My Reverend and Most Honored Mother,
May the holy will of God be our strength and our consolation!
The Divine Master imposes the cross on us again, in the midst of the joys of the Resurrection, and he demands a very painful sacrifice from our hearts, by removing from our fraternal affection our dear Sister Blanche Marie-Thérèse of Saint-Jean de la Croix, choir teacher, 52 years old and 29 and a half years old by religion.
Our good and late Sister, my Reverend Mother, was all her life the beloved child of the Most Blessed Virgin. She loved Marie, from her childhood, with the most ardent and filial affection. She had drawn this devotion, so sweet to her heart, from the bosom of an eminently Christian family, a veritable sanctuary of the noblest feelings of honor and virtue.
His pious Mother inspired all her children with the love of the Queen of Heaven and placed them, in a special way, under her maternal protection. The Virgin Mary also gave God a large part in this privileged home: two brothers of our dear daughter entered the Order of Saint Benedict and the one who remains in the world, as well as his beloved sisters, are all there, devoted to the glory of God.
It is to Mary Immaculate that our very dear child owed the grace of a religious vocation. She had finished her education and returned to her family when the call of God made itself heard in her soul. What ties held her then in the world! Her natural gifts, her playfulness, her intelligence spread such charm over the gatherings of which she was a part, that the best society of Montauban, her native town, attracted her and sought her out. With her family, she had a special place: she was the eldest of the young girls; her good parents consulted her and wanted to do nothing without her participation; she gave her two young sisters the affectionate care of a second mother; she was the object of the most delicate attentions on the part of all. Nevertheless, she made herself insensible to these "powerful seductions. The Sovereign Master had spoken, the Most Holy | Virgin was watching over the soul "that she had chosen; our very dear Sister had only one desire: to leave everything she loved and bury herself in the life of solitude and prayer in Carmel, where the will of God marked her place.
From the first call of grace, at the age of 17, she had spoken of a vocation to her Father and to her Mother. His entreaties grew more pressing at age 21. But her beloved parents, despite their lively faith and their ardent piety, could not bring themselves to sacrifice, as soon as the eldest of their daughters.
They were asking for an extended delay; and to ease this long wait, they left her complete liberty to follow all the pious exercises to which she felt inclined. Two more years went by like this. But then the. holy Religious, who directed the soul of our very dear Sister, advised a
decisive blow and she had the courage to pull it off. His parents lived in the countryside; she asked them to go for a retreat in a religious house in Montauban. Such requests were always acceded to, and his venerable Father prepared to accompany him. She made preparations for departure, which were not ordinary to her, took her papers, some of her linen, which astonished her young sisters.
Arrived at Montauban, she told her Father that it was at Carmel. that she wanted to retire. He then understood his daughter's project, which he had favored without knowing it, and his grief burst out in such a way that our very dear Sister always remembered it only with deep emotion. Without special help from God, I would not have had the strength, she told us, to see my Father cry, to hear his reproaches, to think of the desolation into which my Mother would be plunged on his return, and of which he gave me the most touching picture! But it was God's hour, the moment of grace, and everything conspired to give her the support she needed. Her eldest brother, hitherto opposed to her departure, arrived in the meantime and, suddenly changed, solicited paternal consent for her. The pious Director of our very dear child joined him, and, as he had a great influence on the family, he finally obtained the desired consent. The same day, the Father, sorry, but subject to the will of God, left his beloved daughter in Carmel and in her offered the Lord the most painful of sacrifices.
We have few details, Reverend Mother, of our Sister's early years of religious life. Drawn to a hidden life, she said little about what concerned her. Her respectable relative, Mother Sainte Fleur, had paved the way for her in the Carmel of Montauban, where she had lived for 68 years, edifying it by her virtues and having, in the course of her long career, founded several Houses of our Holy Order. . She was inspired by his examples. Her generous and energetic nature made her overcome her delicacy and she carried herself with courage to the humblest and most painful practices of our life. The good Master rewarded her, supporting her forces, and the Community joyfully admitted her, in ordinary times, to the grace of the Holy Habit and to that of the Profession.
