prize. Long did I call upon them as the harbingers of joy....
Suffering has in very truth been mine, and I have thought I wellnigh
touched the eternal shore! I have believed from my earliest youth that
_the little flower_ would be gathered in its spring-time; now, it is
the spirit of self-abandonment alone that guides me, no other compass
have I. I know not now, how to ask anything eagerly, save the perfect
accomplishment of God’s designs upon my soul.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VIII
“Pray for me,” she would often say, “when I implore Heaven to come to
my aid, then it is that I feel most forsaken.”
“And in this desolation how do you avoid discouragement?” they asked
her.
“I turn to the good God, to all the Saints, and I thank them 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_.’[70] 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
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._”[71] 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
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
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Office of St. Cæcilia.
[67] Luke, ii, 14.
[68] Wisdom, iv, 1.
[69] St. John of the Cross.
[70] Job, xiii, 15.
[71] _Cf._ Ps., cxliii, 1, 2, 3.
[Illustration]
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_.[72]
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. IV
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._”[73] 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_.[74] 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
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_;’[75] such consolations
would, I feel, be more than I could bear.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
“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._’[76]
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._’”[77]
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
FOOTNOTES:
[72] Ps., liv, 7.
[73] Luke, vii, 47.
[74] Luke, v, 32.
[75] Cant., ii, 9.
[76] Ps., xvii, 5.
[77] _Cf._ Ps., xxii, 4.
[Illustration]
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!”[78] then I shall rest--shall
be able to rejoice, because the number of the elect will be complete.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
FOOTNOTES:
[78] Apoc., x, 6.
[Illustration]
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_.”[79]
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”
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._”[80]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
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._”[81] 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)?[82]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
“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
Someone 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_.[83] 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
“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
FOOTNOTES:
[79] _Cf._ Matt., xix, 14.
[80] _Cf._ Prov., 1, 4.
[81] _Cf._ Matt., xx, 23.
[82] _Cf._ Ps., lxvii, 29.
[83] _Cf._ John, xiv, 2.
[Illustration]
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_.[84]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
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 after Thee to the odour
of Thy ointments._”[85] 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
“_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