{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_72720/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_72720","id":"gutenberg_72720","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72720","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Meditations"],"text":"THOUGHTS\n OF THE SERVANT OF GOD\n TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE\n OF THE CHILD JESUS\n\n\n=Nihil Obstat=\n\n REMIGIUS LAFORT, S. T. D.\n\n _Censor_\n\n=Imprimatur=\n\n \u2720JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY\n\n _Archbishop of New York_\n\nNEW YORK, _October 22, 1915_\n\n[Illustration:\n\n THE SERVANT OF GOD\n TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE OF THE CHILD JESUS\n _The Little Flower of Jesus_\n]\n\n\n\n\n THOUGHTS\n\n OF THE SERVANT OF GOD\n TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE OF THE CHILD JESUS\n\n THE LITTLE FLOWER OF JESUS\n CARMELITE OF THE MONASTERY\n OF LISIEUX, 1873-1897\n\n TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH\n \u201cPENS\u00c9ES\u201d BY AN IRISH CARMELITE\n\n [Illustration]\n\n NEW YORK \u00b7 PUBLISHED BY\n P. J. KENEDY & SONS \u00b7 1915\n\n\n\n\n COPYRIGHT, 1915\n BY P. J. KENEDY & SONS\n\n THE \u00b7 PLIMPTON \u00b7 PRESS\n NORWOOD \u00b7 MASS \u00b7 U\u00b7S\u00b7A\n\n\n\n\n TO\n\n \u201cPETITE TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE\u201d\n\n AND\n\n M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n A LITTLE TRIBUTE OF\n REVERENT AND LOVING GRATITUDE\n FROM CARMEL OF KILMACUD\n\n _June 9, 1914_\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n PAGE\n\n LOVE OF GOD 3\n\n LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR 30\n\n FAITH 40\n\n HOPE 44\n\n HUMILITY 50\n\n DETACHMENT 71\n\n MORTIFICATION 82\n\n OBEDIENCE 95\n\n POVERTY 97\n\n CONFIDENCE 100\n\n SELF-ABANDONMENT 115\n\n GRATITUDE 124\n\n ZEAL 130\n\n SIMPLICITY 136\n\n PRAYER 147\n\n HOLY COMMUNION 157\n\n SUFFERING 162\n\n THE DIRECTION OF SOULS 180\n\n THE BLESSED VIRGIN 188\n\n VARIOUS SUBJECTS 190\n\n PRAYER FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF THE SERVANT OF GOD 211\n\n\n\n\n THOUGHTS\n\n OF THE SERVANT OF GOD\n TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE\n OF THE CHILD JESUS\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nLOVE OF GOD\n\n\nJesus!... I would so love Him! Love Him as never yet He has been\nloved....\n\n IV LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n (_Her sister Pauline._)\n\n\nThe science of love! Sweet is the echo of that word to the ear of my\nsoul. I desire no other science. _Having given all my substance for\nit_, like the spouse in the Canticles, _I think that I have given\nnothing_.[1]\n\n HISTOIRE D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nWithout love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nOne evening, at a loss for words to tell Jesus how I loved Him and\nhow much I wished that He might be everywhere served and glorified, I\nreflected with pain that not one act of love would ever mount upwards\nfrom out of the depths of hell. Then I cried out that willingly would I\nconsent to see myself plunged into that place of torment and blasphemy,\nin order that He might be loved there eternally. That could not really\nglorify Him since He desires only our happiness, but love makes one\nwant to say a thousand foolish things. If I spoke thus, it was not that\nI did not long for heaven; but then, my heaven was none other than\n_Love_, and in my fervour I felt that nothing could separate me from\nthe Divine object of my love....\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nSeeing the eternal recompense so disproportionate to the trifling\nsacrifices of this life, I longed to love Jesus, to love Him ardently,\nto give Him a thousand proofs of tenderness while yet I could do so....\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nThe love of God reveals itself in the very simplest soul who resists\nHis grace in nothing, as well as in the most sublime. Indeed, the\ncharacteristic of love being to humble itself, if all souls resembled\nthose of the holy Doctors who have enlightened the Church, the good\nGod would not seem to descend low enough in coming to them. But He has\ncreated the infant who knows nothing and can only wail; He has created\nthe poor savage who has but the natural law for guidance, and it is\neven unto their hearts that He deigns to stoop.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\nIn order that Love may be fully satisfied it must needs stoop to very\nnothingness and transform that nothing into fire.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nIn times of aridity when I am incapable of praying, of practising\nvirtue, I seek little opportunities, mere trifles, to give pleasure to\nJesus; for instance a smile, a pleasant word when inclined to be silent\nand to show weariness. If I find no opportunities, I at least tell Him\nagain and again that I love Him; that is not difficult and it keeps\nalive the fire in my heart. Even though this fire of love might seem to\nme extinct I would still throw little straws upon the embers and I am\ncertain it would rekindle.\n\n XVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nOn _the day of my conversion_ Charity entered into my heart and with it\na yearning to forget self always; thenceforward I was happy.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nI do not will that creatures should possess a single atom of my love; I\nwish to give all to Jesus, since He makes me understand that He alone\nis perfect happiness. All shall be for Him, all! And even when I have\nnothing to offer Him I will give Him that nothing.\n\n II 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 than one\nmaternal heart! I know a mother is ever ready to forgive the little\ninvoluntary failings of her child.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nI know of one means only by which to attain to perfection: LOVE. Let\nus love, since our heart is made for nothing else. Sometimes I seek\nanother word to express Love, but in this land of exile _the word which\nbegins and ends_[2] is quite incapable of rendering the vibrations of\nthe soul; we must then adhere to this simple and only word: TO LOVE.\n\nBut on whom shall our poor heart lavish its love? Who shall be found\nthat is great enough to be the recipient of its treasures? Will a\nhuman being know how to comprehend them, and above all will he be able\nto repay? There exists but one Being capable of comprehending love; it\nis Jesus; He alone can give us back infinitely more than we shall ever\ngive to Him.\n\n LETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GU\u00c9RIN\n\n\nThere is one ONLY THING to do here below: to love Jesus, to win souls\nfor Him so that He may be loved. Let us seize with jealous care every\nleast opportunity of self-sacrifice. Let us refuse Him nothing--He does\nso want our love!\n\n VI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nWhen we really love, we rejoice in the happiness of the loved one and\nmake every sacrifice to procure it for him.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTrue love is nourished by sacrifice, and the more the soul denies\nitself natural satisfactions, the stronger and the more disinterested\nbecomes its tenderness.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThe good God does not need years to accomplish His work of love in a\nsoul; one ray from His Heart can, in an instant, make His flower bloom\nfor eternity....\n\n VI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nLove can supply for length of years. Jesus, because He is Eternal,\nregards not the time but only the love.\n\n V LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nI desire no sensible consolation in loving; provided Jesus feel my love\nthat is enough for me. Oh! to love Him and to make Him loved ... how\nsweet it is....\n\n V LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nO Jesus, I ask of Thee only Peace!... Peace, and above all LOVE--love\nwithout bound or limit. Jesus, let me for Thy sake die a martyr; give\nme martyrdom of soul or body. Ah! rather give me both the one and the\nother!\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nI have no longer any desire unless it be to love Jesus even to folly!\nYes, LOVE it is that draws me. I can say these words of the canticle of\nour Father, St. John of the Cross:\n\n In the inmost cellar\n Of my Beloved have I drunk; and when I went forth\n Over all the plain\n I knew nothing,\n And lost the flock I followed before.\n My soul is occupied\n And all my substance in His service;\n Now I guard no flock,\n Nor have I any other employment:\n My sole occupation is love.\n\n (_Spiritual Canticle, Trans. D. Lewis._)\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nOh! if souls weak and imperfect as mine, felt what I feel, not one\nwould despair of reaching the summit of the mountain of Love, since\nJesus does not demand from us great deeds, but only self-surrender and\ngratitude.\n\n_I have no need_, saith He, _of the goats of thy flocks.... If I were\nhungry I would not tell thee.... Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise\nand thanksgiving._[3]\n\nSee then, all that Jesus asks of us! He has not need of our works but\nonly of our _love_. This very God who declares that He needs not to\ntell us if He were hungry, did not hesitate to _beg_ of the Samaritan\nwoman a little water.... He thirsted!!! But in saying: \u201c_Give me to\ndrink_,\u201d[4] it was the love of His poor creature that the Creator of\nthe universe besought. He thirsted for Love!\n\nAnd now, more than ever is Jesus athirst. He meets with none but the\nungrateful and the indifferent among the disciples of the world; and\namongst _His own_ disciples He finds, alas! very few hearts that\nsurrender themselves without any reserve to the tenderness of His\ninfinite Love.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n Since ever I have known Love\u2019s mighty power\n Thus hath it wrought its work within my soul--\n Whate\u2019er it findeth there, or good or ill,\n It turneth all to gain; its living flame\n Transforms my soul into its very self.[5]\n\n\nHow sweet is the way of Love! True, one may fall, one may not be always\nfaithful, but Love, knowing how to draw profit from all, very quickly\nconsumes whatsoever may displease Jesus, leaving naught but humble and\nprofound peace in the innermost soul.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 for\nsinners by taking it upon themselves, I felt this offering to be noble\nand generous, but I was far from feeling moved to make it.\n\n\u201cO my Divine Master,\u201d I cried in the depths of my heart, \u201cshall Thy\nJustice alone receive victims of holocaust? Has not Thy Merciful Love\nalso need of them? On all sides it is ignored, rejected ... the hearts\non which Thou wouldst lavish it turn to creatures, seeking happiness in\nmiserable and fleeting affections instead of casting themselves into\nThine arms, into the ineffable furnace of Thine Infinite Love.\n\n\u201cO my God, must Thy Love--disdained--remain within Thy Heart? Methinks\nthat if Thou shouldst find souls offering themselves as victims of\nholocaust to Thy Love, Thou wouldst consume them rapidly; that Thou\nwouldst be glad not to restrict the flames of infinite tenderness pent\nup within Thee.\n\n\u201cIf Thy Justice--the Justice which Thou dost exercise on earth--be\npleased to find voluntary victims on which to discharge its weight, how\nmuch the more must Thy Merciful Love also desire _its_ victims, since\n_Thy Mercy reacheth even to heaven_.[6]\n\n\u201cO Jesus, that happily I may be that holocaust consume Thy little\nvictim in the fire of Divine Love.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nAh! since that day love penetrates me and surrounds me; this _Merciful\nLove_ each moment renews and purifies me, leaving in my heart no trace\nof sin. No, I cannot fear Purgatory; I know that I do not merit even to\nenter with the Holy Souls into that place of expiation, but I know too\nthat the fire of Love is more sanctifying than the fire of Purgatory,\nI know that Jesus cannot will needless suffering for us, and that He\nwould not inspire me with the desires I feel if He were unwilling to\nfulfil them.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nTo offer oneself as a Victim to Divine Love is not to offer oneself\nto sweetness--to consolation; but to every anguish, every bitterness,\nfor Love lives only by sacrifice; and the more a soul wills to be\nsurrendered to Love, the more must she be surrendered to suffering.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nIn order to love Jesus, to be His victim of love, the more weak and\nmiserable we are, the more fitting are we for the operations of this\nconsuming and transforming Love.... The sole desire to be victim\nsuffices; but we must consent to remain always poor and without\nstrength, and there lies the difficulty, for _where shall be found\nthe truly poor in spirit_? _He must be sought afar off_,[7] saith the\nauthor of the _Imitation_.... He did not say that we must seek him\namongst great souls, but afar off, that is to say in lowliness, in\nnothingness.... Oh! let us keep _afar off_ from all that glitters, let\nus love our littleness, and be satisfied to feel nothing, then shall we\nbe truly poor in spirit, and Jesus will come to seek us how far soever\nwe may be; He will transform us into flames of Love!...\n\n VI LETTER TO S\u0152UR MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n (_Her sister Marie._)\n\n\nTo be truly a Victim of Love requires absolute self-surrender. _The\nsoul is consumed by Love only in so far as she surrenders herself to\nLove._\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIt appears to me that for Victims of Love there will be no judgment,\nbut rather, that the good God will hasten to recompense with eternal\ndelights His own Love, which He will see burning in their hearts.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nAt any cost I will cull the palm of Saint Agnes; if not by shedding my\nblood then it must be by Love....\n\n IV LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nO my God, Thou knowest I have never desired but to love Thee alone. I\nseek no other glory. Thy Love has gone before me from my childhood, it\nhas grown with my growth, and now it is an abyss the depths of which I\ncannot fathom.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nLove attracts love, mine rushes forth unto Thee, it would fain fill up\nthe abyss which attracts it; but alas! it is not even as one drop of\ndew lost in the Ocean. To love Thee as Thou lovest me I must borrow Thy\nvery love--then only, can I find rest.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nJust as a torrent sweeps along with it unto the depths of the sea\nwhatsoever it encounters on its course, even so, my Jesus, does the\nsoul which plunges into the boundless ocean of Thy Love draw after her\nall her treasures. Lord, Thou knowest that for me these treasures are\nthe souls it has pleased Thee to unite to mine.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nCharity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church\nbeing a body composed of different members, the most essential, the\nmost noble of all the organs would not be wanting to her; I understood\nthat the Church has _a heart_ and that this heart is burning with\nlove; that it is love alone which makes the members work, that if love\nwere to die away apostles would no longer preach the Gospel, martyrs\nwould refuse to shed their blood. I understood that love comprises all\nvocations, that love is everything, that it embraces all times and all\nplaces because it is eternal!\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nO my Well-Beloved! I understand to what combats Thou hast destined me;\nit is not on the battle field that I shall fight.... I am prisoner\nof Thy Love; freely have I riveted the chain which unites me to Thee\nand separates me for ever from the world. My sword is LOVE; with it\n_I shall chase the stranger from the kingdom, I shall make Thee to be\nproclaimed King_ in the souls of men.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, APPENDIX\n\n\n_Love!_... that is what I ask.... I know but one thing now--_to love\nThee_, O Jesus! Glorious deeds are not for me, I cannot preach the\nGospel, shed my blood ... what does it matter? My brothers toil instead\nof me, and I, _the little child_, I keep quite close to the royal\nthrone, _I love_ for those who fight.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nHow shall I show my love since love is proved by deeds? Well,--_the\nlittle child will strew flowers_ ... she will embalm the Divine Throne\nwith their fragrance, will sing with silvery voice the canticle of love.\n\nYes, my Beloved, it is thus that my life\u2019s brief day shall be spent\nbefore Thee. No other means have I of proving my love than to strew\nflowers; that is, to let no little sacrifice escape me, not a look,\nnot a word, to avail of the very least actions and do them for Love.\nI wish to suffer for Love\u2019s sake and for Love\u2019s sake even to rejoice;\nthus shall I strew flowers. Not one shall I find without shedding its\npetals for Thee ... and then I will sing, I will always sing, even if\nI must gather my roses in the very midst of thorns--and the longer and\nsharper the thorns the sweeter shall be my song.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nS\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de l\u2019Enfant J\u00e9sus often spoke of a well-known toy with\nwhich in childhood\u2019s days she had amused herself: a kaleidoscope; in\nform somewhat like a small telescope; on looking through, one sees an\nendless succession of pretty and many-coloured designs, varying at each\nturn of the kaleidoscope.\n\n\u201cThis toy,\u201d she said, \u201caroused my admiration and I used to wonder what\ncould produce so pleasing a phenomenon; when one day, after serious\nexamination, I saw there were simply a few tiny scraps of paper and\nof wool cut no matter how, and thrown here and there. I pursued my\ninvestigation and discovered three mirrors inside the tube: I had there\nthe key to the problem.\n\n\u201cThis was for me the image of a great mystery. As long as our actions,\neven the least of them, remain within the focus of Love, the Blessed\nTrinity, which is figured by the three mirrors, reflects them, and\nendows them with a wondrous beauty. Jesus, looking at us through the\nlittle lens, that is to say, as it were through Himself, finds all our\nactions pleasing to Him. But if we leave the ineffable centre of Love,\nwhat will He see? Mere straws ... actions sullied and nothing worth.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThis little prayer which includes all my desires I ask you to say for\nme each day:\n\n\u201cMerciful Father, in the name of Thy sweet Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin\nand of the Saints, I pray Thee that my sister be fired with Thy spirit\nof love, and that Thou wilt grant her the grace to make Thee greatly\nloved.\u201d\n\nIf God should take me soon to Himself, I ask you to continue each day\nthis same prayer, for in Heaven my desire will be the same as upon\nearth; to love Jesus and to make Him loved.\n\n III LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nShe was looking at the sky one day when some one remarked to her:\n\n\u201cVery soon you will dwell beyond the blue sky; with what love you\ncontemplate it!\u201d\n\nShe merely smiled, but afterwards said to the Mother Prioress:\n\n\u201cMother, our Sisters little know what I suffer! Looking at the blue sky\nI was thinking only of the beauty of the material heavens; _the other\nis more and more closed to me_.... I was at first distressed by that\nremark, then an interior voice answered: \u2018Yes, through love thou didst\nlook at the heavens. Since thy soul is wholly consecrated to Love, all\nthy actions, even the most indifferent, bear the impress of this divine\nseal.\u2019 I was instantly consoled.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 rise\nseveral times to visit her. On one occasion she found our little\ninvalid with hands clasped and eyes raised to Heaven.\n\n\u201cBut what are you doing?\u201d she asked; \u201cyou should try to sleep.\u201d\n\n\u201cI cannot, dear Sister, I suffer too much! then I pray....\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what do you say to Jesus?\u201d\n\n\u201cI say nothing, _I love Him_!\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA sister was speaking to her of the happiness of Heaven: Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\ninterrupted, saying:\n\n\u201cIt is not that which attracts me....\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is it then?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh! it is LOVE! To love, to be beloved, and _to come back to earth to\nmake_ LOVE _loved_.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nLove alone have I ever given to the good God, with love He will repay\nme.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nAll that I have written regarding my desire of suffering is most true;\noh! I do not repent of having surrendered myself to Love.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nJesus! Jesus! if it be so sweet to desire Thy Love, what will it be to\npossess and to enjoy it for ever!\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 more\nweak than mine Thou wouldst take delight in showering upon her greater\nfavours still, provided that she abandoned herself with entire\nconfidence to Thine Infinite Mercy.\n\nBut why these desires, O my Beloved, to impart the secrets of Thy Love?\nIs it not Thyself alone Who hast made them known to me and canst Thou\nnot reveal them to others? Yes, I know it and I implore Thee to _do_\nso: _I beseech Thee to let Thy divine gaze rest upon an immense number\nof little souls, I beseech Thee to choose in this world a Legion of\nlittle victims worthy of Thy Love!_\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nHer last words--looking at her crucifix:\n\n\u201cOH!... I LOVE HIM!... MY GOD, I ... LOVE ... THEE!!!\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nO my God, Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to love Thee and to make Thee\nloved, to labour for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls still\non earth and by delivering those who suffer in purgatory. I desire to\naccomplish Thy Will perfectly, and to attain to the degree of glory\nwhich Thou hast prepared for me in Thy Kingdom, in one word, I desire\nto be a saint, but I know that I am powerless, and I implore Thee, O my\nGod, to be Thyself my sanctity.\n\nSince Thou hast so loved me as to give me Thine only Son to be my\nSaviour and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine,\nto Thee I offer them with joy, beseeching Thee to see me only as in the\nFace of Jesus and in His Heart burning with Love.\n\nAgain, I offer Thee all the merits of the Saints--in Heaven and on\nearth--their acts of love and those of the holy Angels; and finally\nI offer Thee, O Blessed Trinity, the love and the merits of the Holy\nVirgin, my most dear Mother; it is to her I entrust my oblation,\nbegging her to present it to Thee.\n\nHer Divine Son, my well-beloved Spouse, during His life on earth, told\nus: \u201c_If you ask the Father anything in My Name He will give it to\nyou._\u201d[8] I am then certain that Thou wilt hearken to my desires....