Two feasts of the Queen of Heaven were chosen for these sacred engagements. She was dressed in the livery of Carmel on January 23, feast of the nuptials of the Blessed Virgin and on March 25, feast of the Annunciation, she pronounced the holy vows which united her forever to her celestial Spouse.
Our very dear Sister devoted herself to her religious family in the various offices entrusted to her. The affection and esteem of the Community, which she had acquired, led her to exercise the office of Sub-Prioress, four years after her Profession. At the end of the Triennium, she insistently asked not to be kept in this position; and, at the same time, she asked permission to come to our Carmel. The desire to find a more hidden life there, to take advantage for his soul of the direction so enlightened and so sure of our Venerable Mother Catherine, whom we had the grace to have as Prioress, and several
particular reasons strongly inclined him. The most fraternal relations united us to the dear Carmel of Montauban; this is why her good Superiors yielded to her prayers, and she came to us in the month of August of the year 1872.
This beloved Sister brought us all her heart, all with which the Lord had so abundantly favored her. She identified herself with the Community from the moment of her arrival, with the same effusion that she had united with her first religious family, when the doors of the cloister had opened before her; and this gift of herself was irreversible: she was convinced that she had accomplished the will of God.
We saw her again apply herself to the work of perfection, with the simplicity and the fervor of a novice, and she even asked to follow, for a time, the exercises of the Novitiate.
Full of strength and life, she was the first in all the common work and did not spare herself there. The offices of laundrywoman, sacristan, that of the Relics, were in turn entrusted to her. She wrote many little works, with perfect taste, for the feast of her Mother Prioresses, and composed, when needed, with astonishing ease, delicate and witty poems.
Our dear Sister, my Reverend Mother had a particular love for Holy Poverty. We found in her, in relation to this virtue, these religious habits, this ancient type, of which she had had the example in her dear House of Profession and on which she had been admirably trained; she actively employed her time, desired old and mended things for herself, put everything to good use, contenting herself with the bare necessities, and this so naturally that one would have said that she had known nothing else and that, in this part, she found her happiness. When she wrote to her dear family she never used an envelope, took a sheet of paper, always suitable, but so exact that one more word would not have found room in it.
Everything for his use bore a rigid and austere stamp.
Her love for this virtue and the interior detachment which accompanies it, had caused her to cease, from the beginning of her religious life, all correspondence with the outside world. She only wrote to her good parents, who passed on her news to the family. Everyone knew that she was the exclusive part of God and they had respected her way, never doubting her affection and her heart.
It is even in a higher degree that our good Sister has made her soul progress on this point, she was annihilating the natural gifts she had received from heaven, not putting herself forward for anything, unless an order of obedience, and passing through our midst, silent, solitary and hidden in God, as she had desired.
The Spirit of faith, which made our beloved Sister see God in authority, made her conduct equal vis-à-vis all her Mother Prioresses. To all of them she gave the same testimonies of respect, confidence and affection. We noticed the depth of this feeling of faith, at the departure of our Venerable Mother Catherine, who had taken care of her soul with so much interest; her peace, her inner joy suffered no alteration and she edified us by her detachment and her strength.
Our good Sister, my Reverend Mother, submitted to obedience the direction of her soul with great simplicity; she worked courageously to get rid of the imperfections which still remained to her and from which the divine Master made the safeguard of her humility.
A crucifying ordeal came to help him accomplish this work of death so painful to our nature. 14 years ago, our beloved Sister felt the first attacks of rheumatic pains which gradually made her life a real martyrdom. We cannot express to you how admirable and perfect his abandonment to the will of God was. If there was a desire in her soul, it was to devote herself to the Community which had received her as a sister, and whom she loved with the most tender affection.
