Chapter 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.

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

SUFFERING[88]

The cross has accompanied me from the cradle; but then, Jesus has made me love it passionately.