just the same. I think they wish to see to what point I shall
carry my trust . . . But not in vain have these words of Job
sunk into my heart: _'Though He should kill me yet will I trust
in Him.'_ [5] I acknowledge it was long before I reached this
degree of abandonment; our Lord has taken me and placed me
there!"
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
[5] Job, xiii, 15.
IT seems to me that nothing now hinders me from taking flight,
for I no longer have any great desires, save to love, even unto
dying of love. I am free, I have no fear, not even of what I
most dreaded; I mean the fear of being a long time ill and
consequently a burthen to the Community. If it gives pleasure to
the good God I willingly consent to see my life of suffering,
both of soul and body, prolonged for years. Oh! no, I do not
fear a long life. I do not shun the combat. _"The Lord is the
rock upon which I am founded. Who teacheth my hands to fight and
my fingers to war; He is my protector in whom I have hoped."_
[6] Never have I asked God to let me die young; it is true I
have ever believed that it would be so, but without seeking to
obtain it.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IX
[6] _Cf_. Ps., cxliii, 1, 2, 3.
WHATEVER the good God has given me has always pleased me, even
the gifts which have appeared to me less good and less beautiful
than those received by others.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
I HAVE no greater desire to die than to live; if our Lord gave
me the choice I would choose nothing; I only will what He wills;
it is what He does that I love.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
"SOME think you are afraid of death," they said to her.--"That
may indeed yet happen; I never depend on my own thoughts,
knowing how weak I am; but at present I will rejoice in the
sentiments that the good God now gives me, there will be time
enough to suffer from the contrary."
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
A SISTER said to her:
"If anyone goes straight to Heaven, you surely will not spend
one moment in Purgatory!"
"Oh! I feel little anxiety about that; I shall always be content
with the sentence of the good God. If I go to Purgatory, well--I
shall walk in the midst of the flames, like the three Hebrews in
the furnace, singing the Canticle of Love."
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
GRATITUDE
OH, how happy God makes me! How easy and how sweet it is to
serve Him upon earth.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X
SEEING several of my companions form special attachments to some
one or other of our mistresses, I wished to follow their example
but could not succeed therein. O happy inability! from how great
evils has it saved me . . . How I thank God for having made me
find only bitterness in the friendships of earth. With a heart
such as mine I should have been captured and had my wings
clipped; then how should I have been able to _fly away and be at
rest_. [1]
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV
[1] Ps., liv, 7.
I UNDERSTAND well that our Lord knew I was too weak to be
exposed to temptation; without doubt I should have been wholly
destroyed had I been dazzled by the deceitful glamour of the
love of creatures; but never has it shone before my eyes. There,
where strong souls find joy, and through fidelity detach
themselves from it, I have found only affliction. Where then is
my merit in not being given up to these fragile attachments,
since it is only by a gracious effect of God's mercy that I was
preserved from it? Without Him, I recognize that I might have
fallen as low as St. Magdalene; and that word of deep meaning
spoken by the Divine Master to Simon the Pharisee, re-echoes
with great sweetness in my soul. Yes, I know it: _"To whom less
is forgiven, he loveth less."_ [2] But I also know that Jesus
has forgiven more to me than to St. Magdalene. Ah, how I wish I
could express what I feel. Here at least is an example which
will in some measure convey my thought.
Suppose the son of a skilful doctor is tripped by a stone in his
path, which causes him to fall and fracture a limb. His father
comes in haste, lifts him up lovingly and attends to his
injuries, employing therein all the resources of his art; and
the boy, very soon completely cured, testifies his gratitude.
This child has certainly good reason to love so kind a father;
but here is another supposition.
The father having learnt that there lies in his son's way a
dangerous stone, sets out beforehand and removes it unseen by
anyone. His son, the object of this tender forethought, unaware
of the misfortune from which he has been preserved by the
father's hand, will of course show no gratitude, and will love
him less than if he had cured him of a grievous wound. But
should he come to know all, will he not love him still more?
Well--I am this child, the object of the preventing love of a
Father _Who sent His Son not to redeem the just but sinners._
[3] He wills that I should love Him because He has forgiven me,
not _much_, but _everything_. Without waiting for me to love Him
much, like St. Mary Magdalene, He has made me to know how He had
loved me with a preventing and ineffable love, in order that I
may now love Him even unto folly!
