DETACHMENT
If the impossible were possible and that God Himself did not see my good actions, I would not grieve about it. I love Him so much that I should like to be able to give Him pleasure without His knowing that it was I.... Knowing and seeing it, He is, in a way, bound to repay me.... I would not give Him the trouble.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
The glory of Jesus ... that is my whole ambition; my own I abandon to Him; and if He seem to forget me, well, He is at liberty to do so since I am mine no more, but His. He will more quickly tire of making me wait, than I, of waiting!
VII LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
There is no stay, no support to seek out of Jesus. He alone changeth not. What happiness to think that He can never change!
V LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
The sole happiness upon earth consists in hiding oneself and remaining in total ignorance of created things.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VIII
Far from dazzling me all the titles of nobility appear to me but empty vanity. I have understood those words of the Imitation: “Be not solicitous for the shadow of a great name.”[44] I have understood that true greatness is found not in the name but in the soul.
The Prophet tells us that the Lord God shall call His servants by ANOTHER NAME;[45] and we read in St. John: “To him that overcometh, I will give ... a white counter, and in the counter a new name written, which no man knoweth but he that receiveth.”[46] It is in Heaven, therefore, that we shall know our titles of nobility. Then shall each one receive from God the praise that he merits,[47] and he who upon earth will have made choice of being the poorest and the most unknown for love of our Lord, he will be the first, the noblest and the richest.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VI
I thank my Jesus for making me walk in darkness; in it I am wrapped in profound peace. Willingly I consent to stay, during the whole of my religious life, in this sombre tunnel into which He has made me enter; I desire only that my darkness may win light for sinners.
IV LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
In this world we must not become attached to anything—not even things the most innocent, for they fail us at the moment when we are least expecting it. The eternal alone can satisfy us.
I LETTER TO SR. MARIE DU SACRÉ-CŒUR
This prayer she bore upon her heart on the day of her Profession:
“O Jesus, my Divine Spouse, grant that the robe of my baptism be never sullied! Take me, rather than suffer me here below to stain my soul by committing the slightest wilful fault. May I never seek nor ever find but Thee alone! May all creatures be nothing to me, and I nothing to them! May no earthly thing disturb my peace!
“Grant that I fulfil my engagements in all their perfection; that none concern themselves about me; that I may be trodden underfoot, forgotten, as a little grain of sand. I offer myself to Thee, O Well-Beloved, that Thou mayst ever perfectly accomplish Thy holy will in me, without let or hindrance from creatures.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VIII
With jealous care all must be kept for Jesus; it is so good to work for Him, and for Him alone! How joyous then the heart and how buoyant the spirit!...
VI LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
I have never wished for human glory, contempt it was, that had attraction for my heart; but having recognized that this again was too glorious for me, I ardently desire to be forgotten.
VII LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
If you only knew to what a degree I wish to be indifferent to the things of the earth! What matters to me all created beauty? I should be truly unfortunate were I to possess it. Oh! how great, how noble, seems my heart when I look at it in relation to this world’s goods, since all of them put together could never satisfy it; but when I consider it with reference to Jesus, how small it then appears to me.
II LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
Yes, I now am able to say I have received the grace of being no more attached to the goods of mind and heart than to those of earth. If it happens that I repeat to my Sisters some thought of mine which pleases them, I think it quite natural that they should look on it as their own; this thought belongs to the Holy Ghost not to me, seeing that St. Paul tells us that without the Spirit of Love we cannot give to God the name of Father.[48] The Holy Spirit assuredly is free to use me as the means of conveying a good thought to a soul and I may not consider this thought as my property.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. X
“There is one only means of constraining the good God not to judge us at all, it is to appear before Him with our hands empty.”
“But how?” they asked her.
“It is quite simple: keep nothing whatever in reserve, give away your gains according as you earn. As for me, if I live to be eighty I shall be always poor; I know not how to save up, all that I have goes immediately to ransom souls.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
The further you advance the fewer combats will you have, or rather, the easier will your conquests be, because you will look at the good side of things. Your soul will then rise above creatures. Anything that may be said to me now, leaves me absolutely indifferent, for I have realized how little stability there is in human judgments.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
To write books of devotion, to compose the most sublime poetry, is of less worth than the least act of self-renunciation.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
“One Sunday,” Thérèse tells us, “I went right joyously on my way towards the alley of chestnut trees; it was the spring-time, and I meant to enjoy the beauties of nature. O cruel disappointment! My dear chestnut trees had been pruned, and the branches, already loaded with verdant buds, lay strewn upon the ground! It was heartrending to view this destruction, and to think that three years must pass ere I could see it repaired.... My distress however did not last. ‘If I were in another monastery,’ thought I, ‘what difference would it make to me if the chestnut trees in the Carmel of Lisieux were cut down altogether? I will fret no more about transitory things; my Well-Beloved shall take the place of all else for me.... I will wander ever in the groves of His love, which none may touch!’”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
She said to her novices: “You are too much taken up about what you are doing, you torment yourselves concerning the future as if you had the care of it.... Are you at this moment preoccupied with what is passing in other Carmels, as to whether the nuns are pressed or not? Do their labours hinder your prayer or meditation? Very well, so, too, ought you to be detached from your personal work, employing conscientiously therein the time directed, but with disengagement of heart.
“I have read that the Israelites, when building the walls of Jerusalem, worked with one hand and with the other held a sword.[49] That is truly a figure of what we ought to do: never give ourselves completely up to the work.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
A novice asked some of the Sisters to help to shake blankets, which being rather worn, she cautioned them somewhat sharply to be careful not to tear. Sœur Thérèse remarked:
“What would you do if it were not your office to mend these blankets?... With what detachment you would then act! And if you did point out that they are easily torn, how free from self-interest it would be. Thus, never let the least shadow of self-interest glide into your actions.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
In the infirmary the novices used scarcely to wait till her thanksgivings were ended before speaking to her and seeking her counsels. This, at first, grieved her and she gently reproached them. Then very soon she let them have their way, saying:
“The thought has struck me that I am not to desire more of repose than our Lord. When He retired into the desert after His discourses, the people came immediately to break in upon His solitude. Come to me as much as you will. I must die arms in hand, having on my lips the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.”[50]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
“How do you manage so to practise virtue,” asked a novice, “as to be always the same, invariably joyous and composed?”
“It has not been always so,” she replied, “but ever since I have shunned all self-seeking I lead the happiest life that can be.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
Now, that I am about to appear before the good God, more than ever do I understand that there is but one thing necessary: to work solely for Him, and to do nothing for self or for creatures.
X LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY “BROTHERS”