\nMy God, I know it, the more Thou willest to give the more dost Thou\nmake us desire. Immense are the desires that I feel within my heart,\nand it is with confidence that I call upon Thee to come and take\npossession of my soul. I cannot receive Thee in Holy Communion as often\nas I would; but, Lord, art Thou not Almighty?... Remain in me as in the\nTabernacle--never leave Thy little Victim.\n\nI long to console Thee for the ingratitude of the wicked and I pray\nThee take from me the liberty to displease Thee! If through frailty\nI fall sometimes, may Thy Divine glance purify my soul immediately,\nconsuming every imperfection--like to fire which transforms all things\ninto itself.\n\nI thank Thee, O my God, for all the graces Thou hast bestowed on me,\nand particularly for making me pass through the crucible of suffering.\nIt is with joy I shall behold Thee on the Last Day bearing Thy\nsceptre--the Cross; since Thou hast deigned to give me for my portion\nthis most precious Cross, I have hope of resembling Thee in Heaven and\nseeing the sacred stigmata of Thy Passion shine in my glorified body.\n\nAfter exile on earth I hope to enjoy the possession of Thee in our\neternal Fatherland, but I have no wish to amass merits for Heaven, I\nwill work for Thy Love alone, my sole aim being to give Thee pleasure,\nto console Thy Sacred Heart, and to save souls who will love Thee for\never.\n\nAt the close of life\u2019s evening I shall appear before Thee with empty\nhands, for I ask not, Lord, that Thou wouldst count my works.... All\nour justice is tarnished in Thy sight. It is therefore my desire to be\nclothed with Thine own Justice and to receive from Thy Love the eternal\npossession of Thyself. I crave no other Throne nor other Crown but\nThee, O my Beloved!...\n\nIn Thy sight time is nothing, _one day is as a thousand years_.[9] Thou\ncanst 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 VICTIM\nOF HOLOCAUST TO THY MERCIFUL LOVE, imploring Thee to consume me without\nceasing, and to let the tide of infinite tenderness pent up in Thee,\noverflow into my soul, that so I may become a very martyr of Thy Love,\nO my God!\n\nMay this martyrdom, having first prepared me to appear before Thee,\nbreak life\u2019s thread at last, and may my soul take its flight,\n_unretarded_, into the eternal embrace of Thy Merciful Love.\n\nI desire, O Well-Beloved, at every heart-beat to renew this Oblation an\ninfinite number of times, _till the shadows retire_[10] and I can tell\nThee my love eternally face to face!\n\n [_Signed_] MARIE-FRAN\u00c7OISE-TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE\n DE L\u2019ENFANT J\u00c9SUS ET DE LA SAINTE FACE\n\n _Rel. Carm. ind._\n\n Feast of The Most Holy Trinity.\n The 9th of June in the year of grace, 1895.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Cant., viii, 7.\n\n[2] St. Augustine.\n\n[3] _Cf._ Ps. xlix, 9, 12, 14.\n\n[4] John, iv, 7.\n\n[5] St. John of the Cross.\n\n[6] _Cf._ Ps. xxxv, 6.\n\n[7] _Cf. Imit._, II, xi, 4.\n\n[8] John, xvi, 23.\n\n[9] _Cf._ Ps. lxxxix, 4.\n\n[10] Cant., iv, 6.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nLOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR\n\n\nThere are moments when we are so wretched within, that we must needs\nhurry away from ourselves. The good God does not oblige us to remain at\nsuch times in our own company; indeed He often permits that it should\nbe displeasing to us just that we may leave it. And I see no other\nmeans of going out of ourselves than by going to visit Jesus and Mary,\nthat is, hastening to deeds of charity.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nI applied myself above all to practise quite hidden little acts of\nvirtue; thus I liked to fold the mantles forgotten by the Sisters, and\nsought a thousand opportunities of rendering them service.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VII\n\n\nHad I been rich I never could have borne to see a poor person hungry\nwithout giving him to eat. It is the same in my spiritual life: knowing\nthere are souls on the point of falling into Hell, I give them my\ntreasures according as I earn anything, and I have never yet found a\nmoment to say: \u201cNow I am going to work for myself.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nI feel that when I am charitable it is Jesus alone who acts in me; the\nmore I am united to Him the more do I love all my Sisters. If, when I\ndesire to increase this love in my heart, the demon tries to set before\nmy eyes the faults of one or other of the Sisters, I hasten to call\nto mind her virtues, her good desires; I say to myself that if I have\nseen her fall once, she may well have gained many victories which she\nconceals through humility; and that even what appears to me a fault may\nin truth be an act of virtue by reason of the intention.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nTrue Charity consists in bearing with all the defects of our neighbour,\nin not being surprised at his failings, and in being edified by his\nleast virtues; Charity must not remain shut up in the depths of the\nheart, for _no man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel,\nbut upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the\nhouse_.[11] It seems to me that this candle represents the Charity\nwhich ought to enlighten and make joyful, not only those who are\ndearest to me, but _all who are in the house_.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nThere is no artist who does not like his work praised, and the Divine\nArtist of souls is pleased when we do not stop at the exterior, but\npenetrating even to the inmost sanctuary which He has chosen for His\ndwelling, we admire its beauty.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\nI ought to seek the company of those Sisters who according to nature\nplease me least. I ought to fulfil in their regard the office of the\nGood Samaritan. A word, a kindly smile, will often suffice to gladden a\nwounded and sorrowful heart.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 truly poor\nin spirit. If he ask with detachment for some necessary thing, and it\nis not only refused him, but an attempt made besides to deprive him of\nwhat he already has, he follows the counsel of our Lord: \u201c_And if a man\nwill contend with thee in judgment and take away thy coat, let go thy\ncloak also unto him._\u201d[12]\n\nTo yield up our cloak means, I think, to renounce our last rights, to\nconsider oneself as the servant, the slave of others. When we have\nabandoned our mantle it is easier to walk, to run; therefore Jesus\nadds: \u201c_And whosoever will force thee one mile, go with him other\ntwo._\u201d[13]\n\nIt is not enough that I should give to whosoever may ask of me, I must\nforestall their desires, and show that I feel much gratified, much\nhonoured in rendering service; and if they take a thing that I use, I\nmust seem as though glad to be _relieved_ of it.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nIf it is hard to give to whoever asks, it is still harder to let what\nbelongs to us be taken, without asking it back, or rather, I ought to\nsay it _seems_ hard; for _the yoke of the Lord is sweet and light_:[14]\nwhen we accept it we feel its sweetness immediately.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nWhen Charity is deeply rooted in the soul it shows itself exteriorly:\nthere is so gracious a way of refusing what we cannot give, that the\nrefusal pleases as much as the gift.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 responsible\nfor their guidance. We must not be _Justices of the peace_, but only\n_angels of peace_.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nJesus wills that we give alms to Him as to one poor and needy. He puts\nHimself as it were at our mercy; He will take nothing but what we give\nHim from our heart, and the very least trifle is precious in His sight.\nHe stretches forth His Hand, this sweet Saviour, to receive of us a\nlittle love, so that in the radiant day of Judgment He may be able to\naddress to us those ineffable words: \u201c_Come, ye blessed of My Father;\nfor I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave\nMe to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; sick and you visited\nMe; I was in prison, and you came to Me._\u201d[15]\n\n XV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nIf I were still to live, the office of Infirmarian is the one which\nwould please me most. I would not ask for it, but if it came direct by\nobedience I should think myself highly privileged. It seems to me that\nI would discharge its duties with a tender love, thinking always of our\nSaviour saying: \u201c_I was sick and you visited me_.\u201d[16] The Infirmary\nbell should be for you as Heavenly music. You ought purposely to pass\nalong beneath the windows of the sick to give them facility in calling\nyou and asking your services. Ought you not to consider yourself like\na little slave whom everyone has a right to command? If you could but\nsee the Angels who from the heights of Heaven watch you battling in\nthe arena! They await the end of the combat to cover you with flowers\nand wreaths. The good God does not disdain these combats, unknown\nand therefore all the more meritorious. \u201c_The patient man is better\nthan the valiant, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh\ncities_.\u201d[17]\n\nBy our little acts of charity practised in the shade we convert souls\nfar away, we help missionaries, we win for them abundant alms; and\nby that means build actual dwellings spiritual and material for our\nEucharistic Lord.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA novice remarked to S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se: \u201cI do not like to see others suffer,\nespecially saintly souls.\u201d She replied instantly:\n\n\u201cOh! I am not like you: to see saints suffer never moves me to pity! I\nknow they have the strength to endure, and they thus give great glory\nto God: but those who are not holy, who know not how to profit by their\nsufferings, oh! how I pity them; they do indeed arouse my compassion,\nand I would do all I could to comfort and help them.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nSeeing her extreme weakness the doctor ordered some strengthening\nremedies; S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se was distressed at first on account of their high\nprice: then she said to us: \u201cI am no longer grieved about taking these\ncostly remedies, for I have been reading that St. Gertrude rejoiced at\nthe thought that all would be to the advantage of those who do us good,\nsince our Lord has said: \u2018_As long as you did it unto one of these My\nleast brethren you did it unto Me._\u2019\u201d[18]\n\nShe added: \u201cI am convinced of the uselessness of medicine for the\npurpose of curing me, but I have made a compact with the good God, that\nHe is to allow some poor Missionaries to profit by it, who have neither\ntime nor means to take care of themselves.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nRemembering that _Charity covereth a multitude of sins_,[19] I draw\nfrom this fruitful mine opened to us by our Lord in His sacred\nGospels. I search the depths of His adorable words and cry out with\nDavid: \u201c_I have run in the way of Thy commandments when Thou didst\nenlarge my heart._\u201d[20] And charity alone can enlarge my heart....\n\nO Jesus! since this sweet flame consumes it I run with delight in\nthe way of Thy new Commandment, and therein will I run until the\nblessed day when with Thy Virgin train I shall follow Thee through Thy\nboundless Realm singing Thy _New Canticle_ which must surely be _the\nCanticle of LOVE_.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[11] _Cf._ Matt., v, 15.\n\n[12] Matt., v, 40.\n\n[13] Matt., v, 41.\n\n[14] _Cf._ Matt., xi, 30.\n\n[15] Matt., xxv, 34-36.\n\n[16] Matt., xxv, 36.\n\n[17] Prov., xvi, 32.\n\n[18] Matt., xxv, 40.\n\n[19] Prov., x, 12.\n\n[20] Ps., cxviii, 32.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nFAITH\n\n\nWhat helps me most when I picture to myself the interior of the Holy\nFamily is to think of a quite ordinary life.\n\nThe Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph knew well that Jesus was God, but\nwondrous things were nevertheless hidden from them and like us they\nlived by faith. Have you not noticed what is said in the sacred text:\n\u201c_And they understood not the word that He spoke unto them_,\u201d[21] and\nthese other words no less mysterious: \u201c_His father and mother were\nwondering at those things which were spoken concerning Him?_\u201d[22] Does\nnot this imply that they heard of something new to them, for this\nwondering suggests a certain astonishment?\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nDuring her temptations against faith she wrote: \u201cI strive to work by\nfaith though bereft of its consolations. I have made more acts of Faith\nin this last year than during all the rest of my life.\n\n\u201cOn each fresh occasion of combat, when the enemy desires to challenge\nme, I conduct myself valiantly: knowing that to fight a duel is an\nunworthy act, I turn my back upon the adversary without ever looking\nhim in the face; then I run to my Jesus and tell Him I am ready to shed\nevery drop of blood in testimony of my belief that there is a Heaven,\nI tell Him I am glad to be unable to contemplate, while on earth, with\nthe eyes of the soul, the beautiful Heaven that awaits me so He will\ndeign to open it for eternity to poor unbelievers.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nHe whose Heart ever watcheth, taught me, that while for a soul whose\nfaith equals but a tiny grain of mustard seed, he works miracles, in\norder that this faith which is so weak may be fortified; yet for His\nintimate friends, for His Mother, He did not work miracles until He\nhad put their faith to the test. Did He not let Lazarus die though\nMartha and Mary had sent to tell Him that he was sick? At the marriage\nat Cana, the Blessed Virgin having asked Him to come to the assistance\nof the Master of the house, did He not reply that His hour was not yet\ncome? But after the trial, what a recompense! Water changed to wine,\nLazarus restored to life....\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nA sister said to her that beautiful Angels clothed in white robes, and\nof joyous and resplendent countenance, would bear away her soul to\nHeaven. She replied: \u201cThese imaginations do not help me: I can draw no\nsustenance except from the Truth. God and the Angels are pure Spirits,\nno one can see them as they really are, with corporal eyes. That is why\nI have never desired extraordinary favours. I would rather await the\nEternal Vision.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cI have asked God to send me a beautiful dream to console me when you\nare gone,\u201d said a novice.\n\n\u201cAh! that is a thing I should never do--ask for consolation!... Since\nyou wish to be like me you well know that I say:\n\n Oh! fear not, Lord, that I shall waken Thee:\n I await in peace th\u2019 eternal shore....\n\n\u201cIt is so sweet to serve the good God in the dark night of trial; we\nhave this life only in which to live by faith.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[21] Luke, ii, 50.\n\n[22] Luke, ii, 33.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHOPE\n\n\nTime is but a shadow, a dream; already God sees us in glory and takes\njoy in our eternal beatitude. How this thought helps my soul! I\nunderstand then why He lets us suffer....\n\n VIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nA day ... an hour ... and we shall have reached the port! My God, what\nshall we see then? What is that life which will never have an end?...\nJesus will be the soul of our soul. Unfathomable mystery! \u201c_Eye hath\nnot seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man\nwhat great things God hath prepared for them that love Him._\u201d[23] And\nthis will all come soon--yes, very soon, if we ardently love Jesus.\n\n VI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nLife is passing, Eternity draws nigh; soon shall we live the very life\nof God. After having drunk deep at the fount of bitterness, our thirst\nwill be quenched at the very source of all sweetness.\n\nYes, _the figure of this world passeth away_,[24] soon shall we see new\nheavens; a more radiant sun will brighten with its splendours ethereal\nseas and infinite horizons.... We shall no longer be prisoners in a\nland of exile, all will be at an end and with our Heavenly Spouse we\nshall sail o\u2019er boundless waters: now our _harps are hung upon the\nwillows that border the rivers of Babylon_,[25] but in the day of our\ndeliverance what harmonies will then be heard! With what joy shall we\nnot make every chord of our instruments to vibrate! Today, _we weep\nremembering Sion ... how shall we sing the songs of the Lord in a\nstrange land?_[26]\n\n V LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nHow I thirst for Heaven--that blessed habitation where our love for\nJesus will have no limit! But to get there we must suffer ... we must\nweep.... Well, I _wish_ to suffer all that shall please my Beloved, I\nwish to let Him do just as He wills with His \u201c_little ball_.\u201d\n\n V LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n\nOh! What mysteries will be revealed to us later.... How often have\nI thought that I perhaps owe all the graces showered upon me to the\nearnest prayer of a little soul whom I shall know only in Heaven. It\nis God\u2019s will that in this world by means of prayer Heavenly treasures\nshould be imparted by souls one to another, so that when they reach the\nFatherland they may love one another with a love born of gratitude,\nwith an affection far, far exceeding the most ideal family affection\nupon earth.\n\nThere, we shall meet with no indifferent looks, because all the Saints\nwill be indebted to each other.\n\nNo envious glances will be seen; the happiness of every one of the\nelect will be the happiness of all. With the Martyrs we shall be like\nto the Martyrs; with the Doctors we shall be as the Doctors; with the\nVirgins, as the Virgins; and just as the members of a family are proud\nof one another, so shall we be of our brethren, without the least\njealousy.\n\nWho knows even if the joy we shall experience in beholding the glory\nof the great Saints, and knowing that by a secret dispensation of\nProvidence we have contributed thereunto, who knows if this joy will\nnot be as intense and sweeter perhaps, than the happiness they will\nthemselves possess.\n\nAnd do you not think that on their side the great Saints, seeing what\nthey owe to quite little souls, will love them with an incomparable\nlove? Delightful and surprising will be the friendships found there--I\nam sure of it. The favoured companion of an Apostle or a great Doctor\nof the Church, will perhaps be a young shepherd lad; and a simple\nlittle child may be the intimate friend of a Patriarch. Oh! how I long\nto dwell in that Kingdom of Love....\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA sister showed her a photograph representing Joan of Arc consoled in\nthe prison by her Voices. S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se said: \u201cI too am consoled by an\ninterior voice. The Saints encourage me from above, they say to me:\n\u2018So long as thou art in fetters thou canst not fulfil thy mission; but\nlater, after thy death--_then_ will be the time of thy conquests.\u2019\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIn Heaven the good God will do all I wish, because I have never done my\nown will upon earth.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nEven now I know it; yes, all my hopes will be fulfilled ... yes ...\nthe Lord will work wonders for me which will surpass infinitely my\nimmeasurable desires.\n\n VIII LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[23] I Cor., ii, 9. _Cf._ Is., lxiv, 4.\n\n[24] I Cor., vii, 31.\n\n[25] _Cf._ Ps. cxxxvi, 2.\n\n[26] _Cf._ Ps., cxxxvi, 1, 4.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHUMILITY\n\n\nIt appears to me that humility is the truth. I know not whether I am\nhumble, but I know that I see the truth in all things.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nI have understood what true glory is. He whose _Kingdom is not of this\nworld_[27] showed me that the only enviable royalty consists in loving\n_to be unknown and esteemed as nothing_,[28] and finding our joy in\ncontempt of self. I wished that like the Face of Jesus, mine might\nbe _as it were hidden and despised_.[29] _That none upon earth might\nesteem me._ I thirsted to suffer and to be forgotten.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VII\n\n\nJesus made me understand that the true, the only glory is that which\nwill last for ever; that to attain to it we need not perform wonderful\ndeeds, but rather, those hidden from the eyes of others and from self,\nso that _the left hand knoweth not what the right hand doth_.[30]\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se is weak, very weak; of this she has new and salutary experience\nevery day. But Jesus takes pleasure in teaching her how to _glory in\nher infirmities_.[31] It is a great grace this, for herein is found\npeace and tranquillity. When we see ourselves so miserable, we wish no\nlonger to look at self but only on the Well-Beloved.\n\n II LETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GU\u00c9RIN\n\n\nI am a _very little_ soul who can offer only _very little_ things to\nthe good God; yet, it often happens that these little sacrifices which\ngive such peace to the heart, escape me; but that does not discourage\nme, I bear with having a little less peace and I try to be more\nwatchful another time.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nVeiled in the white Host, O my Well-Beloved, how meek and humble of\nheart dost Thou show Thyself to me! Thou couldst not stoop lower to\nteach me humility, and I, to respond to Thy Love, desire to put myself\nin the lowest place and share Thy humiliations, that I may _have part\nwith Thee_[32] in the Kingdom of Heaven.\n\nI beseech Thee, my Jesus, to send me some humiliation every time that I\nshall attempt to put myself above others.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, APPENDIX\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 have in\nHis Mercy.\n\n VI LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n\nTo draw near to Jesus we must be so little.... Oh! how few souls aspire\nto be little and unknown....\n\n XIV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nI am no longer surprised at anything, nor do I grieve at seeing that\nI am frailty itself; on the contrary I glory in it, and expect to\ndiscover new imperfections in myself each day. These lights concerning\nmy nothingness do me more good, I affirm, than lights regarding faith.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nWhen we commit a fault we must not think it due to a physical cause,\nsuch as illness or the weather, we must attribute this fall to our\nimperfection, but without ever growing discouraged.