However, she did not make a prayer, did not let her heart formulate a desire, to ward off the evil whose consequences she foresaw. As the good Lord wills! she said to her Mother Prioresses, giving an account, with simplicity, of what she felt. I made an absolute gift of myself through the hands of Mary, my
Immaculate Mother, it is up to my Mother to provide for everything that concerns me; I don't care!
Our beloved Sister, in spite of sometimes very intense suffering, was still able to follow all our exercises for a long time. We had reason to admire his perfect regularity. She predicted the time and was first in the choir for the Holy Office, where her good, strong voice supported the psalmody with constant fervor. It was the same punctuality at recess, in the refectory, at all the acts of the Community. In winter, with the rigors of the cold, she regularly attended Matins and the morning prayer, imploring us earnestly not to deprive her of this grace, when we wanted to give her rest to relieve her pain.
She was also able, for a large part of her life, to keep all the austerity of our Holy Rule. His strong constitution and healthy temperament allowed him to do so; but if need be, his energetic will would have made up for his strength.
Only three years ago, our beloved Sister had to leave her cell to go to the infirmary: her difficulty in moving was greater and the care of her dear nurses became more necessary to her.
As his infirmity progressed, abandonment remained in his soul and, with abandonment, a holy joy. She rediscovered those witty and kind words that had been common to her in her youth, pleasantly joking about herself about her crutches and the deformity of her body, which was noticeably shrinking.
It was above all with her dear and beloved family that she was ingenious in concealing her suffering. What did she not do to calm the anxieties of her good Parents, whom the knowledge of her condition so rightly afflicted? His letters always had a cheerful tone; what she suffered, she said, was nothing, but the care she received from religion was so assiduous, so delicate, that the maternal heart could have added nothing to it, and that there was wishing to be ill in order to experience such tender charity... Her family always withdrew from her comforted and edified, wondering whether to pity her, or whether to bless her. God for his courage and his joy in such an ordeal.
We frequently went to visit our dear Daughter, and the Community often went to the infirmary during recreation hours. This beloved Sister always lived among us through her heart and she took a lively part in everything that interested her religious family. Until her last day, she said the Holy Office, heard the Holy Mass in choir, receiving Communion there on the prescribed days. She also faithfully performed her particular devotions and offered her daily tribute to the Queen of Heaven, in the recitation of the Holy Rosary.
We did not think that the hour of separation was so close! Friday, April 18, feast of our Blessed Sister Marie of the Incarnation, our good Sister Saint John of the Cross was getting up as usual, when a stronger oppression surprised her and inspired deep fears in the nurse who was attending.
We went to see the dear patient and, as our presence relieved her, we recited the Little Hours to her. About 9 o'clock, she calmed down a bit and feeling very tired from the crisis she had just suffered, she expressed her desire to go to bed again. At eleven o'clock the oppression reappeared stronger; our beloved Sister lost speech and knowledge. We summoned our worthy Father Confessor in all haste; the dear patient looked at him on his arrival, but it was the only sign of life that this good Father could gather. He gave him absolution, applied to him the indulgence of the Order and administered to him the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. The Community then recited the soul commendation prayers and did not leave our beloved Sister until the hour of Vespers. She meets again after this exercise, and assists the dying dear, whom a slight breath still keeps here below. A few moments before 3 o'clock, her soul finally freed itself from the bonds of the body and went to heaven to receive the reward for the sacrifices it had so generously made for its God. The Community and we were present. This death, my Reverend Mother, was not unexpected, for the
Beloved sister who has just been taken from us. His state of infirmity foreshadowed this outcome, the heart was more and more compressed by the deformation of his body and choking was frequent. She had calmed our concerns in advance, assuring us that she was ready.
