds: \"_And whosoever will force thee one mile,\ngo with him other two_.\" [3]\n\nIt is not enough that I should give to whosoever may ask of me,\nI must forestall their desires, and show that I feel much\ngratified, much honoured in rendering service; and if they take\na thing that I use, I must seem as though glad to be relieved of\nit.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n[2] Matt., v, 40.\n[3] Matt., v, 41.\n\n\nIF it is hard to give to whoever asks, it is still harder to let\nwhat belongs to us be taken, without asking it back, or rather,\nI ought to say it _seems_ hard; for _the yoke of the Lord is\nsweet and light:_ [4] when we accept it we feel its sweetness\nimmediately.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n[4] _Cf_. Matt., xi, 30.\n\n\nWHEN Charity is deeply rooted in the soul it shows itself\nexteriorly: there is so gracious a way of refusing what we\ncannot give, that the refusal pleases as much as the gift.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nTO want to persuade our Sisters that they are in the wrong, even\nwhen it is perfectly true, is hardly fair, as we are not\nresponsible for their guidance. We must not be _Justices of the\npeace_, but only _angels of peace_.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nJESUS wills that we give alms to Him as to one poor and needy.\nHe puts Himself as it were at our mercy; He will take nothing\nbut what we give Him from our heart, and the very least trifle\nis precious in His sight. He stretches forth His Hand, this\nsweet Saviour, to receive of us a little love, so that in the\nradiant day of Judgment He may be able to address to us those\nineffable words: \"_Come, ye blessed of My Father; for I was\nhungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me\nto drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; sick and you\nvisited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me._\" [5]\n\nXV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[5] Matt., xxv, 34-36.\n\n\nIF I were still to live, the office of Infirmarian is the one\nwhich would please me most. I would not ask for it, but if it\ncame direct by obedience I should think myself highly privileged.\nIt seems to me that I would discharge its duties with a tender\nlove, thinking always of our Saviour saying: \"_I was sick and\nyou visited me._\" [6] The Infirmary bell should be for you as\nHeavenly music. You ought purposely to pass along beneath the\nwindows of the sick to give them facility in calling you and\nasking your services. Ought you not to consider yourself like\na little slave whom everyone has a right to command? If you\ncould but see the Angels who from the heights of Heaven watch\nyou battling in the arena! They await the end of the combat to\ncover you with flowers and wreaths. The good God does not\ndisdain these combats, unknown and therefore all the more\nmeritorious. \"_The patient man is better than the valiant, and\nhe that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh cities._\" [7]\n\nBy our little acts of charity practised in the shade we convert\nsouls far away, we help missionaries, we win for them abundant\nalms; and by that means build actual dwellings spiritual and\nmaterial for our Eucharistic Lord.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[6] Matt., xxv, 36.\n[7] Prov., xvi, 32.\n\n\nA NOVICE remarked to S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se: \"I do not like to see others\nsuffer, especially saintly souls.\" She replied instantly:\n\n\"Oh! I am not like you: to see saints suffer never moves me to\npity! I know they have the strength to endure, and they thus\ngive great glory to God: but those who are not holy, who know\nnot how to profit by their sufferings, oh! how I pity them; they\ndo indeed arouse my compassion, and I would do all I could to\ncomfort and help them.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nSEEING her extreme weakness the doctor ordered some\nstrengthening remedies; S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se was distressed at first on\naccount of their high price: then she said to us: \"I am no\nlonger grieved about taking these costly remedies, for I have\nbeen reading that St. Gertrude rejoiced at the thought that all\nwould be to the advantage of those who do us good, since our\nLord has said: '_As long as you did it unto one of these My\nleast brethren you did it unto Me_.'\" [8]\n\nShe added: \"I am convinced of the uselessness of medicine for\nthe purpose of curing me, but I have made a compact with the\ngood God, that He is to allow some poor Missionaries to profit\nby it, who have neither time nor means to take care of\nthemselves.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n[8] Matt., xxv, 40.\n\n\nREMEMBERING that _Charity covereth a multitude of sins,_ [9] I\ndraw from this fruitful mine opened to us by our Lord in His\nsacred Gospels. I search the depths of His adorable words and\ncry out with David: \"_I have run in the way of Thy commandments\nwhen Thou didst enlarge my heart_.\" [10] And charity alone can\nenlarge my heart . . .\n\nO Jesus! since this sweet flame consumes it I run with delight\nin the way of Thy new Commandment, and therein will I run until\nthe blessed day when with Thy Virgin train I shall follow Thee\nthrough Thy boundless Realm singing Thy _New Canticle_ which\nmust surely be _the Canticle of LOVE_.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n[9] Prov., x, 12.\n[10] Ps., cxviii, 32.\n\n\n\nFAITH\n\nWHAT helps me most when I picture to myself the interior of the\nHoly Family is to think of a quite ordinary life.\n\nThe Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph knew well that Jesus was God,\nbut wondrous things were nevertheless hidden from them and like\nus they lived by faith. Have you not noticed what is said in the\nsacred text: \"_And they understood not the word that He spoke\nunto them_,\" [1] and these other words no less mysterious: \"_His\nfather and mother were wondering at those things which were\nspoken concerning Him_\"? [2] Does not this imply that they heard\nof something new to them, for this wondering suggests a certain\nastonishment?\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[1] Luke, ii, 50.\n[2] Luke, ii, 33.\n\n\nDURING her temptations against faith she wrote: \"I strive to\nwork by faith though bereft of its consolations. I have made\nmore acts of Faith in this last year than during all the rest of\nmy life.\n\n\"On each fresh occasion of combat, when the enemy desires to\nchallenge me, I conduct myself valiantly: knowing that to fight\na duel is an unworthy act, I turn my back upon the adversary\nwithout ever looking him in the face; then I run to my Jesus and\ntell Him I am ready to shed every drop of blood in testimony of\nmy belief that there is a Heaven, I tell Him I am glad to be\nunable to contemplate, while on earth, with the eyes of the\nsoul, the beautiful Heaven that awaits me so He will deign to\nopen it for eternity to poor unbelievers.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nHE whose Heart ever watcheth, taught me, that while for a soul\nwhose faith equals but a tiny grain of mustard seed, he works\nmiracles, in order that this faith which is so weak may be\nfortified; yet for His intimate friends, for His Mother, He did\nnot work miracles until He had put their faith to the test. Did\nHe not let Lazarus die though Martha and Mary had sent to tell\nHim that he was sick? At the marriage at Cana, the Blessed\nVirgin having asked Him to come to the assistance of the Master\nof the house, did He not reply that His hour was not yet come?\nBut after the trial, what a recompense! Water changed to wine,\nLazarus restored to life. . .\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nA SISTER said to her that beautiful Angels clothed in white\nrobes, and of joyous and resplendent countenance, would bear\naway her soul to Heaven. She replied: \"These imaginations do not\nhelp me: I can draw no sustenance except from the Truth. God and\nthe Angels are pure Spirits, no one can see them as they really\nare, with corporal eyes. That is why I have never desired\nextraordinary favours. I would rather await the Eternal Vision.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\"I HAVE asked God to send me a beautiful dream to console me\nwhen you are gone,\" said a novice.\n\n\"Ah! that is a thing I should never do--ask for\nconsolation! . . . Since you wish to be like me you well\nknow that I say:\n\n  Oh! fear not, Lord, that I shall waken Thee:\n  I await in peace th' eternal shore. . .\n\n\"It is so sweet to serve the good God in the dark night of\ntrial; we have this life only in which to live by faith.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\nHOPE\n\nTIME is but a shadow, a dream; already God sees us in glory and\ntakes joy in our eternal beatitude. How this thought helps my\nsoul! I understand then why He lets us suffer . . .\n\nVIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nA DAY . . . an hour . . . and we shall have reached the port! My\nGod, what shall we see then? What is that life which will never\nhave an end? . . . Jesus will be the soul of our soul.\nUnfathomable mystery! _\"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,\nneither hath it entered into the heart of man what great things\nGod hath prepared for them that love Him.\"_ [1] And this will\nall come soon--yes, very soon, if we ardently love Jesus.\n\nVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[1] I Cor., ii, 9. _Cf_. Is., lxiv, 4.\n\n\nLIFE is passing, Eternity draws nigh; soon shall we live the\nvery life of God. After having drunk deep at the fount of\nbitterness, our thirst will be quenched at the very source of\nall sweetness.\n\n_Yes, the figure of this world passeth away,_ [2] soon shall we\nsee new heavens; a more radiant sun will brighten with its\nsplendours, ethereal seas and infinite horizons . . . We shall\nno longer be prisoners in a land of exile, all will be at an end\nand with our Heavenly Spouse we shall sail o'er boundless\nwaters: now our _harps are hung upon the willows that border the\nrivers of Babylon,_ [3] but in the day of our deliverance what\nharmonies will then be heard! With what joy shall we not make\nevery chord of our instruments to vibrate! Today, _we weep\nremembering Sion . . . how shall we sing the songs of the Lord\nin a strange land?_ [4]\n\nV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[2] I Cor., vii, 31.\n[3] _Cf_. Ps. cxxxvi, 2.\n[4] _Cf_. Ps., cxxxvi, 1, 4.\n\n\nHOW I thirst for Heaven--that blessed habitation where our love\nfor Jesus will have no limit! But to get there we must\nsuffer . . . we must weep . . . Well, I _wish_ to suffer all\nthat shall please my Beloved, I wish to let Him do just as He\nwills with His _\"little ball.\"_\n\nV LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n\nOH! What mysteries will be revealed to us later . . . How often\nhave I thought that I perhaps owe all the graces showered upon\nme to the earnest prayer of a little soul whom I shall know only\nin Heaven. It is God's will that in this world by means of\nprayer Heavenly treasures should be imparted by souls one to\nanother, so that when they reach the Fatherland they may love\none another with a love born of gratitude, with an affection\nfar, far exceeding the most ideal family affection upon earth.\n\nThere, we shall meet with no indifferent looks, because all the\nSaints will be indebted to each other.\n\nNo envious glances will be seen; the happiness of every one of\nthe elect will be the happiness of all. With the Martyrs we\nshall be like to the Martyrs; with the Doctors we shall be as\nthe Doctors; with the Virgins, as the Virgins; and just as the\nmembers of a family are proud of one another, so shall we be of\nour brethren, without the least jealousy.\n\nWho knows even if the joy we shall experience in beholding the\nglory of the great Saints, and knowing that by a secret\ndispensation of Providence we have contributed thereunto, who\nknows if this joy will not be as intense and sweeter perhaps,\nthan the happiness they will themselves possess.\n\nAnd do you not think that on their side the great Saints, seeing\nwhat they owe to quite little souls, will love them with an\nincomparable love? Delightful and surprising will be the\nfriendships found there--I am sure of it. The favoured companion\nof an Apostle or a great Doctor of the Church, will perhaps be a\nyoung shepherd lad; and a simple little child may be the\nintimate friend of a Patriarch. Oh! how I long to dwell in that\nKingdom of Love . . .\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA SISTER showed her a photograph representing Joan of Arc\nconsoled in the prison by her Voices. S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se said: \"I too\nam consoled by an interior voice. The Saints encourage me from\nabove, they say to me: 'So long as thou art in fetters thou\ncanst not fulfil thy mission; but later, after thy death--_then_\nwill be the time of thy conquests.'\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIN Heaven the good God will do all I wish, because I have never\ndone my own will upon earth.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nEVEN now I know it; yes, all my hopes will be fulfilled . . .\nyes . . . the Lord will work wonders for me which will surpass\ninfinitely my immeasurable desires.\n\nVIII LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\n\nHUMILITY\n\n\nIT appears to me that humility is the truth. I know not whether\nI am humble, but I know that I see the truth in all things.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nI HAVE understood what true glory is. He whose _Kingdom is not\nof this world_ [1] showed me that the only enviable royalty\nconsists in loving _to be unknown and esteemed as nothing_, [2]\nand finding our joy in contempt of self. I wished that like the\nFace of Jesus, mine might be _as it were hidden and despised_.\n[3] _That none upon earth might esteem me_. I thirsted to suffer\nand to be forgotten.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VII\n\n[1] John, xviii, 36.\n[2] _Imit_., I, ii, 3.\n[3] Is., liii, 3.\n\n\nJESUS made me understand that the true, the only glory is that\nwhich will last for ever; that to attain to it we need not\nperform wonderful deeds, but rather, those hidden from the eyes\nof others and from self, so that _the left hand knoweth not what\nthe right hand doth_. [4]\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n[4] Matt., vi, 3.\n\n\nTH\u00c9R\u00c8SE is weak, very weak; of this she has new and salutary\nexperience every day. But Jesus takes pleasure in teaching her\nhow to _glory in her infirmities_. [5] It is a great grace this,\nfor herein is found peace and tranquillity. When we see\nourselves so miserable, we wish no longer to look at self but\nonly on the Well-Beloved.\n\nII LETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GU\u00c9RIN\n\n[5] II Cor., xi, 5.\n\n\nI AM a _very little_ soul who can offer only _very little_\nthings to the good God; yet, it often happens that these little\nsacrifices which give such peace to the heart escape me; but\nthat does not discourage me, I bear with having a little less\npeace and I try to be more watchful another time.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nVEILED in the white Host, O my Well-Beloved, how meek and humble\nof heart dost Thou show Thyself to me! Thou couldst not stoop\nlower to teach me humility, and I, to respond to Thy Love,\ndesire to put myself in the lowest place and share Thy\nhumiliations, that I may _have part with Thee_ [6] in the\nKingdom of Heaven.\n\nI beseech Thee, my Jesus, to send me some humiliation every time\nthat I shall attempt to put myself above others.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, APPENDIX\n\n[6] John, xiii, 8.\n\n\nWHAT pleases the good God in my little soul is to see me love my\nlittleness and my poverty, it is seeing the blind trust that I\nhave in His Mercy.\n\nVI LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n\nTO draw near to Jesus we must be so little . . . Oh! how few\nsouls aspire to be little and unknown. . .\n\nXIV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nI AM no longer surprised at anything, nor do I grieve at seeing\nthat I am frailty itself; on the contrary I glory in it, and\nexpect to discover new imperfections in myself each day. These\nlights concerning my nothingness do me more good, I affirm, than\nlights regarding faith.\n\nHIST D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nWHEN we commit a fault we must not think it due to a physical\ncause, such as illness or the weather, we must attribute this\nfall to our imperfection, but without ever growing discouraged.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nSINCE Jesus has gone back to Heaven I can follow Him only by the\npath He has traced. Oh how luminous are His footprints--\ndiffusing a divine sweetness . . . I have but to glance at the\nholy Gospels and immediately I inhale the fragrance of the life\nof Jesus, and I know which side to take. Not to the first place\ndo I run but to the last. I let the Pharisee go up, and full of\nconfidence I repeat the humble prayer of the publican. Above all\nI copy the example of Magdalene; her amazing, or rather, her\nloving audacity, which so touched the Heart of Jesus, charms my\nown.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nWITH a simplicity that delights me my little Sisters, the\nnovices, tell me of the interior combats I arouse in them, in\nwhat way they find me trying; they are no more embarrassed than\nif it were question of some one else, knowing that by acting\nthus, they greatly please me.\n\nAh! truly it is more than a pleasure, it is a delicious feast\nwhich replenishes my soul with joy. How can a thing so\ndisagreeable to nature give such happiness? Had I not\nexperienced it I could not have believed it.\n\nOne day when I had an ardent desire for humiliation, it happened\nthat a young postulant so fully satisfied it, that the thought\nof Semei cursing David came to my mind and I repeated interiorly\nwith the holy King: _Yes, it is indeed the Lord who has\ncommanded him to say all these things to me._ [7]\n\nThus the good God takes care of me. He cannot always offer me\nthe strength-giving bread of exterior humiliation, but from time\nto time He permits me to feast upon _the crumbs that fall from\nthe table of the children_. [8] How great is His Mercy!\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n[7] Kings, xvi, 10.\n[8] Mark, vii, 28.\n\n\nALL creatures might incline towards the little flower, admiring\nit and overwhelming it with their praise, but never would that\nadd a shadow of vain satisfaction to the true joy of knowing\nitself to be a mere nothing in the sight of God.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nBECAUSE I was little and weak, Jesus stooped down to me and\ntenderly instructed me in the secrets of His Love.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nI AM too little to have any vanity, I am also too little to know\nhow to turn beautiful phrases so as to make it appear that I\nhave a great deal of humility. I prefer to acknowledge simply\nthat _He that is mighty hath done great things to me_; [9] and\nthe greatest is His having shown me my littleness, my powerlessness\nfor all good.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n[9] Luke, i, 49.