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nSince Jesus has gone back to Heaven I can follow Him only by the path\nHe has traced. Oh how luminous are His footprints--diffusing a divine\nsweetness.... I have but to glance at the holy Gospels and immediately\nI inhale the fragrance of the life of Jesus, and I know which side\nto take. Not to the first place do I run but to the last. I let the\nPharisee go up, and full of confidence I repeat the humble prayer of\nthe publican. Above all I copy the example of Magdalene; her amazing,\nor rather, her loving audacity, which so touched the Heart of Jesus,\ncharms my own.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nWith a simplicity that delights me my little Sisters, the novices, tell\nme of the interior combats I arouse in them, in what way they find me\ntrying; they are no more embarrassed than if it were question of some\none else, knowing that by acting thus, they greatly please me.\n\nAh! truly it is more than a pleasure, it is a delicious feast which\nreplenishes my soul with joy. How can a thing so disagreeable to\nnature give such happiness? Had I not experienced it I could not have\nbelieved it.\n\nOne day when I had an ardent desire for humiliation, it happened that\na young postulant so fully satisfied it, that the thought of Semei\ncursing David came to my mind and I repeated interiorly with the holy\nKing: _Yes, it is indeed the Lord who has commanded him to say all\nthese things to me_.[33]\n\nThus the good God takes care of me. He cannot always offer me the\nstrength-giving bread of exterior humiliation, but from time to time He\npermits me to feast upon _the crumbs that fall from the table of the\nchildren_.[34] How great is His Mercy!\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nAll creatures might incline towards _the little flower_, admiring it\nand overwhelming it with their praise, but never would that add a\nshadow of vain satisfaction to the true joy of knowing itself to be a\nmere nothing in the sight of God.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nBecause I was little and weak, Jesus stooped down to me and tenderly\ninstructed me in the secrets of His Love.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nI am too little to have any vanity, I am also too little to know how to\nturn beautiful phrases so as to make it appear that I have a great deal\nof humility. I prefer to acknowledge simply that _He that is mighty\nhath done great things to me_;[35] and the greatest is His having shown\nme my littleness, my powerlessness for all good.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\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 his\npower_[36] and sometimes we are surprised by a desire for that which\nglitters. Then, let us take our place humbly amongst the imperfect,\ndeeming ourselves little souls whom the good God must sustain at each\nmoment. As soon as He sees us truly convinced of our nothingness and\nwe say to Him: _My foot hath slipped: Thy mercy, O Lord, hath held me\nup_,[37] He stretches out His Hand to us; but if we _will_ attempt\nto do something grand, even under pretext of zeal, He leaves us\nalone. It is enough therefore that we humble ourselves, and bear our\nimperfections with sweetness: there, for us, lies true sanctity.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\nThe most eloquent discourses would be incapable of inspiring one act of\nlove without the grace that moves the heart.\n\nSee a beautiful, rose-tinted peach, of so sweet a savour that no craft\nof confectioner could produce nectar like it. Is it for the peach\nitself that God has created this lovely colour and delicate velvety\nsurface? Is it for the sake of the peach that He has given it so\ndelicious a flavour? No, it is for us; what alone belongs to it and\nforms the essence of its existence is its stone; it possesses nothing\nmore.\n\nThus is Jesus pleased to lavish His gifts on some of His creatures,\nthat through them He may draw to Himself other souls; but in His mercy\nHe humiliates them interiorly, and gently constrains them to recognize\ntheir nothingness and His Omnipotence. These sentiments form in them,\nas it were, a kernel of grace, which Jesus hastens to develop for that\nblessed day when clothed with a beauty, immortal, imperishable, they\nshall without danger have place at the Celestial banquet.\n\n XVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nThe Apostles, without Jesus, laboured long--a whole night--without\ntaking any fish; their toil was pleasing to Him but He wished to show\nthat He alone can give anything. He asked only an act of humility:\n\u201c_Children, have you any meat?_\u201d[38] and St. Peter confesses his\nhelplessness: \u201c_Lord we have laboured all night and have taken\nnothing._\u201d[39] It is enough! The Heart of Jesus is touched.... Perhaps\nif the Apostle had taken a few little fishes the Divine Master would\nnot have worked a miracle; but he had _nothing_, and so through God\u2019s\npower and goodness his nets were soon filled with great fishes.\n\nThat is just our Lord\u2019s way. He gives as God, but He _will_ have\nhumility of heart.\n\n XVII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nTo think ourselves imperfect, and others perfect--that is happiness.\nThat creatures should recognize we are without virtue takes nothing\nfrom us, makes us no poorer; it is they who by this lose interior joy;\nfor there is nothing sweeter than to think well of our neighbour.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIt is a great joy to me, not only when others find me imperfect, but\nabove all when I feel that so I am: compliments, on the contrary,\ncause me nothing but displeasure.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA novice confided to her that she made no progress and felt quite\ndiscouraged.\n\n\u201cTill the age of fourteen,\u201d said Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, \u201cI practised virtue without\nfeeling its sweetness. I wished for suffering but had no thought of\nfinding my joy therein; that is a grace which has been granted me\nlater. My soul was like a beautiful tree whose blossoms no sooner\nopened than they fell.\n\n\u201cOffer to the good God the sacrifice of never gathering the fruits of\nyour labours. If He so will that during your whole life you feel a\nrepugnance to suffer and to be humiliated, if He permit that all the\nflowers of your desires and of your good-will fall to earth without\nfruit, be not troubled. At the moment of your death He will know well\nhow to bring to perfection, in the twinkling of an eye, beautiful\nfruits on the tree of your soul.\n\n\u201cWe read in the Book of Ecclesiasticus: \u2018_There is an inactive man that\nwanteth help, is very weak in ability, and full of poverty: yet the eye\nof God hath looked upon him for good, and hath lifted him up from his\nlow estate, and hath exalted his head: and many have wondered at him\nand have glorified God._\n\n\u2018_Trust in God, and stay in thy place. For it is easy in the eyes of\nGod, on a sudden to make the poor man rich. The blessing of God maketh\nhaste to reward the just, and in a swift hour His blessing beareth\nfruit!_\u2019\u201d[40]\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cYou have always been faithful to divine grace, have you not?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, since the age of three I have refused nothing to the good God.\nYet not mine the glory. See how the setting sun this evening gilds the\ntopmost branches of the trees; even so does my soul appear to you--all\nbright and gilded, because it is exposed to Love\u2019s rays. If the Divine\nSun withheld from me His rays, my soul would immediately become\nobscured and enveloped in darkness.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cYou really are a saint!\u201d some one said to her.\n\n\u201cNo, I am not a saint; I have never done the works of the Saints. I\nam a very, very little soul on whom the good God has outpoured the\nabundance of His grace. You will see in Heaven that I am telling you\nthe truth.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nShe said to the Prioress: \u201cMother, I feel that if I were unfaithful, if\nI committed but the very slightest infidelity, fearful troubles would\nfollow, and I could no longer accept death with resignation.\u201d\n\nAnd as the Mother Prioress showed surprise at hearing her speak thus,\nshe continued:\n\n\u201cI mean an infidelity springing from pride. For instance, if I said: \u2018I\nhave acquired such or such a virtue, I am able to practise it,\u2019 or, \u2018O\nmy God, I love Thee too well--Thou knowest it--to dwell on one single\nthought against faith,\u2019 I feel that I should forthwith be assailed by\nthe most dangerous temptations and should certainly be overcome by them.\n\n\u201cTo avoid this calamity I have but to say humbly from the depths of my\nheart: \u2018O my God, I implore of Thee, suffer me not to be unfaithful!\u2019\n\n\u201cI very well understand how St. Peter fell. He depended too confidently\non the fervour of his feelings, instead of relying solely upon Divine\nstrength. Had he said to Jesus: \u2018Lord, give me the strength to follow\nThee even unto death,\u2019 that strength, I am quite sure would not have\nbeen refused him.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cOh! when I think of all I have to acquire!\u201d exclaimed a novice.\n\n\u201cSay, 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, you\nwill never arrive at the end of your journey. You wish to scale a\nmountain and the good God wants to make you descend: He is waiting for\nyou low down in the fertile valley of humility.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cWhen I receive a reproof,\u201d said another, \u201cI would rather have deserved\nit than be wrongfully accused.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs for me,\u201d replied Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, \u201cI prefer being blamed unjustly, then I\nhave no cause for self-reproach and I offer this unmerited blame to the\ngood God with joy, then I humble myself at the thought that I should be\nquite capable of doing that of which I was accused.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nWhen we are not understood, and are unfavourably judged, what good is\nthere in defending ourselves? Let us leave it so and say nothing, it\nis so sweet to let ourselves be judged no matter how! It is not told\nin the Gospels that Saint Magdalen gave any explanation when blamed by\nher sister for sitting inactive at the feet of Jesus. She did not say:\n\u201cMartha, if thou didst but know my happiness, if thou didst but hear\nthe words I hear, thou too wouldst lay all else aside, to share my joy\nand my repose.\u201d No, she chose rather to be silent.... O blessed silence\nwhich gives to the soul such peace!\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIn a moment of temptation and combat a novice received this note:\n\n\u201c_The just man shall correct me in mercy and reprove me; but let not\nthe oil of the sinner anoint my head._[41] I cannot be corrected or\ntried except by the just, inasmuch as all my Sisters are pleasing to\nGod. It is less bitter to be reproved by a sinner than by the just; but\n_through compassion for sinners_, to obtain their conversion, I pray\nThee, O my God, that I may be bruised by the just souls who are round\nabout me. Again, I beg that the oil of praise, so sweet to nature,\n_anoint not my head_, that is to say, enervate not my mind, by making\nme believe that I possess virtues which I have only with difficulty\npractised several times.\n\n\u201cO my Jesus! _Thy Name is as oil poured out_;[42] it is in this divine\nperfume that I wish to be wholly bathed, far away from the notice of\ncreatures.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nAt the close of her life she was able to say: \u201cI used so to rise above\nall things, that I drew strength from humiliations.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\u201cGod has a special love for you,\u201d remarked a young Sister, \u201csince to\nyou He entrusts other souls.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat does not add anything to me, and I am only really just what I am\nin God\u2019s sight.... It does not follow that He loves me more, because\nHe wills that I should be His interpreter to you; rather, He makes me\nyour little servant. It is for you and not for me that He has given me\nthe charms and virtues apparent to you.\n\n\u201cOften I compare myself to a little bowl which God fills with good\nthings of every kind. All _the kittens_ come to it to take their share,\nand sometimes there is a contest as to which shall have most. But the\nChild Jesus is there, keeping watch: \u2018I am very willing that you drink\nfrom my little bowl\u2019 saith He, \u2018but take care lest you overturn it and\nbreak it.\u2019\n\n\u201cTruth to tell, the danger is not great, because I am placed on the\nground. It is otherwise with Prioresses: they, being set on tables run\nmany more risks. Honours are always dangerous.\n\n\u201cOh! how poisonous the praises served up day by day to those who hold\nhigh places. What baneful incense! And how necessary it is that the\nsoul be detached from self, that so she may escape unharmed.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTo help a novice to accept a humiliation she said to her in confidence:\n\u201cIf I had not been received into Carmel I would have entered a Refuge,\nto live there unknown and despised in the midst of the poor penitents.\nTo pass for such in the eyes of all would have been my happiness. I\nshould have been the apostle of my companions telling them what I think\nof the Mercy of the good God.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut how would you have been able to hide your innocence from your\nConfessor?\u201d\n\n\u201cI would have told him that while in the world I had made a general\nconfession and had been forbidden to do so again.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nOne day they brought her some ears of corn. She took one so laden with\ngrain that it leaned down upon its stalk, and having looked at it for a\nlong time she said to the Mother Prioress:\n\n\u201cMother, this ear of corn is an image of my soul: the good God has\nladen me with graces for myself and for many others!... Oh! I wish ever\nto bow down beneath the abundance of Heaven\u2019s gifts, recognizing that\nall comes from above.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nWhat do you think of all the graces which have been poured down upon\nyou?\n\n\u201cI think that _the Spirit of God breatheth where He will_.\u201d[43]\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA sister said that in Heaven she would be a beautiful flower,\nresplendent with light.\n\n\u201cOh no,\u201d she replied, \u201cyou know how in pretty bouquets they conceal\nsome moss to make the flowers stand out; well, I shall be a little bit\nof moss to set off the beauty of the elect.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nDuring her last agony the Mother Prioress encouraged her with these\nwords:\n\n\u201cMy child, you are quite ready to appear before God because you have\nalways understood the virtue of humility.\u201d\n\nThen of herself she gave this beautiful testimony:\n\n\u201cYes, I feel it, my soul has never sought but the truth ... yes, I have\nunderstood humility of heart!\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[27] John, xviii, 36.\n\n[28] _Imit._, I, ii, 3.\n\n[29] Is., liii, 3.\n\n[30] Matt., vi, 3.\n\n[31] II Cor., xi, 5.\n\n[32] John, xiii, 8.\n\n[33] Kings, xvi, 10.\n\n[34] Mark, vii, 28.\n\n[35] Luke, i, 49.\n\n[36] _Cf._ Jer., x, 23.\n\n[37] _Cf._ Ps., xciii, 18.\n\n[38] John, xxi, 5\n\n[39] Luke, v, 5.\n\n[40] Ecclus., xi, 12, 13, 22, 23, 24.\n\n[41] Ps., cxl, 5.\n\n[42] Cant., 1, 2.\n\n[43] John, iii, 8.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nDETACHMENT\n\n\nIf the impossible were possible and that God Himself did not see my\ngood actions, I would not grieve about it. I love Him so much that I\nshould like to be able to give Him pleasure without His knowing that it\nwas I.... Knowing and seeing it, He is, in a way, bound to repay me....\nI would not give Him the trouble.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThe glory of Jesus ... that is my whole ambition; my own I abandon to\nHim; and if He seem to forget me, well, He is at liberty to do so since\nI am mine no more, but His. He will more quickly tire of making me\nwait, than I, of waiting!\n\n VII LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nThere is no stay, no support to seek out of Jesus. He alone changeth\nnot. What happiness to think that He can never change!\n\n V LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nThe sole happiness upon earth consists in hiding oneself and remaining\nin total ignorance of created things.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nFar from dazzling me all the titles of nobility appear to me but empty\nvanity. I have understood those words of the _Imitation_: \u201c_Be not\nsolicitous for the shadow of a great name_.\u201d[44] I have understood that\ntrue greatness is found not in the name but in the soul.\n\nThe Prophet tells us that _the Lord God shall call His servants by_\nANOTHER NAME;[45] and we read in St. John: \u201c_To him that overcometh, I\nwill give ... a white counter, and in the counter a new name written,\nwhich no man knoweth but he that receiveth._\u201d[46] It is in Heaven,\ntherefore, that we shall know our titles of nobility. Then _shall each\none receive from God the praise that he merits_,[47] and he who upon\nearth will have made choice of being the poorest and the most unknown\nfor love of our Lord, he will be the first, the noblest and the richest.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nI thank my Jesus for making me walk in darkness; in it I am wrapped in\nprofound peace. Willingly I consent to stay, during the whole of my\nreligious life, in this sombre tunnel into which He has made me enter;\nI desire only that my darkness may win light for sinners.\n\n IV LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nIn this world we must not become attached to anything--not even things\nthe most innocent, for they fail us at the moment when we are least\nexpecting it. The eternal alone can satisfy us.\n\n I LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n\nThis prayer she bore upon her heart on the day of her Profession:\n\n\u201cO Jesus, my Divine Spouse, grant that the robe of my baptism be never\nsullied! Take me, rather than suffer me here below to stain my soul by\ncommitting the slightest wilful fault. May I never seek nor ever find\nbut Thee alone! May all creatures be nothing to me, and I nothing to\nthem! May no earthly thing disturb my peace!\n\n * * * * *\n\n\u201cGrant that I fulfil my engagements in all their perfection; that\nnone concern themselves about me; that I may be trodden underfoot,\nforgotten, as a little grain of sand. I offer myself to Thee, O\nWell-Beloved, that Thou mayst ever perfectly accomplish Thy holy will\nin me, without let or hindrance from creatures.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nWith jealous care all must be kept for Jesus; it is so good to work for\nHim, and for Him alone! How joyous then the heart and how buoyant the\nspirit!...\n\n VI 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 was too\nglorious for me, I ardently desire to be forgotten.\n\n VII 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 the\nthings of the earth! What matters to me all created beauty? I should be\ntruly unfortunate were I to possess it. Oh! how great, how noble, seems\nmy heart when I look at it in relation to this world\u2019s goods, since all\nof them put together could never satisfy it; but when I consider it\nwith reference to Jesus, how _small_ it then appears to me.\n\n II 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 more\nattached to the goods of mind and heart than to those of earth. If it\nhappens that I repeat to my Sisters some thought of mine which pleases\nthem, I think it quite natural that they should look on it as their\nown; this thought belongs to the Holy Ghost not to me, seeing that St.\nPaul tells us _that without the Spirit of Love we cannot give to God\nthe name of Father_.[48] The Holy Spirit assuredly is free to use me as\nthe means of conveying a good thought to a soul and I may not consider\nthis thought as my property.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\n\u201cThere is one only means of constraining the good God not to judge us\nat all, it is to appear before Him with our hands empty.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut how?\u201d they asked her.\n\n\u201cIt is quite simple: keep nothing whatever in reserve, give away your\ngains according as you earn. As for me, if I live to be eighty I shall\nbe always poor; I know not how to save up, all that I have goes\nimmediately to ransom souls.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThe further you advance the fewer combats will you have, or rather,\nthe easier will your conquests be, because you will look at the good\nside of things. Your soul will then rise above creatures. Anything that\nmay be said to me now, leaves me absolutely indifferent, for I have\nrealized how little stability there is in human judgments.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTo write books of devotion, to compose the most sublime poetry, is of\nless worth than the least act of self-renunciation.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cOne Sunday,\u201d Th\u00e9r\u00e8se tells us, \u201cI went right joyously on my way\ntowards the alley of chestnut trees; it was the spring-time, and I\nmeant to enjoy the beauties of nature. O cruel disappointment! My dear\nchestnut trees had been pruned, and the branches, already loaded with\nverdant buds, lay strewn upon the ground! It was heartrending to view\nthis destruction, and to think that three years must pass ere I could\nsee it repaired.... My distress however did not last. \u2018If I were in\nanother monastery,\u2019 thought I, \u2018what difference would it make to me if\nthe chestnut trees in the Carmel of Lisieux were cut down altogether? I\nwill fret no more about transitory things; my Well-Beloved shall take\nthe place of all else for me.... I will wander ever in the groves of\nHis love, which none may touch!\u2019\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nShe said to her novices: \u201cYou are too much taken up about what you are\ndoing, you torment yourselves concerning the future as if you had the\ncare of it.... Are you at this moment preoccupied with what is passing\nin other Carmels, as to whether the nuns are pressed or not? Do their\nlabours hinder your prayer or meditation? Very well, so, too, ought\nyou to be detached from your personal work, employing conscientiously\ntherein the time directed, but with disengagement of heart.\n\n\u201cI have read that the Israelites, when building the walls of Jerusalem,\nworked with one hand and with the other held a sword.[49] That is truly\na figure of what we ought to do: never give ourselves completely up to\nthe work.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA novice asked some of the Sisters to help to shake blankets, which\nbeing rather worn, she cautioned them somewhat sharply to be careful\nnot to tear. S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se remarked:\n\n\u201cWhat would you do if it were not your office to mend these\nblankets?... With what detachment you would then act! And if you did\npoint out that they are easily torn, how free from self-interest it\nwould be. Thus, never let the least shadow of self-interest glide into\nyour actions.