Chapter IV: Letter to Mère Agnès De Jésus

O my God, Thou knowest I have never desired but to love Thee alone. I seek no other glory. Thy Love has gone before me from my childhood, it has grown with my growth, and now it is an abyss the depths of which I cannot fathom.

HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI

Love attracts love, mine rushes forth unto Thee, it would fain fill up the abyss which attracts it; but alas! it is not even as one drop of dew lost in the Ocean. To love Thee as Thou lovest me I must borrow Thy very love--then only, can I find rest.

HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI

Just as a torrent sweeps along with it unto the depths of the sea whatsoever it encounters on its course, even so, my Jesus, does the soul which plunges into the boundless ocean of Thy Love draw after her all her treasures. Lord, Thou knowest that for me these treasures are the souls it has pleased Thee to unite to mine.

HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI

Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church being a body composed of different members, the most essential, the most noble of all the organs would not be wanting to her; I understood that the Church has _a heart_ and that this heart is burning with love; that it is love alone which makes the members work, that if love were to die away apostles would no longer preach the Gospel, martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. I understood that love comprises all vocations, that love is everything, that it embraces all times and all places because it is eternal!

HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI

O my Well-Beloved! I understand to what combats Thou hast destined me; it is not on the battle field that I shall fight.... I am prisoner of Thy Love; freely have I riveted the chain which unites me to Thee and separates me for ever from the world. My sword is LOVE; with it _I shall chase the stranger from the kingdom, I shall make Thee to be proclaimed King_ in the souls of men.

HIST. D’UNE AME, APPENDIX

_Love!_... that is what I ask.... I know but one thing now--_to love Thee_, O Jesus! Glorious deeds are not for me, I cannot preach the Gospel, shed my blood ... what does it matter? My brothers toil instead of me, and I, _the little child_, I keep quite close to the royal throne, _I love_ for those who fight.

HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI

How shall I show my love since love is proved by deeds? Well,--_the little child will strew flowers_ ... she will embalm the Divine Throne with their fragrance, will sing with silvery voice the canticle of love.

Yes, my Beloved, it is thus that my life’s brief day shall be spent before Thee. No other means have I of proving my love than to strew flowers; that is, to let no little sacrifice escape me, not a look, not a word, to avail of the very least actions and do them for Love. I wish to suffer for Love’s sake and for Love’s sake even to rejoice; thus shall I strew flowers. Not one shall I find without shedding its petals for Thee ... and then I will sing, I will always sing, even if I must gather my roses in the very midst of thorns--and the longer and sharper the thorns the sweeter shall be my song.

HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI

Sœur Thérèse de l’Enfant Jésus often spoke of a well-known toy with which in childhood’s days she had amused herself: a kaleidoscope; in form somewhat like a small telescope; on looking through, one sees an endless succession of pretty and many-coloured designs, varying at each turn of the kaleidoscope.

“This toy,” she said, “aroused my admiration and I used to wonder what could produce so pleasing a phenomenon; when one day, after serious examination, I saw there were simply a few tiny scraps of paper and of wool cut no matter how, and thrown here and there. I pursued my investigation and discovered three mirrors inside the tube: I had there the key to the problem.

“This was for me the image of a great mystery. As long as our actions, even the least of them, remain within the focus of Love, the Blessed Trinity, which is figured by the three mirrors, reflects them, and endows them with a wondrous beauty. Jesus, looking at us through the little lens, that is to say, as it were through Himself, finds all our actions pleasing to Him. But if we leave the ineffable centre of Love, what will He see? Mere straws ... actions sullied and nothing worth.”

COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES

This little prayer which includes all my desires I ask you to say for me each day:

“Merciful Father, in the name of Thy sweet Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin and of the Saints, I pray Thee that my sister be fired with Thy spirit of love, and that Thou wilt grant her the grace to make Thee greatly loved.”

If God should take me soon to Himself, I ask you to continue each day this same prayer, for in Heaven my desire will be the same as upon earth; to love Jesus and to make Him loved.