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. IV
[2] Luke, vii, 47.
[3] Luke, v, 32.
WALKING one day in the garden, leaning on one of her sisters,
Thérèse paused to enjoy the fascinating sight of a little white
hen sheltering its chickens beneath its wings. Very soon her
eyes filled with tears, and turning to her dear companion she
said: "I can stay no longer, let us go in again quickly. . ."
And in her cell, her tears continued falling and she could not
utter a word. At last, looking at her sister with an expression
that was quite heavenly, she said:
"I was thinking of our Lord, and of the touching comparison He
chose in order to make us believe in His tenderness. That is
just what He has done for me all my life: _He has wholly hidden
me beneath His wings!_ I cannot express what passed within my
heart. Ah! the good God does well to veil Himself from my sight,
to show me the effects of His Mercy rarely, and as it were,
_'through the lattices;'_ [4] such consolations would, I feel,
be more than I could bear."
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
[4] Cant., ii, 9.
"OH! how _good_ is the good God!" . . . she would sometimes
exclaim. "Yes, He must indeed be good to give me the strength to
endure all that I suffer."
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
ONE day she said to the Mother Prioress:
"I would like to speak to you, Mother, of the state of my soul;
but I cannot, I am too deeply moved just now."
And in the evening she sent these lines pencilled with a
trembling hand:
"O my God, how good Thou art to the little victim of Thy
Merciful Love! Now even though Thou dost join physical suffering
to the trials of my soul, I cannot say: _'The sorrows of death
have encompassed me.'_ [5] But I cry out in my gratitude: _'I
have gone down into the valley of the shadow of death, yet I
fear no evil, because Thou, O Lord, art with me.'_" [6]
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
[5] Ps., xvii, 5.
[6] _Cf_. Ps., xxii, 4.
ZEAL
THE cry of Jesus agonizing, "I thirst!" re-echoed continually in
my heart, firing it with an ardent zeal till then unknown to me.
I longed to give to my Beloved to drink: I too felt myself
consumed with the thirst for souls, and at all cost I would
wrest sinners from the eternal flames.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V
THE Precious Blood of Jesus I poured on souls, to Him I offered
these same souls renewed by the Dew of Calvary; thus I thought
to quench His Thirst; but the more I gave Him to drink, the more
ardently my poor little soul thirsted--and this I received as a
most precious recompense.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. V
LIKE the Prophets and the Doctors I would fain enlighten souls.
Fain would I travel the earth, O my Well-Beloved, to preach Thy
Name and to set up Thy glorious Cross in Pagan lands. But one
mission only would not suffice for me; would that I could at one
and the same time proclaim the Gospel all the world over, even
to the remotest of its islands. I would desire to be a
Missionary not only for a few years, but to have been one from
the creation of the world, and so to continue to the end of
time.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI
I LONG to accomplish the most heroic deeds. I feel within me the
courage of a Crusader. I would die on the battlefield in defence
of the Church.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI
OPEN, my Jesus, thy Book of Life wherein are recorded the
actions of all the Saints; those actions--would that I too, had
accomplished such for Thee!
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI
SOULS--dear Lord, we must have souls! Above all, souls of
apostles and of martyrs, that through them we may inflame the
multitude of poor sinners with love of Thee.
HIST. D'UNE AME, APPENDIX
AFTER recreation one day when the Mother Prioress had spoken of
the persecution already raging against Religious Communities,
Sœur Thérèse said to a novice: "Ah! Sister, we live in an era of
martyrs! Blood will be shed.--What happiness if it should be
ours!"
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
A NOVICE on her way to the laundry one day, went at a slow pace
through the garden, looking at the flowers as she passed. Sœur
Thérèse who followed walking quickly, soon overtook her and
said: "Is that how one hastens who has children (_souls_) to
support, for whose sustenance she is obliged to work? . . . "
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
DURING her illness she wrote:
"The will of the good God is my sole desire; and I declare that
if in Heaven I could no longer work for His glory, I would
choose exile rather than the Fatherland."