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS 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 them.\nThen very soon she let them have their way, saying:\n\n\u201cThe thought has struck me that I am not to desire more of repose than\nour Lord. When He retired into the desert after His discourses, the\npeople came immediately to break in upon His solitude. Come to me as\nmuch as you will. I must die arms in hand, _having on my lips the sword\nof the Spirit which is the Word of God_.\u201d[50]\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cHow do you manage so to practise virtue,\u201d asked a novice, \u201cas to be\nalways the same, invariably joyous and composed?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt has not been always so,\u201d she replied, \u201cbut ever since I have\nshunned all self-seeking I lead the happiest life that can be.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nNow, that I am about to appear before the good God, more than ever do\nI understand that there is but one thing necessary: to work solely for\nHim, and to do nothing for self or for creatures.\n\n X LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[44] _Imit._, III, xxiv, 2.\n\n[45] Is., lxv, 15.\n\n[46] Apoc., ii, 17.\n\n[47] _Cf._ I Cor., iv, 5.\n\n[48] _Cf._ Rom., viii, 15.\n\n[49] II Esdras, iv, 17.\n\n[50] Ephes., vi, 17.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nMORTIFICATION\n\n\nFar from being like to those great souls who from their childhood\npractise all sorts of macerations, I made my mortification consist\nsolely in the breaking of my will, restraining a hasty word, rendering\nlittle services to those around me without making anything of it, and a\nthousand other things of this kind.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nAs I 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 chosen\nrecreation, and this was the ground of many a sacrifice, for I made it\na point of duty to break off promptly at the end of the time allotted,\neven in the middle of the most interesting passage.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nI had accustomed myself never to complain when anything of mine was\ntaken away; and when unjustly blamed I chose rather to remain silent\nthan to defend myself.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\nI was ten years old the day that my Father told C\u00e9line he was going to\nlet her have lessons in painting; I was by, and envied her. Then Papa\nsaid to me: \u201cAnd you, my little queen, would it give you pleasure too\nto learn drawing?\u201d I was just going to respond with a very gladsome\n_yes_, when Marie made the remark that I had not the same taste for it\nas C\u00e9line. At once she gained the day; and I, thinking that here was\na good opportunity of offering a grand sacrifice to Jesus, said not a\nword. So eager was my desire to learn drawing that now I still wonder\nhow I had the fortitude to remain silent.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nIn the world, on awakening in the morning I used to think over what\nwould probably occur either pleasing or vexatious during the day; and\nif I foresaw only trying events I arose dispirited. Now it is quite the\nother way: I think of the difficulties and the sufferings that await\nme, and I rise the more joyous and full of courage the more I foresee\nopportunities of proving my love for Jesus, and _earning the living of\nmy children_--seeing that I am _the mother_ of souls. Then I kiss my\ncrucifix and lay it tenderly on the pillow while I dress, and I say\nto Him: \u201cMy Jesus, Thou hast worked enough and wept enough during the\nthree-and-thirty years of Thy life on this poor earth. Take now Thy\nrest.... My turn it is to suffer and to fight.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThe attraction to penance was given me, but I was permitted nothing\nto satisfy it. The only mortifications I was allowed consisted in\nmortifying self-love, which did me more good than corporal penance.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 none\nheard it but myself, for my hearing is extremely acute, but I cannot\nsay how it tormented me! I should have liked to turn my head and look\nat the culprit so as to make her stop that noise: however in my heart\nI knew it was better to bear it patiently, for the love of God in the\nfirst place, and also to avoid giving pain.\n\nI kept quiet therefore, but was sometimes worked up to fever-heat and\nobliged to make simply a prayer of endurance. Finally I sought out the\nmeans of suffering with peace and joy, at least in my innermost soul;\nI tried to like the teasing little noise. Instead of endeavouring not\nto hear it--a thing impossible--I listened with fixed attention as if\nit had been a delightful concert; and my prayer, _which was not the\nprayer of quiet_, passed in offering this concert to Jesus.\n\nAnother time I was in the laundry opposite a Sister who while washing\nhandkerchiefs splashed me every minute with dirty water. My first\nimpulse was to draw back and wipe my face, so as to show her who\nbesprinkled me in that fashion, that she would oblige me by working\nmore quietly; but I reflected immediately that it was very foolish to\nrefuse treasures so generously offered me, and I took good care not\nto show my annoyance. On the contrary, I made such successful efforts\nto _wish_ for a plentiful splashing of dirty water, that at the end\nof half an hour I had really acquired a taste for this new sort of\naspersion, and I determined to come again as often as possible to a\nplace where happily such riches could be had gratuitously.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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, that\nI was obliged to go quickly past our Mother\u2019s cell, and cling to the\nbanisters of the staircase so that I should not turn back. There would\ncome to mind a number of permissions to ask, a hundred pretexts for\ndeciding in favour of my natural inclinations and gratifying them.\nHow glad I am now of having denied myself from the outset of my life\nin religion! Already I enjoy the reward promised to those who fight\ncourageously. No longer do I feel the necessity of refusing myself\nconsolations of the heart; for my heart is firmly fixed in God....\nBecause it has loved Him above all, it has gradually enlarged, even so\nas to love those who are dear to it with a love incomparably deeper\nthan if it were centred in a selfish and fruitless affection.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 certain\nreluctance, and solely through obedience. When conversing with a novice\nI am careful to mortify myself and to avoid asking her questions which\nwould gratify my curiosity. If she commence to speak of something\ninteresting, then, leaving it unfinished, pass to a subject wearisome\nto me, I take care not to remind her of the interruption, for it seems\nto me that one can do no good by self-seeking.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nGod did not permit that our Mother should tell me to write down my\npoems according as I composed them, and I would not have liked to ask\nher, fearing lest that might be a fault against poverty. So I used\nto wait until the hour of free time, and it was not without extreme\ndifficulty that I recalled to mind, at eight o\u2019clock in the evening,\nwhat I had composed in the morning.\n\nThese little nothings are a martyrdom it is true, but we must be well\non our guard not to lessen it by allowing ourselves, or seeking to\nbe allowed, a thousand things which would render the religious life\npleasant and comfortable.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nWhen some one rings for us, or knocks at our door, we must mortify\nourselves so as not even to do one stitch more before answering. I have\npractised that; and it is, I assure you, a source of peace.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nDo you know my Sundays and festivals? They are the days when the good\nGod tries me the most.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nS\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de l\u2019Enfant J\u00e9sus says that she has not done any great\npenances: that is because her fervour counted as nothing those which\nwere allowed her. It nevertheless happened that she became ill from\nwearing for too long a time a small iron cross, of which the sharp\npoints were sunk into her flesh.\n\n\u201cThat would not have befallen me from so slight a penance,\u201d she said\nafterwards, \u201cif the good God had not wanted to make me understand that\nthe macerations of the Saints are not intended for me, nor for the\nlittle souls who will tread the same path of spiritual childhood.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nTo a novice whom she saw practise a little act of self-denial she said:\n\n\u201cYou will be very glad to find that before you at the moment of death.\nWhat you have just done is more glorious than if, by some skilful\nmeasures, you had gained for the religious communities the good-will of\nthe Government, and that all France applauded you as a Judith.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTo another who was bewailing her want of courage:\n\n\u201cYou complain of what should cause you the greatest happiness. Where\nwould be your merit if you must fight only when you felt the courage?\nWhat matters it if you have none, provided that you act as if you\nhad! If you feel too slothful to pick up a bit of thread, and that\nnevertheless you do it for the love of Jesus, you have more merit than\nif in a moment of fervour you were to accomplish something of far\ngreater importance. So instead of being sorrowful, rejoice to see that\nin letting you feel your weakness the good Master provides you with an\nopportunity of gaining for Him a greater number of souls.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nBeing questioned as to her mode of sanctifying the repasts, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\nmade answer:\n\n\u201cIn the refectory we have but one only thing to do: to accomplish this\nso lowly act with thoughts uplifted. I declare to you that often it is\nin the refectory the sweetest aspirations of love come to me. Sometimes\nI am impelled to dwell on the thought that if our Divine Lord were\nin my place, with the fare set before Him as served to me, He would\ncertainly partake of it.... It is very probable that during His life on\nearth He tasted of the like food: _He ate bread, fruits, etc._...\n\n\u201cHere are my simple little rubrics:\n\n\u201cI picture myself at Nazareth in the house of Holy Family. If I am\nserved with, for instance, salad, cold fish, wine or anything of\nstrong flavour, I offer it to St. Joseph. To the Blessed Virgin I give\nthe hot portions, well-ripened fruits, etc.; and the feast-day fare,\nparticularly corn-flour, rice, preserves, these I offer to the Child\nJesus. Lastly, when a bad dinner is brought me I say gaily to myself:\n\u2018Today, my dear little child, all that is for you.\u2019\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nOne fast-day when the Mother Prioress had ordered some special little\nthing by way of alleviation for S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, a Sister relates that\nshe surprised her in the act of seasoning this too palatable fare with\nwormwood.\n\nAnother time she saw her slowly drinking some particularly disagreeable\nphysic, and exclaimed: \u201cBut be quick, drink that off at one draught!\u201d\n\u201cOh no!\u201d was the reply, \u201cmust I not take advantage of the trifling\nopportunities I meet with, to mortify myself a little, since it is\nforbidden me to look for greater?\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nAn extremely interesting letter had been read one day at the recreation\nin the absence of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se who later showed a desire to read it. Some\ntime afterwards when returning the letter, she was begged to say what\nshe thought regarding something which should especially have delighted\nher. She appeared embarrassed and then replied:\n\n\u201cThe good God has asked of me this sacrifice because of the eagerness\nthat I manifested the other day; I have not read it....\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nShe told the novices: \u201cAt recreation more than elsewhere will you find\noccasions for the exercise of virtue. If you would reap great benefit,\nnever go to it with any thought of your own recreation, but thinking\nof the recreation of others; practise therein total detachment from\nyourself. If, for instance, you are relating to one of the Sisters\na story which seems to you interesting, and that she interrupts it\nto tell you something else, even though this may not at all interest\nyou, listen to her as if it did, and do not try to return to your\nfirst subject. By so acting, you will go from the recreation room with\ngreat interior peace, and endued with fresh vigour in the practice of\nvirtue, all because you have not sought to gratify yourself but to give\npleasure to others. If one only knew what is gained by renouncing self\nin all things!...\u201d\n\n\u201cYou know it well; you have always acted thus?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, I have forgotten self, I have tried not to seek myself in\nanything.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\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: \u201cSuch a thing should not be done,\u201d and\nI would have no desire to do it again.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\nFrom what anxieties do we not free ourselves by making the vow of\nobedience! How happy are single-minded religious. Their sole guide\nbeing the will of Superiors, they are ever secure of going the right\nway without fear of error, should it even appear to them certain that\nthe Superiors are mistaken. But when one ceases to consult the sure\ncompass, the soul forthwith loses her way in arid paths where the\nwaters of grace soon fail her.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nDuring her illness the Infirmarian had recommended S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se to take\na little walk in the garden every day for a quarter of an hour. For\nher, this advice was a command. One afternoon, a Sister seeing her walk\nwith much difficulty said to her: \u201cYou would do far better to rest; in\nsuch circumstances walking can do you no good, you exhaust yourself,\nthat is all.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is true,\u201d replied this child of Obedience, \u201cbut do you know what\ngives me strength?... Well! _I walk for a Missionary._ I think how some\none of them far away, yonder, is perhaps exhausted in his apostolic\njourneyings, and to lessen his fatigue I offer mine to the good God.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nPOVERTY\n\n\nAfter I was clothed with the holy Habit abundant lights on religious\nperfection were granted me, chiefly regarding the vow of poverty.\nDuring my postulate I was pleased to have for my use, anything that was\nnice, and to find at my hand whatever was necessary. Jesus bore with\nthis patiently, for He does not like to disclose all to the soul at\nonce. He ordinarily gives His light little by little.\n\nAfter Compline one evening I looked in vain for our lantern on the\nshelves appointed for them; it was the time of great silence, not\npossible therefore to ask for it back. I rightly supposed that a Sister\nbelieving she took her own had carried away ours; but must I spend a\nwhole hour in the dark in consequence of this mistake? And just that\nevening I had intended doing much work. Without the interior light of\ngrace I should assuredly have bewailed my loss, but with that light,\ninstead of experiencing vexation I was happy in thinking that poverty\nconsists in being deprived not only of things desirable, but of those\nalso that are indispensable. And in the exterior darkness I found my\nsoul illumined with divine light.\n\nI was seized at this time with a genuine love for what was ugliest and\nleast convenient, thus I was delighted when I saw the pretty little jug\ncarried off from our cell, and received in its stead a large one, all\nchipped.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VII\n\n\nA novice expressed regret for having lent a pin which was very\nserviceable to her:\n\n\u201cOh! how rich you are,\u201d replied Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, \u201cyou cannot be happy.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201c_Make haste and come down: for this day I must abide in thy\nhouse._\u201d[51] Jesus tells us to come down; where, then, must we go?...\nAt an earlier time the Jews asked Him: \u201c_Master, where dwellest\nThou?_\u201d[52] And He said: \u201c_The foxes have holes, and the birds of the\nair nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head._\u201d[53]\nBehold whereunto we must descend if we would serve as dwellings for\nJesus: we must be so poor that we have not where to lay our head.\n\n XIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[51] Luke, xix, 5.\n\n[52] John, i, 38.\n\n[53] Luke, ix, 58.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCONFIDENCE\n\n\nWhat offends Jesus, what wounds Him to the Heart, is want of confidence.\n\n I LETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GU\u00c9RIN\n\n\nBelieving that I was born for glory, and seeking the means to attain\nto it, it was revealed to me interiorly that my glory would never be\nvisible to mortal eyes but would consist in becoming a saint. This\ndesire might well seem presumptuously bold, considering how imperfect\nI was, and how imperfect I am still after so many years in religion;\nand yet I feel ever the same audacious confidence of becoming a great\nsaint. I count not on my merits, having none; but I trust in Him who\nis Virtue and Holiness itself. He alone it is who satisfied with my\nfeeble efforts will raise me up even unto Himself, will clothe me with\nHis merits and make me a saint.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nOurs is an age of inventions: nowadays, with the rich a lift saves the\ntrouble of climbing the stairs. And I, fain would I too find a _lift_\nto bear me up unto God, for I am too little to climb the rugged steps\nof perfection.\n\nThen I turned to the Holy Scriptures, seeking from them an indication\nof this _lift_, the object of my desires; and I read these words which\nhave issued from the very mouth of the Eternal Wisdom: \u201c_Whosoever is\na_ VERY LITTLE ONE, _let him come to me_.\u201d[54] Then I drew nigh unto\nGod divining truly that I had discovered what I sought: wishing however\nto know what He would do with the _very little one_, I continued my\nresearch and here is what I found: \u201c_You shall be carried at the breast\nand upon the knees; as one whom the mother caresseth so will I comfort\nyou_.\u201d[55]\n\nAh, never came words more sweet, more tender, to gladden my soul.\nThine arms then, O Jesus, are the _lift_ which must raise me up even\nunto Heaven! For this I need not grow, on the contrary I must remain\nlittle, I must ever tend to become yet more little. O my God, Thou hast\ngone beyond my expectations, and I--I will sing Thy mercies! _Thou\nhast taught me, O God from my youth: and till now I have declared Thy\nwondrous works. And unto old age and grey hairs_[56] will I proclaim\nthem.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nSince it has been given to me too, to understand the love of the Heart\nof Jesus, I own that it has chased all fear from mine! The remembrance\nof my faults humiliates me, and urges me never to depend upon my\nown strength which is nothing but weakness: still more does this\nremembrance speak to me of mercy and of love. When, with all filial\nconfidence we cast our faults into the devouring furnace of love, how\nshould they not be totally consumed?\n\n V LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nThough we must needs be pure indeed to appear in the presence of the\nGod of all Holiness, yet I know too that He is infinitely just; and\nthis justice which affrights so many souls is the ground of my joy\nand my confidence. Justice not merely exercises severity towards the\noffender; it moreover recognizes a right intention, and awards to\nvirtue its recompense. I hope as much from the Justice of the good God\nas from His Mercy; it is because He is just, that \u201c_He is compassionate\nand merciful, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. For He knoweth our\nframe. He remembereth that we are but dust. As a father hath compassion\non His children, so hath the Lord compassion on us!_\u201d[57]...\n\nListening to these beautiful and consoling words of the Royal Prophet,\nhow can we doubt but that the good God will open the portals of His\nKingdom to His children who have loved Him even unto sacrificing all\nfor Him, who have not only left their kindred and their country, for\nthe sake of making Him known and loved, but, still further, desire to\ngive their life for Him?... Most truly has Jesus said that there is no\ngreater love than this! How then could He suffer Himself to be outdone\nin generosity? How could He purify in the flames of Purgatory souls\nconsumed by the fire of Divine Love?...\n\nThat is what I think of the justice of the good God; my way is all\nconfidence and love, I do not understand those souls who fear so tender\na Friend.\n\n VI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nThat joy to think that God is just, that is to say, that He takes our\nweakness into consideration, that He thoroughly knows the frailty of\nour nature. Of what then, should I be afraid? Must not the good and\ninfinitely just God, who with such tender mercy deigns to pardon the\nProdigal Son, must He not be just towards me too--_who am always with\nHim_?[58]\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nI want to make you understand by a very simple comparison how much\nJesus loves souls, even the imperfect, who trust in Him. Suppose the\nfather of two wayward and disobedient children, coming to punish them,\nsees one tremble and draw away from him in terror; while the other,\non the contrary, throwing himself into his arms, says he is sorry,\npromises to be good henceforward and begs for a kiss as punishment. Do\nyou think the delighted father will withstand the filial confidence of\nthis child? He knows nevertheless that his son will fall again many a\ntime into the same faults, but he is disposed to pardon him always, if\nalways there be an appeal to his heart.\n\nI say nothing of the other child: you must understand that his father\ncannot love him as much or treat him with the same indulgence.\n\n VIII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\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 enemies.\nBut it seems to me that it is only when His own chosen ones make a\nhabit of these infidelities, and do not ask His pardon, that He can\nsay: \u201c_These wounds which you see in the midst of My Hands: with these\nwas I wounded in the house of them that loved Me._\u201d[59]\n\nFor those who love Him and who come after each little fault and throw\nthemselves into His arms, begging His forgiveness, the Heart of Jesus\nthrills with joy. He says to His Angels what the father of the prodigal\nson said to His servants: \u201c_Put a ring on his finger and let us\nrejoice._\u201d[60] Oh! the goodness and the merciful love of the Heart\nof Jesus, how little is it known! True it is, that to share in these\ntreasures we must humble ourselves, must acknowledge our nothingness,\nand that is what many souls are unwilling to do.