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_.[86] 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.
All the Saints have understood this, and more especially perhaps those
who have enlightened the world with the luminous teaching of the
Gospel. Was it not from prayer that Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, Saint
Thomas of Aquin, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa and so many
other friends of God drew that wondrous science which enraptures the
greatest intellects?
Archimedes said: “Give me a lever and a fulcrum, and I will raise the
world.” What he was unable to obtain because his request had but a
material end and was not addressed to God, the Saints have obtained in
full measure. For fulcrum, the Almighty has given them Himself, Himself
alone! for lever, prayer, which enkindles the fire of love; and thus
it is that they have uplifted the world, thus it is that saints still
militant, uplift it, and will uplift it till the end of time.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI
The Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of one poor little soul
to save a multitude of others, redeemed like her at the price of His
Blood.
Our vocation is not to go and reap in the Father’s fields; Jesus does
not say to us: “Cast down your eyes and reap the harvest”; our mission
is still more sublime. Here are the words of the Divine Master: “_Lift
up your eyes and see_ ...” see that in Heaven there are empty places;
yours it is to fill them ... you are as Moses praying on the mountain;
ask of Me labourers and I will send them, I await but a prayer, a sigh
from out your heart!
Is not the apostolate of prayer higher as one might say, than that of
preaching? It is for us to form labourers who by preaching the Gospel,
will save thousands of souls of whom we thus become the mothers; what
then have we to envy the Priests of the Lord?
XII LETTER TO HER SISTER CÉLINE
How beautiful is our vocation! It is for us, it is for Carmel to
preserve “_the salt of the earth_.”[87] We offer our prayers and
sacrifices for the apostles of the Lord; we ought ourselves to be
their apostles while by word and example they preach the Gospel to our
brethren.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VI
A novice was grieving about her numerous distractions during prayer: “I
too, have many,” replied Sœur Thérèse de l’Enfant Jésus, “but I accept
all for love of the good God, even the most extravagant thoughts that
come into my head.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
Her prayer was continual though she was habitually plunged in aridity.
One day a novice entering her cell, paused, struck by the celestial
expression of her countenance. She was sewing with alacrity yet seemed
lost in profound contemplation.
“Of what are you thinking?” asked the young Sister. “I am meditating
on the _Pater_,” she replied. “It is so sweet to call the good God our
Father.” And tears shone in her eyes.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
I do not well see what more I shall have in Heaven than now, she once
said. I shall see the good God, it is true; but as to being with Him, I
am wholly with Him already upon earth.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
A living flame of Divine Love consumed her.
“A few days after my oblation to _God’s Merciful Love_,” she relates,
“I had commenced in the Choir the Way of the Cross, when I felt myself
suddenly wounded by a dart of fire so ardent that I thought I must die.
I know not how to describe this transport; there is no comparison
which would make one understand the intensity of that flame. An
invisible power seemed to plunge me wholly into fire ... but oh! what
fire! what sweetness!”
The Mother Prioress asked her whether this transport was the first in
her life, she answered simply:
“Mother, I have several times had transports of love; once especially
during my novitiate when I remained one entire week far indeed from
this world; for me, there was as it were, a veil thrown over all
things of the earth. But I was not consumed by a real flame, I was
able to sustain those delights without expecting that their intensity
would cause my earthly fetters to snap asunder, whilst on the day of
which I speak, one minute, one second more and my soul must have left
its prison.... Alas!--and I found myself again on earth, and aridity
immediately returned to my heart!”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
FOOTNOTES:
[84] Prov., x, 12.
[85] Cant., 1, 3.
[86] Luke, x, 41
[87] Matt., v, 13.