IV LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY "BROTHERS"
WHAT draws me towards the Heavenly Country is the call of our
Lord, the hope of at last loving Him as I have so ardently
desired, and the thought that I shall be able to make Him loved
by _a multitude of souls_ who will bless Him eternally.
VIII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY "BROTHERS"
CONFIDENTLY I count upon not remaining inactive in Heaven, my
desire is to work still for the Church and for souls: this I ask
of God, and I am certain that He will hear me. If I quit already
the battlefield, it is not with the selfish desire of taking my
rest. Suffering has long since become my heaven here below, and
it is difficult to imagine how it will be possible for me to
become acclimatized to a country where joy reigns, unmingled
with sorrow. Jesus must needs transform my soul completely, else
I could not support eternal bliss.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
JUST now a few notes of distant music fell upon my ear, and set
me thinking that very soon I shall hear melodies beyond compare;
yet this thought can give me but a moment's gladness; one only
expectation makes my heart throb: _it is the love that I shall
receive and the love that I shall be able to give!_
_I feel that my mission is now to begin, my mission to make
others love the good God as I love Him . . . to give to souls my
little way_. I WILL SPEND MY HEAVEN IN DOING GOOD UPON EARTH.
This is not impossible, since the Angels in the full enjoyment
of the Beatific Vision keep watch over us. No, I shall never
rest till the end of the world! But when the Angel shall have
said: "Time is no more!" [1] then I shall rest--shall be able to
rejoice, because the number of the elect will be complete.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
[1] Apoc., x, 6.
SIMPLICITY
WHEN I read certain treatises where perfection is set forth as
encompassed by a thousand obstacles, my poor little head grows
weary very quickly. I close the learned book which puzzles my
brains and dries up my heart, and in its stead I open the Holy
Scriptures. Then all appears clear, luminous . . . one single
word discloses to my soul infinite horizons, perfection seems
easy. I see that it is sufficient to recognize our nothingness,
and to leave oneself like a child, in the arms of the good God.
Let great souls and sublime intellects enjoy the beautiful books
which I cannot understand, still less put in practice; I rejoice
in being little, since _"children only and those who resemble
them will be admitted to the Heavenly banquet."_ [1]
It is well that the Kingdom of Heaven contains many mansions,
for if there were none other than those of which the description
and the way seem incomprehensible to me, I should never be able
to enter therein.
VI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY "BROTHERS"
[1] _Cf._ Matt., xix, 14.
MY patrons in Heaven and my chosen favourites are those who have
stolen it--like the Holy Innocents and the Good Thief. The great
Saints have earned it by their works; as for me, I will imitate
the thieves, I will have it by ruse, a ruse of Love which will
open its gates to me and to poor sinners. The Holy Ghost
encourages me, saying in the Book of Proverbs: _"O little one,
come, learn subtlety of me."_ [2]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
[2] _Cf._ Prov., i, 4.
OUR Lord replied to the mother of the sons of Zebedee: _"To sit
on My right and on My left hand is for them for whom it is
prepared by My Father."_ [3] I imagine that those places of
choice, refused to great Saints, to Martyrs, will be the portion
of little children.
Did not David predict it when he said that _the little Benjamin
will preside amidst the assemblies_ (of the saints)? [4]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
[3] _Cf._ Matt., xx, 23.
[4] _Cf._ Ps., lxvii, 29.
"IF you could begin your religious life over again" asked a
novice, "what would you do?"
"It seems to me that I would do as I have done."
"You do not then feel like the hermit who used to say: 'Even
though I had lived long years in penance yet I should fear
damnation while there still remained to me one quarter of an
hour, one breath of life.'
"No, I cannot share that fear, I am too little to be damned,
little children are not damned."
"You always seek to be like the little ones--but tell us what we
must do to possess the spirit of childhood? What does it exactly
mean--to remain little?
"To remain little--it is to recognize our nothingness, to expect
everything from the good God, not to be too much afflicted about
our faults, for little children fall often but are too small to
hurt themselves much: in fine, it is _not_ to make one's
fortune, nor to be disquieted about anything. Even in the homes
of the poor, as long as a child is quite little they give him
what is needful; but when grown up, the father is no longer
willing to support him and says: 'Now work! you can provide for
yourself.' Well, it was to escape hearing that, that I have
never wished to grow up, for I know myself incapable of earning
my livelihood--Eternal Life!