\n\n VII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nOur dreams, our desires of perfection are not vain imaginations,\nsince Jesus Himself has given us this commandment, He said: \u201c_Be you,\ntherefore, perfect, as also your Heavenly Father is perfect._\u201d[61]\n\n II LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\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 fervour\nand fidelity. I ought to grieve because I fall asleep very often during\nmy prayer and my thanksgiving. Well, I do not grieve! I reflect that\nlittle children when they sleep are as pleasing to their parents as\nwhen they are awake; that in order to perform operations, doctors put\ntheir patients to sleep; in fine, that _the Lord knoweth our frame, He\nremembereth that we are but dust_.[62]\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nI have no fear of the last combats, nor of the physical suffering how\ngreat soever it may be. The good God has always come to my assistance,\nHe has helped me and led me by the hand from my earliest years.... I\ncount on Him ... my sufferings may reach their furthest limits, but I\nam sure that He will never abandon me.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nIt is confidence, and confidence alone, that must lead us to Love....\nDoes not fear lead us rather to think of the rigid justice by which\nsinners are warned? But that is not the justice that Jesus will show to\nthose who love Him.\n\n VI LETTER TO S\u0152UR MARIE 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 heart dart\nupwards to Thee--how can my confidence have any bounds?\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nIt is not because I have been shielded from mortal sin that I lift up\nmy heart to God in trust and love. I feel that even if there lay upon\nmy conscience all the crimes one could commit I should lose nothing\nof my confidence. Broken-hearted with compunction I would go and\nthrow myself into the arms of my Saviour. I know that He cherished\nthe Prodigal Son, I have heard His words to Mary Magdalene, to the\nadultress, to the Samaritan woman. No one could frighten me, for I know\nwhat to believe concerning His Mercy and His Love. I know that in one\nmoment all that multitude of sins would disappear--as a drop of water\ncast into a red-hot furnace.\n\nIt is related in the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert that one of\nthem converted a public sinner whose misdeeds scandalized the whole\ncountry. Touched by grace this sinful woman was following the saint\ninto the desert, there to do rigorous penance, when, on the first\nnight of her journey, before she had even reached the place of her\nretreat, the bonds of life were broken by the impetuosity of her loving\ncontrition. The holy hermit at the same moment saw her soul borne by\nAngels into the Bosom of God.\n\nThat is truly a striking instance of what I want to express, but one\ncannot put these things into words....\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nHappy indeed am I to die and go to Heaven, but when I think on those\nwords of our Lord: \u201c_Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me,\nto render to every man according to his works_,\u201d[63] I reflect that He\nwill be very much embarrassed as regards me: I have no works....\nWell, He will render to me ACCORDING TO HIS OWN WORKS!\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n[Illustration: THE SERVANT OF GOD\n\nTH\u00c9R\u00c8SE OF THE CHILD JESUS\n\n(_The Little Flower of Jesus_)]\n\n\nOne evening as they were telling her something which had been said at\nrecreation, touching the responsibility of those who have the charge\nof souls, S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de l\u2019Enfant J\u00e9sus spoke these beautiful words:\n\u201c\u2018_To him that is little, mercy is granted._\u2019[64] It is possible to\nremain _little_, even in the most important offices; and is it not\nwritten that at the end _the Lord will arise to save the meek and\nhumble of the earth_?[65] It says not to _judge_ but to _save_.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA novice questioning as to whether our Lord were not dissatisfied with\nher on account of her many miseries, S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se made answer:\n\n\u201cSet your mind at rest: He whom you have chosen as your Spouse\npossesses certainly every perfection that can be desired; but, if\nI may dare to say it, He has at the same time one great infirmity:\n_He is blind!_ And there is a science which He knows not, that of\n_calculation_. These two points which would be most lamentable\ndeficiencies in an earthly spouse, render ours infinitely lovable. Were\nHe to consider our sins and reckon with them, do you not think that in\nthe face of all these sins He would cast us back into nothingness? But\nno, His love for us makes Him absolutely blind!\n\n\u201cSee for yourself: if the greatest sinner on earth, at the hour of\ndeath repent of his transgressions and expire in an act of love,\nimmediately, without calculating on the one hand the numerous graces\nabused by this unhappy man, nor on the other, all his crimes, Jesus\nsees nothing, counts nothing, but the penitent\u2019s last prayer, and\ndelays not to receive him into the arms of His Mercy.\n\n\u201cBut to render Him thus blind, to hinder Him from doing the least\nlittle bit of reckoning, we must know how to lay siege to His Heart;\nat that point He is defenceless....\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTo another, who bitterly repented of a fault just committed, S\u0153ur\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se said:\n\n\u201cTake your Crucifix and kiss it.\u201d\n\nThe novice kissed the feet.\n\n\u201cIs that how a child embraces her Father? Put your arms round His Neck\nimmediately and kiss His Face.\u201d\n\nShe obeyed.\n\n\u201cThat is not all, He must return your caresses.\u201d\n\nAnd she had to hold the Crucifix to each cheek; then Th\u00e9r\u00e8se said:\n\n\u201cThat is well, now all is forgiven!\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nHaving caused her pain, a novice went to ask pardon of S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se,\nwho replied with emotion: \u201cIf you only knew what I feel! Never have I\nso well understood with what love Jesus receives us, when, after a\nfault we beg Him to forgive us. If I, His poor little creature, feel\nsuch tenderness for you the moment you return to me, what must pass in\nthe Heart of the good God when we return to Him?... Yes, surely, more\nswiftly yet than I have just done, will He forget all our iniquities,\nnever again to remember them.... He will do even more--He will love us\nstill better than before our fault!...\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[54] Prov., ix, 4.\n\n[55] Is., lxvi, 12, 13.\n\n[56] _Cf._ Ps., lxx, 17, 18.\n\n[57] Ps., cii, 8, 13, 14.\n\n[58] Luke, xv, 31.\n\n[59] _Cf._ Zach., xiii, 6.\n\n[60] _Cf._ Luke, xv, 22.\n\n[61] Matt., v, 48.\n\n[62] Ps., cii, 14.\n\n[63] Apoc., xxii, 12.\n\n[64] Wisdom, vi, 7.\n\n[65] _Cf._ Ps., lxxv, 10.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSELF-ABANDONMENT\n\n\nI cannot think without rapture of the dear little Saint C\u00e6cilia: what\na model! In the midst of a pagan world, in the heart of danger, at the\nmoment when about to be united to a mortal who sought none but earthly\nlove, it seems to me that she ought to have trembled and wept. But no,\n_while her bridal was celebrated with joyful melody C\u00e6cilia was singing\nin her heart_.[66] What abandonment to God! Without doubt she listened\nto other melodies than those of earth; her Divine Spouse, He too, was\nsinging, and Angel choirs sang again the refrain of one most blessed\nnight: \u201c_Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good\nwill._\u201d[67]\n\nThe glory of God!--Oh! C\u00e6cilia understood it; most earnestly did she\nlong for it. She divined that her Jesus was athirst for souls ... that\nis why her whole desire was that she might lead speedily to Him the\nsoul of the young Roman, who dreamed of naught but human glory: this\nwise Virgin will make of him a martyr, and multitudes will follow in\nhis footprints. She fears nothing: the Angels have promised and have\nsung of peace. She knows that the Prince of Peace is bound to protect\nher, to shield her virginity and to give to her its recompense. \u201c_O how\nbeautiful is the chaste generation!_\u201d[68]\n\n XVII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nI had offered myself to the Child Jesus to be _His little plaything_. I\nhad told Him not to use me like a costly toy which children are pleased\nto look at without daring to touch; but as He would a little ball of no\nvalue, that He might throw to the ground, toss about, pierce, leave in\na corner, or else press to His Heart if so it pleased Him. In a word\n_I wanted to amuse the little Jesus, and to give myself up to all His\nchildlike fancies_.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nMy heart is entirely filled with the will of Jesus; therefore when\nanything over and above falls to its share, this does not penetrate to\nits depths; it is a mere nothing which easily glides by, as oil on the\nsurface of limpid water. Ah! if my heart were not filled up beforehand,\nhad it to be filled by the sentiments of joy or of sadness which so\nquickly succeed each other, bitter indeed would be this flood-tide of\npain; but these rapid alternations do no more than ruffle the surface\nof my soul, and I remain ever in a profound peace that nothing can\ndisturb.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nI am not always faithful, but I am never discouraged; I leave myself\nwholly in the arms of our Divine Lord; He teaches me to _draw profit\nfrom all--both good and ill that He finds in me_.[69] He teaches me\nto speculate in the Bank of Love, or rather it is He who acts for me\nwithout telling me how He goes to work, that is His affair and not\nmine; my part is complete surrender, reserving nothing to myself, not\neven the gratification of knowing how my credit stands with the Bank.\n\n XVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\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 the\nmesmerizer. These details appeared to interest her keenly and on the\nmorrow she said to the Sister:\n\n\u201cYour conversation yesterday did me so much good. Oh! how I wish to be\nmagnetized by our Lord. It was my first thought on awakening. With what\ndelight have I delivered my will up to Him. Yes, I want Him to make\nHimself master of my faculties in such sort that my actions shall no\nlonger be human or personal, but wholly divine, inspired and directed\nby the Spirit of Love.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nYou are quite wrong to think of sorrows that the future may bring;\nit is, as it were, intermeddling with Divine Providence. We who run\nin the way of Love must never torment ourselves about anything. If I\ndid not suffer minute by minute, it would be impossible for me to be\npatient; but I see only the present moment, I forget the past and I\ntake good care not to anticipate the future. If we grow disheartened,\nif sometimes we despair, it is because we have been dwelling on the\npast or the future.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nI no longer thirst for either suffering or death, yet both I dearly\nprize. Long did I call upon them as the harbingers of joy....\nSuffering has in very truth been mine, and I have thought I wellnigh\ntouched the eternal shore! I have believed from my earliest youth that\n_the little flower_ would be gathered in its spring-time; now, it is\nthe spirit of self-abandonment alone that guides me, no other compass\nhave I. I know not now, how to ask anything eagerly, save the perfect\naccomplishment of God\u2019s designs upon my soul.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\n\u201cPray for me,\u201d she would often say, \u201cwhen I implore Heaven to come to\nmy aid, then it is that I feel most forsaken.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd in this desolation how do you avoid discouragement?\u201d they asked\nher.\n\n\u201cI turn to the good God, to all the Saints, and I thank them just the\nsame. I think they wish to see to what point I shall carry my trust....\nBut not in vain have these words of Job sunk into my heart: \u2018_Though\nHe should kill me yet will I trust in Him_.\u2019[70] I acknowledge it was\nlong before I reached this degree of abandonment; our Lord has taken me\nand placed me there!\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nIt seems to me that nothing now hinders me from taking flight, for I no\nlonger have any great desires, save to love, even unto dying of love.\nI am free, I have no fear, not even of what I most dreaded; I mean\nthe fear of being a long time ill and consequently a burthen to the\nCommunity. If it gives pleasure to the good God I willingly consent to\nsee my life of suffering, both of soul and body, prolonged for years.\nOh! no, I do not fear a long life. I do not shun the combat. \u201c_The Lord\nis the rock 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._\u201d[71] Never\nhave I asked God to let me die young; it is true I have ever believed\nthat it would be so, but without seeking to obtain it.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nWhatever the good God has given me has always pleased me, even the\ngifts which have appeared to me less good and less beautiful than those\nreceived by others.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nI have no greater desire to die than to live; if our Lord gave me the\nchoice I would choose nothing; I only will what He wills; it is what He\ndoes that I love.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\u201cSome think you are afraid of death,\u201d they said to her.--\u201cThat may\nindeed yet happen; I never depend on my own thoughts, knowing how weak\nI am; but at present I will rejoice in the sentiments that the good God\nnow gives me, there will be time enough to suffer from the contrary.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA sister said to her:\n\n\u201cIf anyone goes straight to Heaven, you surely will not spend one\nmoment in Purgatory!\u201d\n\n\u201cOh! I feel little anxiety about that; I shall always be content with\nthe sentence of the good God. If I go to Purgatory, well--I shall walk\nin the midst of the flames, like the three Hebrews in the furnace,\nsinging the Canticle of Love.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[66] Office of St. C\u00e6cilia.\n\n[67] Luke, ii, 14.\n\n[68] Wisdom, iv, 1.\n\n[69] St. John of the Cross.\n\n[70] Job, xiii, 15.\n\n[71] _Cf._ Ps., cxliii, 1, 2, 3.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nGRATITUDE\n\n\nOh, how happy God makes me! How easy and how sweet it is to serve Him\nupon earth.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nSeeing several of my companions form special attachments to some one\nor other of our mistresses, I wished to follow their example but could\nnot succeed therein. O happy inability! from how great evils has it\nsaved me.... How I thank God for having made me find only bitterness in\nthe friendships of earth. With a heart such as mine I should have been\ncaptured and had my wings clipped; then how should I have been able to\n_fly away and be at rest_.[72]\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nI understand well that our Lord knew I was too weak to be exposed to\ntemptation; without doubt I should have been wholly destroyed had I\nbeen dazzled by the deceitful glamour of the love of creatures; but\nnever has it shone before my eyes. There, where strong souls find joy,\nand through fidelity detach themselves from it, I have found only\naffliction. Where then is my merit in not being given up to these\nfragile attachments, since it is only by a gracious effect of God\u2019s\nmercy that I was preserved from it? Without Him, I recognize that\nI might have fallen as low as St. Magdalene; and that word of deep\nmeaning spoken by the Divine Master to Simon the Pharisee, re-echoes\nwith great sweetness in my soul. Yes, I know it: \u201c_To whom less is\nforgiven, he loveth less._\u201d[73] But I also know that Jesus has forgiven\nmore to me than to St. Magdalene. Ah, how I wish I could express what I\nfeel. Here at least is an example which will in some measure convey my\nthought.\n\nSuppose the son of a skilful doctor is tripped by a stone in his path,\nwhich causes him to fall and fracture a limb. His father comes in\nhaste, lifts him up lovingly and attends to his injuries, employing\ntherein all the resources of his art; and the boy, very soon completely\ncured, testifies his gratitude. This child has certainly good reason to\nlove so kind a father; but here is another supposition.\n\nThe father having learnt that there lies in his son\u2019s way a dangerous\nstone, sets out beforehand and removes it unseen by anyone. His son,\nthe object of this tender forethought, unaware of the misfortune from\nwhich he has been preserved by the father\u2019s hand, will of course show\nno gratitude, and will love him less than if he had cured him of a\ngrievous wound. But should he come to know all, will he not love him\nstill more? Well--I am this child, the object of the preventing love of\na Father _Who sent His Son not to redeem the just but sinners_.[74] He\nwills that I should love Him because He has forgiven me, not _much_,\nbut _everything_. Without waiting for me to love Him much, like St.\nMary Magdalene, He has made me to know how He had loved me with a\npreventing and ineffable love, in order that I may now love Him even\nunto folly!\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nWalking one day in the garden, leaning on one of her sisters, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\npaused to enjoy the fascinating sight of a little white hen sheltering\nits chickens beneath its wings. Very soon her eyes filled with tears,\nand turning to her dear companion she said: \u201cI can stay no longer,\nlet us go in again quickly....\u201d And in her cell, her tears continued\nfalling and she could not utter a word. At last, looking at her sister\nwith an expression that was quite heavenly, she said:\n\n\u201cI was thinking of our Lord, and of the touching comparison He chose in\norder to make us believe in His tenderness. That is just what He has\ndone for me all my life: _He has wholly hidden me beneath His wings!_\nI cannot express what passed within my heart. Ah! the good God does\nwell to veil Himself from my sight, to show me the effects of His Mercy\nrarely, and as it were, \u2018_through the lattices_;\u2019[75] such consolations\nwould, I feel, be more than I could bear.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\u201cOh! how _good_ is the good God!\u201d ... she would sometimes exclaim.\n\u201cYes, He must indeed be good to give me the strength to endure all that\nI suffer.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nOne day she said to the Mother Prioress:\n\n\u201cI would like to speak to you, Mother, of the state of my soul; but I\ncannot, I am too deeply moved just now.\u201d\n\nAnd in the evening she sent these lines pencilled with a trembling hand:\n\n\u201cO my God, how good Thou art to the little victim of Thy Merciful Love!\nNow even though Thou dost join physical suffering to the trials of my\nsoul, I cannot say: \u2018_The sorrows of death have encompassed me._\u2019[76]\nBut I cry out in my gratitude: \u2018_I have gone down into the valley of\nthe shadow of death, yet I fear no evil, because Thou, O Lord, art with\nme._\u2019\u201d[77]\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[72] Ps., liv, 7.\n\n[73] Luke, vii, 47.\n\n[74] Luke, v, 32.\n\n[75] Cant., ii, 9.\n\n[76] Ps., xvii, 5.\n\n[77] _Cf._ Ps., xxii, 4.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nZEAL\n\n\nThe cry of Jesus agonizing, \u201cI thirst!\u201d re-echoed continually in my\nheart, firing it with an ardent zeal till then unknown to me. I longed\nto give to my Beloved to drink: I too felt myself consumed with the\nthirst for souls, and at all cost I would wrest sinners from the\neternal flames.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nThe Precious Blood of Jesus I poured on souls, to Him I offered these\nsame souls renewed by the Dew of Calvary; thus I thought to quench His\nThirst; but the more I gave Him to drink, the more ardently my poor\nlittle soul thirsted--and this I received as a most precious recompense.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 Name\nand to set up Thy glorious Cross in Pagan lands. But one mission only\nwould not suffice for me; would that I could at one and the same time\nproclaim the Gospel all the world over, even to the remotest of its\nislands. I would desire to be a Missionary not only for a few years,\nbut to have been one from the creation of the world, and so to continue\nto the end of time.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 of the\nChurch.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nOpen, my Jesus, thy Book of Life wherein are recorded the actions of\nall the Saints; those actions--would that I too, had accomplished such\nfor Thee!\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nSouls--dear Lord, we must have souls! Above all, souls of apostles and\nof martyrs, that through them we may inflame the multitude of poor\nsinners with love of Thee.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, APPENDIX\n\n\nAfter recreation one day when the Mother Prioress had spoken of the\npersecution already raging against Religious Communities, S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\nsaid to a novice: \u201cAh! Sister, we live in an era of martyrs! Blood will\nbe shed.--What happiness if it should be ours!\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA novice on her way to the laundry one day, went at a slow pace through\nthe garden, looking at the flowers as she passed. S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se who\nfollowed walking quickly, soon overtook her and said: \u201cIs that how one\nhastens who has children (_souls_) to support, for whose sustenance she\nis obliged to work?...\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nDuring her illness she wrote:\n\n\u201cThe will of the good God is my sole desire; and I declare that if\nin Heaven I could no longer work for His glory, I would choose exile\nrather than the Fatherland.\u201d\n\n IV LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nWhat draws me towards the Heavenly Country is the call of our Lord,\nthe hope of at last loving Him as I have so ardently desired, and the\nthought that I shall be able to make Him loved by _a multitude of\nsouls_ who will bless Him eternally.\n\n VIII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nConfidently I count upon not remaining inactive in Heaven, my desire\nis to work still for the Church and for souls: this I ask of God, and\nI am certain that He will hear me. If I quit already the battlefield,\nit is not with the selfish desire of taking my rest. Suffering has long\nsince become my heaven here below, and it is difficult to imagine how\nit will be possible for me to become acclimatized to a country where\njoy reigns, unmingled with sorrow. Jesus must needs transform my soul\ncompletely, else I could not support eternal bliss.