JMJT
May 1897
(Air: Why did you deliver me the other day, oh my Mother)
1. Oh! I would like to sing, Marie, why I love you
Why does your name so sweet make my heart leap
And why the thought of your supreme greatness
Could not inspire fear in my soul.
If I contemplated you in your sublime glory
And surpassing the brilliance of all the blessed
That I'm your child I couldn't believe
O Mary, in front of you, I would lower my eyes!...
2. It is necessary for a child to cherish his mother
May she cry with him, share his pains
O my dear Mother, on the foreign shore
To attract me to you, how many tears you shed!....
By meditating your life in the Holy Gospel
I dare to look at you and approach you
Believe me your child is not difficult for me
For I see you mortal and suffering like me...
3. When an angel from Heaven offers you to be the Mother
Of the God who shall reign for all eternity
I see you prefer, O Mary, what a mystery!
The ineffable treasure of virginity.
I understand that your soul, O Immaculate Virgin
Be dearer to the Lord than the divine abode
I understand that your soul, Humble and Sweet Valley
Can contain Jesus, the Ocean of Love!...
4. Oh! I love you, Marie, saying to you the servant
Of the God whom you ravish by your humility
This hidden virtue makes you all-powerful
She draws the Holy Trinity into your heart
So the Spirit of Love overshadowing you
The Son equal to the Father in you became incarnate....
Of his sinning brethren great will be the number
Since we must call him: Jesus, your firstborn!...
5. O beloved Mother, despite my smallness
Like you I have in me the Almighty
But I do not tremble when I see my weakness:
The mother's treasure belongs to the child
And I am your child, oh my dear Mother
Your virtues, your love, are they not mine?
Also when in my heart descends the white Host
Jesus, your Sweet Lamb, believes that he rests in you!...
6. You make me feel it, it's not impossible
To follow in your footsteps, O Queen of the elect,
The narrow way to Heaven, you made it visible
By always practicing the humblest virtues.
With you, Mary, I like to stay small,
Of the grandeurs of here below I see the vanity,
At Saint Elisabeth, receiving your visit,
I am learning to practice ardent charity.
7. There I listen delighted, Sweet Queen of Angels
The sacred song that springs from your heart.
You teach me to sing divine praises
To glory in Jesus my Saviour.
Your words of love are mystical roses
Who must embalm the centuries to come.
In you the Almighty has done great things
I want to meditate on them, in order to bless him.
8. When the good Saint Joseph ignores the miracle
That you would like to hide in your humility
You let him cry near the Tabernacle
Who veils the divine beauty of the Saviour!...
Oh ! that I love, Mary, your eloquent silence,
For me it's a soft and melodious concert
Who tells me of greatness and omnipotence
Of a soul that awaits help only from the Heavens...
9. Later in Bethlehem, O Joseph and Mary!
I see you shunned by all the locals
No one wants to receive in his hotel
Poor foreigners, the place is for the big ones.....
The place is for the big ones and it's in a stable
That the Queen of Heaven must give birth to a God.
O my dear Mother, how lovable I find you
How great I find you in such a poor place!....
10. When I see the Lord wrapped in swaddling clothes
When from the Divine Word I hear the faint cry
O my dear Mother, I no longer envy the angels
For their Mighty Lord is my beloved Brother!...
That I love you, Mary, you who on our shores
Have made this Divine Flower bloom!........
That I love you listening to the shepherds and the Magi
And guard with care all things in your heart!...
11. I love you mingling with the other women
Who towards the holy temple directed their steps
I love you presenting the Savior of our souls
To the blessed Old Man who presses him in his arms,
First smiling I listen to his song
But soon his accents make me shed tears.
Gazing prophetically into the future
Simeon offers you a sword of sorrows.
12. O Queen of martyrs, until the evening of your life
This painful sword will pierce your heart
Already you have to leave the soil of your homeland
To avoid a king's jealous fury.
Jesus sleeps in peace under the folds of your veil
Joseph comes to ask you to leave at once
And your obedience is immediately revealed
You leave without any delay and without reasoning.
13. In the land of Egypt, it seems to me, O Mary
May your heart remain joyful in poverty,
For isn't Jesus the most beautiful Fatherland,
What does exile matter to you, do you own the Heavens?...
But in Jerusalem, a bitter sadness
Like a vast ocean comes to flood your heart
Jesus, for three days, hides from your tenderness
So it is exile in all its rigor!...
