Chapter 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