\n\n\nTHE only thing not subject to be envied is the lowest place, it\nis therefore this lowest place alone which is without vanity and\naffliction of spirit. Still, _the way of a man is not always in\nhis power_ [10] and sometimes we are surprised by a desire for\nthat which glitters. Then, let us take our place humbly amongst\nthe imperfect, deeming ourselves little souls whom the good God\nmust sustain at each moment. As soon as He sees us truly\nconvinced of our nothingness and we say to Him: _My foot hath\nslipped: Thy mercy, O Lord, hath held me up,_ [11] He stretches\nout His Hand to us; but if we _will_ attempt to do something\ngrand, even under pretext of zeal, He leaves us alone. It is\nenough therefore that we humble ourselves, and bear our\nimperfections with sweetness: there, for us, lies true sanctity.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[10] _Cf_. Jer., x, 23.\n[11] _Cf_. Ps., xciii, 18.\n\n\nTHE most eloquent discourses would be incapable of inspiring one\nact of love without the grace that moves the heart.\n\nSee a beautiful, rose-tinted peach, of so sweet a savour that no\ncraft of confectioner could produce nectar like it. Is it for\nthe peach itself that God has created this lovely colour and\ndelicate velvety surface? Is it for the sake of the peach that\nHe has given it so delicious a flavour? No, it is for us; what\nalone belongs to it and forms the essence of its existence is\nits stone; it possesses nothing more.\n\nThus is Jesus pleased to lavish His gifts on some of His\ncreatures, that through them He may draw to Himself other souls;\nbut in His mercy He humiliates them interiorly, and gently\nconstrains them to recognize their nothingness and His\nOmnipotence. These sentiments form in them, as it were, a kernel\nof grace, which Jesus hastens to develop for that blessed day\nwhen clothed with a beauty, immortal, imperishable, they shall\nwithout danger have place at the Celestial banquet.\n\nXVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nTHE Apostles, without Jesus, laboured long--a whole night--\nwithout taking any fish; their toil was pleasing to Him but He\nwished to show that He alone can give anything. He asked only an\nact of humility: _\"Children, have you any meat?\"_ [12] and St.\nPeter confesses his helplessness: _\"Lord we have laboured all\nnight and have taken nothing.\"_ [13] It is enough! The Heart of\nJesus is touched . . . . Perhaps if the Apostle had taken a few\nlittle fishes the Divine Master would not have worked a miracle;\nbut he had _nothing_, and so through God's power and goodness\nhis nets were soon filled with great fishes.\n\nThat is just our Lord's way. He gives as God, but He _will_ have\nhumility of heart.\n\nXVII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[12] John, xxi, 5.\n[13] Luke, v, 5.\n\n\nTO think ourselves imperfect, and others perfect--that is\nhappiness. That creatures should recognize we are without virtue\ntakes nothing from us, makes us no poorer; it is they who by\nthis lose interior joy; for there is nothing sweeter than to\nthink well of our neighbour.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIT is a great joy to me, not only when others find me imperfect,\nbut above all when I feel that so I am: compliments, on the\ncontrary, cause me nothing but displeasure.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA NOVICE confided to her that she made no progress and felt\nquite discouraged.\n\n\"Till the age of fourteen,\" said Therese, \"I practised virtue\nwithout feeling its sweetness. I wished for suffering but had no\nthought of finding my joy therein; that is a grace which has\nbeen granted me later. My soul was like a beautiful tree whose\nblossoms no sooner opened than they fell.\n\n\"Offer to the good God the sacrifice of never gathering the\nfruits of your labours. If He so will that during your whole\nlife you feel a repugnance to suffer and to be humiliated, if He\npermit that all the flowers of your desires and of your\ngood-will fall to earth without fruit, be not troubled. At the\nmoment of your death He will know well how to bring to\nperfection, in the twinkling of an eye, beautiful fruits on\nthe tree of your soul.\n\n\"We read in the Book of Ecclesiasticus: _'There is an inactive\nman that wanteth help, is very weak in ability, and full of\npoverty: yet the eye of God hath looked upon him for good, and\nhath lifted him up from his low estate, and hath exalted his\nhead: and many have wondered at him and have glorified God._\n\n_'Trust in God, and stay in thy place. For it is easy in the\neyes of God, on a sudden to make the poor man rich. The blessing\nof God maketh haste to reward the just, and in a swift hour His\nblessing beareth fruit!'\"_ [14]\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[14] Ecclus., xi, 12, 13, 22, 23, 24.\n\n\n\"YOU have always been faithful to divine grace, have you not?\"\n\n\"Yes, since the age of three I have refused nothing to the good\nGod. Yet not mine the glory. See how the setting sun this\nevening gilds the topmost branches of the trees; even so does my\nsoul appear to you--all bright and gilded, because it is exposed\nto Love's rays. If the Divine Sun withheld from me His rays, my\nsoul would immediately become obscured and enveloped in\ndarkness.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\"YOU really are a saint!\" some one said to her.\n\n\"No, I am not a saint; I have never done the works of the\nSaints. I am a very, very little soul on whom the good God has\noutpoured the abundance of His grace. You will see in Heaven\nthat I am telling you the truth.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nSHE said to the Prioress: \"Mother, I feel that if I were\nunfaithful, if I committed but the very slightest infidelity,\nfearful troubles would follow, and I could no longer accept\ndeath with resignation.\"\n\nAnd as the Mother Prioress showed surprise at hearing her speak\nthus, she continued:\n\n\"I mean an infidelity springing from pride. For instance, if I\nsaid: 'I have acquired such or such a virtue, I am able to\npractise it,' or, 'O my God, I love Thee too well--Thou knowest\nit--to dwell on one single thought against faith,' I feel that I\nshould forthwith be assailed by the most dangerous temptations\nand should certainly be overcome by them.\n\n\"To avoid this calamity I have but to say humbly from the depths\nof my heart: 'O my God, I implore of Thee, suffer me not to be\nunfaithful!'\n\n\"I very well understand how St. Peter fell. He depended too\nconfidently on the fervour of his feelings, instead of relying\nsolely upon Divine strength. Had he said to Jesus: 'Lord, give\nme the strength to follow Thee even unto death,' that strength,\nI am quite sure would not have been refused him.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\"OH! when I think of all I have to acquire!\" exclaimed a novice.\n\n\"Say, rather, to _lose_. Jesus, it is, who charges Himself with\nthe care of filling your soul according as you free it from its\nimperfections. I plainly see that you are taking the wrong road,\nyou will never arrive at the end of your journey. You wish to\nscale a mountain and the good God wants to make you descend: He\nis waiting for you low down in the fertile valley of humility.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\"WHEN I receive a reproof,\" said another, \"I would rather have\ndeserved it than be wrongfully accused.\"\n\n\"As for me,\" replied Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, \"I prefer being blamed unjustly,\nthen I have no cause for self-reproach and I offer this\nunmerited blame to the good God with joy, then I humble myself\nat the thought that I should be quite capable of doing that of\nwhich I was accused.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nWHEN we are not understood, and are unfavourably judged, what\ngood is there in defending ourselves? Let us leave it so and say\nnothing, it is so sweet to let ourselves be judged no matter\nhow! It is not told in the Gospels that Saint Magdalen gave any\nexplanation when blamed by her sister for sitting inactive at\nthe feet of Jesus. She did not say: \"Martha, if thou didst but\nknow my happiness, if thou didst but hear the words I hear, thou\ntoo wouldst lay all else aside, to share my joy and my repose.\"\nNo, she chose rather to be silent . . . O blessed silence which\ngives to the soul such peace!\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIN a moment of temptation and combat a novice received this\nnote:\n\n_\"The just man shall correct me in mercy and reprove me; but let\nnot the oil of the sinner anoint my head_. [15] I cannot be\ncorrected or tried except by the just, inasmuch as all my\nSisters are pleasing to God. It is less bitter to be reproved by\na sinner than by the just; but _through compassion for sinners_,\nto obtain their conversion, I pray Thee, O my God, that I may be\nbruised by the just souls who are round about me. Again, I beg\nthat the oil of praise, so sweet to nature, _anoint not my\nhead_, that is to say, enervate not my mind, by making me\nbelieve that I possess virtues which I have only with difficulty\npractised several times.\n\n\"O my Jesus! _Thy Name is as oil poured out;_ [16] it is in this\ndivine perfume that I wish to be wholly bathed, far away from\nthe notice of creatures.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[15] Ps., cxl, 5.\n[16] Cant., i, 2.\n\n\nAT the close of her life she was able to say: \"I used so to rise\nabove all things, that I drew strength from humiliations.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\"GOD has a special love for you,\" remarked a young Sister,\n\"since to you He entrusts other souls.\"\n\n\"That does not add anything to me, and I am only really just\nwhat I am in God's sight . . . It does not follow that He loves\nme more, because He wills that I should be His interpreter to\nyou; rather, He makes me your little servant. It is for you and\nnot for me that He has given me the charms and virtues apparent\nto you.\n\n\"Often I compare myself to a little bowl which God fills with\ngood things of every kind. All the _kittens_ come to it to take\ntheir share, and sometimes there is a contest as to which shall\nhave most. But the Child Jesus is there, keeping watch: 'I am\nvery willing that you drink from my little bowl' saith He, 'but\ntake care lest you overturn it and break it.'\n\n\"Truth to tell, the danger is not great, because I am placed on\nthe ground. It is otherwise with Prioresses: they, being set on\ntables run many more risks. Honours are always dangerous.\n\n\"Oh! how poisonous the praises served up day by day to those who\nhold high places. What baneful incense! And how necessary it is\nthat the soul be detached from self, that so she may escape\nunharmed.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTO help a novice to accept a humiliation she said to her in\nconfidence: \"If I had not been received into Carmel I would have\nentered a Refuge, to live there unknown and despised in the\nmidst of the poor penitents. To pass for such in the eyes of all\nwould have been my happiness. I should have been the apostle of\nmy companions telling them what I think of the Mercy of the good\nGod.\"\n\n\"But how would you have been able to hide your innocence from\nyour Confessor?\"\n\n\"I would have told him that while in the world I had made a\ngeneral confession and had been forbidden to do so again.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nONE day they brought her some ears of corn. She took one so\nladen with grain that it leaned down upon its stalk, and having\nlooked at it for a long time she said to the Mother Prioress:\n\n\"Mother, this ear of corn is an image of my soul: the good God\nhas laden me with graces for myself and for many others! . . .\nOh! I wish ever to bow down beneath the abundance of Heaven's\ngifts, recognizing that all comes from above.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nWHAT do you think of all the graces which have been poured down\nupon you?\n\n\"I think that the Spirit of God breatheth where He will.\" [17]\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[17] John, iii, 8.\n\n\nA SISTER said that in Heaven she would be a beautiful flower,\nresplendent with light.\n\n\"Oh no,\" she replied, \"you know how in pretty bouquets they\nconceal some moss to make the flowers stand out; well, I shall\nbe a little bit of moss to set off the beauty of the elect.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nDURING her last agony the Mother Prioress encouraged her with\nthese words:\n\n\"My child, you are quite ready to appear before God because you\nhave always understood the virtue of humility.\"\n\nThen of herself she gave this beautiful testimony:\n\n\"Yes, I feel it, my soul has never sought but the truth . . .\nyes, I have understood humility of heart!\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\nDETACHMENT\n\n\nIF the impossible were possible and that God Himself did not see\nmy good actions, I would not grieve about it. I love Him so much\nthat I should like to be able to give Him pleasure without His\nknowing that it was I . . . Knowing and seeing it, He is, in a\nway, bound to repay me . . . I would not give Him the trouble.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHE glory of Jesus . . . that is my whole ambition; my own I\nabandon to Him; and if He seem to forget me, well, He is at\nliberty to do so since I am mine no more, but His. He will more\nquickly tire of making me wait, than I, of waiting!\n\nVII LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nTHERE is no stay, no support to seek out of Jesus. He alone\nchangeth not. What happiness to think that He can never change!\n\nV LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nTHE sole happiness upon earth consists in hiding oneself and\nremaining in total ignorance of created things.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nFAR from dazzling me all the titles of nobility appear to me but\nempty vanity. I have understood those words of the _Imitation_:\n_\"Be not solicitous for the shadow of a great name.\"_ [1] I have\nunderstood that true greatness is found not in the name but in\nthe soul.\n\nThe Prophet tells us that _the Lord God shall call His servants\nby_ ANOTHER NAME; [2] and we read in St. John: _\"To him that\novercometh, I will give . . . a white counter, and in the\ncounter a new name written, which no man knoweth but he that\nreceiveth.\"_ [3] It is in Heaven, therefore, that we shall know\nour titles of nobility. Then _shall each one receive from God\nthe praise that he merits,_ [4] and he who upon earth will have\nmade choice of being the poorest and the most unknown for love\nof our Lord, he will be the first, the noblest and the richest.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n[1] _Imit._, III, xxiv, 2.\n[2] Is., lxv, 15.\n[3] Apoc., ii, 17.\n[4] _Cf_. I Cor., iv, 5.\n\n\nI THANK my Jesus for making me walk in darkness; in it I am\nwrapped in profound peace. Willingly I consent to stay, during\nthe whole of my religious life, in this sombre tunnel into which\nHe has made me enter; I desire only that my darkness may win\nlight for sinners.\n\nIV LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nIN this world we must not become attached to anything--not even\nthings the most innocent, for they fail us at the moment when we\nare least expecting it. The eternal alone can satisfy us.\n\nI LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n\nTHIS prayer she bore upon her heart on the day of her\nProfession:\n\n\"O Jesus, my Divine Spouse, grant that the robe of my baptism be\nnever sullied! Take me, rather than suffer me here below to\nstain my soul by committing the slightest wilful fault. May I\nnever seek nor ever find but Thee alone! May all creatures be\nnothing to me, and I nothing to them! May no earthly thing\ndisturb my peace!\n\n . . . . . . .\n\n\"Grant that I fulfil my engagements in all their perfection;\nthat none concern themselves about me; that I may be trodden\nunderfoot, forgotten, as a little grain of sand. I offer myself\nto Thee, O Well-Beloved, that Thou mayst ever perfectly\naccomplish Thy holy will in me, without let or hindrance from\ncreatures.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nWITH jealous care all must be kept for Jesus; it is so good to\nwork for Him, and for Him alone! How joyous then the heart and\nhow buoyant the spirit! . . .\n\nVI LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nI HAVE never wished for human glory, contempt it was, that had\nattraction for my heart; but having recognized that this again\nwas too glorious for me, I ardently desire to be forgotten.\n\nVII LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nIF you only knew to what a degree I wish to be indifferent to\nthe things of the earth! What matters to me all created beauty?\nI should be truly unfortunate were I to possess it. Oh! how\ngreat, how noble, seems my heart when I look at it in relation\nto this world's goods, since all of them put together could\nnever satisfy it; but when I consider it with reference to\nJesus, how _small_ it then appears to me.\n\nII LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nYES, I now am able to say I have received the grace of being no\nmore attached to the goods of mind and heart than to those of\nearth. If it happens that I repeat to my Sisters some thought of\nmine which pleases them, I think it quite natural that they\nshould look on it as their own; this thought belongs to the Holy\nGhost not to me, seeing that St. Paul tells us _that without the\nSpirit of Love we cannot give to God the name of Father_. [5]\nThe Holy Spirit assuredly is free to use me as the means of\nconveying a good thought to a soul and I may not consider this\nthought as my property.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n[5] _Cf_. Rom., viii, 15.\n\n\n\"THERE is one only means of constraining the good God not to\njudge us at all, it is to appear before Him with our hands\nempty.\"\n\n\"But how?\" they asked her.\n\n\"It is quite simple: keep nothing whatever in reserve, give away\nyour gains according as you earn. As for me, if I live to be\neighty I shall be always poor; I know not how to save up, all\nthat I have goes immediately to ransom souls.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHE further you advance the fewer combats will you have, or\nrather, the easier will your conquests be, because you will look\nat the good side of things. Your soul will then rise above\ncreatures. Anything that may be said to me now, leaves me\nabsolutely indifferent, for I have realized how little stability\nthere is in human judgments.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTO write books of devotion, to compose the most sublime poetry,\nis of less worth than the least act of self-renunciation.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\"ONE Sunday,\" Th\u00e9r\u00e8se tells us, \"I went right joyously on my way\ntowards the alley of chestnut trees; it was the spring-time, and\nI meant to enjoy the beauties of nature. O cruel disappointment!\nMy dear chestnut trees had been pruned, and the branches,\nalready loaded with verdant buds, lay strewn upon the ground! It\nwas heartrending to view this destruction, and to think that\nthree years must pass ere I could see it repaired . . . My\ndistress however did not last. 'If I were in another monastery,'\nthought I, 'what difference would it make to me if the chestnut\ntrees in the Carmel of Lisieux were cut down altogether? I will\nfret no more about transitory things; my Well-Beloved shall take\nthe place of all else for me . . . I will wander ever in the\ngroves of His love, which none may touch!'