14. Finally you see it and joy transports you,
You say to the beautiful Child who charms the doctors:
"O my Son, why do you act like this?"
“Here are your father and I who were looking for you in tears.”
And the Child God answers (oh what a deep mystery!)
To the dear Mother who stretches out her arms towards him:
"Why were you looking for me?... To the works of my Father"
“I have to work; don't you know that?”
15. The Gospel teaches me that growing in wisdom
To Joseph, to Mary, Jesus remains submissive
And my heart reveals to me with what tenderness
He always obeys his dear parents.
Now I understand the mystery of the temple,
The hidden words of my Loving King.
Mother, your sweet Child wants you to be the example
Of the soul that seeks Him in the night of faith.
16. Since the King of Heaven wanted his Mother
Either plunged into the night, into the anguish of the heart;
Mary, is it therefore good to suffer on earth?
Yes to suffer while loving, it is the purest happiness!...
Everything He gave me Jesus can take it back
Tell him never to bother with me...
He may well be hiding, I agree to wait for him
Until the day without sunset when my faith will be extinguished....
17. I know that in Nazareth, Mother full of graces
You live very poor, wanting nothing more
anointed with raptures, miracles, ecstasies
Do not embellish your life, O Queen of the Chosen!....
The number of little ones is great on earth
They can raise their eyes to you without trembling
It is by the common way, incomparable Mother
Please walk to guide them to Heaven.
18. Waiting for Heaven, O my dear Mother,
I want to live with you, follow you every day
Mother, contemplating you, I immerse myself delighted
Discovering in your heart abysses of love.
Your maternal gaze banishes all my fears
He teaches me to cry, he teaches me to enjoy.
Instead of despising the pure and holy joys
You want to share them, you deign to bless them.
19. Spouses of Cana seeing concern
That they can't hide, because they're running out of wine
To the Savior you say it in your solicitude
Hoping for help from his divine power.
Jesus seems at first to push back your prayer
"What does it matter," He replies, "woman, to you and to me?"
But deep in his heart, he calls you his mother
And his first miracle, He operates it for you...
20. A day that sinners listen to doctrine
Of Him who would like to receive them in Heaven
I find you with them, Mary, on the hill
Someone tells Jesus that you would like to see him,
So your Divine Son in front of the whole crowd
Of his love for us shows the immensity
He said, "Who is my brother and my sister and my Mother?"
"If not he who does my will?"
21. O Immaculate Virgin, of the most tender mothers
Listening to Jesus, you don't get sad
But you rejoice that He makes us understand
That our soul becomes his family here below
Yes you rejoice that he gives us his life,
The infinite treasures of his divinity!...
How not to love you, oh my dear Mother
Seeing so much love and so much humility?
22. You love us, Mary, as Jesus loves us
And you consent for us to distance you from Him.
To love is to give everything and to give oneself
You wanted to prove it by remaining our support.
The Savior knew your immense tenderness
He knew the secrets of your maternal heart,
Refuge of sinners, it is to you that He leaves us
When He leaves the Cross to wait for us in Heaven.
23. Mary, you appear to me at the top of Calvary
Standing by the cross, like a priest at the altar
Offering to appease the justice of the Father
Your beloved Jesus, sweet Emmanuel...
A prophet said so, O desolate Mother,
“There is no pain like your pain!”
O Queen of Martyrs, remaining in exile
You lavish on us all the blood of your heart!
24. The house of Saint John becomes your only asylum
The son of Zebedee is to replace Jesus.....
This is the last detail that the Gospel gives
Of the Queen of Heaven he no longer speaks to me.
But his deep silence, oh my dear Mother
Does it not reveal that the Eternal Word
Wants Himself to sing the secrets of your life
To charm your children, all the Elect of Heaven?
25. Soon I will hear this sweet harmony
Soon in the beautiful sky, I'll go see you
You who came to smile at me on the morning of my life
Come and smile at me again... Mother... here is the evening!...
I no longer fear the brilliance of your supreme glory
With you I suffered and now I want
Sing on your knees, Mary, why I love you
And say forever that I am your child!......
Little Therese
(Underlined words should be italicized)
Dating: May 1897
Recipient: Thérèse herself, encouraged by Marie du Sacré-Coeur.
I have always dreamed of expressing in a song to the Blessed Virgin all that I think of her, confides Thérèse to Céline. (PO 667)