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nJust now a few notes of distant music fell upon my ear, and set me\nthinking that very soon I shall hear melodies beyond compare; yet this\nthought can give me but a moment\u2019s gladness; one only expectation makes\nmy heart throb: _it is the love that I shall receive and the love that\nI shall be able to give!_\n\n_I feel that my mission is now to begin, my mission to make others love\nthe good God as I love Him ... to give to souls my little way._ I WILL\nSPEND MY HEAVEN IN DOING GOOD UPON EARTH. This is not impossible, since\nthe Angels in the full enjoyment of the Beatific Vision keep watch over\nus. No, I shall never rest till the end of the world! But when the\nAngel shall have said: \u201cTime is no more!\u201d[78] then I shall rest--shall\nbe able to rejoice, because the number of the elect will be complete.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[78] Apoc., x, 6.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSIMPLICITY\n\n\nWhen I read certain treatises where perfection is set forth as\nencompassed by a thousand obstacles, my poor little head grows weary\nvery quickly. I close the learned book which puzzles my brains and\ndries up my heart, and in its stead I open the Holy Scriptures. Then\nall appears clear, luminous ... one single word discloses to my soul\ninfinite horizons, perfection seems easy. I see that it is sufficient\nto recognize our nothingness, and to leave oneself like a child, in the\narms of the good God. Let great souls and sublime intellects enjoy the\nbeautiful books which I cannot understand, still less put in practice;\nI rejoice in being little, since \u201c_children only and those who\nresemble them will be admitted to the Heavenly banquet_.\u201d[79]\n\nIt is well that the Kingdom of Heaven contains many mansions, for if\nthere were none other than those of which the description and the way\nseem incomprehensible to me, I should never be able to enter therein.\n\n VI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nMy patrons in Heaven and my chosen favourites are those who have stolen\nit--like the Holy Innocents and the Good Thief. The great Saints have\nearned it by their works; as for me, I will imitate the thieves, I will\nhave it by ruse, a ruse of Love which will open its gates to me and\nto poor sinners. The Holy Ghost encourages me, saying in the Book of\nProverbs: \u201c_O little one, come, learn subtlety of me._\u201d[80]\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nOur Lord replied to the mother of the sons of Zebedee: \u201c_To sit on My\nright and on My left hand is for them for whom it is prepared by My\nFather._\u201d[81] I imagine that those places of choice, refused to great\nSaints, to Martyrs, will be the portion of little children.\n\nDid not David predict it when he said that _the little Benjamin will\npreside amidst the assemblies_ (of the saints)?[82]\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cIf you could begin your religious life over again\u201d asked a novice,\n\u201cwhat would you do?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt seems to me that I would do as I have done.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou do not then feel like the hermit who used to say: \u2018Even though I\nhad lived long years in penance yet I should fear damnation while there\nstill remained to me one quarter of an hour, one breath of life.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, I cannot share that fear, I am too little to be damned, little\nchildren are not damned.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou always seek to be like the little ones--but tell us what we must\ndo to possess the spirit of childhood? What does it exactly mean--to\nremain little?\u201d\n\n\u201cTo remain little--it is to recognize our nothingness, to expect\neverything from the good God, not to be too much afflicted about our\nfaults, for little children fall often but are too small to hurt\nthemselves much: in fine, it is _not_ to make one\u2019s fortune, nor to be\ndisquieted about anything. Even in the homes of the poor, as long as a\nchild is quite little they give him what is needful; but when grown up,\nthe father is no longer willing to support him and says: \u2018Now work! you\ncan provide for yourself.\u2019 Well, it was to escape hearing that, that I\nhave never wished to grow up, for I know myself incapable of earning my\nlivelihood--Eternal Life!\n\n\u201cAgain, to remain little is not to attribute to self the virtues we\npractise; but to acknowledge that the good God places this treasure in\nthe hand of His little child to be made use of when required.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS 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 carry\nyou like a little child too feeble to walk.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIt is a great trial to see only the black side of things, but that does\nnot depend completely upon you. Do your best to detach your heart from\nthe cares of this world, and above all from creatures; then you may be\nsure that Jesus will do the rest. He could not suffer you to fall into\nthe abyss. Be comforted, little one, in Heaven you will no longer see\n_all black_ but _all white_; yes, all will be clothed with the divine\nwhiteness of our Spouse, the Lily of the Valley. Together we shall\nfollow Him whithersoever He goeth.... Oh! let us profit by the brief\nmoments of this life to give pleasure to Jesus, let us win souls for\nHim by our sacrifices. Above all let us be little, so little that all\nthe world may trample us under foot without even our appearing to feel\nit or to suffer from it.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nYou are wrong to find fault with one thing and another, and to seek\nthat all should yield to your way of viewing things. We want to be like\nlittle children, and little children know not what is best, to them all\nseems well; let us imitate them. Besides there would be no merit [in\nobedience] were we only to do what would appear reasonable to us.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nA novice under a temptation which seemed to her insurmountable said:\n\u201cThis time I cannot rise above it--it is impossible.\u201d Th\u00e9r\u00e8se replied:\n\u201cWhy do you try to rise above it? Pass beneath it quite simply. It\nis very well for great souls to soar high above the clouds when the\nstorm is raging, but for us, we have merely to bear the showers with\npatience. If we do get rather wet--no matter! We shall dry ourselves\nafterwards in the sunshine of Love.\u201d\n\nThat brings to mind this little trait of my childhood; a horse one\nday standing at the garden gate barred our entrance; those with me\nendeavoured by force of talking, etc., to get him to move back, but\nwhile they talked I very quietly slipped in, through the horse\u2019s\nlegs.... See how one may gain by remaining little!\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nTo a young Sister discouraged at seeing her imperfections, S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\nsaid: \u201cYou make me think of a very little child who is just able to\nstand upright but does not yet know how to walk. Intent upon reaching\nthe top of the stairs so as to get back to his mother he lifts his foot\nto climb the first step. Fruitless endeavour! At each attempt he falls\nwithout advancing in the least. Well, be like that little child; by\nthe practice of every virtue keep on ever lifting your little foot to\nclimb the steps of sanctity, and do not imagine that you will be able\nto mount even 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 won by\nyour unavailing efforts He will Himself soon come down, and taking you\nin His arms will bear you away to His Kingdom, never more to quit Him.\nBut if you cease to lift your little foot He will leave you a long time\non earth.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThe only means of making rapid progress in the path of Love is to\nremain always very _little_; that is what I have done; so now I can\nsing 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\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nSomeone was speaking to her of the mortifications of the Saints, she\nreplied:\n\n\u201cIt is well our Lord has let us know that _there are many mansions\nin His Father\u2019s House, that if not He would have told us_.[83] Yes,\nif all souls called to perfection had been obliged to practise these\nmacerations in order to enter Heaven, He would have said so, and gladly\nwould we have undertaken them. But He tells us that _in His House there\nare many mansions_. If there are those for great souls, for the Fathers\nof the Desert and for martyrs of penance, there must be one also for\nlittle children. Our place is reserved there, if our love be great--for\nHim and for our Heavenly Father and the Spirit of Love.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cI feel that my mission is now to begin,\u201d she said a few days before\nher death, \u201cmy mission to make others love the good God _as I love\nHim_, to give my _little way_ to souls....\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is this \u2018little way\u2019 that you want to teach to souls?\u201d\n\n\u201c_It is the path of spiritual childhood, it is the way of trust and of\nentire self-surrender._ I want to make known to them the simple means\nthat have so perfectly succeeded for me, to tell them that there is but\none only thing to do here below: _to cast down before Jesus the flowers\nof little sacrifices, to win Him by caresses!_ That is how I have won\nHim, and that is why I shall be so well received.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 shall\nappear to you, and tell you to take another path; but if I do not\nreturn, believe in the truth of my words: _never can we have too much\nconfidence in the good God, so mighty and so merciful! As much as we\nhope for shall we obtain from Him!_...\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA novice said to her on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount\nCarmel: \u201cIf you were to die to-morrow after Holy Communion, it seems to\nme that so beautiful a death would console me in the midst of my grief.\u201d\n\nAnd Th\u00e9r\u00e8se replied with animation:\n\n\u201cDie after Holy Communion! On a grand Feast day! No, it will not be so:\nlittle souls could not copy that. In my little way there are only quite\nordinary things; all that I do, little souls must be able to do also.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[79] _Cf._ Matt., xix, 14.\n\n[80] _Cf._ Prov., 1, 4.\n\n[81] _Cf._ Matt., xx, 23.\n\n[82] _Cf._ Ps., lxvii, 29.\n\n[83] _Cf._ John, xiv, 2.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nPRAYER\n\n\nAs I grew older I loved the good God more and more, and very frequently\ndid I offer Him my heart, using the words my mother had taught me. I\nstrove in all my actions to please Jesus and was most watchful never to\noffend Him.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. II\n\n\nMy whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my invincible\narms; they can move hearts far better than words, I know it by\nexperience.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nGreat is the power of prayer--a queen, as one might say, having free\naccess always to the King, and able to obtain whatever she asks. In\norder to be heard, it is not necessary to read from a book a beautiful\nform of prayer adapted to the circumstances; if it were so, how greatly\nto be pitied should I be!\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nI have not the courage to force myself to seek beautiful prayers in\nbooks; not knowing which to choose I act as children do who cannot\nread; I say quite simply to the good God what I want to tell Him, and\nHe always understands me.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nPrayer is, for me, an outburst from the heart; it is a simple glance\ndarted upwards to Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and of love in the\nmidst of trial as in the midst of joy! In a word, it is something\nexalted, supernatural, which dilates the soul and unites it to God.\nSometimes when I find myself, spiritually, in dryness so great that I\ncannot produce a single good thought, I recite very slowly a _Pater_\nor an _Ave Maria_; these prayers alone console me, they suffice, they\nnourish my soul.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nThe principal plenary indulgence and one which all may gain without the\nordinary conditions, is that of _charity which covereth a multitude of\nsins_.[84]\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nFormerly if any of my family were in trouble, and that I had been\nunable to succeed in comforting them during their visit, I would go\nfrom the parlour heart-broken; but soon Jesus made me understand that\nI was incapable of giving consolation to a soul. From that day forth I\ngrieved no more when anyone went away sad; I confided to the good God\nthe sorrows of those who were dear to me, feeling certain that He heard\nme, and at their next visit I used to find that it had indeed been\nso. Since I have experienced this, I no longer torment myself when\ninvoluntarily I give pain; I simply beg of Jesus to make up for what I\nhave done.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nOne day after Holy Communion the good God made me understand those\nwords of the Canticles: \u201c_Draw me: we will run after Thee to the odour\nof Thy ointments._\u201d[85] O Jesus, it is not then necessary to say: In\ndrawing me, draw the souls whom I love. These simple words: \u201c_Draw me_\u201d\nsuffice! Yes, when a soul has allowed herself to be captivated by the\ninebriating fragrance of Thy perfumes, she could not run alone, all the\nsouls whom she loves are drawn after her; this is a natural consequence\nof her attraction towards Thee.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\n\u201c_Draw me, we will run...._\u201d\n\nTo ask to be drawn is to will intimate union with the object which\nholds the heart captive. If fire and iron were gifted with reason,\nand that the latter said to the fire: \u201cDraw me,\u201d would not this prove\nthat it desired to become identified with the fire even so far as to\nshare its substance? Well, that is exactly my prayer. I beg of Jesus to\ndraw me into the flames of His Love, to unite me so closely to Himself\nthat He may live and act in me. I feel that the more the fire of love\ninflames my heart, the more I shall say: \u201cDraw me,\u201d the more also will\nthe souls who draw near to mine run swiftly in the fragrant odours of\nthe Well-Beloved.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nSouls thus on fire cannot rest inactive. They may sit at the feet of\nJesus, like Saint Mary Magdalene, listening to His sweet and ardent\nwords; but, while seeming to give nothing, they do give far more than\nMartha who troubles herself with _many things_.[86] It is not however\nof Martha\u2019s labours that Jesus disapproves, but only her too great\nanxiety; to this very same work His Blessed Mother humbly submitted\nherself, when she had to prepare the repasts for the Holy Family.\n\nAll the Saints have understood this, and more especially perhaps those\nwho have enlightened the world with the luminous teaching of the\nGospel. Was it not from prayer that Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, Saint\nThomas of Aquin, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa and so many\nother friends of God drew that wondrous science which enraptures the\ngreatest intellects?\n\nArchimedes said: \u201cGive me a lever and a fulcrum, and I will raise the\nworld.\u201d What he was unable to obtain because his request had but a\nmaterial end and was not addressed to God, the Saints have obtained in\nfull measure. For fulcrum, the Almighty has given them Himself, Himself\nalone! for lever, prayer, which enkindles the fire of love; and thus\nit is that they have uplifted the world, thus it is that saints still\nmilitant, uplift it, and will uplift it till the end of time.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XI\n\n\nThe Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of one poor little soul\nto save a multitude of others, redeemed like her at the price of His\nBlood.\n\nOur vocation is not to go and reap in the Father\u2019s fields; Jesus does\nnot say to us: \u201cCast down your eyes and reap the harvest\u201d; our mission\nis still more sublime. Here are the words of the Divine Master: \u201c_Lift\nup your eyes and see_ ...\u201d see that in Heaven there are empty places;\nyours it is to fill them ... you are as Moses praying on the mountain;\nask of Me labourers and I will send them, I await but a prayer, a sigh\nfrom out your heart!\n\nIs not the apostolate of prayer higher as one might say, than that of\npreaching? It is for us to form labourers who by preaching the Gospel,\nwill save thousands of souls of whom we thus become the mothers; what\nthen have we to envy the Priests of the Lord?\n\n XII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nHow beautiful is our vocation! It is for us, it is for Carmel to\npreserve \u201c_the salt of the earth_.\u201d[87] We offer our prayers and\nsacrifices for the apostles of the Lord; we ought ourselves to be\ntheir apostles while by word and example they preach the Gospel to our\nbrethren.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nA novice was grieving about her numerous distractions during prayer: \u201cI\ntoo, have many,\u201d replied S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de l\u2019Enfant J\u00e9sus, \u201cbut I accept\nall for love of the good God, even the most extravagant thoughts that\ncome into my head.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nHer prayer was continual though she was habitually plunged in aridity.\nOne day a novice entering her cell, paused, struck by the celestial\nexpression of her countenance. She was sewing with alacrity yet seemed\nlost in profound contemplation.\n\n\u201cOf what are you thinking?\u201d asked the young Sister. \u201cI am meditating\non the _Pater_,\u201d she replied. \u201cIt is so sweet to call the good God our\nFather.\u201d And tears shone in her eyes.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nI do not well see what more I shall have in Heaven than now, she once\nsaid. I shall see the good God, it is true; but as to being with Him, I\nam wholly with Him already upon earth.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA living flame of Divine Love consumed her.\n\n\u201cA few days after my oblation to _God\u2019s Merciful Love_,\u201d she relates,\n\u201cI had commenced in the Choir the Way of the Cross, when I felt myself\nsuddenly wounded by a dart of fire so ardent that I thought I must die.\nI know not how to describe this transport; there is no comparison\nwhich would make one understand the intensity of that flame. An\ninvisible power seemed to plunge me wholly into fire ... but oh! what\nfire! what sweetness!\u201d\n\nThe Mother Prioress asked her whether this transport was the first in\nher life, she answered simply:\n\n\u201cMother, I have several times had transports of love; once especially\nduring my novitiate when I remained one entire week far indeed from\nthis world; for me, there was as it were, a veil thrown over all\nthings of the earth. But I was not consumed by a real flame, I was\nable to sustain those delights without expecting that their intensity\nwould cause my earthly fetters to snap asunder, whilst on the day of\nwhich I speak, one minute, one second more and my soul must have left\nits prison.... Alas!--and I found myself again on earth, and aridity\nimmediately returned to my heart!\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[84] Prov., x, 12.\n\n[85] Cant., 1, 3.\n\n[86] Luke, x, 41\n\n[87] Matt., v, 13.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHOLY COMMUNION\n\n\nHow sweet it was, the first kiss of Jesus to my soul! Yes, it was a\nkiss of Love. I felt I was loved, and I too said: \u201cI love Thee, I\ngive myself to Thee for ever!\u201d Jesus asked nothing of me, demanded no\nsacrifice. Already for a long time past, He and the little Th\u00e9r\u00e8se had\nwatched and understood one another.... That day our meeting was no\nlonger a simple look but a _fusion_. No longer were we two: Th\u00e9r\u00e8se had\ndisappeared as the drop of water which loses itself in the depths of\nthe ocean, Jesus alone remained; the Master, the King! Had not Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\nbegged Him to take away from her, her liberty? That liberty made her\nafraid; so weak, so fragile did she feel herself that she longed to be\nunited for ever to Divine Strength.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nI had taken as my rule of conduct, to receive most faithfully Holy\nCommunion as often as my confessor permitted, without ever asking that\nit might be more frequent. I would act differently now; for I am quite\nsure that a soul ought to make known to her director the attraction\nthat she feels to receive her God. It is not to remain in a golden\nciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another\nHeaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes His delight.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nWhat shall I say of my thanksgivings after Holy Communion? There are no\nmoments in which I feel less consolation. And is not this very natural,\nseeing that my desire is to receive our Lord\u2019s visit, not for my own\nsatisfaction, but solely for His pleasure?\n\nI imagine my soul to be as a plot of waste ground and beg the Blessed\nVirgin to remove from it all the rubbish--meaning its imperfections;\nthen I beseech her to erect thereon, a vast canopy worthy of Heaven\nand to decorate it with her own treasures, and I invite all the Angels\nand Saints to come and sing canticles of love. It seems to me then\nthat Jesus is pleased to see Himself so magnificently received; and\nI, I share His joy. All this does not hinder distractions and sleep\nfrom molesting me; therefore it not rarely happens that I resolve to\ncontinue my thanksgiving all the day long, since I have made it so\nbadly in the Choir.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nAt the time of Holy Communion I sometimes picture my soul under the\nfigure of a little child of three or four years, who at play has\ngot its hair tossed and its clothes soiled.--These misfortunes have\nbefallen me in battling with souls.--But very soon the Blessed Virgin\nhastens to my aid: quickly she takes off my little dirty pinafore,\nsmooths my hair and adorns it with a pretty ribbon or simply with a\nlittle flower ... and this suffices to render me pleasing and enables\nme to sit at the Banquet of Angels without blushing.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThe demon, traitor that he is, knows well, that he cannot make a soul\nwho wills to belong wholly to the good God, commit sin; therefore he\nendeavours only to persuade her that she sins. That is a great deal\ngained, but it is not yet enough to satisfy his rage ... he aims at\nsomething further, he wants to deprive Jesus of a loved tabernacle. Not\nbeing able himself to enter into this sanctuary he wishes that it may\nat least remain empty and without its Lord. Alas! what will become of\nthis poor heart?... When the devil has succeeded in driving away a soul\nfrom Holy Communion he has gained his ends, and Jesus weeps....