\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nSHE said to her novices: \"You are too much taken up about what\nyou are doing, you torment yourselves concerning the future as\nif you had the care of it . . . Are you at this moment\npreoccupied with what is passing in other Carmels, as to whether\nthe nuns are pressed or not? Do their labours hinder your prayer\nor meditation? Very well, so, too, ought you to be detached from\nyour personal work, employing conscientiously therein the time\ndirected, but with disengagement of heart.\n\n\"I have read that the Israelites, when building the walls of\nJerusalem, worked with one hand and with the other held a sword.\n[6] That is truly a figure of what we ought to do: never give\nourselves completely up to the work.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[6] II Esdras, iv, 17.\n\n\nA NOVICE asked some of the Sisters to help to shake blankets,\nwhich being rather worn, she cautioned them somewhat sharply to\nbe careful not to tear. S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se remarked:\n\n\"What would you do if it were not your office to mend these\nblankets? . . . With what detachment you would then act! And if\nyou did point out that they are easily torn, how free from\nself-interest it would be. Thus, never let the least shadow of\nself-interest glide into your actions.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIN the infirmary the novices used scarcely to wait till her\nthanksgivings were ended before speaking to her and seeking her\ncounsels. This, at first, grieved her and she gently reproached\nthem. Then very soon she let them have their way, saying:\n\n\"The thought has struck me that I am not to desire more of\nrepose than our Lord. When He retired into the desert after His\ndiscourses, the people came immediately to break in upon His\nsolitude. Come to me as much as you will. I must die arms in\nhand, _having on my lips the sword of the Spirit which is the\nWord of God_.\" [7]\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[7] Ephes., vi, 17.\n\n\n\"HOW do you manage so to practise virtue,\" asked a novice, \"as\nto be always the same, invariably joyous and composed?\"\n\n\"It has not been always so,\" she replied, \"but ever since I have\nshunned all self-seeking I lead the happiest life that can be.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nNOW, that I am about to appear before the good God, more than\never do I understand that there is but one thing necessary: to\nwork solely for Him, and to do nothing for self or for\ncreatures.\n\nX LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\n\nMORTIFICATION\n\n\nFAR from being like to those great souls who from their\nchildhood practise all sorts of macerations, I made my\nmortification consist solely in the breaking of my will,\nrestraining a hasty word, rendering little services to those\naround me without making anything of it, and a thousand other\nthings of this kind.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nI had no taste for games, I should have liked to spend my life\nreading, but I was only to take a very limited time for this\nchosen recreation, and this was the ground of many a sacrifice,\nfor I made it a point of duty to break off promptly at the end\nof the time allotted, even in the middle of the most interesting\npassage.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nI HAD accustomed myself never to complain when anything of mine\nwas taken away; and when unjustly blamed I chose rather to\nremain silent than to defend myself.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\nI WAS ten years old the day that my Father told C\u00e9line he was\ngoing to let her have lessons in painting; I was by, and envied\nher. Then Papa said to me: \"And you, my little queen, would it\ngive you pleasure too to learn drawing?\" I was just going to\nrespond with a very gladsome _yes_, when Marie made the remark\nthat I had not the same taste for it as C\u00e9line. At once she\ngained the day; and I, thinking that here was a good opportunity\nof offering a grand sacrifice to Jesus, said not a word. So\neager was my desire to learn drawing that now I still wonder how\nI had the fortitude to remain silent.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nIN the world, on awakening in the morning I used to think over\nwhat would probably occur either pleasing or vexatious during\nthe day; and if I foresaw only trying events I arose dispirited.\nNow it is quite the other way: I think of the difficulties and\nthe sufferings that await me, and I rise the more joyous and\nfull of courage the more I foresee opportunities of proving my\nlove for Jesus, and _earning the living of my children_--seeing\nthat I am _the mother_ of souls. Then I kiss my crucifix and lay\nit tenderly on the pillow while I dress, and I say to Him: \"My\nJesus, Thou hast worked enough and wept enough during the\nthree-and-thirty years of Thy life on this poor earth. Take now\nThy rest . . . My turn it is to suffer and to fight.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHE attraction to penance was given me, but I was permitted\nnothing to satisfy it. The only mortifications I was allowed\nconsisted in mortifying self-love, which did me more good than\ncorporal penance.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VII\n\n\nAT prayer I was for a long time near a Sister who used to handle\nincessantly either her Rosary-beads or some other thing; perhaps\nnone heard it but myself, for my hearing is extremely acute, but\nI cannot say how it tormented me! I should have liked to turn my\nhead and look at the culprit so as to make her stop that noise:\nhowever in my heart I knew it was better to bear it patiently,\nfor the love of God in the first place, and also to avoid giving\npain.\n\nI kept quiet therefore, but was sometimes worked up to\nfever-heat and obliged to make simply a prayer of endurance.\nFinally I sought out the means of suffering with peace and joy,\nat least in my innermost soul; I tried to like the teasing\nlittle noise. Instead of endeavouring not to hear it--a thing\nimpossible--I listened with fixed attention as if it had been\na delightful concert; and my prayer, _which was not the prayer\nof quiet_, passed in offering this concert to Jesus.\n\nAnother time I was in the laundry opposite a Sister who while\nwashing handkerchiefs splashed me every minute with dirty water.\nMy first impulse was to draw back and wipe my face, so as to\nshow her who besprinkled me in that fashion, that she would\noblige me by working more quietly; but I reflected immediately\nthat it was very foolish to refuse treasures so generously\noffered me, and I took good care not to show my annoyance. On\nthe contrary, I made such successful efforts to _wish_ for a\nplentiful splashing of dirty water, that at the end of half an\nhour I had really acquired a taste for this new sort of\naspersion, and I determined to come again as often as possible\nto a place where happily such riches could be had gratuitously.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nI REMEMBER that sometimes, when a postulant, I was so violently\ntempted to indulge myself by seeking some little consolations,\nthat I was obliged to go quickly past our Mother's cell, and\ncling to the banisters of the staircase so that I should not\nturn back. There would come to mind a number of permissions to\nask, a hundred pretexts for deciding in favour of my natural\ninclinations and gratifying them. How glad I am now of having\ndenied myself from the outset of my life in religion! Already I\nenjoy the reward promised to those who fight courageously. No\nlonger do I feel the necessity of refusing myself consolations\nof the heart; for my heart is firmly fixed in God . . . Because\nit has loved Him above all, it has gradually enlarged, even so\nas to love those who are dear to it with a love incomparably\ndeeper than if it were centred in a selfish and fruitless\naffection.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nIN everything I must find self-denial and sacrifice; thus I feel\nthat a letter will not bear fruit unless I write it with a\ncertain reluctance, and solely through obedience. When\nconversing with a novice I am careful to mortify myself and to\navoid asking her questions which would gratify my curiosity. If\nshe commence to speak of something interesting, then, leaving it\nunfinished, pass to a subject wearisome to me, I take care not\nto remind her of the interruption, for it seems to me that one\ncan do no good by self-seeking.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nGOD did not permit that our Mother should tell me to write down\nmy poems according as I composed them, and I would not have\nliked to ask her, fearing lest that might be a fault against\npoverty. So I used to wait until the hour of free time, and it\nwas not without extreme difficulty that I recalled to mind, at\neight o'clock in the evening, what I had composed in the\nmorning.\n\nThese little nothings are a martyrdom it is true, but we must be\nwell on our guard not to lessen it by allowing ourselves, or\nseeking to be allowed, a thousand things which would render the\nreligious life pleasant and comfortable.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nWHEN some one rings for us, or knocks at our door, we must\nmortify ourselves so as not even to do one stitch more before\nanswering. I have practised that; and it is, I assure you, a\nsource of peace.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nDO you know my Sundays and festivals? They are the days when the\ngood God tries me the most.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nS\u0152UR Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de l'Enfant Jesus says that she has not done any\ngreat penances: that is because her fervour counted as nothing\nthose which were allowed her. It nevertheless happened that she\nbecame ill from wearing for too long a time a small iron cross,\nof which the sharp points were sunk into her flesh.\n\n\"That would not have befallen me from so slight a penance,\" she\nsaid afterwards, \"if the good God had not wanted to make me\nunderstand that the macerations of the Saints are not intended\nfor me, nor for the little souls who will tread the same path of\nspiritual childhood.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nTO a novice whom she saw practise a little act of self-denial\nshe said:\n\n\"You will be very glad to find that before you at the moment of\ndeath. What you have just done is more glorious than if, by some\nskilful measures, you had gained for the religious communities\nthe good-will of the Government, and that all France applauded\nyou as a Judith.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTO another who was bewailing her want of courage:\n\n\"You complain of what should cause you the greatest happiness.\nWhere would be your merit if you must fight only when you felt\nthe courage? What matters it if you have none, provided that you\nact as if you had! If you feel too slothful to pick up a bit of\nthread, and that nevertheless you do it for the love of Jesus,\nyou have more merit than if in a moment of fervour you were to\naccomplish something of far greater importance. So instead of\nbeing sorrowful, rejoice to see that in letting you feel your\nweakness the good Master provides you with an opportunity of\ngaining for Him a greater number of souls.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nBEING questioned as to her mode of sanctifying the repasts,\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se made answer:\n\n\"In the refectory we have but one only thing to do: to\naccomplish this so lowly act with thoughts uplifted. I declare\nto you that often it is in the refectory the sweetest\naspirations of love come to me. Sometimes I am impelled to dwell\non the thought that if our Divine Lord were in my place, with\nthe fare set before Him as served to me, He would certainly\npartake of it . . . It is very probable that during His life on\nearth He tasted of the like food: _He ate bread, fruits,\netc_. . . .\n\n\"Here are my simple little rubrics:\n\n\"I picture myself at Nazareth in the house of Holy Family. If I\nam served with, for instance, salad, cold fish, wine or anything\nof strong flavour, I offer it to St. Joseph. To the Blessed\nVirgin I give the hot portions, well-ripened fruits, etc.; and\nthe feast-day fare, particularly corn-flour, rice, preserves,\nthese I offer to the Child Jesus. Lastly, when a bad dinner is\nbrought me I say gaily to myself: 'Today, my dear little child,\nall that is for you.'\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nONE fast-day when the Mother Prioress had ordered some special\nlittle thing by way of alleviation for S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, a Sister\nrelates that she surprised her in the act of seasoning this too\npalatable fare with wormwood.\n\nAnother time she saw her slowly drinking some particularly\ndisagreeable physic, and exclaimed: \"But be quick, drink that\noff at one draught!\" \"Oh no!\" was the reply, \"must I not take\nadvantage of the trifling opportunities I meet with, to mortify\nmyself a little, since it is forbidden me to look for greater?\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nAN extremely interesting letter had been read one day at the\nrecreation in the absence of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se who later showed a desire\nto read it. Some time afterwards when returning the letter, she\nwas begged to say what she thought regarding something which\nshould especially have delighted her. She appeared embarrassed\nand then replied:\n\n\"The good God has asked of me this sacrifice because of the\neagerness that I manifested the other day; I have not read\nit. . .\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nSHE told the novices: \"At recreation more than elsewhere will\nyou find occasions for the exercise of virtue. If you would reap\ngreat benefit, never go to it with any thought of your own\nrecreation, but thinking of the recreation of others; practise\ntherein total detachment from yourself. If, for instance, you\nare relating to one of the Sisters a story which seems to you\ninteresting, and that she interrupts it to tell you something\nelse, even though this may not at all interest you, listen to\nher as if it did, and do not try to return to your first\nsubject. By so acting, you will go from the recreation room with\ngreat interior peace, and endued with fresh vigour in the\npractice of virtue, all because you have not sought to gratify\nyourself but to give pleasure to others. If one only knew what\nis gained by renouncing self in all things! . . .\"\n\n\"You know it well; you have always acted thus?\"\n\n\"Yes, I have forgotten self, I have tried not to seek myself in\nanything.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\nOBEDIENCE\n\n\nAS I had self-love as well as the love of what is right it was\nsufficient but once to tell me: \"Such a thing should not be\ndone,\" and I would have no desire to do it again.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\nFROM what anxieties do we not free ourselves by making the vow\nof obedience! How happy are single-minded religious. Their sole\nguide being the will of Superiors, they are ever secure of going\nthe right way without fear of error, should it even appear to\nthem certain that the Superiors are mistaken. But when one\nceases to consult the sure compass, the soul forthwith loses her\nway in arid paths where the waters of grace soon fail her.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nDURING her illness the Infirmarian had recommended S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\nto take a little walk in the garden every day for a quarter of\nan hour. For her, this advice was a command. One afternoon, a\nSister seeing her walk with much difficulty said to her: \"You\nwould do far better to rest; in such circumstances walking can\ndo you no good, you exhaust yourself, that is all.\"\n\n\"It is true,\" replied this child of Obedience, \"but do you know\nwhat gives me strength? . . . Well! _I walk for a Missionary_. I\nthink how some one of them far away, yonder, is perhaps\nexhausted in his apostolic journeyings, and to lessen his\nfatigue I offer mine to the good God.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\nPOVERTY\n\n\nAFTER I was clothed with the holy Habit abundant lights on\nreligious perfection were granted me, chiefly regarding the vow\nof poverty. During my postulate I was pleased to have for my\nuse, anything that was nice, and to find at my hand whatever was\nnecessary. Jesus bore with this patiently, for He does not like\nto disclose all to the soul at once. He ordinarily gives His\nlight little by little.\n\nAfter Compline one evening I looked in vain for our lantern on\nthe shelves appointed for them; it was the time of great\nsilence, not possible therefore to ask for it back. I rightly\nsupposed that a Sister believing she took her own had carried\naway ours; but must I spend a whole hour in the dark in\nconsequence of this mistake? And just that evening I had\nintended doing much work. Without the interior light of grace I\nshould assuredly have bewailed my loss, but with that light,\ninstead of experiencing vexation I was happy in thinking that\npoverty consists in being deprived not only of things desirable,\nbut of those also that are indispensable. And in the exterior\ndarkness I found my soul illumined with divine light.\n\nI was seized at this time with a genuine love for what was\nugliest and least convenient, thus I was delighted when I saw\nthe pretty little jug carried off from our cell, and received in\nits stead a large one, all chipped.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VII\n\n\nA NOVICE expressed regret for having lent a pin which was very\nserviceable to her:\n\n\"Oh! how rich you are,\" replied Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, \"you cannot be happy.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n_\"MAKE haste and come down: for this day I must abide in thy\nhouse.\"_ [1] Jesus tells us to come down; where, then, must we\ngo? . . . At an earlier time the Jews asked Him: _\"Master, where\ndwellest Thou.\"_ [2] And He said: _\"The foxes have holes, and\nthe birds of the air nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to\nlay His head.\"_ [3] Behold whereunto we must descend if we would\nserve as dwellings for Jesus: we must be so poor that we have\nnot where to lay our head.\n\nXIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[1] Luke, xix, 5\n[2] John, i, 38.\n[3] Luke, ix, 58.\n\n\n\nCONFIDENCE\n\n\nWHAT offends Jesus, what wounds Him to the Heart, is want of\nconfidence.\n\nI LETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GUERIN\n\n\nBELIEVING that I was born for glory, and seeking the means to\nattain to it, it was revealed to me interiorly that my glory\nwould never be visible to mortal eyes but would consist in\nbecoming a saint. This desire might well seem presumptuously\nbold, considering how imperfect I was, and how imperfect I am\nstill after so many years in religion; and yet I feel ever the\nsame audacious confidence of becoming a great saint. I count not\non my merits, having none; but I trust in Him who is Virtue and\nHoliness itself. He alone it is who satisfied with my feeble\nefforts will raise me up even unto Himself, will clothe me with\nHis merits and make me a saint.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nOURS is an age of inventions: nowadays, with the rich a lift\nsaves the trouble of climbing the stairs. And I, fain would I\ntoo find a _lift_ to bear me up unto God, for I am too little to\nclimb the rugged steps of perfection.\n\nThen I turned to the Holy Scriptures, seeking from them an\nindication of this _lift_, the object of my desires; and I read\nthese words which have issued from the very mouth of the Eternal\nWisdom: _\"Whosoever is a_ VERY LITTLE ONE, _let him come to\nme.