"Again, to remain little is not to attribute to self the virtues
we practise; but to acknowledge that the good God places this
treasure in the hand of His little child to be made use of when
required."
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
BE not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be
without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and
carry you like a little child too feeble to walk.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
IT is a great trial to see only the black side of things, but
that does not depend completely upon you. Do your best to detach
your heart from the cares of this world, and above all from
creatures; then you may be sure that Jesus will do the rest. He
could not suffer you to fall into the abyss. Be comforted,
little one, in Heaven you will no longer see _all black but all
white;_ yes, all will be clothed with the divine whiteness of
our Spouse, the Lily of the Valley. Together we shall follow Him
whithersoever He goeth . . . Oh! let us profit by the brief
moments of this life to give pleasure to Jesus, let us win souls
for Him by our sacrifices. Above all let us be little, so little
that all the world may trample us under foot without even our
appearing to feel it or to suffer from it.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
YOU are wrong to find fault with one thing and another, and to
seek that all should yield to your way of viewing things. We
want to be like little children, and little children know not
what is best, to them all seems well; let us imitate them.
Besides there would be no merit [in obedience] were we only to
do what would appear reasonable to us.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
A NOVICE under a temptation which seemed to her insurmountable
said: "This time I cannot rise above it--it is impossible."
Thérèse replied: "Why do you try to rise above it? Pass beneath
it quite simply. It is very well for great souls to soar high
above the clouds when the storm is raging, but for us, we have
merely to bear the showers with patience. If we do get rather
wet--no matter! We shall dry ourselves afterwards in the
sunshine of Love.
"That brings to mind this little trait of my childhood; a horse
one day standing at the garden gate barred our entrance; those
with me endeavoured by force of talking, etc., to get him to
move back, but while they talked I very quietly slipped in,
through the horse's legs . . . See how one may gain by remaining
little!"
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
TO a young Sister discouraged at seeing her imperfections, Sœur
Thérèse said: "You make me think of a very little child who is
just able to stand upright but does not yet know how to walk.
Intent upon reaching the top of the stairs so as to get back to
his mother he lifts his foot to climb the first step. Fruitless
endeavour! At each attempt he falls without advancing in the
least. Well, be like that little child; by the practice of every
virtue keep on ever lifting your little foot to climb the steps
of sanctity, and do not imagine that you will be able to mount
even the first! No; but good will is all God requires of you.
From the top of those steps He is watching you with love; and
won by your unavailing efforts He will Himself soon come down,
and taking you in His arms will bear you away to His Kingdom,
never more to quit Him. But if you cease to lift your little
foot He will leave you a long time on earth."
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
THE only means of making rapid progress in the path of Love is
to remain always very _little_; that is what I have done; so now
I can sing with our Father St. John of the Cross:
And stooping so low, so low,
I rose still higher and higher
And thus I attained my end.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
SOME one was speaking to her of the mortifications of the
Saints, she replied:
"It is well our Lord has let us know that _there are many
mansions in His Father's House, that if not He would have told
us._ [5] Yes, if all souls called to perfection had been obliged
to practise these macerations in order to enter Heaven, He would
have said so, and gladly would we have undertaken them. But He
tells us that _in His House there are many mansions_. If there
are those for great souls, for the Fathers of the Desert and for
martyrs of penance, there must be one also for little children.
Our place is reserved there, if our love be great--for Him and
for our Heavenly Father and the Spirit of Love."
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
[5] _Cf._ John, xiv, 2.
"I feel that my mission is now to begin," she said a few days
before her death, "my mission to make others love the good God
_as I love Him_, to give my little way to souls. . ."
"What is this 'little way' that you want to teach to souls?"
"_It is the path of spiritual childhood, it is the way of trust
and of entire self-surrender_. I want to make known to them the
simple means that have so perfectly succeeded for me, to tell
them that there is but one only thing to do here below: _to cast
down before Jesus the flowers of little sacrifices, to win Him
by caresses!_ That is how I have won Him, and that is why I
shall be so well received."