[Illustration]
HOLY COMMUNION
How sweet it was, the first kiss of Jesus to my soul! Yes, it was a
kiss of Love. I felt I was loved, and I too said: “I love Thee, I
give myself to Thee for ever!” Jesus asked nothing of me, demanded no
sacrifice. Already for a long time past, He and the little Thérèse had
watched and understood one another.... That day our meeting was no
longer a simple look but a _fusion_. No longer were we two: Thérèse had
disappeared as the drop of water which loses itself in the depths of
the ocean, Jesus alone remained; the Master, the King! Had not Thérèse
begged Him to take away from her, her liberty? That liberty made her
afraid; so weak, so fragile did she feel herself that she longed to be
united for ever to Divine Strength.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. IV
I had taken as my rule of conduct, to receive most faithfully Holy
Communion as often as my confessor permitted, without ever asking that
it might be more frequent. I would act differently now; for I am quite
sure that a soul ought to make known to her director the attraction
that she feels to receive her God. It is not to remain in a golden
ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another
Heaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes His delight.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. V
What shall I say of my thanksgivings after Holy Communion? There are no
moments in which I feel less consolation. And is not this very natural,
seeing that my desire is to receive our Lord’s visit, not for my own
satisfaction, but solely for His pleasure?
I imagine my soul to be as a plot of waste ground and beg the Blessed
Virgin to remove from it all the rubbish--meaning its imperfections;
then I beseech her to erect thereon, a vast canopy worthy of Heaven
and to decorate it with her own treasures, and I invite all the Angels
and Saints to come and sing canticles of love. It seems to me then
that Jesus is pleased to see Himself so magnificently received; and
I, I share His joy. All this does not hinder distractions and sleep
from molesting me; therefore it not rarely happens that I resolve to
continue my thanksgiving all the day long, since I have made it so
badly in the Choir.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VIII
At the time of Holy Communion I sometimes picture my soul under the
figure of a little child of three or four years, who at play has
got its hair tossed and its clothes soiled.--These misfortunes have
befallen me in battling with souls.--But very soon the Blessed Virgin
hastens to my aid: quickly she takes off my little dirty pinafore,
smooths my hair and adorns it with a pretty ribbon or simply with a
little flower ... and this suffices to render me pleasing and enables
me to sit at the Banquet of Angels without blushing.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
The demon, traitor that he is, knows well, that he cannot make a soul
who wills to belong wholly to the good God, commit sin; therefore he
endeavours only to persuade her that she sins. That is a great deal
gained, but it is not yet enough to satisfy his rage ... he aims at
something further, he wants to deprive Jesus of a loved tabernacle. Not
being able himself to enter into this sanctuary he wishes that it may
at least remain empty and without its Lord. Alas! what will become of
this poor heart?... When the devil has succeeded in driving away a soul
from Holy Communion he has gained his ends, and Jesus weeps....
I LETTER TO HER COUSIN MARIE GUÉRIN
A novice relates that she wanted to deprive herself of Holy Communion
because of some lack of fidelity. She wrote her determination to Sister
Thérèse of the Child Jesus who thus replied:
“Little flower cherished by Jesus, it is amply sufficient that by the
humiliation of your soul your roots _eat of the earth_.... You must
open a little, or rather raise on high your corolla so that the Bread
of Angels may come as a divine dew to strengthen you, and to give you
all that is wanting to you.
“Good-night, poor little floweret; ask of Jesus that all the prayers
offered for my recovery may serve to augment the fire which must
consume me.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
[Illustration]
SUFFERING[88]
The cross has accompanied me from the cradle; but then, Jesus has made
me love it passionately.
IX LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY “BROTHERS”
One day my sister Marie, speaking of suffering, said that instead of
making me walk by that way, the good God would no doubt carry me
always like a little child. These words recurred to me after Holy
Communion on the following day, and my heart was fired with an ardent
desire of suffering. I felt too an inward assurance, that crosses in
great number were in reserve for me. Then my soul was inundated with
consolations such as I have never had again in all my life. Suffering
became my attraction, in it I found charms that entranced me.
Another great desire that I felt, was to love but God alone and to
find no joy save only in Him. Often during my thanksgiving after Holy
Communion I used to repeat this passage from the _Imitation:_ “_O
Jesus, who art ineffable sweetness, turn for me into bitterness all
the consolations of earth._”[89] These words came from my lips without
effort; I uttered them like a child who repeats without too well
understanding, words prompted by a friend.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. IV
Suffering has held out its arms to me from my very entrance into
Carmel and lovingly have I embraced it. My intention in coming here,
I declared in the solemn examination which preceded my profession: _I
am come in order to save souls, and especially to pray for Priests_.