\"_ [1] Then I drew nigh unto God divining truly that I had\ndiscovered what I sought: wishing however to know what He would\ndo with the very little one, I continued my research and here is\nwhat I found: _\"You shall be carried at the breast and upon the\nknees; as one whom the mother caresseth so will I comfort you.\"_\n[2]\n\nAh, never came words more sweet, more tender, to gladden my\nsoul. Thine arms then, O Jesus, are the _lift_ which must raise\nme up even unto Heaven! For this I need not grow, on the\ncontrary I must remain little, I must ever tend to become yet\nmore little. O my God, Thou hast gone beyond my expectations,\nand I--I will sing Thy mercies! _Thou hast taught me, O God from\nmy youth: and till now I have declared Thy wondrous works. And\nunto old age and grey hairs_ [3] will I proclaim them.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n[1] Prov., ix, 4.\n[2] Is., lxvi, 12, 13.\n[3] _Cf_. Ps., lxx. 17, 18.\n\n\nSINCE it has been given to me too, to understand the love of the\nHeart of Jesus, I own that it has chased all fear from mine! The\nremembrance of my faults humiliates me, and urges me never to\ndepend upon my own strength which is nothing but weakness: still\nmore does this remembrance speak to me of mercy and of love.\nWhen, with all filial confidence we cast our faults into the\ndevouring furnace of love, how should they not be totally\nconsumed?\n\nV LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nTHOUGH we must needs be pure indeed to appear in the presence of\nthe God of all Holiness, yet I know too that He is infinitely\njust; and this justice which affrights so many souls is the\nground of my joy and my confidence. Justice not merely exercises\nseverity towards the offender; it moreover recognizes a right\nintention, and awards to virtue its recompense. I hope as much\nfrom the Justice of the good God as from His Mercy; it is\nbecause He is just, that _\"He is compassionate and merciful,\nlong-suffering and plenteous in mercy. For He knoweth our frame.\nHe remembereth that we are but dust. As a father hath compassion\non His children, so hath the Lord compassion on us!\"_ [4] . . .\n\nListening to these beautiful and consoling words of the Royal\nProphet, how can we doubt but that the good God will open the\nportals of His Kingdom to His children who have loved Him even\nunto sacrificing all for Him, who have not only left their\nkindred and their country, for the sake of making Him known and\nloved, but, still further, desire to give their life for\nHim? . . . Most truly has Jesus said that there is no greater\nlove than this! How then could He suffer Himself to be outdone\nin generosity? How could He purify in the flames of Purgatory\nsouls consumed by the fire of Divine Love? . . .\n\nThat is what I think of the justice of the good God; my way is\nall confidence and love, I do not understand those souls who\nfear so tender a Friend.\n\nVI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n[4] Ps., cii, 8, 13, 14.\n\n\nTHAT joy to think that God is just, that is to say, that He\ntakes our weakness into consideration, that He thoroughly knows\nthe frailty of our nature. Of what then, should I be afraid?\nMust not the good and infinitely just God, who with such tender\nmercy deigns to pardon the Prodigal Son, must He not be just\ntowards me too--_who am always with Him?_ [5]\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n[5] Luke, xv, 31.\n\n\nI WANT to make you understand by a very simple comparison how\nmuch Jesus loves souls, even the imperfect, who trust in Him.\nSuppose the father of two wayward and disobedient children,\ncoming to punish them, sees one tremble and draw away from him\nin terror; while the other, on the contrary, throwing himself\ninto his arms, says he is sorry, promises to be good\nhenceforward and begs for a kiss as punishment. Do you think the\ndelighted father will withstand the filial confidence of this\nchild? He knows nevertheless that his son will fall again many a\ntime into the same faults, but he is disposed to pardon him\nalways, if always there be an appeal to his heart.\n\nI say nothing of the other child: you must understand that his\nfather cannot love him as much or treat him with the same\nindulgence.\n\nVIII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nTRULY the Heart of Jesus is more grieved by the thousand little\nimperfections of His friends than by even grave faults of His\nenemies. But it seems to me that it is only when His own chosen\nones make a habit of these infidelities, and do not ask His\npardon, that He can say: _\"These wounds which you see in the\nmidst of My Hands: with these was I wounded in the house of them\nthat loved Me.\"_ [6]\n\nFor those who love Him and who come after each little fault and\nthrow themselves into His arms, begging His forgiveness, the\nHeart of Jesus thrills with joy. He says to His Angels what the\nfather of the prodigal son said to His servants: _\"Put a ring on\nhis finger and let us rejoice.\"_ [7] Oh! the goodness and the\nmerciful love of the Heart of Jesus, how little is it known!\nTrue it is, that to share in these treasures we must humble\nourselves, must acknowledge our nothingness, and that is what\nmany souls are unwilling to do.\n\nVII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n[6] _Cf_. Zach., xiii, 6.\n[7] _Cf_. Luke, xv, 22.\n\n\nOUR dreams, our desires of perfection are not vain imaginations,\nsince Jesus Himself has given us this commandment, He said: _\"Be\nyou, therefore, perfect, as also your Heavenly Father is\nperfect.\"_ [8]\n\nII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[8] Matt., v, 48.\n\n\nTRULY I am far from being a saint. I ought not to rejoice at the\naridity of my soul, but attribute it to the scantiness of my\nfervour and fidelity. I ought to grieve because I fall asleep\nvery often during my prayer and my thanksgiving. Well, I do not\ngrieve! I reflect that little children when they sleep are as\npleasing to their parents as when they are awake; that in order\nto perform operations, doctors put their patients to sleep; in\nfine, that _the Lord knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we\nare but dust._ [9]\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n[9] Ps., cii, 14.\n\n\nI HAVE no fear of the last combats, nor of the physical\nsuffering how great soever it may be. The good God has always\ncome to my assistance, He has helped me and led me by the hand\nfrom my earliest years . . . I count on Him . . . my sufferings\nmay reach their furthest limits, but I am sure that He will\nnever abandon me.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nIT is confidence, and confidence alone, that must lead us to\nLove . . . Does not fear lead us rather to think of the rigid\njustice by which sinners are warned? But that is not the justice\nthat Jesus will show to those who love Him.\n\nVI LETTER TO S\u0152UR DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n\nO JESUS, suffer me to tell Thee that Thy Love reacheth even unto\nfolly . . . What wilt Thou, in face of this folly, but that my\nheart dart upwards to Thee--how can my confidence have any\nbounds?\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nIT is not because I have been shielded from mortal sin that I\nlift up my heart to God in trust and love. I feel that even if\nthere lay upon my conscience all the crimes one could commit I\nshould lose nothing of my confidence. Brokenhearted with\ncompunction I would go and throw myself into the arms of my\nSaviour. I know that He cherished the Prodigal Son, I have heard\nHis words to Mary Magdalene, to the adultress, to the Samaritan\nwoman. No one could frighten me, for I know what to believe\nconcerning His Mercy and His Love. I know that in one moment all\nthat multitude of sins would disappear--as a drop of water cast\ninto a red-hot furnace.\n\nIt is related in the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert that one\nof them converted a public sinner whose misdeeds scandalized the\nwhole country. Touched by grace this sinful woman was following\nthe saint into the desert, there to do rigorous penance, when,\non the first night of her journey, before she had even reached\nthe place of her retreat, the bonds of life were broken by the\nimpetuosity of her loving contrition. The holy hermit at the\nsame moment saw her soul borne by Angels into the Bosom of God.\n\nThat is truly a striking instance of what I want to express, but\none cannot put these things into words. . .\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nHAPPY indeed am I to die and go to Heaven, but when I think on\nthose words of our Lord: _\"Behold, I come quickly, and My reward\nis with Me, to render to every man according to his works,\"_\n[10] I reflect that He will be very much embarrassed as regards\nme: I have no works . . . Well, He will render to me ACCORDING\nTO HIS OWN WORKS!\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[10] Apoc., xxii, 12.\n\n\n[Picture of Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se.]\nTHE SERVANT OF GOD\nTHERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS\n_The Little Flower of Jesus!_\n\n\nONE evening as they were telling her something which had been\nsaid at recreation, touching the responsibility of those who\nhave the charge of souls, S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de l'Enfant J\u00e9sus spoke\nthese beautiful words: _\"'To him that is little, mercy is\ngranted.'_ [11] It is possible to remain _little_, even in the\nmost important offices; and is it not written that at the end\n_the Lord will arise to save the meek and humble of the earth?_\n[12] It says not to _judge_ but to _save_.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n[11] Wisdom, vi, 7.\n[12] _Cf_. Ps., lxxv, 10.\n\n\nA NOVICE questioning as to whether our Lord were not\ndissatisfied with her on account of her many miseries, S\u0153ur\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se made answer:\n\n\"Set your mind at rest: He whom you have chosen as your Spouse\npossesses certainly every perfection that can be desired; but,\nif I may dare to say it, He has at the same time one great\ninfirmity: _He is blind!_ And there is a science which He knows\nnot, that of _calculation_. These two points which would be most\nlamentable deficiencies in an earthly spouse, render ours\ninfinitely lovable. Were He to consider our sins and reckon with\nthem, do you not think that in the face of all these sins He\nwould cast us back into nothingness? But no, His love for us\nmakes Him absolutely blind!\n\n\"See for yourself: if the greatest sinner on earth, at the hour\nof death repent of his transgressions and expire in an act of\nlove, immediately, without calculating on the one hand the\nnumerous graces abused by this unhappy man, nor on the other,\nall his crimes, Jesus sees nothing, counts nothing, but the\npenitent's last prayer, and delays not to receive him into the\narms of His Mercy.\n\n\"But to render Him thus blind, to hinder Him from doing the\nleast little bit of reckoning, we must know how to lay siege to\nHis Heart; at that point He is defenceless. . .\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTO another, who bitterly repented of a fault just committed,\nS\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se said:\n\n\"Take your Crucifix and kiss it.\"\n\nThe novice kissed the feet.\n\n\"Is that how a child embraces her Father? Put your arms round\nHis Neck immediately and kiss His Face.\"\n\nShe obeyed.\n\n\"That is not all, He must return your caresses.\"\n\nAnd she had to hold the Crucifix to each cheek; then Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\nsaid:\n\n\"That is well, now all is forgiven!\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nHAVING caused her pain, a novice went to ask pardon of S\u0153ur\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se, who replied with emotion: \"If you only knew what I\nfeel! Never have I so well understood with what love Jesus\nreceives us, when, after a fault we beg Him to forgive us. If I,\nHis poor little creature, feel such tenderness for you the\nmoment you return to me, what must pass in the Heart of the good\nGod when we return to Him? . . . Yes, surely, more swiftly yet\nthan I have just done, will He forget all our iniquities, never\nagain to remember them . . . He will do even more--He will love\nus still better than before our fault! . . . \"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\nSELF-ABANDONMENT\n\n\nI CANNOT think without rapture of the dear little Saint C\u00e6cilia:\nwhat a model! In the midst of a pagan world, in the heart of\ndanger, at the moment when about to be united to a mortal who\nsought none but earthly love, it seems to me that she ought to\nhave trembled and wept. But no, _while her bridal was celebrated\nwith joyful melody C\u00e6cilia was singing in her heart_. [1] What\nabandonment to God! Without doubt she listened to other melodies\nthan those of earth; her Divine Spouse, He too, was singing, and\nAngel choirs sang again the refrain of one most blessed night:\n_\"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good\nwill.\"_ [2]\n\nThe glory of God!--Oh! C\u00e6cilia understood it; most earnestly did\nshe long for it. She divined that her Jesus was athirst for\nsouls . . . that is why her whole desire was that she might lead\nspeedily to Him the soul of the young Roman, who dreamed of\nnaught but human glory: this wise Virgin will make of him a\nmartyr, and multitudes will follow in his footprints. She fears\nnothing: the Angels have promised and have sung of peace. She\nknows that the Prince of Peace is bound to protect her, to\nshield her virginity and to give to her its recompense. _\"O how\nbeautiful is the chaste generation!\"_ [3]\n\nXVII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[1] Office of St. C\u00e6cilia.\n[2] Luke, ii, 14.\n[3] Wisdom, iv, I.\n\n\nI HAD offered myself to the Child Jesus to be _His little\nplaything_. I had told Him not to use me like a costly toy which\nchildren are pleased to look at without daring to touch; but as\nHe would a little ball of no value, that He might throw to the\nground, toss about, pierce, leave in a corner, or else press to\nHis Heart if so it pleased Him. In a word _I wanted to amuse the\nlittle Jesus, and to give myself up to all His childlike\nfancies._\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nMY heart is entirely filled with the will of Jesus; therefore\nwhen anything over and above falls to its share, this does not\npenetrate to its depths; it is a mere nothing which easily\nglides by, as oil on the surface of limpid water. Ah! if my\nheart were not filled up beforehand, had it to be filled by the\nsentiments of joy or of sadness which so quickly succeed each\nother, bitter indeed would be this flood-tide of pain; but these\nrapid alternations do no more than ruffle the surface of my\nsoul, and I remain ever in a profound peace that nothing can\ndisturb.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nI AM not always faithful, but I am never discouraged; I leave\nmyself wholly in the arms of our Divine Lord; He teaches me to\n_draw profit from all--both good and ill that He finds in me_.\n[4] He teaches me to speculate in the Bank of Love, or rather it\nis He who acts for me without telling me how He goes to work,\nthat is His affair and not mine; my part is complete surrender,\nreserving nothing to myself, not even the gratification of\nknowing how my credit stands with the Bank.\n\nXVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[4] St. John of the Cross.\n\n\nA SISTER told S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the strange phenomena produced by\nmagnetism on persons who really wish to yield up their will to\nthe mesmerizer. These details appeared to interest her keenly\nand on the morrow she said to the Sister:\n\n\"Your conversation yesterday did me so much good. Oh! how I wish\nto be magnetized by our Lord. It was my first thought on\nawakening. With what delight have I delivered my will up to Him.\nYes, I want Him to make Himself master of my faculties in such\nsort that my actions shall no longer be human or personal, but\nwholly divine, inspired and directed by the Spirit of Love.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nYOU are quite wrong to think of sorrows that the future may\nbring; it is, as it were, intermeddling with Divine Providence.\nWe who run in the way of Love must never torment ourselves about\nanything. If I did not suffer minute by minute, it would be\nimpossible for me to be patient; but I see only the present\nmoment, I forget the past and I take good care not to anticipate\nthe future. If we grow disheartened, if sometimes we despair, it\nis because we have been dwelling on the past or the future.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nI NO longer thirst for either suffering or death, yet both I\ndearly prize. Long did I call upon them as the harbingers of joy\n. . . Suffering has in very truth been mine, and I have thought\nI wellnigh touched the eternal shore! I have believed from my\nearliest youth that _the little flower_ would be gathered in its\nspring-time; now, it is the spirit of self-abandonment alone\nthat guides me, no other compass have I. I know not now, how to\nask anything eagerly, save the perfect accomplishment of God's\ndesigns upon my soul.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\n\"PRAY for me,\" she would often say, \"when I implore Heaven to\ncome to my aid, then it is that I feel most forsaken.\"\n\n\"And in this desolation how do you avoid discouragement?\" they\nasked her.\n\n\"I turn to the good God, to all the Saints, and I thank them\njust the same. I think they wish to see to what point I shall\ncarry my trust . . . But not in vain have these words of Job\nsunk into my heart: _'Though He should kill me yet will I trust\nin Him.'_ [5] I acknowledge it was long before I reached this\ndegree of abandonment; our Lord has taken me and placed me\nthere!\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n[5] Job, xiii, 15.\n\n\nIT seems to me that nothing now hinders me from taking flight,\nfor I no longer have any great desires, save to love, even unto\ndying of love. I am free, I have no fear, not even of what I\nmost dreaded; I mean the fear of being a long time ill and\nconsequently a burthen to the Community. If it gives pleasure to\nthe good God I willingly consent to see my life of suffering,\nboth of soul and body, prolonged for years. Oh! no, I do not\nfear a long life. I do not shun the combat. _\"The Lord is the\nrock upon which I am founded. Who teacheth my hands to fight and\nmy fingers to war; He is my protector in whom I have hoped.\"_\n[6] Never have I asked God to let me die young; it is true I\nhave ever believed that it would be so, but without seeking to\nobtain it.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n[6] _Cf_. Ps., cxliii, 1, 2, 3.\n\n\nWHATEVER the good God has given me has always pleased me, even\nthe gifts which have appeared to me less good and less beautiful\nthan those received by others.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nI HAVE no greater desire to die than to live; if our Lord gave\nme the choice I would choose nothing; I only will what He wills;\nit is what He does that I love.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\"SOME think you are afraid of death,\" they said to her.--\"That\nmay indeed yet happen; I never depend on my own thoughts,\nknowing how weak I am; but at present I will rejoice in the\nsentiments that the good God now gives me, there will be time\nenough to suffer from the contrary.