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
IF I am misguiding you by my _little way_ of Love, she said to a
novice, do not fear that I shall let you follow it very long. I
shall appear to you, and tell you to take another path; but if I
do not return, believe in the truth of my words: _never can we
have too much confidence in the good God, so mighty and so
merciful! As much as we hope for shall we obtain from
Him!_ . . .
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
A NOVICE said to her on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of
Mount Carmel: "If you were to die to-morrow after Holy
Communion, it seems to me that so beautiful a death would
console me in the midst of my grief."
And Thérèse replied with animation:
"Die after Holy Communion! On a grand Feast day! No, it will not
be so: little souls could not copy that. In my little way there
are only quite ordinary things; all that I do, little souls must
be able to do also."
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XII
PRAYER
AS I grew older I loved the good God more and more, and very
frequently did I offer Him my heart, using the words my mother
had taught me. I strove in all my actions to please Jesus and
was most watchful never to offend Him.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. II
MY whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my
invincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words, I
know it by experience.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X
GREAT is the power of prayer--a queen, as one might say, having
free access always to the King, and able to obtain whatever she
asks. In order to be heard, it is not necessary to read from a
book a beautiful form of prayer adapted to the circumstances; if
it were so, how greatly to be pitied should I be!
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X
I HAVE not the courage to force myself to seek beautiful prayers
in books; not knowing which to choose I act as children do who
cannot read; I say quite simply to the good God what I want to
tell Him, and He always understands me.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X
PRAYER is, for me, an outburst from the heart; it is a simple
glance darted upwards to Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and of
love in the midst of trial as in the midst of joy! In a word, it
is something exalted, supernatural, which dilates the soul and
unites it to God. Sometimes when I find myself, spiritually, in
dryness so great that I cannot produce a single good thought, I
recite very slowly a _Pater_ or an _Ave Maria_; these prayers
alone console me, they suffice, they nourish my soul.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. X
THE principal plenary indulgence and one which all may gain
without the ordinary conditions, is that of _charity which
covereth a multitude of sins_. [1]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
[1] Prov., x, 12.
FORMERLY if any of my family were in trouble, and that I had
been unable to succeed in comforting them during their visit, I
would go from the parlour heart-broken; but soon Jesus made me
understand that I was incapable of giving consolation to a soul.
From that day forth I grieved no more when anyone went away sad;
I confided to the good God the sorrows of those who were dear to
me, feeling certain that He heard me, and at their next visit I
used to find that it had indeed been so. Since I have
experienced this, I no longer torment myself when involuntarily
I give pain; I simply beg of Jesus to make up for what I have
done.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
ONE day after Holy Communion the good God made me understand
those words of the Canticles: _"Draw me: we will run offer Thee
to the odour of Thy ointments."_ [2] O Jesus, it is not then
necessary to say: In drawing me, draw the souls whom I love.
These, simple words: _"Draw me"_ suffice! Yes, when a soul has
allowed herself to be captivated by the inebriating fragrance of
Thy perfumes, she could not run alone, all the souls whom she
loves are drawn after her; this is a natural consequence of her
attraction towards Thee.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI
[2] Cant., i, 3.
_"DRAW me, we will run. . ."_
To ask to be drawn is to will intimate union with the object
which holds the heart captive. If fire and iron were gifted with
reason, and that the latter said to the fire: "Draw me," would
not this prove that it desired to become identified with the
fire even so far as to share its substance? Well, that is
exactly my prayer. I beg of Jesus to draw me into the flames of
His Love, to unite me so closely to Himself that He may live and
act in me. I feel that the more the fire of love inflames my
heart, the more I shall say: "Draw me," the more also will the
souls who draw near to mine run swiftly in the fragrant odours
of the Well-Beloved.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. XI
SOULS thus on fire cannot rest inactive. They may sit at the
feet of Jesus, like Saint Mary Magdalene, listening to His sweet
and ardent words; but, while seeming to give nothing, they do
give far more than Martha who troubles herself with _many
things_. [3] It is not however of Martha's labours that Jesus
disapproves, but only her too great anxiety; to this very same
work His Blessed Mother humbly submitted herself, when she had
to prepare the repasts for the Holy Family.