When we want to attain an end we must employ the means, and Jesus
having made me understand that He would give me souls by means of the
cross, the more crosses I met with the more my attraction to suffering
increased. During five years this way was mine; but I alone knew it.
Here was just the hidden flower that I wanted to offer to Jesus, this
flower which exhaled its fragrance for Heaven alone.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VII
For one pain endured with joy, we shall love the good God more for ever.
I LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
In my soul’s intercourse with Jesus--nothing ... dryness! sleep! Since
my Beloved wills to sleep I shall not hinder Him; I am too happy
in seeing that He does not treat me like a stranger, that He is not
constrained with me. He pierces His little ball through and through
with pin-pricks sore indeed.... When it is this tender Friend who
Himself pierces His ball, the pain is naught but sweetness--so gentle
is His Hand. How different when creatures pierce it!
Yet I am happy, yes, truly happy to suffer. If Jesus does not Himself
directly pierce His little ball, it is certainly He who guides the hand
that wounds!
II LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
Yes, I desire them, those heart-thrusts, those pin-pricks that give
so much pain.... Sacrifice I prefer to all ecstacies: therein lies
happiness for me, I find it nowhere else. _The little reed_ has no fear
of breaking, for it is planted on the shore of the waters of Love; and
so, when it bends, that beneficent wave invigorates it, and makes it
long for another storm to come and bow down its head anew. My weakness
it is, that makes my whole strength. Whatever happens I cannot get
broken; I see only the gentle hand of Jesus.
To win the palm no suffering is too great.
III LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
The drop of gall must be mingled in every cup, but I find that trials
greatly help to detach us from earth; they make us look higher than
this world. Nothing here below can satisfy us; we can enjoy a little
repose only by being ready to do God’s Will.
I LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
My soul has known many kinds of trials, greatly have I suffered here on
earth. In my childhood I suffered with sadness; now, it is with peace
and joy that I taste of all the bitter fruits.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. IX
Suffering united to love is the only thing that appears to me desirable
in this vale of tears.
IX LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY “BROTHERS”
When we are expecting only suffering the least joy surprises us:
suffering itself becomes the greatest of joys when we seek it as a
precious treasure.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. IX
There are people who take everything in the way that gives them the
most pain; with me it is the reverse; I see always the good side of
things. If I have naught but pure suffering, without any break, well! I
make of it my joy.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
Joy is not in the things that surround us, it resides in the interior
of the soul. One may possess it in the depths of a gloomy prison as
well as in a royal palace. Thus am I happier in Carmel, even in the
midst of interior and exterior trials, than in the world, where nothing
was wanting to me.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VI
If now, amid trials, and in the thick of the fight, we can already find
such delight in the thought that God has drawn us away from the world,
what will it be, when in Heaven’s eternal glory and never-ending rest,
we shall understand the incomparable favour He has shown us in choosing
us here, to dwell in His own House--the very threshold of Heaven.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. X
Let us not expect to find Love without Suffering. Our nature is there,
and it is not there for nothing; but what treasures it enables us
to acquire! It is our means of gain; so precious is it that Jesus
came down upon earth expressly to possess it.... We want to suffer
generously, grandly; we wish never to fall; what illusion! And what
does it matter to me if I fall every minute? I find great profit in it,
for thereby I see my weakness. My God, You know what I am capable of
unless You carry me in Your arms; and if You leave me alone, well; it
is that it pleases you to see me _on the ground_, so why should I be
disquieted?
V LETTER TO HER SISTER CÉLINE
Life is often irksome and bitter; it is hard to begin a laborious day,
above all when Jesus hides Himself from us. What is this tender Friend
doing? Does He not then see our anguish, the load that oppresses us;
where is He? Why does He not come to console us?
Ah, fear not.... He is there, quite near! He is watching us; He, it is,
who begs for these our labours and our tears.... He has need of them
for souls, for our soul; He wants to give us so glorious a recompense.
Ah! truly, it costs Him to make us drink of this bitter cup, but He
knows that it is the one way by which to prepare us to know Him as He
knows Himself and to become ourselves God-like. What a destiny! How
great is the soul. Let us rise above all that passes away, let us hold
aloof from the earth, up on high the air is so pure; Jesus may hide
Himself but one is conscious of His presence.