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA SISTER said to her:\n\n\"If anyone goes straight to Heaven, you surely will not spend\none moment in Purgatory!\"\n\n\"Oh! I feel little anxiety about that; I shall always be content\nwith the sentence of the good God. If I go to Purgatory, well--I\nshall walk in the midst of the flames, like the three Hebrews in\nthe furnace, singing the Canticle of Love.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\nGRATITUDE\n\n\n\nOH, how happy God makes me! How easy and how sweet it is to\nserve Him upon earth.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nSEEING several of my companions form special attachments to some\none or other of our mistresses, I wished to follow their example\nbut could not succeed therein. O happy inability! from how great\nevils has it saved me . . . How I thank God for having made me\nfind only bitterness in the friendships of earth. With a heart\nsuch as mine I should have been captured and had my wings\nclipped; then how should I have been able to _fly away and be at\nrest_. [1]\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n[1] Ps., liv, 7.\n\n\nI UNDERSTAND well that our Lord knew I was too weak to be\nexposed to temptation; without doubt I should have been wholly\ndestroyed had I been dazzled by the deceitful glamour of the\nlove of creatures; but never has it shone before my eyes. There,\nwhere strong souls find joy, and through fidelity detach\nthemselves from it, I have found only affliction. Where then is\nmy merit in not being given up to these fragile attachments,\nsince it is only by a gracious effect of God's mercy that I was\npreserved from it? Without Him, I recognize that I might have\nfallen as low as St. Magdalene; and that word of deep meaning\nspoken by the Divine Master to Simon the Pharisee, re-echoes\nwith great sweetness in my soul. Yes, I know it: _\"To whom less\nis forgiven, he loveth less.\"_ [2] But I also know that Jesus\nhas forgiven more to me than to St. Magdalene. Ah, how I wish I\ncould express what I feel. Here at least is an example which\nwill in some measure convey my thought.\n\nSuppose the son of a skilful doctor is tripped by a stone in his\npath, which causes him to fall and fracture a limb. His father\ncomes in haste, lifts him up lovingly and attends to his\ninjuries, employing therein all the resources of his art; and\nthe boy, very soon completely cured, testifies his gratitude.\nThis child has certainly good reason to love so kind a father;\nbut here is another supposition.\n\nThe father having learnt that there lies in his son's way a\ndangerous stone, sets out beforehand and removes it unseen by\nanyone. His son, the object of this tender forethought, unaware\nof the misfortune from which he has been preserved by the\nfather's hand, will of course show no gratitude, and will love\nhim less than if he had cured him of a grievous wound. But\nshould he come to know all, will he not love him still more?\nWell--I am this child, the object of the preventing love of a\nFather _Who sent His Son not to redeem the just but sinners._\n[3] He wills that I should love Him because He has forgiven me,\nnot _much_, but _everything_. Without waiting for me to love Him\nmuch, like St. Mary Magdalene, He has made me to know how He had\nloved me with a preventing and ineffable love, in order that I\nmay now love Him even unto folly!\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n[2] Luke, vii, 47.\n[3] Luke, v, 32.\n\n\nWALKING one day in the garden, leaning on one of her sisters,\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se paused to enjoy the fascinating sight of a little white\nhen sheltering its chickens beneath its wings. Very soon her\neyes filled with tears, and turning to her dear companion she\nsaid: \"I can stay no longer, let us go in again quickly. . .\"\nAnd in her cell, her tears continued falling and she could not\nutter a word. At last, looking at her sister with an expression\nthat was quite heavenly, she said:\n\n\"I was thinking of our Lord, and of the touching comparison He\nchose in order to make us believe in His tenderness. That is\njust what He has done for me all my life: _He has wholly hidden\nme beneath His wings!_ I cannot express what passed within my\nheart. Ah! the good God does well to veil Himself from my sight,\nto show me the effects of His Mercy rarely, and as it were,\n_'through the lattices;'_ [4] such consolations would, I feel,\nbe more than I could bear.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n[4] Cant., ii, 9.\n\n\n\"OH! how _good_ is the good God!\" . . . she would sometimes\nexclaim. \"Yes, He must indeed be good to give me the strength to\nendure all that I suffer.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nONE day she said to the Mother Prioress:\n\n\"I would like to speak to you, Mother, of the state of my soul;\nbut I cannot, I am too deeply moved just now.\"\n\nAnd in the evening she sent these lines pencilled with a\ntrembling hand:\n\n\"O my God, how good Thou art to the little victim of Thy\nMerciful Love! Now even though Thou dost join physical suffering\nto the trials of my soul, I cannot say: _'The sorrows of death\nhave encompassed me.'_ [5] But I cry out in my gratitude: _'I\nhave gone down into the valley of the shadow of death, yet I\nfear no evil, because Thou, O Lord, art with me.'_\" [6]\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n[5] Ps., xvii, 5.\n[6] _Cf_. Ps., xxii, 4.\n\n\n\nZEAL\n\n\n\nTHE cry of Jesus agonizing, \"I thirst!\" re-echoed continually in\nmy heart, firing it with an ardent zeal till then unknown to me.\nI longed to give to my Beloved to drink: I too felt myself\nconsumed with the thirst for souls, and at all cost I would\nwrest sinners from the eternal flames.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nTHE Precious Blood of Jesus I poured on souls, to Him I offered\nthese same souls renewed by the Dew of Calvary; thus I thought\nto quench His Thirst; but the more I gave Him to drink, the more\nardently my poor little soul thirsted--and this I received as a\nmost precious recompense.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nLIKE the Prophets and the Doctors I would fain enlighten souls.\nFain would I travel the earth, O my Well-Beloved, to preach Thy\nName and to set up Thy glorious Cross in Pagan lands. But one\nmission only would not suffice for me; would that I could at one\nand the same time proclaim the Gospel all the world over, even\nto the remotest of its islands. I would desire to be a\nMissionary not only for a few years, but to have been one from\nthe creation of the world, and so to continue to the end of\ntime.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nI LONG to accomplish the most heroic deeds. I feel within me the\ncourage of a Crusader. I would die on the battlefield in defence\nof the Church.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nOPEN, my Jesus, thy Book of Life wherein are recorded the\nactions of all the Saints; those actions--would that I too, had\naccomplished such for Thee!\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nSOULS--dear Lord, we must have souls! Above all, souls of\napostles and of martyrs, that through them we may inflame the\nmultitude of poor sinners with love of Thee.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, APPENDIX\n\n\nAFTER recreation one day when the Mother Prioress had spoken of\nthe persecution already raging against Religious Communities,\nS\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se said to a novice: \"Ah! Sister, we live in an era of\nmartyrs! Blood will be shed.--What happiness if it should be\nours!\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA NOVICE on her way to the laundry one day, went at a slow pace\nthrough the garden, looking at the flowers as she passed. S\u0153ur\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se who followed walking quickly, soon overtook her and\nsaid: \"Is that how one hastens who has children (_souls_) to\nsupport, for whose sustenance she is obliged to work? . . . \"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nDURING her illness she wrote:\n\n\"The will of the good God is my sole desire; and I declare that\nif in Heaven I could no longer work for His glory, I would\nchoose exile rather than the Fatherland.\"\n\nIV LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nWHAT draws me towards the Heavenly Country is the call of our\nLord, the hope of at last loving Him as I have so ardently\ndesired, and the thought that I shall be able to make Him loved\nby _a multitude of souls_ who will bless Him eternally.\n\nVIII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nCONFIDENTLY I count upon not remaining inactive in Heaven, my\ndesire is to work still for the Church and for souls: this I ask\nof God, and I am certain that He will hear me. If I quit already\nthe battlefield, it is not with the selfish desire of taking my\nrest. Suffering has long since become my heaven here below, and\nit is difficult to imagine how it will be possible for me to\nbecome acclimatized to a country where joy reigns, unmingled\nwith sorrow. Jesus must needs transform my soul completely, else\nI could not support eternal bliss.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nJUST now a few notes of distant music fell upon my ear, and set\nme thinking that very soon I shall hear melodies beyond compare;\nyet this thought can give me but a moment's gladness; one only\nexpectation makes my heart throb: _it is the love that I shall\nreceive and the love that I shall be able to give!_\n\n_I feel that my mission is now to begin, my mission to make\nothers love the good God as I love Him . . . to give to souls my\nlittle way_. I WILL SPEND MY HEAVEN IN DOING GOOD UPON EARTH.\nThis is not impossible, since the Angels in the full enjoyment\nof the Beatific Vision keep watch over us. No, I shall never\nrest till the end of the world! But when the Angel shall have\nsaid: \"Time is no more!\" [1] then I shall rest--shall be able to\nrejoice, because the number of the elect will be complete.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n[1] Apoc., x, 6.\n\n\n\nSIMPLICITY\n\n\n\nWHEN I read certain treatises where perfection is set forth as\nencompassed by a thousand obstacles, my poor little head grows\nweary very quickly. I close the learned book which puzzles my\nbrains and dries up my heart, and in its stead I open the Holy\nScriptures. Then all appears clear, luminous . . . one single\nword discloses to my soul infinite horizons, perfection seems\neasy. I see that it is sufficient to recognize our nothingness,\nand to leave oneself like a child, in the arms of the good God.\nLet great souls and sublime intellects enjoy the beautiful books\nwhich I cannot understand, still less put in practice; I rejoice\nin being little, since _\"children only and those who resemble\nthem will be admitted to the Heavenly banquet.\"_ [1]\n\nIt is well that the Kingdom of Heaven contains many mansions,\nfor if there were none other than those of which the description\nand the way seem incomprehensible to me, I should never be able\nto enter therein.\n\nVI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n[1] _Cf._ Matt., xix, 14.\n\n\nMY patrons in Heaven and my chosen favourites are those who have\nstolen it--like the Holy Innocents and the Good Thief. The great\nSaints have earned it by their works; as for me, I will imitate\nthe thieves, I will have it by ruse, a ruse of Love which will\nopen its gates to me and to poor sinners. The Holy Ghost\nencourages me, saying in the Book of Proverbs: _\"O little one,\ncome, learn subtlety of me.\"_ [2]\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[2] _Cf._ Prov., i, 4.\n\n\nOUR Lord replied to the mother of the sons of Zebedee: _\"To sit\non My right and on My left hand is for them for whom it is\nprepared by My Father.\"_ [3] I imagine that those places of\nchoice, refused to great Saints, to Martyrs, will be the portion\nof little children.\n\nDid not David predict it when he said that _the little Benjamin\nwill preside amidst the assemblies_ (of the saints)? [4]\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[3] _Cf._ Matt., xx, 23.\n[4] _Cf._ Ps., lxvii, 29.\n\n\n\"IF you could begin your religious life over again\" asked a\nnovice, \"what would you do?\"\n\n\"It seems to me that I would do as I have done.\"\n\n\"You do not then feel like the hermit who used to say: 'Even\nthough I had lived long years in penance yet I should fear\ndamnation while there still remained to me one quarter of an\nhour, one breath of life.'\n\n\"No, I cannot share that fear, I am too little to be damned,\nlittle children are not damned.\"\n\n\"You always seek to be like the little ones--but tell us what we\nmust do to possess the spirit of childhood? What does it exactly\nmean--to remain little?\n\n\"To remain little--it is to recognize our nothingness, to expect\neverything from the good God, not to be too much afflicted about\nour faults, for little children fall often but are too small to\nhurt themselves much: in fine, it is _not_ to make one's\nfortune, nor to be disquieted about anything. Even in the homes\nof the poor, as long as a child is quite little they give him\nwhat is needful; but when grown up, the father is no longer\nwilling to support him and says: 'Now work! you can provide for\nyourself.' Well, it was to escape hearing that, that I have\nnever wished to grow up, for I know myself incapable of earning\nmy livelihood--Eternal Life!\n\n\"Again, to remain little is not to attribute to self the virtues\nwe practise; but to acknowledge that the good God places this\ntreasure in the hand of His little child to be made use of when\nrequired.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nBE not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be\nwithout feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and\ncarry you like a little child too feeble to walk.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIT is a great trial to see only the black side of things, but\nthat does not depend completely upon you. Do your best to detach\nyour heart from the cares of this world, and above all from\ncreatures; then you may be sure that Jesus will do the rest. He\ncould not suffer you to fall into the abyss. Be comforted,\nlittle one, in Heaven you will no longer see _all black but all\nwhite;_ yes, all will be clothed with the divine whiteness of\nour Spouse, the Lily of the Valley. Together we shall follow Him\nwhithersoever He goeth . . . Oh! let us profit by the brief\nmoments of this life to give pleasure to Jesus, let us win souls\nfor Him by our sacrifices. Above all let us be little, so little\nthat all the world may trample us under foot without even our\nappearing to feel it or to suffer from it.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nYOU are wrong to find fault with one thing and another, and to\nseek that all should yield to your way of viewing things. We\nwant to be like little children, and little children know not\nwhat is best, to them all seems well; let us imitate them.\nBesides there would be no merit [in obedience] were we only to\ndo what would appear reasonable to us.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA NOVICE under a temptation which seemed to her insurmountable\nsaid: \"This time I cannot rise above it--it is impossible.\"\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se replied: \"Why do you try to rise above it? Pass beneath\nit quite simply. It is very well for great souls to soar high\nabove the clouds when the storm is raging, but for us, we have\nmerely to bear the showers with patience. If we do get rather\nwet--no matter! We shall dry ourselves afterwards in the\nsunshine of Love.\n\n\"That brings to mind this little trait of my childhood; a horse\none day standing at the garden gate barred our entrance; those\nwith me endeavoured by force of talking, etc., to get him to\nmove back, but while they talked I very quietly slipped in,\nthrough the horse's legs . . . See how one may gain by remaining\nlittle!\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTO a young Sister discouraged at seeing her imperfections, S\u0153ur\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se said: \"You make me think of a very little child who is\njust able to stand upright but does not yet know how to walk.\nIntent upon reaching the top of the stairs so as to get back to\nhis mother he lifts his foot to climb the first step. Fruitless\nendeavour! At each attempt he falls without advancing in the\nleast. Well, be like that little child; by the practice of every\nvirtue keep on ever lifting your little foot to climb the steps\nof sanctity, and do not imagine that you will be able to mount\neven the first! No; but good will is all God requires of you.\nFrom the top of those steps He is watching you with love; and\nwon by your unavailing efforts He will Himself soon come down,\nand taking you in His arms will bear you away to His Kingdom,\nnever more to quit Him. But if you cease to lift your little\nfoot He will leave you a long time on earth.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHE only means of making rapid progress in the path of Love is\nto remain always very _little_; that is what I have done; so now\nI can sing with our Father St. John of the Cross:\n\n  And stooping so low, so low,\n  I rose still higher and higher\n  And thus I attained my end.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nSOME one was speaking to her of the mortifications of the\nSaints, she replied:\n\n\"It is well our Lord has let us know that _there are many\nmansions in His Father's House, that if not He would have told\nus._ [5] Yes, if all souls called to perfection had been obliged\nto practise these macerations in order to enter Heaven, He would\nhave said so, and gladly would we have undertaken them. But He\ntells us that _in His House there are many mansions_. If there\nare those for great souls, for the Fathers of the Desert and for\nmartyrs of penance, there must be one also for little children.\nOur place is reserved there, if our love be great--for Him and\nfor our Heavenly Father and the Spirit of Love.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[5] _Cf._ John, xiv, 2.\n\n\n\"I feel that my mission is now to begin,\" she said a few days\nbefore her death, \"my mission to make others love the good God\n_as I love Him_, to give my little way to souls. . .\"\n\n\"What is this 'little way' that you want to teach to souls?\"\n\n\"_It is the path of spiritual childhood, it is the way of trust\nand of entire self-surrender_. I want to make known to them the\nsimple means that have so perfectly succeeded for me, to tell\nthem that there is but one only thing to do here below: _to cast\ndown before Jesus the flowers of little sacrifices, to win Him\nby caresses!_ That is how I have won Him, and that is why I\nshall be so well received.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nIF I am misguiding you by my _little way_ of Love, she said to a\nnovice, do not fear that I shall let you follow it very long. I\nshall appear to you, and tell you to take another path; but if I\ndo not return, believe in the truth of my words: _never can we\nhave too much confidence in the good God, so mighty and so\nmerciful! As much as we hope for shall we obtain from\nHim!_ . . .\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA NOVICE said to her on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of\nMount Carmel: \"If you were to die to-morrow after Holy\nCommunion, it seems to me that so beautiful a death would\nconsole me in the midst of my grief.