\n\n I LETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GU\u00c9RIN\n\n\nA novice relates that she wanted to deprive herself of Holy Communion\nbecause of some lack of fidelity. She wrote her determination to Sister\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus who thus replied:\n\n\u201cLittle flower cherished by Jesus, it is amply sufficient that by the\nhumiliation of your soul your roots _eat of the earth_.... You must\nopen a little, or rather raise on high your corolla so that the Bread\nof Angels may come as a divine dew to strengthen you, and to give you\nall that is wanting to you.\n\n\u201cGood-night, poor little floweret; ask of Jesus that all the prayers\noffered for my recovery may serve to augment the fire which must\nconsume me.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSUFFERING[88]\n\n\nThe cross has accompanied me from the cradle; but then, Jesus has made\nme love it passionately.\n\n IX LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nOne day my sister Marie, speaking of suffering, said that instead of\nmaking me walk by that way, the good God would no doubt carry me\nalways like a little child. These words recurred to me after Holy\nCommunion on the following day, and my heart was fired with an ardent\ndesire of suffering. I felt too an inward assurance, that crosses in\ngreat number were in reserve for me. Then my soul was inundated with\nconsolations such as I have never had again in all my life. Suffering\nbecame my attraction, in it I found charms that entranced me.\n\nAnother great desire that I felt, was to love but God alone and to\nfind no joy save only in Him. Often during my thanksgiving after Holy\nCommunion I used to repeat this passage from the _Imitation:_ \u201c_O\nJesus, who art ineffable sweetness, turn for me into bitterness all\nthe consolations of earth._\u201d[89] These words came from my lips without\neffort; I uttered them like a child who repeats without too well\nunderstanding, words prompted by a friend.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IV\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 here,\nI declared in the solemn examination which preceded my profession: _I\nam come in order to save souls, and especially to pray for Priests_.\nWhen we want to attain an end we must employ the means, and Jesus\nhaving made me understand that He would give me souls by means of the\ncross, the more crosses I met with the more my attraction to suffering\nincreased. During five years this way was mine; but I alone knew it.\nHere was just the hidden flower that I wanted to offer to Jesus, this\nflower which exhaled its fragrance for Heaven alone.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VII\n\n\nFor one pain endured with joy, we shall love the good God more for ever.\n\n I LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nIn my soul\u2019s intercourse with Jesus--nothing ... dryness! sleep! Since\nmy Beloved wills to sleep I shall not hinder Him; I am too happy\nin seeing that He does not treat me like a stranger, that He is not\nconstrained with me. He pierces His little ball through and through\nwith pin-pricks sore indeed.... When it is this tender Friend who\nHimself pierces His ball, the pain is naught but sweetness--so gentle\nis His Hand. How different when creatures pierce it!\n\nYet I am happy, yes, truly happy to suffer. If Jesus does not Himself\ndirectly pierce His little ball, it is certainly He who guides the hand\nthat wounds!\n\n II LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nYes, I desire them, those heart-thrusts, those pin-pricks that give\nso much pain.... Sacrifice I prefer to all ecstacies: therein lies\nhappiness for me, I find it nowhere else. _The little reed_ has no fear\nof breaking, for it is planted on the shore of the waters of Love; and\nso, when it bends, that beneficent wave invigorates it, and makes it\nlong for another storm to come and bow down its head anew. My weakness\nit is, that 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\n III 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 trials\ngreatly help to detach us from earth; they make us look higher than\nthis world. Nothing here below can satisfy us; we can enjoy a little\nrepose only by being ready to do God\u2019s Will.\n\n I LETTER TO M\u00c8RE AGN\u00c8S DE J\u00c9SUS\n\n\nMy soul has known many kinds of trials, greatly have I suffered here on\nearth. In my childhood I suffered with sadness; now, it is with peace\nand joy that I taste of all the bitter fruits.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nSuffering united to love is the only thing that appears to me desirable\nin this vale of tears.\n\n IX LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\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 a\nprecious treasure.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nThere are people who take everything in the way that gives them the\nmost pain; with me it is the reverse; I see always the good side of\nthings. If I have naught but pure suffering, without any break, well! I\nmake of it my joy.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nJoy is not in the things that surround us, it resides in the interior\nof the soul. One may possess it in the depths of a gloomy prison as\nwell as in a royal palace. Thus am I happier in Carmel, even in the\nmidst of interior and exterior trials, than in the world, where nothing\nwas wanting to me.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nIf now, amid trials, and in the thick of the fight, we can already find\nsuch delight in the thought that God has drawn us away from the world,\nwhat will it be, when in Heaven\u2019s eternal glory and never-ending rest,\nwe shall understand the incomparable favour He has shown us in choosing\nus here, to dwell in His own House--the very threshold of Heaven.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nLet us not expect to find Love without Suffering. Our nature is there,\nand it is not there for nothing; but what treasures it enables us\nto acquire! It is our means of gain; so precious is it that Jesus\ncame down upon earth expressly to possess it.... We want to suffer\ngenerously, grandly; we wish never to fall; what illusion! And what\ndoes it matter to me if I fall every minute? I find great profit in it,\nfor thereby I see my weakness. My God, You know what I am capable of\nunless You carry me in Your arms; and if You leave me alone, well; it\nis that it pleases you to see me _on the ground_, so why should I be\ndisquieted?\n\n V LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nLife is often irksome and bitter; it is hard to begin a laborious day,\nabove all when Jesus hides Himself from us. What is this tender Friend\ndoing? Does He not then see our anguish, the load that oppresses us;\nwhere is He? Why does He not come to console us?\n\nAh, fear not.... He is there, quite near! He is watching us; He, it is,\nwho begs for these our labours and our tears.... He has need of them\nfor souls, for our soul; He wants to give us so glorious a recompense.\nAh! truly, it costs Him to make us drink of this bitter cup, but He\nknows that it is the one way by which to prepare us to know Him as He\nknows Himself and to become ourselves God-like. What a destiny! How\ngreat is the soul. Let us rise above all that passes away, let us hold\naloof from the earth, up on high the air is so pure; Jesus may hide\nHimself but one is conscious of His presence.\n\n I LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nWhen we speak of peace we do not mean joy--not at least sensible joy;\nto suffer in peace it is enough that we truly will all that God wills.\n\n V LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nNotwithstanding the trial which deprives me of every feeling of\nenjoyment I can yet exclaim, \u201c_Thou hast given me delight, O Lord, in\nall Thou dost._\u201d[90] For is there a greater joy than to suffer for\nThy Love? The more intense the suffering and the less apparent to\nhuman eyes, the more lovingly dost Thou smile upon it, O my God. And\neven--supposing an impossibility--if Thou wert unaware of it, I would\nstill be happy to suffer, in the hope that by my tears I might perhaps\nprevent, or make reparation for one single sin against faith.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nMine is not an unfeeling heart, and it is just because of its capacity\nto suffer deeply that I desire to offer to Jesus every kind of\nsuffering it can endure.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nLife is full of sacrifices, it is true; but why look for happiness in\nit? Is it not simply \u201ca night to be passed in a bad Inn\u201d as says our\nHoly Mother Saint Teresa?\n\nMy heart has an ardent thirst for happiness, but well do I see that no\ncreature is capable of allaying this thirst. On the contrary, the more\nI might drink of the waters of that enchanted spring the more burning\nwould be my thirst.\n\nI know a fountain where _they that drink shall yet thirst_,[91] but\nwith a thirst most sweet, a thirst one can always satisfy; this\nfountain is the suffering that is known to Jesus alone!...\n\n II LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n\nOur Lord never asks of us any sacrifice above our strength. Sometimes,\nin truth, the Divine Master makes us taste the full bitterness of the\nchalice which He presents to our soul. When He asks the sacrifice of\neverything most dear to us in this world, it is impossible unless by\na very special grace, not to cry out as He did in the Garden of the\nAgony: \u201c_My Father, let this chalice pass from Me...._\u201d But let us also\nhasten to add: \u201c_Nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt._\u201d[92]\nIt is very consoling to think that Jesus--Divine Strength itself--has\nexperienced all our weakness, that He trembled at the sight of the\nbitter chalice, the chalice He had longed for so ardently.\n\n I LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nSince our Well-Beloved has \u201c_trodden the wine-press alone_\u201d[93]--the\nwine which He gives us to drink--in our turn let us not refuse to wear\ngarments dyed with blood, let us press out for Jesus a new wine which\nmay slake His thirst, and _looking around Him_ He will no longer be\nable to say that _He is alone_; we shall be there _to help_.[94]\n\nNeglect, forgetfulness ... this it is, it seems to me, which still\npains Him the most.\n\n VIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nHere on earth, where all changes, one sole thing changes not, the\nKing of Heaven\u2019s mode of acting as regards His friends. Ever since He\nuplifted the standard of the Cross, it is in its shadow that all must\nfight and gain the victory.\n\n VI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nIt is indeed more through suffering and persecution than through\neloquent preaching, that God wills to establish His Kingdom in souls.\n\n VI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nI want to forget this world; here below, all things weary me, I find\nno joy save one, that of suffering ... and this joy, though unfelt, is\nabove every other.\n\n V LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nWhen I suffer much, when things that are painful and disagreeable\nbefall me, instead of assuming an air of sadness, I respond by a smile.\nAt first I was not always successful, but now it is a habit which I am\nvery happy to have acquired.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA novice was complaining of being more tired than her Sisters, for\nbesides the common work, she had done another task, of which they knew\nnothing. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se answered: \u201cI want to see you always like a valiant\nsoldier who does not complain of his pains; who thinks very seriously\nof the wounds of his brothers and regards his own as mere scratches.\nWhy do you feel this fatigue to such a degree? It is because no one\nknows about it....\n\n[Illustration: THE SERVANT OF GOD\n\nSR. TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE OF THE CHILD JESUS\n\nAND OF THE HOLY FACE\n\n_Carmelite of the Monastery of Lisieux 1873-1897_]\n\n\u201cBlessed Margaret Mary having had two whitlows used to say she had only\nreally suffered from the first one, because it had not been possible\nfor her to hide the second from her Sisters, and thus it became the\nobject of their compassion.\n\n\u201cThis feeling is natural to us; yet to wish that all should know when\nwe suffer is a very commonplace manner of acting.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nDuring the first months of her illness it was on her hard palliasse\nthat Sister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se passed the time of rest, and her nights were very\nbad: when asked whether she did not need some assistance during those\nhours of pain, she replied: \u201cOh, no on the contrary, I think myself\nvery fortunate to be in a cell distant enough for my Sisters not to\nhear me. I rejoice to suffer alone; but from the moment I am pitied and\nsurrounded with delicate attentions I can no longer feel this joy.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nThe Sister infirmarian remarking, \u201cIt is said that you have never\nsuffered very much.\u201d Th\u00e9r\u00e8se smiled and pointing to a glass containing\na draught of medicine, bright red in colour, replied, \u201cSee this little\nglass, one would imagine it full of some choice liqueur, but in reality\nI take nothing that is more bitter. Well! it is an image of my life;\nto the eyes of others it has ever appeared clothed in the most radiant\nhues; to them it seemed as though I drank a delicious liqueur, while in\ntruth it was bitterness. I say bitterness, and yet my life has not been\nbitter, for I have known how to make of all bitterness my sweetness and\nmy joy.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are in great pain at this moment, are you not?\u201d \u201cYes ... but I\nhave so much desired to suffer.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\u201cHow it grieves us to see you suffer, and to think you may perhaps have\nstill more to endure,\u201d the novices were saying to her.\n\n\u201cOh! do not be troubled about me, I have arrived at the stage of being\nno longer able to suffer, because all suffering is sweet to me.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nA sister, who doubted her patience, noticed, when visiting her one day,\nan expression of heavenly joy on her countenance and wished to know the\nreason. \u201cIt is because of the very acute pain I am feeling,\u201d replied\nTh\u00e9r\u00e8se, \u201cI have always striven to love suffering and to give it a\ncordial welcome.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\u201cWhy are you so gay this morning?\u201d she was asked; \u201cIt is because I have\nhad two little trials, nothing gives me _little joys_ like _little\ntrials_.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nAnother time: \u201cYou have had a great many trials today.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, but ... seeing that I love them!... I love everything the good\nGod sends me.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nAgain, when some one said to her: \u201cIt is dreadful--all you are\nsuffering.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, it is not dreadful; could a little Victim of Love find anything\ndreadful that her Spouse sends her? He gives me at each moment what I\ncan bear; not more; and the minute He increases my sufferings He also\naugments my fortitude.\n\n\u201cYet I could never ask for greater sufferings, for I am too little;\nthey would be my own--my own choosing, then I should have to bear them\nby myself, and I have never been able to do anything all alone.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nDuring her long and painful agony she exclaimed: \u201cThe chalice is full\nto the brim. Never could I have believed it possible to suffer so\nmuch.... I can only find the explanation in my extreme longing to save\nsouls.... Oh! I would not suffer less.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[88] No reader should be discouraged by this chapter on Suffering.\nWhat S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se says is very consoling for those who are nailed to\nthe Cross; and others must remember that God had given to His humble\nServant a _sensible_ attraction for suffering, which is a rare grace\nand reserved to very few souls, though many imagine they possess it,\nand mistake their road choosing to follow this supposed attraction.\nWithout the sensible desire and even though experiencing an invincible\nrepugnance to suffer, souls can be sanctified. What pleases God is that\nthe suffering be borne with love.\n\n[89] _Imit._, III, ch. xxvi, 3.\n\n[90] Ps., xci, 5.\n\n[91] _Cf._ Eccles., xxiv, 29.\n\n[92] Matt., xxvi, 39.\n\n[93] Isa., lxiii, 3.\n\n[94] Isa., lxiii, 5.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTHE DIRECTION OF SOULS\n\n\nOur Lord allowed me the consolation of closely studying the souls of\nchildren.\n\nConsidering these innocent souls I used to compare them to soft wax,\nupon which any impression may be stamped, the bad, alas! like the good;\nand I understood those words of Jesus: \u201c_But he that shall scandalize\none of these little ones ... it were better for him that a millstone\nwere hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the\nsea._\u201d[95] Oh! how many souls might attain to a high degree of holiness\nif wisely guided from the very first.\n\nI well know that to accomplish His work of sanctification, God has\nneed of no one, but just as He enables a skilful gardener to rear\nplants that are delicate and rare, granting him for this end all the\nknowledge necessary, while reserving to Himself the care of giving the\nincrease, so, too, does He will to be aided in His divine culture of\nsouls.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. V\n\n\nAs soon as I penetrated into the sanctuary of souls I judged at the\nfirst glance that the task exceeded my powers, and very quickly placing\nmyself in the arms of the good God I imitated the little child, who,\nseized with sudden fear, tries to hide its golden head on its father\u2019s\nshoulder, and I said: \u201cLord, Thou knowest it, I am myself too little\nto be capable of nurturing these Thy children; if Thou dost will to\ngive to them, through me, what is suited to each one, fill Thou my\nlittle hand, and without leaving Thine arms, without even turning my\nhead aside, I will distribute Thy treasures to the souls who come to\nme to seek sustenance. When they find it to their liking I shall know\nthat it is not to me they owe it but to Thee; on the other hand if they\ncomplain, and find bitter what I offer them, my peace shall remain\nundisturbed, I will try to convince them that this nutriment comes from\nThee, and I will carefully refrain from seeking any other for them.\u201d\n\nWhen I thus understood that it was impossible for me to do anything\nby myself, the task appeared to me simplified. Interiorly, I occupied\nmyself solely in trying to become more and more united to God--knowing\nthat the rest would be added unto me.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nFrom afar it seems easy to do good to souls, to make them love God\nmore, to mould them after our own views and opinions. But coming\ncloser one feels, on the contrary, that to do good without the divine\nassistance, is as impossible a thing as to bring the sun back after\nit has set. One feels that it is absolutely necessary to forget our\nown inclinations, our personal notions, and to guide souls, not by our\nown way--the way we ourselves go--but by the particular way that Jesus\nwishes to lead them.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nWhen very young, and staying with my aunt, a book was given to me to\nread. In one of the stories I saw that the mistress of a school was\nmuch praised because she knew how to get on cleverly in the world\nwithout offending anyone. This phrase I remarked especially: \u201cShe\nwould say to the one, \u2018You are not wrong,\u2019 and to the other, \u2018You are\nright;\u2019\u201d and while I read I was thinking: \u201cOh!... I would not have\nacted thus; we must always tell the truth.\u201d And so I do, always. Far\nmore difficult it certainly is, for when told of some little vexatious\noccurrence, it would be easy to lay blame on the absent, and she who\ncomplains would at once be pacified. Yes, but ... I do quite the\nreverse. If I am not liked, what matter! Let no one come to me who\ndoes not want to hear the truth.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThat a reprimand may be fruitful it must cost in the giving; and it\nmust 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 of\ndistress at having given pain. To run after the aggrieved one in order\nto console her, is to do more harm than good. To leave her to herself\nis to force her to expect nothing from creatures, to have recourse to\nthe good God, to see her failings and to humble herself. Otherwise she\nwould grow accustomed to being consoled after a deserved rebuke and\nwould behave as does a spoilt child, who stamps and cries, well knowing\nthat this will make its mother return to wipe away the tears.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n_Let the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, abound in\nyour lips and hearts._[96] If we have to do with a difficult soul,\nlet us not be discouraged, nor ever abandon her. Let us have always\n\u201c_the sword of the Spirit_\u201d to reprehend her for her faults, and not\nallow things to pass for the sake of leaving ourselves in repose; let\nus fight unceasingly, even without hope of gaining the victory. What\nmatter about success! Let us fight on, whatever be the weariness of the\nstruggle. Let us not say: \u201cI can make nothing of this soul, she does\nnot understand; I must give it up.\u201d Oh! what cowardice that would be.\nWe must do our duty unto the end.\n\n [S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se in these passages refers to her charge as Mistress of\n Novices.]\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThe novices expressed their surprise at finding that she guessed their\nmost hidden thoughts.\n\n\u201cHere is my secret,\u201d she said to them: \u201cI never give you any advice\nwithout invoking the Blessed Virgin; I ask her to inspire me to say\nwhat will do you the most good, and I myself am often astonished at the\nthings that I teach you. I simply feel in saying them to you, that I am\nnot deceived and that Jesus speaks to you by my mouth.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\u201cGive us some advice as to how we ought to act concerning our spiritual\ndirection,\u201d they said to her.\n\n\u201cWith great simplicity and without depending too much on assistance,\nwhich may fail you at any moment. You would soon be forced to say with\nthe Spouse in the Canticles: \u2018_The keepers ... took away my veil from\nme and wounded me_,\u2019 it was only \u2018_when I had a little_ PASSED BY\n_them I found Him whom my soul loveth_.