In a writing that she left us at her death, she again gives us this assurance. We transcribe these lines, my Reverend; they will let you know in what feelings of abandonment and peace her soul found itself at the call of the celestial Spouse; they will also tell you of his tender devotion for the Blessed Virgin, a devotion which was truly the soul of his soul, the secret of his strength and the sweetest consolation of his heart,
"O Jesus, my sweet Master, for some time now you have been constantly putting in my soul this strong and intimate presentiment that I will die suddenly and that I must seriously prepare myself for this last passage by a more generous fidelity to work; where your grace 'attracts, and by a complete disoccupation of all that is created. My God, I am your creature, and the work of your hands!
Dispose, as you please, of this ungrateful and rebellious nothingness. I submit to all your divine decrees on me, and I accept, with complete and unreserved abandonment, if it is your adorable will, to die alone, without human help, and in destitution and deprivation of all things. , uniting my abandonment to that which you endured on the Cross, and saying in advance in union with you: my Good Master, through Mary Immaculate, I commend my soul into your hands. O my tender and beloved Mother,
if I am alone at this supreme moment of death, you will be there near me to assist me and present my soul to Jesus.
Not a single day of my life has passed, my beloved mother, without you not having made me feel your protection and your love by a particular benefit!... Only in heaven will I be able to say and understand all that “you have done for me, especially since I have been in Carmel: you knew that my heart needed a Mother, so you have always been the most tender and the best of Mothers for your poor child.
Alas! I confess it with sorrowful regret, I have only responded to so many benefits with the blackest ingratitude; nevertheless, you know, my tender Mother, my sweetest consolation is to hear of you, of your goodness, of your greatness; all my joy in praying to you, in thinking of you; the most intimate need of my soul, to entrust myself to your Immaculate Heart! Your Heart, my tender Mother, is the abode that you yourself have chosen for me to dwell in for the rest of my days. I lock myself in it today and want to stay there until my last breath, like Jesus Host in the Ciborium, solitary, silent, hidden, annihilated, to be nothing more, in me and nothing more in anything, but completely lost in my Immaculate Mother!...
I place today in your maternal hands, my past, my present, my future; my soul with all its powers, my heart with all its affections, my body with all its senses; my will, my desires, my fears, my hopes, my joys, my pains; everything is yours, my tender Mother, and I am now your property, your property forever; my perfection is your affair, and I have no other work here below to accomplish than that of remaining in your Immaculate Heart like the dead in their tombs, so that you alone may be everything in me.
My Mother, you see the feelings of my heart, and the sincerity of this donation; nevertheless I am so weak, so inconstant, that I tremble at the thought that I might still be unfaithful!... Oh! please, my beloved Mother, do not allow it, and kill me immediately if I were to sadden you again.
My beloved Mother, bless your little child who is very happy to belong to YOU without sharing, and who consoles herself for the pains of her exile at the thought that soon I will join you in heaven, to contemplate your beauty, to love Jesus through your Immaculate Heart, and eternally sing your blessings and your love."
Yes, we are confident that Mary Immaculate will have received into her maternal arms her Child so faithful and so devoted!... and she will pour the balm of consolation into the hearts of her venerable parents, who generously offer the Lord the consumption of the sacrifice accepted by them with so much generosity
20 years ago!
Please, however, my Reverend Mother, unite with us to hasten, if need be, the eternal happiness of our beloved Sister.
We ask you for her the suffrages of our Holy Order, by grace, a communion of your Holy Community, a day of good works, the indulgences of the Way of the Cross and of the six Paters, an invocation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the Heart Immaculate of Mary, to our Mother Saint Thérèse and to our Father Saint John of the Cross, she will be very grateful to you, as well as to us, who have the grace to say to us in union your holy prayers.
My Reverend and Most Honored Mother,
Your humble Sister and Servant,
Sister MARIE DE SAINT GÉRARD, RC Ind.
From our Monastery of the Immaculate Conception and from our Father Saint Joseph of the Carmelites of Albi.
This April 22, 1890.
Albi - Printing-Binding of Apprentice-Orphans.