\"\n\nAnd Th\u00e9r\u00e8se replied with animation:\n\n\"Die after Holy Communion! On a grand Feast day! No, it will not\nbe so: little souls could not copy that. In my little way there\nare only quite ordinary things; all that I do, little souls must\nbe able to do also.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\nPRAYER\n\n\n\nAS I grew older I loved the good God more and more, and very\nfrequently did I offer Him my heart, using the words my mother\nhad taught me. I strove in all my actions to please Jesus and\nwas most watchful never to offend Him.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. II\n\n\nMY whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my\ninvincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words, I\nknow it by experience.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nGREAT is the power of prayer--a queen, as one might say, having\nfree access always to the King, and able to obtain whatever she\nasks. In order to be heard, it is not necessary to read from a\nbook a beautiful form of prayer adapted to the circumstances; if\nit were so, how greatly to be pitied should I be!\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nI HAVE not the courage to force myself to seek beautiful prayers\nin books; not knowing which to choose I act as children do who\ncannot read; I say quite simply to the good God what I want to\ntell Him, and He always understands me.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nPRAYER is, for me, an outburst from the heart; it is a simple\nglance darted upwards to Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and of\nlove in the midst of trial as in the midst of joy! In a word, it\nis something exalted, supernatural, which dilates the soul and\nunites it to God. Sometimes when I find myself, spiritually, in\ndryness so great that I cannot produce a single good thought, I\nrecite very slowly a _Pater_ or an _Ave Maria_; these prayers\nalone console me, they suffice, they nourish my soul.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nTHE principal plenary indulgence and one which all may gain\nwithout the ordinary conditions, is that of _charity which\ncovereth a multitude of sins_. [1]\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[1] Prov., x, 12.\n\n\nFORMERLY if any of my family were in trouble, and that I had\nbeen unable to succeed in comforting them during their visit, I\nwould go from the parlour heart-broken; but soon Jesus made me\nunderstand that I was incapable of giving consolation to a soul.\nFrom that day forth I grieved no more when anyone went away sad;\nI confided to the good God the sorrows of those who were dear to\nme, feeling certain that He heard me, and at their next visit I\nused to find that it had indeed been so. Since I have\nexperienced this, I no longer torment myself when involuntarily\nI give pain; I simply beg of Jesus to make up for what I have\ndone.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nONE day after Holy Communion the good God made me understand\nthose words of the Canticles: _\"Draw me: we will run offer Thee\nto the odour of Thy ointments.\"_ [2] O Jesus, it is not then\nnecessary to say: In drawing me, draw the souls whom I love.\nThese, simple words: _\"Draw me\"_ suffice! Yes, when a soul has\nallowed herself to be captivated by the inebriating fragrance of\nThy perfumes, she could not run alone, all the souls whom she\nloves are drawn after her; this is a natural consequence of her\nattraction towards Thee.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n[2] Cant., i, 3.\n\n\n_\"DRAW me, we will run. . .\"_\n\nTo ask to be drawn is to will intimate union with the object\nwhich holds the heart captive. If fire and iron were gifted with\nreason, and that the latter said to the fire: \"Draw me,\" would\nnot this prove that it desired to become identified with the\nfire even so far as to share its substance? Well, that is\nexactly my prayer. I beg of Jesus to draw me into the flames of\nHis Love, to unite me so closely to Himself that He may live and\nact in me. I feel that the more the fire of love inflames my\nheart, the more I shall say: \"Draw me,\" the more also will the\nsouls who draw near to mine run swiftly in the fragrant odours\nof the Well-Beloved.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nSOULS thus on fire cannot rest inactive. They may sit at the\nfeet of Jesus, like Saint Mary Magdalene, listening to His sweet\nand ardent words; but, while seeming to give nothing, they do\ngive far more than Martha who troubles herself with _many\nthings_. [3] It is not however of Martha's labours that Jesus\ndisapproves, but only her too great anxiety; to this very same\nwork His Blessed Mother humbly submitted herself, when she had\nto prepare the repasts for the Holy Family.\n\nAll the Saints have understood this, and more especially perhaps\nthose who have enlightened the world with the luminous teaching\nof the Gospel. Was it not from prayer that Saint Paul, Saint\nAugustine, Saint Thomas of Aquin, Saint John of the Cross, Saint\nTeresa and so many other friends of God drew that wondrous\nscience which enraptures the greatest intellects?\n\nArchimedes said: \"Give me a lever and a fulcrum, and I will\nraise the world.\" What he was unable to obtain because his\nrequest had but a material end and was not addressed to God, the\nSaints have obtained in full measure. For fulcrum, the Almighty\nhas given them Himself, Himself alone! for lever, prayer, which\nenkindles the fire of love; and thus it is that they have\nuplifted the world, thus it is that saints still militant,\nuplift it, and will uplift it till the end of time.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n[3] Luke, x, 41\n\n\nTHE Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of one poor little\nsoul to save a multitude of others, redeemed like her at the\nprice of His Blood.\n\nOur vocation is not to go and reap in the Father's fields; Jesus\ndoes not say to us: \"Cast down your eyes and reap the harvest\";\nour mission is still more sublime. Here are the words of the\nDivine Master: _\"Lift up your eyes and see. . .\"_ see that in\nHeaven there are empty places; yours it is to fill them . . .\nyou are as Moses praying on the mountain; ask of Me labourers\nand I will send them, I await but a prayer, a sigh from out your\nheart!\n\nIs not the apostolate of prayer higher as one might say, than\nthat of preaching? It is for us to form labourers who by\npreaching the Gospel, will save thousands of souls of whom we\nthus become the mothers; what then have we to envy the Priests\nof the Lord?\n\nXII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nHOW beautiful is our vocation! It is for us, it is for Carmel to\npreserve _\"the salt of the earth.\"_ [4] We offer our prayers and\nsacrifices for the apostles of the Lord; we ought ourselves to\nbe their apostles while by word and example they preach the\nGospel to our brethren.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n[4] Matt., v, 13.\n\n\nA NOVICE was grieving about her numerous distractions during\nprayer: \"I too, have many,\" replied S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de l'Enfant\nJ\u00e9sus, \"but I accept all for love of the good God, even the most\nextravagant thoughts that come into my head.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nHER prayer was continual though she was habitually plunged in\naridity. One day a novice entering her cell, paused, struck by\nthe celestial expression of her countenance. She was sewing with\nalacrity yet seemed lost in profound contemplation.\n\n\"Of what are you thinking?\" asked the young Sister. \"I am\nmeditating on the _Pater_,\" she replied. \"It is so sweet to call\nthe good God our Father.\" And tears shone in her eyes.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nI DO not well see what more I shall have in Heaven than now, she\nonce said. I shall see the good God, it is true; but as to being\nwith Him, I am wholly with Him already upon earth.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA LIVING flame of Divine Love consumed her.\n\n\"A few days after my oblation to _God's Merciful Love_,\" she\nrelates, \"I had commenced in the Choir the Way of the Cross,\nwhen I felt myself suddenly wounded by a dart of fire so ardent\nthat I thought I must die. I know not how to describe this\ntransport; there is no comparison which would make one\nunderstand the intensity of that flame. An invisible power\nseemed to plunge me wholly into fire . . . but oh! what fire!\nwhat sweetness!\"\n\nThe Mother Prioress asked her whether this transport was the\nfirst in her life, she answered simply:\n\n\"Mother, I have several times had transports of love; once\nespecially during my novitiate when I remained one entire week\nfar indeed from this world; for me, there was as it were, a veil\nthrown over all things of the earth. But I was not consumed by a\nreal flame, I was able to sustain those delights without\nexpecting that their intensity would cause my earthly fetters to\nsnap asunder, whilst on the day of which I speak, one minute,\none second more and my soul must have left its prison . . .\nAlas!--and I found myself again on earth, and aridity\nimmediately returned to my heart!\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\nHOLY COMMUNION\n\n\n\nHOW sweet it was, the first kiss of Jesus to my soul! Yes, it\nwas a kiss of Love. I felt I was loved, and I too said: \"I love\nThee, I give myself to Thee for ever!\" Jesus asked nothing of\nme, demanded no sacrifice. Already for a long time past, He and\nthe little Th\u00e9r\u00e8se had watched and understood one another . . .\nThat day our meeting was no longer a simple look but a _fusion_.\nNo longer were we two: Th\u00e9r\u00e8se had disappeared as the drop of\nwater which loses itself in the depths of the ocean, Jesus alone\nremained; the Master, the King! Had not Th\u00e9r\u00e8se begged Him to\ntake away from her, her liberty? That liberty made her afraid;\nso weak, so fragile did she feel herself that she longed to be\nunited for ever to Divine Strength.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nI HAD taken as my rule of conduct, to receive most faithfully\nHoly Communion as often as my confessor permitted, without ever\nasking that it might be more frequent. I would act differently\nnow; for I am quite sure that a soul ought to make known to her\ndirector the attraction that she feels to receive her God. It is\nnot to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes down each day\nfrom Heaven, but to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our soul\nin which He takes His delight.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nWHAT shall I say of my thanksgivings after Holy Communion? There\nare no moments in which I feel less consolation. And is not this\nvery natural, seeing that my desire is to receive our Lord's\nvisit, not for my own satisfaction, but solely for His pleasure.\n\nI imagine my soul to be as a plot of waste ground and beg the\nBlessed Virgin to remove from it all the rubbish--meaning its\nimperfections; then I beseech her to erect thereon, a vast\ncanopy worthy of Heaven and to decorate it with her own\ntreasures, and I invite all the Angels and Saints to come and\nsing canticles of love. It seems to me then that Jesus is\npleased to see Himself so magnificently received; and I, I share\nHis joy. All this does not hinder distractions and sleep from\nmolesting me; therefore it not rarely happens that I resolve to\ncontinue my thanksgiving all the day long, since I have made it\nso badly in the Choir.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nAT the time of Holy Communion I sometimes picture my soul under\nthe figure of a little child of three or four years, who at play\nhas got its hair tossed and its clothes soiled.--These\nmisfortunes have befallen me in battling with souls.--But very\nsoon the Blessed Virgin hastens to my aid: quickly she takes off\nmy little dirty pinafore, smooths my hair and adorns it with a\npretty ribbon or simply with a little flower . . . and this\nsuffices to render me pleasing and enables me to sit at the\nBanquet of Angels without blushing.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHE demon, traitor that he is, knows well, that he cannot make a\nsoul who wills to belong wholly to the good God, commit sin;\ntherefore he endeavours only to persuade her that she sins. That\nis a great deal gained, but it is not yet enough to satisfy his\nrage . . . he aims at something further, he wants to deprive\nJesus of a loved tabernacle. Not being able himself to enter\ninto this sanctuary he wishes that it may at least remain empty\nand without its Lord. Alas! what will become of this poor heart?\n. . . When the devil has succeeded in driving away a soul from\nHoly Communion he has gained his ends, and Jesus weeps. . .\n\nI LETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GU\u00c9RIN\n\n\nA NOVICE relates that she wanted to deprive herself of Holy\nCommunion because of some lack of fidelity. She wrote her\ndetermination to Sister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus who thus\nreplied:\n\n\"Little flower cherished by Jesus, it is amply sufficient that\nby the humiliation of your soul your roots _eat of the\nearth_ . . . You must open a little, or rather raise on high\nyour corolla so that the Bread of Angels may come as a divine\ndew to strengthen you, and to give you all that is wanting to\nyou.\n\n\"Good-night, poor little floweret; ask of Jesus that all the\nprayers offered for my recovery may serve to augment the fire\nwhich must consume me.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\nSUFFERING [1]\n\n\n\n[1] No reader should be discouraged by this chapter on\nSuffering. What S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se says is very consoling for those\nwho are nailed to the Cross; and others must remember that God\nhad given to His humble Servant a _sensible_ attraction for\nsuffering, which is a rare grace and reserved to very few souls,\nthough many imagine they possess it, and mistake their road\nchoosing to follow this supposed attraction. Without the\nsensible desire and even though experiencing an invincible\nrepugnance to suffer, souls can be sanctified. What pleases God\nis that the suffering be borne with love.\n\nTHE cross has accompanied me from the cradle; but then, Jesus\nhas made me love it passionately.\n\nIX LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nONE day my sister Marie, speaking of suffering, said that\ninstead of making me walk by that way, the good God would no\ndoubt carry me always like a little child. These words recurred\nto me after Holy Communion on the following day, and my heart\nwas fired with an ardent desire of suffering. I felt too an\ninward assurance, that crosses in great number were in reserve\nfor me. Then my soul was inundated with consolations such as I\nhave never had again in all my life. Suffering became my\nattraction, in it I found charms that entranced me.\n\nAnother great desire that I felt, was to love but God alone and\nto find no joy save only in Him. Often during my thanksgiving\nafter Holy Communion I used to repeat this passage from the\n_Imitation: \"O Jesus, who art ineffable sweetness, turn for me\ninto bitterness all the consolations of earth.\"_ [2] These words\ncame from my lips without effort; I uttered them like a child\nwho repeats without too well understanding, words prompted by a\nfriend.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n[2] _Imit_., III, ch. xxvi, 3.\n\n\nSUFFERING has held out its arms to me from my very entrance into\nCarmel and lovingly have I embraced it. My intention in coming\nhere, I declared in the solemn examination which preceded my\nprofession: _I am come in order to save souls, and especially to\npray for Priests_. When we want to attain an end we must employ\nthe means, and Jesus having made me understand that He would\ngive me souls by means of the cross, the more crosses I met with\nthe more my attraction to suffering increased. During five years\nthis way was mine; but I alone knew it. Here was just the hidden\nflower that I wanted to offer to Jesus, this flower which\nexhaled its fragrance for Heaven alone.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VII\n\n\nFOR one pain endured with joy, we shall love the good God more\nfor ever.\n\nI LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nIN my soul's intercourse with Jesus--nothing . . . dryness!\nsleep! Since my Beloved wills to sleep I shall not hinder Him; I\nam too happy in seeing that He does not treat me like a\nstranger, that He is not constrained with me. He pierces His\nlittle ball through and through with pin-pricks sore\nindeed . . . When it is this tender Friend who Himself pierces\nHis ball, the pain is naught but sweetness--so gentle is His\nHand. How different when creatures pierce it!\n\nYet I am happy, yes, truly happy to suffer. If Jesus does not\nHimself directly pierce His little ball, it is certainly He who\nguides the hand that wounds!\n\nII LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nYES, I desire them, those heart-thrusts, those pin-pricks that\ngive so much pain . . . Sacrifice I prefer to all ecstacies:\ntherein lies happiness for me, I find it nowhere else. _The\nlittle reed_ has no fear of breaking, for it is planted on the\nshore of the waters of Love; and so, when it bends, that\nbeneficent wave invigorates it, and makes it long for another\nstorm to come and bow down its head anew. My weakness it is,\nthat makes my whole strength. Whatever happens I cannot get\nbroken; I see only the gentle hand of Jesus.\n\nTo win the palm no suffering is too great.\n\nIII LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nTHE drop of gall must be mingled in every cup, but I find that\ntrials greatly help to detach us from earth; they make us look\nhigher than this world. Nothing here below can satisfy us; we\ncan enjoy a little repose only by being ready to do God's Will.\n\nI LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nMY soul has known many kinds of trials, greatly have I suffered\nhere on earth. In my childhood I suffered with sadness; now, it\nis with peace and joy that I taste of all the bitter fruits.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nSUFFERING united to love is the only thing that appears to me\ndesirable in this vale of tears.\n\nIX LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nWHEN we are expecting only suffering the least joy surprises us:\nsuffering itself becomes the greatest of joys when we seek it as\na precious treasure.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nTHERE are people who take everything in the way that gives them\nthe most pain; with me it is the reverse; I see always the good\nside of things. If I have naught but pure suffering, without any\nbreak, well! I make of it my joy.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nJOY is not in the things that surround us, it resides in the\ninterior of the soul. One may possess it in the depths of a\ngloomy prison, as well as in a royal palace. Thus am I happier\nin Carmel, even in the midst of interior and exterior trials,\nthan in the world, where nothing was wanting to me.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nIF now, amid trials, and in the thick of the fight, we can\nalready find such delight in the thought that God has drawn us\naway from the world, what will it be, when in Heaven's eternal\nglory and never-ending rest, we shall understand the\nincomparable favour He has shown us in choosing us here, to\ndwell in His own House--the very threshold of Heaven.