I LETTER TO HER SISTER CÉLINE
When we speak of peace we do not mean joy--not at least sensible joy;
to suffer in peace it is enough that we truly will all that God wills.
V LETTER TO HER SISTER CÉLINE
Notwithstanding the trial which deprives me of every feeling of
enjoyment I can yet exclaim, “_Thou hast given me delight, O Lord, in
all Thou dost._”[90] For is there a greater joy than to suffer for
Thy Love? The more intense the suffering and the less apparent to
human eyes, the more lovingly dost Thou smile upon it, O my God. And
even--supposing an impossibility--if Thou wert unaware of it, I would
still be happy to suffer, in the hope that by my tears I might perhaps
prevent, or make reparation for one single sin against faith.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. IX
Mine is not an unfeeling heart, and it is just because of its capacity
to suffer deeply that I desire to offer to Jesus every kind of
suffering it can endure.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. IX
Life is full of sacrifices, it is true; but why look for happiness in
it? Is it not simply “a night to be passed in a bad Inn” as says our
Holy Mother Saint Teresa?
My heart has an ardent thirst for happiness, but well do I see that no
creature is capable of allaying this thirst. On the contrary, the more
I might drink of the waters of that enchanted spring the more burning
would be my thirst.
I know a fountain where _they that drink shall yet thirst_,[91] but
with a thirst most sweet, a thirst one can always satisfy; this
fountain is the suffering that is known to Jesus alone!...
II LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACRÉ-CŒUR
Our Lord never asks of us any sacrifice above our strength. Sometimes,
in truth, the Divine Master makes us taste the full bitterness of the
chalice which He presents to our soul. When He asks the sacrifice of
everything most dear to us in this world, it is impossible unless by
a very special grace, not to cry out as He did in the Garden of the
Agony: “_My Father, let this chalice pass from Me...._” But let us also
hasten to add: “_Nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt._”[92]
It is very consoling to think that Jesus--Divine Strength itself--has
experienced all our weakness, that He trembled at the sight of the
bitter chalice, the chalice He had longed for so ardently.
I LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY “BROTHERS”
Since our Well-Beloved has “_trodden the wine-press alone_”[93]--the
wine which He gives us to drink--in our turn let us not refuse to wear
garments dyed with blood, let us press out for Jesus a new wine which
may slake His thirst, and _looking around Him_ He will no longer be
able to say that _He is alone_; we shall be there _to help_.[94]
Neglect, forgetfulness ... this it is, it seems to me, which still
pains Him the most.
VIII LETTER TO HER SISTER CÉLINE
Here on earth, where all changes, one sole thing changes not, the
King of Heaven’s mode of acting as regards His friends. Ever since He
uplifted the standard of the Cross, it is in its shadow that all must
fight and gain the victory.
VI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY “BROTHERS”
It is indeed more through suffering and persecution than through
eloquent preaching, that God wills to establish His Kingdom in souls.
VI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY “BROTHERS”
I want to forget this world; here below, all things weary me, I find
no joy save one, that of suffering ... and this joy, though unfelt, is
above every other.
V LETTER TO HER SISTER CÉLINE
When I suffer much, when things that are painful and disagreeable
befall me, instead of assuming an air of sadness, I respond by a smile.
At first I was not always successful, but now it is a habit which I am
very happy to have acquired.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
A novice was complaining of being more tired than her Sisters, for
besides the common work, she had done another task, of which they knew
nothing. Thérèse answered: “I want to see you always like a valiant
soldier who does not complain of his pains; who thinks very seriously
of the wounds of his brothers and regards his own as mere scratches.
Why do you feel this fatigue to such a degree? It is because no one
knows about it....
[Illustration: THE SERVANT OF GOD
SR. THÉRÈSE OF THE CHILD JESUS
AND OF THE HOLY FACE
_Carmelite of the Monastery of Lisieux 1873-1897_]
“Blessed Margaret Mary having had two whitlows used to say she had only
really suffered from the first one, because it had not been possible
for her to hide the second from her Sisters, and thus it became the
object of their compassion.