\u2019[97] If with detachment you\nhumbly inquire where is your Beloved, _the keepers_ will direct you.\nNevertheless, most frequently, you will find Jesus only after you have\n_passed by_ all creatures. For my part, I have many a time repeated\nthis verse of the Spiritual Canticle of St. John 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.\u201d\n\n _Trans. D. Lewis, M. A._\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[95] Matt., xviii, 6.\n\n[96] Ephes., vi, 17.\n\n[97] Cant., v, 7; iii, 4.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTHE BLESSED VIRGIN\n\n\nHow I love the Blessed Virgin! Had I been a Priest, oh! how I should\nhave spoken of her. She is represented as unapproachable, rather\nought she to be shown as imitable. She is more Mother than Queen. I\nhave heard it said that all the Saints are eclipsed by her radiant\nbrightness as the sun at rising makes the stars disappear. How strange\nthat seems--a mother eclipsing the glory of her children! I think quite\nthe contrary. I believe that she will immensely increase the splendour\nof the elect.... The Virgin Mary! how simple does her life appear to\nme....\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nSometimes I find myself saying to the Holy Virgin: \u201cDo you know, O\ncherished Mother, that I think myself more fortunate than you? I\nhave you for Mother and you have not, like me, the Blessed Virgin to\nlove.... You are, it is true, the Mother of Jesus, but you have given\nHim to me, and He, from the cross gave you to us as our Mother, so we\nare richer than you. Of old it was your desire that you might be the\nlittle handmaiden of the Mother of God; and I, poor little creature, I\nam, not your servant, but _your child_: you are the Mother of Jesus and\nyou are _my Mother_.\u201d\n\n XIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nO Mary, if I were Queen of Heaven and thou wert Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, I fain would\nbe Th\u00e9r\u00e8se to see thee Queen of Heaven!\n\n 8 September, 1897.\n\n Last words written by Sister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\n of the Child Jesus.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nVARIOUS SUBJECTS\n\n\nL\u00e9onie, no doubt finding that she was growing too old to play with\ndolls, came one day to C\u00e9line and me, with a basket full of dolls\u2019\nclothes, odds and ends of pretty materials, trimmings, etc., on which\nshe had laid her doll, saying to us: \u201cThere, little sisters--choose!\u201d\nC\u00e9line looked, and took a knot of edging. After reflecting a moment\nI, in turn, put out my hand saying: \u201cI choose all!\u201d and I carried off\nbasket and doll without further ceremony.\n\nThis trait of my childhood is, as it were, a summary of my entire life.\nLater on when the meaning of perfection began to unfold itself to me,\nI understood that to become a saint it is necessary to suffer much,\never to seek after that which is most perfect, and to forget self. I\nunderstood that in sanctity the degrees are many, that each soul is\nfree to respond to the advances of our Lord, to do little or much for\nHis sake, in a word, to _choose_ between the sacrifices that He asks.\nThen, as in the days of my childhood, I exclaimed: \u201cMy God, I choose\nall! I do 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 will;\ntake Thou my will, for _I choose all_ that Thou willest.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\nMy Father took me for a pleasant tour during which I began to know a\nlittle of the world. Around me all was gaiety and delight; I was made\nwelcome, petted, admired, in short, for fifteen days the pathway of my\nlife was strewn with naught but flowers. Holy Wisdom well says that\n_the bewitching of trifles overturneth the innocent mind_.[98] At the\nage of ten the heart easily allows itself to be dazzled, and I own that\nthis sort of life had some charms for me. Alas! how well the world\ncontrives to reconcile the delights of earth with the service of God.\nHow seldom does it think of death.\n\nAnd death, nevertheless, has come to a great many of the people whom\nI then knew, young, rich and prosperous. I like to go back in thought\nto their beautiful dwellings, to ask myself where are they, and what\nbenefit do they now draw from the castles and parks where I saw them\nenjoying all the comforts of life.... And I reflect that \u201c_all is\nvanity_\u201d[99] \u201c_but to love God and to serve Him alone._\u201d[100]\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IV\n\nWhat compassion I have for souls who are going astray. It is so easy\nto lose one\u2019s way in the flowery paths of the world. Undoubtedly for a\nsoul who has risen a little above the things of earth, the sweetness\noffered is intermingled with bitterness, and the immense void of its\ndesires cannot be filled by the praises of a moment.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IV\n\n\nWe have but life\u2019s brief day to save souls and thus to give to Jesus\nproof of our love. The morrow of this day will be Eternity and then He\nwill render to you a hundredfold for the joys which you have sacrificed\nfor Him. He knows the extent of your sacrifice, He knows that the grief\nof those dear to you increases your own still more; but to save our\nsouls He has Himself suffered this martyrdom. He too, left His Mother,\nHe saw the 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 going to\nleave for His sake, a foresight of the glory He reserves for you, the\nmultitude of souls who in heaven will form your train, they would be\nalready recompensed for their great sacrifice in parting with you.\n\n II LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY \u201cBROTHERS\u201d\n\n\nThe good God has promised a hundredfold to all who have left father\nor mother or sister for love of Him. These words are, I know, usually\napplied to those who have entered the religious state, but in my heart\nI feel that they were also spoken for the generous parents who make to\nGod the sacrifice of children whom they cherish more than self.\n\n LETTER TO HER COUSIN JEANNE GU\u00c9RIN\n\n\nHow can a heart given up to human affection be united intimately to\nGod? That, I feel is not possible. I have seen so many souls deluded\nby this treacherous light, dart into it like the poor moth and burn\ntheir wings, then return wounded to Jesus, the Divine Fire which burns\nwithout consuming.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE 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 more\npure and more Christlike.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nThere are souls for whom God\u2019s mercy wearies not of waiting, and to\nwhom He gives His light only by degrees.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nWhen in the morning we feel no courage, no energy for the practice of\nvirtue, this is a grace, this is the moment to \u201c_lay the axe to the\nroot of the tree_\u201d[101] depending solely on Jesus. If we fall all is\nretrieved by an act of love, and Jesus smiles. He helps us without\nappearing to do so, and the tears which the wicked cause Him to shed\nare dried by our poor feeble love.\n\n II LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\nWe must practice the little virtues. This is difficult sometimes, but\nthe good God never refuses the first grace, which gives courage to\nconquer self: if the soul corresponds to it she will find that she\nimmediately receives light. I have ever been struck with those words\nof praise to Judith: \u201c_Thou hast done manfully, and thy heart has been\nstrengthened._\u201d[102] We must first act with courage, then the heart is\nstrengthened and we go from victory to victory.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nMy God, how varied are the ways by which Thou dost lead souls. In\nreading the Lives of the Saints we find a great number of whom nothing\nhas remained to us after their death: not the smallest souvenir, not a\nwritten line. Others there are, on the contrary, like our Holy Mother\nSaint Teresa, who have enriched the Church with their sublime doctrine,\nnot fearing _to reveal the secrets of the King_,[103] in the hope that\nsouls might know Him better and love Him more. Which of these two ways\npleases our Lord best? It seems to me that they are equally pleasing\nto Him.\n\nAll the well-beloved of God have followed the inspiration of the\nHoly Spirit by whom the Prophet wrote: \u201c_Say to the just that all is\nwell._\u201d[104] Yes, all is well when we seek only the Divine Will.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nHow narrow are the thoughts of creatures! When they see that a soul has\nlights which surpass their own, they conclude that the Divine Master\nloves them less. Since when, then, has He lost the right to make use\nof one of His creatures, in order to dispense to His children the\nsustenance needful for them?\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nWhen we are grieved at our powerlessness to do good, our only resource\nis to offer to God the works of others. In this you see the benefit of\nthe communion of Saints.\n\n COUNSEL AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThough I do not undervalue beautiful thoughts that seem to unite us\nto God, I have long understood that we must carefully guard against\nleaning too much upon them. The most sublime inspirations are nothing\nwithout deeds.\n\nOther souls, it is true, may draw therefrom much profit if they testify\nhumble gratitude to God for being permitted to share the feast of one\nof His privileged children. But if the privileged one were to grow\nvain of her spiritual riches, if her prayer resembled that of the\nPharisee, she herself would become like to a person starving to death\nbefore a well-served table while all her guests take from it abundant\nnourishment, and cast perhaps a look of envy on the possessor of so\nmuch wealth.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. X\n\n\nThe Well-Beloved has no need of our glorious deeds nor of our fine\nthoughts. If He desire sublime conceptions has He not His Angels, whose\nknowledge surpasses infinitely that of the world\u2019s greatest geniuses?\nIt is not then either intellect or talent that He looks for here\nbelow.... He has called Himself _the Flower of the Field_[105] to show\nus how much He cherishes simplicity.\n\n XIV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nTo keep the word of Jesus, this is the sole condition of our happiness,\nthe proof of our love for Him; and this _word_--it seems to me that it\nis Himself, since He is called the Uncreated _Word_ of the Father.\n\n XVIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nJesus needs neither books nor Doctors of Divinity in order to instruct\nsouls; He, the Doctor of Doctors, He teaches without noise of words.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VIII\n\n\nAs Text there is a verse which I utter unwillingly each day. It is\nthis: _\u201cInclinavi cor meum ad faciendas justificationes tuas in\n\u00e6ternum, propter retributionem_.\u201d (I have inclined my heart to do Thy\njustifications for ever, because of the reward.)[106] Interiorly, I\nhasten to say: \u201cO my Jesus, Thou knowest well that it is not for the\nreward I serve Thee, but solely because I love Thee, and for the sake\nof saving souls.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIn Heaven only shall we see the absolute truth concerning all things.\nOn earth, even in the Holy Scripture, there is a certain obscurity: it\ngrieves me to see differences in the translations; had I been a Priest\nI would have learned Hebrew, so that I might be able to read the Word\nof God in that human language in which He deigned to express it.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nWe are not yet in our Fatherland, and temptation must purify us as gold\nis purified by the action of fire.\n\n XVIII LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nIt is best not to expose oneself to the combat when defeat is certain.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nGod is often satisfied with our desire of labouring for His glory.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. IX\n\n\nA soul in the state of grace has nothing to fear from the demons, who\nare cowards, capable of flight before the gaze of a child.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. I\n\n\n_To the pure all is pure_,[107] the simple and upright soul sees not\nevil in anything, since evil exists in impure hearts only and not in\nmaterial objects.\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. VI\n\n\nThe good God has told us that in the Last Day He \u201c_will wipe away all\ntears from our eyes_,\u201d[108] and without doubt, the more tears to be\ndried, the greater will be the consolation.\n\n III LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACR\u00c9-C\u0152UR\n\n\nThe Spouse in the Canticles, not having been able in repose to find her\nBeloved, arose, she says and went about the city to seek Him, but in\nvain ... she could not find Him save beyond the ramparts. It is not the\nwill of Jesus that we should find His adorable Presence without effort.\nHe hides Himself, He envelopes Himself with darkness.... It was not\nthus He acted in regard to the multitudes, for we read in the Gospels\nthat the people were in admiration when He spoke.\n\nWeak souls Jesus charmed by His divine utterances. He was trying to\nrender them strong for the day of temptation and of trial; but small,\ntruly, was the number of His faithful friends when _He was silent_[109]\nbefore His judges. Oh, what melody for my heart is that silence of the\nDivine Master.\n\n XV LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nI have read in the Holy Gospel that the Divine Shepherd leaves in the\ndesert all His faithful flock, to go in haste after the sheep that\nis lost. How touching is this confidence. He is sure of them, they\nare captives of love--how could they break away? Even so does the\nwell-beloved Shepherd of our souls rob us of the sense of His presence\nin order to give to sinners His consolations; or else, if He leads us\nto Mount Thabor it is for one moment ... the valleys are nearly always\nthe place of pasture, _it is there He takes His repose at mid-day_.[110]\n\n XVI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nThe sole crime with which Herod reproached our Lord was _folly_ ... and\nfrankly, that charge was true. Yes, it was folly to come seeking the\npoor shallow hearts of mortals, therein to make His throne. He, the\nKing of Glory Who sitteth above the Cherubim! Was not His happiness\ncomplete in the company of His Father and the Spirit of Love? Why come\nto earth to seek out sinners and to make of them His friends, His\nchosen companions?\n\n XX 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[111] and the whole house was filled\nwith the fragrance thereof._[112]\n\nThe Apostles murmured against Magdalene; and this it is which still\nhappens with regard to us: some, even of the most fervent Christians\nthink we (Carmelites) are exaggerated, that like Martha we ought to\nserve Jesus, instead of consecrating to Him the vases of our lives with\nthe perfumes which are hidden within. And yet what matters it--the\nbreaking of these vases--since our Lord is consoled, and the world in\nspite of itself is made sensible of the fragrance they exhale. And oh!\nhow necessary are these perfumes to purify the unhealthy atmosphere\nthat it breathes.\n\n XX LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\n\u201cOne day when I was in tears,\u201d relates a novice, \u201cSister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the\nChild Jesus told me to acquire a habit of hiding my little troubles,\nadding that nothing renders community life more difficult than\ninequality of temperament.\n\n\u201cYou are quite right,\u201d I answered, \u201cI have thought so myself, and in\nfuture I shall never cry but when alone with the good God; to Him only\nshall I confide my trials, He will always understand and console me.\u201d\n\n\u201cShed tears before the good God!\u201d she replied with vivacity, \u201ctake\ncare you do no such thing. Still less, by far, before Him than before\ncreatures ought you to exhibit signs of sadness. He has but our\nmonasteries, this dear Master, to rejoice His Heart; He comes amongst\nus to find a little repose, to forget the continual lamentations of His\nfriends in the world who for the most part, instead of recognizing the\nvalue of the Cross, meet it with repining and with tears; and would\nyou behave like the generality of people?... Frankly that is not\ndisinterested love--disinterested love is _for us to console Jesus, not\nfor Him to console us_.\n\n\u201cHe is, I know, so kind of heart that if you weep He will dry your\ntears; but afterwards He will go away quite sorrowful, not being able\nto find in you the repose He sought. Jesus loves the joyous heart,\nHe loves the ever smiling soul. When will you learn to _hide_ your\ntroubles from Him, or to tell Him in gladsome tones that you are happy\nto suffer for His sake?\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThe soul is reflected in the countenance: like to a little child always\ncontent, your countenance should be invariably calm and serene. When\nyou are alone be still the same, because you are ever in the Angels\u2019\nsight.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nOur Divine Lord wishes to have His court here below as on High, He\ndesires angel-martyrs, angel-apostles.\n\n XI LETTER TO HER SISTER C\u00c9LINE\n\n\nA sister, greatly grieved at seeing her so ill often exclaimed: \u201cOh,\nhow sad is life!\u201d But S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se would at once correct her, saying:\n\n\u201cLife is not sad, but on the contrary most joyful. If you said \u2018How sad\nis our exile,\u2019 I should understand you. It is erroneous to give the\nname, \u2018_life_,\u2019 to that which must end. Only to the things of Heaven,\nto that which shall never know death, should the true name of \u2018_life_\u2019\nbe given; and in this signification life is not sad but joyful--joyous\nexceedingly!...\u201d\n\nHer own gaiety was delightful to witness.\n\nFor several days she had been much better and the novices said to her:\n\u201cWe do not yet know of what malady you will die....\u201d\n\n\u201cBut I shall die _of death_! Did not God tell Adam of what he would\ndie, saying to him: Thou shalt die of death?\u201d (In the French: \u201c_Tu\nmourras de mort._\u201d)[113]\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nIt is not Death that will come to fetch me, it is the good God. Death\nis no phantom, no horrible spectre, as represented in pictures. In the\nCatechism it is stated that _death is the separation of soul and body_,\nthat is all! Well, I am not afraid of a separation which will unite me\nto the good God for ever.\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nOne day she said to the Mother Prioress:\n\n\u201cMother, I beseech you, give me permission to die.... Let me offer my\nlife for ...\u201d mentioning the intention.\n\nAnd this permission being refused:\n\n\u201cVery well,\u201d she resumed, \u201cI know that at this moment the good God so\nmuch desires _a little bunch of grapes_ which no one wishes to present\nto Him, that He will certainly be forced to come and steal it.... I\nask nothing, for that would be to depart from my way of abandonment, I\nmerely beg the Blessed Virgin Mary to recall to her Jesus the title of\n_Thief_ which He gives Himself in the holy Gospel, so that He may not\nforget to come to _steal_ me away.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\u201cWill the Divine Thief be coming very soon to steal His little bunch of\ngrapes?\u201d some one asked.\n\nI see Him afar off, and I take good care not to cry out \u201cStop Thief!!!\u201d\nOn the contrary I call Him saying: \u201cThis way! this way!\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\nThe Chaplain asked me: \u201cAre you resigned to die?\u201d I said: \u201cAh! Father,\nI find it would be for living that I should need resignation, but as\nregards dying, I feel only joy.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\n\u201cYou will be placed amid the Seraphim in Heaven,\u201d a novice said.\n\n\u201cIf that should happen, I shall not imitate them; they cover\nthemselves with their wings at the sight of God. I shall take good\ncare not to cover myself with my wings!\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cUnder what name should we pray to you when you are in Heaven?\u201d they\nasked her. She answered humbly: \u201cYou will call me \u2018little Th\u00e9r\u00e8se.\u2019\n(\u2018_petite Th\u00e9r\u00e8se._\u2019)\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cYou will look upon us from the heights of heaven, will you not?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, I shall come down.\u201d\n\n COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES\n\n\n\u201cAfter my death I shall let fall a shower of roses.\u201d\n\n HIST. D\u2019UNE AME, CH. XII\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[98] _Cf._ Wisdom, iv, 12.\n\n[99] Eccles., i, 2.\n\n[100] _Imit._, I, 1, 3.\n\n[101] Matt., iii, 10.\n\n[102] Judith, xv, 11.\n\n[103] Tobias, xii.\n\n[104] _Cf._ Isaias, iii, 10.\n\n[105] Cant., ii, I.\n\n[106] Ps., cxviii, 112.\n\n[107] Titus, i, 15.\n\n[108] Apoc., xxi, 4.\n\n[109] Matt., xxvi, 65.\n\n[110] Cant., i, 6.\n\n[111] _Cf._ Marc., xiii, 3.\n\n[112] _Cf._ John, xii, 3.\n\n[113] _Cf._ Gen., ii, 17.\n\n\n\n\n_PRAYER FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF THE SERVANT OF GOD_\n\n \u2235\n\n\nO Jesus, who, to put our pride to confusion didst will to become a\nlittle child, and who later pronounced that solemn decree: \u201c_Unless ye\nbecome as little children ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven_,\u201d\ndeign to listen to our humble prayer in regard to her who lived\nperfectly that life of _spiritual childhood_, and who has so well\nrecalled to us the way.\n\nO little Babe of Bethlehem, by the ineffable charms of Thy Divine\nInfancy, O adorable Face of Jesus, by the humiliations of Thy\nPassion, we implore, that if it be for the glory of God and for the\nsanctification of souls, the halo of the Blessed may soon irradiate the\npure brow of Thy childlike spouse, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus and of\nthe 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 Thee\nand may make Thee greatly loved.\n\n [_Adapted from a prayer of S\u0153ur Th\u00e9r\u00e8se._]\n\n 100 days\u2019 indulgence.\n\n \u2720 CARD. BOURNE, _Arch. of Westminster_.\n\n August 1, 1912.\n\n * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s note\n\nMinor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Spelling has\nbeen retained as published.\n\nThe following printer errors have been changed.\n\n =CHANGED FROM TO=\n Table of\n Contents: \u201cDETATCHMENT 71\u201d \u201cDETACHMENT 71\u201d\n Page 29: \u201cMARIE-FRAN\u00c7OISE-TH\u00c9R\u00c9SE\u201d \u201cMARIE-FRAN\u00c7OISE-TH\u00c9R\u00c8SE\u201d\n Footnote 29: \u201cIs., Iiii, 3.\u201d \u201cIs., liii, 3.\u201d\n Page 144: \u201cSome one was speaking to\u201d \u201cSomeone was speaking to\u201d","title":"Thoughts of the servant of God, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus : $b The little flower of Jesus, Carmelite of the monastery of Lisieux, 1873-1897","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":32359}