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nLET us not expect to find Love without Suffering. Our nature is\nthere, and it is not there for nothing; but what treasures it\nenables us to acquire! It is our means of gain; so precious is\nit that Jesus came down upon earth expressly to possess it . . .\nWe want to suffer generously, grandly; we wish never to fall;\nwhat illusion! And what does it matter to me if I fall every\nminute? I find great profit in it, for thereby I see my\nweakness. My God, You know what I am capable of unless You carry\nme in Your arms; and if You leave me alone, well; it is that it\npleases you to see me _on the ground_, so why should I be\ndisquieted?\n\nV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nLIFE is often irksome and bitter; it is hard to begin a\nlaborious day, above all when Jesus hides Himself from us. What\nis this tender Friend doing? Does He not then see our anguish,\nthe load that oppresses us; where is He? Why does He not come to\nconsole us?\n\nAh, fear not . . . He is there, quite near! He is watching us;\nHe, it is, who begs for these our labours and our tears . . . He\nhas need of them for souls, for our soul; He wants to give us so\nglorious a recompense. Ah! truly, it costs Him to make us drink\nof this bitter cup, but He knows that it is the one way by which\nto prepare us to know Him as He knows Himself and to become\nourselves God-like. What a destiny! How great is the soul. Let\nus rise above all that passes away, let us hold aloof from the\nearth, up on high the air is so pure; Jesus may hide Himself but\none is conscious of His presence.\n\nI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nWHEN we speak of peace we do not mean joy--not at least sensible\njoy; to suffer in peace it is enough that we truly will all that\nGod wills.\n\nV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nNOTWITHSTANDING the trial which deprives me of every feeling of\nenjoyment I can yet exclaim, _\"Thou hast given me delight, O\nLord, in all Thou dost.\"_ [3] For is there a greater joy than to\nsuffer for Thy Love? The more intense the suffering and the less\napparent to human eyes, the more lovingly dost Thou smile upon\nit, O my God. And even--supposing an impossibility--if Thou wert\nunaware of it, I would still be happy to suffer, in the hope\nthat by my tears I might perhaps prevent, or make reparation for\none single sin against faith.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n[3] Ps., xci, 5.\n\n\nMINE is not an unfeeling heart, and it is just because of its\ncapacity to suffer deeply that I desire to offer to Jesus every\nkind of suffering it can endure.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nLIFE is full of sacrifices, it is true; but why look for\nhappiness in it? Is it not simply \"a night to be passed in a bad\nInn\" as says our Holy Mother Saint Teresa?\n\nMy heart has an ardent thirst for happiness, but well do I see\nthat no creature is capable of allaying this thirst. On the\ncontrary, the more I might drink of the waters of that enchanted\nspring the more burning would be my thirst.\n\nI know a fountain where _they that drink shall yet thirst,_ [4]\nbut with a thirst most sweet, a thirst one can always satisfy;\nthis fountain is the suffering that is known to Jesus\nalone! . . .\n\nII LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n[4] _Cf_. Eccles., xxiv, 29.\n\n\nOUR Lord never asks of us any sacrifice above our strength.\nSometimes, in truth, the Divine Master makes us taste the full\nbitterness of the chalice which He presents to our soul. When He\nasks the sacrifice of everything most dear to us in this world,\nit is impossible unless by a very special grace, not to cry out\nas He did in the Garden of the Agony: _\"My Father, let this\nchalice pass from Me. . .\"_ But let us also hasten to add:\n_\"Nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt.\"_ [5] It is very\nconsoling to think that Jesus--Divine Strength itself--has\nexperienced all our weakness, that He trembled at the sight of\nthe bitter chalice, the chalice He had longed for so ardently.\n\nI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n[5] Matt., xxvi, 39.\n\n\nSINCE our Well-Beloved has _\"trodden the wine-press alone.\"_\n[6]--the wine which He gives us to drink--in our turn let us not\nrefuse to wear garments dyed with blood, let us press out for\nJesus a new wine which may slake His thirst, and _looking around\nHim_ He will no longer be able to say that _He is alone_; we\nshall be there _to help_. [7]\n\nNeglect, forgetfulness . . . this it is, it seems to me, which\nstill pains Him the most.\n\nVIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[6] Isa., lxiii, 3.\n[7] Isa., lxiii, 5.\n\n\nHERE on earth, where all changes, one sole thing changes not,\nthe King of Heaven's mode of acting as regards His friends. Ever\nsince He uplifted the standard of the Cross, it is in its shadow\nthat all must fight and gain the victory.\n\nVI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nIT is indeed more through suffering and persecution than through\neloquent preaching, that God wills to establish His Kingdom in\nsouls.\n\nVI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nI WANT to forget this world; here below, all things weary me, I\nfind no joy save one, that of suffering . . . and this joy,\nthough unfelt, is above every other.\n\nV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nWHEN I suffer much, when things that are painful and\ndisagreeable befall me, instead of assuming an air of sadness, I\nrespond by a smile. At first I was not always successful, but\nnow it is a habit which I am very happy to have acquired.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n[Picture of Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se.]\nTHE SERVANT OF GOD\nSR. TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE OF THE CHILD JESUS\nAND OF THE HOLY FACE\n_Carmelite of the Monastery of Liseux_\n1873-1897\n\n\nA NOVICE was complaining of being more tired than her Sisters,\nfor besides the common work, she had done another task, of which\nthey knew nothing; Th\u00e9r\u00e8se answered: \"I want to see you always\nlike a valiant soldier who does not complain of his pains; who\nthinks very seriously of the wounds of his brothers and regards\nhis own as mere scratches. Why do you feel this fatigue to such\na degree? It is because no one knows about it. . .\n\n\"Blessed Margaret Mary having had two whitlows used to say she\nhad only really suffered from the first one, because it had not\nbeen possible for her to hide the second from her Sisters, and\nthus it became the object of their compassion.\n\n\"This feeling is natural to us; yet to wish that all should know\nwhen we suffer is a very commonplace manner of acting.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nDURING the first months of her illness it was on her hard\npalliasse that Sister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se passed the time of rest, and her\nnights were very bad: when asked whether she did not need some\nassistance during those hours of pain, she replied: \"Oh, no on\nthe contrary, I think myself very fortunate to be in a cell\ndistant enough for my Sisters not to hear me. I rejoice to\nsuffer alone; but from the moment I am pitied and surrounded\nwith delicate attentions I can no longer feel this joy.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nTHE Sister infirmarian remarking, \"It is said that you have\nnever suffered very much.\" Th\u00e9r\u00e8se smiled and pointing to a\nglass containing a draught of medicine, bright red in colour,\nreplied, \"See this little glass, one would imagine it full of\nsome choice liqueur, but in reality I take nothing that is more\nbitter. Well! it is an image of my life; to the eyes of others\nit has ever appeared clothed in the most radiant hues; to them\nit seemed as though I drank a delicious liqueur, while in truth\nit was bitterness. I say bitterness, and yet my life has not\nbeen bitter, for I have known how to make of all bitterness my\nsweetness and my joy.\"\n\n\"You are in great pain at this moment, are you not?\" \"Yes . . .\nbut I have so much desired to suffer.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\"HOW it grieves us to see you suffer, and to think you may\nperhaps have still more to endure,\" the novices were saying to\nher.\n\n\"Oh! do not be troubled about me, I have arrived at the stage of\nbeing no longer able to suffer, because all suffering is sweet\nto me.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA SISTER, who doubted her patience, noticed, when visiting her\none day, an expression of heavenly joy on her countenance and\nwished to know the reason. \"It is because of the very acute pain\nI am feeling,\" replied Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, \"I have always striven to love\nsuffering and to give it a cordial welcome.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\"WHY are you so gay this morning?\" she was asked; \"It is because\nI have had two little trials, nothing gives me _little joys_\nlike _little trials_.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nANOTHER time: \"You have had a great many trials today.\"\n\n\"Yes, but . . . seeing that I love them! . . . I love everything\nthe good God sends me.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nAGAIN, when some one said to her: \"It is dreadful--all you are\nsuffering.\"\n\n\"No, it is not dreadful; could a little Victim of Love find\nanything dreadful that her Spouse sends her? He gives me at each\nmoment what I can bear; not more; and the minute He increases my\nsufferings He also augments my fortitude.\n\n\"Yet I could never ask for greater sufferings, for I am too\nlittle; they would be my own--my own choosing, then I should\nhave to bear them by myself, and I have never been able to do\nanything all alone.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nDURING her long and painful agony she exclaimed: \"The chalice is\nfull to the brim. Never could I have believed it possible to\nsuffer so much . . . I can only find the explanation in my\nextreme longing to save souls . . . Oh! I would not suffer\nless.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\nTHE DIRECTION OF SOULS\n\n\n\nOUR Lord allowed me the consolation of closely studying the\nsouls of children.\n\nConsidering these innocent souls I used to compare them to soft\nwax, upon which any impression may be stamped the bad, alas!\nlike the good; and I understood those words of Jesus: \"_But he\nthat shall scandalize one of these little ones . . . it were\nbetter for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and\nthat he were drowned in the depth of the sea_.\" [1] Oh! how many\nsouls might attain to a high degree of holiness if wisely guided\nfrom the very first.\n\nI well know that to accomplish His work of sanctification, God\nhas need of no one, but just as He enables a skilful gardener to\nrear plants that are delicate and rare, granting him for this\nend all the knowledge necessary, while reserving to Himself the\ncare of giving the increase, so, too, does He will to be aided\nin His divine culture of souls.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V\n\n[1] Matt., xviii, 6.\n\n\nAS soon as I penetrated into the sanctuary of souls I judged at\nthe first glance that the task exceeded my powers, and very\nquickly placing myself in the arms of the good God I imitated\nthe little child, who, seized with sudden fear, tries to hide\nits golden head on its father's shoulder, and I said: \"Lord,\nThou knowest it, I am myself too little to be capable of\nnurturing these Thy children; if Thou dost will to give to them,\nthrough me, what is suited to each one, fill Thou my little\nhand, and without leaving Thine arms, without even turning my\nhead aside, I will distribute Thy treasures to the souls who\ncome to me to seek sustenance. When they find it to their liking\nI shall know that it is not to me they owe it but to Thee; on\nthe other hand if they complain, and find bitter what I offer\nthem, my peace shall remain undisturbed, I will try to convince\nthem that this nutriment comes from Thee, and I will carefully\nrefrain from seeking any other for them.\"\n\nWhen I thus understood that it was impossible for me to do\nanything by myself, the task appeared to me simplified.\nInteriorly, I occupied myself solely in trying to become more\nand more united to God--knowing that the rest would be added\nunto me.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nFROM afar it seems easy to do good to souls, to make them love\nGod more, to mould them after our own views and opinions. But\ncoming closer one feels, on the contrary, that to do good\nwithout the divine assistance, is as impossible a thing as to\nbring the sun back after it has set. One feels that it is\nabsolutely necessary to forget our own inclinations, our\npersonal notions, and to guide souls, not by our own way--the\nway we ourselves go--but by the particular way that Jesus wishes\nto lead them.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nWHEN very young, and staying with my aunt, a book was given to\nme to read. In one of the stories I saw that the mistress of a\nschool was much praised because she knew how to get on cleverly\nin the world without offending anyone. This phrase I remarked\nespecially: \"She would say to the one, 'You are not wrong,' and\nto the other, 'You are right;\" and while I read I was thinking:\n\"Oh! . . . I would not have acted thus; we must always tell the\ntruth.\" And so I do, always. Far more difficult it certainly is,\nfor when told of some little vexatious occurrence, it would be\neasy to lay blame on the absent, and she who complains would at\nonce be pacified. Yes, but . . . I do quite the reverse. If I am\nnot liked, what matter! Let no one come to me who does not want\nto hear the truth.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHAT a reprimand may be fruitful it must cost in the giving; and\nit must be given without a shade of passion in the heart.\n\nOne must not let kindness degenerate into weakness. When we have\nblamed justly we ought to leave it so, and not yield to feelings\nof distress at having given pain. To run after the aggrieved one\nin order to console her, is to do more harm than good. To leave\nher to herself is to force her to expect nothing from creatures,\nto have recourse to the good God, to see her failings and to\nhumble herself. Otherwise she would grow accustomed to being\nconsoled after a deserved rebuke and would behave as does a\nspoilt child, who stamps and cries, well knowing that this will\nmake its mother return to wipe away the tears.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n_LET the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, abound\nin your lips and hearts._ [2] If we have to do with a difficult\nsoul, let us not be discouraged, nor ever abandon her. Let us\nhave always \"_the sword of the Spirit_\" to reprehend her for her\nfaults, and not allow things to pass for the sake of leaving\nourselves in repose; let us fight unceasingly, even without hope\nof gaining the victory. What matter about success! Let us fight\non, whatever be the weariness of the struggle. Let us not say:\n\"I can make nothing of this soul, she does not understand; I\nmust give it up.\" Oh! what cowardice that would be. We must do\nour duty unto the end.\n\n[S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se in these passages refers to her charge as Mistress\nof Novices.]\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[2] Ephes., vi, 17.\n\n\nTHE novices expressed their surprise at finding that she guessed\ntheir most hidden thoughts.\n\n\"Here is my secret,\" she said to them: \"I never give you any\nadvice without invoking the Blessed Virgin; I ask her to inspire\nme to say what will do you the most good, and I myself am often\nastonished at the things that I teach you. I simply feel in\nsaying them to you, that I am not deceived and that Jesus speaks\nto you by my mouth.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\"GIVE us some advice as to how we ought to act concerning our\nspiritual direction,\" they said to her.\n\n\"With great simplicity and without depending too much on\nassistance, which may fail you at any moment. You would soon be\nforced to say with the Spouse in the Canticles: '_The\nkeepers . . . took away my veil from me and wounded me_,' it\nwas only '_when I had a little PASSED BY them I found Him whom\nmy soul loveth_.' [3] If with detachment you humbly inquire\nwhere is your Beloved, _the keepers_ will direct you.\nNevertheless, most frequently, you will find Jesus only after\nyou have _passed by_ all creatures. For my part, I have many\na time repeated this verse of the Spiritual Canticle of St.\nJohn of the Cross:\n\n  Send me no more\n  A messenger\n  Who cannot tell me what I seek.\n  All they who serve\n  Relate a thousand graces of Thee;\n  And all wound me more and more,\n  And they leave me dying,\n  WHILE THEY BABBLE I KNOW NOT WHAT.\"\n\n  _Trans. D. Lewis, M. A._\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[3] Cant., v, 7; iii, 4.\n\n\n\nTHE BLESSED VIRGIN\n\n\n\nHOW I love the Blessed Virgin! Had I been a Priest, oh! how I\nshould have spoken of her. She is represented as unapproachable,\nrather ought she to be shown as imitable. She is more Mother\nthan Queen. I have heard it said that all the Saints are\neclipsed by her radiant brightness as the sun at rising makes\nthe stars disappear. How strange that seems--a mother eclipsing\nthe glory of her children! I think quite the contrary. I believe\nthat she will immensely increase the splendour of the\nelect . . . The Virgin Mary! how simple does her life appear\nto me. . .\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nSOMETIMES I find myself saying to the Holy Virgin: \"Do you know,\nO cherished Mother, that I think myself more fortunate than you?\nI have you for Mother and you have not, like me, the Blessed\nVirgin to love . . . You are, it is true, the Mother of Jesus,\nbut you have given Him to me, and He, from the cross gave you to\nus as our Mother, so we are richer than you. Of old it was your\ndesire that you might be the little handmaiden of the Mother of\nGod; and I, poor little creature, I am, not your servant, but\nyour _child_: you are the Mother of Jesus and you are _my\nMother_.\"\n\nXIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nO MARY, if I were Queen of Heaven and thou wert Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, I fain\nwould be Th\u00e9r\u00e8se to see thee Queen of Heaven!\n\n8 September, 1897.\n\nLast words written by Sister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus.\n\n\n\nVARIOUS SUBJECTS\n\n\n\nL\u00c9ONIE, no doubt finding that she was growing too old to play\nwith dolls, came one day to C\u00e9line and me, with a basket full of\ndolls' clothes, odds and ends of pretty materials, trimmings,\netc., on which she had laid her doll, saying to us: \"There,\nlittle sisters--choose!\" C\u00e9line looked, and took a knot of\nedging. After reflecting a moment I, in turn, put out my hand\nsaying: \"I choose all!\" and I carried off basket and doll\nwithout further ceremony.\n\nThis trait of my childhood is, as it were, a summary of my\nentire life. Later on when the meaning of perfection began to\nunfold itself to me, I understood that to become a saint it is\nnecessary to suffer much, ever to seek after that which is most\nperfect, and to forget self. I understood that in sanctity the\ndegrees are many, that each soul is free to respond to the\nadvances of our Lord, to do little or much for His sake, in a\nword, to choose between the sacrifices that He asks. Then, as in\nthe days of my childhood, I exclaimed: \"My God, I choose all! I\ndo not wish to be a saint by halves; the thought of suffering\nfor Thee does not frighten me, one thing only do I fear--my own\nwill; take Thou my will, for _I choose all_ that Thou willest.