“This feeling is natural to us; yet to wish that all should know when
we suffer is a very commonplace manner of acting.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
During the first months of her illness it was on her hard palliasse
that Sister Thérèse passed the time of rest, and her nights were very
bad: when asked whether she did not need some assistance during those
hours of pain, she replied: “Oh, no on the contrary, I think myself
very fortunate to be in a cell distant enough for my Sisters not to
hear me. I rejoice to suffer alone; but from the moment I am pitied and
surrounded with delicate attentions I can no longer feel this joy.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
The Sister infirmarian remarking, “It is said that you have never
suffered very much.” Thérèse smiled and pointing to a glass containing
a draught of medicine, bright red in colour, replied, “See this little
glass, one would imagine it full of some choice liqueur, but in reality
I take nothing that is more bitter. Well! it is an image of my life;
to the eyes of others it has ever appeared clothed in the most radiant
hues; to them it seemed as though I drank a delicious liqueur, while in
truth it was bitterness. I say bitterness, and yet my life has not been
bitter, for I have known how to make of all bitterness my sweetness and
my joy.”
“You are in great pain at this moment, are you not?” “Yes ... but I
have so much desired to suffer.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
“How it grieves us to see you suffer, and to think you may perhaps have
still more to endure,” the novices were saying to her.
“Oh! do not be troubled about me, I have arrived at the stage of being
no longer able to suffer, because all suffering is sweet to me.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
A sister, who doubted her patience, noticed, when visiting her one day,
an expression of heavenly joy on her countenance and wished to know the
reason. “It is because of the very acute pain I am feeling,” replied
Thérèse, “I have always striven to love suffering and to give it a
cordial welcome.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
“Why are you so gay this morning?” she was asked; “It is because I have
had two little trials, nothing gives me _little joys_ like _little
trials_.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
Another time: “You have had a great many trials today.”
“Yes, but ... seeing that I love them!... I love everything the good
God sends me.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
Again, when some one said to her: “It is dreadful--all you are
suffering.”
“No, it is not dreadful; could a little Victim of Love find anything
dreadful that her Spouse sends her? He gives me at each moment what I
can bear; not more; and the minute He increases my sufferings He also
augments my fortitude.
“Yet I could never ask for greater sufferings, for I am too little;
they would be my own--my own choosing, then I should have to bear them
by myself, and I have never been able to do anything all alone.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
During her long and painful agony she exclaimed: “The chalice is full
to the brim. Never could I have believed it possible to suffer so
much.... I can only find the explanation in my extreme longing to save
souls.... Oh! I would not suffer less.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
FOOTNOTES:
[88] No reader should be discouraged by this chapter on Suffering.
What Sœur Thérèse says is very consoling for those who are nailed to
the Cross; and others must remember that God had given to His humble
Servant a _sensible_ attraction for suffering, which is a rare grace
and reserved to very few souls, though many imagine they possess it,
and mistake their road choosing to follow this supposed attraction.
Without the sensible desire and even though experiencing an invincible
repugnance to suffer, souls can be sanctified. What pleases God is that
the suffering be borne with love.
[89] _Imit._, III, ch. xxvi, 3.
[90] Ps., xci, 5.
[91] _Cf._ Eccles., xxiv, 29.
[92] Matt., xxvi, 39.
[93] Isa., lxiii, 3.
[94] Isa., lxiii, 5.
[Illustration]
THE DIRECTION OF SOULS
Our Lord allowed me the consolation of closely studying the souls of
children.
Considering these innocent souls I used to compare them to soft wax,
upon which any impression may be stamped, the bad, alas! like the good;
and I understood those words of Jesus: “_But he that shall scandalize
one of these little ones ... it were better for him that a millstone
were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the
sea._”[95] Oh! how many souls might attain to a high degree of holiness
if wisely guided from the very first.
I well know that to accomplish His work of sanctification, God has
need of no one, but just as He enables a skilful gardener to rear
plants that are delicate and rare, granting him for this end all the
knowledge necessary, while reserving to Himself the care of giving the
increase, so, too, does He will to be aided in His divine culture of
souls.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. V