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\nMY Father took me for a pleasant tour during which I began to\nknow a little of the world. Around me all was gaiety and\ndelight; I was made welcome, petted, admired, in short, for\nfifteen days the pathway of my life was strewn with naught but\nflowers. Holy Wisdom well says that _the bewitching of trifles\noverturneth the innocent mind._ [1] At the age of ten the heart\neasily allows itself to be dazzled, and I own that this sort of\nlife had some charms for me. Alas! how well the world contrives\nto reconcile the delights of earth with the service of God. How\nseldom does it think of death.\n\nAnd death, nevertheless, has come to a great many of the people\nwhom I then knew, young, rich and prosperous. I like to go back\nin thought to their beautiful dwellings, to ask myself where are\nthey, and what benefit do they now draw from the castles and\nparks where I saw them enjoying all the comforts of life . . .\nAnd I reflect that _\"all is vanity\"_ [2] _\"but to love God and\nto serve Him alone.\"_ [3]\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n[1] _Cf._ Wisdom, iv, 12.\n[2] Eccles., i, 2.\n[3] _Imit_., I, i, 3.\n\n\nWHAT compassion I have for souls who are going astray. It is so\neasy to lose one's way in the flowery paths of the world.\nUndoubtedly for a soul who has risen a little above the things\nof earth, the sweetness offered is intermingled with bitterness,\nand the immense void of its desires cannot be filled by the\npraises of a moment.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nWE have but life's brief day to save souls and thus to give to\nJesus proof of our love. The morrow of this day will be Eternity\nand then He will render to you a hundredfold for the joys which\nyou have sacrificed for Him. He knows the extent of your\nsacrifice, He knows that the grief of those dear to you\nincreases your own still more; but to save our souls He has\nHimself suffered this martyrdom. He too, left His Mother, He saw\nthe Immaculate Virgin stand at the foot of the Cross, her heart\ntranspierced by the sword of sorrow.\n\nAh! if the Divine Master would but grant to those whom you are\ngoing to leave for His sake, a foresight of the glory He\nreserves for you, the multitude of souls who in heaven will form\nyour train, they would be already recompensed for their great\nsacrifice in parting with you.\n\nII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \"BROTHERS\"\n\n\nTHE good God has promised a hundredfold to all who have left\nfather or mother or sister for love of Him. These words are, I\nknow, usually applied to those who have entered the religious\nstate, but in my heart I feel that they were also spoken for the\ngenerous parents who make to God the sacrifice of children whom\nthey cherish more than self.\n\nLETTER TO HER COUSIN JEANNE GU\u00c9RIN\n\n\nHOW can a heart given up to human affection be united intimately\nto God? That, I feel is not possible. I have seen so many souls\ndeluded by this treacherous light, dart into it like the poor\nmoth and burn their wings, then return wounded to Jesus, the\nDivine Fire which burns without consuming.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nIN giving oneself to God the heart does not lose its natural\ntenderness; on the contrary, its love grows deeper by becoming\nmore pure and more Christ-like.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nTHERE are souls for whom God's mercy wearies not of waiting, and\nto whom He gives His light only by degrees.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nWHEN in the morning we feel no courage, no energy for the\npractice of virtue, this is a grace, this is the moment to _\"lay\nthe axe to the root of the tree,\"_ [4] depending solely on\nJesus. If we fall all is retrieved by an act of love, and Jesus\nsmiles. He helps us without appearing to do so, and the tears\nwhich the wicked cause Him to shed are dried by our poor feeble\nlove.\n\nII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[4] Matt., iii, 10.\n\n\nWE must practice the little virtues. This is difficult\nsometimes, but the good God never refuses the first grace, which\ngives courage to conquer self: if the soul corresponds to it she\nwill find that she immediately receives light. I have ever been\nstruck with those words of praise to Judith: _\"Thou hast done\nmanfully, and thy heart has been strengthened.\"_ [5] We must\nfirst act with courage, then the heart is strengthened and we go\nfrom victory to victory.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[5] Judith, xv, 11.\n\n\nMY God, how varied are the ways by which Thou dost lead souls.\nIn reading the Lives of the Saints we find a great number of\nwhom nothing has remained to us after their death: not the\nsmallest souvenir, not a written line. Others there are, on the\ncontrary, like our Holy Mother Saint Teresa, who have enriched\nthe Church with their sublime doctrine, not fearing _to reveal\nthe secrets of the King,_ [6] in the hope that souls might know\nHim better and love Him more. Which of these two ways pleases\nour Lord best? It seems to me that they are equally pleasing to\nHim.\n\nAll the well-beloved of God have followed the inspiration of the\nHoly Spirit by whom the Prophet wrote: _\"Say to the just that\nall is well.\"_ [7] Yes, all is well when we seek only the Divine\nWill.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n[6] Tobias, xii.\n[7] _Cf._ Isaias, iii, 10.\n\n\nHOW narrow are the thoughts of creatures! When they see that a\nsoul has lights which surpass their own, they conclude that the\nDivine Master loves them less. Since when, then, has He lost the\nright to make use of one of His creatures, in order to dispense\nto His children the sustenance needful for them?\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nWHEN we are grieved at our powerlessness to do good, our only\nresource is to offer to God the works of others. In this you see\nthe benefit of the communion of Saints.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHOUGH I do not undervalue beautiful thoughts that seem to unite\nus to God, I have long understood that we must carefully guard\nagainst leaning too much upon them. The most sublime\ninspirations are nothing without deeds.\n\nOther souls, it is true, may draw therefrom much profit if they\ntestify humble gratitude to God for being permitted to share the\nfeast of one of His privileged children. But if the privileged\none were to grow vain of her spiritual riches, if her prayer\nresembled that of the Pharisee, she herself would become like to\na person starving to death before a well-served table while all\nher guests take from it abundant nourishment, and cast perhaps a\nlook of envy on the possessor of so much wealth.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nTHE Well-Beloved has no need of our glorious deeds nor of our\nfine thoughts. If He desire sublime conceptions has He not His\nAngels, whose knowledge surpasses infinitely that of the world's\ngreatest geniuses? It is not then either intellect or talent\nthat He looks for here below . . . He has called Himself _the\nFlower of the Field_ [8] to show us how much He cherishes\nsimplicity.\n\nXIV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[8] Cant., ii, 1.\n\n\nTO keep the word of Jesus, this is the sole condition of our\nhappiness, the proof of our love for Him; and this _word_--it\nseems to me that it is Himself, since He is called the Uncreated\n_Word_ of the Father.\n\nXVIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nJESUS needs neither books nor Doctors of Divinity in order to\ninstruct souls; He, the Doctor of Doctors, He teaches without\nnoise of words.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nAT Sext there is a verse which I utter unwillingly each day. It\nis this: \"_Inclinavi cor meum ad faciendas justificationes tuas\nin \u00e6ternum, propter retributionem_.\" (I have inclined my heart\nto do Thy justifications for ever, because of the reward.) [9]\nInteriorly, I hasten to say: \"O my Jesus, Thou knowest well that\nit is not for the reward I serve Thee, but solely because I love\nThee, and for the sake of saving souls.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[9] Ps., cxviii, 112.\n\n\nIN Heaven only shall we see the absolute truth concerning all\nthings. On earth, even in the Holy Scripture, there is a certain\nobscurity: it grieves me to see differences in the translations;\nhad I been a Priest I would have learned Hebrew, so that I might\nbe able to read the Word of God in that human language in which\nHe deigned to express it.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nWE are not yet in our Fatherland, and temptation must purify us\nas gold is purified by the action of fire.\n\nXVIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nIT is best not to expose oneself to the combat when defeat is\ncertain.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nGOD is often satisfied with our desire of labouring for His\nglory.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nA SOUL in the state of grace has nothing to fear from the\ndemons, who are cowards, capable of flight before the gaze of a\nchild.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\n_TO the pure all is pure,_ [10] the simple and upright soul sees\nnot evil in anything, since evil exists in impure hearts only\nand not in material objects.\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n[10] Titus, i, 15.\n\n\nTHE good God has told us that in the Last Day He \"_will wipe\naway all tears from our eyes_,\" [11] and without doubt, the more\ntears to be dried, the greater will be the consolation.\n\nIII LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n[11] Apoc., xxi, 4.\n\n\nTHE Spouse in the Canticles, not having been able in repose to\nfind her Beloved, arose, she says and went about the city to\nseek Him, but in vain . . . she could not find Him save beyond\nthe ramparts. It is not the will of Jesus that we should find\nHis adorable Presence without effort. He hides Himself, He\nenvelopes Himself with darkness . . . It was not thus He acted\nin regard to the multitudes, for we read in the Gospels that the\npeople were in admiration when He spoke.\n\nWeak souls Jesus charmed by His divine utterances. He was trying\nto render them strong for the day of temptation and of trial;\nbut small, truly, was the number of His faithful friends when\n_He was silent_ [12] before His judges. Oh, what melody for my\nheart is that silence of the Divine Master.\n\nXV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[12] Matt., xxvi, 65.\n\n\nI HAVE read in the Holy Gospel that the Divine Shepherd leaves\nin the desert all His faithful flock, to go in haste after the\nsheep that is lost. How touching is this confidence. He is sure\nof them, they are captives of love--how could they break away?\nEven so does the well-beloved Shepherd of our souls rob us of\nthe sense of His presence in order to give to sinners His\nconsolations; or else, if He leads us to Mount Thabor it is for\none moment . . . the valleys are nearly always the place of\npasture, _it is there He takes His repose at mid-day._ [13]\n\nXVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[13] Cant., i, 6.\n\n\nTHE sole crime with which Herod reproached our Lord was _folly_\n. . . and frankly, that charge was true. Yes, it was folly to\ncome seeking the poor shallow hearts of mortals, therein to make\nHis throne. He, the King of Glory Who sitteth above the\nCherubim! Was not His happiness complete in the company of His\nFather and the Spirit of Love? Why come to earth to seek out\nsinners and to make of them His friends, His chosen companions?\n\nXX LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\n_MARY, breaking the fragile vase poured out upon the Head of her\nSaviour a perfume of great price_ [14] _and the whole house was\nfilled with the fragrance thereof._ [15]\n\nThe Apostles murmured against Magdalene; and this it is which\nstill happens with regard to us: some, even of the most fervent\nChristians think we (Carmelites) are exaggerated, that like\nMartha we ought to serve Jesus, instead of consecrating to Him\nthe vases of our lives with the perfumes which are hidden\nwithin. And yet what matters it--the breaking of these vases--\nsince our Lord is consoled, and the world in spite of itself is\nmade sensible of the fragrance they exhale. And oh! how\nnecessary are these perfumes to purify the unhealthy atmosphere\nthat it breathes.\n\nXX LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n[14] _Cf_. Marc., xiii, 3.\n[15] _Cf_. John, xii, 3.\n\n\n\"ONE day when I was in tears,\" relates a novice, \"Sister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\nof the Child Jesus told me to acquire a habit of hiding my\nlittle troubles, adding that nothing renders community life more\ndifficult than inequality of temperament.\n\n\"You are quite right,\" I answered, \"I have thought so myself,\nand in future I shall never cry but when alone with the good\nGod; to Him only shall I confide my trials, He will always\nunderstand and console me.\"\n\n\"Shed tears before the good God!\" she replied with vivacity,\n\"take care you do no such thing. Still less, by far, before Him\nthan before creatures ought you to exhibit signs of sadness. He\nhas but our monasteries, this dear Master, to rejoice His Heart;\nHe comes amongst us to find a little repose, to forget the\ncontinual lamentations of His friends in the world who for the\nmost part, instead of recognizing the value of the Cross, meet\nit with repining and with tears; and would you behave like the\ngenerality of people? . . . Frankly that is not disinterested\nlove--disinterested love is _for us to console Jesus, not for\nHim to console us._\n\n\"He is, I know, so kind of heart that if you weep He will dry\nyour tears; but afterwards He will go away quite sorrowful, not\nbeing able to find in you the repose He sought. Jesus loves the\njoyous heart, He loves the ever smiling soul. When will you\nlearn to _hide_ your troubles from Him, or to tell Him in\ngladsome tones that you are happy to suffer for His sake?\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHE soul is reflected in the countenance: like to a little child\nalways content, your countenance should be invariably calm and\nserene. When you are alone be still the same, because you are\never in the Angels' sight.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nOUR Divine Lord wishes to have His court here below as on High,\nHe desires angel-martyrs, angel-apostles.\n\nXI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nA SISTER, greatly grieved at seeing her so ill often exclaimed:\n\"Oh, how sad is life!\" But S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se would at once correct\nher, saying:\n\n\"Life is not sad, but on the contrary most joyful. If you said\n'How sad is our exile,' I should understand you. It is erroneous\nto give the name, '_life_,' to that which must end. Only to the\nthings of Heaven, to that which shall never know death, should\nthe true name of '_life_' be given; and in this signification\nlife is not sad but joyful--joyous exceedingly! . . . \"\n\nHer own gaiety was delightful to witness.\n\nFor several days she had been much better and the novices said\nto her: \"We do not yet know of what malady you will die . . . \"\n\n\"But I shall die of _death!_ Did not God tell Adam of what he\nwould die, saying to him: Thou shalt die of death?\" (In the\nFrench: \"_Tu mourras de mort_.\") [16]\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[16] _Cf_. Gen., ii, 17.\n\n\nIT is not Death that will come to fetch me, it is the good God.\nDeath is no phantom, no horrible spectre, as represented in\npictures. In the Catechism it is stated that _death is the\nseparation of soul and body_, that is all! Well, I am not afraid\nof a separation which will unite me to the good God for ever.\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nONE day she said to the Mother Prioress:\n\n\"Mother, I beseech you, give me permission to die . . . Let me\noffer my life for . . . \" mentioning the intention.\n\nAnd this permission being refused:\n\n\"Very well,\" she resumed, \"I know that at this moment the good\nGod so much desires _a little bunch of grapes_ which no one\nwishes to present to Him, that He will certainly be forced to\ncome and steal it . . . I ask nothing, for that would be to\ndepart from my way of abandonment, I merely beg the Blessed\nVirgin Mary to recall to her Jesus the title of _Thief_ which He\ngives Himself in the holy Gospel, so that He may not forget to\ncome to _steal_ me away.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\"WILL the Divine Thief be coming very soon to steal His little\nbunch of grapes?\" some one asked.\n\n\"I see Him afar off, and I take good care not to cry out 'Stop\nThief!!!' On the contrary I call Him saying: 'This way! this\nway!'\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTHE Chaplain asked me: \"Are you resigned to die?\" I said: \"Ah!\nFather, I find it would be for living that I should need\nresignation, but as regards dying, I feel only joy.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\"YOU will be placed amid the Seraphim in Heaven,\" a novice said.\n\n\"If that should happen, I shall not imitate them; they cover\nthemselves with their wings at the sight of God. I shall take\ngood care not to cover myself with my wings!\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\"UNDER what name should we pray to you when you are in Heaven?\"\nthey asked her. She answered humbly: \"You will call me 'little\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se.' ('_petite Th\u00e9r\u00e8se_.')\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\"YOU will look upon us from the heights of heaven, will you\nnot?\"\n\n\"No, I shall come down.\"\n\nCOUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\"AFTER my death I shall let fall a shower of roses.\"\n\nHIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XIII\n\n\n\nPRAYER FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF THE SERVANT OF GOD\n\n\n[Transcriber's Note: Sister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se was beatified on April 29,\n1923.]\n\n\nO JESUS, who, to put our pride to confusion didst will to become\na little child, and who later pronounced that solemn decree:\n\"_Unless ye become as little children ye shall not enter the\nKingdom of Heaven_,\" deign to listen to our humble prayer in\nregard to her who lived perfectly that life of spiritual\nchildhood, and who has so well recalled to us the way.\n\nO little Babe of Bethlehem, by the ineffable charms of Thy\nDivine Infancy, O adorable Face of Jesus, by the humiliations of\nThy Passion, we implore, that if it be for the glory of God and\nfor the sanctification of souls, the halo of the Blessed may\nsoon irradiate the pure brow of Thy childlike spouse, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of\nthe Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.\n\nO God, who didst inflame with Thy Spirit of Love the soul of Thy\nServant, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus, grant that we also may love\nThee and may make Thee greatly loved.\n\n[_Adapted from a prayer of S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se_.]\n\n  100 days' indulgence.\n  CARD. BOURNE, _Arch. of Westminster._\n  August 1, 1912.","title":"Thoughts of Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":32746}